GABRIEL (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 4) (18 page)

"Good eve, brother," Hestia said cheerfully as she approached the group. "I hope that scowl you are wearing is caused by an empty stomach and not a bad day. We prepared all your favorites in anticipation of either circumstance."

The big man hugged her to his barrel chest and loudly kissed her on the forehead. "The day was frustratingly unproductive. The Tribunal has once again refused to hear our petitions and the councilors are afraid to challenge them. I have no doubt your wonderful cooking will bring me out of my foul mood though." He set her away from him as abruptly as he had hugged her. "But if you were truly concerned about my disposition, you would have brought my nectar, as you usually do."

Hestia looked to Athena, who answered for her. "That was my doing, sire. I recommended that no wines be served tonight, as we should all have clear heads for the sunrise meeting. Of course, if you wish—"

"No, no," Zeus said firmly. "You made a wise decision, as always." His gaze landed on Shara and his scow] softened. "Do I dare hope you have come to join our family?"

Hestia spoke before Shara could reply. "Shara, Gabriel, I present Zeus, leader of this commune of Friends. They are newly arrived, brother, but I fear I must disappoint you. They are to be joined soon."

His narrowed eyes cut through Shara's tunic as he scanned her length. "Soon is not already done. Perhaps you will share a cup or two of my special nectar with me tomorrow evening."

Thinking that would be an ideal opportunity to test him, Shara opened her mouth to accept but Gabriel's hand clamped over her bare shoulder and squeezed a warning.

With an easy smile, Gabriel said to Zeus, "Perhaps you'd sleep better tonight if you withdrew that offer."

Zeus's laughter echoed through the lodge. "You not only look like my son Apollo, you must have his courage as well."

"Actually," Hestia said, raising her voice to turn everyone's attention to her, "Apollo is the one I brought Gabriel over here to see. He was burned while helping at the hearth."

As Apollo moved to Gabriel's side and Hestia made the formal introduction, Shara could see the resemblance between the two men. After she obtained Apollo's genetic codes, it would be interesting to compare them against Gabriel's. They were both golden specimens of manly beauty and yet there was something remote about Apollo. Gabriel was so much more... touchable. Her fingernails dug into her palms to keep her hands from following the route her mind had taken.

Apollo held Gabriel's forearm as he examined the burn. Gently his fingertips stroked the blistered skin. In a surprisingly soft, melodic voice, he said, "Please close your eyes and picture your arm as it was before the accident." Gabriel did as he was told. "Now hold on to the image of the healthy skin tissue until I tell you to open your eyes." Apollo placed the palms of his hands over the burn and closed his fingers around Gabriel's arm.

Shara wondered what Gabriel was feeling. After an initial muscle twitch when Apollo enveloped the injury, Gabriel visibly relaxed except for a slight wrinkle of concentration on his brow.

Barely a few seconds passed but it seemed much longer. No one around them spoke or moved until Apollo removed his hands from Gabriel's arm and stepped back with a confident smile.

No evidence of the burn remained.

Delighted, Gabriel flexed his fingers and rotated his forearm. "I had heard reports of your skill, Apollo. I'm honored to have experienced it personally. Thank you."

Apollo nodded. "And now perhaps we should discuss how you appear to be more of a reflection of myself than my twin sister."

"Speak of whatever you wish," Zeus grumbled, "but let us do it with food before us." Holding out his huge hand to Shara, he said more pleasantly, "You will sit by me, lovely lady. Your guardian cannot object to that much."

Although he said nothing, Gabriel's expression suggested he objected
very
much. She assumed he had a good reason for not wanting her so near Zeus but she could think of no polite way to refuse. Thus, she accepted his hand to walk beside him.

Platters of food awaited them at one long table where no one had sat down yet. As soon as Zeus was seated at its head, however, the benches were soon crowded. Shara sat to his left, as he directed, and Hestia sat next to her. Apollo and Gabriel were situated a few feet away on the other side.

Hestia introduced those Shara had not met before, while everyone filled their plates. All the people at the table were followers of Zeus and resided in the commune. Most were related
to
him in some fashion.

When Hestia finished identifying each person, Shara could not resist commenting, "Your brother has certainly done his part to enlarge your family."

Hestia shrugged. "You must not judge him by the standards of average men. He has great appetites and believes in appeasing them."

Shara noted the mountain of food Zeus had piled in front of him but she understood Hestia was not referring only to that.

"He is determined that our family will spawn a great dynasty. Unfortunately, he is having to do it almost singlehandedly. None of his sisters have a desire for power, nor have we proven fertile thus far. Our absent brother, Poseidon, keeps to himself most of the time. Though he has sired only a string of mutants with his mate, Amphitrite, he has taken no other women to his bed. And Hades..."

Shara followed Hestia's glance down to the other end of the table where Hades sat. He was dark in coloring and personality.

"Hades supports Zeus but he has his own ideas of how changes should be accomplished and he has yet to father any children. Of all Zeus's offspring, only a few have added children to his ranks. Apollo prefers to spend his private hours alone or with young boys. Athena and Artemis have taken vows of purity... though I do not believe what they do in the privacy of their cells would be considered totally pure by some."

Shara returned Hestia's knowing smile and encouraged her to continue sharing her family's secrets. The woman apparently loved to gossip and Shara was mentally recording every detail. When Hestia ran out of tidbits about her own family, she went on to talk about the leaders of other factions of Friends who were temporarily in residence—the barbaric Odin and his mate Frigga, the dark-skinned beauty Isis and her competitive brothers, Osiris and Set, and Scot, the eccentric leader of the tattooed clan.

Listening attentively to Hestia, Shara failed to block a mental probe for several seconds. Though unfamiliar with this type of telepathy, she was now certain that it was as individualized as fingerprints. This was the gentler of the two intrusions she had felt earlier. She looked at all the faces around her but none gave away anything.

The touch had been so brief and light she didn't think the person would have been able to glean anything before she blocked the probe but it was impossible to know for sure.

She held her breath, waiting for someone to alert the others that she and Gabriel were not what they claimed to be. Time passed but no one pointed an accusing finger at her, nor did anyone attempt another probe.

The conversation grew louder and more animated as the platters of food emptied and were cleared away. All had their own ideas about how the Summit should be handled and what direction the majority of the Friends would vote to take. Shara noticed how Gabriel fingered Beauty and moved it from one angle to another as different people spoke. The light in his eyes let her know he was ecstatic about the historical recordings he was making.

Shara was asking Hestia a question when she felt a warm pressure against her leg. She shifted in the small space available without crowding Hestia. When Zeus moved as well, she was certain the contact was not accidental, even though he appeared to be totally involved in conversation with Athena.

Under the circumstances, Shara thought it would be better to ignore him than make a scene. But when his meaty hand slipped under the table and onto her knee, she changed her mind. As his fingers inched their way beneath her tunic and up her naked thigh, she leaned close to Zeus's ear and murmured, "If you wish to continue fathering your dynasty in the future, I'd suggest you remove your hand from my leg."

His hand stilled uncomfortably close to the juncture of her thighs. "You would risk your love's life over a trifling?"

Shara met his gaze with a smile. "No, I wouldn't tell him that you took his warning as a joke. I would handle the matter myself."

He continued to stare at her for several more heartbeats then let out another roarlike laugh as he brought his hand back to his own lap. "Gods above, I like you, Shara. You could be one of my own."

I just might be,
Shara thought.
We'll find out the truth soon enough.
As she turned away from him, she caught sight of Gabriel glaring at her as if she'd committed some terrible offense. Even after she resumed her conversation with Hestia, she felt him staring at her.

Despite his obvious displeasure with her however, she hadn't expected him to do anything about it in front of so many people. She was wrong.

With a few words to those around him, Gabriel rose and came to stand at Shara's side. "It was a pleasure meeting all of you," he said, grasping Shara's upper arm and practically lifting her upright off the bench. "We are especially grateful for your kind hospitality, Zeus and Hestia, but we traveled a great distance today, so we must ask that you excuse us until dawn."

Shara barely kept her balance as he started to pull her away before she had climbed over the bench.

"Aah, the mating fever strikes again!" Zeus exclaimed, much to everyone's amusement, except Shara's.

She was going to strangle Gabriel the moment they got out of here. By the time he stopped by their bags to fetch his sleeping pouch, she was certain every person in the entire lodge assumed the same thing Zeus had—that they were rushing outside to couple before the fever reached a peak.

Walking rapidly toward the hill from where they had first seen the commune, neither she nor Gabriel said a word until they were a good distance away from the lodge. The exercise did not mellow his irritation with her however. "Hadn't I told you enough about him? Or had I told you so much that you were tempted to try him yourself?"

"What the
drek
are you talking about?" Shara shot back as she lengthened her stride to keep up with him.

He came to a stop so abruptly, she was several steps past him before she halted as well. "I'm talking about the way you were toying with Zeus. For someone who claims to have no interest in coupling without establishing some sort of bond first, you certainly were anxious enough to share your
gifts
with him!"

Shara's mouth dropped open in shock. "You can't really believe that."

"No?" He threw the sleeping pouch onto the ground. "I told you about that special nectar of his. It was a rare, addictive aphrodisiac that not only kept him potent, but made his women so desperate for relief that they didn't mind sharing him with every other woman who caught his eye. And there you were, ready to accept his invitation to
share a cup or two with him!"

Shara propped her fists on her hips and glared up at him. "I am not brainless or lacking in recall. I wouldn't have drunk any of it. It would have been a perfect opportunity to test him."

Gabriel narrowed his eyes at her. "Oh? Then perhaps you'd like to explain why you practically had your tongue in his ear after dinner?"

Shara gasped. "I have no idea why you think you have the right to question anything I do or with whom but you are completely out in space on this one." She took a step closer and poked him in the shoulder. "I'll have you know, that vile man was sliding his hand up between my legs as if it were nothing more personal than a handshake. The only reason I was anywhere near his ear was so that no one else at the table would hear me threaten to castrate him!"

The stiffness went out of Gabriel's stance. "Really?"

"Look at my eyes, if you still doubt me."

The moon illuminated her face sufficiently for him to see the yellow flecks of anger and no hint of olive. He took a deep calming breath. "I'm sorry. I overreacted."

"I'll accept your apology if you'll tell me what I have done to make you think I am completely without common sense."

"I don't think anything of the sort," Gabriel retorted. "I was simply worried about you. Zeus is of a time and culture very different from ours. He was the type of male who considered a smile from a female consent enough to act on his desires. It was not beyond him to use force to gain whatever he wished, including women."

Shara still thought the excuses he was giving for his irrational behavior in the lodge were only part of the truth. "I see. Then I suppose I should thank you for preventing me from getting raped a second time in one week." She turned to walk away from him but he caught her arm and pulled her back.

"A
second
time?" Gabriel felt the tension vibrating between them and was furious all over again that she could cause him to lose his self-control so easily. "I thought we were past that but if you wish, we can rehash the entire sequence of events... including
my
rape!"

Her eyes widened and she was about to hurl a more direct insult at him when he pressed his fingertips to her lips.

"
Hush.
I'm sorry but this isn't rational. Listen to us. Sniping at each other like spoiled children." He traced her mouth then brushed her cheek with the same fingers.