“I invited ten women here for you to choose your bride from,” Regina admitted taking a seat before him.

Dominic’s expression turned grim. “Have you taken leave of your senses? Should I send Frederick to attend you?”

“I have no need of a physician, Dominic, and I am of saner mind than you. You need to marry,” she stated, her tone firm with resolve.

“I had thought we were finally past this argument, Regina. Have you forgotten what happened to Felicity? Do you possess some deep-seated longing to send another woman screaming to her death?”

Regina held his gaze, but gripped her fingers tightly together. “No, and though I think it was most noble of you to remain faithful to Felicity, it’s been nearly twelve years now. It’s time you let go of the past and moved into the future.”

“And what future would that be, my dear?” he inquired, his voice a soft purr of menace. “Have you turned psychic all of a sudden?”

“You know I haven’t,” she replied with a slight grimace at his barb, “but it appears that I have a better memory than your own.” She leaned forward slightly. “Weren’t you the one who said that you needed a virgin wife by your thirtieth birthday to complete your powers? According to my rather rudimentary math skills, that leaves you less than a year to find a suitable lady and marry her. Since you did not seem so inclined to do this for yourself, I simply made the arrangements for you.”

“I but told you what Zaltasar informed me, I didn’t say I believed it.”

“Oh? You don’t believe your mentor’s prediction regarding your powers, but you have no difficulty believing that you may have killed your wife in a fit of passion and anger when you found her and Terrence together in your wedding chamber?”

Dominic’s anger slithered out of him in a heated tendril of green smoke. Briefly closing his eyes, he directed the sentient tentacle toward the window and away from his sister. “I didn’t say that, but it’s possible, yes. It’s not what I want to believe, but the evidence clearly seems to indicate I was responsible.”

“Really? And isn’t it due to that very same evidence that you were found innocent of the crime?” she countered, barely acknowledging the snake-like trail of green rage that sought a convenient target to unleash its wrath upon.

“Innocent and not guilty are not at all the same thing, sister dear. The council concluded there was not enough evidence to convict me of Felicity’s murder, but they did not find me innocent. In truth, I rather suspected they thought I did commit the crime, but felt it was an uncontrollable act of passion rather than a deliberate killing.”

“So, which is it?” she inquired with a lift of her chin. When he didn’t answer, she prompted, “You’ve been trying to convince me for years that our brother possesses a nature so evil that it is beyond my comprehension to accept it, going so far as to suggest he was responsible for the death of my husband. Do you mean to say now that he is wholly innocent of the crimes which you’ve accused him?”

Dominic clenched his fingers into a fist, then slowly opened them to lay them flat on the desk again. “The blackness of Terrence’s soul is not what’s at issue here,” he replied through gritted teeth.

“Then what, precisely, is at issue here?”

He regarded her with open astonishment. “The fact that you invited ten women to my home on the pretext I would choose one for my wife is what’s at issue here.” Afraid of what he might do, he took a deep breath and leaned back slightly. “Your memory may not be quite as good as you believe, Mrs. Sinclair, or you’d recall the night I held my torn and bleeding bride in my arms that I made a vow. And whether or not I was the one who ripped Felicity to pieces, I was definitely the one ultimately responsible. I don’t know what happened that night, because I-can’t-remember,” he reminded her as the physical manifestation of his fury wound its way up the velvet curtains to the ceiling where it seeped through as if no barrier existed.

“However, since they found me naked, Felicity mauled and Terrence bleeding, I fully accept the premise that my beast took control of me that night. So, I hardly think that bringing ten women to the lair of a potential murderer was a very intelligent thing to do. Therefore, for the sake of their innocent lives, and your own, I insist you send them back. Today,” he emphasized through his tightly clenched jaw.

Undaunted by his growl or his very obvious anger, Regina stood and leaned toward him. “No,” she replied simply.

He rose and bent forward until their noses practically met. “You really don’t want to battle me over this, Regina Elizabeth. If I have to send them back, I won’t be nearly as charitable about it as you. So, I advise you to do as I say before I tend to the matter myself.”