"No way," Claire said immediately, shaking her head. She took her arm from Myrnin where he had been bandaging her wound. She pulled the blankets up around her securely. "No way in hell are you going to be my Protector."

Oliver had the balls to smirk at her reaction as if she were being an obstinate child. As if… as if she already were under his Protection. Claire's eyes widened. She looked at Myrnin for an explanation.

"Claire," he said, his voice pleading but his lips turned down in a deep frown, "you know this is what must be done." He couldn't look at her. His jaw was clenched and his hands clutched at the sheets on her bed. It looked like it was taking all of his self-control not to tear them to shreds. "There are no other options at our disposal. I refuse to let you go without the safety of having a Patron—"

She felt her heart drop. "Myrnin, you know what this is! It's a gamble! You're selling my soul here!"

He already knew. And he already knew she knew.

"There's nothing else we can do," Myrnin reiterated.

He was right. Dear god, he was right.

"And… there's something else—"

"I will have to bite you," Oliver interrupted him, looking every part the self-satisfied jerk he was being.

She was less than thrilled. "I don't suppose there's any way around that."

Oliver simply rolled his eyes. "I will be as gentle as I can be, dear Claire."

Claire couldn't suppress the shiver that ran down her spine.

Oliver advanced on Claire and Myrnin stood up out of his chair to look away. Every part of him wanted to look away as one of his worst enemies sank their fangs into one of his friends. But for some reason, he couldn't. He didn't know whether it was the reaction one has when seeing something so horrendously gruesome they were unable to tear their eyes away, or if he watched in order to save Claire from harm if Oliver tried anything. Either way, he felt physically ill when Oliver's face moved toward Claire's neck where her pulse was strongest. Myrnin heard Oliver's breath against her skin as if his ear was inches away from them.

Claire was staring intently at the ceiling. She was biting her lip. Myrnin's vampire hearing picked up the sound of Oliver's fangs piercing her flesh and Claire gasped. One of her hands came up instinctively to push off the creature sucking blood from her body, but it had to settle on grabbing a fistful of the vampire's shirt to stop itself from pushing him away. As he was staring, her large brown eyes flicked over to him with a scared look in them. Myrnin had to finally look away.

A slight quiver shocked the room and Myrnin heard silver splitting with a sharp ting! that humans would have been unable to register. Amelie's Protection bracelet clattered to the wooden floor of Claire's room.

After another second, Claire said, breathlessly, "Oliver—!"

She was pushing him now, using real force. Myrnin sprang and was ready to pull Oliver off but the man's mouth unlatched from the girl's neck and Myrnin had time to change course at the last moment to punch the vampire beneath him in the face. Oliver was so caught off guard that Myrnin was able to shove him to the floor and leave him dazed for half a second.

He was checking on Claire, using a feather-light touch on the wounds on her neck to close them painlessly. A trick he had learned over several dozen years. Oliver stood up behind him and Myrnin braced himself for the attack. Surprisingly, nothing came. Perhaps the idiot had realized how out of line he'd been.

Oliver delicately wiped the corners of his mouth with his thumb. He produced a piece of leather from his pocket and secured it around Claire's wrist from where Amelie's bracelet had just fallen. Myrnin watched the girl's face as her body adjusted under the new Protection. She wrinkled her nose slightly and frowned.

"Are you all right?" he asked her.

She nodded.

Oliver opened a portal. "I will return to check on you in an hour," he said to Claire before stepping through and closing the door behind him.

Myrnin was practically seething. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "This isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I thought I'd feel all gross sharing a… a whatever with him, but I feel normal."

His eyes went to the unfinished bandage job around her arm that had begun falling off. He held his hand out. "May I?"

She stuck out her arm and he unwrapped the piece of medical cloth. The blood was still fresh, but when he saw the bare skin underneath there was nothing there. He smoothed his thumb over the soft flesh. It felt like new. He breathed out a sigh of relief.

"You must rest," he declared, lowering her arm to her side. "Samuel and I will commence researching our… situation."

The familiar spark of reluctance flashed in Claire's eyes. She threw off the blankets and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. "No, I want to help! I'm completely fine." She hopped out of bed and immediately caught her bedside table for balance. Myrnin eased her back into a sitting position.

"After that little display, there is no reason whatsoever you should leave this room for the next several hours. Replenish your body," he said sternly. "We will be fine."

She looked disappointed. "Fine. But I want to help soon."

He rose and smiled down at her. "Of course, Claire. We would simply be lost without you." As she was rolling her eyes at his flattery, Myrnin conjured forth a portal. "In due time, Claire," he said as a departing promise they would be seeing each other soon. The sound of a laugh carried through the open doorway. Surprised and curious about what Samuel was laughing at, he stepped through the portal back to his lab quickly, before Claire could ask any questions.

Samuel was pacing. He was worried for Claire, but Myrnin had suggested he stay back to avoid a spat with Oliver and to keep an eye on Amelie in case the demons spoke through her again. Being alone, Sam was unfocused on a single task and was left with his thoughts. Myrnin had been wise in telling Sam to avoid thinking about his "current situation," but it was turning out to be quite hard not to.

He'd seen Michael in the Glass House. He had looked good. Like he was really getting on well being a vampire. Sam was so proud of him. He'd had to slip by Michael unnoticed as he moved from the living room to the back yard, but Sam knew the way a vampire sensed and he knew his way around the Glass House so very well he passed through undetected. The Glass House. His old home. So many things had happened in that house…

Sam shook his head, pulling himself out of the depths of his thoughts. Instead, Sam reached out with his new… sense and felt what was around him. Like in the graveyard when he had felt many different feelings he could vaguely associate with parts of nature, there were things in the lab that were definitely giving him specific emotions. The very fact that the lab was underground gave him a sense of security. But he didn't know if that had to do with how he was supposed to be six feet under or not. He felt himself frown deeply and he gently touched the place on his neck where the flesh had rotted away.

Out of the corner of his eye, a translucent dress hem came into view. He spun around and saw her—the Victorian woman who had shown him where Myrnin hid the book so many years ago. She was wearing the same deep purple ensemble and the necklace was still visible around her neck. Her hair was up in a bun to keep hair from falling into her face. Her eyes were focused on him.

"Ada," he said, meeting the ghost's hazel eyes.

She nodded her acknowledgement. "Samuel."

"Why are we just meeting now?" he asked. "After all you've done for Morganville?"

Her lips quirked up in a barely hidden smirk. "I do not reveal myself to everyone who is in league with Amelie. Even if they do share an intimate relationship."

If Sam could have blushed, he would have. There was a twinkle in her eye that said she knew this.

"Why haven't you… moved on?" he asked. "Like that girl earlier? What's keeping you here?"

She looked away very briefly to steel herself against the question. The twinkle in her eyes disappeared when she looked at him again. "There are things I must do."

He eyed her closely. "For Myrnin?"

Ada smiled as if she were laughing at him. "That man needs all the help he can get, does he not?"

Sam grinned at how their relationship was coming across. "I'd say so," he agreed. "What did he used to be like?"

She raised an eyebrow. It seemed to be a challenge. "You want to hear about Myrnin several hundred years ago?"

Sam sat down in Myrnin's armchair in answer and Ada, unexpectedly, took a seat in the one across from him.

.

Sam was laughing the hardest he'd laughed in the time he'd been risen from his grave. It felt good to be chatting with Ada about Myrnin's escapades, some of which that were downright idiotic. He was guffawing as Ada told a spectacular story (about the time Myrnin learned Victorian fan language and flirted with a marquis over dinner to throw him off the trail as Ada snuck into his quarters to steal back scientific equipment he had stolen from them several days earlier) when the energy of an opening portal coursed through the room. Ada froze and immediately vanished. Sam looked over to see Myrnin stepping out of the portal near his work table.

Myrnin paused when he saw Sam. He looked at him as if he were going insane.

"Samuel?"

Sam stood up. "Is Claire all right?"

Myrnin's eyes searched the lab. "What are you doing?" he asked, ignoring Sam's question.

Sam shifted uncomfortably, knowing Ada had not granted him permission to share the truth with Myrnin. "Nothing."

He eyed him suspiciously but dropped the questions.

"Very well. Anyway," he said, getting to business as he strode over to the work bench, "we need to collect all of our information. What do we know? How do we fix this based on what we know? You get the picture."

Sam walked over to the table across from Myrnin and nodded. "Right."

"We have three days. Or, we had three days," Myrnin said. "Now we have about two and a half."

"Potions don't work," Sam added.

"Yes, potions are useless. You and Amelie are connected through some kind of link due to her bringing you back with her blood." He looked up suddenly. "Speaking of alchemy… You told Claire you feel differently when around alchemical substances, is that correct?"

Sam felt his stomach drop. He had, but just seconds before that he and Claire had been discussing Ada's presence in Myrnin's lab. Had the man heard that too?

"Yes," Sam said, not letting anything else on.

"And," Myrnin continued, oblivious to Sam's withholding of information, "you say the… creature… said it removed your curses but granted you with two new ones."

"Yes."

His eyes lit up in discovery. "Well. I believe the curses were your vampirism that were removed. You are obviously no longer a vampire. The two new curses? This powerful emotional affinity to alchemy and its substances, and the ability to see the dead." Before Sam could say anything, Myrnin flitted over to a cabinet that held ingredients. "Quickly, what is it you feel when you experience these ember flowers?"

Myrnin flitted back and opened the small jar, placing it on the table in front of Sam.

He looked down into the jar at the small, dried heads of yellow and orange flower heads. "Uh, a sense of… healing? Something that will make things right?"

Myrnin's eyes widened, ablaze with curiosity. "Yes! Ember flowers are used precisely for those purposes. Healing potions, cures, antidotes. Now… this." He produced something else he didn't name.

The jar was filled with what looked like melted silver. Sam stared. "I think I feel, um, it's something really pure, isn't it?" Myrnin nodded encouragingly. "It brings balance."

"Unbelievable!" Myrnin clapped his hands together. "That's mercury. Philosophically it harmonizes the spirit and is one of the most basic elements of life."

"Wait," Sam sputtered, "that's mercury? Myrnin, that's highly toxic! You shouldn't—"

"Now this," Myrnin interrupted as he brought out a new jar.

.

They spent nearly two hours confirming Myrnin's prediction. Myrnin brought out nearly every single ingredient he had and Sam identified them all with a satisfying amount of accuracy.

"Now we have a diagnosis for your strange behavior," he said, stuffing the jars back into the cabinets. "How fascinating. You will have to help me with my experiments soon." He, finally, changed tracks. "What else do we know about Amelie?"

Sam said, "She was supposed to sacrifice someone to bring me back fully."

Myrnin agreed wordlessly. He was chewing his thumb and staring off into space. "Yes. She cheated death. How?"

Myrnin began pacing. "Amelie isn't stupid enough to not give a life when an alchemical process calls for one. She knows if that is what the instructions require, then that is what it requires. What was she doing?" he muttered, almost to himself. "She found a way around the sacrifice—but was it alchemical?" He shook his head. "Impossible, impossible, impossible. There's no way to do that using alchemy. Was she going to offer a human? Maybe they ran away before she could— Oh. Oh." Myrnin slapped his hand against his forehead as if it were obvious. "Of course. The blood of an Elder is several times stronger and more powerful than any other source. Of course! She thought her blood alone would be enough of an offering. And it almost was. It almost was. Oh, Amelie. I do often forget how clever she is."

But Sam wasn't listening anymore. His ears were filled with shouting and curses, moaning and weeping. The ghosts were upset. Very upset.

"Myrnin," he said, "something isn't right."

Myrnin stopped and looked around. "What is it? The spirits?"

Sam singled out one bodiless voice. It was a boy's, very young. "They can't!" he shrieked. "No one will be left!"

He heard another, this time a woman's. "How dare he?! How dare he do this to us!"

Listening closely, every voice seemed to be saying something similar.

This is unfair, someone wept. Wholly unfair. No protection for the weak? How can they do this?

There is order for a reason, another ghost spat.

No balance, no balance, no balance.

Myrnin's cellphone rang loudly from the inside of his pocket. He answered it quickly.

"Claire?" His eyes widened. Suddenly he became enraged. "What?! Impossible! He knows what that would do to Morganville!" He listened intently. "I cannot believe this. After all this time, all he cared about was furthering his position." He paused. "Of course I will. You have my word. I will let you know of the outside situation."

Myrnin ended the call and set the phone gently on the table. He looked at Sam. "It appears our dear Oliver Cromwell is still one of the nastiest turncoats in all of history," he said through his teeth. "He's repealed the law that prohibits open hunting on any human that isn't under Protection. Chaos has ensued."

Sam's mouth dropped open in horror. "That explains the ghosts' outrage."

"Claire needs us to report what it looks like outside."

A sharp shriek came from above ground.

"Jesu."