“My backup plan is to challenge Bearbreaker to single combat, defeat him, become Queen of the Zerkers and spend the rest of my life riding a giant motorcycle over frozen tundra.”

“I'm in position." Charlie's voice, coming through my earpiece."Wish I could say the same. All the blood's rushing to my head.""Thrope stuff?" Charlie sounds a little worried."No, I'm upside down.""Why?""I thought it would make me look all cool and ninja-y.""No one's supposed to be bale to see you.""Ah. I knew there was a flaw in my plan. Also, i slipped.""In fact, the whole point of being a ninja is not to be seen.""Fortunately I have this nifty safety harness, which is why I'm dangling instead of plummeting. Thanks for asking.”

“Dr Adams was following my orders if you want to blame someone blame me -casiusoh i do,I'm just so pissed i had extra left over - Jace”

“I look over at him. He stares straight ahead."So," I say. "Golem, huh?""I prefer the term 'Mineral-American.”

“Get down!" Azura yells. I have the bizarre urge to yell back, "Get funky!" but fortunately that part of my brain isn't in charge of my reflexes.”

“Is that a scanning electron microscope? “This’ll do, pig, this’ll do,” I murmur.“Excuse me?”“Sorry. Film reference, wasn’t meant as an insult.”“Ah. I see.” His tone tells me he clearly doesn’t. I briefly consider educating him, but explaining a movieabout a talking pig who wants to be a sheepdog to a Japanese vampire just isn’t all that high on my to-dolist.”

“Deep spirit scanning,” Eisfanger says. His voice has a strange resonance to it, like I’m hearing him through a bad phone connection. “Don’t worry, it’s completely safe. Well, mostly.”“Mostly?”“Side effects have been documented,” he admits. “In a very small percentage of cases. Less than two percent.”“What kind of side effects?” Suddenly I’m feeling nauseous. Feels like the ants are crawling around inside me now, which is exactly as disturbing as it sounds.“Memory loss. Synesthesia. And occasionally … vestigial growths.”“So I could forget my own name, start smelling purple everywhere and have an extra nipple sprout from my forehead?”