“There was a sensual feel to the way Aiden's eyes traveled over her, leaving her tingling without even a touch. ~from The Secret of Spruce Knoll.”

“Tis alright. I'm not going to hurt ye. Ye're one of me kind, I wouldn't dare," he said. So he could sense what she was too. That was encouraging, sort of. "And what if I wasn't?" she asked. The young man chuckled, a warm sound that eased her mind a bit. "Well I wouldn't ravish ye if that's what ye're worried about. I'm a Celt, not a barbarian," he said. Neala couldn't help but smile. "Some would say they are one in the same.”

“I learned that my new lover was hard, but always good. She did not tease. If you pursued her, she would reveal her sweetest secrets and uncover her hidden places. Yes, she would grant those who came to her by car a measured beauty. There were wonderful things to be seen from the road. Her lesser suitors would jump out of their autos, snapping pictures, trying to save memories before having them, and hurry on. But what can be seen from a road is more enticing than revealing – like a shapely woman whose fleshly mystery cannot be hidden by modest garments but is made more alluring. From the roadside her eyes would invite and challenge: “Will you pursue me?” I did. And though my pursuit cost me a lot – pain, humiliation, hunger and sleepless nights – she was good.”

“We used to all come outside when the streetlights came on and prowl the neighborhood in a pack, a herd of kids on banana-seat bikes and minibikes. The grown-ups looked so silly framed in their living-room and kitchen windows. They complained about their days and sighed deep sighs of depression and loss. They talked about how spoiled and lucky children were these days. We will never be that way, we said, we will never say those things.”

“Mulling this over, Vlad wiped her lip gloss from his lips with the back of his hand.Vampires, after all, didn't sparkle.”

“I couldn’t bear to think of my mother loving me but unable to face me, to stare into my eyes, to care for me emotionally, to offer me her face. Like any daughter, as much as I wanted to separate from her, I wanted to be deeply connected to her, I wanted to redeem her, I wanted to protect her. I wanted to love and to understand, in that order.”

“Reading stops time and space if for only a while.”