Chasing Cats

by ERIN BEDFORD

  “Ignore her.”

  I was inclined to do just that, but Alice usually didn’t leave the TV for just any old reason.

  “It might be important.” I moved away from the tantalizing hands making their way into my clothing and reached for the door. Giving Chess one more long appreciative look, I slipped out the door and into the hallway.

  The smile on my face fell flat when I saw Alice. She had used her powers to transform the yoga pants and t-shirt back into a dark blue tea dress, complete with a little hat and gloves. The change of attire wasn’t all that was worrying. The anxious expression and the way she kept looking back toward the living room made me frown harder.

  “What is it, Alice?”

  “You are usually at that job of yours right now, but you aren’t.” She wrung her hands together, as if not sure of her own words.

  “I know. I woke up late. Not that it matters, anyway. They fired me.” I rolled my eyes and held back a snort.

  “That’s good. A princess shouldn’t have to work.” The worry on her face thankfully decreased at that notion but was still there.

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “Well, in this world, princesses don’t get paid. Not that I could tell them I was a princess, anyway.”

  “I do not know why the Fae don’t just come out, anyway. It is ridiculous that they must hide in their world.” She seemed less distracted and more focused on me now that the conversation was moving along. I wondered what had spooked her so much.

  “Really? Could you imagine what would happen? I’m surprised there hasn’t been anything on the news already.” I shook my head at the thought of it. A national alert would no doubt throw the entire United States into a panic, causing them to arm up for the end of the world. No doubt shooting at Shadows would cause more trouble than need be. “I don’t think the world is ready for the Fae to come out of the closet just yet.”

  “I could not agree more, but we may not have a choice.” I turned from Alice to find what she had been so nervous about. Standing at the end of the hallway was none other than my fiancé.

  “Why do you say that?” I walked toward him. My eyes stayed on his form, and I tried not to look back at the bedroom door where Chess lay in wait. The last thing I needed was a confrontation between my old lover and my new one.

  “I just came from the Between.” He followed me back into the living room, and he continued, “The guards are dead.”

  “Dead? Not taken?” Alice spoke up, but when Dorian looked at her, she turned away.

  “Not this time. Their bodies were left where they were killed. Though, some of the parts were missing.”

  “Parts?” I gulped, not liking the sound of it.

  “Their heads have yet to be found.” Dorian shook his head, his black hair falling into his face. “I do not know if this is some sick joke the Shadows are playing, or if it is something else altogether, but I do know that no one is manning the doors right now. So anyone could be getting into your realm.”

  I twisted my hair in my hands, thinking about what he had said. If their heads were missing, it couldn’t have been the Shadows; it wasn’t really their style. Unless. It was a message to my mother. I had just trampled all over her and her guards but killing her own people didn’t make sense.

  It could have been a message to my mother. Which, knowing what I knew now about what lengths she would go to for power, I had no doubt someone would hold that kind of grudge against her. Even the Shadows.

  Looking back up to Dorian, I opened my mouth to tell him my thoughts when he took a step closer to me. A weird look settled on his face.

  “What is that?” He sniffed the air around me, his nose scrunching up in disgust.

  Before I could figure out what the hell he was talking about, the bedroom door opened.

  “While I am perfectly happy lying in your bed all day, I could do with some clothes, pet.”

  I spun around to find Chess with only a sheet wrapped around his waist and a smirk on his face.

  My mouth hung open like a fish as I looked back and forth between the two Fae men. I knew nothing good could come from having them both in the same room. I knew from the rage that began to cloud Dorian’s face, that there was no talking my way out of it this time.

  “You slept with this — this thing?” Dorian pointed his finger at Chess. “After you told me you needed a break to figure things out!”

  “I did. I do.” I sighed.

  “What she means, is she needs a break from you,” Alice supplied, and then gave me a small helpful smile.

  Returning her smile with a glare, I growled out, “Don’t help me.”

  “Is what the girl says true?” Dorian turned his scorching glare from Chess to me.

  I was tired of dancing around the truth with him.

  “What Alice said is sort of true, but what I said was true as well. I am trying to figure things out. And while you are complicated, Chess, he’s…” I trailed off, gesturing to Chess, who looked like he was about to burst at the seams in glee.

  “An easy fuck? Or do you mean convenient?” His lips twisted into a crude snarl.

  “Yes. No.” Frustrated, I grab my hair wanting to scream.

  “Then what is he?” Dorian demanded, moving a step closer into my personal space. Chess moved close as well. Looking into Chess’ face, he snarled. “What is he if not meaningless sex to you?”

  Before I could even think about it, before I even knew it was there, my mouth had a life of its own, and I blurted out, “I love him, okay!”

  Dead silence. I couldn’t believe I had just said that, and in front of my ex, for crying out loud. I hadn’t even admitted it to myself, and now here I was spouting it out for all to hear like it was no big deal.

  “You love me?” Chess’ voice was unsure and surprised.

  Embarrassed and suddenly a bit shy, I glanced up at him. “Yeah, I do.”

  A dozen emotions ran across Chess’ face. Happiness. Relief. Then suddenly it switched to what could be only described as fear, anger, and finally sadness. I could have sworn he was going to say it back to me, but instead, a flirty smile crept onto his face, and I knew what was going to come out of his mouth was not what I wanted to hear.

  “That’s so sweet. I’m flattered really.” He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear with a smile.

  Anger and overwhelming confusion filled me. I shoved his clawed hand away from me and took a step back. Chess frowned at me and then leaned down to kiss my cheek.

  “I’ll go put some clothes on while you take care of this.” He gestured to the area around Dorian and then proceeded to glide out of the room as if he hadn’t just humiliated me.

  The moment Chess left, Dorian turned on me. “See? What do you expect from a half-breed?”

  “Dorian.” Exasperated at the whole situation, I spun on him. “Just shut the fuck up, and get the hell out of my house!”

  I stomped away from him, not caring what he did or said anymore. As far as I was concerned, he was my past, and the only thing I cared about was the man that had just lied to me.

  I stormed into the bedroom.

  “What the hell was that?” I kept my eyes on him and not on his naked behind as he surveyed his shredded clothing.

  “What?” He glanced over his shoulder, a clueless expression on his face, before he sighed and dropped his clothes. “I suppose I could always glamour my clothing on until I can get some more. Unless you’d like to stay in bed all week?” He gave me a cheeky grin. “Last night was fun.”

  “Fun?” I gaped at him. “Was that all it was to you? Fun?”

  “Of course. What did you think it was?” He shrugged and glided over to me, caging me in against the door. “Didn’t you have fun?”

  “I thought it meant something to you. That I meant something to you.”

  “You do, kitten.” He wiped a tear from my face, and I screamed at myself for leaning into it. “You’re a really great friend
.” He gave me a fanged grin and slid his hands down to my waist. “Now are we going to find me some pants or get you out of—”

  The more that he kept talking; the ache in my chest became a fit of rage. My fist flew through the air. I didn’t even feel it when it smashed into his face, throwing him across the room and into the farthest wall.

  Not waiting to see if he was all right or still conscious, I barreled out of the room and into the living room where Mop and Trip sat with Alice. Three pairs of eyes darted around the room. Mop kept twisting his hat in a nervous gesture, while Trip tugged on his ears. Alice looked like she was about to burst into tears at any moment.

  I stood there for several minutes, waiting for one of them to speak up. They all just stared at me, not speaking or explaining why they were all here.

  “Well? What happened?” I growled, anger still fluttering in my chest.

  They glanced at each other, a look passing across their faces, but none of them spoke.

  “Come on guys, you can’t have come all the way here and not tell me what you are so frightened of.” I crossed my arms over my chest with an irritated humph.

  “Lady, should not worry, Lady shouldn’t,” Trip spoke up, giving me a weak smile.

  “Okay, now I am going to worry.” I turned my gaze to Mop. “What is this all about?”

  “Uh,” Mop started, his eyes more strained than when I saw him last. “Maybe ye should be sittin’ down for this?”

  He tried to pull me down onto the couch, but I wouldn’t have it.

  “No. Tell me. What happened?” My voice rose in pitch.

  Mop scratched the back of his head and looked down at the ground. “Well, ye see the thing is—”

  “The prince is gone!” Alice blurted.

  Mop glared at her.

  “Gone? What do you mean? He was just here.” I cocked my head to the side, but a sinking feeling began in my stomach.

  “Well, it started the other day,” Mop said. “He be roamin’ round the outskirts like always, Trip and I be hangin’ around on our way back to Hatter’s. Ye know, ‘cause he still be acting funny, when we see it.”

  “See what?” I jumped in, getting impatient at his slow delivery.

  “His highness, be talkin’ to the mirror, his highness was,” Trip stuttered, his eyes darting around the room like a skittish animal.

  “So?” I didn’t understand. There were plenty of mirrors in the Underground. What did it matter?

  “It wouldn’ normally.” Mop looked off to the side, before seeming to gain his backbone back. “Except that mirror be the one in the mushroom city. The one that be goin’ to the —”

  “Shadow’s Between.” I filled in for him, that sinking feeling turned into a sledgehammer cracking at my nerves. “What was he doing there?”

  Mop and Trip shrugged. “We don’ be knowin’. He be more irritable lately, but most of us just be thinkin’ he was havin’ trouble with gettin’ ye back. But we didn’ think nothin’ of it until on the way here we be seein’ him with the mirror again. But this time, he be goin’ through the mirror.”

  Guilt began to eat at me. I’d told him I didn’t want to see him anymore. That I needed a break. And then he found out about Chess. But I didn’t think that would cause him to do something so reckless as to join the Shadows, but maybe he did. I didn’t know this Dorian; he might be that rash, that stupid to be coaxed in by the Shadow man. I knew his pull, and even I had been tempted to say yes.

  “Lady?” Alice touched my arm. “What are we going to do?”

  I shook myself from my stupor and locked my eyes on her. “What do you think we are going to do? He may not be my betrothed anymore, but we can’t very well let the Shadows have him. No matter how much a pain in the ass he is.”

  “But how?” Alice had dropped her glamour and was back to the yoga pants and t-shirt, and she was using the edge of the t-shirt sleeve as a tissue. So much for being ladylike.

  I opened my mouth to tell her I didn’t really know when a voice cried out. Then the sound of glass shattering came from the direction of my bedroom, the bedroom where Chess was laid out unconscious. I darted from the living room and threw open the bedroom door.

  The carpet of the bedroom was covered in glass from the floor length mirror and the wood that covered my window was smashed to pieces. But that wasn’t what caused my heart to thud in my chest as if it were about to burst out at any moment. Things could be replaced. Damage could be undone.

  The thing that made me crumble to the floor and all my anger dissipate in a wave of despair was an empty presence of one Cheshire S. Cat. In his place was a trail of blood leading out the window and a note. A note with two words written in sharp, elaborate handwriting.

  You’re ready.

  Epilogue

  Dorian

  MY INSIDES WERE frozen. A deep aching void that screamed in my head to be filled. I knew the Shadows had lied, or at least bent the truth. I should have known better, should have been more prepared. Their voice had called my name from the dark in that slightly off-kilter voice. I could not tell if they were serious, or just having a laugh at my expense, but I was more than tempted to take their offer.

  I would have liked to have said I had the strength to tell them no right away, but it would be a lie. My heart was too weak from years of servitude, and then when Lynne came back only to be someone else, it was just too much.

  A different face on the soul I loved. The soul I still longed for to this day. Katherine. Or Kat, as she kept reminding me in the sharp, irritated tone she seemed to reserve only for me.

  I did not love her. Not the little human playing pretend, but I did love Lynne. And I would see her every once in a while when she looked at me with those blue eyes I dreamed of waking up to. But the human part of her was suffocating her.

  I could have loved her if given the chance. But it was hard to get to know someone who did not want to know you. Who, while they said they were sorry, and knew I did nothing wrong, still looked at me with judgment in their eyes.

  The woman I loved would never have let a half-breed anywhere near her. Let alone open her legs to him. Open her heart to him.

  I was jealous. As much as I denied my love of the human girl, I was still jealous of what the feline had. I missed the touch of her skin and the smell of her hair. She had integrated herself into my very being even without my knowledge.

  Seeing them together. Smelling her marked with his scent. It was enough to drive the strongest man to drastic measures.

  So, when the Shadows called out to me, while I was away licking my wounds, I did not hesitate more than a moment. Their words held so much promise. So much logic to their plea.

  I would not be bound by the same rules anymore. I would be like her and with it, I would be able to take her and the Underground back from the Seelie Queen’s clutches.

  There may be separate realms, but it was no secret to those who had been in the Underground for the last hundred years who really had the control. My mother was not as strong as she used to be. My father’s death and my banishment had destroyed most of the fire in her.

  But that would change.

  It would all change when we took back this world and all other worlds. I would let the Shadows use me to fulfill their revenge, but I would be the one who ruled in the end. I would have my kingdom and my queen by my side. Whether she liked it or not. And that half-breed would end up exactly where he should have when he was born: on the darkest abyss of the reaper’s tomb.

  The End

  * * *

  Find out what happens next in Kat’s adventure by reading the first two chapters of Chasing Princes on the next page!

  Chapter 1

  Consequences

  MY PALMS WERE sweating and my heart raced as my eyes trained on the kitchen table where my cell phone sat, waiting for me to have the guts to pick it up. Sitting in one of my grandmother’s mismatched chairs, I chided myself for being such a w
uss.

  Get it together, Kat. What would Alice think if she saw you now?

  Alice, for a lack of a better word, was sloppy. For someone who grew up in a time where it was all about refinement and propriety, once the human turned Fae was allowed to let her hair down, she went all out.

  Clothing was strewn everywhere, dishes left in the sink, and the potato chips. I have never seen anyone eat as many chips as that woman did. For all her faults, it didn’t keep her from losing the snotty attitude she came with.

  Fortunately, she was not there to see what a wet fish, as she would say, I was being. It was just a silly phone call, one that I dreaded, but was necessary for the survival of not just Alice, but me as well.

  Snatching the phone up before I could talk myself out of it again, I punched the speed dial for my parent’s house.

  “Please don’t let Mom pick up. Please,” I muttered to myself as the phone rang in my ear. I waited. After the sixth ring, I was sure they weren’t going to pick up, and I would be forced to wait until later to get the courage to do it all over again, but on the seventh ring, a familiar stern voice answered.

  “Nottington Residence.”

  “Hillary!” I could almost cry at the sound of her permanently grumpy voice. “How are you?”

  “I am well, Katherine. What do you want?” Her voice had a sharp, no nonsense sting to it. I’d have been offended if it wasn’t just the way Hillary was.

  “Actually, I was calling to talk to my dad. Is he around?” I chewed on the nail of my thumb as I waited for her to answer.

  “Yes, I will get him. Hold —” A voice in the background cut her off and then she said the words I dreaded to hear, “Here’s your mother.”

  My heart tightened in my chest and a stutter-filled my voice, “No. Wait. I’ll call back-” I tried to get out before she handed the phone over, but I was too late.

  “Katherine, so nice of you to call after all this time.”

  “Hello, Mom,” I grumbled. “And it hasn’t been that long.”