The Lawgivers: Gabriel Part 4

Mentally a.s.sessing the water she still had, she took a couple more smallish sips, capped the bottle carefully, and returned it to her pack. She didnat want to run out anymore than anyone else, but it wouldnat do her any good to have it if she pa.s.sed out before she ran out. Someone would just take what she had and leave her with none at all.

The sun had moved about half past its zenith before the angel allowed them to stop again, but then it had been well upward in the sky before theyad even started out. This time, he suggested they eat and not simply rest and drink.

Lexa scanned their surroundings and finally spied an outcropping of rock that offered a little shade. As tired as she was, she hurried over to it to claim it before anyone else could. Unfortunately, she wasnat fast enough. She arrived at the shelter only just before one of the village men. Before she could plant her a.s.s in the little bit of shade it offered, he gave her a shove that sent her sprawling.

More than half expecting him to punctuate his claiming of the spot by kicking her a few times for good measure, Lexa scrambled to get to her feet even as she hit the dirt, ignoring the burning sc.r.a.pes to her palms and the bruising of her knees. She slipped on the pebbles strewn across the hard packed ground, however, and before she could do more than roll to her back to face the threat she expected, a dark shadow fell over her.

Gabriel caught the man by the front of his s.h.i.+rt, s.n.a.t.c.hing him clean off the ground and shaking him. His expression was frightening as he pushed his face close to the manas and snarled. aSavage!a Resisting the urge to plant his fist in the middle of the manas face, Gah-re-al shook the man again and then tossed him toward the ground. Turning, he saw he had the full attention of the entire group. aYou may consider that a warning. The strong will not be allowed to prey upon the weak. They will not be allowed to take what they want from those weaker than they are. This is not civilized behavior and it is against the laws of the udai. The punishment for such unacceptable behavior will be swift. Is that clear?a Lexa didnat know about the others, but she was so stunned it was many moments before that sank ina"and it wasnat terribly clear when it did. She felt a mixture of emotions as she struggled with what had happened and what head said. Resentment, embarra.s.sment, and shame that Gabriel saw her as weak were the dominant emotions, making it difficult to a.s.sess the others. She also found that she was distinctly uneasy about someone else fighting her battles for her, though, since she didnat understand his motive for doing it.

She had more to worry about, she discovered, when she saw the reactions on the faces of the villagers. There was accusation in the expressions of every man, woman, and child as they stared at her. She was an outsider and, because of her, one of their group had been attacked and humiliated.

Gabriel compounded their resentment by gesturing for her to take the place shead tried to claim and then sitting down near enough to make it appear that he was guarding her.

To their minds, she knew, head just claimed her as his woman. She was fairly certain that he didnat realize that. She didnat believe that that was why head done it because head had plenty of time since head caught her the night before to rut her if that was what he had in mind, but she knew that was what the others were thinking and she didnat think that would be a good thing for her.

Gah-re-al thought, at first, that the hostility he saw in the faces of the humans bold enough to show it and sensed even in those too timid to display it, was merely fear and hatred of the udai in general and him in particular since he was the only representative close enough to focus on. There had certainly been no show of appreciation for the fact that head eliminated the gang that had been terrorizing them, he thought wrylya"not that head expected ita"far from it.

Grat.i.tude should have been a given under the circ.u.mstancesa"with any species of intelligence. Head been around humans enough, however, to see that they werenat inclined to look upon anything the udai did for them with even a modic.u.m of appreciationa"which was the main reason he was inclined to discount the possibility of a higher understanding among them. They were not only not cowed or inspired to feel awe for the beings who walked among them, displaying superior abilities and weaponry, such displays of power only seemed to increase their hostility.

It wasnat reasonable. It made no sense to him, at any rate.

Logically, they should have been joyous and relieved at the very least to have the monsters that had been preying upon them removed. Even if they were fearful of the beings who removed them and/or the way it was done, it seemed unreasonable to look upon their saviors with hate and distrust.

He supposed, knowing that, he shouldnat have been surprised at their reaction to his punitive action against the male that had a.s.saulted Lexa, but he was. He thought he understood why the males had been resentful. They were accustomed to doing as they pleased when it came to anyone weaker than they werea"the women and children and any male they were able to dominate. The reactions of the women and children thoroughly confused him.

Instead of simply shrugging it off as a sign of low intelligence as he had in the past, however, he began to wonder if there was a reason behind ita"at least as far as they were concerneda"that simply escaped his understanding.

Maybe they werenat simply too stupid to grasp that head improved their lot?

Because he couldnat see that Lexaas att.i.tude differed a great deal from the others and head judged her to be intelligent.

There was no real reason why he needed to understand the humans. The social workers had taken that task upon themselves when they had decided to rehabilitate them and it was no part of his job as lawgiver. And yet it rankled that Lexaas distrust seemed to deepen with everything that he did.

Truthfully, head seen a look of awe and admiration in her eyes beforea"or thought he hada"and the fact that that seemed to have vanished bothered him far more than it should have.

And angered him.

It was completely irrational and unreasonable that his protecting her seemed to have diminished him in her eyes!

Her explanation only baffled and angered him more. It didnat bring enlightenment.

aWould you care to explain why you are angry that I protected you?a he asked, having fallen back to walk beside her as the group got up to resume their trek.

aNo.a Surprised at her curt response, he sent her a startled glance. Anger very quickly replaced his surprise. He tamped it with an effort and summoned patience. aExplain anyway,a he ground out after a long moment spent wrestling with his temper.

Lexa rolled her eyes heavenward. aIt was my fight.a aOne you had already lost,a he pointed out tightly. aAnd could not have won.a aYou donat know that!a she said indignantly.

aI do and whatas more you should. There is bravery and there is stupidity.a Lexa flicked a glare in his direction and then stared at the back of the woman in front of them, wondering if she was close enough to hear the conversation. Her att.i.tude, the way her head was c.o.c.ked slightly to one side, said that she was straining to whether she actually could or not. aYou donat understand at all,a she muttered. aAnd why should you?a aAnd how can I when you refuse to explain,a Gah-re-al retorted tartly.

aIam an outsider and you made me more one.a Gah-re-al was startled and then annoyed. aHow so? By preventing that male from beating you half to death?a aThey think Iam your woman now!a Lexa hissed.

That accusation so startled Gah-re-al that he halted in his tracks. Of all the unreasonable a.s.sumptions for them to make, that seemed the most unbelievable! aWhat?a he demanded, wondering if head heard her wrong.

She didnat answer, slow down, or turn around and Gah-re-al strode forward to catch up. aWhat?a he asked again, although he thought her bright red cheeks was evidence enough that she had heard him. aWhy would they leap to that conclusiona"a.s.suming they did? Why do you think they did?a Lexaas lips tightened. aMen guard their possessions,a she retorted tightly.

Gah-re-al stared at her in disbelief. aBut Iam not a man. Iam udai!a aWhich only makes it worse!a Gah-re-al didnat bother to ask her to explain that. It was clear enough that it infuriated him. He stalked to the front of the group. He wouldave liked nothing better than to have simply abandoned the lot of thema"if only long enough to get his temper under controla"but he didnat trust the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds not to scatter the moment his back was turned and head already informed the council that he would be delivering the first batch of primitives in ten days.

Which might have been a very conservative estimate now that he thought of it considering the children in the group.

He dismissed that problem for the moment, too angry to worry with the logistics of his proposed delivery date.

He wasnat certain what part of his discovery made him angrier.

The udai were superior to humans in every way! How dare they a shun Lexa because they thought she might be his woman!

How dare she consider it shamed her for them to think it?

Clearly she did and that was the reason shead turned so red, the reason she was angry!

He was the one who should, by rights, be insulted! As if he would stoop to take a primitive as his woman! It was ludicrous!

Then again, maybe it was all in her mind? He certainly hadnat heard any comments to that effect and it was completely unreasonable for them to jump to such a conclusion merely because head protected her.

Granted, he didnat find her repulsive as he did humans in general a.

Unwelcome, honesty intruded as it flickered through his mind that head thought Lexa surprisingly attractive a for a human.

But that was nothing more than the fact that he found her unusual coloring had piqued his interest. He wasnat actually attracted to her per se.

He hadnat been aroused.

Well, not really. Not because of her, at any rate.

Granted, head felt a twinge or two in her presence but that was primarily because it had been f.u.c.king months since head been within sniffing distance of an udai woman! It was a natural reaction of a healthy male to an uncomfortably long abstinence. It had nothing to do with Lexa!

He considered that for some moments and recalled the possibility that it was her imagination and began to wonder why.

Because she was attracted to him?

His pulse quickened at that thought. He didnat have to examine that reaction too closely because arousal followed almost instantaneously. He struggled to tamp it by summoning an image of her for his mindas eye, but that only had the surprising and unwelcome effect of arousing him more.

Incomprehensible and unwelcome!

He was hornier than head thought.

And he was imagining things besides.

He had seen awe in her eyes, but it was fearfula"and that was understandable. She wasnat stupid. She knew he was dangerous. He was far more powerful than a human male and he held her life in his hands.

Upon further consideration, he realized that it was pretty hard to ignore the fact that she actually seemed far more leery and suspicious than afraid. If she was truly frightened of him, would she have argued with him at every turn? Would she snap at him as if she considered herself an equal?

He had mixed feelings about that, he discovered. Head long been in the habit of considering humans inferior to the udai.

In almost every way that he could see, they werea"certainly physically. They had no wings for one thing. He had not encountered one male that seemed even close to him in strength. Beyond the physical inferiority, they didnat make anything that the udai had been able to discovera"beyond more just like them. They were scavengers. And they lived and behaved like animalsa"worse. Most animals didnat prey upon their own kind and they didnat foul their dens.

How was it, then, that Lexa seemed to see herself as an equal? Considering everything that she had told him about her life, in seemed almost inconceivable that she would even consider herself the equal of a male of her own kind.

But she did.

She had truly believed she had a chance of exerting her claim to that spot, he realized. If he hadnat intervened, she wouldave challenged the man a and probably gotten pulverized.

It rankled to admit, even to himself, that he might have underestimated the humans because of his arrogance a particularly when it had never occurred to him that he was arrogant.

Chapter Six.

It was strange, Lexa reflected, how the mind worked.

Only a few days earlier, shead been focused on nothing but survivinga"thought about little beyond how uncomfortable she was and how low her supplies were getting. The search for food, water, and shelter of some sort was all that had run through her mind for yearsa"except the horrible memories and she did her utmost to blot those out. It was preferable to focus on her needs.

Oddly, those ugly memories of her time with Ralph didnat seem to stem the flow of imaginings that had been going through her mind since the incident the first day on the trail.

Even the possibility that Gabriel might have interest in claiming her as his woman should have revolted every feeling because shead sworn never to allow herself to fall into the hands of another man, to allow herself to become a slave to any manas whim, if she had to fight to the death. And those feelings had not been lessened by the fact that he wasnat a man at all, wasnat human. Shead been angry even though she didnat believe that head meant to give the villagers the impression that he was claiming her. Shead also been unnerved by the looks the villagers had given her and worried that her situation might get ugly in a hurry if the man Gabriel had disciplined, or any of the others, decided to blame her for the incident or just to despise her for the fact that she appeared to have been claimed by one of the angel-demons and retaliate against her.

And yet, it almost seemed that from the moment the idea had popped into her mind it had taken hold and grown in a direction it shouldnat have. She found herself wondering what it would be like to be his woman, found herself studying him when she was convinced he wouldnat notice. From there it hadnat been much of a leap to imagining what it would be like to have him rutting her.

Well, it hadnat been difficult imagining him f.u.c.king, at any rate. She knew the mechanics of copulation all too well so it wasnat difficult to imagine in that sense but it was hard to imagine herself in that picture. Especially given the contempt he so clearly had for all humans. It took an effort to do that, though why she tried she didnat know and beyond that, she didnat know why it was that the images didnat repulse her when she did manage it.

Far from it.

He was a male. From what she could see, angel or not, he didnat look that much different from any other male shead ever run acrossa"except for the wings, of course.

And the fact that he wasnat nasty, stinky, and didnat do any of the disgusting things shead seen so many men do.

And his form was actually pleasing.

She liked his face. She didnat know why it appealed to her, but there was no getting around the fact that it gave her pleasure to look at it. It made her belly feel oddly weightless when she looked at him and imagined him rutting hera"as if shead just fallen off a cliff.

Or completely lost her mind!

She did not like that! She knew what it was likea"anywhere from horrible and painful to just plain disgusting, but never anything she had ever wanted to do. Why would she imagine that it would be different if he did that to her?

She thought part of it might have been because of what head said the night he captured hera"that he never had s.e.x with a woman who didnat want him to and that there were plenty of willing women.

That statement made her wonder if the angel women were different, if they actually liked ita"because she didnat believe she was alone in thinking that human women had no liking of being rutted. She hadnat seen many women who looked to be pleased about belonging to some man. Mostly they just looked hollow-eyed, hopeless, and miserable, although shead also seen plenty that she thought looked as she once hada"their eyes filled with desperation or horror.

Despite her best efforts to dismiss the entire idea from her mind, though, she found herself wondering if there was something about the way he did it that made the f.u.c.king something they wanted.

She told herself it was far more likely that it was pure male arrogance. Ralph had certainly seemed convinced that she looked forward to their coupling with antic.i.p.ation rather than dread. One of the things shead hated the worst about it was hearing his ragged voice in her ear demanding for her to tell him how much she was enjoying it. It was salt in the wounds he regularly inflicted and it outraged her, eventually drove her to stupidity and incautiousness.

aYou like that? You love feeling my d.i.c.k pounding into your tight little p.u.s.s.y, donat you, b.i.t.c.h?a It was a litany shead heard many times since head captured her and yet when it reached the point where she couldnat stand it anymore without telling him exactly how she felt about it, he taught her to regret her honesty.

aI hate it. I feel like puking every time you touch me. Iad cut it off and shove it up your a.s.s if I could.a That brutal honesty had cost her far more than the tiny rebellion of simply saying nothing at all and allowing him his illusions. Refusing to give him the answer he so obviously wanted only resulted in frantic, punis.h.i.+ng thrusts that hurt but seemed to make him c.u.m faster.

That time, as soon as he caught his breath, head beat her so badly shead lost the baby she was carrying, but shead learned her lesson. She kept her mouth shut after that.

For a while, those memories banished her fascination with the angel and the curiosity to know if being f.u.c.ked by Gabriel would somehow be so completely different from her experiences before that she would be willing to allow him to do it to her whenever he wanted to. By the next day, though, she was back to wondering.

Her preoccupation nearly cost her her life.

aHow many in the group youare bringing?a aA hundred.a Maya sent Gah-re-al a startled look. aSo many? Thatas a large group to process. Itall be hard to give them individual attention.a She frowned thoughtfully. aIam going to have to see if I can find more volunteers.a Gah-re-al looked around the room Maya called her office for a place to perch and finally simply leaned against the wall, folding his arms over his chest. Despite her dubbing the room as an office, it was like everything about Mayaa"expensively furnished and meticulous groomed. He wouldnat have felt comfortable in the room if he wasnat covered in trail dust. aItas a big village. I quartered them.a Maya didnat turn around that time. She was focused on her computer, but she snickered. aI hope not!a Gah-re-al smiled faintly in response to her alittle jokea, but the laugh had been derisive and it puzzled him. Shead been one of the most vocal of what he referred to as ableeding heartsa in the movement to rehabilitate the natives and the callousness of her joke surprised him, especially considering how many heated debates the two of them had had over his views. He couldnat see her expression, though. She was focused on her computer screen, carefully marking the location of the village head found. Maybe head just imagined there was more amus.e.m.e.nt at the thought than there was? Or she was amused because his inferior education was showing? She did have a way of pointing out, very subtly, that she hailed from the aupper crusta and had been born on the home world where everything, naturally, was far superior to the colonies where head been raised in an orphan facility. aBrought a quarter of them,a he amended.

aThe Lawgivers have all been finding larger villages the further west they go,a she said musingly. aLooks like our projection on the numbers might have been off.a She turned away from the computer and smiled at him. aWhy donat you sit down? You look exhausted.a Gah-re-al looked down himself, feeling more self-conscious than he liked. aIam filthy from the trail. I think Iad better stand,a he said wryly.

aHmm. You look like youare going savage. Sound a little like it, too, the way youave been talking about that little savage a what was her name? Mex? Dex?

She was smiling when she made the comments, but Gah-re-al didnat think he was imagining the rebuke in her voice. Discomfort wafted through him. Theyad been friends and sometimes lovers for more than a year now. As far as head been able to tell, Maya was perfectly content with the arrangement but unless it was pure imagination that last comment seemed to contain at least a trace of jealousy.

That wasnat the only source of his discomfort, however. The suggestion that he was preoccupied with Lexa struck home. Mentally, he reviewed what head told her, but he couldnat think of anything head said that she couldave interpreted as an interest in Lexa beyond his a.s.signment. aLexa is the only one Iave actually spoken to,a he said pointedly, emphasizing the name to correct her although he suspected Maya had deliberately screwed it up, not misheard or forgotten. aI thought youad be excited about the information Iad managed to gather.a She smiled but the smile didnat reach her eyes. He wondered if shead always been that way or it was just that she was angry for some reasona"jealous or just not too pleased to discover there were so many primitives it was going to be a far bigger task than she or any of the others had antic.i.p.ated.

He could see where that prospect might be daunting. Until he and the others had been appointed as Lawgivers theyad thought the problems created by the primitives would be an easy fix. Theyad thought it was merely a handful of savages making a nuisance of themselves.

The world had been surveyed, of course, before the first settlement had been established. But the evidence of some cataclysmic event on top of the fact that they hadnat discovered anything but ruins as evidence of the existence of higher intelligent life had led to a.s.sumptions they shouldnat have madea"that the ma.s.s extinction had included the majority of the intelligent life forms.

Well, it had. Clearly the world had once been burgeoning with life whereas, when they found it, there were great tracts of scarred desolation and little more than adotsa of new, emerging life. And, quite naturally, theyad chosen the areas already recovering from the cataclysm for their colonies. The a.s.sessment just hadnat been as accurate as it should have been. More research before colonization would have led to the discovery of scattered pockets of primitives. Instead, theyad leapt at the opportunity to establish another colony on a promising world, even if it was in sad need of improvement.

Not that he blamed them. Theyad traveled a very long way to claim it just to turn around and go back!

aOh Iam delighted that you finally gained the trust of one of them and gathered some useful information.a She chuckled. aAnd not particularly surprised one of the little savage females has attached herself to you. Youare a very attractive man, Gah-re-al. It just surprises me that you allowed it considering your views on the savages.a She paused, clearly trying to decide whether to pursue the topic or not. aItas a a little odd that you keep referring to the primitive by name. You arenat growing attached? Thinking of her as a pet? Because thatas never a good idea with these creatures, let me tell you. They are wild. And like any wild thing, they can be dangerous.a Gah-re-al felt his face heat with a mixture of anger and discomfort. aI donat need you to tell me how dangerous they can be,a he said tightly. aItas my job to put down the most savage of the lot in order to give the gentler ones a chance. And itas no easy task, regardless of the superior weapons we have. They attack in packs and from every direction at once and quite often without any warning.a She rose abruptly and rushed to him, slipping her arms around his waist and settling her cheek on his shoulder. aI know! Iam sorry. I worry about you every time you go out. I worry that I wonat see you again.a She leaned away to look at him earnestly. aWere you injured putting the savages down?a Gah-re-al peeled her loose and stepped away. She looked hurt and that made him more uncomfortable. aI stink,a he said by way of apology. aI know I shouldave cleaned up before I came, but I have to return as quickly as I can. I left them camped in the open and theyare defenseless.a Maya studied him, her expression still a careful mask of concern although anger flickered in her eyes. aYouare worried about them? Or her?a Discomfort wafted through Gah-re-al again as the questions sank home. He hadnat examined his anxiousness to get back to the group head left on the plain. They were his responsibility and he took his responsibilities seriouslya"whatever Maya thought about his views on the primitives. It struck him as soon as she asked, though, that most of his focus, most of the anxiety churning in his gut, was about Lexa.

He shook his head. aAs long as youave been an advocate of the asave the humansa drive, Iad think youad be glad to think I was coming around to your views. Not that I am. Theyare a dangerous species and either too wild, now, to apatch them upa with a little instruction and expect them to behave like the civilized beings your people think they were or they never were civilized and the only thing you can hope to do is to train them to performa"give them a veneer thatall disappear the moment you turn your back. Itas simply a matter of my responsibilities and Iave always taken those seriously. If I didnat know better, Iad think you were jealous.a Head meant it as a joke, but he was unnerved by the look Maya gave him. aOh I know better than to get attached to you,a she said with slightly forced humor. aYouave made it clear you arenat in the market for a mate to settle with.a The comment annoyed him. aIam a Lawgiver, Maya. As you pointed out yourself, there are no guarantees any time I go out that Iall be coming back. Thereas more danger out there than the primitives themselves. Iave been seeing more and more signs of predators a the four-legged kind,a he added dryly, awhich is one of the reasons I donat like leaving the humans for very long, the other being I donat want to have to round them up again. They arenat exactly thrilled with the prospect of being your little social experiment.a Maya looked horrified. aOh G.o.ds! You havenat been attacked by one of the beasts we re-introduced?a aI havenat had a nasty encounter a yet, but then Iam strong and well armed. The natives arenat either of those things a which is one very good reason that I need to get back to the group under my care as quickly as possible. I only came to gather supplies to get them here and took the time to stop by to give you a report.a Actually, he mentally amended wryly, head hoped for a little recreationa"trail dirt and grime or nota"to rid himself of the growing temptation to try to seduce Lexaa"the idea that had been sewn the day Lexa pointed out that his actions made the others believe she was his woman. Not that head consciously acknowledged that before Maya had rubbed his face in it! Head thought it was a simple matter of having done without a female too long. He was still more inclined to think so than the alternative. Lexa was merely attractive enough to him to remind him that he hadnat been with a woman in far too long and head thought it might be a good thing to work it out of his system before his baser urges overruled good sense.

Maya had never seemed particularly put off by a little dirt, he thought wryly. In fact, she seemed to find a little excitinga"as long as he didnat actually stink. Shead said she liked the smell of a hardworking man. Privately, head thought it was part of the attraction of the savages for hera"she just had a taste for low company. If she hadnat, he didnat think she wouldave given him the time of day. Head been a soldier before head become a Lawgiver and she was far above him in social rank. Women of her cla.s.s generally didnat a.s.sociate with men of hisa"which was the reason head thought it safe enough to take her as a lover.

He wasnat particularly pleased to discover that she seemed to have expected some sort of commitment from him.

Then again, maybe she hadnat expected or wanted it? Maybe she was just peeved that he hadnat tried? Somehow he couldnat see her actually settling for a man like him when she could do far better for herself.