The moment she walked through the halls and heard the quiet hush of death, she knew it was very, very bad.
Each room held a sad scene. People around a bed, machines beeping and whirring, sustaining a life that would end in days or weeks.
The sterile hallways made her want to run away. Her skin prickled with cold, the sounds of wheezing and sometimes... no sounds at all. It was almost too much. She stopped walking, clung to the wall, and took a deep breath.
“Hatter needs her.” Steeling her resolve, she moved again. Three more rooms and then she saw her. She was alone.
Alice seemed dwarfed by the bed she lay on. The once vibrant honey hue of her skin was now ashen and gray. She looked like a skeleton; there wasn’t even any hair on her head, just thin wisps.
Her hands shook.
Clear plastic tubes ran up her nose.
“Oh, Alice girl, I’m so, so sorry.”
Alice’s lashes fluttered. She opened her eyes, her breath coming short and choppy. “Danika? You’re here?”
She walked up to her, grabbed her hand, afraid to hurt her, afraid to let go. The vibrant beauty of before was gone; all that remained was a shell. Her eyes were bloodshot, wide and shining.
“I... Oh, dearie, I never knew.” Words spilled from Danika’s lips, mingled with the tears from her eyes.
Alice smiled; her lashes fluttered as if the effort to hold her eyes open cost her everything. “It was nice. I was”—she breathed, a shallow sucking in of oxygen—“happy.”
“Who is she talking to?”
Danika turned at the sound of another voice. A woman—bearing an uncanny resemblance to Alice, but older—asked a man in a white coat. He put an arm around her shoulder.
“It’s part of the process. The drugs have dulled the pain.” His voice broke, and he looked at Alice with love shining in his eyes.
Alice’s laugh was weak. Danika looked back at her. “They don’t see you. Think. I’m. Crazy.” Her lips trembled. “As a Hatter.”
The woman behind them sobbed. Heels clicked loudly on linoleum as she ran from the room.
“He misses you desperately,” Danika whispered.
She coughed and then gasped. A sheen of sweat glistened on her forehead. “Wonderland. No.”
Danika shook her head. “No, Alice. Wonderland said yes. It wasn’t you, see.” She rubbed her knuckle. “It was him. He had to declare himself, had to truly fall in love. He loves you, Alice.”
For a moment, Alice’s face crumpled, then she grew calm, unnaturally still. “All that we see... or seem / is but a dream... within a dream.”
It was hard to listen to Alice speak, each word forced out between labored pants for breaths.
“Alice, look at me.” Danika patted her hand, forcing the girl to work through the lethargy and open her eyes. They glimmered with tears. She licked her lips. “You can still come back.”
Alice snorted. “Dying.”
“I can take you. Wonderland will heal you. You’ll never die. Never. You’ll be perfect and healthy, with your Hatter. Always.”
The tears started to fall, each one like a blade to Danika’s heart. Alice had to come back. Not just for Hatter’s sanity, but also because the thought of such a young life being extinguished was a tragedy Danika couldn’t endure.
“Didn’t want me. He wouldn’t come...” Alice coughed, the booming sound painful to Danika’s ears. She winced in sympathy, waiting for it to pass. After a minute, Alice lay back down, her lips tinted blue.
The girl had minutes. A shadow of death hovered above her, reaching out its cold skeletal fingers, ready to claim her any moment now.
“Here? He wouldn’t come here, is that what you’re trying to tell me, Alice?”
Alice nodded weakly.
“Oh, Alice. He wants you beyond endurance. He’s locked himself up in his house; the land rages beyond his door. Wonderland is in chaos. Creatures die and kill each other. The violence of his mind has exploded upon the land.” She shuddered. “Alice, he couldn’t come. Do you hear me?”
The girl was unnaturally quiet. Danika patted her cheek, and Alice stirred and mumbled.
“Listen to me.” Danika pried Alice’s eyes open, forcing Alice to see her. “He couldn’t come because, outside of Wonderland, he’s not immortal. He was like you. A human who stumbled in.” She rushed through the explanation, hoping the girl would hang on long enough to listen. “Time would catch up with him. Why do you think he’s surrounded by clocks? Each Wonderland day is a month here.”
Alice’s eyes widened, trying to focus. “A month?”
Danika nodded. “A month. He’s so old now, time would catch up with him in seconds. He cannot exist beyond Wonderland.”
Alice’s nostrils flared; she was trying so hard to think it through. Danika could see her struggle, see her fight to hang on to reality. “Want me?”
“Yes.” Hope leaped into Danika’s throat. “The land accepts you. Wants you. So does he. Return to him, save him, save yourself. Oh Alice, come home with me.”
Alice frowned, her eyes looking out at the door. “How will... you. Take. Me?”
Danika touched the tip of her wand to Alice’s stomach. “With magic.”
Alice shook her head. “Body? Or”—she inhaled—“just soul?”
Danika’s eyes widened. “This is not heaven, child. I cannot divide your soul from your body. All of you. I would take all of you.”
Alice closed her eyes.
Danika’s heart stuttered as she waited for the girl to take a breath. She shook her hand. Not yet, please not yet.
Alice’s family would surely worry when they came back to find an empty bed, to always wonder. But it was the only way. Alice was dead to them anyway. It was over for them. But not for Alice.
Alice’s lashes fluttered.
Good enough. Danika tapped her with the wand, shrinking them both. With a final flick of her wand, she pointed to the bed. A white letter appeared on the empty pillows, the words I’m happy written on it.
That was the best she could do.
She gripped Alice’s hand and wouldn’t let go as they barreled through dimensions.
Chapter 14
Wrapped in shadow, Hatter stared out the blackened window. Words from poems fell in repetitive motion from his lips.
Alice’s heart swelled, aching in her chest. To go from being so close to death, to inhaling a breath free of pain. To seeing her lover. It was almost too much.
Would he think she’d returned only to be saved? She bit her lip.
“Hatter,” she whispered, afraid he might not hear her.
His shoulders stiffened, but he didn’t turn.
“I-I...” She was stuttering again; he always made her feel like a girl with her first school crush. She rubbed sweaty palms down the front of her cami and shorts, the same ones she’d worn the first time they’d met. The same ones he’d said he liked her in best. Her heart flipped. “Do you love me?”
Hatter shot to his feet, his eyes wild and his hair longer than she remembered.
“Alice?” he croaked, eyes glistening with a powerful emotion that tugged at her heart, gave her feet wings.
She flew into his outstretched arms, resting her ear against the firm beat of his heart.
His body trembled. “Love you,” he whispered, nuzzling her hair. His hands were frantic on her back, pushing her shirt up, touching her bare flesh. “Loveyouloveyouloveyou, always, always, my Alice, my love.”
She purred, needing to touch him, to feel the hard press of his body again.
“Clothes off,” he said, and they were naked. He picked her up, pressing her against the wall. He lifted her, forcing her to wrap her legs around his waist. The thickness of him rested against her aching opening.
So good. If this was a dream, death, she didn’t care. She never wanted to wake up.
“Hatter, I was sick.”
“Gods.” He sobbed and kissed her cheeks, her throat. “Gods, Alice.”
She grip
ped his face, forced him to pause and look at her. He needed to know. “I didn’t come back because of that. I almost died, but I came back for you. None of this matters if you don’t believe that.”
His eyes closed and he gently planted a kiss on her mouth, his tongue tracing the seam of her lips, and she knew he believed her. Alice’s heart thrilled.
There were no playful teases, no petting or sweet nothings whispered. This was primal need. He pushed into her liquid heat, and her body was so primed, so ready, the moment he slipped in fully she felt the quickening thrum of an orgasm. Her blood resonated; it moved through her like crystal song.
He was kissing her neck, his hands grasping her breasts.
“Love you so much,” he muttered, taking her tongue, dueling with it. “Don’t ever leave me. Sorry I’m such an ass. Sorry I didn’t tell you why. Sorry for so much.”
She shook her head, feeling dizzy and light-headed from the overwhelming sensation of him. He slid in and out; her legs tightened. She was close; her thighs started to shake.
“Never leave,” she mumbled. “Love you so much too.”
Then they were there, he tipped his head back and roared. His hot seed came in torrents, flooding her body. His touch, his soul, it was hers. All hers.
He was her Mad Hatter, and Alice was finally home.
~*~
Keep turning the page to read Hatter’s Treasure
It’s Alice’s birthday, and Hatter has a plan to show her his most valuable treasure...
Hatter’s Treasure
Hatter stared at his wall of clocks, all those ticktocking clocks that helped ease the confusing noise in his head. With one hand tucked behind his back, he ran his other one along the polished surface of one of his favorites. It was a wooden cuckoo clock of German origin. The wood was a rich umber, the tiny bird poking its head out so well fashioned that one might imagine it would take flight any moment. He treasured his timepieces, each one holding significance in his long, long life.
There was only one thing in all the worlds that he treasured more.
His Alice.
She’d stayed. She’d told him she loved him. She’d saved him from the madness of his mind. “My beautiful, beautiful Alice. Tick, tock, tick, tock...,” he muttered, entranced as the miniature bird chimed the new hour, blinking only when it returned to its cubbyhole.
Staring at the cavern full of memories, he inhaled deeply, smelling her sunshiny scent of vanilla and caramel still clinging all over him. They’d made love this morning atop a bed of spongy, golden brain coral as sunlight dappled the water around them a speckled shade of glassy blue and sparkling silver. Her honeyed skin gleaming, her glossy black hair covering her breasts, she’d reminded him of a seductive siren trying to lure an unwary soul to its death.
But hers was a death he’d gladly fall into. He’d steal a kiss from her poisoned lips with a smile upon his face even as he gasped his final breath.
There was no denying he loved her. Alice had changed his heart, his mind, made him find the beauty in a world full of chaos and madness. They’d been together a little over a year, and today was her birthday.
What could he possibly give her that she didn’t already own? His heart? She’d stolen it the moment she’d tossed the bread at the back of his head.
Another animal carving? He stared at his hands, at the long, blunt fingernails. These hands had traced the delicious curves of her breasts, her supple thighs, the long column of her throat...
Blood rushed through his veins, made his balls draw tight to his body and his cock ache. Just thinking about his mate made him dizzy, made him want. He always wanted her. Wanted to taste her, love her, and devote his life to showing her how truly precious she was to him.
And that’s when he knew...
A slow smile curved the corner of his lips as a mad, insane, and crazy idea began to form in his mind. She would love it. She would understand. He would show her his truest treasure, would give her the key to his undoing, the one thing he’d never shown another... Alice got him. She’d know what doing that meant. Alice would know because Alice knew him.
With a jaunty whistle, he straightened his crimson silk tie and fixed the bowler hat firmly upon his head. Turning on his heel, he went to make preparations for her surprise.
***
Alice lay atop the spongy coral and, with a yawn, unfurled her tired and deliciously sore body. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she patted the side of the bed where Hatter’s body should have been.
Shocked to note that his side was empty, she stared across the vast body of water. Hatter had a talent for finding the most out-of-the-way and secluded places in Wonderland to make love.
The brain coral garden was one of their favorites since nothing lived here. There was no chance of a flower honking at them as Hatter filled her body with his thickness. No chance of a woodpecker pecking wood as she moaned Hatter’s name in his ear over and over, driving her man to the point of frenzy. Licking her lips, she stood, staring at the perpetually azure sky above her, the glassy water beneath her, and frowned.
Where had he gone?
“Hatter?” She whispered his name. It wasn’t uncommon for Hatter to play games with her. He was the Mad Hatter after all, and trying to make sense of a man who often didn’t know whether up was down or down was up was about as pointless as trying to find an end to infinity. He simply was. She accepted it and moved on.
“Baby?” She spoke again, a little louder, shading her eyes from the bright glint of sunlight. But apart from the gentle breeze riffling her matted hair with its salt-scented fingers, there was nothing and no one around.
Just because he wasn’t around didn’t mean he couldn’t hear her. She and Hatter controlled Wonderland, twisted it to meet their needs. They controlled all within its environs.
Planting her hands on her hips, she pursed her lips. “Are you playing a game with me, sweetheart?”
A strong bolt of air suddenly whipped the water in front of her, lifting a thick funnel of it high and forming it into a shape. The shape started out oblong, but gradually it shifted, stretched, and pulled like taffy until what stood before her wasn’t just a column of water but a water replica of Hatter himself.
He was smiling, his eyes a sparkling sheen as they traveled down her very naked form. “Ravishing,” he muttered in that thick, whiskey drawl with a hint of a watery burble behind it. “I hated to leave you there, my love.”
Licking her lips, she took a step forward, craving his hands on her, his arms around her. A thousand days with Hatter would never be enough. She wanted everything. All of him, forever and ever and ever... Thankfully, that’s what they had. She belonged to Wonderland as much as he did, their stories forever entwined.
Tracing the tip of her nipple with her nail, she grinned. “Then come back to me, lover.”
His glassy features distorted into a mask of want and need as he lifted a turquoise hand. His fingers were cold and shocking against the heat of her skin as he palmed her breast in his hand, making her moan as she arched her back, giving him better access.
“I’ve never made love to you in this form, Hatter. I bet it’s wicked.”
His rumbling assent made her chuckle a very naughty sound.
“I would make you scream my name to the heavens,” he rumbled, stepping closer to her side.
Exhaling, stomach tickling with a heady throb of desire, she nuzzled the side of his ice-cold neck as her skin pricked from the delicious glass-like smoothness of his body.
Taking her mouth, he ran a wet tongue across her lips and with a moan of surprise she parted them for him, drinking in his frosty kiss like a woman starved, every cell in her body turning to liquid heat, wanting to meld with him. His tongue was like the nip of winter against her own, spurring her desire to incendiary levels.
“But as much as I wish we could, I have a surprise for you, my love,” he finally whispered, pulling away from her and making her whimper because she missed his touch, his cold, li
quid body brushing against her overheated flesh.
Stepping back as if he needed to put distance between them, he flashed his maddening, delicious grin. “You should dress.”
“Am I too tempting for you, my dear?” She pirouetted on her toes, tossing out her arms so that he could catch a glimpse of her from every side.
With a growl, he took yet another step back. “Alice,” he said, his voice shaking with a throaty rumble.
Laughing, she nodded. “Fine, you spoilsport. But I don’t see why we can’t have fun right here.”
His head cocked. “Do you not recall that today is your birthday?”
He looked genuinely perplexed, and that’s when it dawned on her that she hadn’t remembered. Frowning, a tiny twitch tugged at her lips.
“Now that you mention it, it completely escaped me. Time moves so differently here.” Excited for more than just his body, she licked her lips. “Have you gotten me something, Hatter?”
Even as a pillar of water, he was the most breathtaking man she’d ever known. Alice had loved him ever since the age of fourteen. There’d never been another for her and never would be.
The smile playing about his eyes was secretive, and now that the air wasn’t so sexually charged, he was able to take a step toward her. “I’ve shown you all my greatest treasures, Alice. All but one.”
Curiosity piqued, she cocked her head. “Hatter?” She used his name in place of the several questions hammering away at her skull. Like what could the mysterious treasure possibly be? Why hadn’t she ever heard of this great treasure? How could she have lived in Wonderland so long without hearing gossip, not even from the flowers, about this mystery?
He shook his head, pointing at her body. “Dress, my love.”
Nibbling on the corner of her lip and filled with crazy excitement, laughter bubbling in her throat from getting to discover a new facet of this wonderful man, she called on the power within herself.
Ever since Wonderland accepted her as its mistress, she’d learned to tap into the very essence of the land, to the core of its magic, the power that made it the strange and odd place that it was, the power that came from within the man standing before her.