“Hawk.” Hadley’s voice stopped him mid-stride.
“Hadley?”
He’d noticed the others had started calling her Lady Hadley. He couldn’t bring himself to do that. Maybe he never would. He understood intellectually that she was the daughter of the Princess, but to him she might always be entirely Pettigrew’s creation.
“I’ve been asking Stone here some questions but he and the other men are reluctant to answer any without your permission. Do they have it?”
Stone and the others answering her questions. He wanted to scream out a denial that no it wasn’t okay. Anything she needed to know, he would tell her. But that was ridiculous and she certainly didn’t belong to him.
He cleared his throat. “Perhaps it would be better if I answered your questions.” Damn it. Sooner or later he’d have to learn control around this woman and he wasn’t going to dwell on the reasons why he seemed unable to do so easily.
“All right. So I’ll walk with you.” Did he imagine that her face brightened when she said that? She looked at Stone and graced him with a smile Hawk wished she’d given to him. All dimples and pure white teeth. He sighed and hoped no one noticed his reaction.
When she reached him, he took her hand. Stone had been right, the roads were treacherous. Much worse than he remembered them. Huge potholes the size of small cars back on earth lined the street and tree branches crisscrossed everywhere, making it easy, especially in the dark, to take a fatal fall.
“So, is this a pre-technological society? Where are all the cars and modes of transportation?”
That had not been what he’d expected her to ask. He grinned, unable to squelch the urge. Her strange thought processes had started to amuse him. If there was one thing he could count on with her, it was that he never knew exactly what she thought or what was about to come out of her mouth.
She shook off his grip and put her hands on her hips as she glared at him. “I can tell you’re laughing at me inside, Hawk. I don’t see what is funny. It’s a perfectly legitimate question.”
He nodded. “It is a valid question. But, it wasn’t one of the ones I expected you to ask. There are a million things happening to you and you’re wondering about cars.”
“Someday I’ll meet someone who thinks like I do.”
He laughed, hard, and was shocked by it. “Ha. And then heavens help us all.” Trying to recover his sensibility, he forced himself to get serious and less jovial. It must be that he was finally home. “We are a post-technological society.”
She shook her head, her eyes narrowing. He reached out and touched the side of her eye. Her skin felt soft under his rough fingers. “Sorry, you had a leaf on you.” Inwardly he chided himself for being a liar.
“By post-technological you mean that you once had technology and now you have abandoned it? Why on earth would you do that?”
“Why on earth indeed?”
She giggled. “I guess I’m going to have to get used to not saying that anymore. What is this place called?”
Hawk looked up at the sky, the sun would go down momentarily and then he’d get to see the stars the way he’d dreamed of them for the last two centuries. “Our main capital is called Astor. We will arrive tomorrow. There is some advanced electrical equipment there. Some things you’ll be familiar with, some things you will not. We call this dimension Haven.”
“Haven, okay.” She nodded as if she understood that information. “So I’ll have to say why on Haven would you want to do that?”
“Exactly.”
“So here on Haven, let me get this straight, you’ve moved past technology?”
Hawk shrugged. “I don’t mean to sound dismissive or uninterested in this but it all happened before I was born, centuries prior to my being even a glimmer in anyone’s eyes.”
“But surely you must have heard stories. There was a time when you used cars, boats, buses, whatever, and now you don’t.”
“We found that we could do most of the things computers did for us better, by using our own brains. It just took tapping into our untouched potential. Children are instructed differently now. They discovered that by teaching both the physical and the metaphysical, it awakened something inside of us. There stopped being a reason to get places so fast. It was better, healthier, to walk when we could. In the event that something needs to be immediately transported, then we do have a system for that. Or at least we did. Two centuries, a lot can change, even here.”
Hadley sighed. “I have so many questions and I don’t want to ask them because I’m terrified about what it will do to me to hear the answers, how it will change things…”
Hawk spun her around in his arms until she faced him. “Listen to me Hadley, I have known Pettigrews for some time now and you are totally unique. Different from any before you.” He shook his head and for a moment Hadley’s face morphed into another face he’d once stared at every day. Looking at Annabelle had brought him tremendous pleasure, but if he was honest, she was not as striking as Hadley. He supposed he should feel guilty for thinking such things, but the pang in his heart he expected to feel never appeared.
“Why, because I have a job and interests that don’t pertain to my father or my family? How many children does my mother have?”
“You and Hailey are eight and nine. Zacharias likes to name after the alphabet. They started with Annabelle, Bethany, Candace, Deirdre, Eugenia, Felicia, Grace, and now you and Hailey.”
Hadley sucked in her breath. “He’s always liked systems, codes, filing. It’s how he keeps track of things. Dear god, he treated us as if we were lab specimens. A through H and then when we’re gone he’ll come up with an ‘I’ name.”
Above them, the high-pitched screech of a large bird startled him. Five large hawks roughly the size of small two person airplanes dipped and dove in as they circled above. Hawk had to smile. It had been too long since he’d seen his namesakes. Hadley would never have seen any so large except in pictures of prehistoric birds from Earth. He smiled as he glanced down on her face. Her head turned upward as she marveled at the sight above them in the sky.
The long line of her neck stretched so he could admire her creamy white skin. There was nothing he’d like better than to lean down and bite her there, make her squeal for a few moments, before kissing away any discomfort she might feel from the act.
“Hawk.” Her mouth hung open like she might like to say something else but couldn’t come up with the words. Instead, she just pointed upwards at the circling birds.
“They’re mine. Or maybe, they’re descendents of my flock. I don’t know.”
His family would have tried to keep his birds alive, keep them breeding and thriving. But he would miss the group he’d left behind. One particular bird that he’d named Truffle because of his affinity for killing mice in Truffle fields had been particularly talented and devoted to him.
He’d spent the last two and a half centuries avoiding thoughts like the one that was about to overtake him. He shook his head. There was no time for this. The job wasn’t done yet.
“My prince.” Stone called his attention and Hawk glanced at the younger warrior. All of his men looked in awe at the birds. Hawk cleared his throat. Evidently now that they were in Haven they were all going to revert back to his title.
“Yes, Master Stone?” If they were going to be formal, so would he.
Stone raised an eyebrow, his amused expression shown by the dimples shining on his face. It didn’t matter how old the man got, he would always look ten.
“Who called your hawks?”
Hawk shook his head. “I have no idea, but someone with that knowledge must be aware we are home.” His best guess would be a member of his family had sent them as a means of transportation and greeting. Unless something had changed significantly and others now controlled his birds.
“Those creatures.” Hadley pointed at the sky and he noted that her voice shook. “Belong to you?”
“Do they make you nervous, Hadley?”
“I don’t like things with claws. I never have. Give me tentacles, swimming, and electric shocks any day of the week.” She tried to smile and failed. It ended up looking like a grimace instead.
“If you cannot overcome your fear we will have to walk. It will take twice the time.”
“So not only do those things belong to you but you mean for us to travel with them up there?”
“You might say they are our alternate mode of travel.” He nodded as he felt himself lifted from the ground by a giant claw. Hadley shrieked but the biggest bird grabbed and secured her. Silently, each of his men lifted off the ground. One of them let out an audible sigh. Hawk understood that sigh. It felt good to be home, but his job was half done. He couldn’t have thoughts of home yet, not until job was done and he returned permanently.
“Now is going to be one of those times when you get to overcome a fear, Hadley. It’s a rare gift in life. Try to enjoy it.” He knew he taunted her but he couldn’t help himself. Part of him liked to goad her.
“Drop dead, Hawk.”
Chapter Seven
Hadley had always hated heights. She closed her eyes tightly and silently cursed herself for doing so. Missing opportunities was not something she regularly did and this was a perfect one to get a better look at the landscape beneath them. But hell, she couldn’t do it. No way, no how. The stupid bird that carried them and right now had her wrapped tightly within its three claws might decide at anytime to drop them and this time she was sure she would go splat on the ground.
“So like those deep dwellers you’re so interested in, you’re more a creature of the sea than of the sky?”
She reluctantly opened her eyes at Hawk’s ridiculous question. “I don’t consider myself a creature of anything.”
Hawk snorted and she tried not to grin. There was something so disarming about the man when he let his guard down. Clearly, he preferred the sky. He’d never been this relaxed the entire time they’d been on the boat, although admittedly he had been kidnapping her at the time. She was relieved that they shared a bird. Even though she liked most of the men she’d met, Hawk was the only one who intrigued her and then, of course, there was the small matter of how her heart beat faster when he looked at her straight in the eyes. She swallowed.
He cut a fine image. The wind blew his long black and auburn hair from his face and his eyes glistened. She’d always thought they resembled the sea but she could see now that, in fact, they matched the colors of the stars in this dimension perfectly. As the sun set earlier, she’d been gifted with millions of green stars. Hawk turned his head to the side.
“What are you thinking, Hadley? For a moment, I had you smiling. Are you going to vomit?”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s charming, Hawk. Thank you for that image.”
“I got that look off of your face.”
“What look?”
He stretched and the giant bird shifted its claw to accommodate him better. The man then had the nerve to yawn. “The one that says you’re thinking too hard.”
“I’m in another dimension, for goodness sake. I’m entitled to over think things in these circumstances.” She had no idea why she felt the need to justify herself to him.
“There’s going to be plenty of time to worry.” His eyes clouded over for a moment. “Trust me. But for now, enjoy the breeze and the wonder of this. I started to believe I would never know this small joy again. Now, even if I don’t return from rescuing the Princess, I had this moment.”
She smiled. She still hated everything about this, but she liked the peaceful line of his neck muscles and the way the small lines near his eyes seemed to lessen. Shaking her head, she forced herself to stop considering Hawk as if he belonged to her. Who cared if most of the time he was stressed? All she needed to focus on was getting to the people who could cure her so she could go back and fix Hailey.
“This bird here,” Hawk’s voice broke her from her reverie. “He is either the son or the grandson of one of the birds I had when I left here two centuries ago. I recognize the markings. They’re very unusual.”
Hadley hadn’t really bothered to look in her state of shock and distress to examine the animal. She looked at it now. The bird, mostly black and white on its head and wingspan, had an array of spots on its back that ranged from blue to red in color. She’d never looked up the subject but if she had to wager a guess, she’d say that on Earth, there weren’t blue hawks flying around.
“So you train birds?”
He nodded. “Among other things, but yes, hawks are my specialty.”
“Is that how you got your nickname?”
“Hawk isn’t my nickname, it’s my actual name.” The wind picked up around them and Hawk raised his voice to continue speaking. “We all have an animal here. Only the Royals can make them talk but we all have one that is special to each of us. When a baby is born, the parents make a trek to Astor and one of the Royals reads the baby’s aura and tells the parent what animal they’re connected to. My parents were told it was a Hawk and not being particularly creative called me Hawk. My brother’s name is Dragon and my sister is Rabbit. Some parents just take the first initial. Like Jeremiah is Jaguar and Zamara is the Zebras.”
“What is Stone?”
Hawk narrowed his eyes. “Why are you so interested in Stone?”
What the hell was he talking about? Hadley sighed. “I’m not following your line of thought, Hawk. Have I given some sort of indication that I have a preference for Stone?” Hadley struggled to turn around to look at the aforementioned member of Hawk’s crew. After a moment, the giant bird seemed to get the idea and adjusted its claw so she could see. Stone and three other men were right behind them in another, remarkably even bigger bird’s claw. They chatted away, completely unaware of her focus.
“You held his hand when you walked down the road.”
She shrugged. “He offered it to me. I didn’t want to trip.”
“You could have refused it.”
“And you say I talk in circles?” Hadley’s head started to spin and she didn’t think it had anything to do with bird travel or heights. “I had no reason not to accept his hand. Is there some rule I should have been made aware of? Have I committed a crime? Can a man not help a woman walk through a rocky, pit-filled road without bringing on the ire of his leader?”
“You could have held my hand.”
“You didn’t offer it to me.”
“I might have in another second.”
Hadley opened her mouth to rebut but her breath clogged in her throat. Hawk was jealous. It wasn’t even a question. He was upset because Stone had held her hand and it bothered him. It was High School 101. Why hadn’t she noticed it earlier? She rolled her eyes. Simple answer, because men, especially men who looked like Hawk, didn’t get jealous over her. Maybe he was just like this with all women or maybe it had something to do with him being the leader and not liking one of his underlings getting attention he wasn’t getting.
The whole thing was so preposterous. She wasn’t interested in Stone, or any other warrior, other than in a purely intellectual, friendly manner. Other than Hawk, at least, who in addition to irritating the hell out of her made her feel strange and sort of soft inside in a way she couldn’t quite articulate.
“Forget it, I’m acting insane.”
Hadley was glad Hawk had said something because she wasn’t sure what she would have done if he hadn’t. Was it appropriate under these very strange circumstances to ask a man if he was interested in you?
“It’s very rare, but every once in a while, a baby is born who has an affinity towards nature that has nothing to do with animals. Hence Stone’s name.”
Stones? What could he possibly do with stones? “What use could that be?”
“I’ve seen him pile them up miles in the sky with merely a thought. It can be useful.”
“So it’s like ps
ychokinesis then?”
“Some people say telekinesis, but yes, same idea, only his power only works with rocks. He couldn’t lift and move a book off a table unless it was on top of a rock.”
Hadley’s mind swirled with the possibilities. How far did this talent of his extend? The earth was made of an outer shell of rock. Could he have removed the outer core of the earth while he was there? How about here? Was it the same? Did he have to learn to control his abilities when he was a child?
She stared at the ground, trying desperately to see if she could tell if there was a rock surface beneath them but she was up too high and it was too dark. She couldn’t tell. Damn.
“It’s amazing you find Stone’s ability to manipulate so much more fascinating than my affinity to Hawks.”
Alright, that was enough. Hadley raised her right eyebrow. “Hawk, are you jealous?”
“Yes, damn it, I am jealous and I have no idea why that is.”
“You’re jealous but you have no idea why.” It was strange. The best looking man she’d ever seen, let alone known, had just admitted that he was jealous because Stone had held her hand and she’d shown platonic interest in him. Yet Hawk had no idea why he was upset. The idea that he could be attracted to her didn’t seem to have entered his mind.
Was she that repulsive to look at?
“You look like I just hit you over the head.”
“I don’t suppose you could realize that what you just said was incredibly insulting? I know I can’t be anywhere near as beautiful as the women you’re used to being with, but you don’t have to act like the idea that you might be jealous because of some sort of attraction to me is so completely out of the realm of possibility.” She hated the tears that threatened to spill out of her eyes. She blinked a few times and was pleased when the feeling passed.
“What do you know about the women I’ve been with? And why would you assume I insulted you?”
“Hawk, you’re not listening.” She didn’t care that now she shouted much too loud to be justified by the sound of the wind.
First Dimension Page 6