“Neither said anything while they embraced. Sometimes words didn't go far enough, the vessels of letters and the ladles of grammar incapable of holding the heart's sentiments.”

“Good? No, that didn't go far enough. She'd made him feel… alive. Awakened.”

“Marie-Therese : Something needs to be done about that gentleman caller of hers.Xhex : Something was, but it didn't go far enough. And if he's a gentleman, I'm Estée fucking Lauder.”

“I'd better go,” he said, without leaving.That one eye, the blue one, just kept staring up at him. Bloodshot, with a cut across the brow above it, the thing shouldn’t have been able to focus. But it was.“I have to go,” Blay said finally.Without leaving.Damn him, he didn't know what the hell he was doing—A tear escaped from that eye. Welling up along the lower lid, it coalesced at the far corner, formed a crystal circle, and grew so fat it couldn't hold on to the lashes. Slipping free, it meandered downward, getting lost in dark hair at the temple.”

“His cheeks were slick with tears that spilled over his diamond eyes, a ceaseless flow he neither noticed nor appeared to care about. And she had a feeling it was going to be a while before the leaking stopped-an inner artery had been nicked and this was the blood of his heart, spilling out of him, covering him.”

“Qhuinn gave in immediately, as he was categorically incapable of denying the female anything — most certainly not one of her hugs. They were even better than her lasagna.”

“Without his mate to share his life, he was but a screen for events and circumstances to pass through. He was npt even empty, for he was no vessel to hold even the thinnest of air.He lived, though was not truly alive”