Carpathian 00 - The Scarletti Curse

expected her approval, as if he were making a matter-of-fact statement without remorse of any kind. "Portia understood." He sounded very reasonable.
    Nicoletta felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Vincente cocked his head to one side, regarding her gravely. "Portia knew I was destined to rule. She acted at once." His smile didn't reach his flat, dead eyes. "It helped that I knew she had killed her husband. She poisoned him, you know. I told her I knew."
    The chilling smile was devoid of all emotion. He began to drag her down the old steps, which were slippery with the salt spray and mist from the sea. "I told her I knew, and it was a good thing, because I wanted her to be mine. I wanted her to prove she was mine. Women are so easy to control. They think they have power, but in truth they have none."
    Far below her she could see the waves crashing along the cliffs. "She was in love with you," Nicoletta said softly, feeding his ego, searching for anything to keep him talking. Her breath was coming in ragged gasps. Portia had made a bad bargain, believing she could control Vincente, but he had used her, as he had used so many other women, in ugly ways.
    "She would do anything for me." Vincente tightened his hold, jerking her so close she could smell his perverted excitement. He was sweating, aroused, his face flushed and his eyes large. It took every ounce of self-discipline she had to keep from struggling against him. "I brought whores to her." He shrugged casually. "I would tell her she could join me or I would have my fun with them alone." There was contempt in his voice. "She watched me with other women, I made her watch. And she slept with men I told her to sleep with. I slept with her own daughter, and she still kept coming to me, begging me to allow her to please me, as if she ever could." His laughter was low and nasty. "Portia had her uses, though. She kept your friend Cristano occupied with her charms while I talked with you and my brothers in the courtyard."
    Nicoletta paled. She stumbled several times as she pretended to try to keep up with him. Her body felt stiff and awkward from the biting cold. The mist swirled around them, the wind tugging at their clothes, so cold and piercing that Nicoletta could feel it all the way to her soul. She used the numbing cold to her advantage, shivering, slipping, dragging at his arm to slow him down.
    "Portia helped you with Cristano? Why? Why did you kill him? He would have left, and you never would have seen him again." Even her voice trembled, though not from the cold. Vincente terrified her with his calm reasoning. He was utterly insane. His father had perverted him, teaching him to utterly loathe women.
    "He heard us talking, planning our move on Giovanni. Portia and I were walking together; we didn't know the boy was still in the maze, after Giovanni confronted him. He didn't see us, but if he had gone to Giovanni, my brother would have figured it out. I am not a heartless killer, Nicoletta." He pressed his cold lips against her skin. "I only do what is necessary to protect my plans, my heritage. Don't you see that? Portia charmed Cristano, luring him with her considerable assets. I knew she would keep him occupied. I went back later to dispose of him. Believe me, he was so preoccupied with Portia, he never felt a thing."
    Nicoletta couldn't prevent the shudder running through her at the implication. Portia was certainly capable of seducing Cristano. Cristano's manhood had been affronted. He would have leapt at the chance of seducing an aristocratico. She now realized she had felt his death; he had been murdered there in the maze, but Nicoletta had attributed the terrible foreboding to little Ricardo's sudden alarum about Lissandra. Lissandra didn't die until after Nicoletta arrived at the farm. From the ramparts Margerita must Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    have seen her mother with Cristano in the labyrinth and hastened downstairs and along the corridor upset that her mother had been consorting with a peasant. She had run into Nicoletta and Giovanni but had no chance to reveal why she was upset because, at that very moment, Nicoletta was feeling so strongly the violence taking place in the maze without comprehending the true source.
    Vincente ran a finger down her cheek, jerking her back to her own peril. "Your skin is even softer than it looks," He shrugged. "I have no idea why the body was not in the