The sound of slurping made Gareth shudder with the memory and he took a step forward. But he couldn’t get around Millicent without hurting her and she refused to budge. She glanced behind her at him, those golden eyes glowing with annoyance.

Gareth sighed. “We should stop her now,” he whispered.

Millicent shifted to human, making him blink at how quickly she transformed. “It’s better this way. Do you think he’d prefer that I tear out his throat, or that you run him through with your sword?”

He longed to know what had been done to her to make her into such a hard woman. And knew he’d have to discover it before she would allow him to possess her. “He doesn’t need to die.”

“He has kept Nell imprisoned in that filthy cell. Do you think I care?”

The sadness that sometimes gripped him nearly choked the breath from him. Gareth picked her up, swung her behind him, and drew his sword. He crossed into the open chamber, wondering if he’d have to use his weapon as a lever to pry Selena off the man.

But she appeared to be sated, her hand covering her mouth as she leaned drunkenly against the wall, the guard crumpled at her feet. Gareth sheathed his sword and knelt down to feel for a pulse.

“I left him enough,” mumbled Selena. He glanced up at her as her black, leathery wings shifted back into her body. “The duke doesn’t like it when I drain his men dry.”

“I imagine not.” Gareth stood and scanned the chamber—a scarred wooden table with a single lantern, a few chairs, a keg of ale, and a stone slab that could be a door, although it lacked a statue to open it. Millicent already stood near it, her hands running over several holes in the wall.

“It doesn’t bother you, does it?” asked Selena as she drew next to him. “My nature, that is?”

Gareth could smell the coppery scent of blood and the musky odor of lust.

“Because if it does, I’ll stop.” She hiccupped. “I swear I’ll never touch another drop.”

“Where is the key to the prison door, Selena?”

Her glossy black eyes widened and then she grinned. “Oh, there isn’t one. The duke likes these clever doors, you see. You put your finger in the proper holes and push the release knob inside. This one just needs—”

Stone ground against stone and they both turned toward the sound.

“Hasty, hasty,” sang Selena. “If she’d stuck her finger in the wrong hole, she would have lost it.”

Gareth glanced back down at the guard. He lacked two fingers on his left hand. His stomach twisted at the thought of Millicent being hurt and he cursed at her rashness while he strode toward her. She disappeared into the black void where the door had stood.

Gareth followed, his nose stinging from the sharp odor of stale urine. He pulled the fairylight from his belt and held it aloft to relieve the absolute darkness. Red fire flashed in the corner of the dirt room, and it took him a moment to realize it was but the glow of the reddest hair he’d ever seen. Millicent crouched just above that head of extraordinary hair, and Gareth slowly approached.

“If they’ve harmed you, I’ll kill them,” muttered the were-cat as she gently touched the small woman’s shoulders. “I don’t care if the duke has a legion of men and monsters. I’ll swear vengeance and track him down like the dog he is and then—”

“Crikey, Millie, stow it,” rasped the woman.

“Can you stand, my lady?” interjected Gareth.

The redhead’s eyes widened as she looked up at him. Gareth studied her in turn. Even standing, the woman would barely reach his waist and he wondered if she had dwarven blood in her veins. But she lacked the sturdy look of those folk. Instead, she had the build of a sprite, with thin, delicate limbs. Her small, pinched face made her beaked nose look even larger. This close he could see the gray that streaked her hair and the knobbiness in the bones of her hands. Wrinkles seamed her face and her violet eyes measured him with experienced wisdom. “And who the hell are ye?”

Gareth bowed and Millicent sighed. “Nell Feenix, this is Sir Gareth Solimere, a knight of King Arthur’s Round Table…” She held up her hand to stop the old woman’s questions. “I know, but it’s a long story, Nell. I’ll explain it all when I get you out of here.”

“Hmph. Well, it’ll take the both of ye to straighten out these hollow old bones.”

He took the hint and gently grasped her one arm while Millicent held the other. They both slowly pulled her up, amid crackles and pops that made him wince. They led her from the room and Nell’s face lit when she spied the keg. Gareth made sure her legs would hold and then strode over to the table, wiping down the guard’s tankard before filling it with fresh ale. The man himself still lay in a stupor.

The old woman studied him when he walked back to her but didn’t say a word until after she’d drained the cup. “Yer eyes tell me ye’re older than me, yet ye move like a dancer I once knew. He was the best lover I’d ever had.” She laughed at whatever expression had bloomed on his face. “Can’t wait to hear this one’s story, Millie.”

Millicent frowned. “You won’t believe it even after I explain. It’s the worst thing that ever could have happened to me.”

Gareth experienced the oddest pain in his chest. This woman had the uncanny knack of wounding him in ways he’d never felt before.

The old woman squinted up at Millicent. “Why ye talkin’ so peculiar?”

“The duke trained me to be a lady.”

Those purple-blue eyes widened. “Whatever for? No, wait, never ye mind. I want to be out of this here place even more than I want to know what the duke’s been up to. Let’s go home.”

“I don’t think that would be wise,” said Selena, who’d been watching them from across the stone chamber. Whatever giddiness she’d experienced from her feast had faded, to be replaced with a restless energy. “His Grace is going to be very annoyed that you left without his permission. He’ll forgive me once I show him the relic, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he set a few of his nastier minions after you to make a point.”

“Relic?” whispered Nell. “This is soundin’ worse ’n’ worse.”

“Never mind,” hushed Millicent. “Selena, is there a way out of the castle from here?”

“Mmm. Several. But they all lead back to the cavern. And you’ll probably manage to get lost.” Her red lips widened as she appeared to relish the thought of Millicent and Nell wandering until they starved to death.

“I will see them safely from the duke’s demesne,” said Gareth, striding forward and taking up her pale hand in his. “Surely you will show us the way, Selena?”

She blinked. Her fingers trembled, and she swayed toward him. “Of course, love. Anything for you.”

He smiled and gave her his deepest bow. Millicent snarled and Nell snorted. Gareth ignored them both as he followed Selena out of the prison chamber. He would save them despite their hostility toward the were-vampire bat. He hadn’t quite figured out what he’d do when Selena demanded the relic in payment, and discovered he hadn’t seduced the holder when it wouldn’t come off of Millicent’s wrist. Despite the habits of Selena’s nature, he rather liked her. And he could never physically harm a woman, especially one so obviously infatuated with him.

Gareth offered to carry Nell, for he didn’t think she had the stamina to walk very far. But Millicent shifted to panther and the old woman climbed on her back as if she’d done it hundreds of times before. Again Selena led them through twisting tunnels until the walls began to drip with moisture, and a huge, thundering noise made speaking impossible. Not that he had any inclination to do so, for his mind spun in hopeless circles.

How would he manage to seduce a woman who thought he was the worst thing that could have happened to her?

Light shone ahead of them, and the walls dropped away until they were surrounded in a rush of falling water. The spray stung his face and wind from the fall twisted his hair about his head. Despite the chill that crept into him, he couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the shimmering blue-white curtain. It took a glorious half hour before they finally reached the end of the water tunnel and stepped into the comparative brightness of the enormous cavern that sheltered the duke’s castle.

When the sound of the waterfall finally faded to a soft roar behind them, Selena turned and pointed to another path that branched off from the one they’d taken. “Keep to this trail and it will take you back to the city. If I were you, I’d get as far away from His Grace as I could, were-cat.”

Millicent ignored her and batted a paw at a tiny winged shape that flitted down in front of her. Another one swept across Gareth’s shoulder and another appeared before Selena’s startled face. The small beings looked like messenger sprites, but not the sort that the aristocracy conjured. They sported black, jagged wings and spindly limbs. Their large, round eyes appeared almost colorless against their dirty blue skin, and when they laughed, they exposed too many pointed teeth for their small mouths.

“The little spies,” hissed Selena as the sprites flew away as quickly as they’d come.

Gareth spun. They stood on an incline at the wall of the cavern, the portcullis of the keep to their left. The iron grating had been raised and guards swarmed from beneath it. He turned back to Millicent. “Run.”

She snarled, the skin behind her velvet nose wrinkling, exposing the length of her fangs and the points of her own sharp teeth.

“Not before she gives me the relic,” said Selena. She grabbed Nell’s arm and yanked her off the panther’s back. Nell fell to the ground hard enough to make her cry out. “Shift, were-cat, and give it to me, or I swear I’ll drain the old woman dry.”

Gareth took a step toward them when he heard the muffled sound of a shot, and then the dirt at his feet kicked up a small plume. Selena dropped Nell’s arm and turned to gaze from his boots to his face, a smolder of red appearing in the depths of her glossy black eyes. “The fools,” she hissed. “They could have hit you.”

She shifted fully to her were-bat. Gareth blinked. Selena’s eyes stared back at him from a face that sprouted sharp, ridged ears and a snout he now thought resembled a swine’s. Two sharp, pointed teeth hung from the top of her mouth, and the charming cleft in her human lip had spread into a wide V. Her brown fur looked coarse compared to Millicent’s silky black coat. Her wings had grown larger than when she’d taken a half-shifted state, fully encasing her arms and legs as she spread them wide and took to the air.

Millicent nosed Nell, and Gareth quickly went to the old woman and helped her to her feet. “Are you well?”

“Hmph. That old bat didn’t hurt me none.”

He smiled and her violet eyes widened and she trembled when he picked her up and set her carefully on Millicent’s back. The panther met his gaze.

“Get your Nell out of here,” he commanded as he turned around. The guards had made it halfway to where he stood when Selena attacked them, harassing them from above with clawed feet. Gareth drew his sword and felt Millicent nudge him from behind.

“Ain’t you comin’ with us?” asked Nell.

The group of fighters had recovered from the surprise attack from above, and snatched at Selena’s legs, while their comrades took some wild shots. Pistols rarely shot straight in the best of circumstances, so Selena hadn’t been hit yet, but Gareth feared one of the balls might find their target.

“She fights on my behalf,” he answered. “I cannot allow her to come to harm.”

Millicent snorted and he shot her a glare as he said, “You have your precious thing, now save her. And allow me to fight for what I value.”

He’d meant his honor but Millicent’s golden-brown gaze flew to the were-vampire, who now struggled against the hold of several of the men. Did he imagine a brief flash of jealousy in those amber eyes before she turned away? By all that was holy, she was the most vexing creature he’d ever met.

Nell lowered herself flat on the panther’s back as the beast lunged down the path. Gareth gave a sigh of relief that the relic-holder would be safe and then charged down the slope, weaving as he ran, not knowing if that would save him from the pistols now shooting in his direction, or plunge him directly into a ball’s path.

His pace didn’t slow until he met the crush of bodies and began to swing his weapon in the age-old dance of war. He had despised the duke before, but as he took down one monstrosity after another, he began to hate the man. For the group of guards held within their ranks caricatures of men, seemingly taken apart and pieced together with parts from animal, plants, and other men. They lacked the intelligence of true men and fell easily beneath his sword: a giant with two heads, a man with arms of green vine, another with the hindquarters of a bull.