The sense that the only thing better than being alone would be to be with someone who made you feel as safe and comfortable as you did when you were alone. He rose on his elbow to look down at Olivia.
What’s that old joke? “A friend helps you move; a real friend helps you move a body.
Comfort and reassurance and a wordless understanding that there is always darkness. In some part of us, there is absolute darkness, as much as we wish otherwise. As much as we pretend otherwise. Anders shifts.
There were women, too. They were a little more what I expected. Tight jeans. Tank tops without bras. Evening makeup at noon. Jersey hair. The general vibe varied from “wouldn’t look out of place on a corner of 47th” to “could work at a really nice strip club.
If he knew one thing about life, it was this: look out for yourself. No one else would do it for you. If you were cheated or tricked, it was your own fault, and a lesson best learned before the world devoured you.
If the Romans could have fortified their cities the way the human brain fortifies itself, we’d still be wearing togas. The mind is an amazing piece of biomachinery, really. A serious threat presents itself at the gate and up fly the walls, standing firm in the face of earth-shaking revelations, ideological bullets, and plain old logic.
I want limits, damn it. I’ll accept omens and portents and second sight. I’ll accept giant black hounds and creepy ravens and magpies. I’m still working out the fae and Wild Hunt thing. But I draw the line at people disappearing into thin air.
A lot of stories about me getting into trouble start with a girl.
As my hair fell free, Cortez entwined his fingers in it and kissed me even harder. Then he slipped one hand from my hair and snapped his fingers over our heads. The lights went out.
If the Romans could have fortified their cities the way the human brain fortifies itself, we’d still be wearing togas.
I spend the day running on a treadmill while madly juggling a half dozen grenades. It’s a solid day of absolutely zero progress, and the best I can say, at the end of it, is that nothing exploded.
I had no patience with anyone who put down other kids because of their race, religion, or sexuality. But that’s just one kind of open-mindedness. There’s another kind, too, the kind that’s willing to see people for who they really are and admit when you were wrong about them.
A strike within the realm of the professional never justifies retribution in the realm of the personal.
You don’t pursue happiness. You pursue everything you need to have a fulfilled life, and then, if you achieve it, you’ll be happy some of the time. The rest of the time, you’ll be consent. One can’t sustain happiness forever.
I shook my head. “Calling my boyfriend.” “You need a guy to come rescue you?” I waggled my gun. “I have that part covered, but given the situation, I’m going to let someone know where I am. I’m a feminist; I’m not an idiot.
Yours is more than business. Your opinion of him – and your continuing relationship with him – matters. My nephew is not accustomed to that, and he’s struggling with it.
So why was his stomach tightening and twisting with every step up those stairs? Because hope was a dangerous thing. It said the failure would be his own fault alone.
Now I was standing in a forest grove with a witch, a half-demon, a vampire, and a shaman, planning to put an end to a nefarious plot to usurp our powers and alter the path of humankind. Talk about your conspiracy theories.
I’d said to myself once that Gabriel preferred a life where he felt as little responsibility for others as possible. That was true. But even more true is the fact that he preferred a life where others felt no responsibility for him.
Philip wooed me with all the patience of someone trying to coax a half-wild animal into the house and, like many a stray, I found myself domesticated before I thought to resist.