Lust (8 page)

“Then it is all arranged?”

Arawn nodded. “I am to court Prudence, the virtue of temperance and restraint.”

Crom smiled, satisfied with the progress Arawn had made. “Good. Get me an introduction to Chastity—and be quick about it.”

 

“Someone has warded off the town house,” Thane spat, his blood boiling with rage.

“That would be my bastard brother, Crom. No doubt acting on orders from the queen,” Niall murmured as he leaned against the trunk of an ancient oak tree in Hyde Park.

“Then they know we're after the virtues,” Kian replied as he gazed between the trees limbs. It was late afternoon and the sun was moving west, its rays dappling between the leaves. Numerous carriages littered the park, and Thane and his friends took care to appear as though they were naught but gentlemen, out for a ride during the fashionable hour. Amidst the green foliage they blended in. They were fey after all, nature was their home. They were as comfortable in the woods as they were beneath the stars and moon. As Dark Fey, night was more to their liking. With the sun setting, their powers—and their glamour—began to awaken. But with their fey blood stirring, so were their sins.

“Now, with the Seelie following our footsteps,” Kian
continued, “it won't be easy getting them to our court, especially since we cannot just carry them off to ours.”

“Use your glamour,” Niall grumbled, “but only to gain their notice. We must work quickly if we're to secure them. Our counterparts will have no compunction about using their magic to seduce the women. We must do everything in our power to prevent that.”

“Against the Seelie?” Avery said with a laugh. “Those pious fey won't even know how to go about a proper seduction. I will have my virtue bedded and enthralled by the time they seek an introduction.”

Niall flashed Avery a wide grin. “Your prowess is legendary, my friend, but remember the curse. They must come willingly to you and to our court. You cannot use magic to sway them.”

“I require only the magic in my hands,” Avery said with a leer.

“Getting them to our court is only half the battle, I think,” the king murmured. “It's keeping them there. They will be leaving the only life they've ever known. Their families, friends—their mortality. It will be a most difficult challenge.”

“What of the other three virtues?” Kian asked. “Lennox daughters are four, chastity, temperance, kind ness and humility. Where are diligence, charity and faith?”

“I am making inquiries,” Niall pronounced as he tracked the path of a bluebird flying from tree to tree. “We cannot be too careful. Who knows how many other
fey courts pay allegiance to my mother? There could be others after the women, as well.”

“What do you suggest?” Thane asked, feeling restless and angry. He did not like the idea of Chastity being protected by any other than himself. Most especially a Seelie Fey. If it was indeed Crom who had warded Lennox's house as Niall suspected, then Thane was all the more enraged. He despised the king's half brother, and the thought of him taking Chastity made his blood boil. There was no way Thane was going to allow a Seelie to claim his virtue.
His…

Unable to stop himself, Thane relived those moments in the maze, and the hunger he had experienced then only felt more gnawing. Nothing assuaged it. He wanted his virtue. He had tried last night to gain entrance into her room. That was when he discovered the town house had been warded off. He had been unable to break the complicated enchantment, and the failure of that only furthered the deepening rage inside him. He wanted Chastity, and he wanted her now.

“Have you tried more traditional methods to gain entry into the home?” Niall asked. “An introduction perhaps or a call?”

Thane glared at his king. Fortunately, they were half brothers, and Niall tolerated far more insolence from him than from others at his court. “What do you think I am? Of course I've already seen that I've been introduced.” Hell, he had not been able to get the introduction out of his head. He hadn't meant for it to happen like that, but she had looked so damn good standing there in the
maze, and he wanted her, had to struggle with Lust to keep from ravishing her.

“And?” Niall prompted

Thane frowned, remembering how she had run from him. “She will not see me.”

Niall stared at him with a look of amusement. “A bit more of a challenge than you first thought?”

“Yes,” he hissed, “but that wouldn't be the case if some Seelie infidel hadn't seen to keeping her from me. I'm certain the servants are Seelie that have been planted in the house specifically to hamper our ability to get to the women. They're using their glamour. It won't be easy when our magic is evenly matched.”

“Might I suggest, then, that you find other ways?”

“I've tried. The windows are sealed shut by magic. I came as fog and mist, even rain, and could not make my way in.”

“Then try harder,” Niall commanded. “Our court deserves to have your tenacity in this matter.”

Thane heard himself growl. Tenacious he was, but he had lost his way, forgetting that he needed Chastity for the survival of his court, and not just to satisfy the ache in his loins.

The need to feel her once more in his arms outweighed his true purpose here in the mortal realm.

“Avery, what did you find out about Lennox?” Niall asked.

The biggest of the fey, Avery stood well over six feet, with shoulders the width of a giant oak. A true glutton, Avery was the furthest thing from a fat, lazy lord. But his
need for more—of everything—fired a compulsion to experience anything that might satiate his senses. Leave it to Niall to exploit Avery's sin. The fey would stop at nothing until he was satisfied that he had “consumed” all the
on dits
there were to be had about the Duke of Lennox.

“It seems the duke, while always appearing to be financially respectable, came into a rather large amount of money three years ago. His peers describe him as having the devil's own luck for investing. A luck, I might add, that was only just average—until three years ago.”

Niall's eyes flashed. “It appears that Lennox must have found the goose that lays the golden egg.”

Nodding, Avery continued. “Everything he touches turns to gold. He's become more than rich. He's powerful, and there isn't a man about London who would not give his firstborn for the chance to partake in an investment scheme with him.”

“What are his investments?” Kian grumbled. Already Thane saw his twin's sin color his blue eyes green. Envy…a horrid sin to be saddled with.

Shrugging, Avery leaned back against the trunk of a tree. “The usual. Land and properties. A speculation consortium to develop the plot of land behind Grosvenor Square, a factory up north that is building some locomotive engine propelled by steam. His interests and investments are varied. But,” Avery said with a leer, “there's one venture he keeps silent about.”

“Oh?” Niall asked, his interest piqued.

“The flesh trade,” Avery answered. “I discovered that
fact last night while feeding my sin. You know nymphs, they can never keep their mouths shut—a blessing that,” Avery said with a smile.

Thane's eyes flared wide. “The Nymph and the Satyr?”

Avery nodded. “The bloody bastard is a silent partner. He knows about us. At the very least, he knows the fey exist.”

“It seems the duke is well accustomed to doing business with the fey,” Niall said thoughtfully as he gazed up at the sky.

“The Seelie Fey,” Kian spat. “Lennox is in league with them.”

Niall turned to Thane's twin and smiled. “Then let us acquaint him with how the Unseelie do business. Meet me two nights from now at the Nymph and the Satyr, and we will see what inducement we can provide to entice His Grace to allow the three of you to call upon his lovely daughters.”

“I cannot wait two nights,” Thane grumbled rather impulsively. Hell, he needed to gain control of himself. What was this madness that was invading his thoughts? She was a woman. A means to end a curse.

“My brother is anxious to get his cock wet.” Kian laughed, but Thane saw the jealousy in his eyes. “And who wouldn't be with that luscious morsel? I'll wager there is enough of her to share, brother.”

Control.
It was Envy talking, not Kian—not his twin. Rage—and jealousy—suddenly consumed Thane. Was this what Kian had to deal with? Was this truly what his twin's sin felt like, this all-consuming malevolence? This
compulsion to take, to hoarde, regardless of what pain it might cause others?

The thought of sharing Chastity with anyone was enough to make him as violent as his king—who was ruled by the sin of wrath.

Avery, the gluttonous bastard, shared Kian's view. “Aye, curved and full, as is my preference. I could show her a thing or two that Lust couldn't. For starters, never to settle for one dish when there is an entire buffet waiting to be sampled.”

Thane's sword was out of his scabbard and the glistening tip pointing to Avery's Adam's apple before Thane could reason out his actions. The faery metal sang as it swooped through the air and glimmered as the steel pricked fey flesh. “If you so much as look at her, I will skewer you.”

Another sword tip landed atop Thane's, which forced his hand lower and away from Avery's throat. “There is no need to kill one another,” Niall muttered. “There is a woman for each of us.”

“But one is not enough,” Avery replied. The leer that was so often present in his gaze was gone, replaced by fear. Not alarm elicited from Thane's sword, but another fear. The type that was soul-deep and haunting.

“Perhaps we may find our sins vanquished once we have the virtues,” Niall suggested. “Mayhap what torments us now no longer will. Maybe all of us will be free.”

Avery closed his eyes as he rested his head against the
tree trunk. “I cannot even imagine it, what it will be like. I have never dared to dream of it.”

“Neither have I,” Kian murmured.

“None of us have, but the future is in sight,” Niall reminded them. “We have found four of our virtues. Now we must find a way to possess them. And without the use of faery magic, that means we must work together, opposing sins and all.”

Nodding, Avery and Kian agreed. Thane noticed his sword was pointed at the level of Avery's heart. Inside, jealousy and an impassioned desire to protect Chastity still ate at him, but he nodded, allowing the sword to fall away.

“Two nights from now, at the Nymph and the Satyr,” Niall reminded them.

“My informant tells me that Lennox never avails himself of the wares,” Avery replied. “His business dealings with the house are through his solicitor and man of affairs.”

“I will bring him,” Niall assured. “Just make certain the three of you are there. And where is Rinion?” Niall demanded.

“Probably lost in the reflection of a looking glass, marveling at his own beauty.”

Niall grinned at Kian's obvious envy of Rinion's legendary beauty. “Vanity does enjoy looking at himself. But find him.”

“I believe that Vanity has already found his virtue. He made it very clear that he intended to wed and bed her on the Eve of Beltane.”

Niall frowned. “He was not at court when I left this morning.”

“Have you seen his virtue, Your Highness?” Avery asked. “I think you haven't, for if you had you would realize that Rinion most likely has her locked away in his room. She's quite a beauty, and Rinion was like a stallion on the scent of a mare.”

Laughing, Niall sheathed his sword. “Then we are fortunate. Rinion has secured us our first virtue.”

Kian's eyes flashed with resentment. “I'll be next.”

No, Thane thought. I will. Chastity was nearly in his grasp. He could feel it.

“I cannot linger,” Niall announced. “I'm going north, where I've heard some reports of women who may be the last of the seven we are searching for. Do as you must, but remember not to enchant them or force them.”

Thane watched as Avery, Kian and Niall left the woods. Climbing atop his horse, Thane nudged his mount forward, then began to canter through the paths of Hyde Park while Bel loped beside him. After a few short minutes, he found himself across the road from Chastity Lennox's town house.

There he would wait. If he could not go to her, he would have to find a way for her to come to him.

 

It was a fine evening for a stroll in the gardens. The air was fresh and the sun was setting in a most marvelous display of fuchsia and orange. Picking a handful of lily of the valley, Chastity inhaled the heady scent. She had always enjoyed the smell of flowers and grass. Her
family liked to tease her about her sensitive nose, claiming she was like a bloodhound. She supposed there was some truth in that. Her olfactory sense was rather heightened and developed, so sensitive that she could detect the subtle differences between base, middle and top notes in a perfume or a decadent dish laced with herbs and cream. Even now, she could decipher the difference between the sweet perfume of the lily she held in her hand and the delicately soft essence of the lilacs that were in bloom at the back of the garden.

Strolling through the herbal garden that had been allowed to grow out of control, Chastity mentally made a list of things that needed to be done. The trees and plants seemed to be in decent health, but the herbs had grown woody and coarse, requiring a heavy hand with the pruning. She had been a small child the last time she was in London, and in this garden. While her sisters had preferred the formal ornamental gardens at the side of the yard, Chastity had always preferred the kitchen garden. She used to come out with Cook and the housekeeper, Mrs. Badderly, and help them cut herbs and flowers. The garden had always held a mystical charm that Chastity found intriguing. There was no formality here, no rules. The flowers and herbs grew alongside each other, their borders not defined into perfect manicured squares like those of the ornamental garden. She had spent many an afternoon here, chasing butterflies and frolicking with Cook's assistant.