“It's as if people -- normal people -- are made of silver. Shiny to start with, but tarnished by time, by ill-treatment. Luca... Luca is gold. Nothing in the world could ever make him shine less brightly.”

“Lucas hated the word. It was so easy to say, but it could honestly cut someone in half if they thought for a second that they were. Lucas was a confident man, but with his dyslexia, he never felt like he was smart. Fallon had never made him feel like he was less of a man; she always treated him like he was the smartest man in the room, until now. Now she had called him it.”

“Helen decided that the saying about "time healing all wounds" was a bunch of bull and probably only worked for people with very poor memories. The time she's spent apart from Lucas hadn't healed anything. The distance only made her miss him more.”

“Luca is worth it. Perhaps that was what surprised Ryder most. No matter who found out about him and Luca, or how people's opinions of him might change, anything he might lose would pale in comparison to what he had gained. He felt the truth of that right down to his bones.”

“If the shining sun blinds the eye,it makes sense. But to be blinded by gold and silver!”

“I'd been around other weres and never tasted a single one before Lucas passed me on the street last night. It was more than a little disconcerning. Lucas had told me it was an indication of the soul-bond I shared with him, so why could I taste Desmond? Surely it wasn't possible to be soul-bonded to two people. And why did I suddenly want a margarita?”