Kelley Armstrong

“Wish all my corpses would do that.”

“Did you use a chainsaw?" Joey said. "I seem to recall you like chainsawa.""There wasn't a power outlet." Clay turned to me. "That's what I want for Father's Day, darling. A gas powered chainsaw.”

“Dearly departed, scarcely lamented, deeply demented...”

“Some women just aren’t cut out to be mothers, and unfortunately it had taken Susanna three kids to realize she was one of them.”

“Do you really think he untied you? .. He was just checking his kids handiwork.”

“We drove to the airport. On the way, Clay gave him "the lecture," including all the do's and don'ts of meeting the Alpha, which was only slightly more complicated than an audience with the queen. Don't sit until you're invited to. Don't talk unless he asks you a question. Don't eat before he does. Don't make direct eye contact. Jeremy demanded none of this, but that wasn't the point.”

“I called Clay from the SUV."How'd it go at the paper?" he asked."She called me perky.""Ouch.”

“He glanced down at the blood-smeared cut on his side...and realized he wasn't wearing any clothing. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't realized it already. Kind of obvious. It wasn't like he'd been going to take time out to find his clothing before stopping Liam.”

“The look she gave me reminded me of when is was seven and I'd proudly informed out housekeeper that I'd donated half my clothing to a charity drive at school. It had seemed perfectly sensible to me-I didn't need so much stuff-but she'd stared at me like Margaret was now, with a mix of horror and disbelief.”

“Simon had drawn three pictures. In the top left corner, like a salutation, was a ghost. The middle had a big sketch of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. The third in place of a signature, was a lightning bolt surrounded by fog. Beside the drawing, someone had scrawled in inch-high letters 10 A.M.Tori snatched it from me and turned it over. "So where's the message?""Right there." I pointed from picture to picture. "It says: Chloe, I'll be back, Simon.”

“Another night then,' Mom said. 'Maybe on the weekend we can have a barbecue and invite your sister.' 'Or,' I said turning to Rafe, 'if you want to skip the whole awkward meet-the-family social event you could just submit your life story including your view on politics religion and every social issue imaginable along with anything else you think they might need to conduct a thorough background check.' Mom sighed. 'I really don't know why we even bother trying to be subtle around you.' 'Neither do I. It's not like he isn't going to realize he's being vetted as daughter-dating material.' Rafe grinned. 'So we are dating.' 'No. You have to pass the parental exam first. It'll take you awhile to compile the data. They'd like it in triplicate.' I turned to my parents. 'We have Kenjii. We have my cell phone. Since we aren't yet officially dating I'm sure you'll agree that's all the protection we need.' Dad choked on his coffee.”

“A knock came at the door. Everyone looked up. Elena's nostrils flared and she leaned over to whisper something to Clay. "Fuck," he muttered. "Keep talking, Jaime. It's only Cassandra. She can wait. Forever, if we're lucky." "I heard that, Clayton," Cassandra said as she walked in. "Who the hell forgot to lock the door?" Clay said. "You were the last one in," Elena murmured. "Damn.”

“Sure. You get all slutty with Rafe. You freak out. You cry date rape drug.' - Hayley”

“Believe me, I have better things to do than sabotage your friendships. No one else's world revolves around you, Cassandra."-Paige to Cassandra”

“Mi stupisco che non ci abbia ancora mandato gli auguri di Natale", ha commentato Antonio. "Me li immagino, di buon gusto, stampati in rilievo su pergamena, le migliori cartoline che riesce a rubare. Un breve messaggio in perfetta calligrafia: 'Buone vacanze, spero che stiate tutti bene. Ho fatto a fettine Ethan Ritter a Miami e ho gettato i resti nell’Atlantico. Vi faccio i miei migliori auguri per l’anno nuovo. Karl'.”

“Preferirei chiedere un passaggio allo psicopatico del villaggio."Clay ha ghignato di nuovo. "Dimentichi che sono io lo psicopatico del villaggio, darling.”

“He lifted his brows. "If I really thought it was the absolute best thing for our kids, you'd have had a battle on your hands. That was just a debate.""With chair-throwing.""Heated debate. Fights involve chair-breaking. Chair-throwing is just getting your attention.”

“Before we left town, Antonio pulled into a strip mall and went in to get subs and salads, leaving Clay and me half naked and bleeding in the car, and Cain unconscious in the trunk. No wonder I was anxious to get back to Toronto. Spend too much time around these guys and you become a little too nonchalent about blood-soaked clothes and bodies in the trunk”

“Suona un po' strano però. A malapena la conoscevi, e sei la prima a volerle telefonare?""Si chiama premura. Ne hai mai sentito parlare?" con un colpo scacciò la mia mano dal quadrante "Scuri, acqua fredda. Oppure ti ritroverai con un carico di capi stinti." mi lanciò un'occhiata. "Vedi? Sono premuroso.""Per forza, è quasi tutta roba tua lì dentro.”

“Now, I was well aware that certain sports required certain modes of dress for protection, but I failed to see how wearing a sleeveless blouse on the course qualified as a safety hazard. God forbid the sight of my bare shoulders should send male golfers into a tizzy, knocking balls everywhere.”

“Using supernatural beings to build the perfect weapon? Intriguing idea.""Not really," I said. "They did it on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A sub-par season. I slept through half the episodes.”

“I have to.I've been fighting it all night. I'm going to lose. My battle is as futile as a woman feeling the first pangs of labor and deciding it's an inconvenient time to give birth. Nature wins out. It always does.”

“I don’t care if I get one at all. Just as long as I keep getting anniversaries.”

“To distract myself from thoughts of my father, i decided to check out the dead body.”

“Stuffing people into boxes is for those who have issues about their own box.”

“One of the first lessons a necromancer learns is the art of playing dumb. Of course, one problem with playing dumb is that is seeps into your everyday life. ~Jaime Vegas”

“This is the first adventure I’ve survived without being kidnapped, attacked, knocked unconscious or possessed by evil spirits. A ripped blouse? Ruined skirt? Bad hair? I’d call this progress. ~Jaime Vegas”

“Last time I was sick, the guy I was seeing brought me a bottle of ginger ale… and expected me to pay him back for it. ~Jaime Vegas”

“On that walk around the building, two sets of cops coming out stopped to tell our guys to hustle us inside so they could head back out on the road. Accidents everywhere. A pileup oneach of two major roads. “Welcome to winter,” one said. “When fifty percent of drivers should have their licenses temporarily suspended.”

“It reminded me of what Dad said after every snail’s crawl home fromAlbany when snow hit.“It’s New York, people. It’s winter. We get snow. If you aren’t preparedto deal with it, move to Miami.”

“This is so cool," I said loudly as Dad walked away. "Have you met the tattoo artist? Is he hot?" "He's a she," Mom said. "Is she hot? Cause I'm still young, you know. My sexual identity isnt fully formed." "Your father can't hear you anymore, Maya." Mom sighed.”

“Yes you're getting your tattoo." I threw my arms around Dad's neck. "Thank you!" "Hey," Mom said. "I'm the one who had to persuade him it wasn't turning his little girl into a streetwalker." "I never said that," Dad said. "No?" I said. "Cool. Cause I've decided to skip the paw print. I'm thinking of a tramp stamp with flames that says 'Hot in Here.' No wait. Arrows. For directionally challenged guys”

“Rafe didn't just flirt-he charmed girls right up to the point where they fell for him, then he changed his mind.I called him a player with attention deficit disorder.”

“I want you to have big dreams, big goals. I want you to strive to achieve them. But I don't want to see you beating yourself up every time you make a mistake.”

“He obviously needed more practice, but no matter how often I abandoned him out there, his sense of direction never seemed to improve.”

“What's the woman doing there?" he asked."Covering a scratch on the hood. She was cheaper than a new paint job."He flipped through a few more pages of barely dressed women and classic cars. "Nick used to have magazines like this when we were kids. But without the cars." He rotated a photo sideways. "Or the bathing suits.”

“As I recall, I was still dressed when I fell asleep.""Just making sure you were comfortable.""And making yourself equally comfortable, I see.”

“Speaking of death, LeBlanc boasted he could kill me in the waiting room. I broke his wrist. He wasn't impressed.”

“Cosmo never speaks to my life. Its surveys always ask questions like How would you react if your lover announced he was taking a job in Alaska? and jumping for joy is never one of the options. Move to Alaska? Hell, my lover was thirty-seven and hadn't moved away from home yet. Where were the questions relevant to my life?”

“Torn clothing littered the ground, more hung from bushes. Nick held up half a pair of white panties and grinned at me."Wild dogs? Or just Clayton?""Oh God," I muttered under my breath.I walked over to snatch the underwear from him, but he held it over his head, grinning like a schoolboy."I see Paris, I see France, I see Elena's underpants," he chanted."Everyone's already seen much more than that," Jeremy said. "I think we can safely resume the search."Peter plucked Clay's shirt from a low-hanging branch and held it up, peering through a hole in the middle. "You guys can really do some damage. Where's the hidden video when you need it?""So this--uh--wasn't done by wild dogs?" one of the searchers said.Peter grinned and tossed the shirt to the ground. "Nope. Just wild hormones.”

“Perfect night, wasn't it?""It could have been." I smiled up at him. "But you were there.”

“The stairs aren't challenging enough anymore?" he asked.Antonio laughed. "Challenge has nothing to do with it, Jer. I'd say it's the big bad wolf huffing and puffing at her door up there.”

“All right, then. Emergency medical situation, take two.” He leaped to his feet, staggered, keeled over, then lifted his head weakly. “Chloe? Is that you?” He coughed. “Do you have my insulin?” I placed it in his outstretched hand. “You saved my life,” he said. “How can I ever repay you?”“Undying servitude sounds good. I like my eggs scrambled.” He held up a piece of fruit. “Would you settle for a bruised apple?” I laughed.”

“Tori joined us for dinner --in body, at least. She spent the meal practicing for a role in the next zombie movie, expressionless, methodically moving fork to mouth, sometimes even with food on it.”

“I screwed up. Again. You're shocked, I'm sure.”

“One second he was in my face, making me feel stupid and useless. The next he was like this: hovering, concerned, worried.”

“I had a stupid crush on a guy who barely tolerated me most of the time. Was that the kind of girl I was? Pick the jerk over the nice guy?”

“Making me choose? Darling, we live with the guy. We share a house, bank accounts, even vacations. We're never alone and I've never heard you utter one word of complaint. You have never asked me to choose, and you have no idea how grateful I am for that, because if I ever had to pick, it would be you, no matter what that meant for the Pack.”

“God, I loved him. I could insist I was okay with just being friends, that I'd find someone else and get over him, but I was fooling myself. There was no getting past this. I loved him, and fifty years from now we could be married to other people, never exchanged so much as a kiss, and I'd still looking into his eyes and know he was the one. He'd always be the one.”

“He looked at me. " I do know how to deal with demons, Savannah." "I know. Sorry.""So I get a hug?""No, but I won't smack you, and we'll call it even.”