Everywhere and Nowhere (Safe Haven Book 1) (16 page)

Hadley shivered. She had no intention of lying on a floor waiting to see if a man had need for her. This was like something out of a nightmare.

“So, they just come, and you—uh, you’re…available for them?” She needed to be very sure she understood just how awful this was.

A tear flowed down Clarice’s face. “That’s just about it. Sometimes they just want us to clean up their homes but sometimes it’s just what you’re imagining it is.”

Hadley wasn’t a damsel and she’d never imagined that she’d want to be rescued by a knight in shining armor, but if Hadrian rode up on a horse right now she wouldn’t complain.

The lights went out and thunder sounded in the sky again, followed by the sound of hard rain on the tin roof of their tent.

She’d never felt so alone in her life and in desperation she closed her eyes, pleading with the universe that she could sleep.

“Tell me again why you’re all coming with me?” Hadrian stomped around the room for maybe the tenth time.

“We will not leave Lady Hadley to those creatures.”

Stone’s voice sounded viler than Hadrian had ever heard it before. Hadrian reached out and grasped the other man’s shoulder. Hadley knew how to inspire loyalty in those around her in a very brief period of time. Normally he would insist on doing this alone, but, like the day they’d insisted on leaving the princess to come with him, he couldn’t persuade them to stay here. Also, in the eventuality that he failed, he could count on one of them to complete the job and see that his woman came to no harm.

His woman
.

He closed his eyes. Even now she might be pregnant with his baby. His heart sped up at the thought. They had taken no precautions to prevent conception. The chances were small. Due to their long lifespans, people in Haven took a very long time to conceive—he and Dragon were one hundred years apart—but there was still a possibility. Condoms didn’t exist in this dimension. No one could make another sick through sexual contact and babies were so rare he’d never heard of a pregnancy not being wanted.

Of course, there might be something wrong with his thinking. Damn Earth. He was going to have to reevaluate everything now that he’d come back.

He’d meant to kidnap Hailey and leave Hadley alone. Fate had thrown the wrong sister at him but she’d turned out to be completely right for him in every way. Nothing would keep him from her.

He turned his head to Dragon, who was watching him in silence. “And you? Why are you coming?”

His older brother rolled his dark eyes in disgust. “I would think it would be obvious. I am the only one who can get us there and I am the only one who can get us back. You’re going to require me to be present at the exit site.”

Hadrian didn’t buy it, not for one second. He stalked into his brother’s space. “So this is entirely altruistic, is it?”

“No. I can’t lie. I want the credit for taking you there and back. I want the king’s thanks and I want to see the Shadow dimension for myself. But it doesn’t negate the fact that you do still need me to do it for you.”

Those reasons made more sense. Dragon was always out for number one. Hadrian nodded. He supposed it was a fair deal. Dragon would get them there, Hadrian could save Hadley, and Dragon could get whatever experience he needed out of this too. “Then let’s do it.”

“Wait.” His mother’s voice filled the room. “You don’t know about the Shadow Dimension. Or at least you shouldn’t know about it.” The last was said with a glare at Dragon who, surprisingly, looked down at the floor.

“Mother, we are running out of time. I need you to stay here and take care of Hadley’s body. She may start to show flu-like symptoms. It is imperative that you not let her body die.”

Leopard nodded. “I will not fail in this, but you must hear me out. I was but a small child when we saw the shadow people regularly. They are from a dimension filled with males. It has been over a century since any of them have been able to produce a female child. They came to the king, the father of our current ruler, and requested the right to mate with our women. The idea was to continue to produce males to work the mines in Shadow Land, to build their ships for above-ground travel, and, in other words, keep their dimension running despite the lack of women. The king scoffed. He wasn’t giving us over to be broodmares to the shadow people. He banned them from Haven and had the Mystics ward our barriers so they couldn’t cross again.”

“Let me be clear about this, just so I’m sure I understand—all shadows are men? Even the ones that are of women? Your shadow is actually a man?”

Leopard shook her head but Dragon interrupted. “The shadows that you’re thinking of are not the shadow people. The shadows on the wall are just light casting images of you on the wall or the floor. These are people from an entirely different dimension and when they come here they
look
like shadows.”

Well at least that made sense. As much as anything did when one was trying to figure out the intricate details of dimensional travel. It didn’t matter. He had one objective and that was to get to Hadley and bring her home while there was still time. If there were Shadow men waiting for him when he got there, then he’d dispose of them like he would any other threat. If they could feel, they could bleed. If they could bleed, they could die.

He gathered his family in a circle. Dragon pulled a small silver object out of his pocket. Hadrian smiled—he hadn’t seen one of the Mystical amulets since he was a child and his parents had taken Dragon to Astor to leave him with the practitioners there. Merchants had tried to sell his father a few when they’d passed a Mystical shop. They were supposed to bring good luck.

“Worried about our odds?”

Dragon scoffed. “Only the simplest of Mystics use them for luck charms. Mine is a bit more complicated.”

Closing his eyes, Dragon muttered some words Hadrian couldn’t understand. When he opened his lids again, his brother’s eyes had turned an even darker shade of black.

“Open.” He waved one hand and a visible slice formed in the air around them. Gradually the slice got wider until it was a giant hole large enough to step through. A smile crept onto his brother’s face. “After you.”

Without hesitation, Hadrian stepped into the opening, confident that his men would follow and if, for some unknown reason, they didn’t, then he knew he would still get there and find a way to rescue Hadley.

Pitch blackness filled his vision, surrounding him like a warm cloak. Hadrian continued to move forward—he didn’t need to see, only to move. He pulled his sword from its sheath. He didn’t know what would present itself on the other side of the portal.

A blinding white light assaulted him and Hadrian felt himself falling. He landed with a thud and rolled to his feet, jumping up, sword still in hand. His attention focused on the sight in front of him, so he heard rather than saw the others arrive. Each made a similar thumping sound with one exception, which he assumed was Dragon. His brother’s landing sounded even less graceful.

They had come down in some kind of open field. Half-dead trees with branches dragging toward the ground were scattered in front of his vision. One lone vulture prowled the cloudless black sky. He knew it had to be daytime or there would be no way he could see as well as he could.

He resheathed his sword. At the end of the field, an opening to a cave stood ominous and unsecured. A partially collapsed boulder obscured half of the rock entrance. Loud mechanical screeches and men’s shouts were audible from inside. These must be the mines he’d heard his mother mention. Did they have Hadley inside?

An alarm bell rang out into the field and Dragon grabbed Hadrian’s arm. “It looks as if our entrance was not unnoticed. We should run.”

“Retreat will get us nowhere. You are too important to lose—no one will be able to return without you. Hide yourself.”

“I am not a coward.” Dragon’s fists clenched at his sides.

Hadrian reached out and grabbed his brother’s arm. “I know that. Please, we cannot afford to risk you. Anyone else can be replaced, but not you.”

Dragon’s eyes flared for a moment before he half nodded. Spinning in a circle, Dragon transformed into a small version of his namesake and took to the sky. He breathed a stream of fire in Hadrian’s direction before flying higher and landing on a branch of one of the dead trees.

Was there no limit to what his brother could do? Hadrian shook his head.

Seconds later, the yells of charging men filled his ears. He smiled. There was no fighting force equal to that of the Haven Warriors. Even if they were hugely outnumbered, they would still win. That much he was sure of. Before this hour was over, one of those poor doomed souls with the misfortune to match swords with him would be the one to tell him where they held his woman.

Hadrian counted thirty men. Nodding, he pointed left and right. His men spread out into their standard fight formation. This wouldn’t take very much effort.

“Swords up.” He waited a beat for his men to comply. “Eliminate.”

Three men reached Hadrian first and Hadrian swung around, gashing two in their middles as he engaged the third. The man had some skill in a fight but not much, and with two right thrusts, Hadrian had disarmed him. He lay crumpled on the ground with his compatriots.

Hadrian turned, scanning the grounds. His men had their opponents easily in hand.

Stone hadn’t quite disposed of his. Hadrian stormed forward and picked the man up from where he cowered.

“My name is Hadrian. I am from a place called Haven.”

“I know of such a place.” The other man’s voice shook and Hadrian suspected he spoke at least two tones higher than he normally did.

“You have my woman.”

“Oh sir, you are wrong, I have no woman. I have not earned one yet. I cannot pay the grabbers to go and get one for me.”

Hadrian sighed. “What is your name?”

“Bistronus, sir.”

Hadrian found he was having a hard time telling one Shadow man from another. They were all extremely tall, with long, dark hair. Similar to his own description, he supposed.

“Okay, Bistronus, I did not mean that you specifically had my woman. Although if you did, it would be very convenient. What I meant was that the shadow people have my woman and I want her back.”

Fury started in his stomach and threatened to explode. Acidic bile churned and made him angry. He hadn’t been this upset since he’d first found out on Earth that he and his men could not get to Zamara. If there was one thing Hadrian could not tolerate it was being ineffectual, and he’d been feeling that way for far too long.

“So where do you suppose I would find her?”

“Well,” Bistronus cleared his throat, “if she just got here, then I suppose they wouldn’t have time to judge her unworthy and send her to the mines. She did just arrive?”

Hadrian nodded. “That’s correct.” This conversation was taking way longer than he would have liked.

“Then she’s with the other females in the women’s area about five kilometers from here.”

“An easy distance, my prince.” Stone’s voice behind was filled with happiness.

“It is indeed.” He turned his attention to Bistronus. “Did you say there are women trapped down in those mines?” Women who, like the Pettigrew girls, had been taken from their homes and brought to this dimension that could not support its own female life.

“If they won’t be amenable to mating, we have to give them some purpose. They might as well work for us and make themselves useful.”

Without turning around, Hadrian made a quick decision. “Storm, take Donovan and Panther and go get the women out of those mines.”

Three grunts asserted their compliance as they ran toward the nearly destroyed cave entrance.

Dragon’s dramatic snort told Hadrian that he had returned to his human form since the fighting had ceased. “Might I remind you, my prince, that we have nothing to do with those women? They have no bodies to be returned to.”

“Surely a man with your superior Mystical powers will not be daunted by the mere problem of creating them bodies, Dragon. Now, Bistronus, you are going to take me to the women’s area, and if you’re very obedient and very helpful I will let you live.”

“I’ll be as good as you want me to be. I’m just a miner.”

Hadrian pushed him forward. “Don’t suspect for one second that I care who or what you are. This entire dimension can burn to the ground for all I care. I am here for Hadley and everyone else can go to hell.”

“So you expect me to find a way to give these lost women bodies?” Dragon’s voice hissed in his ear.

“Frankly it never occurred to me that you couldn’t do it.”

“Why don’t you just ask me to raise the dead?”

Hadrian shrugged. “Why don’t you?”

“Because there are some things that are just not done.” Dragon kicked a rock in front of them.

“Like studying under a man who should have died two millennia ago and who was banned from our homeland? Or am I thinking too linearly again?”

Dragon stopped walking. “I didn’t mean to imply that you were stupid.”

“That’s exactly what you meant.” Hadrian pulled him up by his shirt. “I’m only going to say this once because we don’t have time. You weren’t the only one destroyed by what happened to you in our childhood. You were my big brother. I worshiped you and I’ve lived guilt-ridden my whole damn life because I was born with abilities you don’t have. Seems to me you have plenty of your own. But right now everything has to be about Hadley. You chose to come on this journey. Stop bitching.”

“Sir,” Bistronus caught his attention, “we have arrived.”

The countryside had altered slightly during their walk, flatter with slightly more living vegetation. Hadrian saw what looked like a makeshift military operation filled with large green tents that looked as if they had seen better days.

“Spread out, open every tent until you find her. Collect the other women. If they want to leave, bring them with us. My extraordinarily talented brother is going to find a way to save all of them.”

Hadrian crossed to the first tent he reached. Sword drawn in case of danger, he stepped into the tent and came face-to-face with someone he’d never thought to see again. He sucked in his breath. Hadley was nowhere to be found, but standing in front of him, alive and well, was Annabelle.