“What do zombies chant at a riot?”“Grrarphsnarg?” he asked, in a surprisingly well-done bit of mindless zombie imitating.“No, but that was really good. Disconcertingly good.”“I was deceased for a time.”“True. But anyway, the rioters get all riled up, and they chant: ‘What do we want? Brains! When do we want them? Brains!’” I fell into a wave of appropriately boisterous laughter; Ethan seemed less impressed.“I truly hope the stipend we pay you doesn’t get spent on the development of jokes like that.”

“It is an apology,” he said, “for not believing in you . . . or in us. Yesterday, I thought I’d lost you, and then we fought together,” he said. “I pushed you away for fear of what our relationship would do, could do, to this House. And then we protected this House together. That is the true measure of what we could do.”

“We all have days when we feel small. Really small. Completely inadequate but saddled with all this responsibility...I have to fight battles against people who shouldn't be my enemies - especially when there are allready plenty of enemies to go around. There are days when I would love to pull the cover over my head and say to hell with it.But I don't do that. And most people don't do that. Most people get up and do their jobs and work their asses off for no reward at all - but just so they can get up the next day and do the whole thing over again. World isn't perfect, and some days it wears you down. You can either accept that, and face it, and be a help to others instead of a hindrance. Or you can decide the rules are too tough and they shouldn't apply to you, and you can ignore them and make things harder for everybody else. Sometimes life is about being sad and doing things anyway. Sometimes it's about being hurt and doing things anyway. The point isn't perfection. The point is doing it anyway.”

“So you traded up?” I asked, walking toward the car and opening the door. “Do you treat your relationships in the same way?” “Yes,” Ethan gravely said. “And I spent four hundred years shopping before I met you.”

“I reject the notion I am capable of doing anything 'not well' ~ Ethan”

“Lily," Mom said, "we need to talk."I don't think I'm ruining the surprise by pointing out that nothing good happens when someone starts a speech like that.”

“Do you like being teased?" I whispered."I enjoy previews," he said, the words confident, but his voice rough with arousal. -Merit and Ethan”