“I described the pyramid we'd found and waited for him to jump on the bandwagon. Unfortunately he's afraid of wagons. And bands.”

“Seriously?"I shrugged. "He can't suspect much if every time we're alone instead of talking I have my way with him." Cole shook his head. "You don't think it'll work?" I asked.He rolled his eyes. "Vayl might be a vampire, but he's also a guy. Who's about to be deliriously happy. Good God, if you work this right, he won't even be mad if finds out because of the way you decided to hide it from him.”

“Cole!" Cassandra smacked him on the shoulder."Wha-?" When he opened his mouth all you could see was half-chewed goo."How old are you?" I demanded. I threw shrimp at him and it got stuck in his tangle of wig hair. Bergman fished it out, wiped it off, and put it back on the serving dish."Now, thats disgusting," said Cassandra."Children!" Vayl's voice boomed in our ears, loud and sudden enough to make us all jump guiltily. "I trust you are all preforming actual work right now.""Chill out, Vayl," I replied. "Bergman is just conducting and experiment to see how vampires respond to ingesting brown hair dye.""That makes me curious, Vayl," said Cole in a sticky, goodie-between-the-gums voice that reminded me of Winnie the Pooh after a major honey binge. "Have you ever colored your hair? You know blonds have more fun.""Not when they are in the hospital.”

“Okay, okay, backing off. Um, I suppose this would be a bad time to ask you to talk to Pete for me, you know, about the car?'His eyes widened. I could almost hear him thinking, Of all the nerve! 'You were driving,' he said.'But he likes you so much better than me.''That is because I do not keep wrecking the rentals.”

“He stepped colser. Looked deep into my eyes. Hesitated a millisecond, and then dove in. "I think I'm falling in love with you."Oh. No."Cole--""I know how you feel. About me. About him. I just wanted you to know-we could be good together. We could have a life. Kids. Vacations. On Sunday mornings I could serve you breakfast in bed."He gave me his I-know-you-find-me-irrestible grin. "And then I could make you something to eat.”

“Jumping up and down is definitely sexy," Vayl assured me. "Would you like to do it two or three times right now before we get down to business?"Sterling and Cole groaned at the same time "Ewww!”

“Are you suggesting we pull a little good cop, bad cop scenario on him? And You're even letting me be the bad cop?"He bowed his head. "That, my pretera, is how much I love you.""You have never been sexier than at this very moment.""It is a shame we have so much company," he agreed quietly.”