“A Brethren turned Kyn.” Lucan rested his head against his hand. “Dear God. Now I have seen everything.”
“I was sent to Aubury to capture and interrogate the dark Kyn.” Ennis didn’t cower or run, but stood calmly as Will approached him. “I was very good at my task, as I am sure you know. A hundred of your kind died in my dungeons.”
“You may have my life, Will,” Claris pleaded. “Only spare him.”
“What?” He turned on her. “Why? Why would you die for him?”
“You do not know our history,” Ennis said. “As a mortal I became arrogant. I was no longer satisfied with the Kyn who were captured and brought to me. I began to hunt them on my own. By that time Claris had been seen all over the countryside. I believed the descriptions of her mad behavior would make her easy prey. But I miscalculated. Madness does not equal weakness. I tracked her, and found her. When I cornered her, she did what every wounded thing does.”
Will’s head spun. “She changed you.”
“No.” Claris stepped in front of Ennis. “I killed him.”
“It was not her fault. Claris had been tortured and starved,” Ennis said. “When she escaped from her tormentors, all mortals were her enemies. She killed any human who crossed her path. When I rose from my grave and I realized that I had become as she was, then I knew what I had to do.”
Will planted his sword in the ground. “So you lied to her, and made her believe you were her father, and made her your servant?”
“I never deceived her.” He walked over to Claris and stood beside her. “I found her living like a beast in the forest. I tamed her and befriended her. I believe the fact that she was the one who changed me may have had something to do with it. I stayed with her, gentled her, and in time brought her back to her senses. When she understood what she had done, she asked how she could make amends for taking my life and the lives of all the humans she had slain. I asked her to pledge her life to me, and to help me to protect the innocent.”
“You took advantage of her guilt,” Will snarled.
“On the contrary, I gave her affection and purpose.” He gave Will a haughty look. “I kept her from becoming like you and your kind.”
“By using her to work for the Brethren.”
“From the moment I changed, I knew I could no longer serve the order. Nor could I allow myself or Claris to serve your kind. I realized there was no one to serve the mortals caught between the Kyn and the Brethren.” He folded his hands in his sleeves. “I found others, alone and frightened, with no one to guide them. Together we became the guardians of humanity.”
“Do you mean you have been running about all this time doing good deeds for mortals?” Lucan drawled. “How exceedingly tedious.”
“Father, I could not retrieve the book.” Claris hunched her shoulders. “Guisbourne took it to Rome. That is why Lord Locksley pursued him. He is to take it to the Contessa Borgiana.”
“Salvatora is dead, and the book rendered harmless,” Ennis said. “The threat to the mortal world is over.”
“How?”
He glanced at Will. “I think I will leave it to your new friends to explain.” He came to Claris and took her hands in his. “I release you from your vow to me, Claris of Aubury. Your life is your own now.”
“You are going back to England, I hope?” Lucan asked. “Assuming my friend Will allows you to leave the building alive?”
“I am no threat to you, assassin. Or you,” he said to Will. “I trust you will look after her.” When Will nodded, Ennis kissed Claris’s cheek. “God be with you always, my child.”
“Go quickly,” Will advised him. “Before I think better of this.”
Claris watched her father withdraw from the room, but it seemed a surreal thing, something out of the dreamlands. She turned slowly toward Will. “I am free now.”
“So it would seem.”
“I believe I will go for a walk,” Lucan announced, rising from the chair. “I saw a lovely little Lotus at the other end of the street. Shouldn’t be too terribly difficult to hot-wire.” He smiled a little as both Claris and Will ignored him. “I will see you both back at Rosethorn.”
“I understand why you deceived me,” Will said. “What I cannot fathom is why you never came to me.”
“I did not think you would believe that I was Claris of Aubury.” She looked down at her body. “The only manner in which I can change shape is by taking the blood of the one I wish to mimic. I become that person—appearance, voice, smell, talent, vulnerability—everything an exact copy, down to the very blood in their veins. Then, if I wish to change again, I need blood from a different person, or I remain in the shape I last took.”
“What does that matter?”
“I cannot change back to who I was in the beginning,” she said. “I have none of my own blood.”
Will reached into his pocket and took out the small leather pouch. “I have carried this with me since the day I was to be executed. I kept it at first because of the scent you left upon it.” Carefully he drew out a small, rotted bit of fabric, and handed it to her. “’Tis a piece of my sleeve. I used it that day to wipe the blood from your mouth.”
“The blood is too old.” She cradled it in her palm. “It cannot work.”
“You will not know,” he said, “unless you try.”
“But you love the woman I am now,” Claris said. “If I keep this shape, you can have your Reese forever.”
“There is only one woman I have ever loved,” he told her, “and her memory is in your hands.”
She reached for the bottle of wine on the table, and carefully wet the rag with a few drops before she brought it to her lips.
The shifting of her body happened much slower than before. She felt every inch of her hair as it grew out of her scalp, and every muscle that shrank and tightened. Reese’s generous curves became her smaller, more modest form. She lost four inches in height, her spine shortening a fraction at a time.
She walked over to look into the mirror on the library wall. Reese’s honey gold hair had turned to her own rich brown, falling over her shoulders to stream down her back. Her face hollowed, the cheekbones sharpening and her oval eyes narrowing and tilting down at the inner corners. Green and gold starbursts swept away the dark chocolate of her irises before a fringe of heavier, dark lashes shadowed them.
She expected it to hurt, but there was no pain. And when it was finished, she felt at ease in her skin for the first time in centuries.
“I forgot how small I was.” She turned away from her reflection and held out her thin arms. “And freckles. I had freckles.” She looked up at him. “Am I as I was?”
“Claris,” he said, taking her into his arms. “We can never be who we were. We can only be who we are.” He frowned. “But as I recall, there were nine freckles on your nose, not eight.”
She still felt troubled. “What about Reese?”
“Reese was my friend,” he said. “You are my love. And that, sweetheart, will never change.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Since 2000, New York Times bestselling author Lynn Viehl has published forty novels in five genres. On the Internet, she hosts Paperback Writer, a popular publishing industry Web log which she updates daily. Lynn’s StarDoc science fiction series has been a genre bestseller for seven consecutive years. Lynn’s six Novels of the Darkyn have all appeared on the USA Today bestseller list, and her July 2008 release, Twilight Fall, became her first novel to rank in the New York Times mass market top-twenty bestseller list.
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If you’ve enjoyed this e-book, please let other people know about it, as word of mouth is the best advertising a writer can’t buy. Also, if you’re interested in reading other books I’ve written, here’s my public bibliography:
Dark Fantasy (writing as Lynn Viehl)
If Angels Burn (April 2005, Signet Eclipse, ISBN: 0451214773)
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Private Demon (October 2005, Signet Eclipse, ISBN: 0451217055)
Dark Need (June 2006, Signet Eclipse, ISBN: 0451218663)
Night Lost (May 2007, Signet Eclipse, ISBN: 9780451221025)
Evermore (January 2008, Signet Eclipse, ISBN: 9780451222848)
Twilight Fall (July 2008, Onyx, ISBN: 9780451412591)
Stay the Night (to be published in January 2009, Onyx, ISBN: 9780451412669) Science Fiction (writing as S. L. Viehl)
StarDoc SF series
StarDoc (January 2000, Roc, ISBN: 0451457730)
Beyond Varallan (July 2000, Roc, ISBN: 0451457935)
Endurance (January 2001, Roc, ISBN: 0451458141)
Shockball (August 2001, Roc, ISBN: 0451458559)
Eternity Row (September 2002, Roc, ISBN: 0451458915)
Rebel Ice (January 2006, Roc, ISBN: 0451460626)
Plague of Memory (January 2007, Roc, ISBN: 9780451461230)
Omega Games (August 2008, Roc, ISBN: 9780451462244)
Crystal Healer (to be published in mid-2009, Roc)
Other SF
Blade Dancer (August 2003, Roc, ISBN: 0451459261)
“A Matter of Consultation” from the anthology Ring of Fire (January 2004, Baen, ISBN: 074347175X)
Bio Rescue (August 2004, Roc, ISBN: 0451459784)
Afterburn (August 2005, Roc, ISBN: 0451460294)
Romance (writing as Gena Hale)
Paradise Island (April 2001, Onyx, ISBN: 0451409825)
Dream Mountain (August 2001, Onyx, ISBN: 0451410033)
Sun Valley (June 2002, Onyx, ISBN: 0451410394)
Romance (writing as Jessica Hall)
The Deepest Edge (February 2003, Onyx, ISBN: 0451207963)
The Steel Caress (May 2003, Onyx, ISBN: 0451208528)
The Kissing Blades (August 2003, Onyx, ISBN: 045120946X)
Into the Fire (March 2004, Onyx, ISBN: 0451411307)
Heat of the Moment (October 2004, Onyx, ISBN: 0451411587)
Christian Adult Fiction Series (writing as Rebecca Kelly)
Grace Chapel Inn Series/Guideposts
Going to the Chapel
Home for the Holidays
Midsummer Melody
Promises to Keep
Portraits of the Past
Life is a Three-Ring Circus
Free e-books
All of my free e-books can be read online or downloaded at My Scribd page: http://www.scribd.com/people/view/179767-lynn
Deimos
The Devil’s Publishing Dictionary
Do or Die
Familiar
Have Mercy
Illumination
John and Marcia—The Novel Crash Test Dummies John and Marcia, Together Again—The Novel Crash Test Dummies II
Left Behind and Loving It Virtual Workshops
Lunar Marshall
Midnight Blues
Night of the Chameleon
Near Dawn
Now or Never
Red Branch
Roomies
Sink or Swim
The Novel Notebook
Wanted
Worthy
Willing
Happy reading!
Lynn Viehl
Will Scarlet, right-hand man to Darkyn leader Robin of Locksley, has been charged with an impossible task: He must regain control of his lord’s stronghold, which has been invaded by vicious Darkyn renegades, without harming any captives or attracting the attention of the Brethren, the Kyn’s mortal enemies. Things only get worse when Will learns that Reese Carmichael, the mortal woman he loves, is one of the hostages.
Reese was sent by her father, a former Brethren inquisitor, to infiltrate Rosethorn, retrieve an ancient vial containing the cause of a medieval plague, and prevent Armageddon from being accidentally unleashed upon the mortal world. Seducing and falling in love with Will Scarlet was never part of the plan, but Reese has no choice other than to use him and the siege of Rosethorn to complete her mission. If she does, she knows he will never forgive her—but if she doesn’t, millions of innocent lives will be lost.
As Kyn allies Jayr, Byrne, and Lucan arrive to provide Will with reinforcements, Reese’s true identity and motives are revealed. Torn between love and loyalty, Will and Reese uncover one last secret from the past that may help them win the final battle…if it doesn’t destroy them first.
Lynn Viehl, Master of Shadows
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