Down the Rabbit Hole

Chapter 26 Cheshire

I can still feel Hatter stewing in his emotions as we wait. We're both trying to hold back our emotions. So many questions that needed answers and so many questions that I don't know if I want the answers, but I need to know the truth so I can protect my line. Without her, I'm lost with no purpose and with her lies what little sanity I have left.
"Have you ever heard of these 'fixers'? I admit I don't get out as much as I probably should." Hatter is watching the garden like a Jabberwocky stalking it's next meal. Hare and Duchess decided to keep up appearances and continued their lunch at the table.
"All the guardians have heard of them, but since they've posed no real threat to the magic or to the laws, we've allowed them to keep up their so called 'business'. No one has dared touch a royal line in hundreds of seasons and nothing they've done has put the magic this much at risk. I can already feel the magic in the world thinning. We must find Alice and quick or I fear our world may stop turning all together." He grunts in response.
"If we lose her, your going to be down two royal lines my friend. It's been hard enough to keep my mind straight while not being able to feel her, but if she dies, I will go mad or worse." I'm silent as he speaks his truth. His intentions are clear. It adds more urgency to finding her. We may as well kiss our world good bye if we lose both their royal lines.

We're back to silence when I hear someone coming down the path. His footsteps are almost as light as mine, but I can still hear him perfectly. Hatter looks at me when he sees me tense.
"He's close?" Hatter whispers to me before he shifts to his knees and his eyes are darting around the area of the gate.
"He's nearly silent, but no one can hide from a guardian." We see him quickly pass the trees and towards the front gate. He looks more human than Bandersnatch so he could blend into a crowd without a problem. No wonder he was so well used as a fixer.
I listen as he makes his way through the front gate and towards Hare and Duchess. Once he's close I hear him speak in a casual tone like he's known them both for years.
"Pleasure to see you Duchess. With all the deals I've done with your father, I must say I was surprised to hear from you. He always goes on and on about his responsible oldest daughter, his precious little girl. And this must be the one who captured your heart. You must be the March Hare. Pleasure to meet a royal line, I must admit I've not seen a royal in the flesh before. Though I must say in my line of work I'm glad to not be needed by any of the royal bloodlines. I know all of you are not to be trifled with." He extends his hand and Hare shakes it while also glaring at him.
"You can both call me Hunter. I can do any type of job you may need, but I draw the line at taking a life or upsetting the magic." He sits in an empty chair and takes one of the cookies off a plate in the middle of the table. His posture is relaxed, like he doesn't have a care in the world. Like the fucker isn't holding the last of my line hostage. Hatter looks at me and I nod back at him. I'd let him get first crack at getting the answers we need. If I got first I may kill him to quickly and I want his torment to be slow and lingering.
Hatter casually stands and walks around the bushes. I watch as Hunters eyes widen slightly and he tenses before he forces himself to relax. I can see Hare note his posture change and he moves behind him.
"Never met a royal line before?" Hatters voice is low and menacing. "Now, I find that hard to believe." Hunter tries to rise from his seat, but Hare is faster and shoves him back into his seat not removing his hands from Hunters shoulders.
"Mr. Hatter. It's nice to meet you officially." Hatter barks out a cold laugh.
"It's nice to meet me? Yes. I suppose you would want to play nice after you intruded into my home." His hands moves fast as he punches him across the face. "You walked into my home." He hits him again across the other side. "You looked at Alice, naked in my arms." He hits him square in the nose this time. "And you stole her. Your only redeeming grace is that you were smart enough to dress her in my clothes so you didn't keep staring at what's mine." He hits his nose again and he howls as we hear the bones break under the blow.
Hunter whimpers softly before he speaks. "I don't know what you're talking about. I would never enter a home uninvited, especially royal land." His final lie hangs in the air when I finally step out. No longer content to just watch. The fact he's not only lied to Hare, but he'd lie so boldly to Hatter.
"Lies do not become you, Hunter." I watch as he stills and starts to shake slightly when he looks down and sees me. The fear is now plain on his face.
"Let's take down a few notes on the lies you've told to two royal lines so far." Hatter steps to the side slightly and I jump into his lap and let my claws slowly sink into his flesh.
"Lie one, you said you've never met a royal line before today. Some may call that a small misdirection, but it's still a lie." I sink my claws in deeper, breaking his skin.
"Lie two, you said you never stepped foot onto Hatters property. I know it's a lie since I cannot smell you even now. And the one who stole the last of my line had left no scent behind after she was taken." I can feel my claws in the fat of his thigh now. He whimpers, but wisely doesn't interrupt me. He's sweating and shaking and I can finally smell his fear.
"Which leads us to your final lie and the biggest of them all." I use my magic to extend my claws deeper until they hit the bone. He screams and I see tears start to run down his face. Pathetic.
"I know you have Alice. I want an honest answers from you or I'll rip out your tongue after I peal the meat off your thighs. I helped write the old and new laws and I know I'm well within my right to punish you how I see fit until I have the blood of my line safely returned to me. And any mark that is on her, I will have carved into yourself as penance. So tell me while I'm feeling generous with your life. Where. Is. Alice?" I snarl as I start to drag one claw through his left leg scraping the bone as he cries out.
"The old Heart home! Fuck! It was the only place we could conceal her magic. She's in the basement. I wanted to let her go free a long time ago, but that bitch wouldn't let me. She threatened to tell you I worked alone and it was all my idea. It was supposed to be simple, keep Alice away from Hatter for awhile then send her back to her own world, but he left for the other side and that pissed her off more." He grunts and I stop. I look at Hatter who looks half mad with Hunters blood sprayed across his face. He's made quite the mess of us both. Hatter grabs his throat and growls.
"Who were you working with?" Hunters head slowly turns to him.
"Who do you think? Who would go this far for you attention? That crazy cunt is willing to do anything to get your attention." Duchess surprises all of us when she comes up and slaps him.
"My sister would do no such thing." He laughs before he spits out a mouthful of blood barely missing Duchess's dress.      
"You sure about that? Obsession makes people go down dark paths." I drag my claw down his right leg a bit more so his attention is back on me. He screams and looks down at me.
"By the old laws I could filet all the muscles from your bones for just concealing her from me, but you fail to see your biggest mistakes." He looks at me confused. I withdraw my claws and magically sew his muscles back together. I would usually take the pain away as I healed the wound, but I want him to feel every once of pain as I heal him. Once I'm done he looks at me, panting, he's pale but I have his full attention. I laugh and I see his confusion.
"Alice isn't just the last royal of the Heart line." Hatter and I both have a sadistic grins spread across our faces now.
"No. She's much more than just another royal. She's also Hatter's claimed half." What little color he had left drained from his face as he realizes just how badly he's broken one of our most sacred laws.
"Let's give a history lesson, shall we? One of our founding laws. One of the first that I laid down with the other guardians when we realized how rare a claimed pair was. How it was something that needed to be treasured and honored. The law so reads 'None shall harm a claimed pair. By blood or by bonds. For claimed pairs are sacred. Paired by the magic itself. None shall seek to harm or break the bond outside of the claimed pair should they so choose to separate.' Does that sound familiar? Even the animal in you should have scented that she was fully bonded." He starts to sputter.
"Hatter. Let go of his neck. He can't answer if your cutting off his air supply." Hatter releases him and looks at Hare.
"Can you hold him as we go to her? I'm not done with him, but she needs me now. And if Dina comes back here, keep her here till we can et some straight answers from her." Hare nods at him.
"Cheshire. Can you conjure up some rope to keep him in the chair? And a nice gag so he can't warn Dina if she comes back." With barely a thought I have Hunter strapped down with rope that only I could remove. I concentrate on one of the free chairs and weave a little magic into the wood.
"Should Dina return before us, have her sit in this seat. If what the fixer said is the truth it will bind her to the chair until our return. Make sure no one else sits there. We are going to be returning here with Alice. She'll need round the clock care for a bit. Are you willing to help?" They both nod and Hatter follows me as we take a shortcut towards the Heart estate.

I feel my muscles burning as I tore myself away from punishing that animal. It's been centuries since I've gotten to punish someone. It may be sadistic, but I've missed having free reign to do what I felt was right. I longed to punish myself for my failures then to punish Alice's family for all they've put her through. Once we had Alice safe and recovering I planned on slowly making Hunter an example of why we have the laws that we do. The guardians need to look deeper into these 'fixers'. We've been lenient for far to long. It's time to remind Wonderland why the laws are still upheld.