“Hey, Adam,” I said.I thought you’d want to know that Warren and Darryl made it out of the vampire den alive.”I sucked in my breath. “You didn’t actually agree to their meeting on Marsilia’s grounds?”He laughed. “No, it just sounded better than saying they made it out of Denny’s alive. It might not be romantic, but it’s open all night and set in the middle of a brightly lit parking lot with no dark places for skulking parties to ambush from.”

“When I was young, my father used to say, ‘If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die.’ I thought about these words during my journey, and they kept me moving even when I didn’t know where I was going. Those words became the vehicle that drove my spirit forward and made it stay alive.”

“My knee radiated heat. As I watched him pull himself from the car and walk casually across the brightly lit parking lot, I thought dumb things. I will never wash my knee again. I will never wash these jeans again. I will cut the knee out of these jeans and sew a pillow to sleep on every night, just to have a molecule of him in my bed with me.”

“If you want. It’s not really your kind of thing,” Perry said. “It’s a snow globe. You know, a big old house and lots of Vermont snow. I thought it might remind you of me.”“I don’t need a snow globe to remind me of you,” Nick said, which was probably the most romantic thing he had ever heard himself say. It made him blush.”

“Once they were inside the park Bay asked, “Isn’t there a store at the Rio Grande Village?”“What is it you need?”“Chocolate.”“It’s a hundred degrees in the shade,” he said. “Chocolate is going to melt.”“Well, actually, it isn’t chocolate I need. It’s something else. I didn’t want to embarrass you.”“What?”“Tampax.”He eyed her sideways. “Why didn’t you bring some from home? Or pick some up at the safeway?”She flushed. “I didn’t think of it. Not that it’s any of your business, but my periods aren’t regular.”He made a disgusted sound. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to bring you along.”

“She blew out a breath between gritted teeth. “Sometimes I really want to”—a frustrated sound—“bite you!” He froze. “I might let you.” “I won’t do it if you’d enjoy it.”