you do incredible things. is there a way you can make me see?"

byron let out his breath slowly. his own hand found the dog's silky fur. "that question is difficult, antonietta. it is wrong to tell an untruth to one's lifemate. yes, i can aid you to see through my eyes, but it wouldn't be permanent. you would see what i see through our mind link. as long as i was with you, sharing my eyes, you could see. anything beyond that is a different matter and one i do not have all the answers for at this time."

for a moment his wording threw her off. she'd never heard the words lifemate, but the idea of seeing was far too intriguing to change the subject. "i'd actually see? i would see little margurite? my grandfather? the cousins? you? i could see myself in a mirror?"

"yes, but you would be disoriented. your body isn't used to signals from your eyes and would become confused. it would be better to start with something small while you are staying perfectly still. moving would probably increase your discomfort." he wanted to gather her in his arms and hold her tight while he offered her an explanation. he could feel her confusion. it amazed him how much it bothered him when she was distressed.

antonietta took a deep breath. "i'm going to settle celt in my room and introduce him to the family when things calm down." she turned his words over and over in her mind, trying to make sense of them. trying to puzzle out what he wasn't revealing to her. trying to imagine being able to see, even if it was through his eyes.

she was surprised when the dog moved instantly to her side as she began to walk. it paced easily, not getting in her way yet remaining close to her.

"if he swerves in front of you, he wants you to stop, and there will be a reason," byron said. "it would be good for you to try to connect, as he can also be your eyes."

"i don't like relying on anything if i can help it," antonietta said. "it makes me more dependent."

"you rely on justine." he kept his voice carefully neutral. "celt is just a different tool as well as a companion. you might find he gives you even more freedom and independence. in any case, with him here, i will feel more at ease during the hours i am not with you. he needs rest now, but you will find, if he does bond with you, he will need to be with you most of the time for companionship."

antonietta hugged the dog again. "don't worry, byron, i'll cherish every moment with him."

they went up the staircase and down the long hall to her rooms. after a brief inspection of the suite of rooms, celt settled in as if it had always been his home. antonietta was all too aware that byron had closed the door to her quarters, leaving them alone. "it bothers you that i don't ask you questions about your life, doesn't it?"

"why do you accept my differences so easily. antonietta?" byron asked curiously. "if i pushed beyond the barrier in your mind, i would be able to read your thoughts as lifemates do with one another, but i am trying to be considerate and wait until you wish to share your thoughts with me. if you do not talk to me, i have no way of knowing what you are thinking." he spared a thought for human males who had no way of reading their woman's mind.

antonietta rubbed the dog's silky ears. "do you know the history of the scarlettis and the palazzo? did you know that this entire building is riddled with secret passageways? the passageways guard scarletti treasures as well as our secrets. i want to show you something." she leaned down to hug the dog again. "stay here, be warm."

"you are not going into the passageway, are you, antonietta? i heard enough to know that those passageways are dangerous. i understand lethal traps are built into the walls and floors."

she slipped her hand along the bottom of the wall until she located the mechanism to open the hidden door leading to the narrow passageway.

"the secret passageway is more than a means of escape to the sea," antonietta said. "it has been used by our family for generations to store valuable antiquities that conquerors, governments, or even the church might covet."

"with all the traps in here, are you not afraid you might take a misstep and be killed?" byron didn't like the idea of antonietta moving with her usual confidence through the darkened hallways, knowing sharpened blades were hidden for the unwary.

antonietta laughed softly. "the blades were removed many years ago, just for that reason. we no longer needed to escape into the sea when invaders were upon us, so for the safety of unwary family members, the traps were dismantled." she took his hand and smiled up at him. "it is quite safe. come with me. i'm at home in the dark, and i won't let anything happen to you. there's something in here i discovered some time ago. to me it was worth more than all the golden treasures and artwork stored in the hidden rooms."

"you are certain the traps have been dismantled?"

"yes. even the scarlettis had to come into the modern age." we even installed electricity here in the passageway. we needed it for the vaults as well as lighting. her laughter was soft and inviting. how could anyone resist her laughter, least of all he?

byron took her hand and followed her into the dark passageway. she didn't turn on the lights in the hidden labyrinth of hallways. she didn't need a light, and it said something about how well she knew him that she didn't bother with one for him.

"the night my parents died, i knew something was wrong. i woke up and could barely breathe. i called to them, but they didn't hear me. i ran up onto the deck. i could hear the sound of the clock ticking. later, when i told nonno , he said it was my imagination. but it wasn't. i knew there was a bomb on the boat. i jumped into the sea as it went off."

the door swung closed behind them, locking them in the narrow passageway. it was pitch black. no light seeped its way into the maze of halls. it was so narrow, byron's shoulders nearly touched on either side. "it is possible you heard it and felt it, antonietta. many people have built-in alarms and even a kind of radar."

"for years i blamed myself. i left them there. they didn't come up on the deck when i yelled to them there was danger. i don't know why, but they didn't come." she led him through two sharp turns, steered him away from the wider of two passages. "that was the first time i ever felt the beast."

byron felt her fingers tighten involuntarily around his. he immediately pulled her close against his body. "you were a child, antonietta, five years only. you barely escaped death yourself. as it was, you must have hesitated long enough to get caught in the blast."

she ran her hand over his chest in a stroking caress, and her fingers were trembling. "i know that... now. children tend to blame themselves. i turned back when i saw they hadn't come up on deck, and i screamed for them to hurry." for a moment she rested her head against his chest. "i was too small to climb up on the railing to get over the side, but i felt a power moving inside of me. it was growing and spreading. the night was so dark, there was no moon, and it was black. the sea was black. all of a sudden, i felt something moving under my skin, almost as if it were alive, and i itched terribly. and then i could see everything. not like my normal sight - in a different way - but the night was suddenly clear. i heard my mother whisper to my father. she'd be right back, she was going to check on me. they thought i had a nightmare. but it was already too late. i leapt up on the railing. one single jump. it was so easy. and then the world went white, and then red and orange, and then black for me."

byron could feel the deep sorrow in her. it didn't matter that the events had taken place so many years earlier, they were as fresh in her mind as the day they happened. he held her tightly, buried his face in the fragrance of her silky hair. "i am so grateful you survived, antonietta. i am sorry for the loss of your parents. you must have loved them very much." he reached to breach that ever-present barrier in her mind. wanting her memories. wanting to know what the power inside of her had been. where it had come from.

"they were wonderful. you rarely saw one without the other. they were so close. they always seemed to have secrets. come on, i want to show you this." she stepped away from him to tug at his hand. "i've never told anyone what really happened that night. i knew they would think i was crazy. i was born with the scarletti ability to heal. and several of us are telepathic, although the ability is limited. i've never been able to communicate so clearly with anyone as i can with you." she stopped in the middle of the long passageway and ran her palm along the top of the wall. "when i discovered this room, it was covered in cobwebs, i don't think anyone had been here for years."

byron reached up to find her hand with his, to slide his fingers into the centuries-old depression to find the hidden mechanism for revealing the chamber. as the door opened, a light glowed from within, automatically coming on. at the same time a musty, stale air greeted them. byron turned her away from it. shielding her with his larger frame while he blew into the room, at the same time creating a small wind with his arms. he waited until he was certain it was safe to breathe before he moved out of antonietta's way.

"how did you do that? i can do a few things, but i can't carry two adults across the cliffs and down that narrow, slippery trail to the palazzo. i swear our feet never touched the ground, and you were moving so fast the wind blew in our faces. i can draw on the strength of the beast, and sometimes, i can see images of heat, much like an infrared i suppose, but i can't do the things you do. like i saw the other night when it scared me. it wasn't me seeing, but something else."

she stepped into the small room. byron followed her. it was no more than the size of a walk-in closet, long and narrow. and the walls were carved from floor to ceiling with a mixture of symbols, pictures, and ancient language.

"this is the history of my family," antonietta said. "our heritage, what we are. and after nonno showed me this room, i wasn't afraid of myself anymore." she tilted her head toward him. "and i would never be afraid of you." she waved toward the wall. "i give you the cat you were looking for last night. the scarlett! cats."

byron stepped closer to the wall, ran the pads of his fingers over the intricate carvings in the same way she had "read" the images. there were pictures of jaguars, men and women half jaguar, half human, caught for all time in transition. the earlier carvings were crude but detailed. the later drawings quite beautiful as if great care had been taken in creating them. "this is amazing, antonietta. has anyone else seen this?"

"no, i felt it was better to keep it to myself."

byron had to agree with her. the contents of the room would be very damaging to the scarlettis and their position in society. but the carefully kept account of the scarletti history was important to his people. his fingers flew over the wall, reading as quickly as he was able. "so this is the reason you do not fear my differences, and you accept them so easily."

"i knew immediately you had to be one of the males, and your bloodline must be stronger even than mine." she took a deep breath and let it out. "i know you won't stay, byron, and that's okay. it really is. i have no wish to be married. i'm quite content with my life the way it is. i've never considered a permanent relationship with a man. taking a lover is a different thing altogether. for as long as you want to stay, i think it will work out perfectly for the both of us."

he turned slowly, rested one hip against the carved wall, and folded his arms across his chest. there was a long silence. "so you will not mind when i leave you?"

antonietta heard the soft underlying growl in his voice, the snap of his teeth. a shiver went through her, and for the first time unease crept into her mind. byron seemed an easygoing, courteous gentleman, with old-fashioned, courtly ways. she remembered the way her assailant had been flung backward, the distinct sound of bone snapping. how carelessly the body was thrown away from them. byron had never even checked to see if the man still lived, he had known he was dead.

"well, obviously, i've read this many times. i understand perfectly the need for the male of this species to wander. i'm telling you i accept the inevitable and don't want you to feel bad about it." even as she spoke, she took a small step backward, her hand going protectively to her throat. her pulse beat frantically as if calling to him. the spot where he had left his mark the night before throbbed and burned.

"there is an inevitable, but i doubt it is what you envision." he reached out casually, almost lazily, and circled the nape of her neck with his palm, drawing her toward him. she went reluctantly, taking one small step at his urging, then another until she could feel the heat of his body right through the thin barrier of her clothing.

both hands found his chest. "why are you angry?"

he was smoldering with anger, with the thought that she was certain he would leave her. that he would want to leave her. that she seemed totally accepting, even grateful that he would leave her. byron made an effort to tamp down the seething cauldron of emotions. that way lay disaster. "what it says on this wall is that a group of women and children arrived, seeking sanctuary. there were a few males, old mostly, or very young, but the women had no men to protect them. they wanted permission to live on scarletti land, under the protection of the scarletti family. they were foreigners, come from a distant land with strange ways. it is said these women had tremendous psychic abilities. they were telepaths. healers. and all of them were shape-shifters."

antonietta nodded. he wasn't holding her in place, his fingers were very light, almost gentle around her neck, but she still felt the tension vibrating in the air between them. "the picture clearly shows a large cat of some kind."

"the jaguar," he supplied. "i have heard of this species. they are all but extinct. the males refused to stay with the females, and eventually the females took on human husbands. the bloodline thinned over the centuries."

she nodded her head in agreement. "i feel the cat inside of me at times. warning me. i have an acute sense of smell. i'm blind, yet at times when the wildness inside of me is growing, i see in colors of red and yellow and white. heat images. i thought when you smelled the cat last night perhaps one of my cousins is the same, and i'm not such a freak. it's true, byron. this is the reason the scarlettis made a bargain with the women in the village. they wanted the gift of the jaguar people for their own. some of the scarletti men intermarried with those women, and some have the blood strong and some don't. i read the wall carefully. you are so correct about the men leaving. the women were willing to stay with humans because their males never stayed. they got them pregnant, and they left, even during times of war and hunger and plague. so the women turned to our race for companionship and love and a family."

"as they did in other places as well," byron said.

"in the old days, women had few rights and little protection, but in the world today, we're quite capable of caring for our children and providing for them. i have a good life, and i never expected to meet someone i was so attracted to. honestly, byron, i'm just saying i didn't expect nor want a lover for more than a short period of time."

his breath escaped in a long, slow hiss of annoyance. "unfortunately, that is not what i expect or want, antonietta. i am not jaguar. my people do not leave one another for reasons of convenience or wanderlust. we mate for life. for eternity. i do not want less, nor will i accept less. you have much to learn of who and what i am." his dark gaze roamed possessively over her face.

she could feel the impact, the intensity, as his gaze burned over her. she was immediately reminded of the suffocating darkness she lived in. alone in the close confines of the room, it was too late to remember she knew very little of this man standing so close to her. she knew nothing of his family or his heritage or even his heart. he was always alone and very quiet, very polite, but he could be shockingly violent in an instant if need be.

"who are you, byron?" her voice came out a husky whisper of fear when she needed her confidence most. "tell me who you are then. tell me what you are. if not jaguar, like me, what are you then?" she held her breath, pressed her hand to her somersaulting stomach.

byron's thumb tipped her chin up. she felt his breath on her face. warm. inviting. his lips skimmed the corner of her mouth. velvet soft. so persuasive her heart leapt. "i am your lifemate. keeper of your heart as you are the keeper of mine." the words were whispered against her eyes. his lips trailed down her face to find her mouth again. soft. insistent. feather light, yet with all the power to rob her of breath. of speech. of sanity. her brain refused to think of anything other than wanting him. having him for her own.

his words sounded foreign and even formal, but it still didn't stop her from turning her mouth up to his. of wanting him with every cell in her body. byron. she had dreamt of him for so many lonely nights. erotic, passionate dreams of wild sex and heights of pleasure she didn't believe really existed. his lips crushed hers, and he was devouring her, his mouth hot and male and exciting there in the dark of the hidden room where the bizarre secrets of her ancestors decorated the wall.

they simply melted together, two halves of the same whole. there was fire and electricity. there was a curious rippling of the earth beneath their feet. he pulled her closer, fit her body tightly against his, imprinting his every muscle on her soft flesh. he knew how she would feel, all soft curves and mesmerizing heat. the flood of passion welling up in her to meet his darkest cravings. byron had known almost from the moment he had heard the first exquisite note of her music.

antonietta circled his neck with her arms. byron took her into a world of hunger and passion and light. where her music came from. her deepest joys and sorrows and erotic dreams. her every want. she couldn't help wanting to be closer, wanting to feel the incredible heat of his skin. she slipped her hands beneath his shirt to feel his defined muscles. she ached with wanting him, her body already turning liquid and needy.

"byron," she whispered his name, the voice of a siren. an invitation to paradise.

his teeth nipped her full lower lip. "do you want me to make love to you, antonietta? that would be so simple for you. no attachment. no love between us to get in the way." his hand shaped her breast, his thumb leasing her nipple into a hard peak. he bent his head to the temptation right through the thin fabric of her blouse. her breasts were luxuriously soft and full. she had a woman's curving body and was generously endowed. his mouth closed over the soft, luscious mound, hot and moist and suckling strongly so that antonietta arched back and caught his hair in her hands to drag him closer to her.

her knees went weak, and she cried out, afraid she would have an orgasm right there, just from his mouth on her breast. his tongue licked along the valley between her breasts up toward her throat. "is this what you want? just a physical relationship?" he lifted his head, and she felt his eyes burning like lasers. "this is good enough for you?"

antonietta's fingers bunched in his hair, nearly desperate to pull him back to her. there was no reason to feel guilty, but she did. "it has always been good enough in the past," she said defiantly, and then was instantly ashamed that he had managed to rattle her when it was none of his business what she did or even what she preferred.

byron straightened slowly, his hands slowly releasing her. his body withdrew from hers, leaving her feeling cold and alone and bereft. "it is not good enough for me."

antonietta pushed an unsteady hand through her hair deliberately stepping into the passageway to give herself space.

"you can't possibly want a long-term, permanent relationship with me. you don't even know me."

"that is not precisely true, antonietta. there is very little about you i do not know. i took the time, sitting quietly in your home, listening to you. hearing the music you play, watching you with your family. i know you far better than you think. you have not taken the time to get to know me. you thought you could have me for a lover, and your perfect world would remain intact. you wouldn't have to do anything different at all, but in truth, there is always change and consequences."

she didn't like seeing herself through his eyes. he made her feel shallow and self-centered. "there is nothing wrong with a woman being practical, byron. men take lovers and walk away all the time. they've been doing it for centuries. i'm practical, not unemotional. i have a family depending on me, i have a full-time career. can't you see that i'm making sense? you're not in love with me." she dared him to lie to her and say he was.

he paced away from her, returned to stand over her. she felt his shadow even in the darkened passageway. felt his presence, not the man she was so comfortable with, not the man she had come to think of as sweet and courtly, but a dangerous predator stalking her in the narrow confines of the scarlett! passageway. she had the impression of lips drawn back in a silent snarl and fangs exposed. "how would you know what i feel or do not feel?" his voice was so low it could barely be heard, yet there was a note in it that increased her fear even more.

antonietta put out her hand. a test. byron instantly caught her hand, drew her palm to the warmth of his chest. she could feel his heart beating. steady. strong. a perfect rhythm, and her own heart seemed to want to follow. "i didn't mean to hurt you." she stepped closer to him. "i did, didn't i? i hurt you by saying i didn't want a permanent relationship with you. i didn't mean it the way it came out." why had she been so afraid? how could she ever think that byron, with his impeccable manners, would be anything but generous and courteous? she was becoming fanciful after her misadventure in the night.

"no man wants to be told he will be discarded gladly."

byron said. "it is a bit hard on the ego." he brought her fingers to his mouth.

antonietta expected a brief kiss. his mouth closed over her finger. and it was hot and moist and everything it had been when he had been lavishing attention on her breast. she thought she might fall down, simply melt into a puddle on the floor. "i think my hormones are in overdrive, byron." she had no other defense besides humor. "if you keep that up, i might have to consider ripping your shirt right off of you."

"i do not think that is designed to stop me, antonietta." there was a hint of laughter in his voice. his teeth nibbled at her finger, scraped along the pad of her thumb. "how did you discover this room? you do not come into the passageway that often, do you?"

his tone sounded mildly curious, yet she had the impression he was waiting for her answer. that his tone was quite at odds with his emotions. "most of my life i could manage to read people, byron. i've always thought it was because i was blind, and i had to rely on other senses to get by. you're very difficult, because you don't say very much and i can't rely on your voice to give away your emotions." she reached up to touch his face, gently mapping his expression with her fingertips.

"i have never been blind, antonietta, although for a long time i was color-blind. i saw the world in shades of gray and white and charcoal. it is a condition in the males of my people. most lose the ability to see in color when they come into full power, but i took much longer."

byron seemed so sad, suddenly she pressed closer to him. "what is it? what are you thinking of?"

"a time long ago when i had a childhood friend. more than a friend. in my world, our siblings can be quite a bit older. my friend was my family. we were never far apart from one another, and he made life bearable for me. i worked with jewelry, and jacques would try his hand at it." his mouth curved at the memory of jacques's antics. byron was a gem-caller, able to sing the stones of the earth into revealing themselves, and jacques often accompanied him into the deepest caves. "my friend disappeared for several years and was presumed dead. my life was hell after that. i felt alone, and maybe i was even angry with him for dying and leaving me behind. i felt lost, without an anchor. and one day i saw a woman. i could see her in color. i knew she had red hair and green eyes. when that happens, the male of our species knows she is the one woman. but i could not see anyone or anything else in color, which did not make sense if she were my lifemate, as colors are fully restored to us through our lifemate. i should have known better, should have taken the time to think things through, but i was not so patient back then."

the sadness weighed so heavily on him, it seemed a burden, a great sorrow. antonietta felt it in her heart, in her mind, but she remained silent, hoping he would continue. she had a feeling he had never told the story to anyone else.

byron turned his head to kiss her fingertips. "later, i realized my friend jacques and i were so close i was picking up visions from his head. he had been tortured, and he was half mad. he did not remember any of us, so it did not occur to me, at the time that i was still connected to him, still seeing through his eyes as we had often done, sharing information on our personal path. but by the time i figured out what was happening, it was too late; i had ruined our friendship and instilled a deep distrust of me in him. he needed me, and i let him down. i have regretted those rash days bitterly."

"how sad, byron. i hope your friend is better now. and if he was such a good friend, i'm certain as he heals, he'll forgive anything you might have done."

"the connection between us is still there, should either of us decide to use it, but i no longer saw in colors. my life returned to grays and shadows. until i met you."

the way he said it, starkly, honestly, tugged at her heartstrings. until i met you. it had to be his voice that affected her so completely. "what changed?" there seemed to be a lump in her throat. antonietta gave herself a stern warning. he was a man, just like other men, one who would come and go just as they all did. it mattered little what sweet words he came up with, in the long run, the prenuptial agreement always told what they were after. and it was never antonietta, the woman.

"my entire life," he said simply.

and there in the absolute darkness, she wanted to believe him. "kiss me, byron. just kiss me again." her arms slid around his neck, and she pressed her body close to his. an offering. a hunger. a need. she might not want him to be special, might not want to believe he was different from all the others to her, but she needed him to kiss her. and she had never needed anyone.

he murmured something in a language she had never heard before and bent his head to hers. his lips feathered over her face, along her cheekbones, a soft assault on her senses. there was tremendous strength in his hands as he pulled her even closer, fitting her body into the cradle of his hips. his mouth teased hers. his teeth tugged at her bottom lip, a sweet temptation that left her helpless to resist had she wanted.

antonietta moved restlessly, a deliberate enticement. when he was with her, when he was near, she had a difficult time thinking of anyone else. anything else. she craved him in the way an addict might a drug. "a compulsion," she murmured. "that's what you are. a sorcerer, and you've cast a spell on me."

"and here i thought it was the other way around." he whispered the words against her lips.

before she could answer, his mouth took possession of hers, and the world turned upside down. it didn't matter that there was no light, colors burst behind her eyes and exploded like fireworks in her mind. beneath her feet the earth rippled so that she clung to him. she lost all ability to breathe, yet he was the very air for her. antonietta clung to him, unprepared for the way her body simply went soft and pliant and needy. "this has never happened before."

he kissed her again. thoroughly. hungrily. as if she were the only woman in the world, and he had to kiss her. needed to kiss her. and then, abruptly, he lifted his head. his eyes glittered a fiery red above her head and for just a moment fangs gleamed white in the stark black of the passageway. "there is someone coming this way," he said. his tone was free of all menace, but she caught a brief glimpse of the inherent violence in him. a beast roared for release, struggled for supremacy. his calm demeanor never wavered,-->>

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