Her brief fantastical interlude behind her, she blinked twice and tried to remember what the point of their conversation was, even though he smelled like fresh air and bay leaves. “So your point is that I summarized your situation too succinctly and ignored the details?”
He nodded, but didn’t stand up to move his spot, which made her wonder if she was about to have her head stroked again and tried not to notice how exciting the thought was.
“What are the details, then?” She hoped her cheeks were not as red as she feared they were.
“Two hundred and forty years ago, I was brought here as the leader of a large brigade of warriors whose sovereign duty it was to protect the Princess Zamara while she was on her lifetime’s trip. As was the case with all protectors before me, I was selected because of my ability to travel through dimensions with relative ease and few noticeable problems. But things went terribly wrong with Zamara. Now, we are stuck here while she breeds for your father, over and over again.”
Hadley grabbed his arm. What the hell had that meant? “Say that again. Breeds for my father? What does that mean?”
Her heart pounded. All of this sounded too strange to be real, but she’d never known her mother. Some of what he said would make sense based on things she already knew to be odd about her family.
“It means that for the last two-and-one-half centuries, your father has kept my Princess, the woman who I am all but physically unable to abandon, in a drug induced delirium whereby every thirty or so years she feels compelled to mate with your father and produce heirs.”
“That’s impossible.” Hadley stood up and started to pace. “My father builds boats for god’s sake, okay, okay, that’s a lie, he builds weapons, I know that, but he’s a human being, he can’t live for two hundred and forty years.”
“He can, darling, he can. As long as he is feeding off of her energy, living in the nearby vicinity to her, he can live endlessly. Just as I know that you, as her daughter, denied of her presence, will die at the age of thirty.”
Chapter Four
Why had he told her she’d be dead at thirty? Hawk shook his head. What good had he thought it would do? If he could go back in time and undo something, that moment would be the one he would choose.
“You will be dead because of what your father did to you when you were born. He injects his offspring with a slow moving toxin that festers and eventually kills you around your thirtieth birthday.”
He really needed to shut up. There was no point in telling Hadley these terrible truths. But to lie to her, to not inform her of everything she should know, felt wrong to him. Hadley was clearly special. She didn’t behave like any Pettigrew he’d ever known, and including her father, he had now known nine. Having never met Hailey, he wouldn’t count her. But everything he’d read on her surveillance report said she was more prototypical of a Pettigrew than Hadley.
Hadley’s hands fisted at her sides. “You’re lying. He loves me. He would never do anything to harm anyone he loved.”
Hawk nodded. “He does love you, indeed, I would fathom that he loves you very deeply and that is why he is hoping you will live through the toxin. His deepest wish is that one of his children will take after their mother and adapt—alter—at the genetic level and be more like us than like a human of this dimension. Then he thinks he’d have the ultimate weapon—a near god-like creature that can’t be killed and can be used for his own interests.”
He sighed. “We’re not controllable enough, you see. His legion only listen because they still feel loyal to the Princess; they could at any time change. You, one of his kin, you would be a whole different matter.”
He’d watched Zacharias do this to his children for eight generations, but never did it bother him more than it did now to think of Hadley dead as the others were. She stood before him so vibrant, so present—but in less than a year her candle would be snuffed out and it would be time for Zamara to breed again. Only this time, he wouldn’t let her. It had been his job for over two hundred years to protect this princess, it was time he found a better way to do it.
Hadley sat down in the chair he’d vacated and held her head in her hands. “Why am I believing any of this?”
“Because you watched me regenerate from dust yesterday and you’re too brilliant to not recognize the truth when you have it laid out in front of you.”
She lifted her head and one lone tear slipped from her left eye. A burning fury spread from Hawk’s stomach to his entire body. She cried, and it was all his fault. He was the bastard who hadn’t left her alone. She’d been out in the middle of the ocean doing what she loved, completely unaware that in six months she’d be gone, replaced by an infant to try again at a sick quest for genetic perfection, and he had ripped her from that world into his sick, twisted version of reality. He didn’t know if he was angrier that she cried or that she’d soon be dead. He shook his head. There was no time for such thoughts.
He was the worst kind of monster.
Pounding his hand on the bedpost, he gave into his urge to scream. “Stop crying.” Anger worked better. He had no outlet for his grief, and he’d be damned if he backed out of what he started now. “All of this was done to you while you were too young to do a damned thing about it, so stop sniveling about eventualities you cannot control.”
Hadley’s eyes were wide as she looked up at him. Unlike her sisters, who were long dead and who had the Pettigrew brown eyes, her blue depths reminded him of home. Refusing to give into the desire to flinch, he cocked his head to the side and stared her down.
Without warning, the boat shook violently, sending them both crashing into the floor. What the hell was going on? He leapt to his feet only to be sent back to the floor, rolling uncontrollably to the left, and smacked into both Hadley and the wall. Her warm curves were a momentary respite from whatever happened around them, but he had no time to think such thoughts as he pulled them both to their feet and braced them against the cabin’s wooden barricade that separated his cabin from Jeremiah’s.
Acting on instinct, he pulled her tightly in his arms, determined to protect her from whatever—or whoever—had enough power to nearly capsize his ship. When he’d left Pettigrew’s group, there had only been a few soldiers who could have pulled off such a feat. But they were all changing quickly, and he had no idea who held this kind of capability now.
“Are you hurt?” He could smell the vanilla scent that wafted from her hair, even as he contemplated whether it was better to stay in the cabin or make for the deck. Hadley was his first priority but he had no intention of letting his crew die while he hid in his quarters either. They’d all be pissed as hell at him when they regenerated.
She shook her head, indicating that she was fine, but he could feel her shake in his arms and he was acutely aware of how pale she had suddenly become.
The cabin door swung open and Hawk leaped forward, dropping Hadley, and allowed himself to deny gravity for a few seconds and float above the floor, a position that would hold a better vantage point for attacking whoever came through. Jeremiah rushed into the room first, followed by three of his crewmen.
Taking a deep breath, Hawk lowered to the floor. “Report.”
Jeremiah laughed a hard cold sound. “You have no idea how bad it is out there, my prince. It looks like he sent the entire brigade.”
“Impossible.” Even Pettigrew couldn’t be that stupid. “The only person he’d be killing here would be Hadley.”
“I feared this would happen. She has a twin. Pettigrew must feel it’s better to sacrifice one than risk exposure of his dirty deeds. He’ll just wait and see if Hailey survives.”
Behind him, Hadley made a choked sound that resembled the beginnings of a sob. There was no way in hell he could let this get to hysterics. He turned around, pointing a finger at her. “Get control of yourself, Hadley. Show a little backbone.” Swinging around, he faced his crew again.
Jeremiah’s eyebrows pressed close together, his face a mixture of horror an
d disbelief. “She’s going through hell here, you could show some compassion.”
Rage fumed through Hawk’s body and it had nothing to do with the attack happening on the deck above them. His ears rang and for a moment a red glow actually filled the room. He slammed his body into Jeremiah’s, forcing both of them against the wall.
“Don’t you ever tell me how to speak to her.” He tried to take deep breaths but he clenched his teeth together so tightly he could barely open his mouth. “Am I clear?”
Jeremiah’s eyes widened warily. He nodded his head in compliance. Hawk was just about to release him when he caught a glimmer in the other man’s eye he shouldn’t have seen there.
Satisfaction?
Just as suddenly as the first time, the boat shook violently, tipping to the right. Everyone tumbled to the opposite wall and Hawk lost all thought of punishing Jeremiah or figuring out what the strange emotion he’d seen in there meant.
His back stung from where he’d banged against the wall. He struggled to his feet searching for Hadley. Jeremiah had helped her up.
“My prince, there is no time, we will have to make the transition now.”
Now? Hawk shook his head. It was too soon. It had been over two hundred years since he’d opened the portal for the Princess. It could be very complicated under the best of circumstances, and these were the worst possible conditions.
Not to mention that now they’d arrived at the moment, he didn’t want Hadley to do it. Clarity hit Hawk like a Mack truck smacking into a brick wall. This entire endeavor had been a big mistake. He couldn’t hurt Hadley in any way. It went against his code of honor, his ethics, and not to mention his very DNA that had been encoded at birth to protect the royal family and everything related to it. Hadley was, morally perverse creation or not, Zamara’s daughter. Even though he’d known all this when they’d been making this plan, he found himself unable to complete it. Damn his conscience.
“Forget it. This was a mistake. I can’t do it.”
Jeremiah’s eyes flared with heated anger. “After all of this, everything we’ve done to get here, suddenly you can’t do it?”
“Could you?”
“If I could open the portal, I would. No, my prince, as your second it’s my job to make sure you do your job. Open the portal.”
“I’ll open it, but I’m not pushing her through.” He and his men would all go back in shame and disgrace but he wouldn’t hurt Hadley, he wouldn’t make her go through the conversion.
“Have you forgotten that if she stays here she will die in less than six months?”
Jeremiah’s logic was faulty and Hawk wasn’t going to fall for it. “She may die in six months over there, too.”
“But at home they may be able to save her.”
“If there is the slightest possibility that someone can fix this, then I want to go.” Hadley’s stern, determined voice startled him and he swung around to look at her.
“You don’t have the slightest idea what you are talking about.”
The boat vibrated like a piece of popcorn in a kernel popper. In another moment, they might implode. Hawk couldn’t even be sure exactly what they attack consisted of unless he went up top to look. If he had to guess, he’d say that at least three of Pettigrew’s men were converting themselves into pure energy and striking the ship with the force of lightning. Eventually, they’d take too much of a pounding.
Ten of his men rushed through the door. It was a small cabin for so many people and he felt like a squished sardine.
Stone reached him first. “Hawk, we’re sinking.”
Glaring at the window showed him the grim truth of the situation. They were, indeed, going down.
Hadley threw her hair over her right shoulder and Hawk would have sworn a red hue followed in the air behind the action. “I know the rest of you can live through anything but I’ll drown, so let’s do whatever it is that we need to do. I can’t give up this opportunity, not just for me, but for Hailey, too. She’s my sister. If there is a chance I can save her from whatever was done to us, then I have to do it.”
Hawk clenched his fists at his side. “I said no.”
“Open the damn portal, Hawk, or I’ll throw myself overboard, drown, and you’ll be responsible for ending my life instead of potentially saving it.”
Hell, the woman was insufferable. What was he supposed to do? He glared at Jeremiah, who stood stone faced as if he had nothing to say.
Water rushed through the door. There was no time left to waste. Stone cleared his throat. “We never agreed about who would stay behind to close it.”
“I will.” Jeremiah spoke loudly, as if he expected no rebuttal.
Hawk shook his head. “No, I will. I’ll open it, I’ll close it, you’ll bring her to Astor and tell the king what happened.”
Nodding, Jeremiah walked forward. “Are all the men wearing the beacons?”
Hawk had never seen Jeremiah agree to anything so quickly. He raised one eyebrow. What had prompted him to get so compliant all of a sudden? The boat shook again and Hawk nearly fell over as he attempted to pull his pocketknife out of his back pocket. He hadn’t been prepared to do this and he bumbled it in the worst possible way.
Hadley’s arms wrapped around his waist, and although he knew she only tried to steady herself from the shaking boat, he couldn’t say he was sorry to have her arms there. In a few moments, he might never see her again. He hadn’t lied when he’d said they couldn’t die here, but they could be contained. Burned into ashes and stored in a small confined place, like an urn or a box, where they didn’t have enough room to reform.
Hawk could only imagine the pain that would cause. His cells forever trying to reform and never being able to would be eternal agony. Confident that’s exactly what Pettigrew and the warriors who refused to end this nightmare would do to him as soon as he’d closed the portal, he would take whatever small pleasure Hadley’s body pressed close to his provided.
“What are you doing?” Her gaze never lifted from the weapon in his hand.
“I’m going to cut myself, deeply, until I bleed and then I’m going to cut you. We’re going to combine our blood. The uniting of our two life forces should open a portal. Jeremiah will walk through it, holding you. He holds on him a beacon, which will pull everyone else who wears the same beacon through the portal with him. When everyone is through, I will cut myself again. This time, since it is my blood alone, it will close.”
Hadley shook her head. “At another time I might be fascinated with the physics of this. But for now, I thought you said I was human. More like my father, which is why I will die. Why will my blood open a portal?”
He had to shout to be heard over the loud buzzing noise that had started on deck above them. It sounded like someone had started a huge machine. Hawk didn’t even want to begin to imagine what kind. “You have trace elements of the Princess’ blood in you. We know this because we tested the other seven sisters when they died. It should hopefully be enough. My blood can open the portal; the royal family’s—in other words, yours—keeps it open.”
Her eyes widened. “But…”
He had no time to continue to argue with her, grabbing her hand, he sliced her perfect peach skin with his old but still sharp knife, and tried not to wince when she screamed. He needed to remind himself that she was nothing but a spoiled Pettigrew and it was time she accepted her fate. So, why did he feel so sick and worried and why did it particularly bother him that his concern was not for his own men or his own safety?
Drops of red blood, the purest of its particular color, dripped from her hand as she bellowed as if she’d been stuck by a sword and not merely cut on the hand. Without a second thought, he sliced deeply into his own hand, barely feeling the pain as if it was no more than a bee sting or an annoyance he could quickly forget. Grabbing her hand, he pressed his own into hers and felt the surge of power enter his veins.
Soon. The portal would open soon.
Hadley gasped, her skin turn
ing even paler. “Hawk, is this the pain you promised me?”
He shook his head. “So sorry, sweetheart, you haven’t even begun to know the torture that is to come.”
Chapter Five
Hadley watched in awe as a giant hole opened in the air to the left of where she and Hawk stood. It didn’t look like anything she’d seen on television or in any science fiction movies. While it was clearly an opening, nothing dark or ominous seemed present, either lurking inside of it, or flowing through it. Rather, the brightest white light she’d ever seen clouded her vision.
Several of the crew around her gasped and applauded. She’d never learned their names, but in her defense she’d been their prisoner and there certainly hadn’t been time. She pushed herself closer in Hawk’s embrace. It was silly, really. He was the leader of the bunch and they’d all set out with one intention and that was to kidnap her and shove her through that opening in the universe, but somehow Hawk made her feel safe. Or at least safer than she was outside of his embrace.
“Jeremiah, move, you need to take her through the portal.” Hawk sounded annoyed. His facial features were all scrunched up and it felt as though his body temperature had risen just in the short time she’d been pressed up against him.
“Send out the girl, and we won’t box you, Hawk.”
A voice from the top of the stairs filled the room and Hadley gasped. There was something so inhuman about the way it sounded. Robotic in its make-up, like it had never drawn a real breath. Hadley wasn’t sure what it meant to be “boxed,” but she was sure that these men, who were going to make her go to another dimension, but who seemed to be genuinely concerned for her and her mother, did not deserve to have whatever it was about to happen to them.
An orange glow filled the room, and Hadley cocked her head to the side, wondering how much weirder this whole experience could get before her head literally exploded. Hawk shoved her to the ground. She hit hard and her entire body shook from impact. Her body, already hot from the heat in the room, felt like it might implode from the sheer frenetic energy created by Hawk’s body on top of hers.
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