“If I had a sense of humor, I'd be laughing right now.”

“I am not going to say you are right because I could not take it if you smirked.""I do not smirk," Vikirnoff claimed."Yes, you do. And I detest that after all these centuries, you are making sense. Frankly, its scary.""It is only that you are not making sense sunce you acquired a lifemate. I hope that does not happen to all men. It would be a shame.""Your sense of humor is not improving," Nicolae pointed out dryly."I do not have a sense of humor." Vikirnoff answered. "I had not noticed," Nicolae teased.”

“You missed him," she said. Somehow it didn't seem possible. He was so sure of himself, almost invincible in his manner."I hit what I was aiming at," he answered quietly. "We have to keep moving. I'm hoping I slowed them down, but we can't count on it." He forced the oars through the water with his powerful arms and the boat shot through the channel toward open water."I didn't feel anything."His gaze brushed her face, an odd little caress she felt all the way through her body, just as if he'd touched her with his fingers. "I wasn't aiming at you."She caught the fleeting glint of his white teeth in what could have been a brief smile. One dark eyebrow rose in response. "Has anyone ever told you your sense of humor needs a little work?""No one's ever accused me of having a sense of humor before. You keep insulting me. First you accuse me of missing, and then you try to tell me I have a sense of humor."His face was made of stone, his tone devoid of all expression. His eyes were flat and ice cold, but Dahlia felt him laughing. Nothing big, but it was there in the boat between then, and the terrible pressure in her chest lifted a bit. "And it needs work," she pointed out. "Get it right." She even managed a brief smile of her own to match his.”

“We can shape-shift whenever we like."She made a face. "You mean all those hideous stories are true? Rats and bats and slimy worm things?""Now, why would I want to be a slimy worm thing?" He was openly laughing. The sound startled him; he couldn't remember laughing aloud.”

“You haven't seen my resume," Gary objected. "I'm not looking to charity."The silver eyes glinted, a brief, hard humor. "I had your formula inside my body, Gary. That was all the proof of your genius I needed. The society had access to that blood for some time before you did, but none of them were able to come up with anything that worked on us.""Great,I get that dubious pleasure. Someday you're going to introduce me to one of your friends and you can say, 'By the way,this is the one who invented the poision that is killing our people.'"Gregori did laugh then,a low, husky sound so pure, it was beautiful to hear. It brought a lightness into gary's heart, dispelling the gloom that had been gathering. "I never thought of that. We might get a few interesting reactions."Gary found himself grinning sheepishly. "Yeah,like a lynching party with me as the guest of honor.”

“If you don’t get out of my way right this minute, I’m going to . . .” She pictured bringing up her knee hard and watching him writhe in pain on the floor. The image in her mind was as vivid as his shark image had been. Aidan leapt away from her, laughing as he did so. “You have a nasty little temper, Alexandria.”

“I am not certain I liked you referring to my brother as a monster.” There was a trace of humor in Mikhail’s voice.“You should hear what I call you behind your back,” Gregori said, even as his arms spread to accommodate the wings forming.”