“Hell,huh? Well,hopefully we'll be able to disprove that theory soon.Besides, if it were hell,would I be here with you?""I don't know,if hell called for an eternity of annoyance instead of torment,maybe.""I like you more every day.But neither of us qualifies for hell. We're victims." He smiled, the last word laced with venom. "And if we're occasionally wicked,well, certainly we'd be justified."i wondered if he was trying to comfort me about Vivian,but he stared into the distance as though anticipating future wickedness. What did he want me to light on fire this time? I didn't think I was up for more destruction.”

“Tell you what," he said, noticing my stare. "I know you can't get a license, but I might be able to do something better.""What?"He smiled. "How would you like to come to school with me tomorrow and see a real, live locker?" I'm pretty sure I squealed.”

“I said home." He laughed again. "You didn't say whose." Furious and too tired to deal with any more faerie crap, I opened my mouth to tell him exactly where to take me and where he could go after that. I wasn't sure a faerie could obey a command to go to hell, but I was going to find out.”

“Tell you what." I closed the blade with a satisfying snick. "Remember that time you tried to kill me because I wouldn't open a gate to hell?""The memory's a bit fuzzy..."I opened the knife again."Yes, now that you mention it, I do recall something like that happening, although my motivation was certainly never to kill you. Can't you view it as me inspiring you to figure out how to use the Paths? I didn't actually want you to die.”

“Hello,' he said, his voice and smile pleasant.'You can't touch me!' I sat up and pulled the covers over myself.'Yes about that. You need to negate the command.''Excuse me?'He looked at me patiently, like he was explaining something to a stubborn child. 'You need to break that command.''And why on earth would I ever want to do that?' I glared at him. Lunatic.'Because I wasn't finished.''Oh, no, I really think that you were.' I held up my wrist. It still bore the scarlet mark of his hand and, to my eyes at least, was bright against the light of the lamp. Then, since I was holding up my hand anyway, I flipped him off.'You're going to need more.''Well, that's easy.' I held up my other hand and flipped him off with that one, too.”

“I don’t want to be like her, like Vivian. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Am I going to hurt people?”“No one can make you do that, child. You are caught between two worlds, much like my own Lend. You will want the fire, you will want to be filled. It is your nature. I hope you do not fall, but she is much stronger than you are.”She smiled at me, reaching out as though she would wipe away my tears. “Cling to what is good in your life. Be good to my son.”

“Freedom was a foot away when they turned back to me. The one who kept speaking, a tall vamp with a handsome curly-haired glamour, shook his head. "Sorry." He bared his fangs in an apologetic grin. "We're glad you aren't what's hunting us, but we're no friends of IPCA. And we're all very, very, thirsty.""What, no flirting?" I asked, trying to buy time. "Aren't you going to at least try to be sexy? Think of all those vampire fans out there--they'd be so disappointed." I pulled out my silver knife. Probably should have paid more attention during my knife training. "Tell you what. Let me go and I promise not to tell anyone that you aren't suave.”