“And if he left me of his own free will, then he should get ready for the bitch-slapping of his life.”

“Not that he regretted having killed the guy in Stockton. The one who'd been ready to shoot him over the five crumpled dollar bills in his jeans pocket. He was quite happy to have sent that particular home boy to hell.”

“For a moment he wondered, again, if he should just give it all up. Perhaps he should go back to Italy, back to his hiding place. What made him think that he could rejoin the world of daylight?But he was tired of living in shadows. He was tired of the darkness, and of the things that lived in it. Most of all, he was tired of being alone.”

“Cassie looked up at him, her fingers still intermeshed with his. "Sorry," she said unsteadily. "I was just scared." "Remind me to get you scared frequently," Nick said. He looked slightly dazed.”

“He put an arm around his brother to help him up. And then, for a moment, he just held on.”

“With that, Kaitlyn realized that he'd seen as deeply into her mind as she'd seen into his. She had thought he was the one giving, while she had only received…but of course, he'd had to join with her completely in order to share his life with her.”

“Even if you kill her, she'll still be alive-here." He tapped his chest. "In me. I keep her here. She's part of me. So until you kill me, you can't really kill her. And you can't win. It's that simple.”