Dragon: Allie's War Book Nine (38 page)

“All but one,” I corrected. “Two were blacked out. We only ID’d one of those as Cass. War.”

“But your daughter is surely the ninth?” Dalejem said.

I shook my head, clicking sharper.

“No,” I said. “Well…maybe not. I talked to Tarsi about that…and Kali.” Seeing Dalejem’s eyebrow go up, even as he tightened his grip on Feigran’s arm, I made another expansive gesture with one hand. “Kali thinks maybe there are nine intermediaries down here at
all
times. Meaning regardless of the Displacement. She wrote down the nine that would be here at the start of the ‘pre-wave’…meaning the events leading up to the Displacement itself. When Galaith died…”

“It left a spot open,” Dalejem muttered, finishing the thought for me.

“Exactly,” I said, exhaling.

“Lily is Galaith’s replacement then,” he said, looking sharper at me. “So there would still be the last spot. The one you never identified.”

I made another of those vague,
more or less
signs with my hand.

“It’s one theory,” I said. “And Feigran told me about another being. The name he mentioned is the same as one of the beings from the pantheon.”

“And what name is that?” Dalejem said.

I’d already started to leave through the door.

Stopping, I started to answer him, then gritted my teeth, deciding against it for some reason. Shaking my head, I clicked softly as I walked the rest of the way out of the hotel room. I didn’t look at him long enough to gauge his reaction, but I felt his stare. I felt him looking at my light too, but subtly, almost as subtly as ‘Dori would have.

His voice sharpened when he spoke next.

“Did Revik know? About this other intermediary. Did he know before he left?”

I flinched. Then I shook my head, once. “No.”

“You didn’t tell him?”

“I was going to.” My voice held an edge. “I didn’t get a chance.”

Dalejem nodded, but I felt a whisper of skepticism off his light. Choosing to ignore that too, I walked, head down, my eyes focused on the patterned carpet.

I’d committed to bringing him with me.

I’d already told him more than I’d intended to tell anyone about my real reasons for coming here. He’d just have to fucking deal with not knowing all of it…and stay out of my way, like I’d said. If not, I might end up having to kill him myself.

I winced at the thought, not wanting to imagine what Revik would say if I killed his ex-boyfriend out in the field, whatever my reasons. Even if he agreed with those reasons in principle, I knew him well enough to know it wouldn’t go over well at all. It might even be one of those unforgivable things, since he’d admitted to me he still loved Dalejem.

The truth was, I
had
to think about it that way.

I didn’t have any choice. We were all-in at this point.

Everyone was expendable in this.

Even my husband’s ex-lovers…even the ones he loved still. I was expendable, too…apart from the fact that my life, Revik’s and Lily’s currently all balanced on the same sharp-edged knife. Every seer here was expendable, regardless of how I felt about them or who they were to me. I couldn’t kid myself on that point for any reason.

So yeah, Dalejem was expendable. Whatever I owed him.

Whoever he was to Revik.

Dalejem might have even felt that.

Right after I thought it, he stopped asking me questions.

12

BENEATH, WHERE HE WOULD NOT GO

Feigran didn’t give me a lot of clues.

Then again, I would have liked more than six days to grill him on everything he hinted around during that first talk in Bangkok.

He wouldn’t talk to me in Bangkok itself––not apart from the one time. He’d been insanely paranoid about us being overheard. He remained adamant that he could not be overheard by Revik in particular, not when it came to anything to do with this Dragon creature.

Revik leaving hadn’t really helped, though.

Feigran didn’t seem to want to be overheard by anyone monitoring the constructs in Bangkok. He’d been wary of Balidor, of Tarsi, or Yumi…pretty much anyone who wasn’t me.

I wondered why he trusted me, to be honest, but I didn’t want to ask. My luck, it would’ve just flipped his paranoia in my direction, too.

Since we got to Colorado, though, he told me a few things.

More than words, however, Feigran drew me pictures.

One of those I held in my hands now as I looked down at the nearly empty plain outside of a wildlife park of sorts. The stretch of burnt and dried-out nothing to the east of us housed distant rows of white tent-like structures making up what used to be Denver International Airport.

Between us and it, I saw only a few hollowed-out vehicles lying in different segments of road. They all looked long-abandoned, even via the binocular setting of my VR headset. Even so, I knew I couldn’t trust that entirely until we got a hell of a lot closer.

Some bandits had signal blockers that would prevent an accurate scan.

We’d gotten this far driving a SUV that Dalejem procured a few blocks away from the hotel. It had roll bars and everything, so I wondered where and how he’d gotten it exactly, since it was a vehicle with obvious use in this new world. Also, whoever “donated” it to our cause left us with a full tank of gas.

I didn’t ask.

I left information on the infiltration channel that should keep the others from freaking out when they noticed me, Feigran and Dalejem missing…in theory, at least.

I knew we didn’t have a ton of time, though.

I’d left strongly-worded orders around not following us, but I knew seers could be unpredictable when it came to their ideas of duty…and loyalty, for that matter.

Especially with me, I guess just from the whole Bridge thing.

Revik seemed to think my being the Bridge made them feel entitled to me in some way, even though I was (technically) their superior officer. Which made sense…sort of. It still irritated the crap out of me when it got in the way of something I was trying to do.

I suspected it irritated Revik for different reasons.

Shoving that out of my head, I refocused back on that row of white, tent-like spikes.

The wetlands park gave us some shelter via trees and a few structures, which is why I’d opted to come in from this direction even though it was closer to the Denver suburbs.

The proximity to Denver made me nervous.

We’d come across enough land vehicles in use that we didn’t stand out as much as I’d feared, but being outside of the main enclave was risky as hell, even as seers. From what the others told me, they’d spent most of their driving time here ID’ing and pushing humans who were trying to ambush them from barricaded roads and side-roads.

Dalejem and I had been forced to do the same.

Even with our distinct advantage via our sight, it was unnerving, to say the least. I’d seen enough images over the past few months to know how these things generally unfolded when they got physical…meaning when the targets were overpowered.

A lot of these roving bands acted little above animals.

Holding the drawing up so I could compare it to our view of the airport to the East, I frowned as I looked through the binocular vision provided by my headset via virtual reconstructions of our last satellite feeds. I had to hope the maps were more or less up to date, since we had no way to access current satellite images out here…nor would I risk trying to access them, even if we did.

Well, not unless I had Garensche with me, and Gar was dead.

I shoved that out of my head, too.

Realizing I was doing this the hard way, I took an aleimic snap shot of the drawing, then one with the image capture in my headset. The light one was so I’d have all of the imprints Feigran left on the paper itself, since I noticed he tended to leave fragments here and there on those segments that particularly interested him for whatever reason.

Using the headset to overlay the image and manipulate it along with the maps, I folded up the original drawing Feigran gave me and stuffed it in my vest.

“Do I want to know?” Dalejem asked from next to me.

I didn’t answer directly but shared both the map and Feigran’s drawing with him via our headsets. I included the aleimic snapshot, too.

Hell, he was here.

I might as well use his light, too.

Dalejem had apparently been serious about shouldering the job of guarding Feigran personally. He now had the significantly less-muscular seer tethered to him via a retractable organic cord. I’d watched as Dalejem hooked that same tether to a loop on his belt before he gave Feigran a hard look and tugged on it.

“You’re with me,” he’d told the auburn-haired seer, a mild threat in his voice.

Feigran only nodded, his light submissive.

Weirdly, Feigran seemed to like Dalejem.

I couldn’t help remembering Terian’s reaction to Dalejem’s pain in Dubai though, and found myself hoping Feigran didn’t like Dalejem too much. I wasn’t super-keen on Dalejem taking over Varlan’s role out here, even if I didn’t have to see it.

Dalejem gave me a hard look, his green eyes glass.

I shrugged off his glare, then immediately changed the subject.

“Where is NORAD exactly…?” I said, flipping my headset back to binocular mode and adjusting it to study the side of the complex where Feigran marked the entrance. “…From here, I mean,” I added. “This isn’t even close to any part of the official complex, is it? We’re still pretty far north of Colorado Springs from here, right? Like close to a hundred miles?”

Dalejem nodded, once. “Yes. That is correct…perhaps eighty miles, Esteemed Bridge.”

I exhaled, frowning a bit. I couldn’t feel a damned thing. According to my light the airport was completely deserted.

I felt Dalejem agree with me.

He let out a slow exhale when I continued to compare the image Feigran drew to the complex itself. I knew if Revik was here, he’d want to plan this out better. Knowing him, he would have planned it out in minute detail back in Bangkok, before the plane ever left Asia.

But I wasn’t Revik. And frankly, I didn’t have time.

Whatever Revik told Shadow or did to try and prove his loyalty to get him to back off me and Lily, I knew it wouldn’t work. Shadow wouldn’t back off. He never would. He might try to convince Revik he had…but only until he could hook into him more permanently, or do something to corrupt his light. Once he’d done that, he would send Revik after me himself.

Then he’d try to bring Lily and Maygar back, too.

But he’d never let me live. Not like this.

Revik was deluding himself if he thought otherwise. I’d tried to tell him that, too, but he hadn’t wanted to hear it.

Fighting that out of my mind as well, I exhaled.

It didn’t stop the harder flush of pain from hitting my light. It crushed some less obvious part of me that time, something I’d been protecting maybe, ever since I woke up on that Bangkok roof. Whatever it was, I felt it in my heart. For those few seconds I couldn’t breathe…I couldn’t feel anything else. I hadn’t even let myself think about Lily yet.