“He breathed in hard. The stench of blood filled his lungs. Only now for the first time could he truly appreciate it.”

“Lucifer's breath was like fire upon his skin. His eyes bulged from their sockets and he fought hard to breathe.”

“He had not known a world that did not have her in it. Yet now he was going to discover just that.”

“He saw a blinded convulsing body thrown down into an open grave. It was an image he could not escape.”

“Her eyes bulged as the noose slowly choked the life out of her. Yet still they burned into his.”

“Bodies lay strewn all around. Turkish and Wallachian warriors caught up in the intimate indiscriminate embrace of death.”

“It triggered the same ache in both women. Without a word they left the tub and rolled onto the bed nearby.”