Chapter 18
eighteen
. . .
How did you break a rabbit out of a high security vampire prison? First, you have to get rid of your bodyguards. If you can’t get rid of them, you have to convince them to help you.
“You can’t talk to the White Rabbit,” Straldi said, tentacle beard twitching as he studied me on the other side of the charcuterie board in Drigo’s basement cave.
I gave him my most appealing smile. “But he knows the most about the Mad Hatter.”
He gave me a sharp fanged smile. “And yet, you can’t talk to the White Rabbit.”
“But if you’ll just…”
He actually put his hand over my mouth, the irritating, slimy, not terribly bad tasting fish man. He tasted more like Swedish fish than actual fish. His rainbow eyes swirled as he stared at me. “No. Absolutely not.”
I bit down, unthinkingly. He leapt away from me, horror written on every one of his tentacles as they twined and twirled in panic and he held his hand where I’d left a bloody gash.
His blood didn’t taste so good. My tongue started to tingle and then go numb. I slumped back on the couch and stared at the ceiling while my extremities got weird. Tingly.
“Dorian!” Straldi’s voice was panicked.
The door crashed open and Dorian stalked in, looking like a pre-erupted volcano upside down from my position on the couch. He leapt over the rail and then was there, practically on top of me as he checked my pupils.
“What did you do to my Queen?” He ran his velvety fingers over my cheek and throat, resting the tips on my rapidly beating heart.
“I didn’t think she’d bite me!”
Dorian lifted his head to snarl at Straldi before he returned his focus on me.
“Precious love, you can’t die on me. Not now.
” He slashed chunks of flesh from his arm and put it against my lips.
What was he doing? Everything was buzzy and weird, but it seemed like I shouldn’t eat him.
He’d hate me if I knew I was an angel. But he tasted so perfect, and…
the world faded away into dreams and fog until everything turned to black.
And then he was kissing me. His skin was on mine and he was kissing me like his life depended on it. Fangs pricked my lips, then my throat, then my heart.
I gasped a breath and then my hands were in his silky hair, grabbing his king spikes and kissing him like there was nothing else in the world.
He burned under my fingers, but I wanted more heat, more contact.
All of it. I was drowning in this world and I needed to drown in him so that everything made sense.
Which didn’t make sense, but what did in this mad, mad world?
I kissed him hard, pressing against him, knocking him onto the table, knocking the charcuterie board on the floor.
I didn’t care. I needed him with every particle of my being.
I tasted his tongue, and bit deeper, tearing into his lips and tasting the sweet addictive syrup of his blood.
His heat ran through me, burning away all the pain, fear, and misery, leaving me with a bubbling euphoria that grew when I pressed my teeth to the side of his throat.
His wings wrapped around me, and then in that little cinnamon bear cave, while I devoured him, he whispered words in a language I didn’t know, kissing me and touching me while I ripped him apart.
Then he gasped like someone had stuck him with a pin and arched back, away from me, bare chest, gouges in his neck and face that left him almost unattractive in the most attractive way. Wait. I’d just eaten him. What did that mean? And Wilkie. What…
He convulsed three times and then melted to the ground in a puddle of molten lava.
“Well that was unexpected,” I said to no one, and then the lava puddle shivered, shook and then came together, lunging up to reform into this massive lava bear that dripped liquid cinnamon metal as it moved, shaking itself, sending droplets of molten sweetness around the demon den while he fixed his flickering gaze on me.
A bear was in the den with me. He was much larger than a polar bear, with molten fur and a spiked crown and tail.
He sat on his enormous haunches and looked at one paw then another, before fixing me with a raised brow. “What in tarnation is this supposed to be?” It was Dorian’s voice with the rumblings of a natural phenomenon. Dorian was a bear? And he said tarnation? I wasn’t sure which was weirder.
I blinked at him. “Tarnation? I don’t know what that is, but you’re a full-size cinnamon bear.
Are you going to metamorphize into a new weird thing every time I…
” I took a shaky breath. He knew I’d eaten him.
Only one thing tried to eat demons and succeeded.
I licked my lips. Maybe I could get his blood off and then…
He leaned forward, large nostrils snuffing at me. “I think it’s time to talk.” He nosed me, and I grabbed onto his head so I wouldn’t fall over.
“Talk? About what?” I asked, staring into those molten lava eyes and feeling my own heart quiver.
He was such an absolutely terrifying teddy bear.
His eyes were so big, and he was so deadly.
Also so cute! I stroked the fur on his cheeks, the lava fur, but like his fireplace, it didn’t burn me, just felt incredibly good.
He turned his head and roared, “Regis!”
The chaos demon showed up almost immediately, took one look at Dorian, screeched and then fell down the stairs until he rolled into a basket of gears and hard candy.
Everything went over onto the floor, including the Candy Man demon who just sat in a puddle of chaos and stared at Dorian like he’d never seen a teddy bear demon before.
“Why did my queen bite Straldi?”
Regis shifted uncomfortably, not meeting my eyes before he murmured, “She was trying to get him to help her talk to the White Rabbit. He brought up his hand to stop her, and she bit him.”
Dorian the bear swung his huge head back at me, eyes flickering madly like the ones in the fireplace. “Why would you want to see the White Rabbit?”
“Um. It was a vision Gloria had. He’s on my side, and if we’re going to war and freeing Wilkie, we’ll need help from someone who knows the Mad Hatter.”
“Frisco!” the bear Dorian roared while I flinched and my ears rang.
The large demon came in, stopping at the top of the stairs to look at the scene spread out below him. He was wearing his chef hat, which was interesting with his demonic skin. He nodded. “We’re going to war then. Good. My Queen will be kind enough to bite the soldiers.”
“What? Why would I do that?”
Dorian nudged me with that huge head, knocking me back a step before I sank my fingers in his lava fur and steadied myself. He was so soft. And felt as good as he smelled. And tasted, but I wasn’t going to mention that.
Dorian growled, “You don’t have to bite anyone you don’t want to bite. Frisco would like an easy win, which means unbeatable soldiers. Your bite will give them that, but you don’t touch anyone you don’t want to touch.”
I stared at Dorian Bear while my heart beat too fast. He was saying that I was an angel, and he knew I was an angel, and hadn’t said anything for all these weeks when I’d been walking on eggshells!
I punched him in the nose. “You knew I was an angel all this time? Why didn’t you say anything?”
He blinked his big pretty eyes and the flames seemed to settle down. “I didn’t want to tell you anything you didn’t already now in case it stressed you out.”
“But you hate angels! Dorian, I’m an angel.
The kind you hate. Wilkie’s our son. And I couldn’t save him.
I can’t save anyone. And I want you to go to war and get him back.
But if that kills all the demons and destroys the world, settling loose a zombie apocalypse on the earth, you probably should just kill me instead. ”
His paws landed on my shoulders, heavy weight that grew heavier and heavier as his enormous paws covered my shoulder and arms past my elbows.
His paws were killer. Literally. They also had molten lava tipped claws.
Big. Scary. So, he was going to kill me then.
About time someone put me out of my misery. Except that wouldn’t save Wilkie.
“You want me to go to war?”
That’s what he got out of that? I craned my neck to look at him. His eyes were mesmerizing, cinnamon with flickers of molten gold in a ring around his fathomless pupil. “Only if it doesn’t destroy our world.”
“The Hatter was given the demon world for his service in the Queen’s army. To go to war against him would reclaim my world.” His voice was a low growl that sent a wave of alarm down my spine.
“I’m an angel.”
His eyes flickered brighter for a moment before settling down. “No, you’re an original. You should probably make a point of keeping that to yourself.” He squeezed me a little tighter then released me and dropped onto all four paws.
“You really knew?” I stared at him, heart and stomach twisting around each other.
He gave me the most adorable terrifying bear smile. “The only thing I don’t know is why you named our son Wilkie.”
“Ah.” Was it a bad name? I studied him, but he wasn’t moving, didn’t seem like he was breathing, either.
What was he doing? Growing more adorable.
Cinnamon bears had always been my favorite, but this creature was just so cuddly.
Right at that second, I could have used years and years of cuddling.
Wait, all this time he knew what I was and he didn’t say anything even though I was sure he’d hate me?
I scowled at him. “It’s a cute name. The cutest.”
His tongue lolled over his viciously terrifying teeth. Suddenly, he licked the side of my face. “Very cute. You ate Regis. I’m sure that was also cute.”
I wiped my face with the back of my arm, but it hadn’t been a slobbery thing, just warm and delicious. I cleared my throat. “The Regis thing was horrifying, actually. Really, really, really awful.” I shuddered at the memory.