He shrugged indifferently. “We’ll talk when I get back.”
* * * *
Lexa’s belly tightened as she watched Gabriel lift his wings and race toward the edge of the plateau. Her mind didn’t leap instantly toward the rocky drop of twenty feet or so, however. She was too caught by the beauty and fluidity of his motions, the bunching and flexing of hard muscle in his legs and arms, the expansion of a chest that had already seemed amazingly broad … too awed and unnerved by the seeming enormity of his size with his wings stretched wide.
Logically, she knew he was no bigger than before—which was impressive enough in itself when he stood almost a full head taller than any of the human men. The illusion of him having somehow grown substantially larger was hard to shake, though.
She was so caught up by her fascination that it wasn’t until he leapt from the edge that she fully assimilated his intent. Her belly went weightless as he soared over the edge and then began to slowly climb with the powerful beat of his wings. She found herself holding her breath as he seemed to hover for a moment, as if a war raged between the embrace of the world and the air beneath his wings, feeling a sense of wonder as he began to climb instead of dropping as any human would.
She watched until he’d climbed so high into the sky she might never have known he was an angel-demon if she hadn’t seen him take flight. If she’d merely caught sight of him from a distance, she would’ve thought he was one of the great birds she’d seen soaring high above her.
But then, maybe those huge birds she’d seen from time to time had never been birds as she’d thought?
A strange sort of emptiness began to take hold of her as he diminished from her sight, became no more than a dark spec against the back drop of blue sky and clouds and then disappeared completely.
What must it be like to do that, she wondered? Not terrifying, certainly, as it would’ve been to her. Was it … exciting? Or was it something he was so used to that it was little different to him than walking was to her?
She decided the latter speculation was probably closest to the truth.
Why that should bother her, she didn’t know.
Except it brought home the vast chasm between them, she realized.
Somehow, even while she was thinking about how different he was from all the men she’d known before, she’d still, in the back of her mind, been thinking of him as if he were a man. And he wasn’t, for all that he looked like one in almost every way. He was a different sort of being. He wasn’t human and he wasn’t a man.
And he was contemptuous of the beings he protected.
He hadn’t protected her because he was interested in having her as his woman but because, for some reason she didn’t completely understand, his people had sent him to do it—to make judgments on them and punish them. He’d been punishing the man for doing something his people considered against their laws, not protecting her.
She’d known that. Why had she allowed herself to imagine that it was because he wanted her?
That thought brought the heated color of discomfort to her face, bringing her out of her internal wanderings and making her acutely aware of her surroundings.
The villagers had settled as comfortably as they could manage on the rocky plateau where Gabriel had left them. Most of them looked to be dozing in the brutal mid-afternoon heat. A few had wandered back to the small pool of water to drink, which Lexa supposed was the reason Gabriel had made them climb the plateau since they hadn’t been near a water hole in two days.
For once, she didn’t feel as if everyone was staring at her and it occurred to her to wonder just how long she’d allowed her mind to wander. How long had Gabriel been gone?
More importantly, how long would he be gone?
She supposed he’d marched the villagers far enough he thought it unlikely they would even attempt to escape or he wouldn’t have left them at all. He hadn’t let them out of his sight since they’d left the village—until now.
Lifting her head, she scanned the sky as far as she could in every direction to make certain he hadn’t circled around as he had the day he’d herded them out of the village. When she saw no sign of him, she got up and headed toward the pool in a leisurely way. She’d already filled her bottles and drank all she could hold. Gabriel had made the men wait and sent the women and children to drink first, but she didn’t think anybody that noticed her getting up would think anything about her heading toward the pool. A few seemed to stir and glance at her but then dismiss her, bearing up her conclusion.
She squatted by the pool for a few minutes when she reached it and scooped up water in her hands to drink. After lingering a few minutes more and surreptitiously scanning the people on the plateau that she could see, she straightened again and looked around. Satisfied that no one seemed interested in what she was doing, she headed off toward a jumble of boulders and scraggly plants near the trail they’d followed when they’d climbed the plateau, hoping if anyone noticed they’d think she was only interested in finding a little privacy to empty her bladder.
Her pulse was racing as she rose and headed toward the boulders, conflicting urges making it difficult to maintain the appearance of nonchalance as she struggled to calculate how long Gabriel had actually been gone and realized that an appreciable length of time had lapsed since he’d left. Trying to convince herself that she couldn’t possibly have been so sunk in her thoughts that as much time had passed as it seemed, she wrestled with the wisdom of even attempting flight. If he’d been gone as long as it seemed now, it also seemed logical to assume he’d be returning any time and that made attempting escape a very bad idea.
On the other hand, it occurred to her that Gabriel’s actions hadn’t just set her on the path of speculation about being his woman. It had made the villagers think she was.
No doubt they were amused that he’d shunned her afterwards, because he hadn’t been near her since, making it painfully obvious that he had no interest in her after all.
She was just embarrassed enough at the direction her thoughts had taken and the realization of just how foolish she’d been to have entertained them at all—about how stupid she’d looked to the others—that she stubbornly persisted in the face of a growing certainty that she was more likely to get caught than to get clean away. As soon as she’d reached a point where she was fairly sure that no one on the plateau could see her, she started down the trail.
She didn’t know what Gabriel and his people had in mind for them, but she wasn’t going to hang around and find out, she told herself. Her embarrassment had nothing to do with the decision. It was just plain stupid to let an angel-demon lead her off with no idea what his people might do to them.
She almost ran smack into the man before she realized he was there. She was too busy scanning the sky worriedly for any sign of Gabriel and mentally reconstructing the back trail in an attempt to figure out the best way to run to pay much attention to her immediate surroundings. The movement caught her eye, however—too late. She had a split second to assimilate that it was a man and that he was practically on her, enough time to feel a surge of danger induced adrenaline and to tense for self-defense and nothing more as he leapt at her.
It might still have been enough if the man had been alone. She managed to elude his arms as he made a grab for her and drive her elbow into his belly. He grabbed at her, tearing her ragged shirt as she bounded away, but she slammed into a second man as she did.
“Fucking bitch! Somebody shoulda taught you a lesson a long time ago!”
Chapter Seven
It coalesced in her mind like a lightning bolt that her attacker was the man Gabriel had humiliated for attacking her that first day out. This was the retaliation she’d feared—and then dismissed while she entertained stupid, fanciful imaginings about Gabriel!
She was about to get the shit kicked out of her—at the very least!
She fully intended to inflict as much damage as she could, however!
The fight was woefully
short for all that. She might have managed a better account of herself if she hadn’t been too crowded to get any force behind her punches and kicks, but then they were also restricted, at least until they overbalanced and fell. There was enough slope to the trail where they struggled that they rolled as they hit the ground. The second man fell over the two of them as he raced down the hill to help the first and then rolled away. Briefly, Lexa was free. Before she could scramble to her feet, however, the man launched himself at her, managing to pin her hips and legs with the weight of his body. Lexa tried to heave him off, or wrench her lower body free of him. When that didn’t work she levered herself up far enough to pound on his head and shoulders with her fists. She couldn’t find a vulnerable spot to clobber him, though, beyond his temples and ears and that didn’t seem to have any effect beyond enraging him further. Before she could break free, the second man recovered and caught her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. The first man pushed himself up far enough to slug her and since her head was pinned to the other man’s chest and she wasn’t able to move away even though she saw it coming, she caught the full brunt of the blow.
The blow was hard enough to stun her. Her ears rang. Black spots filled her vision in a flood that quickly turned the whole world dark. Encapsulated within her body by the blow that dulled all other senses, she lost awareness of everything but the smothered sounds and the pulling at her clothing that told her they were tearing them off and what was coming next. It was enough to prompt her to struggle feebly against her attackers, to flail her arms with fingers curled into claws to rip at any flesh she could manage to make contact with as she was buffeted by the jerking at her clothing, back and forth, up and down.
The sudden roar of rage that rent the air sent a stinging torrent of ice through her veins. She was lifted and then slammed back against the ground. Dirt scoured her bare flesh. Tiny rocks dug into her and then, abruptly, she was free of the weight of both men. It took her many moments to realize that the sound of blows she heard didn’t make impact on her. Her sluggish brain finally registered the fact that she was no longer restrained, however. With an effort, she opened her eyelids and struggled to focus her vision. Darkness still prevailed, but she finally managed to make out the two forms directly in her line of sight and to register that it was the first man and Gabriel.
The man was dangling from the hand Gabriel had around his throat, his head bobbing with each punch Gabriel slammed into his face—which looked like mush already.
Relief didn’t register. Guilty knowledge did.
And fear.
Gabriel was back and it wouldn’t take him long to figure out she’d been caught running away.
That thought and the fear that rose up to choke her from the look of pure rage on his face was enough to help her summon the strength to roll to her side. Rolling in the dirt was sufficient to jog her mind into the realization that they’d torn most of her clothes off and with them her supply bundle. She couldn’t survive without them.
Despite her desperation to gather her stuff, it was all she could do to reach for the bits closest to her and curl her fingers around them to retrieve them. A palsy seized her. She began to shake so badly her teeth began to clack together and the shaking made it harder still to try to gather up her belongings. She was so focused on the necessity of that task that she didn’t realize the fight was over until Gabriel crouched beside her.
She squinted at him, trying to bring his face into focus and judge his temper. He was breathing hard but she was inclined to think it was from rage rather than exertion because his expression was stony.
Still furious, she decided, but more in control than he had been when he’d been making mincemeat out of the two men he’d left lying on the side of the hill like broken dolls.
“How badly are you hurt?”
Lexa blinked at the question, partly because she was surprised he’d asked and partly because she hadn’t taken the time to do a mental assessment. She thought about it when he asked, though, trying to sort through the pain and decide if the men had broken anything. “I don’t think anything’s broken,” she said finally. “Coupla teeth loose. Lots of bruises.”
“Did they … were you raped?”
She tried to shake her head but the movement, slight as it was, sent a wave of dizziness through her. “No,” she responded, closing her eyes and holding her head.
He was silent for some moments. “I’m going to lift you and carry you back.”
Lexa struggled to rise, grunting. “I can walk.”
“Maybe but I’m not going to let you try,” Gah-re-al responded grimly.
Realizing she really wasn’t up to arguing, Lexa didn’t try. “I gotta get my stuff. Somebody will get it.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to inform Lexa that they’d be damned sorry if they did but the fear in her voice of losing the little she had made Gah-re-al hold his tongue. Instead, he looked around, rose, and gathered up what he saw scattered around her. Bundling it, he handed it to her and then scooped her off the ground.
Her weight surprised him. She had very little body fat, far less, he was certain, than was healthy for her given that she was a female, but apparently what she had in the way of flesh was muscle. She felt far more substantial than he’d expected—not heavy by any means, but he’d thought she couldn’t possibly weigh much of anything.
She was compact, though, and muscular and that made her feel substantial enough in his arms to make him very aware of her small body pressed against him as he carried her back to the encampment. She was shivering. He knew it must be from shock and he hated to suggest anything that might endanger her more, but there was so much blood he couldn’t tell whether she had wounds that needed attention or not. He took her straight to the pool, therefore, and settled her beside it.
“I need you to bathe off so I can see if you have any wounds that need stitching,” he said flatly when he’d settled her beside the pool.
Lexa didn’t grasp the half of what he’d said—little beyond the suggestion that she bathe off–but she was eager to oblige, mostly because she was desperate to wash the smell of the two men off of her skin. Beyond that, she thought the cold water might help soothe the hot, pounding bruises from their fists.
Gah-re-al straightened when he’d released her and lifted his communicator. “Command—this is Lawgiver Gah-re-al. I have …,” he hesitated for a split second, “a young female in my charge in need of medical attention. Advise.”
“A what? One of the savages?”
Gah-re-al’s lips tightened. As many times as he’d used the term himself it angered him—not just the word itself but the connotations, the surprise that he would even ask about medical attention for one of them. “She’s a member of the group I was ordered to relocate. She was assaulted by two of the males.”
The response to that was a prolonged silence. “Hold while I consult with a superior.”
Gah-re-al had expected as much, but the response still angered him.
He crouched down again while he waited for a response. Seeing that she’d bathed her face, he lightly pinched her chin between his thumb and forefinger and tipped her head up so that he could examine her face. It made his gut clench when she yielded to the unspoken command.
Her face was so swollen and misshapen he doubted he would’ve known who she was if he hadn’t noticed she was missing when he returned and gone to look for her—and found her. He’d recognized her then by the color of her hair added to the fact that no one else was missing that he could tell.
Not that he’d done a head count. He’d begun searching for her even before he landed. She’d separated herself from the rest of the group even before the incident that had convinced her everyone thought she was his woman. After that, there’d been an even wider gulf. It should have made her easy to pick out even if he hadn’t been looking for that unusual hair color.
His immediate reaction had been a strange mixture of anger and fear—anger because it immediately
leapt to his mind that she’d taken the opportunity to flee while his back was turned. The fear twisting at his gut was a little harder to put his finger on—mostly because he didn’t want to examine it too closely.
“Lawgiver Gah-re-al.”
Gah-re-al released his grip on Lexa’s chin when he was hailed. “Lawgiver Gah-re-al here.”
“I’ve been told to advise you that medical treatment of the primitives is not allowed under non-interference protocol. If the female is not able to travel, leave her. You’ll be expected to rendezvous per your original delivery date.”
There had been a time, not long past, when Gah-re-al would have thought nothing of such orders, when he would neither have questioned them nor felt the least bit surprised or perturbed. The fact that it infuriated him now might have disturbed him if he’d been in any state to consider why it did. He wasn’t. He was so furious for several moments he couldn’t think of anything at all to say. Fortunately, by the time he’d been prompted to acknowledge the order some modicum of sanity had returned.
The Lawgivers: Gabriel Page 9