Stolen Dreams (21 page)

 

"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.

 

But
it had,
because with Shara the physical release wasn't enough. He wanted her to
like him. He wanted her to like touching him. He wanted her total
attention.

 

He wanted more than she was willing to give.

 

That
realization stopped him in his tracks. He had always backed away from
females who wanted more from him than a pleasurable hour, and he had
never had the desire for more than that from any of them. He supposed
this possessiveness with Shara could be another side effect of the
fever, but it still had to be dealt with until they received treatment.

 

"Gabriel!"

 

He
was startled out of his reverie by the realization that Shara was
standing in front of him and had apparently asked him something. "I beg
your pardon?"

 

"Take this," she said pushing a platter of meat
into
his hands. "Are you all right? You were standing there with a strange
look on your face."

 

He nodded. Tm fine. Just daydreaming a
bit. This is all pretty incredible for a history fanatic."

 

As
he helped carry the rest of the cooked food inside, he purposely
thought about the unique opportunity he'd been given and what priceless
information he was gathering. Within moments, however, his mind drifted
back to Shara's admission.

 

Surely her finding him appealing
was a
step toward the kind of bond she felt was so important. The fact that
they had helped each other survive their sojourn in the Frozen Era and
were now working together on her personal project should be another big step or two. What else would she need to
allow herself to enjoy coupling with him?

 

She
had mentioned wanting to have everything in common with the man who
would be her soulmate. From what he could tell so far, they had
absolutely nothing in common . . . except the fever. Everything, from
their upbringings to their lifestyles to their careers to their mental
abilities, was at opposite ends of the spectrum.

 

Considering
just
how opposite their mental abilities were made his stomach clench, and
he felt as if he were on a storm-tossed boat. Shara possessed the one
ability he feared most. If he didn't have his jammer, she could twist
him into anything she wanted, dangle him like a marionette from strings
she carelessly controlled, and he would never know she was doing it.

 

That
was what Janna had done to him for years, until their parents found out
and mentally ostracized her for a week. The same silence Gabriel had
hungered for had frightened his sister so much, she abided by every
rule from then on.

 

When he had misbehaved in an attempt to
earn the
same punishment, they took pity on poor untalented Gabriel and waived
the usual ostracism. He couldn't win then, and his luck didn't seem to
have improved in all these years.

 

The first female that he
desired to spend more than an hour with also made him want to avoid
involvement with her at any cost.

 

Again
he ordered himself to concentrate on his work. That was why he was
here, not to moon over a woman like some lovesick adolescent. But his
research—the one and only passion in his life—had abruptly taken a second position behind his
preoccupation with Shara.

 

He
knew it wasn't logical, but he resented her more for that than any of
the things she had done to him consciously. If she would at least stop
fighting him about coupling, perhaps he could get his mind back on his
work.

 

As they sat down to eat, he decided that Shara seemed to
be
suffering from a similar contradiction of wanting and not wanting,
though their mutual discomfort was little consolation. He remembered
her heated response to their first kiss in the biodrome and how she had
welcomed his body into hers when they had first landed in the Frozen
Era.

 

With her mind on saving his life, she hadn't refused his
touch
and by allowing that, her passion flared before she had a chance to
analyze it to death. On reflection, giving her a chance to think was
what had ended the interlude in the biodrome.

 

She had asked
him not
to touch her more than necessary last night. Actually, she had voiced
objections to his touching her from the minute they met. That fact
presented an interesting supposition.

 

Perhaps it was her own
passionate nature she was fighting, rather than his. Wanting him
without that bond would go against her personal moral code.
Understanding why she acted as irrationally as she did, however, did
not help him figure out a way around that code. There had to be
something they had in common that would put her at ease about this
peculiar relationship they'd been forced into. However, as long as they
disagreed on the subject of altering history, he wasn't sure that it
was possible for him to put her at ease.

 

The first hint of
daylight interrupted his further contemplation
of their dilemma. Everyone pitched in to clean up so that the Friends
could get on with the morning's business. He chuckled to himself when
he noticed how quickly Shara took advantage of the commotion to get a
few more samples. Without anyone being the wiser, she stole a hair,
stuck it to a piece of static paper, and wrote a name beneath it. If
she didn't know someone's name, she simply introduced herself first and
then found out.

 

As more people arrived, he accompanied Shara
to the
entranceway so that Beauty could record the multitude of introductions.
He then stayed by her side, helping with identification, shielding her
actions from onlookers, and keeping conversations going while she
labeled each sample she acquired.

 

The crowd inside the lodge
swelled
to capacity by the time the sun was fully above the horizon. The sect
leaders gravitated to one end of the hall while everyone else milled
around, exchanging information and opinions. As chairs were being
placed in a row atop one long table, Gabriel let Shara know he was
leaving her to claim a spot in front for Beauty and himself.

 

One
representative from each sect climbed up on the table and took a seat,
with Zeus commandeering the center position. At his sides were Odin,
Isis, Scot, Albion, Danu, Pele, and three more men Gabriel hadn't met.

 

Odin
motioned to his son standing below him, and the younger man pounded on
the wooden table with a large mallet. The banging continued until
everyone quieted and faced forward.

 

'Thank you, Thor," said
Zeus in
a booming voice that easily carried to the back of the room. "And thank
you all for coming to this Summit. I wish you friendship,
peace, and love." He struck his left breast twice and offered his hand
in the gesture that stood for their beliefs. Almost in unison, the
motto was repeated and the sign returned to him by everyone in the
lodge.

 

"Please extend our greetings and appreciation to all of
the
loyal Friends who remained behind to tend your communes while you
tended to their futures. For those of you who just arrived in our
region, I will bring you up to date."

 

For the next half hour,
he
detailed the various endeavors made by the representatives on the dais.
They had tried every method available to voice their concerns and
protest Tribunal actions through the legal system. They met with
regional councilors to state their objectives, filed a multitude of
petitions, and submitted the proper forms to request a hearing in front
of the Ruling Tribunal.

 

Repeatedly the Tribunal refused to
grant
them an audience, thereby refusing to recognize the Friends as a
legitimate interest group. Two of the councilors had attempted to speak
to the Tribunal for the Friends, but they, too, were refused admittance
to the private chambers of the powerful triumvirate.

 

Zeus had
remained seated as he outlined their activities in a flat, rather bored
voice, and the people in the room grew restive. But when he paused and
rose to his full, imposing height, they immediately stilled.

 

"Yesterday
we met with those two councilors who had been sympathetic to our views.
Although they say they still believe in the Friends' movement, they are
no longer willing to risk their positions for us. They feel our battle
is lost."

 

"Never!" shouted a man from the back of the room.
A chorus of voices called out their agreement until the chant of
"Never" was accompanied by stomping feet and the lodge walls trembled
from the emotional uproar.

 

Order was restored with the help of
Thor's hammer.

 

Zeus
raised his voice a bit more and allowed his hostility to filter
through. "They say we cannot manage our own lives apart from the Ruling
Tribunal and its suffocating laws!" His audience protested, but Zeus's
words thundered over them. "They say we cannot use our mental abilities
to their fullest extent, that only the Tribunal has that right. They
say we cannot have the freedom we've requested so peacefully!"

 

"Freedom!."
became the chant of the angry crowd, and Zeus made no attempt to calm
them. Gabriel could feel the raw excitement building in those around
him. Knowing what was about to happen enhanced his fascination with how
it had come about.

 

Like a symphony conductor, Zeus made a
slashing
motion to silence everyone, then roared, "The decision is in your hands
this morning. Do we settle back and allow the Tribunal to prod us from
place to place like the cows in our pastures?"

 

"Nol" the
Friends yelled back at him.

 

"Then what say you to your elected
representatives seated here before you? What is your desire?"

 

A
hushed murmur passed through the crowd like an electrified wave as the
row of men and women on the makeshift dais glanced at one another in
anticipation and uncertainty.

 

"Revolt!" a woman cried a few
feet
away from Gabriel. It was Hera, Zeus's sister, and the look that Zeus
gave her spoke of his admiration.

 

"Revolt! Revolt!" The shout was deafening, as one
by one the leaders stood up to endorse the cry.

 

In
an exaggerated gesture, Zeus slowly curled the fingers of his right
hand into his palm, thumped his breast twice, then shot the mighty fist
upward and held it there.

 

Each of the other leaders imitated
his
action. Within seconds, the identifying hand signal of the Friends had
changed from a show of friendship, peace, and love to defiance, war,
and hatred.

 

"We have a plan ready to be implemented
immediately,"
Zeus told the crowd. "But its success depends on each of you. If there
are any among you who are not prepared to commit their lives to the
cause, let them depart now, for there can be no turning back once we
begin."

 

Like those around him, Gabriel turned to see if any
cowards
dared to make themselves known. None did. But history had it that
someone betrayed the Friends from within.

 

Zeus clapped his
hands
together once and proceeded. "Excellent. The main thrust of this plan
is that, through surprise, aggression, and limited violence, we will
lay siege to the First Province Administration Building and the Ruling
Tribunal's headquarters. Our opponents will discover what it is like to
have their freedom withheld. At the same time, we will invade all of
the councilors' private residences for the purpose of holding their
family members hostage. They will become pawns in the negotiating that
will commence once the Tribunal realizes how strong and determined we
are.

 

"We
will now go outside to divide up into teams. Captains
have been preselected and given specific assignments to carry
out."               
 

 

Those
words prompted everyone on the dais and a number of people in the
audience to don purple headbands. Gabriel had to admire the smooth
choreography of Zeus's show.