“You owe me this. You made me get rid of my assassin and now I have no control over those creatures that—"That you created," he added, interrupting her angry tirade. "Don't forget the important part here. The Dark-Hunters wouldn't exist at all had someone, and for the sake of your missing intellect let me clarify that, you, not stolen powers from me that could bring back the dead. I didn't need the Dark-Hunters to help me fight against the Daimons and protect the humans. I was doing fine on my own. But you wouldn't have it. You created them and made me responsible for their lives. It's a responsibility that I take most seriously, so excuse me for banning you from killing them because you have reverse PMS."She scowled. "Reverse PMS?"Yeah, unlike a normal woman, you're cranky twenty-eight days out of the month.”

“It’s a responsibility that I take most seriously, so excuse me for banning you from killing them because you have reverse PMS. (Acheron)Reverse PMS? (Artemis)Yeah, unlike a normal woman, you’re cranky twenty-eight days out of the month. (Acheron)”

“What are you? (a Daimon)Oh please, let me give you the job description. Me, Dark-Hunter. You, Daimon. I hit, you bleed. I kill, you die. (Zarek)”

“As much as I want you and want to be with you and part of you, I can't tear myself away from the realness of my responsibilities. If you force me, physically or mentally, to go with you, as I said earlier, I cannot fight that. I don't have the strength, given my feelings for you. In spite of what I said about not taking the road away from you, I'd go because of my own selfish wanting of you. But please don't make me. Don't make me give this up, my responsibilities. I cannot do that and live with the thought of it. If I did leave now, those thoughts would turn me into something other than the woman you have come to love”

“But I can see that you are in pain, and that is the province of monsters. You drag your mother's corpse with you—it leaves a great furrow in the earth. If it is important enough to very rudely interrupt a woman who already owns two fingers she did not have this morning just to exhume those old bones, I will listen to you instead. It matters nothing to me. Believe me, it will not go easier for you if you come to feel warmly towards me because you have unburdened your soul. We have all the nights the world has ever made ahead of us. Speak of the dead in the dark, boy, and I will take her body from you, if you want to be rid of it.”

“You’re wasting your life being involved with me.”“I’m not wasting anything.”“But I might never recover. Will you wait for me forever? Can you wait 10 years, 20 years?”“You’re letting yourself be scared by too many things,” I said. “The dark, bad dreams, the power of the dead. You have to forget them. I’m sure you’ll get well if you do.”“If I can,” said Naoko, shaking her head.“If you can get out of this place, will you live with me?” I asked.“Then I can protect you from the dark and from bad dreams. Then you’d have me instead of Reiko to hold you when things got difficult.”Naoko pressed still more firmly against me.“That would be wonderful,” she said.”