“His matted hair was a bit longer than it should have been, his leather trench coat way too worn and soft under my fingertips. There was no incandescent light, just this flawed, wonderful being.”

“Oh yeah, I'd almost forgot. Forneus was beautiful, with purple hair, purple eyes and a smile that could probably only be described as devastating. Not that I'd ever seen such a smile, or wanted to. After watching him rot and ooze blood on top of my mom's oven in his "true" form and learning that he'd tried to drag me off to Hell, he'd lost a bit of his sex appeal.”

“Then he was on his knees in front of me. "Come here Princess," he cooed.My pulse spiked. I wondered if I should slap him or "come here." Then I realized he was talking to the cat.”

“This wonderful, sexy, funny guy was completely psychotic. And I was still holding his hand.Even more surprisingly, I still didn't want to let go.”

“Oz suddenly looked very guilty. "About that. Um, that's because I marked you last night."My smile froze on my cheeks, making my face ache. "What?"He suddenly found the half-eaten pancakes on his plate fascinating. "While you were sleeping on the couch, I rolled you over and..."The blood left my face. "What exactly does marking someone entail?""Nothing so bad. I just bit your back.""You bit me?""Yeah. I injected some venom into your bloodstream that would make you feel better around me. I like holding your hand but I didn't think it was very practical."I lifted my shirt, pulled down my pants, and almost fell over. My lower back looked...it looked..."You gave me a festering tramp stamp?" I shrieked."You don't think it's cute?”

“Oz closed his eyes and grit his teeth. For a few minutes I thought he wouldn't say anything at all, just haul me over his shoulder and lock me in the back room. I hugged Princess for protection. Claws, Princess! Start hissing! I've pet you for hours, now protect me! But she didn't understand the gravity of the situation. Groggily, she licked my chin and began to purr into my neck, as if I'd clung to her for dear life simply for her own benefit.”

“The four of us were together at last--me, the angel, the devil, and my demon. I felt like the moment should have seemed more momentous, or at least more pleasant, like we should have made jokes as we meandered down to the beach, collected driftwood for a fire, and leisurely toasted marshmallows. Instead, I was struggling to keep my eyes open, the angel was looking at the ground, Oz was glaring at the trunk, and for some reason I just knew that Forneus, locked down and wrapped in a sheet, was glaring right back.”