That was what Alex had been shouting, Sam thought. Mercer, not mercy.

"My name is Leigh, not Mercer." Lucan's former tresora sneered at the dark, bearded man. "You don't know. You're still human. You even believed my faked suicide."

The bearded man looked at Cyprien. "This isn't his fault. The Brethren have destroyed his mind. He's not responsible for what he's done."

"I can show you the Light, John," Leigh said. "I can make you feel the weight of your sins. That was the dark gift they gave me, you see. I don't have to kill anyone. Once I make you face the wrongs you've done, you will find absolution for yourself. Death is only a doorway to heaven."

Richard stepped up to Leigh. "The Brethren made you Kyn? How?"

The tresora's face took on a sly look. "You would only make more demons to serve you." A terrible scream rang out in the club. "I caught one of your beasts. I brought him with me to be part of the cleansing." While the guards were distracted, he broke free and ran toward Lucan.

The golden-eyed man moved so fast Sam barely saw him before he swung his sword at Leigh, decapitating him. She turned her head away from the gruesome sight, and spotted the outline of an oblong head moving in the shadows behind Lucan.

"Oh, God, Faryl, no," Alex called out.

"Wait," Sam shouted, running out in front of the snake-man before he could get to Lucan. "Don't hurt anyone."

"Stop, Faryl," Alex said, joining Sam. "I can help you. You came here for help, remember? There might be a way to reverse what's happened to you."

Behind each bar, glasses began to shatter and bottles to crack.

"Samantha, Alexandra," Lucan said as he stood and faced Faryl. "He has no mind left. Step away from him."

Lightbulbs all around them began bursting like popcorn.

"I know what I'm doing." Alex actually moved closer, holding out her hands. "Please, Faryl. Let me help you."

A gun went off twice, and Faryl shrieked, leaping across the stage, grabbing Alex, and diving from the stage. Cyprien and the other Kyn gave chase.

Sam didn't understand what had happened until she looked down and saw the wet spot spreading over her right side.

"What?" She touched it, and her hand came away red with her own blood. She'd been shot… but no one had a gun but her.

A pale, perspiring Wesley Dwyer stepped out from behind the cross, still holding his weapon pointed at Sam. "That thing won't die," he said in an unsteady voice, "but you will. Just like Harry did when I cut his throat. This time you will."

Sam's legs gave out and she dropped to the stage, but Rafael was there, and his arms kept her from falling over. Then Lucan stepped between them and Dwyer, and took off his other glove.

"It takes a brave man to shoot a defenseless woman," Lucan said.

All around the club, full bottles of liquor began exploding like bombs, spraying anyone near them with their contents.

Dwyer's hand shook as he pointed the gun at Lucan. "You stay back. I'll shoot you."

Lucan bared his fangs. "Be my guest."

Every lightbulb that remained intact in the club exploded simultaneously. Dwyer shrieked and pulled the trigger as Lucan reached out to him, and fired again when Lucan's bare hand touched his chest. Then the gun fell from his fingers and he began to shake all over, convulsing, choking, blood pouring from his nose and ears and mouth, bones cracking, limbs flopping helplessly as he crumpled to the stage.

Wesley Dwyer was almost dead when his body exploded.

"Rafael." Sam closed her eyes, the cold pain in her side spreading over her. "Make sure Chris is all right." She coughed, and felt something liquid in her lungs.

The seneschal looked up. "My lord, come quickly."

Sam saw Lucan's face over her, and watched his lips move, but the pain was dragging her away from this world, and she knew she couldn't stay with him any longer. Then she felt his hand on her face, and arms lifting her, and let him carry her off into the night.

Michael chased Faryl out of the club and into the alley, where they had prepared for a more civilized fight. Alex managed to wrestle free of his grip, but the changeling threw her against a wall, knocking the breath out of her.

"Faryl." Michael held his sword ready, circling around as he matched the changeling's sinuous movements. "Your brother is here. Your family is suffering. Do you wish to return to your life as Kyn?"

The changeling went still, his enormous eyes blinking as he tried to focus on Michael. Out of his throat came a single, distorted word. "No."

Michael nodded. "Then allow me to end your suffering as Lucan would. Quickly and cleanly."

Faryl released a long, low sound, and then dropped to his knees in front of Michael.

Alex staggered to her feet. "Michael, don't kill him. I think I know how to cure him."

"There is no cure for what we are." He brought down the sword, severing Faryl's head cleanly from his body with a single stroke. He looked at his sygkenis's horrified face. "That is what he hated. Being Kyn."

Gard came forward and dropped down by his brother's distorted body. He looked up at Michael helplessly. "Thank you, seigneur."

Alex shook her head slowly. "We can't keep doing this. Killing them isn't the answer." She trudged back into the club.

Michael sheathed his sword and saw Byrne and Jayr approaching. "It is over."

"Congratulations on winning, my lord," Byrne said.

Michael's eyes went to the pathetic figure of Gard Paviere. "No one prevailed here tonight," he assured the suzerain before he went in after Alex.

The Kyn were already removing the physical traces of what had happened in the club. The bits and pieces of the body of the human male who had shot Detective Brown were gone. Because of the manner in which he died, Michael knew Lucan's men would destroy the remains rather than allow them to be recovered.

Thierry was standing guard over Richard, who told Cyprien, "Your sygkenis went upstairs after Lucan and the human female who was shot."

"What will you do to Lucan for his betrayal?" Michael had to ask.

"He did not betray me." Richard drew his cloak on. "I commanded him to assassinate me when it became apparent that I was losing the battle with my affliction." He paused. "He seems to believe that I have."

Michael knew the high lord was struggling with his change. The knowledge that he had wantonly killed his own servants was also disturbing. "Have you?"

"Not yet. Not for some time yet, I think. Shall we go and see how Lucan's little human fares?" Richard gestured to the elevator.

The high lord's blandness about the assassination attempt should have been a warning, but Michael was too concerned about Alexandra to give it much thought.

Michael heard Alex shouting at Lucan as soon as the elevator stopped on the penthouse floor. He followed the voices through the front room and into Lucan's bedroom, but the curious tableau there made him stop in the doorway.

Lucan sat with Detective Brown unconscious in his arms, while his seneschal was holding Alexandra back from the bed. Someone had started an IV of whole blood for the human female.

"She can have the surgery she needs at the hospital," Alex was yelling at the suzerain, who was pressing a cloth against the gunshot wound in her side. "There's still a chance to save her."

"I have seen enough wounds among humans to know this one is fatal," Lucan said, looking up to see Cyprien and Richard watching them. "This is the only way."

"Giving her blood won't help. She'll just bleed it out." Alex whipped her head around and saw Michael. "Do something."

Michael smelled lavender coming from two directions, as if there were two Alexandras in the room, and finally understood why his old enemy had started the IV. "Lucan isn't giving her human blood."

Alex went still. "You wouldn't." The next moment she went berserk, jerking free of Rafael's hold and launching herself at the bed. Michael caught her before she could rip the line out of Samantha Brown's arm. "You want her dead? My blood is poisonous, you moron."

"Perhaps." Lucan lifted the cloth he had pressed to the wound and studied it. He looked up at the high lord. "Perhaps not."

"I have been studying the medical data you have sent me, Michael," Richard said. "The results seem to indicate that there is a difference between us and these new Kyn women in America. They have some of our gifts, and yet they remain more human than we."

Michael swore under his breath.

"The medical data." Alex whipped her head to stare at Richard. "What medical data?"

"The seigneur has been kind enough to send me copies of all your research, my dear." The high lord made a casual gesture. "It has kept me abreast of your progress."

"Is this true?" Alex demanded of Michael.

"It was necessary, Alexandra." He had to stop this before Richard turned her against him. "If I hadn't your brother would be dead, and Richard would have taken you from me."

"I might have borrowed her," Richard said reasonably, "but I would have given her back. Eventually."

Alex covered her eyes for a minute. "You lied to me. You stole my research. You took my memories. Do you love me or hate me?"

Michael took her hands in his. "Everything I did was to protect you and your brother. Please believe me."

"Yeah," Alex said, gripping his hands hard, "I guess I do. But next time, Michael, ask."

"What would you need, Dr. Keller," the high lord said, "to research how to reverse the changeling process?"

She gave him an uneasy look. "Some time, a lab, a couple of assistants, and some changeling blood and tissue samples. Maybe some test animals."

"Indeed. Is there anything else?" Richard asked politely.

"I don't know, some bone marrow and spinal fluid. The change affects every part of the body." She shrugged. "With the Pavieres' permission, I can harvest what I need from Faryl's remains."