Sherrilyn Kenyon

“This can’t be happening. It’s just not possible. (Cassandra)Oh, well, let’s not have reality intrude now, shall we? I mean, hey, you’re a mythological being descended from mythological beings and you’re in the house of an immortal guardian no human can remember five minutes after they leave his presence. Who’s to say that you can’t get pregnant in a dream by him? What? We’re jumping into the realm of reality now? (Katra)”

“Good grief. You two look like Village of the Sofa Damned. (Cassandra)”

“Yeah. I don’t need much, and whatever else I need I’m sure I can buy since the Council knows that I am the charmed one who has to be humored lest the big bad Norseman go a Viking on their heads. (Chris)”

“They had to die. They were killing innocent people. (Wulf)They were surviving, Wulf. You never had to face the choice of being dead at twenty-seven. When most people’s lives are just beginning, we are looking at a death sentence. Have you any idea what it’s like to know you can never see your children grow up? Never see your own grandchildren? My mother used to say we were spring flowers who are only meant to bloom for one season. We bring our gifts to the world and then recede to dust so that others can come after us. When our loved ones die, we immortalize them like this. I have one for my mother and the other four are my sisters. No one will ever know the beauty of my sisters’ laughter. No one will remember the kindness of my mother’s smile. In eight months, my father won’t even have enough of me left to bury. I will become scattered dust. And for what? For something my great-great-great-whatever did? I’ve been alone the whole of my life because I dare not let anyone know me. I don’t want to love for fear of leaving someone like my father behind to mourn me. I will be a vague dream, and yet here you are, Wulf Tryggvason. Viking cur who once roamed the earth raiding villages. How many people did you kill in your human lifetime while you sought treasure and fame? Were you any better than the Daimons who kill so that they can live? What makes you better than us? (Cassandra)It’s not the same thing. (Wulf)Isn’t it? You know, I went to your Web site and saw the names listed there. Kyrian of Thrace, Julian of Macedon, Valerius Magnus, Jamie Gallagher, William Jess Brady. I’ve studied history all my life and know each of those names and the terror they wrought in their day. Why is it okay for the Dark-Hunters to have immortality even though most of you were killers as humans, while we are damned at birth for things we never did? Where is the justice in this? (Cassandra)”

“So you guys fought some Daimons, huh? Wish I could. Wulf goes nuts if I even pick up a butter knife. (Chris)”

“I’m protecting her. (Wulf)From? (Chris)Daimons. (Wulf)Big bad ones. (Cassandra)”

“Then why can’t I bully you into procreating? (Wulf)See! I’m the only human in history to have Viking yenta of his very own. God, how I wish my father had been a fertile man. (Chris)”

“No, no, no. This ain’t right. I finally find a woman who’ll actually let me into her place and you bring her home for you? Oh, please tell me you brought her home for you and not for me. You didn’t pimp me out again, Wulf, did you? I swear I’ll stake you in your sleep if you did. (Chris)”

“I think I snapped a wheel at some point tonight. Or at the very least stepped over into the realm of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone. (Cassandra)How do you mean? (Wulf)Well, let’s see…It’s only eleven o’clock and tonight I have gone to a club that seems to be owned by shape-shifting panthers, where a group of vampire hit men and one possible god attacked me. Went home only to be attacked again by said hit men, god, and then a dragon. Had a Dark-Hunter save me. My bodyguard my or may not be in the service of a goddess and now I just met a sleep spirit. Hell of a day, huh? (Cassandra)”

“You mean you don’t know? (Wulf)No. In fact, I’m thinking right now that one, if not both of us, needs to put down the crack pipe and start this night over. (Cassandra)”

“I just love to put a hurt on evil things. (Katra)”

“You know the beauty of driving one of these? (Wulf)No. (Cassandra)You can swat a Daimon like a mosquito. (Wulf)Well, since they’re both bloodsucking insects, I say go for it. (Cassandra)”

“We’re so screwed. (Cassandra)Yeah, well, I don’t let anyone screw me until they kiss me, and since there’s not even a snowball’s chance in hell of me kissing that bastard, we’re not screwed. (Wulf)”

“Have you ever noticed that salvation, much like your car keys, is usually found where and when you least expect it? (Acheron)”

“If she’s so important, why aren’t you here guarding her? (Wulf)Mostly because this ain’t Buffy and there’s not one single Hellmouth to guard. I’m up to my armpits in Armageddon down here in New Orleans and not even I can physically be in two places at once. (Acheron)”

“Yeah, well, don’t worry about it. I’ve never met a Daimon yet I couldn’t take. (Wulf)Guess again, little brother. You just met one, and trust me, he’s not like any you’ve ever met before. He makes Desiderius look like a pet hamster. (Acheron)”

“It was one of the few places where someone remembered his name. Yeah, okay, so he felt like Sam Malone on Cheers, but there was no Norm or Cliff sitting at the bar here. More like Spike and Switchblade.’ (Wulf)”

“You’re a wondering soul, looking for a peace that doesn’t exist. Lost you will be until you find the one inner truth. We can never hide from what we are. The only hope is to embrace it.’ (Old Seer)”

“It was a typical day of suckage and blowage.’ (Chris)”

“It was great, wasn’t it? Really exciting stuff. (Chris)Like having my teeth drilled without Novocain. (Cassandra)”

“I need some Starbucks. What about you? (Cassandra)Always game for java. Give me ground-up beans or give me death. (Katra)”

“I swear, Kat, you drive like you’re playing a video game. (Cassandra)Yeah, yeah. Wanna see the ray gun I have under the hood to zap them if they don’t get out of my way? (Katra)”

“So sell the Hummer, buy a Dodge, and move into a trailer. (Wulf)Oh, yeah, right. Remember when I traded the Hummer for an Alpha Romeo last year? You burned the car and bought me a new Hummer and threatened to lock me in my room with a hooker if I ever did it again. And as for the perks…Have you bothered to look around this place? We have a heated indoor pool, a theater with surround sound, two cooks, three maids, and a pool guy I get to boss around, not to mention all kinds of other fun toys. I’m not about to leave Disneyland. It’s the only good part in this arrangement. I mean, hell, if my life has to suck there’s no way I’m going to live in the Mini-Winni. Which knowing you, you’d make me park out front anyway with armed guards standing watch in case I get a hangnail. (Chris)”

“She thinks I’m a drug dealer. (Chris)‘The most “illegal” thing the boy had ever done was to walk past a Salvation Army Santa Claus, once, without dropping money into the kettle.’ (Wulf)”

“It’s a sun lamp. I thought you might be tired of your pasty-pale complexion. (Chris)Christopher, I happen to be a Viking in the middle of winter in Minnesota. Lack of a deep tan goes with the whole Nordic territory. Why do you think we raided Europe anyway? (Wulf)Because it was there? (Chris)No, we wanted to thaw out. (Wulf)”

“Boy, you better check that tone. (Wulf)Yeah, yeah, ya scare me. I’m even wetting my pants while in your terrifying, gut-wrenching presence. See me shiver and quiver? Ooo, ahhh, ooo. (Chris)”

“He would remember their kiss forever. She wouldn’t recall him at all.’ (Wulf)”

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you the only way to kill us is to cut us into pieces? You should have brought a wood chipper instead of a gun. (Wulf)”

“Have you no honor? No decency? No damn brains? You don’t kill me with bullets. You just piss me off. And you just ruined my friggin’ favorite coat. For that, you die. (Wulf)”

“Come on, where did you learn to fight? Miss Manners’ School for Girls? My baby sister could hit harder than you when she was three years old. Damn, if you’re going to turn Daimon, the least you could do is take a few fighting lessons so you can make my boring job more interesting. (Wulf)”

“What are you, a baby? Jeez, if you’re going to kill humans, the least you could do is learn to die with some dignity. (Wulf)”

“Out of my way, Dark-Hunter, or I’ll kill her. (Daimon)You know, you should have stayed in your bolt-hole one more day. Tonight’s Buffy night, and it’s a whole new episode, too. Have you any idea how angry it makes me that I have to come out here in the freezing cold to slay you when I could be at home all toasty warm, watching Sarah Michelle Gellar kick ass in a halter top? (Wulf)”

“Now would be a good time to tell me you have your sais with you, Kat. (Cassandra)Nada. You got your kamas on you? (Kat)Yeah. I tucked them into my bra before I left home. (Cassandra)”

“Atlantis: Fabled. Mystical. Golden. Mysterious. Glorious and magical. There are those who claim that it never was. But then there are also those who think they are safe in this modern world of technology and weapons. Safe from all the ancient evils. They even believe that wizards, warriors, and dragons are long dead. They are fools clinging to their science and logic while thinking it will save them. (Thrylos)”

“Only a fool took a remote from a god.”

“Nick glowered at Ash. "Are we through now, Dad? Can I go play with my friends if I promise to be a good boy? I'll even try and make it home by curfew." Ash laughed evilly. "Oh, absolutely, son. In fact, here come your new playmates now.”

“Stop your bitching, Nick. You should try being an immortal demon who’s lived since the dawn of time having to sit through this crap when English is not my native tongue, and if you think you’re fluent in it, buddy, I actually know what a gerund is.”

“What’s so funny? (Astrid)I’m just thinking, here I am a slave who touched a star who then made him a demigod. I have to be the luckiest bastard who ever lived. (Zarek)”

“What do you want, Acheron? (Artemis)You know what I want. After all I’m the top of the Food Chain and you…you’re the Food. (Acheron)”

“Forgiveness is the better part of valor. (Acheron)I always thought it was ‘discretion.’ (Thanatos)Discretion is easy. It’s finding the courage to forgive yourself and others that is hard. (Acheron)”

“Come away with me, Astrid. (Zarek)Why should I? (Astrid)Because I love you, and even if I’m lying on the sun itself I’ll be freezing there without you. I need my star so that I can hear laughter. (Zarek)”

“Stars aren’t supposed to cry. They’re supposed to laugh. (Zarek)How can I laugh when I have no heart? (Astrid)You have a heart. (He placed her hand over his.) One that only beats for you, princess. (Zarek)”

“I hate you! (Artemis)Oh, please don’t get my hopes up. You almost gave me a hard-on with that thought. At least tell me this time your hatred will last more than five minutes. (Acheron)”

“What fools these mortals be. (Acheron)”

“So you do have more fight in you. (Thanatos)Looks like the devil just hiked his ass up to Alaska to see the snow. C’mon, punk, let’s dance. (Zarek)”

“Zarek! I won’t leave you here to die. (Astrid)It’s okay, princess. I don’t mind dying for you. (Zarek)”

“Vengeance is a dish best served cold. (Thanatos)We’re in Alaska, dickhead. Here everything is cold. (Zarek)”

“You can’t kill me with a gun. (Thanatos)I know, but it’s fun as hell just shooting you. (Zarek)”

“You are an arrogant bastard. (Thanatos)No, not an arrogant bastard. I’m nothing but a piece of shit who touched a star. Now I’m the son of a bitch who’s going to put you out of your misery. (Zarek)”

“You really are here. (Thanatos)Hair of the dog, baby. Sooner or later, we all dance with the devil. Tonight, it’s your turn. (Zarek)”