Madness of the Hatter

CHAPTER ONE

ALIX

"I like that man's hat. It's shiny and tall like in the storybooks. Nobody wears a hat like that anymore."

Heart suddenly pounding wildly, Alix scanned the pedestrians filling the street around them. "What man?" She squeezed Alyss' small hand a little too tightly. "Where do you see him?"

"He's just there." A small finger pointed across the street.

Alix stared where Alyss pointed. People moved around a particular spot, like it was occupied. He had to be there. She remembered the last time she'd seen him. When she was seven, he'd worn a red suit and top hat.

Wonderland and its inhabitants didn't conform to rules of the normal world, and she couldn't protect Alyss' against an unseen threat. She would not let her cousin be taken.

Resigned, Alix imagined the locked door in her mind behind which she kept the part of her that had never left Wonderland. It might be more accurate to admit part of Wonderland had never left her.

An ornate, old-fashioned, brass doorknob elongated to reveal a keyhole. Alix imagined a shiny, golden key, inserted it into the lock, and turned it with a click.

What should have been an insignificant noise sounded like a thunderclap. She twisted the knob. The door opened an inch and stopped. Something giggled from the other side, and the door creaked open a little more.

A wild presence peeked around the edge of the door. Sensing freedom, it sidled out, little feet scuffing in tentative steps.

Oh, seven-year-old Alix said. We are much bigger now.

The older Alix struggled not to be overwhelmed by curiosity as her younger self whirled through their mind.

Hatter. She fought to keep her thoughts on target. We need to see Hatter.

We can't see him? the little Alix asked. Why ever not? He is quite tall. Not a mile high, but when he wears his high hat, almost!

Alix snorted. I'll give you six-and-a-half feet. Maybe seven with the hat. But how can I see him?

Then we must simply not believe it is not possible. How will we ever see six impossible things before breakfast if we simply cannot see them?

Trying to follow that way of thinking lay madness. With a mental shrug, Alix tried to take her own advice without thinking too much. Leaving her seven-year-old self free to roam made her nervous, but Alix might need her help again.

I don't believe I can't see him.

Alix focused her eyes on the place Alyss pointed. Across the street, the air shimmered like a heat mirage in the desert. Then, there he was.

Hatter stood in the previously empty space, watching them like a creepy pervert.

Well, to be fair, he wasn't watching them.

His eyes were on the seven-year-old, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl at her side. Looks all the Liddle women shared.

A run-of-the-mill creep would be almost welcome.

Hatter was something else entirely, and far more dangerous.

A run-of-the-mill creep could be dispatched by a phone call to the police. They took even remote threats to young children seriously enough to at least ask a few questions and warn potential danger away.

There was no easy way to be rid of Hatter.

He stood out once she'd spotted him. His clothes were outdated. In a crowd of people dressed in trainers and dungarees, he wore an old-fashioned suit in dark blue, a matching tall hat, and a long high-collared black coat that reached the tops of his shiny black boots.

Straight red hair parted in the middle to frame his face. Piercing green eyes, that seemed old and young at the same time, returned her stare.

He was as huge as she recalled, well over six-feet tall, with broad shoulders. She'd thought that might be different now that she was grown up and not a seven-year-old girl forced to look up at everyone.

The sword sheathed at his hip was new. He hadn't carried a weapon the last time she saw him. Not that she remembered, anyway. It had been nearly sixteen years since she'd been to Wonderland. Things must have changed.

On the crowded city street, people moved around him without paying him any attention, like they couldn't see him, but somehow knew he was there. Acknowledging that he was aware she'd seen him, he touched his hat with two fingers in a salute to her.

"Come on Alyss." Alix tugged her cousin's hand and hurried her around the next corner. "Let's get home. It looks like rain and I need to get dinner started."

Her cousin lifted her face to the cloudless blue sky and raised an eyebrow. "After we get ice cream?" she bargained.

"Okay. Ice cream, then home." They'd planned to spend the day out, but now Alix had things to take care of. Hatter hadn't tried to talk to Alyss yet. They always tried to talk girls into going willingly at first.

Content with the new arrangement, Alyss nodded and let Alix pull her along the street.

Why had he come instead of the White Rabbit? That was who Alix had been keeping a watch for since her cousin turned seven a few days ago.

Every girl in the Liddle family disappeared soon after her seventh birthday. Sometimes it was only for an hour or two. When it was longer, the girls weren't the same when they came back. If they returned.

A few never had.

Or so the legend went. The Liddle women spoke of the stories, but not the men. The fathersB, brothers, and sons in the family never saw anything.

Mother seemed to be fine until Alix turned five. Then the talk of white rabbits, smoking caterpillars, grinning cats, croquet playing queens, madness, and Hatter had begun.

Alix had spent her fifth year terrified to set foot outside the house. When she turned six, her mother had lost her mind, and taken to moving to a new place every month.

Think of it as turning over a new leaf, mother always said. It was her go-to-that-explains-everything adage.

When Father put his foot down, Mother left him and started locking Alix in closets. After a month of that, Alix had been willing to risk meeting one of the monsters if it would save her from being shut away by herself in a small, dark space.

A week after her seventh birthday, Father found them and sent Mother to a hospital for convalescence. He'd finally agreed with his wife that at least one person was mad.

Mother had never come home. In spite of all her precautions, on that same day, Alix had been taken to Wonderland, caught by the White Rabbit that Mother had warned her about.

She'd been curious at first, and followed the White Rabbit readily enough, but when she refused to go any farther, he hadn't hesitated to grab her and jump into the rabbit hole, taking her with him.

When Alix had returned, she'd been confused but unharmed, and made three resolutions.

The first -- to never speak about what happened in Wonderland. It hadn't been difficult. The more time passed, the more it all seemed like a fragmented dream she could barely remember.

The second -- to never be taken anywhere against her will again. She'd taken multiple self-defense classes and paid attention to her surroundings. That Hatter could show up and she'd missed spotting him was worrying.

The third -- to never have children, thinking that would end the curse the women of her family lived under.

Neither she, nor her father, had known about Mother's sister, who lived across the pond. When she died under mysterious circumstances, they'd been contacted about a six-year-old girl who needed care. No father in the picture. Alix found herself in the position of needing to protect a small girl, but had no intention of duplicating the treatment she had received at that age.

Home-schooling, a bracelet with a GPS tracker embedded inside it, and no strangers at the house, were as far as she was willing to take things. Father went along, because unless things went to an extreme, he always went along with her requests. He didn't like confrontation.

At the ice cream shop, Alyss happily ate a triple scoop with butterscotch and sprinkles while they sat at a table in the back that let Alix see the street but had no easy view inside.

No Hatter.

Better to be sure.

"Alyss, let's play the spy game on the way home."

Her cousin's blue eyes lit up. She leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially in the loud tone children used when they thought they were being quiet. "I love the spy game."

As far as Alix knew, kidnappers from Wonderland didn't know how to drive. After ice cream, she ordered an Uber and took it to a shopping mall, where they went in one door and out another to catch a second car to the bus station, where they caught a taxi to go home.

As the black cab moved away from the curb, Alix bent to her cousin. "Did you see any suspicious characters?"

"Nope." Blonde curls shook from side to side. "And I didn't see anyone wearing the same clothes twice."

"Good job. Me either."

A sense of unease wasn't so easy to leave behind.

Their three-story brick home sat in the middle of an estate that included woods and a stream. Father's family had money, and at one point, he'd thought Mother needed space. A formidable wrought-iron fence enclosed the whole property, and a state of the art alarm protected the house.

Alix made macaroni and cheese for her American cousin, delivered dinner to her father in his study, helped Alyss with her math homework, and went through the normal bedtime routine. When her cousin lay snugly tucked in bed, Alix turned off the lights and moved to close the curtains across the window overlooking the backyard.

Moonlight reflected off the shiny blue hat of the man standing at the black wrought-iron fence on the border of their property. She sighed. Of course he knew where they lived. But how? Unless they'd been somehow tracking Alyss before she moved in with them. Or... magic.

It was Wonderland, after all.

All the stories mentioned girls being taken from outside, and her mother thought being in the house was safe. Maybe rabbit holes only worked outdoors.

Alix closed the curtains and went into her room. She donned a jumper over her black jeans and hoodie pullover, then added pepper spray, brass knuckles, a folding knife, a stun gun, and a collapsible baton to her pockets.

Maybe it was overkill just to go outside, but better safe than sorry.

She debated retrieving the gun from the safe in the study, but Father was still in there. He didn't pay attention to much, but he'd notice her opening the safe. What she had was probably enough to drive Hatter away for at least a night. There was time to get the firearm later.

A quick peek into Alyss' room showed the girl sleeping peacefully in her bed. Downstairs, Alix shut off the alarm and slipped into the yard.

Should have asked Father to get a guard dog. Several big ones with extra sharp teeth.

One hand on her pepper spray, Alix walked across the yard with as much confidence as she could muster.

Hatter watched her approach, seemingly unconcerned. Up close, his five o'clock shadow emphasized his high cheekbones. The scent of freshly brewed apple tea and something wild wafted to her.

"Go away, Hatter."

He gave her a smile she couldn't interpret. Not quite smug, not quite genuine. "Little, we were friends last time we saw each other."

Little. She'd forgotten the men in Wonderland called her that. It irked her. "I didn't know better then."

Hatter put a hand over his heart. "You wound me."

"Just leave. Why do you need her anyway? From what I remember, it was a couple of days of eating cake and I was back home. If you ask me, there's something wrong with a bunch of men who need to kidnap little girls to round out the numbers at their table."

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "You can let me take her with me, or I can take her with me. One way or another, I'm not leaving without my Little."

"Or, you could take me." The words startled her. Why had she said that? It had to be the influence of her seven-year-old self. The more she thought about it though, the more the idea appealed to her. What better way to stop the kidnappings than at the source? If she stopped Hatter here, someone else would come for Alyss.

"I'm not sure that's in the rules."

Alix laughed. "Are there rules in Wonderland?"

"If you understand them."

"Excellent. Well, I don't understand why I can't go in her place. So if that is that rule, then it doesn't apply to me if understanding is the requisite."

Hatter curved his lips in a sneer. Or maybe it was a smirk. "Very well. You can take her place, but we leave now." He snapped his fingers and pointed to his feet. "Come, Little."

Alix would have gone without a fight, but snapping his fingers at her like she was some pet, and pointing at his feet like she should kneel or heel, snapped her temper.

She stepped toward the fence, drew her fist back, and launched a punch toward his nose.

CHAPTER TWO

HATTER

Maybe he'd pushed the Little a little too far, but he couldn't help himself. She was so determined to be in control, and he'd wanted to see it slip.

He caught her fist in his hand right before it smashed into his nose. A jolt traveled up his arm from the impact. The Little wasn't fooling around. She was prepared to hurt him.

Beyond the physical touch, something else ran under his skin at the contact. A sense of sanity and himself returned to his broken mind. He hadn't felt this rational in hundreds of years.

And not only rational. Lust woke parts of him that had never been dormant as long as his sanity. He stared at her full, pink lips and imagined how soft her mouth would be when she yielded to his kiss. How soft all of her would be under him as he --

"Stop that." Her words were breathy.

He blinked. As his thoughts had turned from adversarial to sexy, his fingers had laced with hers, thumb stroking the pale skin of her wrist.

Alix tried to pull away from him, but he kept their hands together, not willing to fall back into madness. He had enough magic to show off a bit.

"If you're taking the little Liddle's place, we're leaving right now." He needed her. Felt it in his bones.

Among other places.

"But --"

Sending his magic out, he didn't believe in the fence, making it intangible, and pulled her through what she still saw as solid. Alix resisted, but he tugged harder. She gasped as she crashed into him and he held her against his body. He snapped his fingers again -- this time to open the rabbit hole.

She tilted her head back and glared at him. "How are we going to get to Wonderland?"

Couldn't she see the rabbit hole behind him? He glanced over his shoulder to make sure he hadn't imagined it. The hole was there -- a black hole burrowed into the earth.

This is why they didn't bring adults to Wonderland anymore. They were blind to what they didn't want to see. But Alix was different. She saw him.

She hadn't at first, but as soon as the little Liddle had pointed him out, Alix had seen him. Maybe that's what they needed -- someone who saw the obvious when it was pointed out to her.

And there was something about her. She was fierce. Prepared to fight him for the little Liddle. They could definitely use another fighter.

He gave in. Lowering his head to the crook of her neck, he inhaled the citrus-y scent of his favorite tea.

Tea.

When was the last time he'd smelled tea? Even longer since he'd savored the taste of it. Trailing his nose up her neck, he slid one hand to the back of her head to cup her nape, and kissed her.

Alix stiffened against him, hands pressing against his chest, her mouth opening, probably to yell at him some more. But he took it as an invitation and swept his tongue inside. Her hands stopped pushing, fingers curling into the fabric of his jacket. She moaned and he swallowed the sound.

The kiss grew wild as she turned aggressive. She licked at his lips, her teeth nipping not so gently as she pulled him toward her.

He went, bracing her against the now-solid-again fence and shoving his thigh between hers. Her hips moved against him, rubbing her sex over his muscled thigh.

Magic exploded under his skin, traveling from him over Alix. Eyes wide, she watched the silver tendrils whirling around her. All at once, the magic halted its dance and streamed into her body.

She arched, bowing her back, pushing her breasts into his chest. Alix moaned, moving frantically as she rode his thigh. "Need. I need --" Words failed her, devolving into a tortured groan.

"You need to come? You want me to make you come, Alix?"

She nodded.

Hatter unbuttoned her jeans, eased the zipper down, and slid his fingers into her panties. The blue of her eyes darkened as he ran his fingertips through the abundance of slickness between her legs.

Another pull on him. His magic. She was taking more from him.

"No, no, Little. Wrap your hands around the fence, spread your legs, and hold still." He needed some sort of control. Needed her to know the pleasure came from him. He wasn't just a means to an end for her to get off.

She snarled but obeyed. He penetrated her with two fingers. Making it slow. Making her feel him inside her.

His thumb made delicate circles over her clit. A touch she could feel. But not enough for her.

Alix growled at him. Actually growled at him. His cock hardened even more. Relenting, he added the pressure she needed as he thrust his fingers deeper inside her.

"Yes. More. Please. I need --"

"Eyes on me, Little." He kept his eyes open as he kissed her again. Her blue eyes swirled with silver and she tasted of magic. The kind of magic that had created Wonderland in the first place.

Primal. Wild. Ancient. Powerful.

Alix cried out into his mouth as her heated sheath clenched and rippled around his fingers.

The scent of tea thickened in the air until it coated his tongue and he nearly came along with her.

Hatter caught Alix as she lost consciousness, sweeping her into his arms like a bride. No way was he leaving her behind now.

He jumped into the rabbit hole and the Liddle became an Alice.

Hatter fell, already wondering if this was the right thing to do. Someone once told him the definition of insanity was to do the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome. But in Wonderland, things rarely happened twice with the same result, even when he wanted them to.

Plus, he was losing his mind, so if he was already insane, did it matter if he did the same thing over and over expecting things to be different?

If he did something different, would that make things the same?

Had anyone brought an adult into Wonderland recently? Most adults couldn't see rabbit holes, White Rabbits, or Hatters, mad or otherwise, which is why only the young Alices would do.

It was a lot of work carrying a grown up Alice. She hadn't seen the rabbit hole, so she couldn't jump into it.

Which meant he had to jump for both of them.

This Alice didn't look heavy, but her adultness weighed him down. It was taking forever to fall through the rabbit hole. If she was really heavy, sanity said they should fall faster, not slower.

Maybe his insanity was contagious as a Dormouse yawn and even falling could catch it.

Or, perhaps this Alice needed to have many un-birthdays, so she could be young again.

Although, he liked this older Alice. She was curvy and all woman. And off-limits.

He needed her for one thing, and --

His feet thumped into the earth as he reached the bottom of the rabbit hole. Taken by surprise, he stumbled, rolling them to bleed off momentum, ending with him sprawled atop her.

Pressed to her like this, it was difficult to remember the one thing he needed her for was not sex.

Hatter fixed her clothing, climbed to his feet, and shifted Alice in his arms, glad, for the moment, she wouldn't see what had become of his Wonderland.

The tree in front of them was dying. Had been for ages, but more rapidly lately. Its skeletal frame towered over them. Dried, cracked bark hung in strips, revealing bare patches of blackening trunk.