Karen Marie Moning

“I looked from one to the other, and realized that Barrons and my dad were having one of those wordless conversations he and I have from time to time. Though the language was, by nature, foreign to me, I grew up in the Deep South where a man’s ego is roughly the size of his pickup truck, and women get an early and interesting education in the not-so-subtle roar of testosterone.”

“I think dating courtesies are common courtesies that should be practiced in most all civilized encounters. I pine for the days of good, old-fashioned manners.”

“She will never know that tonight, she was mine.”

“Life is too hard, too much to handle. Nobody told me there’d be days like these. How could nobody tell me there’d be days like these? How could they let me grow up like that—happy and pink and stupid?”

“There's nothing I can't live with. Only things I won't live without.”

“Cat got your tongue? And what a lovely tongue it is. I know. It licked every inch of me. Repeatedly. For months," He purred but with steel in the velvet”

“There was no lifeboat here in thesedeep, killing waters, not even a lighthouse, marking the way back to shore with its soft amber promise.There was only the storm of Barrons and the one I seemed to be, and if there were dark shapes moving in the waters beneath my feet that I should probably take a good hard look at and possibly reconsider trying to swim here, I didn’t care.”

“No puedo creer que Dios juegue a los dados con el cosmos. ALBERT EINSTEINDios no solo juega a los dados. A veces lanza los dados alli donde no pueden ser vistos. STEPHEN HAWKING”

“Question: When you’re one of the few people who can do something to fix a problem, just how responsible does that make you for it? Answer: It’s how you choose to answer that question that defines you.”

“For the past few years, I've been on a quest for a good old-fashioned date, the kind where the guy calls, makes the plans, picks you up in a car that's not his dad's or his other girlfriend's, and takes you somewhere that shows he put thought into what you might like, not what he might get off on like the latest how-many-naked-boobs-can-we-cram-into-this-movie-to-disguise-the-complete-lack-of-plot movie. I'm looking for the kind of date that starts with good conversation , has a sweet and satisfying middle, and ends with long, slow kisses and the dreamy feeling that you're walking on clouds.”

“You were firing questions at me today, trying to get inside my head.You asked if I believed in God.I told you of course I do- I've always had a strong sense of self.Your house is quiet now, you're sleeping upstairs and I'm alone with this blasted, idiotic book that purports to tally the sum of my life, and fact is, maybe I do. But maybe, ka-lyrra, your God doesn't believe in me. -- From The (Greatly Revised) Black Edition Of The O'Callaghan Book of the Sin Siriche Du”

“He was still frowning at the cake, looking at it as if he expected it to sprout dozens of legs and begin scuttling toward him, thin-lipped, teeth bared.”

“Barrons’ lips twitched. I’d almost made him smile. Barrons smiles about as often as the sun comes out in Dublin, and it has the same effect on me; makes me feel warm and stupid.”

“Whether I see the Fae, or whether I’m a man. I believe I’ve laid your mind to rest on the former; shall I relieve it on the latter?” He reached for his belt.“Oh, please.” I rolled my eyes. “You’re a leftie, Barrons.”“Touché, Ms. Lane,” he murmured.”

“Will an hour be enough?”An hour implied that I needed a lot of help. “I’ll see what I can do,” I said coolly. I was ready in twenty minutes.”

“Samhain had its origins, like many modern holidays or celebrations, in pagan times. As the sidhe-seers had been inclined to erect churches andabbeys on their sacred sites, the Vatican had been wont to “Christianize” ancient, pagan celebrations in an if-you-can’t-beat-them-and-don’t-wantto-join-them-rename-it-and-pretend-it-was-yours-all-along campaign.”

“When do these three days expire?""That's what pisses me off. I don't know. He was annoyingly vague.""The nerve. Threatening you and not being precise about it.”

“Just saying, things ain't always bad just 'cause you don't understand 'em or ain't like 'em. That's like thinking anybody who's smarter or faster is dangerous just 'cause they got more brains or quicker feet. Ain't fair. Peeps can't help how they're born.”

“As he fills me I wonder if – in the same way that sex makes its own unique perfume – we don’t really “make” love. As in create, manufacture, evoke an independent element in the air around us, and if enough of us did it really well, for real, not just for the hell of it, we could change the world.”

“I have found there to be little distance between the unlatching of a chain and the spreading of a woman’s legs. As if they can never unbar only a single entrance. It’s a disease called hope. Women suffer from it greatly.”

“Does she, like most women, lose a part of her soul in sex? Leave it lying there for the taking? Fuck.”

“Nobody home but She for Whom I Am the World. Can't go on like this, can't keep doing it.- Jericho Barrons”

“Yesterday was a memory. Today was a hope.”

“He isn't what he's pretending to be with her. I watch him all the time. I'm going to be there when he stops pretending. I'm going to be her bulletproof vest, her shield, her fallen fucking angel, whether she wants one or not. He's pretending he's almost human. He's no more human than me.”

“Barrons stood inside the front door, dripping cool old-world elegance.I hadn’t heard him come in over the music. He was leaning, shoulder against the wall, arms folded, watching me.“ ‘One eye is taken for an eye . . .’ ” I trailed off, deflating. I didn’t need a mirror to know how stupid I looked. I regarded him sourly for a moment, then moved for the sound dock to turn it off. When I heard a choked sound behind me I spun, and shot him a hostile glare.He wore his usual expression of arrogance and boredom. I resumed my path for the sound dock, and heard it again. This time when I turned back, the corners of his mouth were twitching. I stared at him until they stopped.I’d reached the sound dock, and just turned it off, when he exploded.I whirled. “I didn’t look that funny,” I snapped.His shoulders shook.“Oh, come on! Stop it!”He cleared his throat and stopped laughing. Then his gaze took a quick dart upward, fixed on my blazing MacHalo, and he lost it again. I don’t know, maybe it was the brackets sticking out from the sides. Or maybe I should have gotten a black bike helmet,not a hot pink one.I unfastened it and yanked it off my head. I stomped over to the door, flipped the interior lights back on, slammed him in the chest with my brilliant invention, and stomped upstairs.“You’d better have stopped laughing by the time I come back down,” I shouted over my shoulder.I wasn’t sure he even heard me, he was laughing so hard.”

“-and nobody’s getting laid!” I practically shouted.“You think I don’t know that?” He shifted his body beneath me, making me painfully aware of something. Two somethings, in fact, one of which was how far up my short skirt was. The other wasn’t my problem. I wriggled, to shimmy my hem down, but his expression perished the thought. When Barrons looks at me like that, it rattles me. Lust, in those ancient, obsidian eyes, offers no trace of humanity. Doesn’t even bother trying.”

“Make no mistake, Ms. Lane, I didn’t rape you. You can lie there on your pretty littleP.C. ass and claim with your idealistic little P.C. arguments that any violation of your willis rape and that I’m a big, bad bastard, and I’ll tell you that you’re full of shit, and you’veobviously never been raped. Rape is much, much worse. Rape isn’t something you walkaway from. You crawl.”

“Lady, you are one sick fuck.”

“I felt the electricity of his body behind me as he reached around me and took the card from my hand. He didn't move away, and I battled the urge to lean back into him, seeking the comfort of his strength. Would he wrap his arms around me? Make me feel safe, if only for a moment, and if only a delusion?”

“I turned around slowly, and looked up at him. He stiffened and sucked in a shallow breath. After a moment, he touched my cheek."Such naked pain," he whispered.I turned my face into his palm and closed my eyes. His fingers threaded into my hair, cupped my head, and brushed the brand. It heated at his touch. His hand tightened at the base of my skull and squeezed, and he raised me slowly to my tiptoes. I opened my eyes and it was my turn to inhale sharply. Not human. Oh, no, not this man."Never show it to me again." His face was cold, hard, his voice colder.”

“He made a lousy passenger, barking instructions I ignored”

“I can smell you, Ms. Lane," he said, even more softly. "The only blood on you is from your veins, not your womb."My head whipped to the left and I stared at him. Ok, that was one of the more disturbing things he'd ever said to me.”

“I began to cry.Barrons looked horrified. "Stop that immediately, Ms. Lane.""I can't." I sniffeled into my cup pf cocoa so he couldn't see my face."Try harder!"I gave a great sniff and shudder, and turned it off."I have not been her lover for...some time," he offered, watching me carefully."Oh, get over yourself!”

“He was so close, his body electric, his expression savage.I moistened my lips. His gaze fixed on them. I think I stopped breathing.He jerked so sharply away that his long dark coat sliced the air, and turned his back to me."Was that an invitation, Ms. Lane?""If it was?" I asked, astonishing myself. What did I think I was doing?"I don't do hypotheticals. Little girl”

“You've mistaken me for someone else. Do not wait on me, Ms. Lane. Do not construct your world around mine. I'm not that man.""Screw you, Barrons.""I'm not that man, either.”

“Your feet will bring you to where your heart is.”

“and have lived through hells of your own before ever coming to me. I have only given you one more hell to add to it.”

“If he were any other man, I might have suspected him of substance abuse, of being coked up or something. But Barrons was too much a purist for that; his drugs were money, power, and control”

“Life's not linear at all. It happens in lighting flashes. So fast you don't see those lay-you-out cold moments coming at you until you're Wile E. Coyote, steamrolled flat as a pancake by the Road Runner, victim of your own elaborate schemes.”

“She smiled radiantly at the shield, pretending it was Dageus. The three simple words just didn't seem like enough. Love was so much larger than words."I love you, I love you, I love you. I love you more than chocolate. I love you more than the whole world is big." She paused, thinking, searching for a way to explain what she felt. "I love you more than artifacts. I love you so much it makes my toes curl just thinking about it."Pushing her hair back from her face, she donned her most sincere expression. "I love you.""You can have the confounded shield if you love it that much, lass," Dageus said, sounding utterly bewildered. Chloe felt all the blood drain from her face.”

“I see God in a sunrise, not in repetitious ritual.”

“What are you Barrons?”“The one who will never let you die, and that’s more, Ms Lane, than anyone in your life has been able to say to you. More than anyone else can do”

“Stay the fuck out of my head!"Fuck. There's a word I understand."Yes, please.”

“Barrons, Jericho: I haven't the faintest fecking clue. He keeps saving my life. I suppose that's something.”

“Jericho.""Mac.""Thank you for saving my life. Again.”

“For what other reason would you have me save you? Because I like you? Better to be useful than liked.”

“Punch me.""Don't be absurd.""Come on, punch me, Barrons.""I'm not punching you.""I said, punch--OW!" He decked me.”

“Even I don't know what you're doing, and I know everything.”

“So....stop....me.”

“A wing or a thigh? Ah, I'm afraid we don't have any thighs left.”