Chapter 55

***Alicia***

The dark tendril slowly moves through the air toward the door. I hold my breath as it slips under the door and I only release the breath when I don’t feel any pain. How much can I sense with these things? If I focus hard enough maybe…

I close my eyes and let my mind focus on that single tendril of darkness. There's a low humming of magic brushing against the tendril as I push it through the room. I let the tendril search through the room until I feel a strong magical pull.

“I think I found it,” I whisper to Cree. “I just don’t know how we can get inside.”

“Can you open it from the inside?” He asks.

“I’m not sure. Most of the time I’m not aware of what's going on when this shit comes out to play.” I remind him.

He chuckles. “You’ll need more recharging so that you can practice your new skills.”

I give him an unimpressed look. “Don’t pretend that the sex is a favor to me. You boys enjoy it just as much.”

“Lies will never leave my mouth, Kitten, you know I adore you.” He buries his face against my neck making goosebumps rise on the suddenly hot skin.

“Stop distracting me.” I hiss at him before he bites down on my skin making me jolt back against him.

“You taste like heaven Kitten.” He purrs.

He licks against the skin he just assaulted and I can’t help the moan that escapes me. I just went a round with all of the guys a few hours ago and I’m getting turned on again. They gave me more than enough energy, but I know they are more than happy to top off my reserves. Cree alone will be hard to satiate…Horny pussy cat.

“Cree…” My eyes close and I lean back into him.

“Purr for me kitten.” He grows in my ear.

His large hands had moved to my hips a minute ago and now are moving to rest flat against my stomach. One of his hands works its way up until he cups one of my breasts. A low growl vibrates against me as he squeezes and plays with it making the need inside me build.

“So much time lost for us. I want to make up for my neglect.” He says almost sounding guilty.

That snaps me out of my lust. I turn in his hold so that I’m facing him forgetting all about why I’m here. He’s a lot taller than me when I’m wearing my sneakers, but I manage to wrap my arms around his neck. I have to lift myself onto my tiptoes to kiss him but he meets me halfway wrapping his arms tight around me. He hums into our kiss and I smile against his lips before pulling away.

“You don’t have to make anything up to me Cree. That bitch took you from me and I took care of her. This is us starting over, so let’s forget about all the time we missed and enjoy what we have now. I finally have you, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.” His eyes move over my face as if he’s looking for a hint of a lie, but he won’t find it.

He’s mine now, and I won’t let him beat himself up over the fact he was forced to be with another woman all these years. Just thinking about it makes me want to kill that bitch all over again. The darkness bleeds at the corners of my mind as I remember the feeling of her life leaving her body. It fills me with sweet satisfaction. I’m pulled from my dark thoughts when Cree cups the side of my face with his hand. My eyes meet his and I see a rare glimpse of his serious side. All my guys are utterly mad, but there is so much more to them too.

We are all so used to putting on an act, but when we’re alone I don’t want the masks we wear every night. I want us…the raw and real versions. The versions that have lived through hell.

“I hurt you.” He says softly.

I shake my head. “No Cree you didn’t. You never hurt me. You saved me on many occasions or have you forgotten?”

He sighs and gives me a reluctant nod. “I couldn’t have my Kitten taken away from me again.”

“You won’t. We made it through this before, and now there is no one standing between us. You two were the last.” I hate reminding him but he needs to realize that no one will be able to take him away again. “Besides I’m a badass now. Who’s going to want to go against me?”

I’m in no way that confident in my abilities now that I’ve accepted the darkness. It always led the show when it needed to and I was pushed into the background, but not anymore. As sharp pain hits me for a split second. My body tightens as I wait. What was that? I gasp when I’m hit again by the odd pain.

“Kitten?” Cree tilts his head trying to get a look at me but I’m too distracted by the pain to reassure him.

The next time the pain hits I cry out and my legs give out beneath me. Thankfully Cree is already holding me because there is no way I could keep myself up right now.

“What is it?” He asks.

“I-I don’t know it’s…” Another cry comes from me as a wave of pain washes over me.

It’s then I realize my dark tendril had continued to explore the room while I was distracted by Cree. There's a tug on the tendril that makes me jolt back and then the thing slams back into me at such a speed that Cree stumbles back.

“What happened?” He asks as I try to catch my breath.

“I don’t know. It was a shock of pain that got worse, but I don’t know what caused it.” I turn around and face the door again. “There is power there. It’s strong. If it had been destroyed when we stepped through it shouldn’t hold that much power.”

“You're saying you think the looking glass is still intact and working?” He asks and I nod.

“Our way home is behind this door. Now we just need to find a way to get inside.”

“Wendell lied to us.” Cree growls and I watch his pretty blue eyes shift to his yellow feline eyes and back again.

I reach out and cup his face in my hands brushing my thumb against his cheek. “We’ll find a way home Cree. I promise.”

His eyes lock on mine and I see a flash of emotion before he leans in and steals a kiss. I melt against him and let him release all his emotions into me. My body begins to hum and tug at his energy, but I stop myself from taking anything from him. He needs me to shore him up not use him and that’s what I’ll do. When he breaks the kiss he rests his head against mine.

“My home is wherever you are Kitten.” He whispers and I can’t help but smile.

“Mine too, but I know you guys miss it there. We need to go home and fix what mess those assholes made. That’s our home, and we need to take it back.” The words come out like a promise to the universe.

Wonderland won’t be lost forever.

“Okay.” That is all he says but the emotion in that one word says far more.

First things first…we need to help Rowan figure out what slipped out of Wonderland and has set its sights on the humans of this world. If we’re going home and stopping anyone from coming here and corrupting the human world then we need to hunt down the monster that escaped. We have a hell of a fight back home, but I’ll be damned if I let the darkness of that world ruin this one. Humans do enough damage to themselves as it is, no need to make it worse.

“We need to tell the others,” I say pulling away from Cree and grabbing his hand to lead him back to my room.

He fixes our hands so that our fingers are threaded together and lets me drag him upstairs. When we step inside I see all the guys are starting to get dressed. They stop when they see the look on my face.

“Alicia?”

“The looking glass…it’s still here and it’s still working.” I blurt out.

Craytan’s eyes widen. “How do you know?”

“I went to the room Wendell has it in and I could feel the power. There is no way anything could be creating that much power. It has to be it!”

Walker curses and runs his fingers through his long dark hair. “We could go home.”

I nod and smile. “We could go home.”