Lair of the Lion

Strange, twisted carvings and hideous gargoyles adorn the palazzo of the great Scarletti family. But a more fearful secret lurks within its storm-tossed turrets. For every bride who enters its forbidding walls is doomed to leave in a casket.

Nicoletta knows all too well the curse that plagues the house of Scarletti. She has always believed her miraculous healing gifts would set her apart and that no man would ever command her. Then she gazes into the dark, mesmerizing eyes of Don Scarletti and she fears for her future—for it is Scarletti's ancient right to select a bride from among his people . . . and he has chosen her.

Compelled by duty, driven by burning, inescapable desire, Nicoletta surrenders to this powerful, hypnotic man, giving her body willingly into his keeping. But will the tormented don be her heart's destiny . . . or her soul's destruction?

Shes known him since she was fifteen. Every night, he is with her: his face, his voice. Tonight, Sara Marten will meet the man who is both angel and demon, salvation and temptation: Falcon-the Carpathian, the banished hero. Tonight, Sara will meet the dark-eyed destroyer destined to be her mate.

For Each, There Could Be Only One: They came from the darkest places: secluded monasteries, the Carpathian mountains, galaxies under siege. They were men with the blackest pasts-warriors, vampire monks, leaders of armies-but whose passions burned like dying stars. They had one purpose: to find those women who fulfilled them, completed them, and made them rage with a fire both holy and profane. They sought soul mates whose touch consumed them with desire, yet whose kisses refreshed like the coolest rain. And each man knew that for him there was only one true love-and in finding her, he would find salvation.

He woke deep within the ground, and the first sensation he felt was hunger. An overwhelming hunger for blood that demanded satisfaction. But as he hunted the dark streets of Paris for prey, a voice called to him, soothing, calming, giving him the strength to control his craving.

Francesca Del Ponce was a healer, a woman who radiated goodness as powerfully as the sun did light. But surely his obsession with her would turn him as his twin brother had turned, leaving the world with two monsters instead of one.

Lead guitarist of the Dark Troubadours, Dayan was renowned for his mesmerizing performances. His melodies stilled crowds, beckoned, seduced. And always, he called to her to complete him. Corinne Wentworth stood at the vortex of a gathering storm. Pursued by the fanatics who'd murdered her husband, she was risking her life by keeping more than one secret. Fragile, delicate, vulnerable, she had an indomitable faith that made her fiery surrender to Dayan all the more powerful.

They were masters of the darkness, searching through eternity for a mistress of the light . . .

Alexandria Houton will sacrifice anything--even her life --to protect her orphaned little brother. But when both encounter an unspeakable evil in the swirling San Francisco mists, Alex can only cry to heaven for their deliverance . . . And out of the darkness swoops Aidan Savage, a golden being more powerful, more mysterious, than any other creature of the night. The ageless Carpathian male snatches them from a hideous fate. But is Aidan Alex's salvation . . . or her sin? If she surrenders to Aidan's savage, unearthly seduction, and gives him the color, the light, the family he craves, will Alex truly save her brother? Or sacrifice more than her life?