“Come along, my brave one. Your wife and son want to see you.”

“Your holiness!" She raised her voice, forcing herself to sound tearful andsupplicatory. "If we are to die, would you let me kiss him one last time?"She half expected Taka to react to her uncharacteristic behavior, but he didn'tmove, didn't look at her. He was kneeling in the frozen dirt beside her, every inch of him alert, and she was probably the least of his concerns."You want to kiss the man who tried to kill you? You are a very foolish youngwoman," the Shirosama said. "Go ahead."Taka turned to her, his eyes dark and unreadable, waiting. She reached up, put her mouth against his and whispered, "I have a knife that's fallen down the front of my shirt, you son of a bitch. See if you can get it." The feel of his lips against hers was agony. The sickness deep inside her was that she wanted to kiss him anyway, no matter what he'd done.”

“I want your innocence. I want your blind, unquestioning devotion toyour father, your acceptance of who and what he is. I want you to look atme the way you look at him, knowing the worst. I want you to trust me,even when your brain tells you you shouldn't, I want you to ignorecommon sense and your lifelong need to protect yourself. I want you togive yourself to me, body and soul.”

“Please go away, Monsieur le Comte,” she said in a polite voice. “You must have tired of your absurd, inconsequential games by now.”“My games are never inconsequential, as long as they entertain me.”She closed her eyes in frustration for a brief moment. “This house is filled with beautiful women…”“Oh, not quite filled,” he said frankly, leaning back. “The Revels won’t start for another day. At this point there are no more than half a dozen beauties in residence.”“Then why don’t you go bother one of them?”“Because I don’t want one of them, my sweet. I want you.”

“[...] “I want to wake up with you in the morning, I want to fight with you in the afternoon, and I want to make love on any and every available surface in this place. And then I want to do it all over again. Come upstairs with me, Sophie. I’ll keep you warm. I’ll keep the darkness away.”

“My hair covers my scarring.''But we've agreed that no one notices your scarring once they're around you. You woo them like a big, fat hairy black spider, and no matter how much they struggle they're helpless.”

“(Beth) “You can’t leave me behind!”“I can and I will, if I have to break your neck to keep you from following me.”“I’d like to see you try.”“No, you wouldn’t.” His voice was flat, unemotional, but even in the darkness she could see the faint flicker in his eyes. She looked behind her, at the crumpled body of the pot smoking soldier, his head at an odd angle, his eyes open and staring.“Oh, God,” she whispered, horrified. What had seemed a strange kind of nightmare was suddenly, terribly real. “Did you kill him?”“No, the tooth fairy came along and took care of him.”