Catspell

by Colleen Shannon

  She had to stop this. “Please, no more. Not on my account.” She started to say, as she would have of old, “I’m not worth it.” But the words would not come.

  Things had changed in the past few weeks since the dreams began. She had changed and while she didn’t understand this becoming, she knew it had made her stronger. Like her ancestor Cleopatra, she was worth this battle, and many more. But for now, she only knew that she couldn’t bear to see them fight so viciously, drawing blood on both sides.

  The strength to act came from instinct. Grabbing her robe and holding it like a shield above her head, she ran between the brothers. “Stop!”

  A fist on each side of the blanket glanced off her as the powerful blows were retracted barely in time. Even then, she staggered from the brunt.

  Panting, Seth ripped the robe away. “Get out of the way.” He glared at the marks on her shoulders. “Why did you let him do this to you? You are mine.”

  “She’s mine, by her own choice. If you hadn’t interfered…” Luke glanced at her sagging neckline. Arielle pulled it back up, but it was far too late for false modesty. Still, with a blatant challenge, using both his eyes and his caressing touch on Arielle’s scratch marks, Luke, too, tried to move her aside. Gently. Unlike Seth, Luke was always gentle and kind.

  Seth caught her other arm.

  Suddenly, she was furious at being naught but a trophy, first for her father, now for Luke and Seth. Suddenly, her back was arched and her teeth grew to pointy incisors. She slapped at both men, each trying to pull her aside, and was astounded to see claw marks on the backs of their hands. Then each of them were smiling, backing off, as if enjoying this primitive side of her. They merely watched.

  She was staring down at her own hands, enraptured by the claws and the nascent pads on her fingertips, when a bouncing torch flared into their battle ground, blinding them all. Arielle’s transformation stopped in the brilliant light, a fact Shelly’s quick gaze noted as she hurried into view, the earl bringing up the rear carrying the torch.

  Shelly said urgently, “Arielle? Are you all right?”

  Shelly and Arielle’s father were both in disarray, clothes buttoned askew, as if they’d hastily dressed. They froze in the clearing, staring at the guilty trio. The earl looked from Arielle’s bare, scratched shoulders, to the blood on the backs of each man’s hands. “Arielle?”

  Arielle thought of lying, but the facts spoke for themselves. She said coldly, “Luke invited me to dance with him in the clearing and Seth…stopped it.” Arielle turned a haughty shoulder on the lot of them, not sure what to think and suddenly, unutterably weary now her excitement had ebbed. “Think what you like, do what you like, Father. As always. I hope you all go to the blue blazes.” Grabbing her robe from Seth’s unresisting hands, Arielle shrugged into it and stomped off, her limp evident again.

  The torch trembled in the earl’s hand. His free hand clenched and unclenched as he glared at Luke. “You…profligate. Wastrel. How dare you try to seduce my daughter?”

  Sighing, Luke pulled his shirt back on and buttoned it. “If Arielle is starved for male contact and fun, you have only yourself to blame.” Luke nodded curtly at Shelly. “Madam.” Seth he didn’t acknowledge at all. He stalked away.

  The earl blinked rapidly, as if unsure what to say to Seth. Finally he managed, “Once again, in the space of a day, I’m in your debt.” He offered his hand.

  Seth shook it, but peremptorily. “How did you know to come?”

  “Ms. Holmes heard Arielle screaming,” the earl replied.

  Seth looked speculatively at Shelly.

  “I sleep with my windows open,” she blurted.

  “Very brave of you, considering there is a killer loose,” Seth responded with what might have been sarcasm. “Not to mention wonderful hearing, given the distance from this copse to your window.” He straightened his clothes and moved to walk off when he noted something white on the ground. He picked up a piece of paper and sniffed, his expression hardening again.

  Shelly moved to see what he held, but he stuffed it into his pocket and looked at the earl. “Do you still wish me to accompany Arielle on her visit to Whitefriars tomorrow?”

  Ignoring Shelly’s discreet shake of the head, the earl smiled. “Of course, of course. We shall expect you for breakfast. Thank you again for your assistance this eve.”

  When he was gone, Shelly opened her mouth to argue, blew a frustrated breath instead that ruffled the loose hair over her forehead, and led the way back to the house. “But I will find out what he took,” she promised herself under her breath.

  In his carriage on the way home, Luke smiled. Arielle was like a ripe plum about to fall, plump and juicy, into his waiting hands. He’d nurtured her, showered her with the sunlight of his desire, tantalized her with kiss and touch, appearing to her as both man and unthreatening cat. Soon, she would be his, and bend her enormous but untapped powers to his will.

  He had seen it in his dreams, long before the wild civet bit him and the change began…

  Delicately, he licked the back of his own hand, his tongue curled like a cat’s, and scented her sweat on his flesh. The taste of Arielle, his lioness, was elixir of their gods, his ancestors and hers, back to the time when Ra the sun god was born of Nu, the sea.

  Soon, he would more than taste of her. Together, they would kill Seth. He would become the sole heir to Mihos and take for his obedient consort the descendant of a queen, just as the legend foretold. Forever would he rule the night, killing at will with his mate beside him, both on the hunt and in his bed, immortal, all powerful. Like the pharaohs Mihos once served., he would be worshiped as a god ..

  That morning, Seth arrived early, dapper as always in severe gentleman’s black. He was quiet through breakfast, and when Ethan walked in, he asked if they could retreat for some privacy. The earl, Ethan, Shelly and Seth all trooped into the study.

  Forestalling Shelly’s request, he showed them a bon bon still in its wrapper, pulling the exact matching wrapper from his pocket. “As you can see, the wrappers are identical. I thought I recognized them. This explains much about Arielle’s behavior. Luke didn’t just offer her candy,” Seth said grimly. “This treat is spiced in the ancient Egyptian way. Cloves, and nutmeg and one potent addition…”

  When he trailed off, the earl’s eyes narrowed. “And?”

  “Catnip. It was in the treat, and probably his scent as well.”

  At the earl’s bewildered look, Shelly said baldly, “An aphrodisiac. Especially in Arielle’s current vulnerable state.”

  Outraged, the earl leaped to his feet. “I’ll have the wastrel jailed, I’ll have him flogged, I’ll--”

  “For what?” Ethan interrupted. “There was no violation. He only danced with her. And given Arielle’s state, even if there had been consummation…” He trailed off.

  “Consent,” the earl said grimly.

  “Precisely,” Ethan concluded with the ghost of a laugh. “If Scotland Yard goes around arresting all the men in London who try to seduce women into consent, half the men in the city will be in jail. Besides, if Luke is angling to marry her, announcing his behavior will only abet his ends.”

  “Thank God you found them in time, Seth,” the earl said with a shudder. “But I can certainly make his wastrel behavior known so that he is not accepted into polite company.”

  “You can try,” Ethan agreed. “But that does us little immediate good. Seth, how is it you were warned when your flat is halfway across the city, especially when all of us thought her safe in bed?”

  “I know Luke,” Seth responded after a brief hesitation. “He will never give up. And Arielle is…vulnerable to suggestion at this point in her development.”

  “You speak with such certainty. Are you also certain Luke was the cat creature at the seance?” Shelly inserted, her grey eyes intense.

  Seth shrugged. “I cannot say that for certain. But I believe so. His eyes are green, are they not?”

  Deflated, wear
iness in his strong face, the earl sagged against the wall as if he no longer had strength to stand erect. “But why? Why does he want my daughter so badly?”

  Seth looked away, shaking his head.

  Shelly persisted, “Yes, Seth, you seem to understand Egyptian matters and legends very thoroughly. Perhaps you can tell us why Arielle is so important to Luke. It seems to go beyond want. To need. To…obsession.”

  Removing his pocket watch, Seth checked the time. “Arielle shall be late for her engagement if we don’t leave.”

  The earl frowned. “I’m not at all certain I should allow her to go. Not now.”

  “Now it’s more important than ever,” Seth pointed out. “Arielle needs every connection she can find to her humanity. The more she reaches out to people she cares about, the less influence Luke shall have on her.” At their expressions, he hastily amended, “That is, if he is the cat creature.”

  The earl started to protest again, but Shelly gently squeezed his arm and smiled at Seth. “Of course you are right. We’ll have the carriage brought round for the two of you.”

  Nodding, Seth hooked his cane over his arm and exited.

  After his steps receded, Shelly and Ethan exchanged a look. Ethan agreed, “I’ll have my closed carriage brought over from my flat. Seth has never seen it.” He also exited.

  Bewildered, the earl expostulated, “Dash it, I never understand what in Hades is going on. Why is Ethan fetching his carriage, and why do you want Seth to take Arielle on this confounded visit to her old governess after trying to dissuade me from letting her go with him?”

  “Evidence, my dear sir. We shall follow him and see if he plays guardian or seducer.” Shelly ticked off on her fingers. “One. Seth Taub is hiding the fact that he speaks fluent Arabic.” When he gave her a look that said ‘How on earth do you know that?’ she responded baldly, “I made inquiries at his club, his flat and most importantly, his barber.”

  The earl blinked. “His barber?”

  Shelly gave him an impatient look. “Surely I need not tell you that a barber is the closest thing a closed mouth man has to a mother confessor. Besides, this particular chap seems to only speak Arabic, in the Muslim section of London. When I tried to speak with him he understood me not, yet I saw him not five minutes before chatting merrily away with Seth through the window.”

  The earl expostulated, “You didn’t let him see you, did you?”

  “Of course not. But that’s becoming immaterial. I’m quite sure Mr. Taub knows we’re investigating him. Now where was I? Ah yes…Two, he always seems to materialize when Arielle needs protection most.”

  “Precisely why I asked for his help--”

  “Three, he has a greater understanding about the arcane matters in this case than I do, after all my many years of research. But he is always very close mouthed about it rather than forthcoming as he surely would be if Arielle’s safety were his sole motivation. Four, he paid Madame Aurora a handsome sum, above that which Arielle had already paid the woman, after the seance, obviously for the performance of some service. Why would he be bribing her to help bring Isis back to life?”

  When the earl went to interject, Shelly concluded with grim satisfaction, “And five, and most problematical, I have of late received the most damning piece of evidence regarding Seth’s sincerity in matters concerning Luke Simball: Seth and Luke are half brothers.”

  Stunned, the earl collapsed into a chair, almost missing the edge, and he had to grab the arms to pull himself back up. “Where did you hear that?”

  “I have a compatriot in the Cairo area and asked him to look into recent young male immigrants of good birth from Egypt to London. One tall and dark, the other tall and blonde, both very handsome and strong. Here is what he sent me by courier a few days ago.” Shelly went to a packet inside a hidden drawer of the desk and brought back hand-written copies of birth certificates. “Luke Tresall and Seth Tresall. Born two years apart, both the sons of an English nobleman of great wealth attached to the Foreign Office in Cairo. They were born to two different Egyptian women of high birth, but I cannot tell if they grew up together. Both were educated at Eton and Oxford by their father, and left considerable fortunes, though he apparently never married either woman. He has since died. Horribly. Two years ago, around the time both Luke and Seth returned to England.”

  The earl closed his eyes, seeing the truth in Shelly’s face. “How did he die?”

  “He was attacked, according to the doctors who viewed the body, by a pack of wild cats.” Over the ponderous silence, Shelly stashed the birth certificates back in the hidden drawer.

  “With three additional murders in the past two months, it’s evident time is running out. We must have some type of trail to follow to catch this creature who seems to dwell as easily in the daylight as human, as he predates the night as feline.”

  “But Arielle--”

  “We shall not let their carriage out of sight, I assure you. While I agree it’s dangerous leaving Arielle alone with Seth, he has proved himself too smart and too patient at this point to overtly threaten her. Or so I believe. But if he tries to seduce her, or kidnap her, we shall have proof enough of his baser motives. At that point I intend to have him taken in chains, if need be, to Scotland Yard and have him questioned. By the time his barrister arrives to express outrage, hopefully Ethan and I will have elicited some kind of useful information from him as to what is actually motivating both him and his brother to single out Arielle and encourage her…instincts.”

  “But if he’s alone with her in the carriage how will you know she needs help?”

  As if in answer, the door opened and Ethan stood there. He wore a deer stalker cap pulled low over his face, and the coarse hob nailed boots, dungarees and patched shirt, topped by a worn driving coat, of a coachman. He dipped his cap lower and said with a thick Cockney accent and a ribald gleam as he appraised Shelly, “Cor’, it’s a bloomin’ fine figure of a lass, it is.”

  Sniffing, Shelly swept past him. “Keep to your place, me lad. I shall change and be inside your carriage before you leave. I’ll be sure we keep our distance.” The door closed behind her.

  As he appraised Ethan, for the first time, the earl’s despair was lightened by a smile. “The two of you make quite a team, old chap.”

  “Agreed,” Ethan said, resuming his refined accent. “If only I can convince the redoubtable Miss Shelly Holmes of that I shall die happy.”

  When the earl glared at him, Ethan said hastily, “Bad choice of words.”

  So it was that thirty minutes later, Seth helped Arielle, garbed from head to toe in a black velvet cape, into her father’s plainest barouche. “You know the route, my man?” Seth asked as he paused on the carriage steps to look up at the coachman. He could see only the back of the man’s hatted head.

  The coachman nodded, his head still turned away, but his reply was respectful. “Yes sor. Familiar with the area I be. Too much so.” He shuddered. “I’ll be careful, me lud.”

  “Very well.” Seth started to get in the carriage, but paused on the steps. “Have I seen you before?”

  “No, sir. The usual fellow got consumption.”

  “I see. Well, slow and steady, that’s the ticket, even through Whitefriars.” Seth pulled up the steps and got in, knocking on the roof with his cane. They were off.

  A mere thirty seconds behind them, another, smaller, plainer carriage wheeled around from the back, driven by the usual Darby coachman. The side window was open and a glitter of a lens sometimes caught the light as it remained trained on the rear window of the other carriage.

  The two coaches wove into the thickening traffic on the country road leading into London, Shelly’s carriage several vehicles behind the barouche but keeping it in sight.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Arielle studiously avoided looking across the carriage at Seth. Twice in as many days this man had ‘rescued’ her from what her father considered a pernicious influence. First the seance, in an event Arielle c
ould not even remember properly, and then in a typically brutal male fashion, trying to beat up Luke, who had only been flirting with her. And now her father insisted that this interfering bully accompany her on a most sensitive visit that was sure to leave her in emotional tatters.

  The fact was, Arielle was tired of being protected. There had been some mysterious change within her in the past few weeks during all her strange, erotic dreams. Then, when she awakened in her father’s arms after the seance, the world had taken on new colors. It was as if she’d been wearing blinkers to the beauties and possibilities of life, and now she could see.

  She was tired of feeling like a cripple. Tired of trusting her father, or anyone else, even Shelly, to look after her. She wanted to become a woman in full, in every way, independent, strong and passionate. And last night, climbing down the tree, not even feeling a twinge in her leg, seeing so well in the darkness, and then dancing, the earth spongy on the pads of her feet, Luke’s strong body brushing against her, for the first time in her life she’d felt like a woman grown. A flush overtook her as she recalled those sights and scents, especially of that marvelous cologne he wore. She fanned her face with her hand, wondering when she’d see Luke again.

  Seth turned from studying the passing view, which showed increasingly smaller and poorer houses as they neared Whitefriars, to catch the look on her face. His blank expression darkened as he examined her flushed cheeks, quickened breathing and dilated eyes. .

  Arielle felt a strange tingling sensation at her temples, as if the power of his intellect could probe through her outer defenses to the core of all she was and hoped to be. Shrinking against the squabs, Arielle said, “Do not look at me so!” She spoke louder than she intended.

  Unseen by either of them, a tiny panel opened above their heads and the tip of a listening horn peeked through.

  Intent on Arielle, Seth crossed his arms over his chest. “I shall look at you how I please, and before long, it shall be as often as I please, in great…detail.”