And that Selena would lust after fresh blood.
But for some reason, Millicent couldn’t bear to watch the two of them trade knowing looks. Couldn’t stomach Selena’s possessive smile. Her annoyance turned to severe irritation. “I shall be happy to inform His Grace that you kept him waiting.”
Selena turned and hissed at her, finally forgetting to keep her lips over her teeth, revealing two sharp front teeth and even pointier fangs at the corners of her mouth. “You are never any fun, Millicent. One day I’ll find out if the blood in your veins truly does run so cold.” She spun, a glitter of black silk, and headed back down the hall.
Gareth and Millicent followed, the red-haired giant still at their backs.
“You’re jealous,” whispered Gareth, a note of triumph in his voice.
Drat, the man was persistent. He would soon realize he was only a bargaining piece for the one person she had ever allowed herself to truly care about. Just because she found it difficult to resist his charisma didn’t mean she cared enough for him to be jealous. “Don’t be ridiculous. I just thought I should warn you about her first. I owe you that much.”
“Warn me?”
Millicent nodded at Selena’s back. “She lusts after any man.”
“So?”
“She wants more than to share a man’s bed. She wants his blood—which is why the duke did not trust her to steal the relic for him. She’s a shape-shifter, Sir Gareth, and cannot control some of her particular tendencies.”
“A were-vampire bat,” he said. “I know. Verily, it amazes me that you think I didn’t. Perhaps it’s difficult for you to understand how truly long I’ve lived. Besides this underground world of yours, there’s very little I haven’t seen, my lady.”
Millicent didn’t quite know what to say. She’d never met a man like him before. So young looking, and yet so very old inside. “Oh, quit calling me that,” she finally managed.
Selena stopped in front of a paneled door and threw it open with a flourish of fluttering silk.
The room looked remarkably similar to the duke’s study in his mansion aboveground, except it lacked sunshine streaming through the paned windows and the fresh flowers his housekeeper managed to fit into every nook and cranny. Millicent doubted anyone above even knew about his residence in the Underground.
The Duke of Ghoulston had been pacing in front of the roaring fireplace and turned eagerly as they entered the room. His beady eyes studied their group for a moment, lingering on Sir Gareth with a frown. Then he quickly focused on Millicent. “Did you get it?”
She held up her arm, the moonstone reflecting the fire’s flames within its depths.
He rubbed his hands together, the dry, raspy sound enough to make her shiver. “Jolly good. I won’t ask if you had any trouble. I can see you did by the condition of the very expensive dress I loaned you.”
Millicent could give a bloody farthing about his expenses. “I want to see Nell.”
Selena hissed a laugh and glided across the room to an ornate cabinet, pouring herself a decanter of red wine and sipping it while she undressed Sir Gareth with her eyes.
The duke flopped into a padded wing chair, his belly vibrating with the aftershock. “Not quite yet. First you give me the relic… and explain why the hell you brought this man to my home.”
Millicent glanced at Gareth. He looked entirely unconcerned by the duke’s sinister tone, examining him as if the other man were an insect he seriously considered squashing.
“Don’t do anything foolish,” she told him. Sir Gareth raised those blond brows, a slight quirk to his lips. His hair glowed a shade of gold in the firelight and he looked so boyishly handsome she wanted to scream at him. Instead, she lowered her voice. “Please. For my sake.”
He gave her a slight bow, with barely a nod of his head.
Selena choked on her wine, as if stunned that the knight followed Millicent’s bidding.
The duke narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. “Explain him, Millicent. Now.” She’d forgotten the giant had followed them into the room until the duke looked pointedly over her shoulder at the guard, who took a warning step closer to her.
“He’s part of what you wanted. He’s—”
The knight stepped forward. “Sir Gareth Solimere, a knight of the Round Table and, at this moment, my lady’s protector.”
The duke ignored Gareth and kept his steely gaze fastened on Millicent.
“He belongs to the relic,” she explained. “Well, he came out of it anyway. It’s what all the society ladies have been gossiping about. Not the relic itself, but the man who has been trapped inside.”
This time the duke gave Gareth his full attention. “So, you’re not a madman. By your clothing, I assume you’ve been trapped inside the relic since the Middle Ages?”
Gareth planted his legs and crossed his arms over the red dragon emblazoned on his tunic. “As you see.”
Millicent winced at his aggressive posture and hurriedly spoke. “He can come out only from midnight to dawn. He’ll be gone again in”—she glanced over at the gilded French clock on the mantel—“a few hours.”
The duke leaned back, steepling his fingers beneath his nose. “Interesting. What else have you managed to find out about the relic? What magic does it possess?”
“That’s not our deal,” said Millicent. “I bring you the relic and you hand over Nell. As simple as that.”
“Life is never simple, my dear. But never mind. I won’t let it be said that the Duke of Ghoulston does not honor his bargains. Otherwise my minions won’t think I mean what I say.” He glanced briefly at Selena, who slammed her glass of port down on the table, sloshing red over her fingers. The duke grinned. “Hand over the relic, and you can have your Nell and go.”
Millicent took a deep breath. “Um, there’s just a little problem.”
The duke’s relaxed manner vanished and he stared at the silver band on her wrist like a hound dog would stare at his favorite bone. “I don’t like problems.”
“It’s only a temporary one,” Millicent hastened to assure him, hating the sound of her conciliatory tone. If she hadn’t been so unwise as to care for another, she wouldn’t be in the position of having to bargain with a slug like Ghoulston. She would gladly shift to cat and kill him on the spot. “I can’t remove the relic until dawn.”
“Why not?”
Despite her earlier words, Millicent decided it would be wise to give the duke enough information to pacify him. “It tightens around the wrist of whomever it chooses.”
The duke narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “But you’re immune to magic, my dear.”
“The spell inside the metal doesn’t affect me directly. And the silver is as real as you or I. Believe me, it won’t come loose until Sir Gareth is swallowed back inside. Lady Chatterly said he won’t appear to the same woman twice, and that’s why it’s been passed along to other ladies.”
The duke rose and faced Gareth. “I’ve heard rumors that our properly raised women have been introduced to, shall we say, the pleasures of the flesh. I assume we have you to thank for their ruination?”
Gareth bowed with a flourish of his arm. “Guilty, as charged.”
Millicent could see the anger simmering in the duke’s eyes and stepped closer to the knight, speaking rapidly. “It’s not entirely his fault. You see, he was foretold of a woman who can free him of his curse. And he knows only what she feels like, so he—”