27

DECISION POINT

THE ENTIRE CHAMBER grew silent. 

The images played on the wall screen of the theater room inside the Imperial Residence, and not a one of them moved, or spoke, even with the sound turned down. Cass sat next to Jon. She saw his eyes close, then open again, as if unable to look away when the replay occurred for the second, third, even a fourth time, seemingly right in a row. 

The network feeds would play nothing else for days now, Cass knew. 

Possibly weeks.

Cass watched Allie, barely recognizing her. She wore what looked like a black cat suit. Knowing Revik, it probably consisted of some kind of expensive organic body armor...but more amazing was the sheer fact that he’d let her come along on his little escapade at all.

He had changed, if he was liking the married couple conducting terrorism together thing. 

Allie looked exactly like what the feeds called her, a dangerous insurgent, a baby Syrimne. Cass couldn’t help but notice she looked beautiful as well, like some kind of exotic animal with her high cheekbones and those cat-like green eyes glowing in her face. She crouched in a near-combat stance, carrying no visible weapons apart from herself. The image recorders caught her from a slightly elevated angle, so her eyes only grew visible when she looked up, but the rings of pale green cast arcs that illuminated her face even from above.

In slow motion, the recorder showed her put out a hand, right before a curl of white...something...blossomed out of her fingertips like liquid fire. 

It exploded the grenades worn across the shoulder of a man aiming a gun at her, and Cass saw a thick wall of...again, something...envelop Allie, like a white shield made of fire. The shield pushed the force of the explosion off her body almost too quickly for Cass to track with her eyes when they played it forward at full speed. It flared up around her in a dense curve, protecting her seemingly the instant the grenades ignited.

The explosion blew over and around her as if she wore the windshield of a car.

Then Allie just stood there again, her eyes and face showing that same, dense focus. It wasn’t a cruel look though, or even a particularly aggressive one...her eyes showed her to be somewhere else almost, as if directing the action from some distant place away from that burning hallway. The look on her face was, if anything, serene.

The whole thing didn’t seem real.

Guns came up in the hands of soldiers who stood behind the burning remnants of the three caught in the initial explosion...but Allie’s hand came up as well. 

Another curl of light threw the black-armored men backwards, like a bowling ball hitting a triangle of pins. 

Three of them slammed into a wall-length window, the first smashing a hole through its center...which shouldn’t have been possible, either, according to the feeds. Made of an impact-proof organic, not glass, the windows should have withstood the force of an armored vehicle driven into them at 60 miles per hour.  

Smoke and flame billowed out with the bodies.

Again Cass watched in disbelief as they plummeted to their deaths.

Allie had killed people.

She’d actually murdered people, and not even using a gun, but with her own hands.

Well, in a manner of speaking. 

Cass watched in disbelief as her childhood friend, who’d cried when she stepped on a snail once in kindergarten, threw another armored soldier against a wall, likely breaking his neck on the spot. She threw another through the same doorway from which the soldiers had entered. Screams grew audible on the feeds, along with shouts from further away down the corridor.

Cass wondered if the latter came from seers who had gone into the building with her...but everything around Allie herself seemed strangely quiet. Even so, Cass heard the speakers muffled and buffeted by the wind through the broken window, the sound of more explosions and the security sirens going off. Even the drumming sound of the sprinkler system raining down on the corridor added to the sense of unreality.

Then Allie turned, facing the cameras...or, more accurately, some threat that stood beneath the wall where the cameras lived. Her hand came up again, and that time, it looked like she was attacking the viewers themselves. 

The image froze. 

Just then, the newscaster’s avatar returned, looking deathly serious, and even the slightest bit pale.

“This is the face of the new seer world,” he said grimly. “...This is what the terrorists calling themselves only ‘The Rebellion’ have promised us.” The avatar’s face and voice grew more serious still. “Angry. Merciless. Bent only on killing as many human beings as possible...” The reporter turned to his companion, another avatar looking just as serious in the adjoining seat. “With us today is Brent Hollenson, from the Office of Seer Containment. Brent...what can you tell us about this disaster? Is this heralding an all-out war with the entire seer race?”

Brent cleared his throat in his hand.

“We certainly can’t rule that out, David,” he said. “We had hoped that perhaps the rumors of a split in the seer community were true...that the seer claiming to be Syrimne and his mate would remain in opposite positions on this war, at least for some time longer...” He coughed into his hand again. “Now, as you can plainly see, we have confirmation not only that they are working together, but that she is displaying as a telekinetic as well...”

Cass glanced at Jon, rubbing his arm briefly when she saw how pale he looked. He didn’t return her gaze as he continued to stare at the feeds.

“Will we survive two of these telekinetic monsters?” the first reporter said. “Even with modern weaponry? After all, Syrimne alone managed to kill thousands during the first World War...and that was with a good number of seers helping us...” 

Brent sighed, his voice grim. “I’ll be honest, David. Right now, the governments of the human world are gathering together to discuss just that question...” He clasped his hands on the table in front of him.

“...There is little doubt that their priority is going to be to kill one or both of these creatures, and soon. The good news is...they do seem to be a mated pair. Which means that if we kill only one of them, there is a significantly good chance that the other will die, too. Right now, the military will be assessing how to approach the female, as she is clearly the more recently trained of the two...”

He pointed through a replay of the video, using an electronic pointer.

“You see how she is manipulating the telekinetic current, here?” he said, creating a line following the white light coming off Allie’s hands. “...We are told by our seer specialists that these markers show a significant lack of control in the use of this power. The male is believed to be older, and therefore in better control of his abilities...”

“Wouldn’t that make her more dangerous, Brent?”

“Yes and no,” the SCARB official said. “It certainly makes her behaviors more potentially indiscriminate...but a highly trained telekinetic, I’m told, is far more dangerous to approach. Unfortunately, even just to separate the two of them might be tricky at this stage, given the nature of how these animals bond...”

Cass stared at the image of Allie’s face, frozen where it gazed into the imaging device. Her outstretched hand bled white light like a living flame-thrower. 

No cameras caught what happened after that, at least none the feeds seemed willing to share...but inside the executive suite of the South American company’s headquarters, at least ten people were reportedly killed. 

If the incident hadn’t occurred in the pre-dawn hours, it would have been a lot more, the feeds said. At least a few hundred.

Eleven of the security guards tasked with protecting the company leadership died too. More than double that number were injured, some severely.

The image of Allie facing the camera, eyes glowing, her hand out while a supernatural-looking pulse of...something...left her fingertips, had been the headline image of every feed in the world when they got up that morning.

Or, if not the world, then every feed coming out of the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East...and of course, South America. 

The newscaster’s avatar shrank down into the corner of the screen as they played it again, shot by shot, narrating each of the deaths.

“...and there you can see Security Chief, Bronson Davies...he died instantly, right before his second in command, Dale Harmond...”

Balidor’s voice rose above the feeds.

“Turn it off,” he said. “Turn the fucking thing off...now!”

Cass looked up from where she sat on the floor, startled. 

Balidor never lost his cool. Even when he should maybe lose his cool, he didn’t. But seeing his face now, Cass wondered if maybe he’d just been hiding it up until now. She found herself remembering what Jon had told her a few weeks earlier, what she’d wondered herself before Allie took off with Revik.

“Fucking vultures,” he snapped, pacing. 

“What do you expect, ‘Dori?” Jon said, motioning at the television with his mutilated hand. “Did you think they wouldn’t play this?”

“They’re inciting war!”

“They’re inciting war?” Jon said, incredulous. “The feeds? We’re lucky they aren’t talking about nuking all of Asia yet! They probably would be...” he added. “If they had any idea where they were.”

But Balidor didn’t seem to be listening to him. “We have to go in...we have to put a stop to it. Now! We will bring her out...”

Cass was watching Jon, though. His eyes looked exhausted, devastated. She saw tears in them, and realized this was hitting him hard, too. She touched his arm, but just like before, he barely seemed to notice.

“‘Dori, we can’t,” Jon said. “Not yet.”

“Fuck this!” Balidor burst out. “He’s fucking turning her, Jon! He’s turning her into a goddamned murdering terrorist!”

Cass flinched at the emotion in his voice. 

She saw tears in his eyes then and her shock deepened.

She glanced around at the other seers in the room, but none of them seemed willing to speak. Most were staring at the monitor, a blank kind of shock in their faces. Only Voi Pai seemed to have taken the information differently. She studied the image of Allie with interest, a narrow stare in her odd-colored eyes.

“Look at her!” Balidor said, gesturing sweepingly at the monitor. “She’s enjoying herself! You can see it...in her eyes. She’s getting off on killing them. Just like he does. Just like Syrimne...”

“‘Dori,” Cass said, nervous. “Calm down. I really doubt that...”

“Shut up, Cassandra!” he snarled, turning on her. “You and your fucking Wvercian! Do you think I don’t know where your sympathies truly lie? Just go, if that’s where you want to be...”

Cass felt her skin go cold, but she didn’t answer. 

She glanced at Jon, who was wiping his eyes with his fingers, too.

“Balidor’s right,” Jon said. Glancing at Cass, he added, “About Allie, I mean. We have to do something...”

“What would we do?” Voi Pai said. 

Cass looked up at her, surprised she’d bothered to register an opinion. Jon craned his head as well...so did most of the seers in the silk-tapestried theater. Cass felt her irritation turn into something closer to anger when she saw the smug look on the face of the female seer lounging on the lowered, silk-cushioned couch. Voi Pai propped her elbow on a nearby wooden table, her voice bored. Cass noticed as well, the Lao Hu leader looked only at Balidor.

“You let her go, Adhipan,” she said, hammering each word with her accented Prexci. “You knew exactly what you were doing, letting her go to her mate. Did you think it would have no affect on her, being with him?”

Rolling her eyes, seer fashion, she gave him a scornful look.

“...She is probably so far into his light by now, she can’t see the difference between her own mind and his. I’m sure she went into this willingly, Balidor...I would bet my home on it...”

Balidor barely seemed to hear her. 

To Cass, he didn’t look like he was in his right mind.

“We’re pulling her,” he muttered. “We’re fucking pulling her...”

“It’s too late!” Voi Pai said. “Are you not listening to me? What do you think he will do now, if you take his wife from him again? Do you think he will let you walk away unmarked this time, Adhipan? He knows what you did. And you shot her on top of it! He will want blood if you go near her, if you so much as speak to her...”

“I don’t give a damn!” Balidor said. “What is the option? Do you want me to kill her, is that it?”

All of them flinched a little, staring at him.

Then Voi Pai clicked softly, tapping her manicured nails against the tea cup she held. She draped an arm over the carved wooden back to the couch.

“You gave her to him, Balidor,” she said, again enunciating each word. “It is too late to second-guess this decision. You have no one to blame but yourself...”

The Adhipan leader’s eyes brightened once more.

Voi Pai’s voice grew almost cruel. 

“You cannot simply take her back, and say, ‘I am sorry, Syrimne. I made a mistake in returning your wife to you...I would like her back now, please.’” She tapped her nails again, clicking impatiently. “And what do you suppose she will have to say about this? Do you think she will come back to you willingly, Balidor?”

Her hard voice grew colder still, almost openly derisive.

“...What do you suppose they have been doing together...all of these months? Or did you think she would remain celibate with him, too?” 

Cass watched in disbelief as Balidor wiped his eyes. It occurred to her that he’d looked like hell for weeks now, ever since Allie left. He looked like he’d lost weight, too, she realized, noticing his clothes. 

Jesus. Jon was right. They’d been involved somehow, him and Allie. She was blind to not have seen it. It was written all over him.

In the background, the voice of a female news commentator rose from the feed station, which had continued to play while they spoke.

“...It is now believed that the terrorist cell led by Alyson Taylor, or ‘The Bridge,’ as seers call her, went there to dismantle the international humanitarian aid society, Black Arrow...which creates genetically-modified super crops to feed people around the globe, particularly in the drought-stricken third world. Her husband, who claims to be the original seer terrorist Syrimne or ‘Sword’ from World War I, is taking credit for having masterminded the attack, hoping to cut off food supplies to these nations, thus creating desperation and counter-terror in some of the most deprived human populations in the world...”

Cass glanced at Balidor, feeling her throat close. 

“‘Dori,” she said. “You can’t possibly believe that was her motive...or even his. Revik wouldn’t do that, not even if—”

“I said to turn that fucking thing off!” he snapped.

He curled his hands into fists as she watched. They didn’t loosen even after one of Voi Pai’s servants did as he had asked and turned off the main monitor, right on a picture of Allie’s face.

For a long moment, no one seemed to move. The room appeared darker without the light from the feeds.

“Can we talk to her?” Jon said then, his voice filling the silence. “What if we tried to get a message to her? Would he let us, do you think?”

Balidor turned, looking at him. His jaw remained hard.

“What good would that do?” he said.

Jon’s eyes grew angry. “We could get her side of it, for one thing,” he said. “We’d know if she’d been coerced...what happened in there. The feeds were pretty vague about what they were doing in that building. Maybe it’s not what we think. Maybe they got trapped somehow, and she panicked...”

“She panicked?” Balidor gave him an incredulous look, arms folded. “If she’s doing ops with them, Jon, then she’s been converted...”

“Maybe,” Jon said. “...Or maybe not. Maybe she’s just trying to understand his motives...to see it from the inside...”

“See it from the inside?” Balidor said, his voice emotional again. “Gods, Jon! You of all people! Do you think she needed to kill with her telekinesis to understand Dehgoies’ motives...?”

“No,” Jon said, frustrated. “That’s not what I mean.” Looking around at the others, he clenched his hands. “Just let me see if I can talk to her, okay?”

“You?” Voi Pai said contemptuously. “Why would Syrimne let a worm speak to his wife? A worm from the camp of his enemy?” 

At the last part, she looked directly at Balidor. 

Jon gave her an equally contemptuous look. 

“You don’t know Revik,” he said. “He has funny ideas about family...he might let me talk to her. He thinks...” Jon gave a short laugh, shaking his head as he glanced at the others. “...He thinks I’m some kind of hybrid. Like a partially-evolved human. He credits Allie with it, of course, but he called me an ‘honorary seer’ the last time I talked to him, and referred to me as his brother-in-law. He was definitely weird about me and Allie, but I still think I’m your best chance of reaching her while she’s with him...me or maybe Cass...”

“Jon is right,” another voice said, this time from behind them.

Cass turned, a little surprised when she saw Vash standing there, the old seer from the mountains. He’d been so quiet, she wondered how long he’d been in the room.

His long, smooth-skinned face wore a faint smile, which made Cass smile a little in return. Nothing seemed to faze that old guy. No matter how dire things were, he seemed to find everything to be, at base, a-okay. 

She wondered if that meant he was going a little senile.

“Jon is our best hope of determining the truth of her right now,” Vash repeated. “Make a request to Dehgoies. He will not refuse it.”

“And? Why are you smiling, Clan Elder Vashentarenbuul?” Balidor said, his voice angry. “Is there something here that amuses you? If so, please share...for I could use a laugh.”

Vash appeared undaunted by the infiltrator’s anger. His smile widened.

“I am seeing some very favorable signs, yes,” he said, his voice calm. 

“Favorable signs of what?” Balidor said, his voice less respectful. “Of this foolishness you convinced her of? That she might affect his light as well? I think we can see the effects of that little experiment, Vash...”

“Oh, I think there is little doubt of that,” Vash said. “I believe she is affecting his light a great deal, Adhipan Leader Balidor.” His smile widened, matching the amusement in his eyes. “Very much indeed...”

Cass saw Jon and Balidor exchange looks, their eyes openly skeptical. 

She didn’t have to be a seer to know they were wondering if the old man had gone a bit senile, too.

I GLANCED UP from where I curled up against Revik’s chest, hearing another cheer go up from the group in the front of the room. 

When I looked back at him, Revik smiled. 

I saw that glimmer of pride in his eyes, just before he tugged on my arm, pulling me back to him so he could give me a kiss.

“Are they going to do that every time they show that damned clip?” I asked him once he had. I felt a glimmer of pain again, right before I looked back at the images of me on the feeds. “...It’s not exactly making me feel better about this whole...” I gestured around at the room. “...Operation, you know? The screams of joy at my murder spree?”

He clicked at me softly, shaking his head. He kissed my palm, then my wrist, caressing my arm with his light as he looked up. He was pulling on me again, and it distracted me, in spite of everything.

“I think you’re misunderstanding it, wife,” he said softly. “They’re not cheering out of bloodlust. It’s because we’re alive. It’s because we destroyed the mainframe.” He kissed me again, glancing up. “...Most of them have family in the camps, Allie,” he said. “Most of the seers following me are the strays. The ones who got pulled as kids...sold or stolen.”

Looking at him, I felt my jaw tighten a little. 

“How do you do that?” I said. “How do you manage to make me feel guilty because I’m not happier about this?”

He looked genuinely surprised. 

“You think I want you to be happy about this?”

Sighing a little, I ruffled his hair. “No.”

He slid an arm around me, bringing me against him once more. I felt that pull on him again, strong enough that I closed my eyes, trying to think past it. Something was going on with us again. We weren’t talking about it, but it was making it really hard to think straight around him...which hadn’t been easy at the best of times. I’d even wondered if it was the telekinesis, but it started before we’d left for South America. 

He kissed my throat deliberately, pulling on my light. I glanced over my shoulder. When I did, I saw eyes averted as a number of seers looked away. 

Great. We were affecting the others again, too. 

“Allie,” he said softly. “You would not have killed if it wasn’t for me. That makes me twice responsible. For hurting your soul...and for the deaths themselves.” 

At my frown, he clicked at me.

“I know you do not think of soul like this...”

I shook my head. “It’s not that. You aren’t responsible for me, Revik.”

“It was my operation. I invited you along.”

“Yeah,” I muttered, glancing back at the screen. “But you’re not ‘telekinetic, erratic,’” I said. “You wouldn’t have killed them.”

“Exactly.” He turned my chin with his fingers so that I faced him. “I wrote that description. I knew exactly where you were with your telekinesis. That makes it even more my fault...I don’t understand how you don’t see that.” His eyes hardened a little. “I really thought you’d be angry with me. You probably should be angry with me, Allie...”

He glanced over my shoulder at the group sitting in front of the monitor.

“But try not to judge them,” he said. “...especially the younger seers. This feels like winning to them. For some, for the first time in their lives. I would not take that away from them.”

I looked over at the same cluster of seers, most of whom sat crammed together on a number of couches and on the floor.

We were in the largest of the common rooms, back in the main compound in Asia. There were maybe fifteen other seers in the room, including most of the team that had been with me in the Black Arrow building. We’d gotten back the day before, and I still felt jet-lagged, despite how much I slept on the plane ride over...most of it curled up in Revik’s lap, in the last row of seats in the main cabin.

I realized he was right. Most of the seers sitting in front were the young ones. Most of them had been slaves. The older seers were, on the whole, a lot quieter as they watched the feeds.

They muted it around me, of course, but they all knew. There would be retaliation for this.

The humans would strike back, and soon.

Pulling my mind off that before it could drift into more depressing waters, I caressed his arm, focusing on the tattoo on his bicep.

“What does that mean?” I asked him. “Are you ever going to tell me?”

I touched the band of black text highlighted by a paler blue that didn’t seem to have faded much with time on his skin. It made it difficult to tell when he’d gotten it. He told me once it was long ago...but that was back when we were still on the ship and he couldn’t remember the specifics as to what it was or why he had it.

The text coiled his upper arm like a snake bracelet, circling his bicep almost three times, with six lines of script separated by some kind of pattern. He wore ident tats too, of course, including the barcode on his arm and the “H” designation he still had from working among humans, along with a clan tat and the sword and sun.

But he didn’t wear a whole lot of ink, compared to most of his seers.

I caressed the text again, unable to let it go. It wound into the pulling until I found myself kissing his arm. I could tell it came from one of the older seer texts, but it wasn’t Prexci.

“It’s ironic, you know,” I said. “You’re the only one on your team that doesn’t wear the Sword and Sun...”

“I do,” he said. He tapped his shoulder with his finger.

“But not in the same place.” I caressed the text again, kissing his throat. “It’s not Prexci. Will you tell me what language it is, at least?”

“It’s older than Prexci,” he said, propping his jaw on his hand. He smiled at me, twisting my hair into his fingers. “Your hair is really long...” he said, tugging on it gently. “Even longer than in Delhi.”

“What does it mean?”

He smiled at me, tugging my hair again.

“You really aren’t going to tell me?” I said. “It’s on your body, Revik. Are you really going to make me do this the hard way...where I take an image of it while you sleep...have one of your people look it up for me?”

“You could ask Wreg,” he said, still smiling a little. “He knows.”

I glanced over my shoulder at where Wreg sat on the couch next to the younger seers. His eyes shone dully, still tired from the trip. I looked back at Revik.

“I’m asking you.”

Revik’s eyes grew predatory again, even as his fingers tightened on my skin. He started kissing my shoulder, pulling on my light with each touch of his mouth. Sighing in exasperation, I rolled onto my stomach, resting my face on my arm. His fingers kept touching my skin, moving aside clothing to reach more of it.

I said, “You’re impossible, you know that? The king of diversion...”

When I glanced up, his smile widened, but I saw that look there again.

“Allie, it’s just embarrassing.”

“Why?” I turned to look at him. “It’s a tattoo. Who cares? You’ve had it a long time, right?”

“Since my late 20s.”

“So...what does it mean?”

Letting his head slide down to his bicep, he just looked up at me for a moment, still caressing my back with one hand.

“There’s a story behind it,” he said.

“I figured,” I smiled.

“You may not like all of it,” he said.

I felt my smile grow stiff. I tried to think of a good answer and couldn’t. Finally, I shrugged, feeling his eyes studying mine.

“You don’t have to tell me,” I said.

He exhaled in a sigh. “No, I do,” he said. “Now I do.” 

Tugging on my hair again, he averted his gaze, looking out over the other seers in the room. I saw his gaze recede just before he sighed again, still tugging absently at my hair.

“There was a girl I liked,” he said, his voice low. Glancing at me, he must have seen something in my expression, because he tugged on my hair harder, kissing my mouth. “...It wasn’t anything, Allie...just a crush. I was young.”

I nodded, but didn’t really meet his gaze. Without my willing it, my eyes glanced at the cluster of young female seers at the front of the room.

I’d never gotten a tattoo for anyone. Not even Jaden.

“I was fighting for extra money then,” he said. “...and she got off on it, I think. She liked me when I was all bloodied up from a fight...”

I nodded, doing my best to keep my mind blank.

“...I got sick of it after awhile. She and I didn’t have much in common other than that...”

“Other than sex, you mean,” I supplied helpfully.

His eyes narrowed. “Yeah.” Hesitating, he shrugged with one hand. “I told her I didn’t want to see her anymore, and she got pissed off. She had her brothers jump me...revenge, I guess. They got me after a night of fighting, and a day spent training in the hills with Menlim. They worked me over pretty good...”

Wincing a little as I picked up flashes of this, I caressed his hand. For a moment, it felt like we were alone again. He studied my eyes.

“I think she felt she’d lowered herself, Allie, sleeping with me. She was human...she knew what I was. I think it pissed her off, that I could break things off so easily with her.” He shrugged. “She got her brothers to teach me a lesson...”

His voice turned bitter towards the end.

“I got the tattoo to remind myself...” he said.

“That humans are jerks?” I said, only half-kidding.

“No, Allie,” he said. His eyes grew serious. “To remind me what real love is. That all of the other things people do to one another...it doesn’t matter.”

I bit my lip, but didn’t let my eyes wander back to the front of the room.

I wondered if he was trying to make me jealous, or if he was just being oblivious.

He kissed my mouth, his voice soft. “Neither, darling,” he said. “Because this is really about you.” He kissed me again. “Allie, the script reads, They shall never be complete without the other / At one in their inmost hearts / Understanding in their deepest light / It cannot be broken, even in strife, a lover’s quarrel / Their words are sweet and strong / The fragrance of fire...”

I thought about that for a moment, replaying the words in my head.

Still propped up on my elbows, I found myself looking at him, really seeing him for a moment. Seeing him back then, when he hid out in his uncle’s army, fighting on the street at night, ostensibly for money, but also to work through...whatever he needed to work through. Wreg had laughingly told me Revik was a little shit back then, that I wouldn’t have recognized him. Looking at him now, I wondered.

Watching his expression, I caressed his inner arm where it lay on the couch cushion in front of me, then the tattoo on his bicep.

“Why is that embarrassing, Revik?” I said. “It’s beautiful.”

Pulling me down to him, he kissed my face, then my mouth.

“Allie,” he murmured, kissing me again. “It’s from the seer Book of the End, like the last days...or Revelations.” He caressed my belly through my shirt, his eyes holding an intensity I recognized, that still managed to warm my skin.

“It is about the Sword and the Bridge,” he said. “It is from a set of verses called the Love Song...” He kissed me again. “...I was in love with you even then,” he murmured.

I felt my heart react as his light flooded mine.

Before I could say anything, he started massaging my lower back. He kissed me for what felt like a long time, taking his time, using his light in more and more subtle ways as he pulled me further into his. We didn’t let it go much further, but we were both breathing harder when we paused, and I had my hand on him again.

“We need to go back to the room, Allie,” he said, softer.

“I know.”

He kissed me again, glancing at the other seers. I followed his gaze, seeing eyes look away from mine once more. I felt Revik getting turned on again and massaged him, watching his eyes close as he pressed against me.

“Gods, wife...what are you trying to do to me?”

“They don’t seem to mind,” I said, soft.

He grunted. “Of course they don’t mind. They want to watch us fuck.” He pulled me deeper under the blanket. “I’m afraid I’m going to oblige them if we stay here much longer,” he murmured.

I didn’t answer. I knew it was a seer thing, the whole group sex, resonating with one another’s light thing. I even knew it could be a friendly thing, a sign of affection, I guess. I knew from Balidor that it could be a way of bonding, too...incorporating a new member to a team, or solidifying a group into a single, cohesive unit.

I’d only just started to get my head around dynamics in seer communities, anyway. Seer mates were intensely possessive, and monogamous pretty much without exception. Still, they touched the larger group, and in ways I didn’t fully understand. Revik and I probably plugged into the rest of them even more, simply because of who we were.

I also knew from Balidor that the op in D.C. had been centered around the Vice President getting off on seeing seers being together like that.

Revik had been in the middle of that session, too...partly because he led the op, and the other seers responded to him as the leader. Partly because they’d felt what Balidor called “sympathetic pain” from his being separated from me in the middle of our bonding. In any case, both things drew the other seers to him, specifically...which made it a lot harder on me afterwards.

Even the humans had been after him.

I’d never been directly involved in any kind of overt expression of seer sexual dynamics like that...but I could feel the part of my light it affected.

It also brought up memories I didn’t really want to think about right then.

“Allie.” He caressed my face. “I don’t want anyone else.” He pulled on my light, caressing me again. “I don’t want anyone else, Allie.”

I nodded, but didn’t look up, tugging on his shirt.

He kissed me again. “...You led them in there, in Brazil. You’re the one they’re trying to get close to. Not me.”

I nodded again, but I didn’t really believe him.

To distract myself, I looked over my shoulder. I watched Wreg smile faintly at one of the younger seers. She was pointing at the image of me with the glowing eyes, making some kind of joke as the others laughed.

Still watching them, I said to Revik, “Maybe it’s not us. Maybe it’s just the being alive thing, like you said...basic seer hormones.”

Revik didn’t answer. He stroked my hair as I watched the monitor. I saw a thoughtful look in his eyes though, coupled with a near-predatory glance around the room before his gaze turned thoughtful again. I saw it threaded with something else, what might have been indecision.

I couldn’t help wondering what he was thinking.

Whatever it was, it made me a little nervous.

The newscaster continued to narrate the action in the background...I was too far away to hear the reporter’s words, thank gods...but I did see the sadness return to Wreg’s smile as his attention shifted back to the screen. I was still thinking about it when Wreg glanced at me, and his smile grew instantly warmer.

He finger saluted me, and I nodded back.

Revik wrapped his arms tighter around me, and I felt myself softening. Glancing over at the nearer faces, I saw them look away. I realized at least ten seers were watching us while pretending not to. I saw Nikka curled up in Holo’s lap, and they were kissing, Holo’s hand under her shirt. I felt another tendril of light around ours.

“Is that really from us?” I said, quiet. “Partly, I mean?”

“Yes. Sorry.”

Looking back at him, I paused, studying his face.

He was really turned on. He was getting more turned on watching the effect we were having on the others...but worried about me reacting unfavorably if he let it show. He also wasn’t sure how he felt about the number of males he could feel staring at us.

That predatory thing wove in there somewhere as well, and I realized it was the more practical, military side of him I was seeing. He wanted me incorporated into the group more tightly...he wanted me a part of his team. He also wanted me bonded more closely to him. It came out in various ways, with both of us, but I’d never caught him thinking about it so overtly before. I wondered if it had occurred to him that an energetic tie of that kind would be yet another thing to make me feel a part of his world.

I could feel him thinking about it tactically, wondering what effect it might have, to have his leadership team of seers bonded to me more specifically. I watched his eyes slide around the room once more. I could tell the idea made him nervous, too...partly because he worried it was manipulative on his part.

I could feel the part of him that didn’t care about that either, though.

Torn between the two, he watched the monitor without seeing it, trying to think about something else.

It scared me how easy he was to read these days. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was that transparent to him.

He looked at me. I held my breath as his eyes studied mine.

“Do you want to go in the other room?” he said.

I studied his face, realized he’d made up his mind...or at least reached his tipping point. His eyes were glassed, almost opaque. When I touched him, his skin was hot.

“You want to stay,” I said.

Pain flickered through his eyes. He gripped my hair in his hand, even as he pulled me tighter against him.

“I’m sorry,” he said, softer.

I just looked at him though, thinking.

“Are you sure?” I said. “You won’t freak out about it later?”

He shook his head, pulling on my light. “I want you to stay,” he said. “I don’t care, Allie...I want you to stay here with me.”

I heard the second meaning in that, too.

I kissed his face. “I’m not going anywhere, Revik. You don’t need to do this to get me to stay here with you.”

When I looked at his eyes, they remained unconvinced.

“Please,” he said. “I promise I won’t touch any of them...I won’t let them touch you.”

Still studying his eyes, I swallowed. Then I nodded, almost to myself.

Glancing around the room, I forced myself to relax. I found myself replaying his words, then I nodded again, looking at him.

“Okay,” I said. “I haven’t done this before.” I put my hand on him again. “Is there etiquette, husband? Are you talking sex under the blanket? Or do you want me to give you head?”

His eyes reacted to my blunt question. He stared up at me, not hiding his disbelief.

“Were you kidding?” I said. I bit my lip. “Was that some kind of test?”

“No.”

“Do you want them to see me naked?”

“No,” he said, after a pause. “No, Allie.”

He sounded like he meant it.

I felt a whisper off his mind and realized I’d shocked the hell out of him, just from being open to this. He was still trying to decide if I was serious. He was trying to decide if he was.

“Allie,” he said. “Don’t let me push you into this...”

“I’m not.” I hesitated, studying his face again. “Do you want me to talk you out of it?”

He looked at me, and I saw indecision in his eyes.

“No.”

I unhooked his belt, unfastening his pants even as he pulled the blanket back around us. His hands tightened on my shoulders when I started massaging him for real. After a moment, I felt him melting against the back of the couch. He was fighting not to cry out then. 

I felt every eye in the room on us now.

I put my mouth on him and he groaned aloud. When I didn’t stop, he gripped the back of the couch, gasping, his other hand in my hair.

I felt light flicker around mine as I brought him to the edge of orgasm. Slowing him down, I brought him closer again and the lights pulling at mine grew more urgent, asking to be let in. After another few minutes, I slid up his body again, meeting his gaze. 

“Tell me what to do,” I murmured. “They want to feel this...”

“Don’t let any of them touch you,” he said. “Please, Allie...”

I kissed his mouth, and he kissed me back, hard. He let out another groan when I opened to the lights I felt around us in the room. For a long moment we just kissed. He was fighting to undress me then, holding the blanket around me even as he yanked down my pants.

I felt him wanting to look at the others.

“Revik, it’s all right...you can look at them...”

He bit my neck, hard enough that I gasped.

He had his light inside me then. When he went deeper, I turned my head, saw eyes on us. They didn’t look away that time, watching as he read me. I felt them in my light as he opened me further, his eyes on the others, watching them react as he let them in.

He was sweating then, but wouldn’t let me touch him. He pinned me to the couch instead, talking to me, getting me to answer, until I felt every seer in the room reacting to both of our voices. He wanted them to want me, I realized, but it was driving him crazy too...hitting at all of his fears, turning him aggressive. He took it out on me, not letting me climax, forcing me to ask him again and again.

I glanced at Wreg, half out of my mind.

The young seer sat in his lap now, a hand in his shirt, the other between his legs. I saw Wreg’s eyes half-lidded as he sent me a flicker of heat, strong enough that it arched my back. His desire grew harder, more specific.

Tell your mate he’s asking for a fight...

Revik raised his head. For an instant he froze, staring at Wreg.

I saw the predator in his eyes...but before I could really interpret the look, he turned me over with his hands, and had me half-pinned before I could think straight enough to be embarrassed. He cried out as he entered me, but made love to me slowly, deliberately, coaxing me and holding me back until I completely lost control. That time his light wound into mine, so deep I blacked out completely for a few minutes...so far in him and the Barrier I didn’t know where I was.

He didn’t let any of them near me.

In truth, no one even tried.

I felt every eye in the room on us though when I came back, even as he held them off my light...I felt the possessiveness on both of us worsen. Every flush of desire towards him from any of them, male or female, made me cry out...until I realized he wanted that, too.

I felt the other happening in the background, in spite of us almost.

My light wove gradually into theirs. I could feel them all clearly...as individuals, and as a unit...the young ones on the couch as much as the ones I’d gone into Black Arrow with. I felt Wreg, even glimpsed pieces of his life, stretching the timeline between us. Nikka too, became so real to me somehow. I saw things in her that made me flinch, even as a flush of compassion found me.

I felt Holo that way, Jax, Ike, Neela...

Revik was right. These were the strays. He was protecting the ones who had been bent and mashed and dented by the world the way it was now.

I felt how connected he was to them. I felt him weaving my light in with theirs too, and there was a desperation to that, as well. He’d never let them this close to him, either. I felt them pulling at him, trying to feel more of his light...

By the end I was crying, and he had the blanket wrapped around us, caressing my face and body as he shielded my light from everyone else in the room. I forgot them again as he asked me if I loved him, if I wanted anyone else, if I was happy just with him. I felt the Balidor thing on him at the question, for the first time in months...and the pain in his heart when I answered. I found myself making promises to him again, meaning them as much as I had the first time, in that cabin in the Himalayas...trying to get him to forget about what had happened to us since.

We ended up curled around each other, oblivious to the seers around us. Not long after, we left the room, but not before I found myself understanding something else.

Balidor had been right. Revik was tying me to him, in any way he could. But for the first time, in all of my back and forth around him and what I felt and what I told myself about us...I realized I was doing the exact same thing to him.