“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.”

“Forneus glared at us from the driver's seat with eyes glowing with the promise of purple vengeance.”

“My breath caught in my chest. Misunderstood artsy types weren't supposed to smile like that. They were supposed to glance at others condescendingly and ooze sarcastic witticisms. I felt like this guy was going to wiggle his eyebrows and ask me to "wrassle”

“I actually huffed. "Do not make me result to underhanded measures."It was the wrong thing to say. He gave me a devastating smile. "Oh, I definitely wouldn't mind.”

“To Oz's credit, he didn't say anything, probably because he'd decided that trying to converse with someone so temperamental wasn't worth it.”

“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.”