Everlasting Enchantment (5 page)

The Duke of Ghoulston wiped the tears from his eyes. “Good gawd, man, Selena was but jesting. Why make a mess when I can have the relic in a few hours? Then I can discover its secrets.”

Gareth cocked both barrels.

The duke started to raise his hands and Gareth shook his head. “Your spells may stop the bullets, but they won’t harm me. I’m surrounded by the power of the relic, which no other magic can touch. I’m not a wizard to be able to use the power, but I don’t need it to kill you with a pistol.”

“Don’t hurt him, Gareth,” said Millicent.

“I will not allow anyone to harm you.”

Selena dropped Millicent’s arm and stepped away from her.

Millicent prayed for patience. “If you hurt His Grace, I will never find Nell.”

“Who is Nell?”

“She’s my friend. My only friend. And the duke has her locked away somewhere to ensure my cooperation.”

“This Nell is the precious thing you would trade me for?”

Millicent didn’t like the way he’d said that. He almost sounded as if his feelings had been hurt. As if she’d betrayed him. “I told you. The relic chose me by mistake. I wanted it only for His Grace.”

“Yes.” Gareth’s brilliant blue eyes clouded and he lowered the pistols. “We came together only by mistake, but that’s not how we will part, my lady.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lady Chatterly’s assumptions about the relic are not accurate. It will only loosen from your wrist… after.”

Damn it. Millicent should have known it wouldn’t be simple. “After what?”

“After you make love to me.”

Millicent took a step backward, staring at him in shock. “But I already told you, it was a mistake that the relic chose me.”

“Was it?” mused Gareth. “Or has fate played her fickle hand again?” He spoke wearily, as if he’d encountered fate so often it couldn’t surprise him anymore. Never had his youthful face stood in such strong contrast to his ageless eyes as it did now.

Despite the ring of truth in his words, Millicent didn’t want to believe him. It was simply too preposterous. “But that means Lady Chatterly… and all those other women… They wore it only for a night!”

Gareth’s lip twitched. “It’s rare a woman refuses me for longer than that.” He gently uncocked each pistol and set them down on a delicate tea tray.

The duke finally set loose his spell with a negligent toss of his fingers, which Millicent could vaguely see as a dark black cloud. It curved around the knight, dissipating into the paneled wall behind him. “Forgive me, Sir Gareth,” said the duke, looking not a whit sorry. “But I had to try. I find all of this quite fascinating.”

And Millicent realized the clever duke had found out more about the relic and its powers by his pretense of friendship than if he’d threatened or tortured them. She glanced over at the were-vampire bat, who had returned to the wine cabinet and refreshed her glass. Selena held her drink up in a mocking salute before tossing it down her throat.

“I won’t do it,” said Millicent. “There must be another way to get this cursed thing off my wrist.”

“Wasted,” muttered Selena. “The relic is totally wasted on her.”

The duke ignored the vamp, his intense gaze fixed on Millicent. “I suggest you find a way then. That is, if you ever want to see your Nell. Although personally, I’d recommend you just sleep with the lad and get it over with. The old lady doesn’t seem to do well in captivity.”

Millicent growled loud enough to make Selena let out a reflexive whimper.

“Enough,” snapped Gareth. “I’ll not have her forced.”

The duke chuckled. “Oh, Sir Knight, I don’t think that will be necessary. Despite her protests, the girl wants you. A few hours alone with you and she doesn’t stand a chance.”

Millicent flushed. Of course she found Sir Gareth tempting. Any woman would. But she hadn’t realized she’d allowed her attraction to show. She must dissuade the duke of the notion that the knight meant anything to her at all. Otherwise, Ghoulston would use that to his advantage. Bad enough that she’d allowed her concern for Nell to show.

“Do you really think I’d give myself to any man?” she said. “After what my mother—I’d rather you went ahead and cut the relic off my wrist, than allow Sir Gareth to touch me.”

Selena took a step toward Millicent, her eagerness to suit Millicent’s words to action obvious in the red glow of her eyes.

But the duke only chuckled, rubbing his hands together again. “This is rich. Ice-cold Millicent Pantere must surrender her virginity for her only friend.” He stilled and glanced at the mantel clock. “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a farthing how you manage to get that relic off your wrist. But you had best do it. And you have only a few hours. It would be unwise of you to make me wait until tomorrow night. Selena, my pet, show them to the red suite.”

Selena pinched her lips but sailed to the door, stepping on the fallen guard with vindictive pleasure. Gareth waited for Millicent, who saw no other option than to follow the other shape-shifter. Perhaps when she was alone with the knight he would tell her more about the relic. Something that would allow her to give it to the duke without giving up the one thing she owned of value. At least to her.

She felt Gareth’s warm presence at her back as she followed Selena through the cold stone hallways to the upper level of the castle. They climbed innumerable curving stairways until they reached a landing surrounded by doorless stone walls. Selena headed across the space, stopped before a niche, and pulled the carved statue inside. Stone shuddered, and when a square opening appeared, she waved them past her with a glitter of black beads.

Millicent ignored the smirk the girl gave her and entered a room unlike anything she’d ever seen before. The walls had been painted a deep red, and paintings even more graphic than the ones in the castle hall littered the room. It looked like a parlor, although it lacked the normal tables and chairs that made visiting possible. Instead, it boasted a thick rug surrounded by pillows in front of the hearth, and a multitude of armless sofas and fainting couches.

“Bloody hell,” said Millicent.

Selena grimaced. “Too bad all this splendor will go to waste. Tug the bellpull if you manage to remove the bracelet. I want first dibs on his knightliness, here.” She gave Gareth one last lingering look before she left, the stone door grinding to a close behind her.

Millicent crossed the room, stepping over plush carpets and enormous Indian pillows, and looked out the narrow window. This side of the castle faced a craggy ravine, small waterfalls erupting out of the stone to plunge into the depths below. The fairylights on the cavern ceiling hardly penetrated this shadowy side of the fortress and she couldn’t tell if the walls provided any handholds.

She spun. Gareth studied a painting, nearly cocking his head upside down to make out some detail in it. Millicent inspected their prison. She found a door that led into a windowless washroom, and another leading into a bedroom—which didn’t have any way of escape either. She stood at the threshold and crossed her arms over her chest, scowling at the enormous canopy bed with its blood-red satin coverlet, the mirror-paneled walls and ceiling.

There had to be another way to remove the relic. She turned and faced Gareth. “Surely you couldn’t have seduced
every
woman who wore the bracelet.”

“True,” he replied, still intent on those scandalous paintings. “A few times the relic chose grandmotherly ladies who viewed me as a son. I stayed with them for years, until the relic loosened when they died.” He straightened, smoothing back the blond curls from his face. Again he wore that veil of sadness that somehow twisted her heart. “There were several women who didn’t prefer men in their beds. I changed their minds or stayed with them until they died. Is that why you don’t wish to bed me?”

Millicent’s arms fell to her sides. “Certainly not. Of course I want—that is, I like men. I just don’t prefer to take one to my bed.” She kicked a pillow that sat near the door, the small bells around its seam jangling with the movement.

Gareth smiled at her words. It lit up his face and made her knees go weak. His blue eyes met her own amber gaze and for a moment she couldn’t breathe. “So you finally admit you want me. Why, then, do you fight it so?”

Drat, the man could drag the secrets out of a mountebank. He spoke as smoothly as he moved. “That’s none of your concern. Now, are you telling me there are only two ways the relic will come off? Sex or death?”

“If I knew of any other, I would tell you.”

She believed him. He was a true knight of the Round Table, full of honor and chivalry and truth. It wasn’t just his sensual handsomeness that attracted her. Millicent yearned for that goodness within him. She wanted to surround herself with that light that shone like a beacon in her dark world. She wanted to take it inside her and somehow make it a part of her too.

She swayed toward him.

He reached out, started to close the distance between them.

Millicent held up her arm. “Don’t. Don’t come any closer.” She wanted an impossible dream and she’d best snap out of it, so she could deal with the reality of her life. Her dark soul would probably snuff out that goodness within him as easily as she put out a candle.

“Millicent.” His voice caressed her name.

Her traitorous human body swayed toward him again. Millicent quickly shifted to panther. The hair on her back stood up in a line of warning. She snarled and bared her teeth, swishing her tail in fury. Any other man would have trembled with fear, but Sir Gareth just looked puzzled. He watched her pace the room, a caged animal with no place to go, no room to run.

Millicent didn’t
want
to want him, damn it.

She should never have put that bracelet around her wrist. She should have just snatched it and run. Then Selena could have put on the relic and satisfied her obvious lust for Sir Gareth. It would now be around the wrist of a woman who would relish a night of pleasure in the arms of this sensual man…

Millicent paused on top of a thick carpet. She flexed her claws repeatedly into the deep pile while she thought, a slow purr beginning to rumble in the back of her throat. She shifted back to human, ignoring the fuzzy shreds of yarn now piled at her feet.

“How bound are you to the wearer of the relic?”

“I like your were-beast,” he commented absently, stretching out on one of the couches, his tunic pulling up with the movement, revealing muscular thighs through that thick woolen hose he wore. “You move with sensual grace.”

“Predators usually do. It’s how we manage to catch our prey.” She smiled without humor, revealing the unusually long human canines that mimicked her beast. “Now would you please answer the question?”

“I’m not forced to make love with the wearer, if that’s what you mean. Although it would be foolish of me, since she may just be the one who could break my curse.” He locked his arms behind his head, making his chest appear even broader. Pulling up his tunic even higher. “I do not have to stay by her side, either. But no matter how far away from the bracelet I roam, it always manages to swallow me when the sun rises.”

Millicent averted her eyes from his recumbent body, wondering if he wore some sort of drawers beneath that tunic, or only the hose… which didn’t seem quite so thick now. “No, I mean, can you make love to someone else? Even while another woman wears the relic?”

“It would have been some long years with the grandmothers if I couldn’t.” He frowned at her, a hint of anger in those pale blue eyes. “Verily, I don’t need the relic to seduce a woman.”

“That’s bloody obvious.”

He raised himself up on his arms, lowering his head and gazing at her through hooded eyes. Every movement he made seemed designed to inflame a woman’s desire. “I will not force you.”

“So you’ve said. But how willing are you to help me?”

Gareth shrugged. “I’m not bound by the relic to do so. But honor demands it of me. My sword is at your service, my lady.” He looked down at his empty scabbard in chagrin. “Forsooth, it would be if I had it.”

Millicent smiled. “Ah, but that’s not the weapon we’ll be needing, Sir Gareth Solimere.”

Gareth shouldn’t have been annoyed by Millicent’s plan, yet he found himself tugging the bellpull with enough force to tear the embroidered fabric from its rope. He stared at the cloth in his hand with chagrin. Why was he reacting this way? Millicent’s idea actually had merit, and he had no doubt he could seduce the were-vampire bat into revealing where the duke had imprisoned this Nell woman.

He admired the skillfully sewn visions of nude women feeding grapes to recumbent men onto a velvet settee, before he tossed down the bellpull, and turned to frown at the closed bedroom door where Millicent had taken refuge. He shrugged his shoulders, trying to dismiss his irritation. It’s just that he wasn’t accustomed to a woman throwing him at another. Indeed, he’d often had to prevent the relic-holder from physically harming another woman who dared to even look at him. He hadn’t realized until this moment that a woman’s possessiveness had fed his vanity… or that he’d become a vain man. Gareth had always taken for granted his extraordinary charisma as just a part of who he was.

He smiled when he realized Millicent had made him look at himself anew. Something he hadn’t done in over a hundred years.

The door to their prison slid open into the thick wall beside it and Selena stepped into the room, a guard behind her. She arched a brow at the smile on Gareth’s face, and obviously assumed she knew the reason for it. She shivered inside her black costume, making the beads glitter in the candlelight. “That didn’t take long… I knew she couldn’t resist you.”

Gareth shrugged.

Selena licked her red lips and took a step toward him. “Where’s the relic?”

His gaze slowly traveled the length of her. “You have no need of it, my lady.”

She caught her breath and then smoothed her hands down her bodice. “Perhaps not, but His Grace…”

Gareth abruptly strode forward and tore the sheer black fabric off her shoulders, crushing her waist against him as he buried his face in her neck. “Must we wait?”

She chuckled and he felt the vibration against his lips. “You know how I like it, don’t you?” Her hands stole beneath his hair and her nails skittered across his neck. “Ah, yes, but of course you do.” Still, her lust hadn’t clouded her senses yet, because she quickly asked, “Where’s the relic?”

Gareth ran his tongue across her skin. “It’s still in the bedroom with the were-cat. Shall we say she is a bit… tied up, at the moment?”

“Isn’t little Millicent full of surprises,” murmured Selena. She glanced back over her shoulder at the guard hulking in the doorway. “If I don’t ring within an hour, return with your men.”

Gareth glanced up to meet the envious eyes of the guard before the door shuddered closed. Selena tore at his surcoat, returning the favor of her ruined pelerine, and he heard the much-sturdier fabric rip as he struggled out of his sword belt. Gareth released her and quickly removed his tunic and the thinner one under it. She stepped back and her black eyes grew even larger as she studied him. “Sweet Hades, what a deadly combination. That youthful face and body with those wickedly knowing eyes.” Her fingers flew to her back and soon her silk gown lay at her feet, only a few buttons rolling across the room in the process.

“Tell me, Sir Knight. Will you abandon your code of chivalry for me?” She dragged off her petticoats.

Gareth swallowed. She wore no chemise, just a corset that lifted her breasts in offering, and stockings tied with black lace around her naked thighs. His body quivered at the lascivious woman and yet his mind recoiled. For a moment, he froze with the shock.

“Have you ever made love to a were-bat before?” she asked as she stepped forward, her hand eagerly finding the hard ridge of him beneath his braies.

“The relic has never chosen one,” gasped Gareth. His thoughts strayed to the closed bedroom door and the listening woman behind it. Why was he thinking of Millicent while a beautiful woman teased his body? Some of the women he’d slept with liked to perform in front of others and he’d overcome shyness hundreds of years ago. So he couldn’t be concerned that she’d overhear them. And the were-cat had asked him to bed Selena, so it couldn’t be his honor that bothered him.

Why, then, didn’t he want Selena?

“You will remember me,” promised the were-bat as she leaned forward and licked his neck. Gareth’s hands caressed her shoulders and expertly started to untie the laces at the back of her corset without any conscious thought from his addled head. His body knew the steps of the dance and could manage without him.

The bedroom door flew open and he turned his head in time to see Millicent shift into her were-form. But Selena ignored the interruption, her mouth sucking at the skin of his throat, and when his gaze turned back to her, he noticed she’d sprouted black leathery wings. The pressure of her mouth on his neck increased and she uttered tiny mewling sounds. And then she bit him. Hard enough to draw blood. Gareth reflexively tried to push her away but the pain from the bite quickly eased and a shudder went through his groin. A distant part of him realized she’d released some drug when she’d pierced his skin, but his body sang with lustful fire and didn’t seem to care. He could hear the lapping of Selena’s tongue as she fed on his blood, and it excited and repulsed him all at the same time.

Millicent’s roar shook the walls and broke through the haze that befuddled Gareth’s mind. He grasped Selena’s shoulders and tried to gently pull her away from him but the woman fought, beating her wings and digging her nails into his back. He’d forgotten how strong a shape-shifter could be. With an oath, Gareth shoved her hard. At the same time he saw a flash of black fur slam between them, knocking him backward and sending Selena head over heels to land on a velvet settee, the color of the fabric nearly a match for the blood that smeared her hairy snout. Most weres quickly took either human or animal form, but Selena appeared to manage a half-shifted state, with only her bat wings and snout marring her human features. She hissed at Millicent, who now stood between them, tail swishing in fury.

Gareth pressed his hand against the wound in his neck to stop the flow of blood. “Do you think that was wise, my lady? You will never find out where your Nell is now.”

Selena shifted fully to human, licking the blood from her lips, a dreamy smile lighting her face. Millicent snorted at the other woman and turned to him, shifting to human as well. “I couldn’t let her… I didn’t think…”

Gareth smiled. Perhaps she didn’t want him yet, but she didn’t like seeing him in the arms of another woman. His hopes soared anew.

Seemingly at a loss, Millicent settled on glaring at him. “That vamp would have sucked you dry.”

Selena rose, her glossy black eyes fixed intently on him, a strange new softness in their depths. “No, Sir Knight, I would never do that.” Then she blushed and ducked her head. “I could never harm the man I love.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Millicent snapped at her, exchanging a startled glance with Gareth.

He had to admit Selena’s change in demeanor surprised him as well. Many women had professed their love for him, but it was usually
after
he’d seduced them.

Selena threw the were-cat a venomous look before stepping around Millicent to clasp his hand and bring it to her lips. “You believe me, my darling, don’t you? I admit it’s hard to control my nature, but once I tasted you, I knew. You are my one true love. Don’t you see? I am the one who will break your curse.”

Gareth flinched and Millicent growled.

Selena pressed her body against his. “Please make her go away so we can finish what we started.”

She had gone mad. That was the only thing Gareth could fathom. “Nay, Selena. Perhaps later.” He gently patted her arm. “Why don’t you get dressed, now?”

She stuck out her lower lip. It might have looked coy if it hadn’t still been stained with his blood. “Only if you promise we’ll be together later.”

Gareth frowned. He could not in good faith make a promise he had no intention of keeping.

“Blast your damn honor,” muttered Millicent under her breath as she stepped past him. She raised her voice to Selena. “He might be yours once you have this.” She thrust her arm forward, the moonstone in the relic glowing like a beacon. “You know His Grace won’t let you have him all to yourself when he finds out you have it. He’ll be too busy trying to figure out a way to use the relic to his advantage.”

Selena eyed the bracelet with fevered intensity, reached out a shaking hand to touch it. “Give it to me now.”

Gareth blocked Selena’s hand with his own before she could touch Millicent. He could not allow the woman to hurt the relic-holder again by trying to wrestle off the bracelet.

The were-vampire bat stared back and forth at the two of them, her lips tightening with jealousy.

“I’ll give it to you,” assured Millicent. “But first you have to take me to Nell. Then we’ll leave the castle, and you can have Gareth all to yourself. You want to get rid of me, don’t you?”

“Nothing would give me greater pleasure.” Selena turned toward her jumble of clothes.

Gareth went into the washroom, poured water from a cobalt-blue pitcher into a matching porcelain bowl, and washed the blood from his chest and throat. He had only a small hole in his neck from Selena’s bite.

“She’s gone completely barmy over you,” whispered Millicent from the doorway, apparently having followed him.

Gareth shrugged. He would not admit that Selena’s lovesick behavior startled him as much as it did Millicent. He reached for a dry cloth and turned toward the girl, drying his skin with slow, rhythmic movements. Her amber eyes roamed the contours of his chest as if hypnotized.

“I suppose you’re used to it. Women throwing themselves at you.”

He took a step toward her and felt the air crackle between them. “There’s only one woman I need. I’m hoping I’ve finally found her.”

She narrowed her eyes and he felt her body snap rigid with icy cold. “Fortunately, I don’t need anyone. Except that bloodsucker, at the moment. And I don’t trust her.”

Gareth tossed the cloth over a brass bar. “Have you ever trusted anyone?”

“No. It’s how I’ve managed to survive.”

“Well, my lady, it appears you have no other choice but to trust Selena, if you wish to free your Nell. But what will you do when she demands the relic in payment and you cannot remove it from your wrist?”

Millicent smoothed back her shiny black hair and purred. “I’ll think of something.”

She turned and joined Selena in the parlor and Gareth followed, glancing around with regret. A room worthy of the finest brothel in London, with myriad soft surfaces to cushion the backsides of the most passionate of lovers. He had so hoped to seduce the relic-holder here.

He pulled on his surcoat and tunic while both women watched him in silence. He shook the hair out of his face and buckled on his sword belt, his hand automatically patting his empty scabbard. He felt more naked without his sword than he had without his tunics. When he looked up at the women, they both released a sigh, although with entirely different inflections. Gareth smiled.

Apparently, Selena had already rung for the guard, for the stone door began to groan. She didn’t remove her eyes from Gareth as she said, “There should be only one guard, since it’s been less than an hour.”

Millicent shifted to panther and before Gareth could move, she lunged through the opening in the door. A loud thud followed a muffled oath of surprise. Gareth entered the landing and took the sword of the unconscious guard, hefting the blade to get a feel for its balance, checking to make sure some silver laced the blade.

Selena joined them and shot Millicent a look of amusement. “You lack finesse, my dear.”

She answered with a twitch of her whiskers and an angry flick of her tail.

Gareth dragged the guard into the room and pulled the statue on the outside wall, watching the door grind to a close with satisfaction. Then he crossed the landing and peered down the stairway, seeking hidden guards within the shadows. Selena brushed her body against his as she took the lead, the black beads of her dress winking at him from the glow of the fairylights that lined the walls. She’d left her torn pelerine in the room and her white shoulders gleamed. Gareth had to admit she was truly a lovely woman. His neck ached with the thought.

Millicent brushed by him, almost making him stumble, putting her furry self between him and the other woman.

Selena’s course took them down stairways again, but this time they appeared little used, and Gareth sheathed his sword and took a fairylight from one of the sconces to light his way when he realized they’d become scarce. His night vision wasn’t as strong as the shape-shifters’.

His sense of direction told him they’d turned a circle, and as the walls grew slimy and then dripped with moisture, he realized they’d entered passageways carved into the stone mountain that backed the castle. The air grew close and thick, until it seemed as if he could feel the weight of the stone surrounding them.

Selena appeared to revel in the space, but Millicent began a soft whine in the depths of her throat. Gareth wondered if she even realized how contrary to her nature her life had been, that panthers belonged under the open sky, flourishing in the freedom of plain and meadow.

He tucked the small globe of the fairylight into his belt, pushed beside her, and draped his arm over her neck, absently caressing the longer fur at her throat. Her whine grew into a purr and they traveled that way for a time, until Selena led them into narrower, roughly hewn tunnels, and they were forced to walk single file.

Gareth bumped into Millicent’s furry backside when she came to a sudden halt.

“Stay here,” whispered Selena as she entered a slightly wider opening. Millicent ignored her and started to follow. “You owe me a dinner,” continued the were-bat.

Millicent snorted and sat on her haunches.

Selena disappeared and Gareth soon heard a man’s startled oath.

“Selena, what are you… no, damn it. The last time you barely left me enough—” A gasp followed and then the guard sighed with rapture. “Gawd, woman, just leave me enough to walk afterward.”