Chloe Neill

“I have been given a third chance at life, even if the circumstances are somewhat disconcerting. You are mine, and we both know it.”

“You’re thinking about him naked, aren’t you?” “Unfortunately.” She patted my arm. “And to think—I was actually hesitant about dating him. Oh, and speaking of which. Chaps. Enough said.”

“Have I ever waxed poetic about the glory that is the fuzzy-chested vampire wearing nothing but cowboy boots?”

“I'm just warning you, I'm probably going to be a total hard-ass vamp."Mallory snorted and walked out of the kitchen, calling out, "Yeah, well, you've got a purple marshmallow on your chin, hard-ass vamp.”

“Do you need to reschedule? There are some other things I could take care of while I’m in town.”Mallory waved him off. “No, today’s fine. It’s going to be on the exam, so I might as well do it.”“Oh, my God, you are Harry Potter,” I said, pointing a finger at her. “I knew it!”She rolled her eyes, then looked at Catcher.”

“I'm working from the assumption it's going to go horribly wrong. If we get out of here with limbs intact and no aspen slivers in uncomfortable places, we're calling it a win."Merit/Jonah”

“He grinned. "And you've got yourself a nickname. I'm thinking 'Shorty'""I'm five eight without heels.""It's not a description. It's a nickname. Get used to it, Shorty."We stood there for a moment, waiting for the tension to evaporate. When it did, we smiled at each other. "Don't call me Shorty," I told him."Okay, Shorty.""Seriously, that's very immature.""Whatever you say, Shorty. Let's call it a night.""Fine by me."I'd worry about the humiliation in the morning.Merit/Jonah”

“I tried to lighten the mood, and pointed at the house shoes - the last things I'd have expected to see Catcher Bell wearing. "And the shoes?" I asked with a grin."My house, my rules. These shoes happen to be comfortable," he said "If you two roamed around the house naked and carrying bows and arrows before I moved in, it's none of my business.”

“From a House of vampires to a house of politicians,” he muttered as we walked to the front door.“Said the most political of vampires,” I reminded him, and got a growl in response.”

“Fair enough" I gave him. "But you've got really nice shoes." He blinked, then cast a dubious glance at his boots. "They were in my closet." I snorted and plucked at the sleeves of his jacket. "Please you've been planning this outfit for a week.”

“I had to fight the urge to turn on him and level my sword at the shrunken black nugget of his heart.”

“Words have power? That sounds like you're into some Harry Potter juju.”

“You string some letters together, and you make a word. You string some words together, and you make a sentence, then a paragraph, then a chapter. Words have power.”

“Gabe clucked his tongue. “He’s probably not the only one,” he said, glancing at me. “Trouble does seem to find you, Kitten.”

“Ethan extended his hand. "Mr. Merit. Thank you for your help." My grandfather shook his hand, but he also shook his head. "Thank your Sentinel. She's a fine representative of your House." Ethan looked at me, pride-and love?-in his eyes. "We're in agreement there.”

“Do you like being teased?" I whispered."I enjoy previews," he said, the words confident, but his voice rough with arousal. -Merit and Ethan”

“No one said love was easy, Sentinel. -Ethan”

“She is mine. -Ethan”

“You are a Cadogan vampire, by blood and bone. You have fought for this House, and you are mine to protect. My Sentinel, my Novitiate. As long as I am here to do it, I will protect you. As long as this House exists, you will have a home here. -Ethan”

“Do you ever wish that sometimes the world would just stop spinning for a few hours to give you a chance to catch up?”

“Have you ever had one of those days where you give up on being really clean, and settle for being largely clean? Where you don't have time for the entire scrubbing and exfoliating regime, so you settle for the basics? Where brushing your teeth becomes the most rigorous part of your cleaning ritual? Yeah, welcome to Monday morning at St. Sophia's School for (Slightly Grimy) Girls.”

“Vamps are really only like ten percent fun at any given time. The other ninety percent is largely fretting. And bloodletting.”

“Some minutes or hours or days later, when I lay boneless and well satisfied, Ethan raised his gaze to mine again. His eyes were silver, his fangs descended. "There is no going back," he said, "Not after this.”

“I wanted what most people wanted—love, companionship.I wanted someone to touch. I wanted someone to touch me back.I wanted someone to laugh with, someone who would laugh with me, laugh at me.I wanted someone who looked and sawme . Not my power, not my position.I wanted someone to say my name. To call out, “Merit,” when it was time to go, or when we arrived.Someone who wanted to say to someone else, with pride, “I’m here with her. With Merit.”I wanted all those things. Indivisibly.But I didn’t want them from Morgan.”

“You are caught, Sentinel.' His voice was rough.”

“Always remember," he whispered to me, "that you are an uncommon soldier, whatever they say. And you are quite a thing to behold.”

“You can run. You can keep running to the ends of the earth. But I won’t be far behind you.”“Ethan—”“No. I will never be far behind you.” He tipped up my chin so that I could do nothing else but look back into his eyes. “Do the things you need to do. Learn to be a vampire, to be a warrior, to be the soldier you are capable of being. But consider the possibility that I made a mistake I regret—and that I’ll continue to regret that mistake and try to convince you to give me another chance until the earth stops turning.”

“His eyes widended again, then flicked to something behind me. He shook his head, looked back at me. His voice low, intimate, insistent. "Come back from this, Merit. You don't want to fight me.""I do," I heard, in a voice that was barely mine. "Find steel," she advised him.We advised him.He stood there a long moment, silently, still, before nodding. Someone offered him a blade, a katana that glinted in the light. He took it, mirrored my stance - katana in both hands, body bladed."If the only way you'll come back from this is to be bloodied by it, then so be it."He lunged.”

“Be stubborn if you wish to, if you need to, but we know how this will end.”

“You give me thirty-two inches of folded steel and I'll take on anyone you want." -- Merit”

“Pec-tacle?You know, like spectacle but with more dude nipples.”

“He's twenty-nine. And what did you think he was going to look like?"She shrugged."You know-old. Grizzled. Long white beard. Scruffy robes. Loveable, smart, a little absent minded." I bit back a grin. " I said 'sorcerer,' not 'Dumbledore.' So he's hot. It could be worse.”

“Have you ever noticed that however uncomfortable you might have been when you first went to bed—the room too hot or too cold; the pillows not quite right; the mattress lumpy; the sheets scratchy by the time you should get up, your bed has transformed itself into the Platonic ideal of beds? The room is cool, the bed is soft, and the pillow may as well have been God’s Own Headrest. The transformation inevitably happens, of course, when you’re obligated to get up and out, when nothing sounds better than hunkering down in a pile of cool cotton.”

“Say what you had to about Ethan, but the boy filled a library very, very well.Okay—arguably, that wasn’t the only thing he filled out well, but let’s stay on track.”

“Now that, my friends, is what we vampires call a good exit.”

“Catcher snorted. “If we’re not playing naked Twister, we’re wasting our waking hours.”“Yep,” Mallory said as she tugged him down the sidewalk, “that’s the love of my life. He’s a romantic at heart.”

“You undo me, Merit. Wholly and completely. You don't take me at my word. You challenge me at every opportunity. And that means when I'm with you, I am less than the head of this House...and I am more than the head of this House. I am a man." He stroked my cheeks with his thumbs. "In my very, very long life, I need you more than I have ever needed anything.”

“Well, I suppose I could follow his advice. Are you hungry?”“Surprisingly enough, not at the moment.”“Will miracles never cease?”“Ha,” I said”

“Lindsey patted my arm. “Don’t be embarrassed. It’s about time you two made the beast with two backs.”I had to work to form words. “There are so many things wrong with that statement, I don’t know where to start.”

“Let’s just remember, Sullivan, that I want you for your smoked meats and your smoked meats only.”He barked out a laugh. “Touché, Sentinel.”

“She has a point, Liege.”Ethan clucked his tongue. “Captain of my Guards and he carries the standard of my Sentinel. Oh, how quickly they turn.”“You’re first in my heart, Liege.”

“Not bad for a ‘common soldier,’ hmm?” I quietly asked, then resheathed my katana and headed back toward the chapel. I could feel his gaze on my back as I walked away, so I decided to play it up. I paused at the sanctuary door, then looked back over my shoulder and smiled vampishly through hooded eyes. “Coming?”

“Margot winked at her. “Every so often, we gather together. We take a little time—a little cathartic time—to vent about those quirks that drive uscrazy.” Elbows on the table, I leaned forward. “So, which of the quirks are we talking about?” “First item on the list—the raising of the eyebrow.” To demonstrate, she arched a carefully sculpted black brow of her own, then peered around at each of us.”

“And then his voice echoed through my head. Merit. He silently called my name, even as he stood beside her. Liege? I answered back. His eyes glinted. Don’t call me that. There is nothing else for me to call you. You are my employer.That is the deal we’ve struck.”

“You’re quiet this evening,” he said. I pasted on a pleasant smile. “It’s been a long week. I’m just trying to relax.” And I was trying to avoid more drama. He was quiet for two or three minutes, during which the two of us stood there together, black-clad vampires moving around us. “I can tell something’s bothering—”We had sex and you bailed, I silently thought, and now your contrition is driving me crazy. “I was just enjoying the music.”

“Was I not tempting enough?” I asked him. “Not classy enough?” I didn’t expect him to answer, but he did. And that was almost worse. “There’s nothing wrong with you.” He’d stood up and slipped his hands into his pockets. I met his gaze and saw the green fire in his eyes. “You’re perfect—beautiful, intelligent, intractable in a kind of . . . attractive way. Headstrong, but a good strategist. An amazing fighter.”

“Eventually, the room was cleared, and we stood there together, chests heaving, a spray of shifters and humans on the floor in front of us. We weren’t entirely undamaged—I’d taken a bruising shot to my right thigh, and Ethan had slices across his belly where he’d been caught with the edge of a bar of steel broken from someone’s office chair.But we were alive. We glanced over at each other. I was just about to speak, but before I could get out words, his hand was at the back of my head, his mouth pressing against mine. The intensely possessive kiss left me gasping for breath, but even as he pulled back, his fingers stayed knotted in the back of my hair.”

“It is an apology,” he said, “for not believing in you . . . or in us. Yesterday, I thought I’d lost you, and then we fought together,” he said. “I pushed you away for fear of what our relationship would do, could do, to this House. And then we protected this House together. That is the true measure of what we could do.”

“He stopped me with his hand at my jaw, thumb against my chin. “Sometimes, people must adapt. Immortality doesn’t make the things we love less important; it means we must learn to treasure them.Protect them.” I swallowed hard and made myself lift my gaze to him, fear and joy and more fear bursting in my chest.”

“What’s this?” “An apology, of sorts.” I made a moue, but slipped the lid from the top . . . and then my breath left me. Inside the box sat a baseball, its well-worn white leather marked by the signatures of every Cubs player from the team. It was just like the one I’d had—just like the one I’d told him about the night we made love.”