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Ransom stalked over, his dark gaze never leaving Callister’s, yet the caterpillar didn’t flinch a muscle. Hatter sidled up next to him, creating a veritable wall in front of me.
“If you’re working with the Red Queen, we deserve to know. That includes Alice.”
Ransom studied each of us in turn, his expression unreadable.
“Make good choices, Ransom,” Chess purred condescendingly. “We don’t have much time until the Red Queen arrives. I’m not returning the Vorpal Sword to someone who’s collaborating with the worst enemy Wonderland has ever known.”
The tension in the room was as thick as the smog in LA. Ransom clenched his fists as some of the stiffness left his body.
“It’s not what you think. I’m not working with the Red Queen. I’m on your side. That’s all you need to know.”
“No...” Chess materialized in front of me, in front of his friends, the Vorpal Sword drawn at the ready. “If we’re going to work together, we need to trust one another. And right now I don’t trust you. Not entirely. Not after what I just read in your diary.”
With a barely perceptible shake of his head, Ransom’s scowl began to soften.
“I amnotworking with the Red Queen,” he insisted. “You don’t know the whole story.”
Chess lifted a stern eyebrow.
“Then you’d better start talking. Otherwise, I will.”
* * *
ChapterThirteen
ALICE
Ransom had just made a confession that left all of us speechless.
“You werefuckingher?” Hatter repeated in disbelief. “You actually fucked the Red Queen? More than once?”
Ransom gave an exasperated shrug.
“I’m an incubus. It’s what we do!”
“But she’s psychotic!” Hatter argued. “And that’s saying something, coming from me!”
“The crazy ones do tend to be wilder in bed,” Callister said dryly.
Ransom rolled his eyes.
“I didn’t fuck her after she went insane. It was a long, long time ago, back when she was relatively normal.”
“But...why?”
Ransom pointed to his chest. “Incubus. Hot pussy. Do the math.”
“That’s not how I learned math,” I replied, making Hatter snort a laugh. I pushed between him and Callister, realizing that Ransom wasn’t the threat we’d feared. “Is an incubus not able to turn down sex?”
“Pretty much,” Callister muttered under his breath.
“We feed on the different facets of sexual energy...on arousal and desire,” Ransom explained. “Humans need food to fuel their bodies. Demons need energy. A lot of it. And incubi need a very specific type of energy. Hence the club of all clubs.”
I tilted my head to one side as things began to click into place regarding the King of Clubs. The edging. The BDSM. The sex toys. The mirrors. The masked bunnies. The erotic performances set in the midst of a vibrant casino. Sex and money went hand in hand. I realized that Ransom had created The Rabbit Hole as a perfect sanctuary to thrive in.
“Tick tock, my friend. Tell them about the ring,” Chess urged.
Ransom let out an irritated sigh.
