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—”

“Gets them naked, yes, I follow.” The duke sidestepped Millicent and began to walk a circle around Sir Gareth. “Tell me, Sir Knight, does your skill at seduction come naturally, or is it enhanced by the power of the relic?” Gareth looked down his nose at the duke and tightened his lips. “Ah, well. Perhaps you will tell me why you were trapped in the relic in the first place?”

Only the harsh breathing of the two men disturbed the silence that fell over the room.

“I see,” said Ghoulston, dispersing his anger with a sigh. “I think when the relic is in my possession you will be more amenable to answering my questions. You see, I desire your friendship, Sir Knight. Surely that’s not too much to ask?”

Gareth raised a skeptical brow and the duke let out a hearty laugh, slapping him on the shoulder. “Hmph. You feel real enough. Not an illusion then. Come now, man. We have a lot in common, you and I.” He chuckled all the way back to his wing chair, sitting down with a sigh of self-satisfaction. “I have been imprisoned as well, don’t you know? In a prison of obscurity and disrespect. I mean to change all of that with my scientific studies of magic.”

Millicent had cringed when the duke slapped Gareth, but the knight stood frozen. She wondered where he had learned such iron self-control and admired him for it. And felt a kernel of guilt. She knew the duke’s methods. First he would offer friendship, and when that didn’t work, he’d try blackmail. If he couldn’t find that leverage… well, she’d heard rumors of what the black wizard could do.

And then she shook herself. Hadn’t she vowed never to allow herself to be vulnerable again by caring for another? And besides feeling a bit of gratitude for Gareth’s skills in beating the other weres who’d sought to take the relic from her, she didn’t care for him a whit. She really didn’t even know him.

“Well, my dear Millicent,” said the duke, “it seems that you will be my guest until the morrow. Perhaps you can show her to the red room, Selena?”

“But this is nonsense,” replied Selena. She stepped forward, purposely brushing Gareth’s shoulder as she glided past him. “You don’t believe any of this, do you, my lord?”

She pointed at Millicent with a sweeping gesture that caused her pelerine to flutter like wings. “Just look at her! Do you really think the relic would choose Millicent Pantere? That this passionate knight would bind himself to such an unwilling creature?”

The duke settled deeper into his chair. “Ah, my sweet Selena. You are an endless source of entertainment.”

She gave him a wide smile, her needle-sharp fangs glinting in the firelight. Then spun her silks again, grabbed Millicent’s arm, and caressed the silver bracelet. “It’s wasted on her.”

Sir Gareth, who had stood as still as a stone, twitched when the were-bat touched Millicent.

Selena looked up at him and Millicent could smell the musky scent of the woman’s lust for the knight.

“Why must we wait another minute?” she continued, twisting the metal and Millicent’s skin along with it. “Look, it’s loose enough to remove. It requires only a bit of pressure.”

“Unhand her,” said Gareth, his voice deep and low.

Selena dug her fingers beneath the silver band, gouging Millicent’s skin with her sharp nails, and yanked as hard as she could.

Millicent fought to keep the growl from her voice, and kept her tone even. “I’ve already tried to get it off, Selena. It won’t go past the bones of my hand.”

The other shape-shifter continued to tug and Millicent had to resist the impulse to yank back and send the smaller woman flying across the room.

“Then try,” panted Selena, “to squeeze the bones of your hand together. Or perhaps we should just cut off your wrist.”

The duke slapped his knee and howled with laughter.

Gareth spun and slammed the heel of his palm up into the guard’s chin. The red-haired giant managed a grunt of pain before his eyes rolled back in his head. The knight removed the two pistols from the other man’s belt as the guard fell, spun again, and leveled them at the duke’s laughing face.

“Unhand her,” he said again.

Selena froze, her mouth dropping open in surprise.

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.”