Stay the Night by Lynn Viehl

Chris Renshaw is a federal agent on the trail of an art thief named "The Magician", who has been active for over 50 years. Now, in order to trap him, the Agency is using a priceless Art Object known as The Maiden's Book of Hours to lure out the Magician and bring him close enough to finally arrest him.

But the "Magician" is actually a Darkyn, Robin of Locksley, aka Robin Hood. And he's been at this "art theft" thing for far longer than just over 50 years. Try more like 700. He's got the chops to get away with any theft, even with the new state of the art theft deterrent systems in place. But when he crosses paths with Chris, he finds himself just as attracted to her as to the art she is protecting.

But when the Book is stolen out from under both of them, Robin and Chris must team up to find it. For the Book is valuable for more than just its age and beauty. It also holds the last repository of the tears of a female Darkyn whose bodily fuids brought death to everyone around her. She alone was the cause of the plague and the Black Death, and although the other Darkyn sentenced her to death for her ability, now her sister wants to take revenge for her death by using her tears to start a superplague that will destroy every human and every Darkyn on the planet. But can Robin and Chris find the Book and keep the tears from being used?

Robin is not alone in his search for the book, for the man who stole it is his half-brother, Guy of Guisburne. And Guy, blaming Robin for stealing his promised fianceé, Marion of Leaford, and the ten years of torture he recieved at the hands of his own mother, won't stop hating Robin or attempting to hurt and kill him until one or the other of them are dead. But can Chris make the two warring Darkyn seek peace with each other? Or has their brotherly hatred gone too far to ever repair?

I'm not sure if this will be the final Darkyn book (although it seems like it, because the next book it shills is for the Kyndred series), but it brings several recurrent themes from the Darkyn series to an end. One is Alexandra Keller's search for a cure to being Darkyn, at a time when she has finally gotten used to her powers as a Darkyn and would miss them if they were gone, and the story of Luisa and John Keller, who has now become Darkyn himself.

A third is the story of the Kyndred, women and men used by the Brethren as children and injected with Darkyn DNA. Possibly for use as an army against the Darkyn, but the Brethren have also done something that enables the Darkyn to turn these "warriors" in Darkyn themselves, so I'm not sure if the Brethren realize that they have essentially shot themselves in the foot, turning humans into exactly what they fear the most. Since they believe Darkyn have no souls, eventually, one would be forced to conclude that they are even worse since they have done the same thing to thousands of children. But then again, Religious Fanatics aren't exactly the best at logical reasoning- they will only see what they want to see.

I found the ending interesting and different, but I wonder, if Alexandra Keller, who has only lived with Darkyn powers for about 5 years, would miss them so much after having them for so short a time, how is the ending going to affect the Darkyn who lost his powers and became human after having them for over 700 years? Is he going to remember that he has to eat now? Realize that he can't count on healing as fast as he used to? I wonder how well that's going to go for him now, and I suspect... not very.

So, a good book, but the ending left me in doubt as to how Happy it really was as an ending. Darkyn becoming human after 700 years? I doubt that can end well at all.