“The house is made up of the spirits of our ancestors. Did you think they would lie idly by while we were under attack?"'Cuz, yeah, didn't everybody's ancestors rise up and destroy enemies.”

“The GhostWalker Creed:We are the GhostWalkers, we life in the shadows. The sea, the earth, and the air are our domain. No fallen comrade will be left behind. We are loyalty and honor bound. We are invisible to our enemies and we destroy them where we find them. We believe in justice and we protect our country and those unable to protect themselves. What goes unseen, unheard, and unknown are GhostWalkers. There is honor in the shadows and it is us. We move in complete silence whether in jungle or desert. We walk among our enemy unseen and unheard. Striking without sound and scatter to the winds before they have knowledge of our existance. We gather information and wait with endless patience for that perfect moment to deliver swift justice. We are both merciful and merciless. We are relentless and implacable in our resolve. We are the GhostWalkers and the night is ours.”

“I would not want you to think of anything while you hunt, especially not of me.I would hope that would be too distracting.”

“Other people's houses are right on top of this one," he said. "I think they could take one step and be in our living room.""You haven't seen the courtyard yet, Gregori. The house opens up to a courtyard in the back, and it's immense and in quite good shape." Savannah began heading up the stairs, ignoring his grousing."I hate to think what you would call bad shape," he muttered as he followed her upstairs."I wonder why everything is so dusty," Savannah said. "I had the real estate people come in and clean and get things ready for our arrival.""Do not touch anything," Gregori hissed softly, and very gently caught her shoulders to put her behind him."What is it?" Instinctively she lowered her voice and looked around, trying to see if there was some danger she had been unable to sense."If people came and made up the bed and prepared the house for your arrival, then they would have removed the dust too.""Maybe they're incredibly incompetent," she suggested hopefully.Gregori glanced at her and found the hard edge of his mouth softening. She was making him want to smile all the time, even in the most serious of situations. "I am certain any company would work overtime trying to make you happy, ma petite. I know I do."She blushed at the memory of how he did so. "So why all the dust?" she asked, deliberately distracting him."I think Julian left us a message. You have remained with humans so long, you see only with your eyes."Savannah rolled her eyes at the reprimand. "And you've lived in the hills so long,you've forgotten how to have fun."The pale eyes slid over her, wrapping her in heat. "I have my own ideas of fun, cherie. I would be willing to show you if you like," he offered wickedly.Her chin lifted, blue eyes challenging. "If you think you're scaring me with your big-bad-wolf routine,you're not," she said.He could hear her heart beat. Smell her scent calling to him. "Perhaps I will think of something to change that," he cautioned her.”

“Suddenly gator was framed in the doorway, grinning at them, his black unruly hair tumbling into his face and his piercing blue eyes bright with laughter. "Oh, I see you are most friendly with each other. And Lily was so worried." He turned his head. "Ian Tucker, come look at this. Our man has found himself a little kitty cat.""Shut up, Gator, or I'm going to shoot you." Nicholas put the gun away and looked down at dahlia. She had the covers pulled up to her chin. Here eyes were enormous and getting bigger by the moment as more Ghost Walkers crowded into the doorway to gape at the sight of Nicholas, the loner, in bed with Dahlia."And you said he didn't know what to do with a woman," Tucker Addison accused the tallest of the group, Ian McGillicuddy. "I stand corrected." Ian gave Nicholas a small salute.Dahlia made a small distressed squeak. Nicholas picked up the gun. "I'm going to start shooting if the lot of you don't get out and close the door.""What a poor sport," Gator groused. "And this is my house.”

“I thought you were planning on talking him to death," Darius informed the golden bat dryly as he himself shape-shifted from a black bat to a feathered and much more powerful predator."Someone had to do something while you were playing with your rock patterns," Julian replied easily, allowing iridescent feathers to erupt along his own body, becoming a raptor more than able to keep up with his companion's aggressive flight.They began to fly side by side easily toward the forest where they had left Desari. "I could do no other than protect the man of my sister's choosing." Darius managed to make it sound as if his sister had a hole in her head.Julian snorted. "Protect me? I do not think so,old man. You were the one standing back in the shadows while I destroyed the beast.""I had to ensure you came to no harm through other traps and snares. You certainly wasted enough time with the undead," Darius replied softly.”

“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.”