GABRIEL (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 4) (21 page)

Distracted, Shara accidentally bumped into someone's foot. One of the women's eyes blinked open and she squinted at the intruders.

Chapter 10

The beeping of the telecommunicator awoke Rom from an already fitful sleep. Peculiar nightmares kept disturbing him and he was uncomfortably aware that Aster was having a similar problem. All day they had been bothered by the sensation that they had forgotten something, without having any idea what it could be.

Aster sat up as he accepted the call.

"This is Illana in Communications. I'm sorry to disturb you, Governor Romulus, but you had requested that we contact you as soon as a message was received from Norona."

Aster reached for Rom's hand as he said, "Yes. Go ahead."

"The security squad assigned to locate Shara Locke reports that, although there are witnesses who report she was on board and no one saw her leave the ship after it docked, authorities were unable to locate her after a thorough search. Another passenger, Gabriel Drumayne, Professor of History and Chief Procurer of Antiquities for Norona, is also unaccounted for."

"A history professor?" Rom asked aloud, though he knew he'd heard correctly.

Aster squeezed his hand. "Shara always had problems in her history classes."

Rom ended the call before responding to his mate. "Apparently she's now having problems obeying orders also.
Drek!
If she used the tempometer in direct defiance of the Tribunal's decision, she's actually broken laws."

Aster gaped at him in disbelief. "Are you saying our daughter is now a criminal?"

"I think we'd better start assuming the worst."

"Dear Lord! What could have possessed her to fool around with that device?"

Rom shook his head. "It certainly doesn't sound like her to do this. At least she had the sense to take someone knowledgeable with her, though I would have preferred that she had a guardian more resourceful than most of the academy professors I've known."

Aster rose from the bed and was out of the room before Rom caught up with her. "What are you doing?" he asked as she sat down in front of the computer.

"I'm checking on the professor."

Before she began her query, the telecommunicator beeped again. This time it was Gerald, Chief of Scientific Research. He skipped the usual pleasantries. "Sorry to disturb you but I didn't think this should wait. We've just had another incident, only this one occurred in front of witnesses. A new cargo ship changed shape."

Rom and Aster glanced at each other then asked him to explain.

"The ship was in Hangar B, looking normal, then, in the blink of an eye, the structural design changed. Because of the other incidents, we immediately checked with an engineer who had worked on the ship. He verified that the new body was the one discarded when the ship was first designed."

"Excuse me, Chief," Rom said, feeling very confused and almost overwhelmed by the sense of forgetfulness. "What are the other incidents you mentioned?"

"You don't remember either?"

Aster's stomach was getting queasier by the second. "What is it we've forgotten?"

Gerald pinched the bridge of his nose. "The day before yesterday, you were one of several people who reported an alteration." He reminded them about their chair and some of the others. "We have it all recorded and my team has been working on an explanation, but now it seems that the individuals who noted the changes don't fully remember them. For instance, tell me what pattern is on the new chair by your fireplace."

Aster looked at it and said, "Stripes."

"Was it always striped?"

"Well, of course—" Abruptly she had a mental picture of the exact chair with a floral print and Rom sent her a thought that it seemed vaguely familiar to him as well. "Now I'm not sure."

The chief sighed. "That's the same thing I've heard several times. Apparently there were a number of things that changed around the same time, but now people's memories seem to be adjusting to the changes as if they had always been that way. However, the records we made after the alterations have remained intact as far as we can tell.

"Based on what has happened so far, we are assuming the ship alteration will not be the only one reported in the next few hours when people start waking up, but some time afterward, they may not remember it being any other way. It's as if history is being changed in very subtle ways and it takes a while longer for the memory to catch up."

Aster's eyes widened at the word
history
and Rom's fears mirrored hers. If Shara had truly traveled back into the past, she could be doing small things that were affecting present time.

Rom cleared his throat nervously. "There's something you need to know about, Gerald. Call a meeting of your team immediately. Aster and I will meet you in your office."

They disconnected and quickly got dressed to go. Aster wrote a brief note to inform Roman where they were going and went into his room to set it on his nightstand. The moment she entered the room, the blood rushed from her head as panic stabbed her chest.

The room was decorated entirely differently—the way it had been before Roman was born. None of Roman's favorite pictures were on the walls. None of his belongings were on the furniture, or the floor, or in the closet.

But worse than that, there was no Roman, as if all traces of him had been completely erased!

Chapter 11

Shara was momentarily frozen with fear as she stared at the woman she had awakened. The last thing in the world she wanted was to be caught in Zeus's private cubicle. Just as Shara was certain the woman was going to alert her lover to their unexpected visitors, the woman's gaze focused on Gabriel and she smiled her willingness to have him join their group.

As she held out her hand and her mouth opened to speak, Shara threw a mental suggestion at her. Instantly the woman's hand dropped, her eyes closed and she fell back to sleep.

As quickly as possible, she had Beauty confirm the two women's identities and collected hair from all three of the sleepers. Hurrying out of the cell to run her tests, she noticed the way Gabriel was glaring at her and guessed the reason. However, she couldn't risk defending the misuse of her ability while they might be overheard.

By the time they'd visited every cell in the loft, ninety-two names were checked off the list without a match turning up. They eliminated a dozen more on the ground floor before their luck ran out. Gabriel saw Hestia climbing down the ladder and motioned for Shara to hide the microputer. She barely managed to get it into her bag before Hestia walked up to her.

"Good day," Hestia whispered. "You're up very early."

Palming her miniature scissors, Shara smiled and kept her voice hushed as well. "We thought you might need help in the cookhouse extra early, with the Summit set for dawn."

Hestia beamed her gratitude and waved for them to follow her. On the way out, she nudged several people who must have been assigned to help with breakfast. That started a chain reaction and before long, everyone was coming awake despite the early hour.

Shara and Gabriel were given the chore of scrambling eggs and cooking them in an enormous frying pan over one of the fires. As he began cracking shells, she hurried back to her bag for a quantity of static paper and a pencil and tucked those items and the scissors inside her tunic. Though she wouldn't be able to refer to the list or run the test, she could still collect samples if she was careful and quick enough.

As soon as she returned to the cookhouse she told Gabriel she'd be moving around all morning trying to get to people they'd missed and that he shouldn't be concerned about her. When he did no more than nod and look away, she knew he was still upset with her. "I know you don't approve of what I did, but I didn't think I had any other choice under the circumstances."

Out of the side of his mouth, he murmured, "I could have put her back to sleep with my paralyzer."

"My way was faster and ensured that she wouldn't remember seeing us." He was only partly convinced.

"All right. I panicked. I
never
use that ability... well, hardly ever. And you know I can't use it against you as long as you're wearing the jammer. There was no harm done. Why are you so angry about it?"

"Because my sister had the same skill and she wasn't the least bit discriminating about how she manipulated other people with it. I was one of her favorite targets, since I had no way of sensing what she was up to. Of course, you wouldn't have had to use it at all if you'd been paying attention to what you were doing instead of fantasizing."

His change of attack made no sense to her. "I beg your pardon?"

Rather than answer, he transferred the cooked eggs into a large bowl and carried it into the lodge.

She had another batch started before he came back. "Explain your last comment about my fantasizing," she demanded.

"If you didn't limit your relations with men so drastically, Zeus's overendowment may not have distracted you. I'm sure if you're curious about just how big it could get, he'd be more than willing to give you a private demonstration."

"Gabriel Drumayne! You're being a dolt. I was stunned, not
fantasizing."
She remembered what he'd said earlier about feeling jealous. After what she'd put him through last night, he probably had reason to be a little insecure if he thought she was aroused by a man with greater proportions than his formidable self. However, it was still surprising that his ego could be shaken so easily.

"Listen to me, Professor, and listen well because I am not prone to flattering men very often. You are the most attractive, appealing man in this whole place, including the lovely Apollo.
If
I wanted to couple with someone I did not have an emotional bond with, you would be the one I'd choose, even without the fever. You have absolutely no reason to be jealous."

"Jea—" His scowling expression turned sheepish. "Oh. I apologize. Once again, I'm afraid the fever has me behaving in very unfamiliar ways."

"It's partially my fault," Shara admitted. "I've been acting as if my feelings in this are the only ones that matter. I believe my attitude has made a difficult situation worse." She touched his cheek to make him look at her. "From now on, I'll try not to be part of the problem."

He took her hand in his and kissed her palm the sensual way he had done before. An almost imperceptible shiver let him know Shara liked that more than she would admit. With a teasing grin, he said, "And I'll try to remember that I'm the most attractive man around."

"You're going to make me sorry I said that, aren't you?"

He gave her a wink and took another bowl of scrambled eggs into the lodge.

Gabriel felt as though he were a boat caught in a terrible storm, being helplessly tossed to and fro. The only thing to do was ride it out and pray for salvation. There was some relief in Shara promising to change her attitude and admitting that she found him appealing. He didn't welcome the symptoms of the mating fever any more than she did but fighting it was not the answer.

He hated what she had forced him to do last night, but it had helped him understand something she had said before. Where she didn't want to share her body without an emotional bond, he had coupled with women after little more than an exchange of smiles. What he and Shara had done shouldn't have bothered him in the least.