“Why are you sad, Dorian?"He couldn't lie to her. "The leopard wants you to see it.”

“Dorian gave a smug grin. “My mate thinks I'm the most gorgeous leopard she ever saw.”“Show us the footage before your head explodes,” Lucas muttered, but his own cat was grinning to see Dorian so happy. The sentinel had been latent most of his life, unable to shift into leopard form. Now that he could, he did so at every opportunity. “Have you managed to catch a rabbit yet?”A single eloquent finger. “Fuck you.”Lucas snickered. “What about trying for a turtle?”Dorian lunged out of the chair and went for Lucas’s throat.”

“Why do you want to die?'I shivered. For a second I couldn't breathe.'You knew...?'She gave a sad smile.'I'm your mother.”

“Dorian used to watch you like a starving man who wants meat. Now he looks at you like he wants seconds.”

“Butch was quiet for a time. Then he said, "I think that's why I like Jane.""huh?""When you look at her? You actually see her, and when's the last time that's happened for you?"V geared himself up, then stared hard into Butch's eyes. "I saw you. even though it was wrong. I saw you."Shit, he sounded sad. Sad and...lonely. Which made him want to change the subject.”

“In the South you are ashamed of being a virgin. Boys. Men. They lie about it. Because it means less to women, Father said. He said it was men invented virginity not women. Father said it's like death: only a state in which the others are left and I said, But to believe it doesn't matter and he said, That's what's so sad about anything: not only virginity and I said, Why couldn't it have been me and not her who is unvirgin and he said, That's why that's sad too; nothing is even worth the changing of it...”