“You were wearing your hair up like that the day we left for Harbor Springs," he said, his deep voice pitched seductively low. "I like it.""In that case," Lauren said lightly, "I'll start wearing it down."He grinned. "So that's the way we're going to play it,is it?""Play what?""This little game we started yesterday.""I am not playing your game," she said with quiet firmness. "I do not want the prize.”

“I realized then that it was a game we were playing; from the very beginning. But we weren’t playing the same game and when it came down to it, he wasn’t playing by the rules.”

“You're a rule person," he said."My sister was a cheater. It sort of became necessary.""She cheated at this game?""She cheated ateverything ," I said. "When we played Monopoly, she alwaysinsisted on being banker,then helped herself to multiple loans and 'service fees' for every real estatetransaction. I was, like, ten oreleven before I played at someone else's house and they told me you couldn't dothat."He laughed, the sound seeming loud in all the quiet. I felt myself smiling,remembering."During staring contests," I said, "she always blinked.Always . But then she'dswear up and down shehadn't, and make you go again, and again. And when we played Truth, she lied.Blatantly.”

“Bond believes we are his pawns. He thinks no-one observes his game. But I am No-One. I observe everything, and to play with Nemo is to play games with Destruction.”

“When we grow up," she said, "we'll have amazing families. Our dens will be better than this. Your kids and my kids will play together in a humongous room with every kind of toy and game.""Except I won't have kids," Dan said. "I'll come over myself and play...”

“Travis,” Caeden’s teeth groaned together. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll run.”“Oh, are we playing cat and mouse?” Travis grinned, showing elongated teeth. Hair began to sprout and he started to shimmer. “I love games. I choose cat,” his words were muffled around his teeth.”