Sherrilyn Kenyon

“Akri? Can I keep him? See, he good eating. Lots of fat on this one. (Simi)No, Simi. You can’t keep the baby. His mother would miss him. (Acheron)But he want to go home with the Simi. He said so. (Simi)No, Simi. (Acheron)No Simi, no food. Nag, nag, nag. (Simi)”

“St. Ash – who knew? (Gallagher)”

“Now there’s a sight you don’t see every day, huh? Two punked-out Goths throwing a Christmas party for sick children. (Doctor)”

“No, see the slide’s too high. He could fall and get a concussion. (Wulf)Forget that. He could rack himself on the teeter-totter. (Chris)Teeter-totter nothing. The swings are a choking hazard. Whose idea was it for him to have this? (Urian)”

“Don’t give me that pseudo quasi psychobabble bullshit, Ash. I’m tired, I had my ass kicked, I’m still worried about Cassandra, Erik, and Chris, and I really feel like shit. Just once in eternity, answer one fucking question. (Wulf)I will not tamper with free will or fate, Wulf. Not for you, not for anything. There is no power on this earth or beyond that could make me do such a thing. (Acheron)”

“What an alliance, huh? A Dark-Hunter and a Spathi united to guard an Apollite. Who would have ever imagined? (Wulf)Love makes strange bedfellows. (Acheron)I thought that was politics. (Wulf)It’s both. (Acheron)”

“Guys, we’re so screwed. The women know we didn’t go hunting. (Kyrian)You think? What idiot came up with that lie? (Zarek)I’m not an idiot. And it’s not like I lied. I just omitted what exactly we were hunting and where we were doing it. (Talon)Like your wives wouldn’t know better? When was the last time Mr. Armani hunted something that didn’t have a price tag on it? Oh, and the loafers and trousers are perfect camouflage. (Zarek)”

“How much longer will I live? (Urian)You’re immortal, barring death. (Acheron)That doesn’t make sense. (Urian)Most of life doesn’t. (Acheron)”

“Again, I repeat, don’t ask questions you don’t want answered. Just accept the fact that Acheron is a freak of nature and let it go. (Zarek)”

“Oh, goodie. Let the bloodbath commence. (Zarek)”

“You came after all, Z. Glad you made the party. (Acheron)What the hell? I didn’t have anything better to do. Figured I might as well come kick ass and take names. Not that I really give a damn about their names. I’m just in it for the bloodlust. (Zarek)”

“(The baby sneezed. Wulf jumped as fire shot out of its nostrils and almost singed his leg.)Excuse me. I almost made Dark-Hunter barbecue, which would be really sad ‘cause I ain’t got no barbecue sauce with me. (Simi)”

“That’s Ash’s baby. (Kyrian)Lucy, you got some ‘splaining to do. (Wulf)”

“Don’t worry, Chris. The day that Sony PlayStation attacks the world and threatens to destroy it, we’ll give you a call. (Katra)”

“I’ll go and help. (Chris)What are we supposed to do with you, Chris? Lob you at them? (Wulf)”

“Why can’t you ever answer a simple question? (Wulf)Ask me a simple question and you will get a simple answer. (Acheron)”

“Look at his hair. He looks like his father. (Cassandra)He has your lungs. (Wulf)Oh, please! (Cassandra)Trust me. Every Apollite here knows that my parents were unmarried at my birth, and that if you survive the night, you plan on making me a eunuch. (Wulf)”

“What can I get you? (Wulf)How about someone else to have this kid for me? (Cassandra)”

“I’m sorry. I was just thinking of that stupid song, ‘Seasons in the Sun.’ You know, ‘we had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun.’ Good grief, I should be a mental patient. (Cassandra)You have more strength than any warrior I have known. Don’t ever apologize to me again for those few times when you show your fear to me, Cassandra. (Wulf)”

“Kyra is working on a new program and I’m going to test it. (Chris)That’s one way of putting it. (Urian)”

“You can party, but I better not catch you drunk. (Wulf)(Chris rolled his eyes, then bent down to said to Cassandra’s stomach...)Be wise, little guy, stay in there where Lord King Neurotic can’t kill all your fun. (Chris)”

“This is where Wulf’s people would get drunk and party for a week. All hail the Vikings, forerunners to the frat boys! (Chris)”

“It is through the light that we are born and through the night that we travel. The light is the love of our parents who greet us and welcome us into this world and it is with the love of our partner that we leave it. Wulf and Cassandra have chosen to be with each other, to ease their remaining journey and to comfort one another in the coming nights. And when the final night is upon them, they vow to stand together and ease the one who travels first. Soul to soul we have touched. Flesh to flesh we have breathed. And it is alone that we must leave this existence, until the night comes that the Fates decree we are reunited in Katoteros. (Apollite Marriage Vows)”

“I know better than to get in between three women arguing. If you’ll remember, the whole Trojan War started over that. (Wulf)”

“I’ve even delivered a few of their babies. (Wulf)Really? (Cassandra)Oh, yeah. You have to love the days before modern roads, and hospitals when I was up to my elbows in placenta. (Wulf)”

“Dear Son, I would call you by name, but I’m waiting for your mother to decide. I only hope she is joking when she calls you Albert Dalbert. For weeks now I have watched your mother zealously gather her tokens for this box. She’s so afraid of you not knowing anything about her, and it bothers me greatly that you’ll never know her strength firsthand. I’m sure by the time you read this, you’ll know everything I do about her. But you’ll never know her for yourself and that pains me most of all. I wish you could see the look on her face whenever she talks to you. The sadness she tries so hard to hide. Every time I see it, it cuts through me. She love you so much. You’re all she talks about. I have so many orders from her for you. I’m not allowed to make you crazy the way I do your Uncle Chris. I’m not allowed to call the doctors every time you sneeze and you are to be allowed to tussle with your friends without me having a conniption that someone might bruise you. Nor am I to bully you about getting married or having kids. Ever. Most of all, you are allowed to pick your own car at sixteen. I’m not supposed to put you in a tank. We’ll see about that one. I refuse to promise her this last item until I know more about you. Not to mention, I’ve seen how other people drive on the roads. So if you have a tank, sorry. There’s only so much changing man my age can do. I don’t know what our futures will hold. I only hope that when all is said and done, you are more like your mother than you are like me. She’s a good woman. A kind woman. Full of love and compassion even though her life has been hard and full of grief. She bears her scars with a grace, dignity, and humor that I lack. Most of all, she has courage the likes of which I haven’t witnessed in centuries. I hope with every part of me that you inherit all her best traits and none of my bad ones. I don’t really know what more to say. I just thought you should have something of me in here too. Love, Your father (Wulf)”

“No, I was just wondering who you killed to reclaim your health. (Wulf)I’m sure the cows you eat aren’t exactly thrilled by their slaughter either. (Urian)They’re not people. (Wulf)In case you haven’t noticed, Dark-Hunter, there are a lot of people out there who aren’t human either. (Urian)”

“And yet you live. (Wulf)Ever the better to procreate for you. It’s a hell of a life. (Chris)”

“You do know that as a small child, they actually carried me around on a pillow? I had a custom-made helmet that I had to wear until I was four. (Chris)That’s because you banged your head every time you got angry. I was afraid you were going to get brain damage from it. (Wulf)The brain is fine. It’s my ego and social life in the toilet. I shudder at what you’re going to do to the kid. (Chris dropped his voice and imitated Wulf’s lilting Norse accent.) Don’t move, you might get bruised. Oops, a sneeze, better call in specialists from Belgium. Headache? Odin forbid, it might be a tumor. Quick, rush him for a CAT scan. (Chris)”

“Yeah, well, your people happen to be soul-sucking demons. (Wulf)You ever met a banker or a lawyer? Tell me who’s worse, my Urian or one of them? At least we need the food; they do it just for profit margins. (Phoebe)”

“(Looking at their son on ultrasound.)He looks like an angel. (Cassandra)I don’t know. I think he looks like a frog or something. (Wulf)”

“You love her. (Shanus)I barely know her. (Wulf)Time has no meaning to the heart. (Shanus)”

“Why does the Destroyer hate Artemis? (Cassandra)Love. Why else? Love, hatred, and revenge are the most powerful emotions on earth. Apollymi wants revenge on Artemis for killing the one thing she loved most in the universe. (Katra)And that is? (Cassandra)I would never betray either one by saying it. (Katra)Would you write it down?...Oh, yeah, like the two of you weren’t thinking the same thing. (Chris)”

“(At the back of the cave, Phoebe placed her hand against one of the stones where a spring release opened an elevator door. Chris gave an over exaggerated gape.)Holy Hand Grenade, Batman, it’s a bat cave. (Chris)”

“Like black, do you? (Cassandra)It serves its purpose. It’s hard to look intimidating in pastels. (Wulf)”

“I’m no more used to being without a weapon than you are. (Cassandra)She’s right about that. Her teddy bear is a six-inch retractable knife with a snub-nosed .38 Special. (Katra)”

“Yes, but if we hurt the Abadonna in the process, we’re going to find out what it feels like to be turned inside out. Literally. Like most beings, I actually like the fact that my skin is outside my body. (Urian)”

“Where are my guards? (Wulf)Oh, one is right here, but he’s not feeling very talkative. Death has a way of making even the chattiest of people rather quite. As for the other…he’s…oh, wait, dead now. (Stryker)”

“When I was a little girl, I used to try and bring sunshine to my mother. I felt so bad that she had never really seen or felt it. So I would try and catch it in jars. When that failed, I captured jars and jars of lightening bugs and told her that if we could catch enough of them, then it would look like the sun. She’d laugh, hug me, and then set them free and tell me that nothing should have to live its life in a cage. (Cassandra)”

“I take it that didn’t go well. (Cassandra)About like walking into a bear cave covered in honey. (Wulf)”

“Know what? (Wulf)If halflings live past twenty-seven. But then anything is possible. I say in a few months we should pop us some Orville Redenbacher’s, then sit back and enjoy the show. (Spawn)”

“Since when the hell do I answer to you? I don’t even know you, hence it’s none of your damned business. (Spawn)‘Well, someone hadn’t taken his personality pills for the night.’ (Wulf)”

“Why have I always been forbidden to touch him? (Stryker)Ours it not to question why. Ours is but to live or die. (Apollymi)”

“On Mardi Gras, she got his soul back and freed him. (Wulf)Oh man, that sucks. Now he’s going to have to join Kyrian on the geriatric patrol. (Chris)”

“Cassandra sat on the floor with Chris and Kat, playing Life. They had tried to play Trivial Pursuit earlier only to learn that a Dark-Hunter and an immortal handmaiden to a goddess had a decidedly unfair advantage over Cassandra and Chris. In Life, the only thing that mattered was luck.’ (Cassandra)”

“Rocking her gently in his arms, Wulf wondered which of them had it worse. The mother who wouldn’t live to see the baby grow, or the father who was damned to watch the baby and all those after him die.’ (Wulf)”

“Chris would disagree with you. (Wulf)I think Chris would disagree with a signpost. (Cassandra)”

“If it makes you feel better, I’m not happy with the way all this went down any more than you are. But sometimes things have to go wrong in order to go right. (Acheron)”

“How did you know Cassandra was the mother? (Wulf)I know lots of things when I apply myself. (Acheron)”

“Don’t, Cassandra. (Wulf)Oh, please. I just want to choke her for a few minutes. (Cassandra)”