“I knew I could do it all this time,” said Harry, “Because I'd already done it... does that make sense?”

“Yeah, I knew," he finally said, his voice soft. "I always knew I'd do whatever it took. Living in a trailer park, running in a pack of barefoot kids . . . my whole life was already set out for me, and I sure as hell didn't like the looks of it. So I always knew I'd take my chance when I got it. And if it didn't come, I'd make something happen.”

“What if I forgave myself? I thought. What if I forgave myself even though I'd done something I shouldn't have? What if I was a liar and a cheat and there was no excuse for what I'd done other than because it was what I wanted and needed to do? What if I was sorry, but if I could go back in time I wouldn't do anything differently than I had done? What if I'd actually wanted to fuck every one of those men? What if heroin taught me something? What if yes was the right answer instead of no? What if what made me do all those things everyone thought I shouldn't have done was what also had got me here? What if I was never redeemed? What if I already was?”

“For a moment, I wondered how different my life would have been had they been my parents, but I shook the thought away. I knew my father had done the best he could, and I had no regrets about the way I'd turned out. Regrets about the journey, maybe, but not the destination. Because however it had happened, I'd somehow ended up eating shrimp in a dingy downtown shack with a girl that I already knew I'd never forget.”

“I am not going to say you are right because I could not take it if you smirked.""I do not smirk," Vikirnoff claimed."Yes, you do. And I detest that after all these centuries, you are making sense. Frankly, its scary.""It is only that you are not making sense sunce you acquired a lifemate. I hope that does not happen to all men. It would be a shame.""Your sense of humor is not improving," Nicolae pointed out dryly."I do not have a sense of humor." Vikirnoff answered. "I had not noticed," Nicolae teased.”

“Have you ever done something so horrible and so irreparable that you knew there was nothing you could ever do to fix it?”“No,” I said gently. “Mostly because I’m eight.”