Everywhere and Nowhere (Safe Haven Book 1) (15 page)

She shouted his name and it sounded like a prayer. He closed his eyes to hold back for one more second but his balls tightened to the point of pain. Hadrian had to let go. There was no more waiting. At last he gave in to what he needed more than anything— to be lost inside Hadley.

Some time later, he opened his eyes. With her head thrown back and the hot water surrounding her, she was the most sensuous sight he’d ever witnessed.

“Thank you for getting the shampoo out of my hair.”

He smiled, snuggling in closer behind her. “It was the least I could do considering I stopped you from doing it yourself.” They’d stumbled through an actual shower, stopping several times just to explore each other’s bodies. At that moment, he was getting to know the back of her neck. If he kissed her just right she squirmed, which sent jolts of pleasure through his already sensation-heightened cock.

“If I recall correctly, I jumped you.”

Yes, she had, and he wished he could play the image of her doing so over and over in his mind on an endless loop. “Well, I did bring you into the bathroom. Don’t think there is a man in any dimension who would do that without the intention of having you in the shower.”

Hadley giggled. He loved the sound. It told him she had completely relaxed. “So romantic.”

“If we had more time, if there weren’t all these things pressing on us tomorrow, I could show you romance the likes of which you’ve never imagined. We would walk on the cliffs not far from here and I would feed you from the tree that never stops growing fruit. All year, even in the winter, it produces fruit.”

“Sounds very fertile. Where I’m from, and you probably know this, women would flock there to try to get pregnant, thinking its endless production would somehow transfer to them.”

Hadrian shrugged. “Maybe it would. I think a lot of things are possible there.”

“I think this has to be the strangest pillow talk I’ve ever had.”

Wrapping himself closer, he picked up her hand and kissed it. “Why?”

“I don’t know. We’re talking about fruit trees and fertility problems. Kind of random.”

She smelled like peaches and he knew the shampoo and soap they’d just coated themselves in did not contain such an aroma. It was just Hadley’s natural scent. He closed his eyes. “What would you like to talk about?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think there is anything we can talk about that isn’t going to make us stressed, worried or upset.”

“We can talk about your shoulder blades and the curve of your neck. That won’t make us worry.” In fact, the thought of them made him hard. He smiled and opened his eyes.

“Hadrian.”

“Feel that, did you?” He wanted to be inside her again more than he wanted to breathe.

“They’re here, Hadrian.” Her voice shook. “Why won’t they leave me alone?”

All sexual excitement fled immediately. “The shadows? You can see them?”

“See them, hear them and feel them.”

Hadrian scanned the room. Once again he couldn’t experience any of what she did. Being ineffectual made him grit his teeth. How the hell was he supposed to protect her from something he couldn’t sense on any level?

“What do they want, Hadley?”

“Me.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

“They can’t have you.” He spoke as loudly as he could, hoping they could hear him. He needed his weapons.

As if reading his mind, she grabbed his arm. Her eyes were far away, distant. “You can’t fight them with any weapons you possess. They want you to know that. But they can hurt you. If you provoke them, they will hurt you.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. How can I provoke them if I can’t even see them?

What do they think—my voice is offensive?”

She didn’t answer him. He shook her gently and she didn’t acknowledge him at all.

Damn it, he was losing her. They would take her and then there would be nothing left but her body, which would wither and die. No, he couldn’t let it happen.

“Hadrian!” Her shout was pained. “They’re taking me now. I don’t want to go but they say my father gave me to them at birth. They’ve waited and now it’s my turn to repay the debt owed.”

He pulled her to him. “Do you feel me, Hadley? This is real. I’m real, you’re real and this is where you need to stay. Keep yourself here with me.”

“That’s not possible anymore.” Her voice had taken on a monotone quality that tore into his heart.

In his arms, she collapsed, her eyes rolling to the back of her head. He grabbed her chin and shook it. “Hadley.”

Nothing. He pressed his ear against her chest. Her heart still beat. That meant there was still a little bit of time. But he knew from experience that it wouldn’t last. On Earth he’d thought it was the poison ending the Pettigrew women’s lives, but now he knew better.

Twenty-four hours until the shadows took her and there was nothing left here of Hadley but an empty, dead shell.

He laid her gently down on the bed, kissing her on her forehead. What they’d started tonight—hell, what had been brewing between them since the day he’d first laid eyes on her—would not end this way.

Shoving on his shorts, he ran into the hall.

“Dragon.” He ran toward his brother’s room and pounded on the door.

Hadrian heard Dragon charge at the door. “What is with you and not letting me ever get any damn sleep?”

“I need you to send me to the shadow world. They’ve just taken Hadley.”

Dragon raised an eyebrow. “Well, today may turn out to be interesting after all.”

Hadley couldn’t believe her eyes. What had seemed spooky dressed in only the darkest black was actually a world filled with brightness. She looked up at the sky and sucked in her breath. The heavens above her were white, not black. Closing her eyes, she wished for the impossible and asked the universe to bring Hadrian to her.

The landscape was sparse. In the distance, she could see bent-over trees and even farther away there was some sort of structure. A castle, maybe, or a very large house. She had no frame of reference to judge by. But where she stood it was completely barren, like a cleared field that had been long devoid of vegetation.

“Are you Hadley?” A female voice startled her and she whirled around. The woman who stood before her was tall and blonde. She spoke with a raspy voice, the kind she’d heard in Kathleen Turner movies when she’d been younger.

“I am.” Determined to stay brave, she lifted her chin in an act she hoped looked defiant. “Why have you brought me here?”

“I didn’t bring you anywhere. I was brought here, the same as you.” The woman extended her hand. “My name is Deirdre and I think we are sisters.”

“You’re D, the one Hadrian couldn’t watch pass away.”

“Did he leave the group after he thought I died? Wow, I suppose I should be honored but that all feels so far away for me, as if it was eons ago. Time moves a little differently here. As you can see, I haven’t aged a day since my…ah…death.”

Hadley looked at the other woman and couldn’t help but notice the similarities between them. Or rather the similarities between Deirdre and
Hailey
. Although Hadley looked a great deal like Hailey, technically they weren’t identical twins. There were some distinct differences between them. Hadley’s face was slightly longer than Hailey’s. The shape of Deirdre’s face was exactly the same.

A slight spread of freckles covered Deirdre’s nose, another attribute Hailey shared that Hadley didn’t, or didn’t anymore. Before she’d come to Haven her own freckles were everywhere, like those of a spotted leopard. All three women seemed to be exactly the same height, although Deirdre was slimmer, much like Hailey.

It was an odd moment. There was no protocol for meeting a sister you never knew you had in a shadow dimension you didn’t until recently even know existed. Realizing she was staring, Hadley looked down at the ground.

What had happened to her manners?

“I’m sorry to be rude, I’m just a little overwhelmed right now.”

“It’s okay. I remember staring at Annabelle and Clarice when I first arrived. I hadn’t known they existed. You obviously know Hadrian. Did he mention us? Father usually forbids them from mentioning the other girls.”

Hadley shook her head. “Hadrian has deserted and returned to Haven to try to get help for our mother. I know about all of it now but I didn’t know previously.”

Deirdre raised one eyebrow. “You were in Haven. No wonder they got you early.”

Hadley glanced back up at the white sky one more time, unable to believe the difference between it and Haven and Earth’s blue one. “What do you mean?”

“It’s a little hard to get us from Earth. This dimension, the shadow dimension, doesn’t have as good a connection to Earth as it does to Haven. It takes them thirty years to get girls from there. But you’re still not quite thirty, right?”

“That’s right.” Hadley let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. That meant they hadn’t gotten Hailey yet. There was still time to get out of this. Well, she hoped there was, anyway.

“Follow me—we have to take you to your pod.”

“My pod?”

“It’s where you will live until you are claimed.”

Hadley moved forward and grabbed Deirdre’s arm. As she moved she became aware of a strange feeling against her legs. She glanced down at herself. Dressed entirely in dark brown, she wore a makeshift dress of material that resembled a hospital gown she’d once been forced to wear when she’d needed her appendix out. It shuffled as she moved. Her feet, too, were in industrial-quality slippers better served for walking neon-filled halls than dirt and rocks.

Deirdre wore plain black pants and a black turtleneck, indicating to Hadley that if this was the arrival outfit, she most likely would not have to stay in it permanently. Her entire transportation to the Shadow Dimension felt distant to Hadley, even though it had just happened. She couldn’t quite remember what had happened after they’d pulled her in. Darkness. And then standing in the clearing.

“Who is going to be claiming me?”

Deirdre sighed. She grabbed Hadley’s arm and as she looked right and left in what Hadley could best call a defensive gesture, she pulled Hadley with her until they both stood hidden behind a large black bush that was nearly dead.

“Technically, Annabelle should be explaining this to you because she is the head of our family. But she’s changing. I’m not certain how to explain it but she’s less and less communicative, more and more interested in simply leading a spiritual life, and she’ll probably just confuse you to death. So I’ll do it but don’t tell anyone that I did because, again, technically, this is supposed to be Bethany’s job if Annabelle doesn’t do it, or after her, Clarice. I’m fourth in the line of importance.”

“So all of you are here. A through G.” Hadley’s mind whirled as if she’d just been hit by a tornado. Tears filled her eyes and she laughed. Deirdre sounded just like her, spoke just like her, and Hadley understood her perfectly. Even Hailey didn’t share her thought patterns that closely.

Deirdre smiled and rubbed Hadley’s arms, once again showing how closely they shared thoughts, as most people would have no idea why she’d teared up.

“Annabelle, Bethany, Clarice and I are all here. We’ve all been claimed. Annabelle has a child, although he was taken from her years ago, as is customary, and no one has seen him since. Bethany should be entering that cycle soon. Eliza and Fiona were scooped up in the middle of the night and, I guess, transported somewhere else—we have no idea.”

Hadley swallowed. So it wasn’t bad enough that she’d been brought here, she could be taken again. “And G?”

“Grace…well, she didn’t transition very well, which is why we’ve all been very worried about you and your twin sister. They sent her to the mines. It’s where all the men work. This planet, as dark and lifeless as it is, is filled with all sorts of Mystical currency. It’s what they sell, the incentive they offer to leaders to get them to give over their women. One of the things they mine is called Breathless. They give it to our father—it keeps him alive endlessly and forever young.” Deirdre smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. “But you seem to be steadier than she was, less flighty, so I’m sure they’ll keep you to mate with and not send you into those places.”

Hadley silently winced, because if traits ran in families, then Deirdre had just described Hailey to a tee and, as she’d already suspected, Hailey would not do well with any of this, not at all.

Shaking away that thought, Hadley whispered all of her sisters’ names once. It wouldn’t do, now that she knew them, to call them A through G.

Deirdre still hadn’t answered her question.

“Who is going to claim me?”

“Here’s what’s happened, although I’m unclear as to the timing of everything, but at some point, the shadow people stopped producing females. Slowly they started to die. So to ensure the continuation of their people, they started stealing women from other places. We, in turn, get taken from our dimension. Our bodies are left behind and we ‘die’ there. Our father wanted endless life, the shadow people have the means to give it to him, so he, in turn, presents us to them as gifts of a sort.”

“Oh like hell.” Hadley clenched her fists. “I am not going to be breeding for anyone. Our mother does quite enough of that, thank you. No, we are finding another way out of here. Hadrian and the others, they know about this place now—either they or I will find us an escape.”

Deirdre’s smile was sad—no warmth met her eyes. “Well, I hope you are more successful than I was.”

Hadley’s heart bled for Deirdre. The other woman had obviously once tried to escape herself. She hooked her arm through her sister’s. “Okay, take me where I am supposed to go. There are five Pettigrew women here now—I am quite certain we can handle anyone and anything.”

Moments later she was sitting cross-legged in a makeshift tent Deirdre had referred to as a pod. Introductions were made to Bethany, dark-haired like their father and thin like a beanpole, and Clarice who, in contrast, had white-blonde hair and ten pounds too many on her that, in her sister’s case, didn’t make her look fat, just curvy. Annabelle still hadn’t emerged, which Hadley was just fine with.

What was she supposed to say to her oldest sister? “Oh hey, thinking I would never have to face the music with you, I decided it was okay to sleep with the love of your life as if you had never existed”?

Hadley swallowed. No, she definitely wouldn’t be saying that. She still wasn’t really sure how much they knew about her. Deirdre had sounded surprised that she knew Hadrian, so maybe Annabelle didn’t actually know about it. Shaking her head, Hadley decided against chickening out. She’d wait for an appropriate time and tell her. And if, say, that particular perfect time never arrived, then she never needed to say anything. She closed her eyes, knowing in her soul that wasn’t the answer either.

Realizing she was being rude, Hadley opened her eyes. Bethany was babbling on about the things Deirdre had already told her. Not wanting to get the sister she felt the closest to in trouble, Hadley listened again, nodding at the appropriate times and asking what she hoped were the right questions.

“Who were the ones who came and got me and how did you know I was here?”

Bethany opened her mouth to speak but a voice from the back of the room caught her attention. “When I first came here, I thought I’d died and actually been sent to hell, but now I know that all things happen based on our chosen paths.”

Hadley whirled around, her rear end scraping the floor as she did so. In front of her stood a statuesque redhead who looked as if she belonged on the cover of a magazine. She didn’t need to ask who it was—instinctively she knew it was Annabelle. The skin on her arms tingled. There was no way Hadley could ever compete with her in the looks department if it came down to Hadrian making a choice.

Annabelle crossed the room and pulled Hadley into a tight embrace. “Welcome, sister.”

Tears filled Hadley’s eyes and this time spilled down her cheeks. They were sisters, not rivals for the attention of a man—even if Hadley happened to love that man. The thought struck her dumb. She’d thought it so naturally, as if she’d been thinking it for years. She did love Hadrian.
Damn it.
But it didn’t really matter.

Annabelle had loved him first.

If, and it was a big if, Hadley somehow got them all out of there, she would have to find a way to reconcile herself with things if Hadrian still loved and chose Annabelle.

She shook her head. This was not the right time for any of this. Bethany stood, her eyes shooting daggers at Annabelle. Uh-oh, there was some sort of tension between the two women and Hadley felt certain she didn’t want to get in the middle of it.

“As I was just about to answer you,” Bethany tugged on Hadley’s arm until she was no longer in Annabelle’s embrace, “the men who came for you are the grabbers—they have a special ability for dimension travel and they knew where you were, I would guess, because our father told them.” Her dark eyes flared as she spoke the last bit.

Bethany was obviously a woman who harbored a lot of anger. Hadley got the distinct impression she wasn’t to be trifled with and made a mental note not to make an enemy out of her.

Thunder sounded in the air and Hadley jumped. She hadn’t realized it was about to rain. The four women hung their heads and moved to the center of the living area where five rugs were laid out. On top of each rug was a folded woolen blanket that looked to be too short to actually cover Hadley’s entire body. Was that where they were sleeping?

Clarice pointed to a rug next to hers and Hadley walked over to it. “Is the thunder some sort of signal to go to bed?”

Clarice shook her head. “Not technically, but it rains hard every night. We can be guaranteed that in a few moments the lights will go out and we’ll be plunged into complete darkness. The men don’t mind it—they can see perfectly, maybe better, without light. But there’s nothing for us to do but go to bed.”

Hadley unfolded the scratchy blanket and lay down. This was a far cry from the bed she’d shared with Hadrian earlier in the night. There wasn’t even a pillow. With the lights still illuminated she could see the other woman had made balls of their blankets and used them as cushions for their heads. It must not get too cold here at night. She followed suit and tried to make herself comfortable.

If everything about the situation was odd, and heaven knew it was, then lying on a floor with four sisters she knew nothing about was the cherry on top of the sundae for Hadley.

She cleared her throat. “So how come none of you are with your—well, with the men who claimed you?”

Annabelle rolled over onto her stomach. “They may still come for us tonight, little sister, or they might not. It will depend on whether or not they have need for us.”