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.”

Millicent took a step backward, staring at him in shock. “But I already told you, it was a mistake that the relic chose me.”

“Was it?” mused Gareth. “Or has fate played her fickle hand again?” He spoke wearily, as if he’d encountered fate so often it couldn’t surprise him anymore. Never had his youthful face stood in such strong contrast to his ageless eyes as it did now.

Despite the ring of truth in his words, Millicent didn’t want to believe him. It was simply too preposterous. “But that means Lady Chatterly… and all those other women… They wore it only for a night!”

Gareth’s lip twitched. “It’s rare a woman refuses me for longer than that.” He gently uncocked each pistol and set them down on a delicate tea tray.

The duke finally set loose his spell with a negligent toss of his fingers, which Millicent could vaguely see as a dark black cloud. It curved around the knight, dissipating into the paneled wall behind him. “Forgive me, Sir Gareth,” said the duke, looking not a whit sorry. “But I had to try. I find all of this quite fascinating.”

And Millicent realized the clever duke had found out more about the relic and its powers by his pretense of friendship than if he’d threatened or tortured them. She glanced over at the were-vampire bat, who had returned to the wine cabinet and refreshed her glass. Selena held her drink up in a mocking salute before tossing it down her throat.

“I won’t do it,” said Millicent. “There must be another way to get this cursed thing off my wrist.”

“Wasted,” muttered Selena. “The relic is totally wasted on her.”