“The trick to going wherever you want unchallenged in a hospital is to walk briskly, nod to the people you know, and ignore the ones you don’t. The nod reassures everyone that you are known, the brisk pace that you have a mission and don’t want to talk.”

“Don’t fuss. I love you just as you are, Mercy. I don’t need to swallow you whole, I don’t need to be in your head at all times. I just need to know that you’re there.”

“You don’t have the courage of a half-bred mongrel.”

“My father would take you wherever you wanted to go," he told her softly. "I was pretty sure I could talk you into staying, but I underestimated how badly hurt I was.""Stupid," she said tartly.He looked up at her, and whatever he saw in her face made him smile, though his voice was serious when he answered her charge. "Yes. You throw my judgement off."-Charles and Anna when he thought she was leaving him and Changed when he was injured”

“I don’t fool you, do I? Those others”—he waved a vague hand to indicate theirmissing comrades—“they think I’m all that—but you know better, don’t you.”“Know what?” she’d asked.He leaned forward, smelling of beer and cigarettes. “You know I’m a fraud. I canfeel the beast inside me, screaming to get out. And if I loose it, it will pull me up to greatness despite myself.”“So why not let it free?” She hadn’t been a werewolf then. The world had been a gentler place, the monsters safely in their closets, and she had been brave in her ignorance.His eyes were old and weary, his voice slurring a bit. “Because then everyone wouldsee,” he told her.“See what?”“Me.”

“You forgot the ‘my precious,’” Anna said dryly. “If you want to act like a freaking nutcase, you have to do it right.”

“When we got to the moron who was sitting in the only path to the stairway, Adam caught my waist and lifted me over before stepping over the man himself.“Scott?” Adam said as we headed upstairs. “Yeah?”“Unless someone shoots you, skins you, and throws the results on the floor, I don’t want to see you lying in the walkway again.”“Yessir!”