“Something your father wouldn't have told you, he began. Taking blood, it leaves a mark on you. No matter how it's done, or how it's justified, it leaves a mark that goes in deep. Be sure you're willing to wear that mark before you take the blood.”

“I will give you more pain than you can imagine. Your brains will leak out of your ears, and your bowels out of your ass. I will cause that to happen without leaving a mark, and every cop here will swear you died of natural causes.”

“Do you think you're walking out on me, on your life, because you defended yourself against a monster?""I killed my father.""You killed a fucking monster. You were a child. Are you going to stand there, look me in the face, and tell me that child was to blame?"She opened her mouth, closed it. "It's not a matter of how I see it, Roarke. The law--""The law should have protected you!" With visions dancing evilly in his head, he snapped. He could all but hear the tight wire of control break. "Goddamn the law. What good did it do either one of us when we needed it most? You want to chuck your badge because the law's too fucking weak to care for it's innocents, for it's children, be my guest. Throw your career away. But you're not getting rid of me.”

“Fate rules. You follow the steps and you plan and you work. Then fate slips in laughing and makes fools of us. Sometimes we can trick it or out guess it but most often its already written. For some its written in blood. That doesn't mean we stop, but it does mean we can't comfort ourselves with blame. It's easier to take the blame than to admit there was nothing you could do to stop whatever happened.”

“You know, lieutenant, you wear your weapon the way other women wear pearls.""It's not a fashion accessory.”

“Far be in from me to dictate how you should assuage your guilt. Do you have a lot of it?"She bit his good shoulder. "You're about to find out."She toppled them both off the bench and onto the mat. "Well, ouch. I take it guilt doesn't bring out your gentler side.”

“Damn it all to hell and back again, you know very well that was a setup. You bloody well know I couldn't put my hands on her.""Yeah, yeah, sure, sure." Eve shrugged off her coat, tossed it aside. "I know a setup when I see it, and I know your face, ace. I didn't see desire on it, I saw annoyance.""Is that so? Is that bloody well so? Well, if you knew it was just what it was, why did you sucker punch me?""Mostly?" She turned, cocked a hip. "Because you're a man."Eyes narrowed on her face, he tried to stanch the blood with the back of his hand. "And do you have any sort of idea just how often I might expect your fist in my goddamn face because of my bleeding DNA?”