“He was the ghost you never saw coming, death breathing down your neck before you even realized you were in the crosshairs.”

“If you were mine,” he murmured low under his breath, “I would walk through the fires of hell itself to keep you away from a man like me.”

“I want to kiss you again, Tess.”“Why?”He chuckled, low under his breath. “Why? Because you’re beautiful, and because I want you. And I think you want me too.”

“Would I be healed now if you gave me your blood, Nikolai?”“Are you asking me for it?”“If I were, would you give it to me?”

“Goddamn you. How can you still make me feel this way after all these years? Damn you for leaving me! And damn you for coming back like this, just when I thought you were gone forever and I might finally be able to forget you.”

“You would quit the Order for her? Niko asked, the youngest only behind Dante, and a warrior who relished his duty perhaps even more than Dante had himself. I would quit breathing for her, if she asked it of me.”

“From the beginning, Tegan, you were more brother to me than any kin by blood. You still are.”Tegan felt likewise, in spite of all they’d been through. Maybe because of it. “I’ll always have your back, Lucan. You can count on it.”