“Bigger room, darling. Like I said, we need a bigger room.”

“Did you use a chainsaw?" Joey said. "I seem to recall you like chainsawa.""There wasn't a power outlet." Clay turned to me. "That's what I want for Father's Day, darling. A gas powered chainsaw.”

“He bent, lips coming to mine and —'Derek? Chloe?' It was Kit, opening the back door. Derek let out a low growl.'Never fails.' I turned to Kit. 'How is she?''We’re going to take her back to the house now. She’s unconscious again.''Then we’ll walk back,' Derek said. 'Give you room in the van to lay her down.'His dad agreed and went back inside. As we walked toward the steps, I looked down at Derek’s hand, holding mine.'No one’s around,' he said. 'And we can take the back way.''Good,' I said, and entwined my fingers with his.”

“At the time, it seemed to me that Jeremy was spending a lot of time with a piece of plastic pressed against his ear, talking to himself. Which was fine by me. We all have our eccentricities. Jeremy liked talking to plastic; I liked hunting and eating the rats that ventured into the motel room. Or, at least I did like hunting and eating the rats, until Jeremy caught me and promptly kiboshed that hobby. Some of us are less tolerant of eccentricities than others.”

“Speaking of death, LeBlanc boasted he could kill me in the waiting room. I broke his wrist. He wasn't impressed.”

“You forget, darling, I am the local psychopath." ~Clayton Danvers, Bitten”

“Another night then,' Mom said. 'Maybe on the weekend we can have a barbecue and invite your sister.' 'Or,' I said turning to Rafe, 'if you want to skip the whole awkward meet-the-family social event you could just submit your life story including your view on politics religion and every social issue imaginable along with anything else you think they might need to conduct a thorough background check.' Mom sighed. 'I really don't know why we even bother trying to be subtle around you.' 'Neither do I. It's not like he isn't going to realize he's being vetted as daughter-dating material.' Rafe grinned. 'So we are dating.' 'No. You have to pass the parental exam first. It'll take you awhile to compile the data. They'd like it in triplicate.' I turned to my parents. 'We have Kenjii. We have my cell phone. Since we aren't yet officially dating I'm sure you'll agree that's all the protection we need.' Dad choked on his coffee.”