“He sees her like I do: at seventeen, twenty, thirty. Superimposed over the fourteen-year-old, he sees the woman she'll become.And he's staking claim.Over. my. Dead. Fucking. Body.And I can't die.”

“And Mega has a crush on Chester.""I do not!""Do too, Mega.""He's like, old!""How old, Christian says.""Like at least thirty or something."Lor laughs. " Fucking ancient, ain't it, kid?""Dude," I agree. I like Lor.”

“I began to cry.Barrons looked horrified. "Stop that immediately, Ms. Lane.""I can't." I sniffeled into my cup pf cocoa so he couldn't see my face."Try harder!"I gave a great sniff and shudder, and turned it off."I have not been her lover for...some time," he offered, watching me carefully."Oh, get over yourself!”

“He's treating her like she's fourteen and he's a normal adult, acting like he's taken her under his wing. Like he needs her detecting skills, same as Barrons did to Mac, and she's falling for it, same as Mac. He's lining up his dominoes, so they fall more easily when he feels like pushing them over, conserving energy so he doesn't have to hunt her when he's ready to kill her.”

“I flash him number seventeen of my thirty-five Looks of Death.”

“Barrons knows virtually everything about me. I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere he has a little file that encompasses my entire life to date, with neatly mounted, acerbically captioned photos—see Mac sunbathe, see Mac paint her nails, see Mac almost die.”

“Lor blows in like he was plastered to the other side of the door."Escort the kid to clean the fuck up and get that stench off her.""Sure thing, boss." He scowls at me.I scowl right back.Lor points through the glass floor. "See that blonde down there with the big tits? I was about to get laid.""One, I'm too young to hear that kind of stuff, and two, I don't see you carrying a club to knock her over the head with, so how were you going to accomplish that?"Behind me, Ryodan laughs."You're ruining my night, kid.""Ditto. Ain't life at Chester's grand.”