“You’re worse than those bikers,” she spat, her body tense and coiling, ready to attack. “At least they knew they were monsters. You’re pathetic! You’re a monster who imagines he’s something else.”

“I had just heard tales that the Valkyrie were large warriors, akin to Amazons.”“If you’re the sole survivor of an army attacked by us, are you going to say we had our asses handed to us by petite, nubile females, or by she-monsters who can bench Buicks?”

“Becky!” I had to laugh. “You’re worse than me! It’s no wonder he’s such an egomaniac.”“What? You’re telling me you can say no to that face?”I wanted to say yes, but it would have been a lie and we all knew it.”

“If I’m a monster, then you must be the creator of them all. You’re my Dr. Frankenstein.”

“The monsters of the mind are far worse than those that actually exist.”

“But an apology too — you think you’re giving something, but you’re not. You’rereally asking for something. You’re asking for forgiveness, you’re asking for the other injured person to make it okay for you. Apologies were harder work for the person getting one than the person giving one.”