Everlasting Enchantment (6 page)

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.

“Sir Knight,” screamed Selena. Too many hands now held her and the beat of her wings could no longer keep her aloft. “Help me!” They pulled her down until she disappeared beneath a wave of beating fists.

Gareth fought harder. His sword dripped red and green and began to grow heavy. He realized some of his opponents were nothing more than illusion, unable to hurt him as the greater power of Merlin’s curse protected him, but since he could not tell what he faced, he must waste his strength on them.

Selena continued to scream and he continued to fight things with long tentacles and rotting flesh, men with four legs and some with two. He’d seen much in his long years, but the duke surely held the most varied selection of nightmares in one small place.

He’d finally cleared a path to the were-vamp when he felt it. Gareth hadn’t truly believed his curse wouldn’t hold just because the sun never rose in the Underground.

His body began to feel disconnected from the earth and he felt himself scatter, as if a wind pulled the pieces of his being apart. He screamed in rage while he swung his sword at the last guard that had the folly to still hold Selena within his hands. When he fell, the rest of the men surrounding her backed away, and she shifted to human. Gareth’s vision began to splinter, and the last thing he saw was the sly grin of satisfaction on Selena’s face as she looked at the carnage he’d left in his wake.

Millicent ran for hours without stopping. At first she followed the path Selena had shown them, but as soon as she found a tunnel familiar to her, she took it. She didn’t trust the were-vamp not to send them flying off a ledge into a gorge.

She barely felt the weight of Nell on her back. The old woman’s vibrant personality always made Millicent forget her diminutive stature.

A large cavern opened before them and Millicent circled the milky pool in the center, avoiding dripping stalactites as she searched for the opening between three tall stalagmites. It would take her deeper into the earth, farther from the Underground city and the duke’s lair. Not many humans traveled this far into the wilds, but Millicent decided she’d take her chances with the denizens of the deep rather than the wrath of the duke.

She slid between the three white cones and entered another tunnel, hoping Nell remembered to keep her head down. For a moment, a thrill of satisfaction flowed through Millicent as she realized she had indeed saved her friend. Even though she told herself the Duke of Ghoulston would release Nell once she’d done his bidding, she’d feared the old woman wouldn’t survive her captivity. That she’d never again see the shape-shifter that had become family to her.

Then why didn’t she feel completely satisfied? Why did she keep thinking of soft blue eyes and wavy blond hair? Of his blood spilling on the ground as the swarm of guards overwhelmed him?

Of the way he’d left her to save another woman. And Selena, at that.

Millicent huffed. The man meant nothing to her but trouble. She’d best concentrate on how to get the relic off her wrist without giving up a part of herself to him.

The tunnel began to warm and the walls to glow, relieving some of the blackness. She’d had to rely on her cat senses to get them this far. Millicent picked up her pace without jogging Nell any more than necessary. The old woman’s grip had become tenuous and she knew she had to find a place for them to rest soon.

The tunnel abruptly ended and Millicent narrowed her eyes at the brightness. A large cavern opened before them and she struggled to breathe, adjusting to the thick humidity of the chamber. She slowly sat and Nell slid off her back. When Millicent shifted to human, she blinked at the sudden wealth of color.

A glowing forest of emerald, sapphire, and scarlet spread out before them. Spindly-limbed trees, much taller than those aboveground, swayed in a warm breeze Millicent thought might be created by the heat of the hot pools mixing with the cold air of the tunnels that vented the chamber. Another sort of growth hung suspended from the roof high above them, but she could not decide if they were flat vines or roots, since they looked more like glowing lace fans than anything else. They swayed more wildly than the trees below them.

“What is this place?” croaked Nell.

Millicent turned and studied her with a frown. Nell’s time in that prison had weakened her, dulling the bright sheen of her red hair, adding even more gray to it. And she was too thin. “I’ve been here only once before, when I first discovered this place. It’s beautiful, but something about it…”

“It’s alive,” said Nell.

“That’s just a wind making everything move. We’re not used to that in the Underground.”

“It’s more than that. Can’t ye hear it?”

Of course she could. The trees swayed against each other, their rubbery texture creating an eerie sigh, the fans above a gentle whispering. The undergrowth on the sandy floor moved as well. Tubular plants seeking flying insects of glowing blues and oranges brushed against pitted stones of opalescent white.

Millicent rose. “Don’t get spooked by a bit of wind, Nell.”

“It ain’t that, I tell ye. The forest knows we’re here, and hasn’t decided whether to welcome us or not.”

“Well, then,” said Millicent, smiling at her friend’s vivid imagination. “Let’s hope it decides to like us, ’cause we’re staying for a few days. You need food and rest, Nell. And this is the only place I could think to get it that the duke doesn’t know about.”

Nell was weaker than Millicent thought, because she gave up the argument too easily, closing her eyes with a tired sigh. Millicent shifted to cat, the transformation taking a bit longer than usual, testament to her own fatigue. She’d carried her friend many miles through the Underground, and despite her were-strength, she did have her limits. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept.

Nell felt as if she collapsed on top of her, more than climbed on, and Millicent slowly padded her way through the forest, the temperature climbing with each step she took. Despite her bravado, she avoided the touch of the glowing limbs as best she could, and tried not to step on any living growth. She went deep into the forest, careful to cover her tracks, hoping to make it difficult for the duke’s men if they’d managed to follow her through the twists of tunnels.

Tiny clicks sounded in the undergrowth and Millicent fought the urge to hunt. The round, hard-scaled creatures made an excellent dinner, and her mouth watered at the thought. But she needed to find them a safe place to sleep first.

She didn’t quite manage it. When Millicent stumbled across a soft patch of sand, carpeted with the deadfall of the fans above, her limbs gave way, and she sank with a tired sigh. The heat and humidity had drained her of what little strength she had left. She noticed the trees created a thick circle around them, and as her eyes began to droop, it seemed that they swayed with the wind, growing denser, creating a barrier of protection to hide them.

Maybe Nell was right. Maybe the forest had some sort of intelligence, and had decided it liked them after all. Millicent fell asleep with that oddly comforting thought.

And awoke to the sensation of being watched.

She felt Nell’s slight form curled up behind her, the old woman’s snores the only discordant sound in the rhythmic whisper of the forest. Millicent cracked her lids, her were-vision especially attuned to the slightest movements around her.

Sir Gareth sat across from her, his back against a tree, his pale blue eyes fixed on her own. He wore only a short pair of drawers and his belt, the scabbard of his sword digging in the sand. His hair curled with dampness and the smooth skin of his chest shone with a light sheen of moisture. Millicent’s stomach did a little flip at the sight of him and she covered her reaction by yawning widely, revealing her impressive set of fangs and teeth. She rose with a stretch, careful not to disturb Nell. When she shifted to human, her vision bombarded her again with the color of the forest.

She blinked. “How long have you been here?”

She noticed he had his own sword back in his scabbard again, and she couldn’t even see a red mark where Selena had bitten his neck.

He glanced at Nell and replied just as softly. “Not long. Where are we?”

Of course. He’d probably still been with Selena when the relic sucked him back in. “Far away from the duke’s underground mansion. Did you save her?”

His brow wrinkled. The tree he sat against glowed an emerald green, making his hair appear tinted with the same color. Blast, no man looks good with green hair. But he did.

“Oh,” he replied. “You mean Selena. I managed to clear a path around her just before I disappeared. She was still alive.”

Millicent shrugged. “A blooming shame.”

He smiled that devastating smile of his and stood, one smooth motion of rippling muscle beneath gleaming skin.

“You’re half-naked,” she blurted.

He shrugged. Blast, he shrugged. It did things to his shoulders and chest that made her want to explore those muscled contours with her fingertips. She’d seen many a man half-clothed and she’d never had this kind of reaction. Millicent averted her gaze, focusing on the changing colors reflected in the sand at his bare feet.

“It’s hot as Hades in this chamber,” he replied.

Of course it was. Millicent’s petticoats stuck to her legs and stopped the breeze from reaching her skin to cool it. But she hadn’t taken half her clothes off just because of a little discomfort.

He crossed the distance between them and touched her hand. “I’m glad to see that you and Nell are unharmed. Is this place an illusion?”

His touch tingled. The shock made her look back up at him and she pulled away. “No. Nell and I would’ve seen through it.”

His smile turned sad when she pulled away from him, but his eyes quickly sparked with curiosity at her words. “Then… Nell is a shape-shifter as well? What is her nature?”

Millicent noticed he hadn’t said “beast.” It made her feel—oh, she didn’t know. Oddly warm inside. And she found herself telling him more than she would have otherwise. “Nell is a firebird. But she rarely shifts anymore. It takes energy to change to were-form, and she’s old and tired.”

His gaze traveled to the loudly snoring woman. “In all the years I’ve lived, I’ve never seen a firebird. They are very rare.” He sounded almost reverent. “What does she look like?”

Millicent closed her eyes, picturing her. “She’s beautiful. Brilliant red plumage and a tail so long it trails like an elegant skirt behind her. She can breathe fire, and her feathers get hot enough to burn with orange flame. But fire doesn’t bother her. Even in her human form, I’ve seen her caress it as if it were an old lover.”

“I hope I can see her were-form, sometime.”

She felt his breath on her face. When had he gotten so close to her? Millicent’s eyes flew open and she took a step back. “I hope you don’t. She shifts now only when she’s threatened or furious.”

“Verily?” He looked into her eyes. He had very large, very blue eyes, his lashes several shades darker than his hair, outlining them so they appeared even larger. “It bothers you, doesn’t it? The thought that age might rob you of the ability to shift.”

“Of course. How would I protect myself without my were-form?”

“Perhaps you will have someone to protect you.”

“Not bloody likely.”

Gareth curled his hand into hers and tugged. “Come, I want to show you something.”

Millicent allowed him to lead her through the multicolored glow of the forest, his touch no longer a threat to her senses, but somehow comforting. As if she didn’t feel so quite alone. Although Nell sometimes acted like a grandmother, they rarely touched each other. And no man would dare attempt to. But Sir Gareth seemed so casual about reaching out and making a physical connection, as if he couldn’t help himself. She supposed that after centuries of seducing women, it came as natural to him as breathing.

That thought bothered her and she twisted her hand out of his grasp. “I can’t leave Nell for too long. She might wake or—”

“Don’t worry, my lady. It’s not far.”

The willowy trees opened onto a small clearing of sand that butted up against the wall of the cavern. A small hump of pitted rock sat on the left, steam billowing from the center. The temperature of the pools varied, and this one must be boiling. The vapor swirled about them, picking up the glow from the trees and creating ribbons of emerald, turquoise, and violet. A small path led up the side of the wall onto an opening.

Millicent followed Gareth into the tiny cave and stopped and stared. It felt cooler and dryer than the forest below. Three beds had been made with layers of foliage, separated by walls of branches for privacy. A flat stone near the front of the cave made a table of sorts, with three low stools clustered around it, made from branches tied with stiff plant fiber.

The middle of the stone table held a cluster of opalescent flowers in a hollowed-out gourd. Millicent didn’t know where he got them, but the flowers gave off a more intense glow than that of the trees, lighting the cave with soft, pearly splendor.

“You did all of this?” she whispered.

Gareth bowed. “Your new abode, my lady. Do you like it?”

Millicent didn’t answer his question. She couldn’t. No one had ever done anything like this for her before. It felt like a home. Could he even guess that she’d never had one? She stroked the petals of the flowers. “You’ll have to show me where you picked these. Although this place is no illusion, magic surely went into the making of it.”

The knight sighed, as if he hadn’t truly expected her to thank him, and took a step toward her. “The wizard who made it must have missed the ocean.”

She looked at him blankly.

“You’ve never seen the ocean, have you? It’s a large body of salty water, where enormous fish and plants live. There are even shape-shifters within its depths, men and women who can transform to fish.”

Millicent bristled. In the few months she’d spent with the duke above, she’d seen only a bit of London and most of it looked little different than her twilight city. Abovegrounders always thought their world was so superior. “We have lakes down here. Black lakes with creatures living in them.”

“Ah, but you’ve never seen sunlight sparkling on waves of water, foam crashing against the beach.” His eyes shimmered with sadness and his voice lowered to a husky murmur. “I barely remember it, myself.”

Then his eyes cleared as he studied her face. “You’ve lived in the darkness as much as I have, haven’t you, my lady?” Again he reached out and touched her, his fingertips as soft on her face as the touch of a fairy’s wing. “I wish I could take you there.”

Millicent suppressed a derisive laugh. “Wishes are for fools and dreamers, and I am neither.” She turned and scurried back down the path. If he kept it up, the man would have her mooning after dreams herself. But he still had hope that his curse would be broken. She’d lost her hope of a happy ending to her life many years ago.

Sir Gareth called out to her and she shifted to panther so she couldn’t answer him. For a moment there, he’d almost had her convinced that he cared about her. She’d never heard of a man seducing a woman by making her a home from a cave, but if he’d thought to soften her heart, he’d managed to come close to figuring out how.

She reached the patch of sand where she’d left Nell and shifted back to human. “No thanks,” she muttered.

Nell rolled over and blinked up at her sleepily. “No thanks to wot?”

Sir Gareth strode into the clearing, one of those hard-shelled creatures in his hands. “It appears that my lady is not satisfied with my attempts to see to her comfort.”