Allie's War Episodes 1-4(33)

My cuffed wrists smacked against my chest, then my face. I finally used them to slow my fall, digging the metal rings into the dirt as I slid on my stomach, my legs partly splayed. Coughing gravel dust and dirt, I stumbled drunkenly to my feet at the bottom, my ankles still stinging from the plastic bindings. Somehow I felt that more than the pain of the fall itself. Brushing bits of rock off my forearms and knees, I limped barefoot towards the main road.
On the ramp above, the GTX had come squealing to a stop.
Another car slammed it from behind, knocking it further into the middle of the ramp. Cars careened into angled stops in a rough line behind the first, and promptly began to honk.
Revik got out. Ignoring the other drivers, he walked to the edge of the ramp and looked down at me. A young guy in a stained shirt and cap got out of a rusted pickup and started walking towards the Plymouth.
“He’s a seer!” I screamed, pointing at Revik. “He kidnapped me!”
Revik stared down at me, his pale eyes hard.
The guy in the cap looked at me, then at Revik. His voice rose in excitement. “Call the cops, someone! Terrorist! Bona fide terrorist here! Call 911!”
Revik turned his head.
The boy with the stained baseball cap stopped in his tracks.
His face went into a childlike slump. After the barest pause, he turned around and walked back to his truck. He climbed into the cab and sat there without moving, not even honking. The two other people who’d gotten out of their cars also returned to them obediently.
Did you really think it would be that easy?
I jerked my eyes back to Revik, feeling my breath stop.
You know so much about seers, after all...
He was angry.
Really damned angry.
My throat constricted as I took in the expression on his face. I hadn’t been afraid of him before. I probably should have been, but I hadn’t been, not really. I was genuinely terrified of what I felt off him now, even as my physical vision slanted out, replaced by...
“Stay away from me!” I screamed.



...darkness, him flickering in and out, outlined in pale sky, shadowy and lean at the rise in the road, then stark in the negative, a brilliant light against indigo clouds. Dark gold meets red sparks through lines that make up his arms and chest.
I look at him and know I’m in the Barrier even as I take in his sharp, structured form.
I have barely wrapped my mind around this, when...
His arm surges with a fire-like light.
The light brightens, turns blinding, right before it leaves his fingers.
Before I can think what it might mean, the burst spins down upon me, aiming straight for me, like and I don’t think, don’t form a single conscious thought.
Instead, I step aside, even as a part of me reaches up, takes the fire-like ball and sling-shots it back at him in one smooth, reflexive motion...
It bears down on him, fast.
I stare, bewildered as I realize it’s going to hit him, that I just threw something at him, and I have no idea what it will do to him. Just before the fiery burst touches his outline, however, a white density of light materializes around him.
The burst hits the shield, glances off and dissipates.
It all happens so fast I barely take it in, and when it’s done I feel something off him, surprise, but with another feeling following close behind...not quite pleasure, but a sharp flicker of interest, like a part of him waking up.
The predator raises its head, focuses on me intently, like a wolf meeting its own kind.
My eyes snap back into focus, and I see him in the physical again. His pale, light-filled eyes are watching me, and I see the predatory stare there, too.
“Hey!” I hold up a hand, panicking. “No! No! I didn’t mean it...”
He starts walking down the hill.
“Revik! Leave me alone! Please!”
He doesn’t slow his steps.
My fear bursts out as anger, panicking me, throwing me back and forth into that other place, so that his image flickers, positive to negative. “If you or any of your...” crazy friends has hurt Jon... “Or Cass, or my mom...” I swear to God... “I will kill you...!”
The predator’s interest flares again at my threat, but I feel him rein it in.
His legs lengthen stride, and he is coming towards me faster now.
It is not safe, what you are doing. His light flashes back to gold, exuding reassurance, calm. You are calling attention to us behind the Barrier, Esteemed Bridge, which is dangerous to both of us. Walk to me, Allie. Before it is too late...
“Go to hell!” I back up in equal measure.
You are untrained, he warns. It is not safe...and I do not wish to hurt you.
“You’re a liar!”
He stops, as if listening to something far off. When he returns, the predator is gone.
Allie, I am not playing anymore! Come to me...now! There is no time!