Allie's War Season One (149 page)

26

BROKEN

I SAT CRUMPLED in the corner of the cell. I couldn’t move.

My mind displayed flat static. I worried I’d been broken. That I’d never work right again. I fingered parts of myself, but couldn’t quite bring myself to look. I couldn’t move. I really couldn’t move…

I knew I was being punished...had been punished...would be again soon.

Threats blurred in my mind with memories of physical pain. I couldn’t see very well. I waited for him...I waited for...

My mind slid back into static, then returned to its slow loop.

I’d been punished. Punished for being bad...I couldn’t remember. Nothing moved right. All the muscles in my body...everything paralyzed. It was a blessing. I never wanted it to wear off. For the moment...

I obsessed on a single detail. I was drooling. I fought to keep my mouth closed. I rested my chin on my knees. I turned my head sideways, but neither thing worked. I’d been propped there, like a broken doll.

Blood covered the floor. Quietly. The patch didn’t seem bigger than it had been before...but I couldn’t be sure when that was. I might be dying. I couldn’t feel anything, but I might be. I wanted to care. I wanted desperately to have an opinion about that, but I couldn’t find one.

He’d taken me to another of those green, tile rooms.

I felt pieces of this, but blissfully absent of my light. No hordes of human guards. Just him. I’d done something—something to make him angry. Or scare him, maybe. I couldn’t remember what. I let my mind hum to a flat, toneless line, and wished more than anything I could fall asleep...just be not there for awhile longer.

He’d liked it, a lot. He’d wanted my light. He wanted...

When I heard the voice, I was sure I was dreaming.

“Hey! Bridge!”

I knew the voice, even in a loud whisper.

I dragged my head up, once more resting my chin on my knees. I was still drooling. I couldn’t move my hands to wipe it off. My fingers lay splayed at my sides, palms open. I stared at the broad, Asian face.

For some reason, the tears in his eyes were what surprised me the most.

“Bridge.” He knelt down, so that we were close to the same level. He held out a hand, eyes bright, tears running down his face. “Come here. Can you?”

I fought to keep my eyes open, looking at Maygar’s face.

I had to be dreaming. I had to be.

“ALLIE!”

The voice pierced my awareness, jerking my eyes open.

His panic frightened me, made me cringe.

“Allie, what happened! What’s wrong?”

The boy threw himself to his knees beside me. His fingers caressed my face, pushing sweat-damp hair out of my eyes. Even the lightest touch hurt, made me flinch away. The numbness was gone.

He stepped in my blood and whimpered, crying out. His anguish made me clutch at him. Tears came to my eyes.

“It’s all right,” I found myself saying, my lips numb. “It’s all right, baby...”

He stared at me, his eyes glowing.

I realized what I’d said only after I saw the tears well in his eyes.

For a moment, a bare second, I had forgotten who I was with.

He was on his feet. He paced in front of me, his eyes never leaving me. He knelt down again, touching my face.

“Allie...” he murmured. He kissed me. His voice remained soft, but I heard the violence underneath. It wasn’t aimed at me. “Allie...darling. Tell me. Who did this to you? You need to tell me. Now.”

I shook my head, not looking at him.

His voice softened more, again sounding too old, too familiar.

“Let me see,” he coaxed. “Let me see, please, love...”

He held my wrist gently in his hands. After peering again at my face, maybe for permission, he pulled my arm gently away from my body so he could look at me. I knew I was naked. Somehow that bothered me more than why he wanted to look. I tried to cover myself with my other arm. I still couldn’t move very well. My arms felt ripped out of their sockets. I remembered ropes, and something else...

Nenzi broke into my thoughts, whimpering again.

When I glanced up, he was looking at my face, his eyes scared. He touched my cheek, peering from one of my eyes to the other. He kissed me, touching my hair so lightly I barely felt it. I found myself remembering the prostitute, the one he’d had before, when he was young like this—

“Allie,” he said. “...gods! Please. Please, tell me what happened!”

I looked around the empty cell.

I could move again...sort of. Which also meant my body hurt, enough that I closed my eyes, willing myself back into unconsciousness. I opened them then, remembering. I looked around, but Maygar was nowhere to be seen.

Nenzi’s fingers tightened on my skin. The pain made me sweat, but I still couldn’t move. The tension in his hand forced my eyes back to his.

“Allie.” Tears filled the dark eyes. “Who did this to you?”

I fought to think. I remembered Terian’s words, what he said he’d do.

“I don’t know,” I said.

He held my hand, pulling it off my knee again, looking at the rest of my body. I didn’t follow his eyes. I didn’t need to look to know it was bad.

“I’m all right,” I lied.

His jaw hardened. His eyes grew brighter, turning liquid. Tears spilled down his cheeks, making rivulets down his perfect-looking skin.

“Who did it, Allie? Was it one of the humans?” Anger thickened his voice. “Which one of them did it?”

I hesitated, a little disbelieving as I avoided his gaze. Resting my face on my knee, I shook my head.

“Drugged,” I said finally. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t remember anything?”

I gestured negative. “No,” I said.

For a long moment, he sat beside me, an arm around me in a half-hug; he placed a hand on my leg, but I didn’t push it away.

More minutes passed before I realized he was doing something to me. The leg he touched felt different...almost like the skin and muscles were being faintly shocked by a mild but steady pulse of electricity.

I looked up. Nenzi’s eyes were concentrated, his irises glowing like the flickering pulse of a dying flashlight. The intensity of his gaze remained on the spot where his hand touched my skin.

I was still watching the light in his eyes when he moved his hand higher, to my stomach. I gave a low gasp when the tingling started there, but it didn’t hurt, so I didn’t move away. Eventually I realized that whatever he was doing, it gradually lessoned the pain where his hand rested.

Slowly, as he kept going, I felt my muscles starting to unclench. I took deep breaths when he didn’t stop, my head hung between my knees as I fought oxygen into my lungs. The collar kept everything deadened of course, but I no longer felt like I was going to die. He moved his hand to my chest and I flinched a little, then relaxed when the warmth spread out from his fingers, vibrating my skin.

“Thank you,” I managed. “Thanks, Nenzi.”

His fingers tightened on me briefly.

“Will you tell me, Allie? Please? Who did this to you? Who hurt you?”

I shook my head. “I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”

“I’ll kill all of them...” he growled.

“No.” I laid a hand on his arm. “Please. Don’t.”

We were still sitting there, his hand resting on my sternum, when the door to the outside cell opened with a hollow clanking sound. I flinched, in spite of myself, cowering behind the boy.

He stopped what he’d been doing, looking up.

I watched his eyes lose their light, melting back to dark irises in a pale white face. His gaze followed mine to the door neither of us could see. The look there made me nervous. It was fury, but restrained into a cold focus that was somehow more frightening than anything I’d seen on him.

“Nenzi,” I whispered. I touched his face until he turned. “No,” I said, soft. I shook my head when he looked at me. “No...it wasn’t them.”

I recognized the Scandinavian’s voice, and the Asian woman, Raven, before they rounded the cement wall. Nenzi’s jaw hardened. He looked at the door, then back at me. His voice dropped to a near-whisper.

“You’re sure, Allie? You wouldn’t lie to me?”

I shook my head. “I’m not lying.”

“We have to do something with her...” I heard the woman mutter.

“Really?” Terian murmured in reply. “And just what do you suggest I do, that I haven’t tried? Nenzi has refused to force her...”

“What a little bastard,” Raven said humorously.

“My point precisely...” the Scandinavian said, his voice a smile.

The boy laid his hand back on my leg, clutching at it.

The gesture felt protective, and I found myself swallowing, relaxing at what I saw in his liquid gaze. He kissed me, looking at me again, his eyes holding a stillness that made me stare. There was a promise there, in his eyes.

He wasn’t going to let it happen again.

Lost there briefly, I found myself thinking that I was seeing yet another side of him...maybe the adult version of Syrimne. There was something there that made me think of Balidor. The look on his face belonged to someone who was used to being in charge. Someone at home with it.

Touching his hand, I smiled at him briefly.

Once I was reasonably sure I had my expression under control, I looked past his shoulder towards the door.

Once I had, I froze.

Maygar stood there, holding the bars. Behind him was the Asian woman with the black hair and the bright turquoise eyes. Maygar didn’t speak; he didn’t stop looking at me, barely tore his eyes off me when the woman, Raven, touched his arm.

Noticing his facial expression, she frowned as she glanced at me.

“Our girl’s popular,” I heard her murmur in Prexci to Terian. That time, there wasn’t much humor in her words. “Guess we should try to keep her around...for a little while, at least.”

“She knows Prexci, Raven,” Terian said mildly. “So does the boy.”

The woman shrugged, her bright blue eyes indifferent.

Maygar swore, loudly enough that I flinched. Looking at him, seeing the dark look in his eyes, I receded behind the boy.