Courtney Cole

“It's okay," I assure her. "I like stalkers.”

“If you constantly expect the worst from someone, that’s probably what you’re going to get.”

“And women don't usually like to be looked at. They feel vulnerable, exposed. They are self-conscious about their perceived flaws. What they don't understand is that men don't see them the same way they see themselves. We see curves and we love those curves. Confidence is sexy as hell, Alli Cat. It's the sexiest possible think that you can wear.”

“I can’t let you break my heart. I don’t have much of it left.”

“You’ve seen me at my worst. Maybe you should see me at my best.”My words hang between us, heavy and charged, and I don’t know what the fuck I am doing.“When are you at your best?” she asks hesitantly. And I can see from the determined look on her face that she is trying hard not to feel intimidated. I’m impressed. She’s like a kitten standing up to a lion. “In bed.”

“Sometimes, at the least opportune times, the past is an insomniac, alive and well.”

“She’s like a breath of fresh air. I may be the Big Bad Wolf, but even wolves need to breathe.”

“She walked in beauty, She sleeps in peace.”

“I roll my eyes. 'Are you trying to find some sort of reason that I've become such an asshole? The reason is... I'm an asshole. There are some things in life that can't be explained. Period. Assholes are assholes. Rainbows are pretty. Kittens are cute. Chic flicks are sad. It's the way of things, no explanations.”

“I’ve barely woken up and I’m faced with this spawn of Satan sitting on my bed. ”

“Life is full of kinks. And the great thing about kinks? They eventually work themselves out.”

“If it were me, I’d be flying off the handle and freaking out. But he’s not. He’s as calm as can be. We’re like yin and yang. Perfect opposites.”

“I might be clueless about many, many things, but even I know that I can’t make someone like me.  If someone likes you, they’ll realize it.  And then it will be worth the wait.”

“My mind felt numb, like I couldn't really grasp the hurtful things that I had just recently learned. I was well aware that it was my body's defense mechanism. Shock always did that to a person...enveloped them in a cocoon of decreased sensitivity to allow them to process their hurt.”

“When you love someone and they love you, you deserve to be the most important thing to them, as important as breathing.”

“I’m tired of hearing about how complicated your life is. Life is not that complicated. Either you like someone or you don’t. Either you are true to them and your heart or you aren’t. Pretty simple, actually.”

“I enjoy the vibration of the sound against my lips, the heat of her breath against mine. Everything is visceral now, an explosion of sensations and my vision blurs. She is soft and I am hard and I rage against her, taking her over and over until her eyes glaze and her screaming stops. Her heart is pounding against my chest and her body is so very fragile. So I break it.”

“Because I'm a monster, like my father before me and his father before him, and so on. There is no help for me.”

“I love you.How much?More than the ocean is large.More than a shark loves human limbs.More than Gavin loves his reflection.More than baseball players love steroids.More than chocolate, more than wine and way, way more than anchovies.More than yesterday, but less than tomorrow.....How much? I type.This much. It's his voice.”

“I had forgotten about the sword in all of the excitement of almost burning alive.”

“Foolish, foolish men," she muttered. "They need you to prevail.”

“They cannot stop what we feel.”

“Pull on your goddess panties, my dear. It's time to come out swinging.”

“Luckily, Cadmus was very secure in his manhood and didn't seem fazed by the protection of women.”

“We were soul mates. Bound through time with a love stronger than steel. He was mine. And I was his. Unquestionably. Forever. Yet here we were. He was half-dressed and embracing my sworn enemy.”

“I could taste the peace around me and I wondered how long that would last. The night was so dark, so velvety that I felt as if it was tangible, as if I could breathe it in, as well. I felt it clinging to my skin and caressing my body like unseen hands.”

“I am quite familiar with crazy.”

“Terror is so delicious," she remarked. "You're disappointingly predictable, Harmonia. All these years and you would still risk everything for him. Tsk, tsk.”

“This was too much craziness for any one person to handle without ice cream.”

“Someone should have mentioned to him that Karma was a venomous witch.”

“And as we lingered in our intimate embrace, I knew that if I could freeze time right this second, I would.”

“My need for him was almost palpable because any time that wasn't spent in his arms was just... wasted. Our time was always so limited.”

“After a thousand years pass, it builds its own funeral pyre, lining it with cinnamon, myrrh and cassia. Climbing to a rest on the very top, it examines the world all throughout the night with the ability to see true good and evil. When the sun rises the next morning, with great sorrow for all that it sees, it sings a haunting song. As it sings, the heat of the sun ignites the expensive spices and the Phoenix dies in the flames.But the Phoenix is not remarkable for its feathers or flames. It is most revered for its ability to climb from its own funeral pyre, from the very ashes of its old charred body, as a brand new life ready to live again once more. Life after life, it goes through this cycle. It absorbs human sorrow, only to rise from death to do it all again. It never wearies, it never tires. It never questions its fate. Some say that the Phoenix is real, that it exists somewhere out there in the mountains of Arabia, elusive and mysterious. Others say that the Phoenix is only a wish made by desperate humans to believe in the continuance of life.But I know a secret.We are the Phoenix.”

“I can never watch you die again," I cried as tears streaked down my cheeks and fell onto him "I cannot do it. Are you listening?”

“My screams were loud enough to reach the corners of the earth.”

“I do not give a rat's front teeth about decorum right now," my father enunciated clearly and loudly. "I have a hole in my side! Have you not noticed?”

“Perfect. I would have an unbalanced psychopath on my hands armed with immortal supernatural power. This night kept getting better and better.”

“You're much too pretty to be bloody.”

“What was it about relationships that made you feel so vulnerable? Oh, right. A relationship. In any relationship, you put yourself out there. You exposed all of your sensitive nerve endings and your heart and you just had to hope that you trusted the right person.”

“God I loved that man. Love flooded every cell in my body and I felt physically ill at the thought of never seeing him again.”

“I nodded dejectedly. She was right. There wasn't a thing that we could do. But perhaps burn a few bunches of incense to Sekhmet. I would utter some frantic prayers to God too even though Christianity hadn't even been thought of yet. It wouldn't hurt to cover all of my bases.”

“He grinned lightly at me and I smiled back. Lord I loved this man. His smile was as bright as the sun.”

“His utter helplessness at the sight of my tears leaked through his confident voice. It was almost funny that such a great warrior as Hasani was reduced to panic at the sight of a stupid tear or two.”

“Time, it seemed, was not our enemy after all. It was just air and space and hours. Anything worth having was able to withstand it.”

“Courage is not being fearless - it is created by overcoming your fears.”