“I’m not your father, you know.”It took me a moment to find words. “Excuse me?”“I’m capable of giving you a compliment and being completely sincere about it.”

“You’re crude.” "I’m crude?”"You just offered to make me your whore.”"To be the Consort of a Master vampire is an honor, Initiate, not an insult.”"It’s an insult to me. I’m not going to be your—anyone’s—sexual outlet. When that . . . happens for me, when I meet him, I want partnership. Love. You don’t trust me enough for the former, and I’m not even sure you’re capable of the latter.”

“Learn to be a vampire, to be a warrior, to be the soldier you are capable of being. But consider the possibility that I made a mistake I regret—and that I’ll continue to regret that mistake and try to convince you to give me another chance until the earth stops turning.”

“You're perfect- beautiful, intelligent, intractable in a kind of... attractive way. Headstrong, but a good strategist. An amazing fighter.""But that's not enough?""It's too much. You think I haven't thought about what it might be like to return to my rooms at the end of the night and find you there- to find you in my bed, to have your body and your laugh and your mind? To look across a room and know that you were mine- that *I'd* claimed you. *Me.* Ethan Sullivan. Not the four-hundred-year-old vampire, not the child of Balthasar or the Novitiate of Peter Cadogan. Me. Just me. Just you and me.”

“Do you understand what I’m offering you?""Do you understand that it’s not 1815?""It’s not unusual for Masters to have Consorts.""Yes, and your current Consort’s in my kitchen right now. If you need . . . relieving, talk to her.""As much as it pains me to say it, Amber isn’t you.""I don’t even know what that means. Should I—What? Be flattered that while you don’t like me, you’re willing to sacrifice just to get into my pants?”

“Please stop calling me that. You’re still officially the Master.”“Oh, I know,” Malik said. “But much like Merit, I find it amusing to irritate you.”As Malik walked down the hallway and around the corner, Ethan turned his pointed gaze on me.I shrugged innocently. “I can’t help it if I’m a trendsetter.”

“I looked at Jonah. “I’m still learning who you are. And you’re my partner, so I appreciate that you’re willing to take a punch for me.” I walked to Ethan and glared up at him. “But you know better than this, Ethan Sullivan.”