Allie's War Season One by JC Andrijeski Read Free Book Online Page B

back on the steering wheel. “We can talk now.”
    But he didn’t talk.
    I watched in disbelief as he sank deeper into the cloth driver’s seat, wincing from the gun wound in his shoulder.
    “So you’re from another world,” I prompted, when he didn’t look over. “I remember reading some conspiracy theory about that...that seers are really aliens who seeded us from another galaxy.” I leaned against the car door, trying to find a comfortable place for my arms. I couldn’t, so eventually I gave up. Exhaling, I added, “I also heard one where you were all victims of some disease...or an asteroid that hit the earth back in the early years of human evolution.”
    His eyes flickered to mine, reflecting puzzlement.
    “Seriously,” I said. “If this isn’t about the terrorist thing, what do you want? Money? I don’t have any. Sex? There are easier ways, man. You’re not a bad-looking guy. One of my friends thought you were hot. I don’t know how she feels about seers, but knowing Cass, she’d try anything once.”
    He frowned slightly, his eyes flickering back towards the road.
    “Did someone hire you?” I said. “Do I have a rich crazy stalker this time?”
    “You are the Bridge,” he said. “The Harbinger.”
    “Great,” I said. “That’s what the other guy said.”
    The man’s mouth firmed to a line. I got the sense my words irritated him, though.
    “Terian likes his little games,” was all he said.
    I waited, wondering if he would say more. But he didn’t.
    Biting back impatience, I shook my head, as if to clear it. “So what kind of accent is that? German? I didn’t think any seers even lived in Europe anymore. I thought you were all in Asia, with the exception of a few who worked directly for—”
    “You are not human, Alyson.”
    When he didn’t say anything else, I broke into a shaky laugh.
    “Okay. So you want to play that game again? Well, I’ve been tested, man. Like, hundreds of times. So pardon me if I think you’re full of shit. Whatever you’re trying to do, framing me as some kind of über-seer, Syrimne-wannabe, I don’t appreciate being the fall guy for whatever takeover trip you’ve got planned...”
    He reached out without a word and laid a hand on my leg.
    It wasn’t a sexual thing that time, but I sucked in a breath anyway, feeling him all around me, invisible hands shoving at me, pushing me out of my body until...
    ...I feel myself leaving.
    I couldn’t stop it.
    The car disappeared around me like a shadow in brilliant light. The road disappeared too, along with the mud-spotted windshield, the plastic saint statue glued to the dashboard, the handcuffs, my bruised legs, his shirt collar with the dried blood...
    I passed through what felt like a stretched membrane...

     
    ...AND FIND MYSELF once again in that endless black and violet sky.
    The colors shock me back into remembrance.
    I remember this, from when we walked the streets of San Francisco.
    Here, though, we are alone, surrounded only by distant stars and lumbering clouds. It is more than I can take in...the stars, the strange river-like currents I can feel, flowing above and below where we stand, filled with flecks of different-colored lights. A kind of prismatic wind ripples veins in my limbs, penetrating my light-filled skin.
    I could spend hours looking only at him.
    He stands beside me in the night sky, carved in detailed gold and white light. Bones, muscles, teeth, veins, irises, hair and skin are replicated in a million subtle shades and hues, all moving so fast that the colors appear almost to be stable. I only see their movement as waves flicker through the whole, changing him subtly and silently.
    The space directly over his head fascinates me the most.
    A line rises up from the crown of his head, filled with complex structures.
    There rotate light-filled geometries, like living math equations rendered in multiple shapes and dimensions. Whatever they are, they look complicated, structured, but also