Wonderland

Author's Note: I wanted to thank everyone for their comments. It really gives me the motivation to keep posting! Votes are awesome too. ;-)

Just as a warning for you readers, there is m/m scene in this chapter, although it doesn't go into explicate detail. I will mark the scene with ## at the beginning and end, in case some of you wish to skip it. Another warning: this chapter is fairly long, as I'm introducing new characters and building up the plot.

As always, this work is copyrighted and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Enjoy!

+++

The sound of Stone Sour's latest single was what woke me. Grumbling, I turned over into my pillow, trying to tune out Corey Taylor and his lovesick lyrics...and failing. The song continued and after two minutes I decided enough was enough.

I lifted up my arm in preparation for slamming the iHome off and felt my palm collide with something solid, warm...and vibrating?

Opening one eye I found myself staring at a firm, blue chest that was beginning to shake even harder. An unmistakable chuckle, deep and low, began to reach my ears.

"Tempest." The voice sounded amused.

With both eyes wide open, I followed the muscled chest up to a lengthy blue neck, a defined jaw and chin to a wide smile flashing small fangs and pearly white teeth. I stared up into Talon's glittering silver eyes in surprise and removed my hand slowly from his chest, his arms taking me tighter into his grip in a move that sealed my arms at my sides.

"You aren't my alarm clock," I told him in surprise as I began to wake up.

His body and mine were wrapped around one another, and if I wasn't completely hallucinating – again – then that was his tail that bound my legs together, the tip making circles on the back of my right knee.

Talon just smiled and shook his head, lifting up one hand and waving it briskly. My iHome cut off, silencing Corey Taylor for good. "Neat trick," I told him, still unable to move.

Talon made a face at me and I responded in kind, laughing when he stuck out his tongue like a child. Realization struck me and I buried my face in his chest since I couldn't move my arms.

"God my breath must stink!" I laughed, feeling mortified.

Talon chuckled. "Your morning breath is the least of your worries, I think."

I eyed him in confusion and suddenly his wings fanned out with a soft snick, his eyes growing black.

I blinked at his formidable display, a nervous giggle caught in my throat. "I'm not afraid of you," I said quietly, slowly regaining my composure as his tail unwound itself from around my calves.

Talon's eyes never left mine as he rolled me onto my back, following up after me. My breath caught as he rose above me, the morning light emphasizing his muscled frame, and making his hair shine like a dark rainbow. He looked like those ruggedly handsome types you see on the covers of romance novels, except, you know; he had wings, a tail, and was totally blue.

"Why aren't you at the pool house?" I asked him quickly to break the silence, flushing at how that sounded. "I mean, I don't mind you

here

," I said hastily, "I just thought you would be more comfortable..." I trailed off at the indignant look on Talon's face.

"I was bored sitting at the pool house," Talon told me as I felt his tail creep around my right ankle. "And I've been sleeping for the better part of the human existence. I think I've rested enough." We smiled at that and Talon began to rise up, a strand of his hair falling into his eyes as he moved. I tucked back the strand without thinking, my gaze catching the pointed tip of his left ear and the tribal-like sun tattooed on its shell.

Realizing what I had done, I pulled my hand back and attempted normalcy. "Breakfast?" I asked him, meeting his eyes a little hesitantly.

For a second, Talon and I just stared at one another in surprise for completely different reasons, and I could tell he was fighting some sort of internal battle. Either he was really,

really

hungry or I had said something to upset him.

"Talon?" I asked timidly, gingerly resting my hand on his shoulder to draw him back to reality.

"Everything okay in there?" I joked, tapping his temple with the same hand.

Talon blinked and his eyes cleared, sort of. "I'm not sure," he said slowly. "My father did always say he dropped me when I was little. Perhaps now I'm having side effects?"

I caught onto his joke and laughed. "Maybe so," I teased. "I guess old age is catching up with you too."

Talon arched one silvery eyebrow, his mock frown telling me what he thought about the age quip. "Come, stinky breath. You have to be at school in an hour."

I swatted at his torso as he helped me sit up, giving a gasp of indignation. "Like your breath really smells like roses!" I laughed.

Talon suddenly leaned down, pinning me to my headboard with just his dark eyes, all playful pretense gone. "Tell me, Tempest," he murmured darkly, lowering himself farther down until we were chest-to-chest, "what do I smell like to you?"

I watched as his lips pulled into a smile that looked almost predatory. Those same lips came perilously close to mine and I shot a glance up at him, wanting to know why he was toying with me like this, but unable to voice the words. In that moment, one of his hands lowered to cup the back of my neck, arching me back so my chin brushed his. Talon then held me to him just the way he had when we had been airborne, though this time I wasn't afraid of the hungry look in his eyes.

I craved it.

Talon lowered his dark lips to mine, catching my bottom lip in his. I felt the bottom row of his teeth gently scrape along my skin before he sucked the swell into his mouth, a grumble escaping his lips when I put my arms around his neck to bring him closer.

I was lowered back down to the mattress again, suddenly no longer caring that my mother was sleeping a floor below us or that I had a seven-foot Gargoyle completely enveloping me in his arms. The touch of his skin against mine was extraordinary – I haven't ever been held like this, and after so many years of craving body heat I couldn't stop myself from giving up to Talon. I felt like I deserved it, and my body agreed with me.

Talon felt the change in my body and abandoned nibbling on my bottom lip to take my mouth as his alone.

My eyes fluttered closed as Talon gave me our first kiss that belied the possessive way he held me to him. He was gentle, but demanding, wanting me to return the touch. Before he could pull away from me, I was taking his full lips back, my nails catching a bit of his shoulder when Talon's claws poked a little roughly into my skin, snagging on my t-shirt. The grip only grew tighter when I opened my mouth to his, allowing his tongue to dip inside. Vaguely I wondered if his tongue was blue like the rest of him.

Talon's tongue withdrew a few seconds later, giving me the chance to breathe. I gasped against his lips, my limbs shaking from clinging to Talon for so long. Muscles I wasn't used to keeping rigid screamed in protest and Talon smiled against my mouth when my arms flopped onto the bed.

"You smell like sunshine," I told him, lazily meeting his eyes. The corner of Talon's mouth pulled up a bit.

"Sunshine?" he repeated slowly, nodding a little as he thought that over.

I nodded back. "Sunshine and the forest. It's...clean. But you taste like morning breath," I teased.

Talon laughed and pressed a quick kiss to my forehead. "I have to get you out of this bed," he chuckled huskily. "Or I might continue making use of that pretty mouth of yours." He rubbed his thumb over my bottom lip, his talon very lightly scraping my top one. I flushed at that, understanding what he meant, and his responding wicked grin sent shivers of pleasure down my spine.

While I was no stranger to pleasure – I mean, girls need release too – I wasn't used to having a guy elicit the shivers. It was even stranger because "the guy" was a seven foot Gargoyle.

Talon seemed to know where my thoughts were headed and his wicked grin faded into a polite smile, his eyes guarded and now back to the usual dusky gray. "If my touch is unpleasant to you, I won't continue doing so," he offered solemnly, the edges of his eyes tightening. "I do not want you to feel like you must reciprocate in fear that I will hurt you if you refuse to respond."

I shook my head quickly, trying to find the words to dispel his train of thought. "Talon, I like when you touch me," I said lamely, internally kicking myself at how unintelligent I sounded. I eyed the clock. "If I had more time, we could talk about this, but I need to get ready for school."

I caught his hands when he went to pull away. "Just promise me you aren't doing this because you feel like you have to." At his confused look I continued on. "I don't want you to think that since you're hiding out at the pool house you are indebted in any way to me. I want to keep you safe, I don't expect you to give yourself in return." By the time I was finished, my cheeks were burning, and I couldn't help but think I had made this really nice wakeup call turn into an undeniably uncomfortable one.

Talon, though, seemed to be deep in thought and took his sweet time responding. "I'm giving myself to you on my own free will. While I should point out I gave you little option on whether to hide me or not, I will have to say if I didn't want to stay here, I would've been gone long before you or your mother woke." Talon smiled and gently pinched my chin between two knuckles. "We will talk more when you return from school. Now, do you still eat Pop-Tarts?"

+++

I joined Talon in the kitchen after racing through my morning routine, taking the Pop-Tart from him, mumbling thanks around a bite. Talon made me another after I finished off the first, pulling off an end to taste. Seconds later he gagged, flashing his fangs and a pink tongue. Well that answers that question. "That's

inedible

!" he coughed, beating at his chest to clear his throat. "How do you not become ill eating such trash?" he demanded once his throat was clear.

I gave him a dirty look. "Well, it isn't a struggling young buck, but it'll do," I replied sourly as I tossed my backpack onto the kitchen counter, which was also void of mom's purse.

Talon noticed where I was looking and gestured with a claw to the fridge where a yellow sticky note was in place. "She left an hour ago. Some sort of work emergency." I read the sticky note and crumpled it up, throwing it in the trash. Usually she got up right at this time and I have to admit her absence made it easier for me – I didn't exactly have a plausible explanation for the seven foot Gargoyle leaning against the kitchen counter.

As I finished my breakfast, keeping an eye on the clock, I recalled yesterday's events with a slight shake of my head. When I finished off a glass of milk I eyed Talon, who had been silent the entire time I was eating.

"So you're staying here?" I asked him. He answered with a slight nod. I bit my bottom lip in thought. "Well, you can go in my room, if you want. Maybe watching the news will help you learn a little more than what my blood gave you. It'll give you a better idea about the human world anyway."

Talon nodded again. "That seems like a good idea. Your memories tell me that a red button turns on the TV via the remote?" I nodded with a smile, internally laughing at his hesitant phrasing.

"Is that what your kind does when they meet strangers? Bite them for knowledge?" I teased.

Talon chuckled and shook his head. "Normally a drop of blood will suffice, but it only allots a brief look and few details. I needed to know everything. You can't even possibly grasp how different your kind was when I was younger. This world has changed so much since I was imprisoned."

His tone went a little bitter at the memory, but he cleared his head with a small shake. "Normally strangers would tell us whatever we wanted to know," Talon said with a smile. "Gargoyles can be very persuasive, as you'll soon learn."

The bus made its appearance at that moment, thankfully, and I just smiled at Talon's warning as I slipped off the bar stool.

"Be a good boy and don't get caught!" I teased over my shoulder as I jogged to the front door. Talon's disproving grumble could be heard even after I closed the door and I couldn't help but laugh.

Since the Wonderland castle had stolen my bike, I had no other choice but to ride the bus. It's been years since I had to, but until I could afford a new bike, this was the only form of transportation I had – and walking was out of the question.

With a sigh of relief I stepped into the bus and looked over available seats, eying the five year olds that gradually turned into pimpled fifteen year olds, each one bunkered down with their iPod earplugs shoved tightly into their ears. I found an open seat next to a pale male I didn't recognize and sat down at the edge of the bench seat when he gave me a dark glare.

It wasn't long after when the bus pulled away from the curb and made a U-turn, heading towards town. I became aware of my bench mate staring straight-on at me as the bus stopped halfway down the road for stragglers and I glanced at him briefly, giving him a polite smile.

"Are you new here?" I asked him, a little perturbed by the staring.

His inky eyes blinked once, his equally dark eyebrows lifting up slightly. The gesture was almost Talon-like. "Just moved here," he confirmed in an accented voice I wasn't able to place.

"Oh." I made a face. "I'm sorry."

A smile played on his pale lips. "So I landed in Dullsville, huh?" he asked.

I nodded. "Afraid so. May I ask where you moved from?"

"Florida. I lived with a family outside of Tallahassee for awhile. I came here to live with my uncle." I was a little surprised by that. Judging his paleness alone, I would've thought he would be from the northwest.

He held out a pale hand. "I'm Connor."

I took his hand briefly in mine, surprised at how warm it was. "Tempest."

We dropped hands and he gestured to the town we were passing by. "So have you been in Wonderland awhile?"

"Forever," I sighed, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice and failing miserably. "It's a neat town," I said earnestly when he made a face of indignation, "but everyone who lives here is retired or going to be."

"Great," he snorted, raking a hand through his collarbone-length dark wavy hair. "I apparently have so much to look forward to."

When the bus pulled up to the school and opened its doors, Connor caught my elbow when I went to stand. "So my first class is Trig...any clue where that would be?"

I smiled up at him, not surprised that he had to duck his head to avoid smashing into the bus roof. He had shifted uncomfortably the entire time during the bus ride, his long limbs probably aching from being so squished. If I was correct when I measured him up earlier, he had to be only a few inches shorter than Talon.

"My first class is Trig, so I should be able to help," I assured him.

Connor gave me a relieved closed smile and followed me off the bus.

Talking to Connor was basically impossible. He towered a full head and shoulder above everyone else, including me, so asking him a question required him to squat down a little to hear. In the busy traffic of the high school hallways, the noise level overrode his calm, accented murmur anyway. After helping him find his locker we booked it to Trig, where Mr. Dean was already announcing the assignment for the day.

Mr. Dean was one of those genius types and a definite over-achiever. He was in his mid-thirties, blonde, in shape, single, and had eyebrows that were too perfect to not be the cosmetic result of tweezers or waxes. I was totally convinced he was gay, but that didn't stop the entire female student body from worshipping his every word, even if roughly 75% of it went over their heads.

When Connor and I walked in together, Dean stopped talking and heads turned. Those infamous blonde eyebrows curved up high on his smooth golden forehead as I took my regular seat in the back and Connor walked to the front to hand him an office slip.

"Class this is Connor Sullivan," Dean said in his usual Bostonian twang that distorted 'Connor' to 'Cawh-naw'. "Connor, grab a book from that stack over there and take a seat. We're on page three-sixty-one." Giving me one last surprised glance, Dean turned back to the class and continued his lecture.

Class faded into the usual monotony, the arrival of the new student falling second to the review of the laws of sines and cosines. But unlike the rest of the class who were well rehearsed on grabbing onto the Casanova of the mathematicians every word, I was focused on something that could live and breathe, and was sitting right next to me.

Connor had reverted back to his staring habit like he had on the bus, his dark eyes always in my peripheral vision, his body angled in his desk so his unnerving habit would come easier to him. I shifted uncomfortably in my chair, starting to regret that I ever spoken to him.

Halfway through class, I finally had enough.

I turned to him and shot him an expectant look, nonverbally demanding to know what the

fudge

his problem was. Connor granted me a smirk and with the tip of his pen he tapped his shoulder blade.

Confused, I shook my head and he did the gesture again, though this time he pointed the pen at me afterwards.

There was something on my shoulder?

Looking down at my shirt, I tugged at the fabric to see if there was anything on my collar, like breakfast or something. I started to shake my head again when I saw it.

Talon's bite.

The shirt I had thrown on this morning left half of the bruised skin exposed, the puncture wounds where his sharp fangs had slid into my flesh marking the skin a deep purplish-violet and black. It almost looked infected.

Quickly I pulled my hair out of its ponytail and readjusted my hairstyle so half of it was up and the other half was down, laying the long strands in front of my collarbone so the bite was concealed. I refused to look at Connor after that, praying that when the bell rang, I could get lost in the sea of bodies in the hallway and avoid him for the rest of the day. When the bell rang I was halfway out of my chair when Connor reached out and caught my elbow again.

"Tempest."

I flinched and met Connor's eyes hesitantly, my heart pounding in my throat as I lifted my gaze to his.

"Oh my God," I muttered in shock. Connor flashed his fangs at me, his pale skin marked with the tiniest of scales. He tucked back a curtain of his wavy hair with claw-tipped fingers to reveal a tribal sun tattoo on the shell of his ear, though his version was significantly fancier than Talon's.

"I'll keep your secret if you keep mine," he said quietly, reverting back to his human form. I nodded shakily, swallowing dry spit as he put my spiral into my backpack and held out his elbow for me to take.

"Can I trust you?" I whispered quietly, remembering what Talon had said about being betrayed. He hadn't implicated his fellow Gargoyle brethren in the betrayal, but that didn't mean it wasn't possible. And despite the fact that Talon could scare the feces right out of me, I wanted to protect him in any way I could. If it meant being overly cautious, well, consider me paranoid.

Connor looked surprised at that but nodded, unable to say more as the next class began to funnel into the room. "Chivalry isn't dead," he quipped as he wiggled his elbow out at me for me to take.

With a deep breath I took his elbow and walked out into the hallway with him, a small headache beginning to form at the back of my head.

In two days, I've met two Gargoyles. So tomorrow I should expect – what? One of the librarians to turn into a unicorn? My gym teacher to actually be a leprechaun?