A shame, for both of them, because that was all she had to offer. Hailey didn’t have a future to consider spending with him. For her there was only now. And that was A-OK with her. She’d always lived for the moment long before the moment had become all she had left.
But looking at Jeremy, she felt a stab of regret. What could have been? What might have been? If she’d never opened Amelia’s files, never changed herself, would she have even met him? And if she had, would she have even bothered to slow down long enough to truly look at him?
Probably not. Living life to the fullest, always surrounded by friends, people who sought her out for a good time and left again until there were more good times to be had, she wouldn’t even have seen him except as part of the scenery she was moving past at the speed of light.
Just then Jeremy opened his eyes. Her night vision was exceptional but his irises still looked more black than blue. He closed his eyes again, as if everything was the way it should be and then, with a sigh, stretched toward her and pulled her closer. “Something wrong?” he asked and though he looked as if he was about to fall asleep again, Hailey knew he waited for an answer, and would go looking for one if she didn’t give it.
“Just thinking.”
“’Bout what?”
“Stuff,” she said, then added, “Private stuff. So don’t go snooping in my head again.”
He cracked one eye open to glare at her. “You’re unhappy,” he said. “Enough that you woke me from a pretty damn happy dream.”
“Really? What did you dream?”
Jeremy smiled against her shoulder. “I’ll show you.”
The bedroom faded in front of her and she slowly entered into a vision. It wasn’t a construct. At least not at first. It was a dream, all muted images blending one into the next without coherence except what his mind could connect. She saw … herself. It was almost a rerun of his earlier dreams about her, except this one was somehow more real. Hailey wasn’t a top-heavy bombshell with a saucy smile playing on her red lips anymore; she was herself, complete with—oh damn—leopard markings in intricate swirling designs appearing and fading over her skin. Was that what she really looked like?
Had to be. And what was more shocking, Jeremy seemed to like it. Even more than his earlier version. She sensed the adoration mixed with a hefty pinch of lust in him as he looked at her.
It was definitely not a tame dream. What his subconscious had conjured for him made what they’d done earlier seem almost boring in comparison. Hailey saw every detail of it through Jeremy’s eyes, sometimes even as an observer. The erotic scenes made her breath come faster and her thighs squeeze together. She saw herself in the throes of what looked like the most amazing orgasm of her life and felt the pleasure it brought Jeremy to have wrought it from her. But there was no triumph in his vision. No sense of pride in his sexual prowess. Just … awe. Happiness. Almost relief. A sense that nothing could ever be as perfect and complete as that moment.
And that was one more reason she shouldn’t be here right now.
He let the vision fade, returning them both to the here and now. The dreamy feeling of contentment stayed with her, mixed with her own roiling emotions.
Why was it that people were offended to get the It’s-not-you-it’s-me speech? Better question: why had people used it so much it had become an insult? Now, even in cases when it actually applied, the words just sent a completely wrong message.
“I’m sorry I woke you,” she said, the best she could come up with under the circumstances. “Do you want me to leave?”
He groaned into the pillow. “No, I don’t want you to leave. What’s wrong with you? I think the last few hours fully demonstrated just how much I don’t want you to leave. I want you to talk to me.”
That was something she’d never heard a guy say before. Not to her, and definitely not this late at night, after everything they’d done together. Hailey shrugged. “It’s nothing. Just the usual stuff.”
Jeremy raised his head to look at her. The window was on her side and whatever light filtered in backlit her so he couldn’t possibly see more than a shadowy outline; still, she felt as if he was looking right into her eyes, and beyond them.
“Stop it,” she said. “I told you, no snooping.”
“Shut up for a second and let me try something. Come here.”
Against her protests, he propped himself up on a mountain of those hotel-issued pillows and pulled her to lie against him with her head on his shoulder. He kept an arm around her and stroked her hair with his free hand as if she were a child. Though it felt awkward, it was really nice too. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had babied her like this. The sane Hailey felt like a helpless idiot. The feral Hailey, otherwise known as the snow leopard alter ego, wanted to arch into the caress and demand a belly rub.
“Now close your eyes,” he said.
Arguing appeared to be pointless, so with a big, dramatic sigh, she obeyed.
At first there was darkness. The sound of the rain lulled her; the beat of Jeremy’s heart reassured her. She felt heavy and weightless at the same time. But she fought the pull of sleep, half afraid of dreaming and half of what tomorrow might bring.
The darkness gave way slowly. Hailey found herself in a thick fog and when it gradually melted away, a vast land was spread before her. She was standing on the ledge of a jagged mountain. There was snow but she didn’t feel cold. The ground was hard rock but her feet, though bare, didn’t ache.
As she stood there the sun slowly came up, illuminating a world she’d never seen before. Mountains, forests, lush valleys, and small villages were all around her. The sky was so blue it hurt to look at it. The forests were so thick she could only see a canopy of branches. The houses were quaint and picturesque, like something out of a storybook.
But up here, everything was stark and bare and perfectly still.
The mountain stretched up much higher above behind her, and right in front of her was a cave. It was completely black but Hailey knew what was inside.
“Go ahead,” Jeremy’s voice said, and she turned to find him standing next to her. He wore his suit pants but his feet were bare. His shirt was untucked and halfway unbuttoned, his hands in his pockets. The wind stirred his hair but he gave no sign that he felt any cold.
“I don’t want to,” she said, somehow voicing the words without opening her mouth.
“I’ll go, then.”
Fear momentarily froze her in place as she watched him casually stroll toward that cave. But when he reached out to the darkness, nothing happened. He put his hand on it as if there was an invisible barrier then pushed through it with effort. Once his arm disappeared up to his elbow it seemed the barrier became nonexistent.
Jeremy crouched down, his arm moving in that darkness, and she felt … peace. He was petting the beast in the cave. It couldn’t come out and Hailey couldn’t go in but Jeremy could at least reach out to both.
Yet she knew that the beast was a fickle thing. “Come away from there,” she called.
He looked over his shoulder at her and smiled. “All right. We’ll go somewhere else.”
The scene changed. Now they were down in a valley, looking far up at the cliff they’d just come from. Hailey stood in calf-high grass, with a clear, glacier-blue creek running past her feet. Just by looking at it she knew it would be freezing.
They were on the other side of the forest that cut the mountain off from the valley. In front of her was a path that would lead to a village. The creek continued on far into the distance. Here it was still pristine. This was as close to its source as she could get. And even though it was winter and snow covered the mountains, the grass was bright green at her feet, dotted with miniscule wild flowers.
It was breathtaking.
“Where are we?”
“Heaven, as far as I’m concerned,” Jeremy replied.
“You’re just trying to trick me into falling asleep.”
“Yes,” he admitted unabashedly. �
��And it’s working. This isn’t an illusion, Hailey. It’s your dream. I’m just visiting.”
“And if I want to wake up?”
“Decide not to want to,” he replied with a shrug.
“That defeats the whole purpose of wanting to wake up.”
“Exactly.”
Hailey glared.
Jeremy grinned.
He wouldn’t let her leave here, and what was more, she didn’t mind it. In fact, Hailey decided that while she was here, she might as well enjoy it.
So she jumped him.
*
No one ever noticed the unassuming little person in the back row. With hunched shoulders and his eyes turned toward the window all the time he was little more than a shadow darkening the shuttle. He couldn’t afford passage on the new shuttle line. On the old ones everyone stayed awake the entire way. And it took ten hours longer.
But it had one advantage: fewer people on board. In fact, on a shuttle that semi-comfortably seated three hundred passengers, there were only forty. Entire rows were empty and many passengers have taken advantage of them to stretch their legs. It was almost like lying on a lumpy bed.
The man in that back row, wearing a brown jacket with the lapels turned up against the chill of the cabin, didn’t do that. Instead he watched the lights pass them by and worried his jacket sleeves. His leg was jumping and he had to consciously make it stop time and again.
He was nervous. Who wouldn’t be? The woman he loved had left for a new world, one he’d never even heard about. He was following already a few hours behind and then a few more because of the lag in speed.
She’ll be all right, he told himself. She is strong, a fighter.
But that was precisely what worried him. His ladylove was a fighter and didn’t shy away from anything. She dived headlong into foreign places and dangerous situations, not caring one bit that she might come to harm. She had an amazing spirit. And it would get her hurt one day. Or, God forbid, killed.
His leg started jumping again. He slapped a hand over it to make it stop. Don’t think like that. She’s a survivor. She’ll be all right for the day it’ll take you to get there and then you can look after her again.
His lady needed him. He was her caretaker. Her guardian angel. He did what she couldn’t. Someone had to do it.
The stewardess passed by again. That plastic smile was still firm on her tired face and, though she walked slowly, her shoulders were still proudly pulled back. She almost made him overlook the dark circles under her eyes. Another woman in need of a protector. It couldn’t be him. He already had a damsel to look after.
The stewardess made her way to the back of the cabin then forward again, checking every passenger. She missed him. Didn’t even see him in the seat. He was a ghost. Nobody. If it wasn’t for the security feeds at shuttleports, he might have gotten on board without paying.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t that invisible.
Finally the captain announced their approach to Torrey. Passengers were instructed to take their seats and strap in – redundant, he’d been in his seat and strapped in the entire time – and the stewardesses disappeared into their own curtained-off section.
The shuttle shook as they neared the ground but as soon as they touched down it was a smooth ride to the terminal.
His eyes nearly fell out of their sockets as he gazed out over Torrey.
What was this?
Over the last few weeks, his love’s travels had taken both of them to amazing places. Bustling cities filled with architectural marvels and droves of people who flooded the streets day and night. Those crowds were a godsend to people like them. Necessary, even. Both needed crowds to get lost in. Anonymity had been their name.
Torrey didn’t have architectural marvels. It barely had any buildings. From high above, all he’d seen were rolling green hills, forests, and quaint villages that defied description.
Now all he could see was the shuttleport.
And beyond it, nothing.
My God, was that a castle on that hill?
Where were the high-rises? Where were the gleaming towers to the heavens, the smooth, paved roads? The people?
This had to be a mistake. He must have misread the board back at the other shuttleport. She couldn’t possibly have come here. Why would she? Was this place even populated yet? His stomach did a sickening dive as a hideous suspicion took root in his mind. This looked like just the sort of place where a wounded animal would choose to come to die.
No!
His distress grew even more as he disembarked with the rest of the passengers. An audio played on loop overhead, exalting the wonders of Torrey. Newly established, it was being touted as Eden.
The cheerful female voice praised Torrey’s natural beauty, acres and acres of untouched territory where all manner of flora and fauna flourished. There was pride in that voice when she informed the passengers that the only form of automated transportation available to visitors in this place was a shuttleport-to-village transport service. From there, Torrey provided several options to get around: bicycle, horseback, or wagon.
“Enjoy this one-of-a-kind journey into the past! You’ll never want to leave.”
He hadn’t even gotten off the conveyor belt yet and already he wanted to turn back.
In the arrivals lobby, several pretty women in shuttleport uniforms were greeting the passengers and giving each something out of large woven baskets. When it was his turn, the pretty blonde handed him a shiny red apple. There was a welcome note attached to it with a string knotted around the single green leaf, which said the apple had been grown naturally, without the use of chemicals or growth agents, right here on Torrey.
As if he cared.
Sweet Christ! How was he going to find her now?
Out in front of the shuttleport building, some kind of hovering vehicle was already waiting to take the new arrivals to the village. It didn’t have a driver whom he could ask for help or directions. It made the trip to the village and back, over and over, and that was it.
Worse, it hovered over what looked like a large patch of stomped dirt. Was that supposed to be the parking lot? Around it was an unbroken border made of jagged gray stones, and beyond that, grass and flowers. Not even arranged in any kind of design. Just … chaotic. Wild and untended.
He had no idea what to think about that. Mutely, he took a seat at the front of the hoverbus – the best term he could think of to describe it – and listened to another voice talk about the tourist attractions of the village he was about to go to. Three hotels. Three? An authentic marketplace, hiking trails, skiing in the winter months, caves for exploring, lakes for swimming, and castles for touring.
There were more damned castles than there were theaters, the latter of which only featured live plays. How did people live here? But live here they did, he saw as the hoverbus entered the village. There were people around. Nowhere near as many as he was used to seeing but they were there. And all of them had smiles on their faces and seemed to know each other. They greeted each other, stopped to chat and laugh. They couldn’t possibly be that happy. It had to be some sort of elaborate reenactment.
The hoverbus stopped in front of a stout little building with uneven white walls and a slanted wooden roof. The sign on it read Home & Hearth Tavern and Inn. This was the one and only stop the vehicle would make. He was afraid to get out.
The others hopped down to the ground without a problem, looking tired from the trip but still somehow eager to see what was around them. This type of transport wouldn’t move until all passengers had exited so he had no choice but to follow the others.
“Welcome!” some old guy in strange clothes shouted. “Well, come on then, don’t be shy. The ticket you paid for included a complimentary three nights’ stay at our fine inn. All the arrangements have already been made, Mr. Arthur Glenn. Your room is ready and you’re in luck.” He leaned in as if he was about to impart some great secret. “You got the mountain view room.”
Arthu
r knew some kind of response was customary in these situations, but all he could do was stare at the man’s giant white mustache. It covered his mouth completely. Arthur caught his upper lip with his lower one to make sure they were still accessible. “Uh, thanks?” No, that wasn’t right. It shouldn’t have been a question. Try a smile. He smiled but it didn’t feel genuine.
The old man chuckled, resting his hands on his beer belly. “This is your first time here, I can tell. Oh, you’re going to have yourself tons of fun. Don’t you worry. Now come on. Let’s get you settled.” He took Arthur’s bag and carried it inside.
Arthur followed, growing more horrified by the second. Inside, the building was dark, cramped, and filled with wooden furniture and what the innkeepers probably considered decorations. The lights were little flames in glasses attached to the wall. In the staircase, it was almost pitch-black and he nearly broke his nose when he tripped on a stair that was slightly higher than the others and pitched forward.
Thankfully the staircase emerged on a wide, open hallway with giant windows. This had to be the top floor. Above him he could see the gleaming wooden beams that supported the roof.
“Here we are,” the man said and opened a wooden door. “Enjoy your stay, Mr. Glenn.” And with that, he left Arthur in a small room with wooden furniture, a miniscule bathroom with hand-operated water spigots, and no idea of how the hell to light a candle.
Arthur prayed Hailey was staying in a better place than this.
Chapter Fourteen
August 11th, 3032
Life was good. Nothing better than to wake up smiling after a night of the best sex Hailey had ever had. The sun had just popped up and the air outside was cool with remnants of last night’s rain; she was warm and so relaxed she wanted to laugh. Jeremy was snoring softly into his pillow next to her. She almost blew a raspberry into his neck to wake him, but decided against it. He’d given her a beautiful dream and Hailey knew it must have cost him some sleep of his own.
Deciding to make them an amazing breakfast, she slipped out of bed silently and stretched as far as her muscles would allow. She barely ached at all.
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