As you wish, of course.” Lucius lowered the volume on an old record player, which spun a warped vinyl disk that wailed unfamiliar music, scratchy and whiny, like cats fighting. Or a coffin with rusty...

You’re a wrestler, right, Jake?” Dad asked, passing Jake more saag. My parents were in an Indian food phase. The evening’s entree consisted of limp spinach. God forbid we’d throw a few burgers on the...

Lucius shrugged. “Perhaps in time you will find it useful.””Sure. I’ll keep it on my shelf right next to The Idiot’s Guide to Becoming a Mythical Creature.”Lucius actually laughed. “Very funny. I didn’t know you...

God, she was one big nerve ending, that girl, and those big brown eyes got just a little wider when she was close. And those bruises. And how she begged for them.I knew she was...

Are you ever going to kiss me without swearing first?

She shrugged, looking as baffled by it as he felt. “I don’t know. I wonder sometimes if people even know what love is anymore. Some days, when I’m watching my friends change lovers as unperturbedly...

But he didn’t need to seek visual confirmation of what he’d just heard to know she had. And the truth was, he couldn’t blame her. He’d not have let her die, either. He’d have moved...

Max,’ I said, looking up at him, ‘I love the Russian heritage you guys are so willing to share, but I’m not so thrilled with the French.”What?’ His brows lowered. ‘We’re not French.”Great. So the...