Rachel Vincent

“But my hands are in the right place.""Heart," I corrected. "Your heart's in the right place.""Yeah, but my hands are in an even better place."And so they were.”

“You're not lost, Kaylee. You can't ever be lost, because I'll always know where you are. And if I'm not there with you, I'm on my way, and nothing standing between us will be standing for very long.”

“I always knew my sexual prowess has the power to save lives.""You can turn anything into an ego boost, can't you?""I have a healthy sense of my own worth. But I have an even better sense of yours.""Aww...”

“My shirt got torn in a fight. Yours evidently has a fast-release tab.”

“It's suspiciously quiet in here, and there's a Tod shaped dent in the bean bag. For the sake of both my sanity and my temper, I'm going to pretend I can't tell that you're in his lap, so could you pretend that this is still my house and you are still my daughter, and I'm within my parental rights to kick your boyfriend out after 11:00 p.m.?”

“Of every moment I've ever not-lived through, this one is the best”

“Change your mind about playing doctor?""No, but I hear candy-striper uniforms are pretty cute.”

“Should I assume the lure is a certain attractive young dead man?”

“This seems headed into girl-fight territory," Tod said. "Should I make popcorn?”

“Forever used to feel like a curse. Now it feels like a promise.”

“So don't. Come hang out with me at work. We can play naughty dress up with the hospital gowns and rearrange the supply closets.”

“The three of you are enough to drive a mara mad.'She can wear my shirt," she growled in an imitation of Nash."No,she can wear my shirt,"she said switching to Tod's smoother tone.Then Sabine took off down the hall without a glance at any of us."I have a spare.Come on, Kaylee,before I choke on testosterone and melodrama.”

“Wouldn't you be mad if I told you to give up on someone you cared about? Just... hand her over to someone who doesn't even deserve her?"Tod gave me a strange, sad look I couldn't interpret, and the blues in his irises shifted subtly for a moment before he got control of them. "Yeah. I guess I would.”

“Meow, Meow, Motherfucker.”

“But if there was a protocol for how to say goodbye to your newly ex-boyfriend's brother, right after you kissed him and probably sent your ex into the arms of his willing ex-girlfriend, I didn't know what it was.”

“Hang on, Pa, don't reach for yer shotgun just yet," I said, grinning over the protective streak I found funny, when there wasn't actually anything to shelterme from. "We were just circlin' the wagons, not having an orgy." My dad suddenly looked like he might be sick. "Please don't ever say that word again.""Wagons?”

“When i was a kid, my mom said that everyone gets one miracle. She said the trick is recognizing yourmiraclefroma distance, so you're ready when it arrives. I'm watching. I'm waiting.I'm ready for my miracle”

“Son of a motherfucking, ass-reaming, shit-eating, hell-dodging soulless bitch!”

“Wow. What would you do if I said I was angry?''I would make fire rain from the heavens to smite your enemies with the flames of our shared rage.”

“If this had ever happened before, it couldn't be happening now. That's what they mean by 'once in a lifetime'.”

“and the truth was that most of Nash's friends weren't that bad. Their girlfriends were another story.Speaking of bloodthirsty hyenas...”

“I want you. I want only you. I want all of you. But I'll take whatever you're ready to give.”

“...There is nothing Jake wouldn´t do for his wife, and even less he wouldn´t do for the syndicate.”Including kill me and torture my sister.The thought of damning someone else to the hell I was living in made me want to light my own hair on fire and take a bath in gasoline.”

“Oh, come on. Wouldn't you rather go upstairs and lick your wounds? Maybe make an ice pack for your crotch?”

“Miguel glanced back at her, fist raised. "You shut up, nina, " he shouted, shaking his fist at Abby. He must have been pretty shaken to take his eyes off an opponent. Or maybe he still didn't consider me a serious threat. How insulting."I'll deal with you when I'm finished with - ugh!" I cut off his threat with a kick to the groin.”

“What matters is the face you show the world, not the quaking mess behind it.”

“She wasn't feeling nothing. She was feeling too much. She was blocking it all out. That was a survival skill, and her still-beating heart was proof that it worked.”

“I thought you knew that.""I didn´t." And I was starting to think that ignorance was at least somewhere in the neighborhood of bliss because the more i knew, the angrier I got.”

“A cleanbreak is easiest for all involved.”Maybe. But anyone who’s ever broken a boneknows that even a clean break hurts like hell.”

“You soft-skulled, marbel-balled motherf*cker. I´m going to kick your ass next time I see it.” Cam laughed. “You know, my grandmother always said no woman with a decent vocabulary would resort to profanity.” Kori huffed. “My grandmother said, ´Get the hell out of my house, bitch, before I throw you out on your ass.”“Well, you did set the kitchen on fire. Twice. With her in it.”“I fail to see how the facts are relevant here.”

“Over the past six years, living and working in this city had turned the funny, charismatic girl I´d loved with every cell of my body into a jaded, hard-edged loner I still couldn´t look at without catching my breath. I´d never felt more alive, watching Liv to prepare to charm-or maybe force- her way into some stranger´s apartment. Olivia was a wire wound too tight, always about to snap, but she lived on excitement and thrived under pressure. Being with her was like holding a bomb in both hands, watching the numbers tick back toward zero. I knew she´d eventually explode, and this time it might kill me.But it was hard to care about the potential for collateral damage when just being near her again felt so good.”

“Blood bound:“Here´s the plan-find him,kill him.”“That is not a plan. It´s not even a complete sentence.”“You got something better?”“How about this?” He pulled back the right side of his jacket and showed me his gun. It was bigger than mine. And it was fitted with a long, barrel-shaped silencer in what had to be a custom-made holster. “Nice,” I admitted, and his grin was back. But I couldn´t help but wondering why the hell he even owned a silencer. “I had a feeling you´d appreciate the reminder that I come well equipped.”“I´d appreciate it more if I thought you knew how to use that,” I said without thinking.”

“The other three incoming calls were from his building superintendent, his pharmacy and a telephone survey company." "Bastards. They always call during dinner."Liv laughed as I slid the sliced steak onto a platter and topped it with sautéed vegetables. "Forget crime lords and corrupt politicians - telemarketers are the root of all evil.""Now you're getting it.”

“Tod's pale brows arched halfway up his forehead, and he looked suddenly, achingly wistful. "She knows not what she says..."Maybe not. But I was starting to get a pretty good idea...”

“Eastlake High makes Buffy's hellmouth look like a crack in the sidewalk.”

“Cam laughed. "You know, my grandmother always said no woman with a decent vocabulary would resort to profanity." Kori huffed. "My grandmother said, 'Get the hell out of my house, bitch, before I throw you out on your ass.”

“You don't know me. Don't ever think you know me. The only things you know about me are the things you made me do, and that illustrates your character, not mine.”

“I'm searching for a shred of humanity in that shriveled tangle of arteries you call a heart.”

“I love you, Olivia," he whispered, and my heart ached as if it would break in half. "You think we'll die if we stay together, but I've been dying slowly for the last six years. I'm taking my life back, Liv. Our life together. And this time, I'm not going to let you go.”

“I realized that I'd rather die with you than live with someone else.”

“I have choices," I insisted, refusing to break eye contact. "We both do. I may have to make mine carefully, and make a few compromises along the way, but I have a choice. I choose you.”

“Wow," Liv said, when I dropped the mallet back into the drawer. "That looked like fun. I call dibs on the next over-the-top destruction of evidence.”

“Her mouth was open, as if she wanted to say something, and I wanted to kiss her to show her that sometimes you don't need words. Sometimes they only get in the way, and you end up talking yourself out of things you need. People you want.”

“You've been shot, Liv."Oh. How the hell had I missed that?”

“Cedo nulli. Latin for "I yield to no one.”

“I could take care of that obstacle for her - I'd tear down anything standing between us - but I couldn't destroy what I couldn't even see.”

“Well that's too bad, because this is an assassination.""No, this is an execution.""The difference would be...?""Assassination is murder. Execution is justice.”

“I laughed and it almost felt good. "Is that a dig at my liquor cabinet?"Cam smiled. "That wasn't liquor, it was swill. And that wasn't a cabinet, it was a drawer.”

“I held her tighter, just because I could. Because she was fierce, and beautiful, and mind.”

“His safety was more important than anything to me. Even if he would never know enough to understand that.”