“I cannot have this Imelda Marcos woman beating me, whoever she is,’ Suki shrugged by way of explanation.”

“Her eyes suddenly went round. "Hang on. You shoved him!""She shoved him?"I turned to glare at Nate."Yes. And she's always running off on him." Suki shook her head at me. "We'd treat him much better if he was ours-”

“Urgh, her,' Suki groaned. "Yeah, she's still with us. And she's still a pain in the culo. I'm learning Spanish,' she said brightly. "Culo means ass.”

“I tried to make my mind go blank. La la la la la la la la. 'You can't keep that up forever,' Suki said, with a touch of menace.La la la la la la la. 'Oh, Demos, make her stop.”

“Look,’ said Cyrus, raising his knife again and pointing it at her. ‘Give me one reason why we shouldn’t kill your boyfriend over there. Come on. The dark scowling face is reason enough in my book.’She could have sworn she heard the sound of Lucas’s eyes narrowing to slits.‘Come on, just one reason,’ Cyrus repeated, ‘and it better not include the words love, eternal or soul.”

“I couldn't bear the thought of Alex looking at me like I was a freak. It was bad enough that the looked at me as Jack's sister.”

“My mission, which I chose to accept, is to infiltrate the enemy. Jack andAlex are the enemy. I pause, wondering how Demos defines infiltration.'Not that way', Alicia answers.”