He’d laugh in my face, then I’d slice him to ribbons and then he’d break my neck

It’s a party house.””I hope for your sake it’s a very tame party.” If he brought me to some sort of sex orgy, he would fly right through one of those pretty windows, headfirst.

Awesome. I’d terrified the Legatus of the Golden Legion just by showing him my sword. If I waved it around, he’d probably explode.

She was in love with a vampire. Bela Lugosi. Nosferatu. Vlad the Impaler. Count Chocula . The urge to laugh seized her and she buried her face in her hands and cried instead.

We stood in the graveyard, among the tombstones, forty-some dead people and me. A couple of my fellow funeral-goers had even been in their own coffins, deep under several feet of French soil.

He bared his teeth in a happy feral grin. My own personal psycho.

Okay, I see how it sounds weird when you say it in that tone of voice

Getting a lecture on restraint from the woman who threw a hissy fit and blew up Babylon.

They’re fanatics. It’s like expecting humanity from a falling rock. It’s not going to have a fit of compassion and not crack your skull open.

Judging by the hard lines of his face and the flat look in his eyes, he’d left the Marines, but the Corps hadn’t quite left him.

You don’t have to be there to be there.

He did his thing, and I did mine. Mine involved standing there with a sword in a bin liner waiting for something to try and kill us. Nothing did.

Help me, I can’t breathe, your ego is pushing all the air out of the room.

He lunged for the maps. I grabbed the chair and hit him with it. He went down. I hit him again to make sure he stayed that way, stepped over him, and picked up the...

The hallway led me to the stairway of a million steps. My leg screamed in protest. I sighed and started climbing. I just had to keep from limping. Limping showed weakness, and I didn’t need...

Derek favored his left side. His horse refused to bear him. I couldn’t blame the horse. I wouldn’t want his demonic, undead-blood-smeared, wolf-smelling ass riding me, either. But it made us slow.

Did you strangle the wolf alpha?” Not that she didn’t deserve it. Curran grimaced. “Of course not. I needed information. After I put her face in my mouth, we agreed that it was in her...

Nobody ever died of being shot by a cookie

I had no idea there’d be so many Sherpas aboard!” exclaimed Miss Simpkins.”I’m not a Sherpa,” Nadira said. “I’m a gypsy.””Oh, my goodness!” said the chaperone.

Calliope’s the worst goddess you’ve ever met. I’m just the most incompetent.

He leaned his head to me, his neck so close to my lips, I felt the heat coming off his skin. His breath was warm against my ear. His voice was a ragged snarl. “I...

Kate Daniels, deadly swordmaster. Fear my twitching pinkie.

Chernobog.” The Black God. Right. Of course, it wouldn’t be Chernobog, God of Morning Dew on the Rose Petals, but a woman could always hope.

All that was missing was a neon sign that read EVIL AND CONFLICTED ABOUT IT with a flashing arrow pointing at his head.

Seducing him in the tub smelling of vinegar was out of the question. There had to be some boundaries.

Kumbaya” together by the fire.

From what I know of you already, you have quite a reputation for providing customer satisfaction.”Julie’s cheeks burned. For Kate’s benefit she said, “I try.” “Oh, I’m certain you do more than try. You go...

So I figured I might as well see if I could find something Gaspard didnt already know about. Like an herb or potion or something.””Hmm,” said Georgia, looking off into some invisible dreamworld. “Or maybe...

Thank you,” Andrea said.

Now Julie could stay here, in the Keep full of homicidal maniacs who grew teeth the size of switchblades and erupted into a violent frenzy when threatened.

And you expect me to commute two hours each way from the Keep to the Order.” I kept my voice mild. “I suppose I won’t be needing my job, my house, or my clothes anymore.””I...

This is payback, isn’t it?” Jim glared at me. “Don’t be ridiculous,” I told him. “As the Consort of the Pack, I’m far above petty revenge.

Her face looked like it would shatter any second.

I was still alive. Ha! Take that kidnappers. Still alive. Maybe it was my butt that was feeding me. I always thought it was kind of round. I bet my body was eating up all...

I fended them off as best I could while trying to shield my eyes but, tragically, I’d left my flamethrower in my other suit.

Your move.”Er. I was sitting atop the Beast Lord in my underwear, holding a knife to his throat. What the hell was my next move?

I dreamed that Curran and I killed a dinosaur and then had sex in the dirt.

Rene, you want us to find you-don’t-know-who and to retrieve his you-don’t-know-what for you-won’t-tell-me-whom?

He kissed me, and I pulled my personal psycho into bed with me.

She put her hands over her face. Ah crap. What do I do now? Do I say something, do I not say something? I kept talking, keeping my voice as light as I could manage....

You destroyed five million dollars’ worth of luxury cars.””Yes, but none of them are wearing human heads as hood ornaments.

This way,” she said, veering toward the roof’s edge. “Can you jump?””Oh, I can jump!””Then jump!

I spent the rest of the day in someone else’s story. The rare moments that I put the book down, my own pain returned in burning stabs.

Here, have another one.

I sighed and put Slayer between the front seats. “Stay here. Guard the car.”Saiman shut the door. “Is the sword sentient?””No. But I like to pretend it is.

My ego doesn’t need soothing. I don’t want him soothing anything of mine, including you.

He’s got mad skills.

On the other hand it was bad manners to look a gift horse in the mouth. Even if you’re getting it from an overweight cracker in a fringe shirt.

What will you do for a dollar?

“I better go,” Carter squeezed me once more and stood, grabbing his wallet from the coffee table. “I need to hit up the lottery if I want to get you out of this mess. Will...