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.

Jaxon Montgomery is a woman hunted. Trained by the Special Forces, honed by a traumatic childhood, she is a policewoman with an undisputed reputation. She meets her match when she is set up to be murdered by an enemy. Hunted on all sides, she can only turn to the mysterious stranger who seems more dangerous than any other she has ever known.

He ran with the wolves…
Materialized from the mists…
Hijacked the very heavens to his whims…

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.

So Darius warned her when she accepted a position with his traveling troupe. And gazing mesmerized at the merciless slash of his mouth, the implacable resolve on his face, the soulless emptiness of his black eyes, Tempest was afraid to ask what it was.

She had always been different, apart from others. From the moment his arms closed around her, enveloping her in a sorcerer's spell, Darius seemed to understand her unique gifts. But did his kiss offer the love and belonging she sought, or a danger more potent than his own panthers?

Somewhere deep inside herself, Tempest realized she knew the answer. She had no choice but to accept the velvet stroke of his tongue, submit to the white-hot heat piercing her skin, welcome an erotic pleasure like no other….

Young Savannah Dubrinsky was a mistress of illusion, a world-famous magician capable of mesmerizing millions. But there was one-Gregori, the Dark One-who held her in terrifying thrall. Whose cold silver eyes and heated sensuality sent shivers of danger, of desire, down her slender spine.

With a dark magic all his own, Gregori-the implacable hunter, the legendary healer, the most powerful of Carpathian males-whispered in Savannah's mind that he was her destiny. That she had been born to save his immortal soul. And now, here in New Orleans, the hour had finally come to claim her. To make her completely his. In a ritual as old as time . . . and as inescapable as eternity.

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.