Cruel as a Queen

by Kendra Moreno

  The flavor of it isn’t what I expect. I assumed blood would taste like pennies, like hell if I’m being honest, but it tastes nothing like the hell I know. Jab’s blood tastes like chocolate and roses, like something so other, I can’t comprehend it. My tongue darts out for a moment, and then I seal my lips against the cut.

  “Drink, Alice,” Jab groans above me, the sound sensual, causing something to stir low in my belly. “My powers will fuel you, strengthen you, and you will become something so much more.”

  His hand relaxes against my hair when I grab his wrist in my own hands, pulling more of the sweetness into my mouth. With each pull, I feel stronger and stronger, as if I can do exactly what he says.

  Finally, I pull away from his wrist and stare up into his eyes, my sight so clear, I blink a few times as if I can’t believe it. The fuzziness that I’ve always felt on the edges of my vision, the edges of my brain, are gone. The weakness I’ve felt for as long as I can remember is no longer in my bones.

  “What did you do to me?” The words come so easy, without thought, that I gasp and clamp my hand over my mouth. My voice is strong again. I stare down at my body and jump up, confused. The body I’ve known, frail and thin, is gone. I have curves, my bones no longer sticking through my skin anywhere at all. I’m completely different.

  “Welcome back, Alice,” Jab grins. Someone shouts outside, but they don’t try the office. Jab stands and steps up to me. I back up a few steps until I hit the desk with the back of my thighs. Jab slinks closer until he closes me in. I snarl like a caged animal, unsure of this new development, and for the first time, I feel the sharp teeth in my mouth, just like a vampire from the stories. What the hell? “So beautiful,” he groans, his hand clamping around my hip. White hot desire crashes through me, adrenaline making my heart beat a frantic rhythm inside my chest.

  “Who are you?” Jab isn’t a doctor, that much is clear now. My brain isn’t blocked anymore; my reasoning is sound now. No doctor would have been helping me this way.

  “Well, I’m not a doctor,” he admits, confirming my thoughts. He leans down and runs his lips against my collarbone. My breath stutters. “I’m a Jabberwocky.”

  “What’s a Jabberwocky?” I ask, groaning when he nips at my collarbone. I’m torn between wanting to push him away, to attack him, or drag him closer. I’ve never felt like this, strong, in control, sexy. One of my hands threads into his hair, holding him to me as his lips drag up my neck.

  “I’m a monster,” he whispers against my skin. “Feared by many. Powerful beyond belief. But I’m only as powerful as my mate, and I want you as my Queen.”

  “I’m not powerful.” He grinds his hardness against me in answer, and I groan.

  “You’re more powerful than any woman I’ve ever met, Alice.” He draws back just enough to look into my eyes. They transform into the yellow orbs again, but I’m not afraid. It only makes me want to conquer him. “And you’re mine.”

  I jerk his head back by his hair, surprised I have the strength to do so. “If I’m yours, then you are mine,” I snarl, violence whispering in my veins. My new teeth ache in my gums, and I strike at his neck without thinking, forcing him to stumble back. I cling to him on instinct, his hands cupping my ass, a harsh sensual groan on his lips.

  “Fuck.” He moves backwards and collapses on the couch, my teeth still at his jugular as I pull more of his sweetness into my mouth. Power flows inside me, lust following rapidly behind. I’m suddenly wearing too many clothes. We both are.

  As if he understands my thoughts–perhaps he does–he tears my shirt over my head, ripping me away from his neck. Blood drips down his skin, and when I pull his shirt apart, I watch as the red trails down his hard muscles. I lean forward and lick the blood away, up his pec, biting gently here and there.

  “Is this the freedom you’ve been offering?” I ask. I trail a hand down his abs to tear open his slacks, freeing his steel. “You said you believed me.”

  “I do,” he whispers, capturing my lips with his for a brief kiss. “We will return to Wonderland and slaughter them all. It’s so easy now. Hatter, White and Cheshire have been chosen as the Sons. Kill Wonderland, and they all die.”

  A pang hits my chest, but I don’t correct him. I won’t slaughter all of them. Jab isn’t my first love. There’s someone I would like answers from first, but now isn’t the time to bring that up. I’m still angry at the world, and killing them all sounds like the perfect punishment for their betrayal. I will make the Sons of Wonderland pay first. They’re the ones who have wronged me.

  Jab shoves my pants away from my body, his own kicked aside until we’re skin against skin, until his hard flesh bumps against my body. I expect him to take control. They always do, using me until their own pleasure is reached, and then I’m left alone, but Jab never takes control. Not in the way I expect. He lifts me by my hips and slowly coaxes me down on his length, until he fills me up from the inside out, until I can’t breathe for my emotions. I cling to his shoulders as I lift myself and slide him inside again. Again, and again, until a madness takes over, and I’m fucking him with wild abandon, my head thrown back in ecstasy.

  I scream out in pleasure as waves crash down upon me. Only then does Jab take control, after I’ve taken from him first. He lifts me and throws me down on the couch, flipping me over onto my stomach. I don’t have time to understand what he’s doing before he enters me again from behind, slamming into me hard enough to bruise. I cry out in pleasure as sharp pinpricks touch my hips, a fierce growl from his throat.

  Jab clenches a handful of my hair and jerks me backwards, my back bowing beneath his onslaught. He grips my neck in his hand and turns my head until his lips take mine in a furious kiss, so full of anger and dominance, cruelty and care. His lips leave mine and trail down to the skin between my shoulder and my neck, his tongue dancing across my skin.

  “My Queen,” he growls, animalistic, no evidence of the doctor from before. This is the monster he spoke of. The sound of it brings me to a violent climax. I scream in equal parts agony and ecstasy. His teeth sink into my skin as he slams inside me before finding his own release, pumping until we’re both spent and collapse to the couch in exhaustion.

  For the first time, I fall asleep in someone’s arms, warm, sated, and safe. I’ve never felt safer than I do now.

  Saints rarely are treated fairly. Sinners are even worse. If you’re not normal in this world, it treats you as a demon, as trash. I will no longer allow that treatment. I will burn the world to the ground around me, as long as I have my Jabberwocky by my side.

  I snuggle closer to Jab, his arms wrapped around me almost too tight. I don’t complain, my eyes sliding closed as the thought crosses my mind. This place has labeled me a monster. Jab labeled himself a monster. Two monsters, so close that you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins, hide in the office of an asylum.

  But when is a monster not a monster anymore?

  Such an easy answer.

  A monster is no longer a monster when you love it.

  Chapter 12

  Immortal

  When we wake up later, it’s to a violent jiggling of the doorknob followed by someone slamming against it. I jerk upright and cover myself, my heart beating hard inside my chest.

  I look down at Jab, his eyes open lazily as he smiles up at me.

  “Should we be worried about that?” I point at the door as someone slams against it again.

  “No.” He nuzzles against my side. The door rattles as the force hits it once more.

  “Open the door!” I don’t recognize the voice shouting, but more join the exclamation.

  “Are you sure?” I look down at Jab, his hair tousled from sleep and our earlier lovemaking.

  “What do you say we escape today?” he asks, kissing my skin. “How would you like to make them all pay?”

  I grin. “That sounds amazing.”

  Jab releases me and stands up, moving behind his desk and coming back out with a box. “Go
od. I have something for you to wear. Something you will wear as we storm Wonderland.” He sets it down and reaches inside before pulling out a blue dress, so similar to the one I wore when I was a child that I crinkle my brow.

  “Are you being serious?” It’s a little different cut, the skirt a little shorter than I would have worn when I was eight, far shorter than my mother would have ever approved of. It’s pale blue, cinched in at the waist, both innocent and sexy.

  “Come now, Alice. Don’t you want to look the part?”

  Hesitantly, I stand and take the dress from him, stepping into the outfit and pulling it on. He motions for me to turn, so I do, letting him zip me up in the dress. He kisses me on the back of the neck, turning me to face him. “When we’re in Wonderland, and you’re the Queen, I’ll dress you in the finest silks, the grandest jewels.”

  I smile just as someone slams against the door hard enough to shake the door frame. This time, the knife Jab presses into my hand isn’t the small pocket one. The knife looks like one used in a kitchen, large and imposing. It could cause some real damage. I curl my fingers around the handle and hold it.

  “Don’t stab me with that one,” he teases. “It would take a few minutes to heal, and I have a feeling the door won’t hold much longer.”

  Sure enough, the office door slams open upon the next impact, and I’m moving faster than I ever have before. I dodge the orderly swinging a crowbar and slam the knife into his chest. He drops before he even knows what happened. The other people waiting outside the office watch me warily, Jab standing behind me naked. I glance at him and raise my brow at his nudity. Is it really the time to be standing there like that?

  He grins and grabs a pair of slacks, different from the pair he was wearing before. He shrugs on a shirt just as I focus on the people in front of me. I fix my eyes on an orderly that’s been here since I was a little girl. He’s older now, slower. He’d never touched me in that way, but he raised his baton to me plenty. A sinister smile curls my lips.

  They scatter as I charge, screams rending the air as I drive the knife home into his heart. They’ve called me a monster my whole life. Now, they will see exactly what kind of monster they created.

  I don’t hesitate to dive towards a nurse close by. Her screams cut off abruptly as I slit her throat, her hands clutching the gaping skin as she slides to the floor. I glance back towards Jab, a wicked grin on my face. He smiles.

  “Go. You don’t need me. You’re plenty strong yourself. I’ll be right behind you.”

  I sprint into the chaos around me, swinging the knife at anyone who draws too close, who thinks they can take me on. As I go, I slam the release lock for all the doors, letting the lunatics free, giving everyone the freedom I’ve wanted for years. Some of them don’t immediately run out, thinking it’s some sort of test or trap. The younger ones dart for the open doorways immediately, searching for an escape amid the screams and death.

  “You will all pay for what you’ve done to me!” I snarl, swiping the knife across another neck. “You will all die.”

  There’s a little girl crouched on the floor, fifteen at most, her arms wrapped around her legs as she rocks back and forth. The poor thing is terrified, confused. I wonder how long she’s been here. I don’t recognize her, but that doesn’t mean anything. I haven’t been allowed to mingle with other patients in years. She could have been admitted as young as I was.

  I squat down beside her slowly, careful not to startle her. Bright-green eyes look up into mine. I see terror there, and fury. I see myself in her gaze.

  “Are you angry?” I whisper gently. I was once this girl. I understand her.

  “Y . . . yes.”

  I hold out the bloody knife to her. They hadn’t even given her pants and a top like I’d had. The poor girl is in nothing but a hospital gown.

  “Then do something about it.”

  The girl reaches forward, her hand shaking, and closes her fist around the handle of the knife. Her green eyes speak of thank you’s and determination, and I know she will escape this place like I wasn’t able to. I give her the tiniest smile. Coated in blood, I must look terrifying, but the little girl smiles back before standing up and racing in the direction I came from. It’s not the way out, but I trust she’ll find the exit.

  I stand and continue my massacre, swiping newfound claws at those who dare to get too close. When an orderly holds out a needle to sedate me, I rip his throat out with my teeth, his blood giving me a small amount of power. Nothing like Jab’s but something. I revel in the feeling of it.

  I only make one other stop on my way out, in the storage room where they keep the items we come in with. I only have three things in my bag, still here after all these years. The dress I’d been wearing when I was admitted, a necklace my mother had given me for my sixth birthday, and the book Alex had given me. My copy of the Princess and the Knave is still in good condition after being sealed inside the bag. I tuck it away safely and leave the room.

  As I make my way to the exit, my mind thinks on the girl I’d given the knife to again. Years ago, that was me. Desperate, hopeful, waiting for someone to save her. I would have killed for freedom, and now she will do the same. For a second, I worry about her safety, if I should go back in for her, but I dismiss the idea.

  Besides, Jab is back that way. He would never hurt the child.

  As I slam through the asylum, killing anyone who gets in my way, I finally make it to the front doors. When I push them open, and the sunlight hits my face for the first time in a long time, I close my eyes and breathe deeply.

  A monster seeks nothing but freedom.

  I’m free.

  Chapter 13

  Immortal

  Freedom isn’t what I expected. I assumed the moment I walked through the doors of that asylum and into the sunshine, it would all be easier, that this was the moment I could truly start to live.

  I was wrong.

  My face is plastered across every paper, my name on every radio station. Everywhere I go, I see my face on a poster with the words WANTED bolded across the top. I’m still in a prison of someone else’s making. I can’t go into a restaurant and enjoy myself. I can’t do anything. My name is forever linked to the Asylum Massacre, where I left the building and forty bodies behind.

  The one bright spot in my world is Jab.

  During the day, he leaves me alone to fend for myself, searching for White. He says he’s looking for a way to lure White to open his rabbit hole into Wonderland. I have no reason not to trust him. At night, he comes back to me, curling into whatever bed we share. Then he’s gone with the sunrise, a new stack of cash sitting on the nightstand for me.

  That’s been our system for three weeks, never deviating from it. We move towns every few days, making sure no one can recognize me. It’s on day twenty-three when Jab comes home in the middle of the daytime, breaking the system we’ve followed. My first thought is that something is wrong, that we need to take off earlier than usual to avoid being found. I refuse to go back to a prison, and I won’t. I’ll kill anyone who thinks to try.

  “What’s happened?” I ask, standing from my place on the couch. I’d been reading my book for the hundredth time, memorizing it again after having been apart from the story for twenty-five years.

  “I found him.”

  “Who?”

  “The White Rabbit, of course.”

  Surprise fills me, but I’m not sure why. Jab has proven to me again and again that he’s isn’t a part of this world any more than I am. He has his own powers. It shouldn’t be difficult to find the White Rabbit and convince him to take us to Wonderland.

  “Well, where is he?” I ask, raising my brow.

  “He’s been frequenting a particular bar. I have a feeling his clock is telling him to be there, but he doesn’t know why. I think he’s waiting for you.”

  “Why on earth would he be waiting for me?” White had never once indicated that he was here to find me. He’d purposely left me in the asylum,
no matter how hard I begged for help. He’d let them hurt me.

  “I think Wonderland wants you home, Alice.” Jab grins before picking up the blue dress again. He hadn’t let me throw it out, but at least I had washed it after our escape. Now, it’s as blue as it was before it had been covered in blood. “It’s time to put on your dress.”

  “Do I really have to wear that?” I groan. I hate the dress. It reminds me too much of the gullible girl I’d been, wishing for the White Rabbit to take me away.

  “We’ve discussed this. It’s poetic.”

  “It’s stupid.”

  Jab’s lip curls, and I glare, but I ultimately grab the dress and humor him. If it wasn’t for the Jabberwocky, I would still be stuck in that dirty room, wasting away, forgotten. Because he set me free, I can do something as simple as wear a childish blue dress. “Fine. When do we leave?”

  “Right now. He’s due there any moment.”

  “How do you know it’s him?”

  He raises one brow at me. “How do I know the man with rabbit ears on his head and silver eyes is really the White Rabbit?”

  I smile as I pull on the blue dress. “Zip me up, please.”

  He does so without hesitation, pulling the closure up slowly, brushing his fingers the smallest amount against my skin. It’s always a sensual action, something I love him doing. As per normal, he kisses me on the neck when he finishes and steps away.