“As soon as I arrived I made an attempt to find my host but the two or three people of whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way and denied so vehemently an knowledge of his movements that I slunk off in the direction of the cocktail table--the only place in the garden where a single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone.”

“I slunkoff in the direction of the cocktail table—the only place inthe garden where a single man could linger without lookingpurposeless and alone.”

“You let me handle Marius," I said. "Now, you didn't come without you dagger.""No, I did not," he said, lifting his cloak to reveal it, "And with your permission I would like to plunge it through my heart now so I will most assuredly stone-cold dead before the Master of this house arrives home to find you runnning rampant in his garden!""Permission denied.”

“Of course, now I had the problem of communicating what I needed. Marlen was still beating on the door, and Dimitri would be up in a couple of minutes. I glared at the human, hoping I looked terrifying. From his expression, I did. I attempted the caveman talk I had with Inna...only this time the message was a little harder. "Stick," I said in Russian. I had no clue what the word for stake was. I pointed at the silver ring I wore and made a slashing motion. "Stick. Where?" He stared at me in utter confusion and then asked, in perfect English, "Why are you talking like that?" "Oh for God's sake," I exclaimed. "Where is the vault?" "Vault?" "A place they keep weapons?" He continued staring. "Oh," he said. "That." Uneasily, he cast his eyes in the direction of the pounding.”

“I like to have a martini,Two at the very most.After three I'm under the table,after four I'm under my host.”

“I had stay alive, and if that meant pretending that I had knowledge of my ex-boyfriend’s whereabouts that would likely lead to his death, then so be it. This was the closest I had gotten to finding Alex, and I wasn’t going to let go of this last shred of immortal in my life. Because if I did, I would likely convince myself that it was too good to be true; that it had only been a dream gone awry; and that the last three months were just a figment of my imagination.”