Allie's War Episodes 1-4(59)

A long, slow, questioning tug slid through my belly.
He was looking for me...it grew urgent briefly. Then it faded back, pulled somewhere else.
I glanced over at the bed, without turning my head.
Above him hung the tapestry where an angry-faced blue god rode a lion, tongues of flame circling his head in a bright orange and red aura. My eyes shifted to tapestry nearer to me, the one depicting a gold buddha with multiple faces that formed a high cone stretching above his neck. Crowning the stack of extra heads hung a delicate, androgynous face exuding golden light. I found myself looking at that face a lot this morning.
Revik moved then, and my eyes drifted reluctantly down.
He slept on his back, arms and legs sprawled, his hands and fingers open. I studied the softness of his expression and felt the pulling return, urgent that time, enough to bring the nausea back in a warm flood.
I’d woken to the feeling, and him wrapped around me, half crushing me with his arms and body in sleep. I’d been careful of his hurt shoulder without thinking about it much, but I’d been wrapped around him just as tightly. My face had rested in the hollow of his neck, one of my legs curled around and between his.
I’d been pulling on him unconsciously, as much as he had been me.
It had felt completely natural that his fingers were tangled in my hair, that he’d tugged me closer with that same hand, his other arm wrapped around my back, his mouth brushing my temple in sleep. When I’d stroked his bare arm and chest without thinking, caressing his fingers, he’d let out a low sound, enough to wake me for real...and get me swiftly out of his bed once I realized other parts of him were awake ahead of his mind.
Since then, he’d been looking for me with his light. It wasn’t enough to wake him, just enough to make me sick.
I still hadn’t left.
I couldn’t decide why, but my reasons felt irrational, even to me. I was starving. I needed a shower like I’d never needed one before...I smelled like filthy lake water and my hair had the consistency of matted straw. I wanted clean clothes. I also could be talking to the other seers, the friendlier ones, anyway, and trying to find out more about my mom, Jon and Cass.#p#分页标题#e#
Instead I was here, watching him sleep...like some kind of stalker.
The truth was, I couldn’t seem to make myself want to leave, even after I had to go to the bathroom.
Feeling eyes on me, I turned...and nearly fell off my window perch.
Ullysa smiled at me from the doorway, looking like an old movie still with her hair piled on her head and a powder-blue gown clinging to her hips. Turning away from me, she scrutinized Revik clinically.
Without thinking about why, I hopped the rest of the way off the sill and crossed the room, drawing the woman’s eyes back to me.
Ullysa frowned, exuding a faint puzzlement.
That puzzlement didn’t dissipate as she turned to study my light with the same narrow-eyed stare she’d trained on Revik.
“What?” I said quietly when I reached her.
Ullysa shook her head. Then her face broke into a smile of such sincerity that I was taken aback.
“He is better,” she said, clasping my arm with warm fingers. “I am relieved. You did very well with him.”
I blinked into the woman’s violet eyes. “Yeah,” I said. “Good. Look, is there any way I could borrow some clothes? I’m starving too, and a shower—”
“Yes! Of course!” Ullysa squeezed my arm tighter, exuding more warmth. “You may have whatever you wish while you are here, Bridge Alyson! Anything at all!”
“Great.” I smiled back, a little unnerved by her enthusiasm. “I’ll pay you back, once I—”
“No.” The seer waved this off, making a sharp line in the air with her fingers. “There is no need for that...the honor is ours. And Revi' is an old friend.”
My eyes shifted involuntarily to the bed.
I found myself remembering some key details from the night before, things that had somehow managed to skirt my mind all morning. Watching his expression tighten briefly in sleep, along with the fingers of one of his hands, I sighed, more internally than on the outside.
“Yeah,” I said. “I got that part.”
When I glanced back, Ullysa was staring at me again, her odd-colored eyes glowing. She didn’t stare at my face; instead, her focus hovered somewhere just above my head, her eyes holding a kind of wonder. The same intensity and precision shifted back to Revik.
I fidgeted with the doorjamb as she looked at him. It occurred to me that I didn’t want her getting too close to him, not even with her eyes.
Abruptly, Ullysa’s irises clicked back into focus.
She bowed, her expression still holding wonder.
“...Of course, sister. My apologies. Truly.”