Lair of the Lion

picked it up from the ground and gave it to Sergio to give to him. I just don't know why I did such a thing."
    Theresa stared at her, clearly stricken. "Oh, Violante," she whispered, shaking her head.
    "I betrayed my people, my husband, my don, while you fed my jealousy and rage. How could you do such a thing?"
    Sergio protectively drew Violante beneath the shelter of his wide shoulder.

    "I don't know. I couldn't stop myself. Isabella, Theresa, I'm so sorry." Violante didn't dare look at the don. She had committed an unpardonable sin, treachery against his betrothed.
    "You stalked Isabella Vernaducci and tried to kill her because you thought I had betrayed you?" The words burst out of Rolando Bartolmei. He was trembling with rage as he faced his wife. "You betrayed our people? My people? Mio don? You gave information to Rivellio that might have enabled him to invade our land? You did all of it? Even stalked me through my morning patrol to make me doubt mio don? I have known him since childhood, yet you sought to drive a knife between us?" He looked at his wife as if he'd never seen her before, as if she'd suddenly become a loathsome creature. "You believed I would dishonor mio don, my friend—dishonor you?"
    Theresa sobbed loudly, the sound heart-rending. Humiliated and shamed by Theresa's deceitful deeds, Rolando turned on his heel, prepared to walk out and leave his wife to the don's doubtful mercy.
    "Do you think yourself blameless in this, Captain Bartolmei?" Isabella said softly to his retreating back.
    Bartolmei stiffened but didn't turn around. A soft sound escaped Don DeMarco. A low, rumbling growl that stopped Bartolmei instantly. The growl swelled in volume, shook the room, reverberated throughout the castello.
    Nicolai paced across the room until he stood before the trembling figure of Theresa Bartolmei. He towered over her, a dark, angry cauldron of rage. "You dared to make repeated attempts on my betrothed? You conspired to make it look as if she were betraying me, while all the time you were betraying your don and your people? And for what, Signora Bartolmei?" His form shimmered between beast and man. "Chanise is part of my family. Assassins were in place to take care of the matter. You would have known that if you had had the sense to come to me. Not that I should have to explain my actions to you or anyone else. Don Rivellio was a dead man. He was dead the moment he put his hands on my cousin."
    He stalked the length of the room and back again, his hair wild, his eyes blazing, power and fury in every step he took. He stopped once more in front of Theresa. "As you were dead from the moment you touched Isabella." He held out a hand, only it was a huge paw stretching toward her, one curved, stiletto-sharp claw, touching her chin. "Had I not had men watching her, you would have delivered her into the hands of a devil such as Rivellio.
    You disgust me."
    He spun to glare at his guards. "Take her to the courtyard at once. At once!" He roared the order, orange-red flames burning in his eyes.

Chapter Twenty
    Theresa screamed as the two guards caught her arms and dragged her from the castello and out into the dark night. Tendrils of fog lay along the ground, swirling into ribbons of mist. With the snow covering the rocks, the courtyard had the appearance of a graveyard, stark and eerie and hideously vile.
    Isabella eluded Don DeMarco's outstretched hand and raced after the guards "What are you doing? You can't do this, Nicolai." There were tears in her voice.
    Violante burst into a torrent of weeping. "Don DeMarco, I beg you to reconsider. Don't do this."
    Sergio tried to silence her, terrified by the don's fury, terrified it would be turned on his wife for her part in the entire mess.
    Nicolai leapt after Isabella. He caught her arm as she tugged at one of the guards in an attempt to set Theresa free. As he yanked her toward him, she felt the needles puncturing her skin, a certain sign of the beast's aggression.
    "Go to your room, Isabella, until it is finished here." The flames in his eyes were burning out of control, his voice a dark rasp of authority.
    Isabella quelled her first reaction to fight him. Stubbornly she shut off the fear and horror gathered in her soul. She stood still in his grip, forcing her mind to think. At once awareness crept into her heart, into her mind. Here, in the courtyard where Sophia was beheaded, where everyone believed it had all begun. Where Nicolai's father had killed his