Her Mad Hatter (5 page)

Looking at her!

She yelped.

They blinked.

“She’s as loud as the rest. Truly, dearie, do ye not see ‘tis night?”
a fluted yellow flower honked at her.

She had to get home. Maybe she was home? Maybe this was all a dream. A bad, weird dream.

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”

The voice was hot and gravelly, rolling over her body like a lover’s touch. She followed the voice and her thighs tingled.

It was him. Alice swallowed. She’d know the face anywhere. She’d seen it before. A long, long time ago.

She smiled, so many words on her tongue, none of them able to make it past numb lips.

It was hard to gauge his height. He was sitting on a chair, a cup of tea in his hand, staring at her with a hard black glare. There was violence and madness burning in that gaze. And something else. Something that made her burn, made her nipples tighten into hard, almost painful buds.

Last time she’d seen him he hadn’t looked so foreboding, or so sexy. She licked her lips.

Silvery moonlight made his hair glint with shades of the darkest chocolate. The pressure of his gaze felt like a hot brand.

Her pulse stuttered. Dreams shouldn’t make her so hot. Needy.

It hadn’t before. Then again, she’d only been 13. 

“You.”

She bristled, not because of what he said, but how he’d said it. A depth of meaning had been conveyed in that one word. Anger, disdain, even hate. Alice held her chin up, but her nails left crescent marks on her palm.

His nose curled. “Bloody, damn fairy,” he spat.

Alice was so startled she couldn’t even speak. Why the hell was he so angry? What had she done? And who was this fairy? She rubbed the back of her head. Was she dead? Maybe this was hell?

With his dark hair and sharp brows, Hatter looked more like the devil than the white knight of her youth. The man she’d idolized, the very one she’d credited with saving her life. She could still see it in her mind’s eyes, her body lying weak and pale in the hospital bed, calling out for an imaginary savior. She’d never been more surprised than when he’d answered her…

But clearly that memory belonged only to her. He didn’t seem to remember her at all.

His lips thinned and a spark of something hot flashed through his eyes when he set his cup down. On freaking air! It literally hung, suspended as if by strings.

She’d dreamed of Wonderland many times, but never like this. Never with so much detail. She could smell the wind, and colors she’d never seen in her life dotted the landscape. Vivid didn’t even begin to describe this.

“Follow me.”

Was he serious? “I’m not going anywhere with you.” Alice bit the inside her cheek. An owl hooted and she shivered.

“Fine.” He narrowed his eyes. “Then stay.”

He got up and she gulped. Though he stood a distance from her still, she knew he towered her by a good foot. At five foot two there wasn’t much that didn’t. He turned to go and she clenched her teeth.

A thwamping sound rang through the sudden stillness of the field and her pulse thumped. She jerked, glancing over her shoulder. A chilling echo of laughter flitted through the dark silhouette of trees.

Just a dream
. She squeezed her eyes shut.

Thwamp
.

“You’re not really going to just leave me here, are you?” she yelled at his retreating figure.

He stopped and, even though it was dark, there was enough moonlight to the see the heated glare on his face. “Follow or stay.”

“Follow or stay. Follow or stay,” she muttered under her breath, but rushed to catch up when she heard the next slithering thwamp.

He wouldn’t look at her and he wouldn’t stop. Alice wanted to kick him. If this was a dream, he’d be nicer. Which meant it wasn’t a dream. But then there was that whole white rabbit thing.

Each step they took the more and more she seethed. One step blurred into the next and the next until she wasn’t even sure how much time had passed. Only that it’d felt like forever and the silent treatment was quickly starting to wear thin.

“You know, it wouldn’t hurt to be a little more polite.” The moment the words left her mouth she wanted to kick herself. Why the hell did she care?

He didn’t stop and the field was now no longer a field, but rolling hills full of ruts.

She panted, calves screaming as she gripped her side. Shoes would have been great right about now. Barefoot was so not fun, especially when dirt got between her toes and stones dug into her heels. But she would not stop and she would not beg him to, either.

Since he wouldn’t talk and she couldn’t at this point, it gave her plenty of time to think. Whatever had happened tonight, she was pretty sure she wasn’t dreaming.

The sights, the smells, the burning pit of anger gnawing at her gut. No, she wasn’t dreaming. And she wasn’t dead. Because she was pretty sure dead people didn’t want to murder something.

She eyed the back of his brightly painted pin-striped suit. What was with the stupid get up anyway? Just how many pocket watches did one man need? She counted at least thirty, and that was on his back! Who did that? All her life she’d been infatuated by the man. Now... she rolled her eyes when her heart fluttered at the sight of his broad shoulders.

A bead of sweat plopped off the tip of her nose. Annoyed, she wiped her brow. When would this torture end? Where the hell was he taking her?

“Dammit!” she hissed when she stepped on a twig, its rough edge easily slicing through her heel.

Alice grabbed hold of a thick tree branch and hopped on one leg as she tried to peer at the bottom of her foot.

Blood. She growled, swiping at the wet warmth of it. “I could kill him. I will kill him. That bastard. Why am I following him? This is stupid, stupid, Alice. Why did you rub that card?”

“Alice!”

Startled to hear him call out her name, she glanced up. He was looking at her, his face stone cold, but his eyes held a frantic edge to them.

“Listen to me.”

She swallowed hard. His tone held a note of “Stay calm, and don’t panic.” Never a good sign when someone started a sentence that way.

A long sibilant hiss sounded in her ear.

She froze. Swallowing hard, she turned her face and came eye to eye with the black, beady eyes of a ginormous snake. A snake unlike any she’d seen before. Its forked tongue came to within inches of her nose. And now that she was aware of it, she wondered why the hell she hadn’t noticed the tree sported purple polka dots.

“Hatter,” she squeaked and slowly dropped her hand.

Her
branch
moved.

“Hatter,” she hissed, she couldn’t take her eyes from the beast, as if looking at it would somehow prevent it from wrapping its thick body around her own. “Help. Me.”

Strong hands latched onto her shoulders. Her eyes were still wide and her knees felt locked in place. Hatter pinched her and she jumped, glaring at him.

“Get behind me,” he said.

She didn’t need to be told twice. Alice stepped into the shelter of his back. Her fingers clenched the edge of his jacket, watching in horror as he lifted out a hand toward the creature’s broad head.

“And truly I was afraid,” his deep voice hypnotized her and she buried her nose in his jacket, “I was most afraid. But even so, honored still more that he should seek my hospitality from out of the dark door of the secret earth...”

It seemed an eternity before she heard a sound other than the wild rush of blood in her ears.

“He’s gone, are you okay?” He turned, touching her face and she hated that his soft touch felt so good.

“Does it matter? Do you care?” she snapped, jerking her face out of his hand. Even though that was the last thing she wanted to do. She wanted to touch him, to remember again the man who’d saved the dying little girl years ago, but she couldn’t forget how he’d been earlier.

His hand hung in midair for a moment until, with a slow nod, he dropped it. Hatter turned on his heels and started forward again. “Almost there,” he rumbled.

“Fine,” she said, equal parts wanting to cry and wanting to pick up a rock and throw it at the back of his head. But she did neither; instead she limped along behind him, her gashed heel stinging every step of the way.

Moments later, Alice was surrounded by a swarm of dancing fireflies. They zipped in and out through trees, lighting the canopy of leaves with their golden liquid radiance.

Hatter stopped. “Stay here.”

Their rest stop didn’t look like much. There were trees and glowing mushrooms, the spotted glowing kinds you’d see in cartoons and in an assortment of colors. A large swarm of fireflies congregated in and around them. She wiggled her toes, wanting to moan at the lush smoothness of soft grass beneath her feet. She needed to sit. Now.

“Whatever,” she groaned and plopped down. Her feet were a mess, covered in dirt and oozing blood. If there was a time to cry, now would have been the perfect time for it.

Instead she watched Hatter reach out and swipe at one of the bugs. It bounced around in his palm frantically.

He was saying something. Growling it actually, but she couldn’t hear and really, she didn’t care.

Mad as a hatter.

Why had she ever thought that was sexy?

Chapter 4

“What kind of black magic is this?” Hatter hissed.

Danika’s wings fluttered against his palm as she shoved and pushed at him. “Hatter!” she squealed, “for the gods sakes, open your palm! Damn you, man. You’re bending my wings.”

He shook his fist and eyed the little ball of light hard. “I told you not to bring her. Not only do you bring her, you bring
her
! What have you done? She should be old and withered, and yet she looks the same. How is that possible?”

The muscle in his jaw ticked when she didn’t answer quickly enough. He shook his hand harder.

“Open,” she roared, “or you’ll get no answers from me.”

He flung her from his hand. She rolled in a ball through the air before finally righting herself and glaring at him. Danika pointed her wand at his chest. “How dare you!”

“I dare much,” he growled. “What have you done, Danika?”

How could Danika have done this? How could she have returned that venomous, viperous woman back to him? How was it even possible?

How could he have these feelings for Alice, these soft feelings that made him face a snake’s constricting coils to help her? He should hate her, he did hate her. After all she’d done to him, he wanted to shake her, kiss her, whisper his undying hate in her ears. Hatter grabbed his skull, willing himself to ignore the huddled bundle on the grass behind him. Up is down, down is up. Emotions made no sense. No sense.

“Look at me, I say.” Danika snapped her fingers.

“What?”

Danika’s face crumpled. “Are you not pleased, Hatter?”

“Pleased.” He wanted to roar, wanted to stomp on Danika’s mushroom home and smash his fist through her tree. “Pleased?” he asked again. “Why have you returned her? How have you returned her? Wonderland said no. No. No.” He grabbed his head again. Dizzy, gods he could smell her. Like caramel and the salty brine of sea.

When she’d clutched his jacket and pressed her nose into his back, he’d been aware, so very aware. Every inch of his body screamed for her. Wanted her. She was his Alice, the one he’d surrendered his heart to years before. Wicked, wicked Alice. She’d whispered of love, touched his body, made him yearn and need.

Betrayer. His nostrils flared. Evil little Alice with the forked tongue, just like the snake. He should have let the snake have her. Damn her.

“It’s not her, Hatter.” Danika grabbed his fingers, peeling it away from his eye.

He shook her off. “Of course it’s her.”

“No.” Her curls bobbed around her tiny head. “That Alice is nothing more than a withered husk.”

For a moment, a yawning chasm of ice filled his empty, shattered soul.

Danika pointed over his shoulder. “That is her great granddaughter.”

Not
the same Alice? “But her eyes, and the face. Pretty, pretty hair. Long and black with a widow’s peak. The itsy-bitsy spider crawls up the water spout...”

A sharp slap stung his cheek. “Snap out of it. Now is not the time to lose your wits.”

Hatter blinked. “Why her? I hate her.”

“Hatter, no.” Danika petted the cheek she’d slapped, her cold little hand soothing. “You do not hate her. You do not know her. She is not the same. I swear it.”

He grabbed his head, trying to recall why he’d been so angry. Trying to hang on and remember, lest he lose the thought like he’d lost so many others. “You reached into the same bloodline. Why didn’t you tell me?”

She gave him a soft smile. “Because I know you. If you’d known, you’d never have come to get her.”

He took a breath, and Alice was there, her sweet, caramel warmth permeating the breeze. Hatter looked over his shoulder. She sat huddled on the ground, staring at her foot, a tiny frown marring her brows. He’d been cruel, forcing her to march without shoes. Forcing her to follow without speaking a word.