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.

Five

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.