Karen Chance Quotes

Not if we kill them - " I began, only to cut off when a sudden rushing noise filled the air. And Ray grabbed my gun and went ballistic on something on the wall over our heads.
"Die! Die! Die!" he screamed, emptying the clip and causing spent shells to rain down all around us. And okay, maybe I'd been wrong about the calm thing. Because he was just standing there, trembling and panting and staring
At the air-conditioning vent that he'd just shot the crap out of.
" - first." I took my smoking gun out of his limp fingers and patted him on the back. "See? That's the spirit. ~ Karen Chance

I quote Tolkien because he puts it better. But I can still open a can of whup ass all over you."
You're right," I told him. "He does put it better. ~ Karen Chance

I bent over him and, before I could say anything, he grabbed me by the back of my head, dragged my mouth down and kissed me. Kissed me, with no drama and no explanation, like it was just something we did.
Knowing in a half-forgotten way that he kissed like a demon was one thing; experiencing it all over again was quite another. There was no refined seduction- Pritkin kissed openmouthed, hard and hungry, until I could hear nothing over the pounding of my heart, until I could taste my blood on his lips as his tongue thrust into me. ~ Karen Chance

I felt rather than heard someone come up behind me and I didn't have to wonder who. My vagina had just gotten a heartbeat. ~ Karen Chance

If I'm not supposed to be awake, why are you here?" I mumbled.
"To be the little spoon. ~ Karen Chance

I'm beginning to sense a theme," Mircea said, tossing his suit coat over a buckskin-covered chair. A moose head with huge, outspread antlers loomed over it, its bright glass eyes looking oddly lifelike in the low light. Mircea took in the room, his expression slightly repulsed yet fascinated. "I believe there is only one thing to say at this point."
What's that?"
Yee haw," he said gravely, and took me down like a rodeo calf. ~ Karen Chance

The worst part was the silence. Death was supposed to be loud - gunshots, explosions, screams and thunder. Not this eerie quiet that wrapped around me like a shroud. ~ Karen Chance

Pritkin looked surprised, the way he always did at the idea that anyone might actually care about him. ~ Karen Chance

Alejandro, who thought he was a wit. And he was, if you put a "nit" in front of it, ~ Karen Chance

I was alive, they were not. Go Me. (Touch the Dark) ~ Karen Chance

He's stupid about you," Ray said, glaring at me. "And you're stupid about him. You're both stupid about each other, which would be great if you weren't also really fucking stupid - " "Ray."
" - and can't see it. That's all. That's all I'm saying. ~ Karen Chance

I cocked an ear, but there was nothing much to hear. A girl was on the phone next door, complaining about some guy to a girlfriend, and someone down a floor was either talking to his cat or having a psychotic episode, but both voices were clearer than the soft noises coming from the living room. The vamps were presumably cleaning the wounds better than I'd been able to do at the bar, and bandaging him up. I knew nobody was planning a snack– it would be like offering people used to Beluga caviar and Dom Perignon a sack of stale Fritos and a flat Coke. Sloppy seconds weren't likely to appeal. ~ Karen Chance

My sometimes friend, sometimes enemy, all the time pain in the ass. ~ Karen Chance

I glanced at Radu. "What, exactly is Louis-Cesare's problem?'. [..]
Suddenly a speculative gleam lit his eyes. It made me nervous. 'He tends to be very protective of women,"he said thoughtfully. "You're a woman Dory."
"Thank you for pointing that out. But I didn't think dhampirs qualified."
Radu smirked. "It appears you've been upgraded. ~ Karen Chance

What do you know about racing? Ronnie asked, curious. He looked fascinated, like a scientist confronted by a strange new species: dontgivadamnus from the phylum couldntcareless. ~ Karen Chance

Louis-Cesare and Ray were in trouble.
I could tell because I could see them, not clearly, but in fits and starts, little glimmers like a couple of ghosts, if ghosts made "oh shit" faces on the one hand agitated French gestures on the other. And that sort of shit wasn't going to go unnoticed for long.
Aaaaand it didn't. ~ Karen Chance

Fools fight; winners think. ~ Karen Chance

And I just couldn't take it anymore. I closed the distance between us, slammed him back against the chair and kissed him, holding his head still with both my hands buried in that stupid, stupid hair. I half expected more resistance, because Pritkin had never met an argument he didn't like. So it was a shock when he ran his hands down my sides, cupped my hips and slid us both to the floor.
"I'm going straight to hell for this," he muttered.
"At least you'll know a lot of people," I said breathlessly. ~ Karen Chance

After a long time, one small hand moved, slowly, tentatively, tracing the feathers falling around her, stroking the black slashes along one huge wing. She didn't ask where he'd gotten them, didn't ask why they mimicked the marks on his shoulder. She didn't ask, just kept running her soft fingers through the down, along the spines ...
"How long will they last?"
"A few hours," he said hoarsely. He should tell her, he thought, that the feathers weren't just a projection. That for the moment for however long the Irin's essence held out, they were an innate, physical part of him. And that her fingers stroking along the marks felt just like they once had, moving over his scars. He ought to tell her, ought to ask her to stop. It's what a gentleman would do, he knew that. But then he was half demon. And tonight, he thought maybe he'd just go with that.
"They're nice," she murmured, pulling one around her.
"Yes." One hand tightened in her thick soft hair. "Yes. ~ Karen Chance

Because the next moment, when I was hauled out from under the bed and up to a pair of so-familiar green eyes, I just hung there limply. And stared. At a face that was hard to look at. Not that it was unattractive. There had been a time when I'd thought so-the overlarge nose, the hard-as-glass eyes, the I-couldn't-be-bothered-to-shave-today-and-possibly-not-yesterday-either stubble didn't exactly spell out movie-star good looks. But there was a lot more to John Pritkin than looks, although even there I'd started to come around recently. The strong, stubborn jawline, the rock-hard body, and the flashes of humor behind the taciturn expression-hell, even the rigid blond spikes he called hair might not add up to handsome, but they added up to something. Something that might have been disturbing if I hadn't had plenty of other things to disturb me right now. ~ Karen Chance

Halfway through, I decided that if I survived this, I was going to kill him. It wouldn't be easy, him being a master vamp and all, but I would find a way. ~ Karen Chance

He was like this when I got here?' That's you alibi? ~ Karen Chance

How the hell do you think I feel?" I don't want to end up inside a woman!" He paused. "Well, at least not that way ~ Karen Chance

And that was despite the fact that she wasn't really here. I could see stars through her on the other side, although she wasn't a ghost. I knew ghosts. It was more like she was on an intertemporal version of Skype. ~ Karen Chance

I drank some too-hot coffee and scowled at him, annoyed although I couldn't remember why. The light from the lounge was leaking in, highlighting his spiky blond hair. I decided that must be it.
"You really hate my hair, don't you?" he asked, a smile flickering over his lips so fast I might have imagined it.
"Yeah"
"Why?"
I reached out to touch it, and was surprised as always to find it mostly soft. Just a little stiff in places from whatever product he used on it. It felt weird, imagining Pritkin having anything in his hair but sweat. But he must have; nobody's did that all on its own.
"It's like ... angry hair," I said, trying to pat it down and failing miserably.
He caught my wrist. "Most people would say that suits me."
"I'm not most people."
"I know. ~ Karen Chance

My nerves needed a break, not a reminder of how much trouble we were in. I prowled around, but it didn't help. I still felt like my skin was on too tight. ~ Karen Chance

There was some sort of commotion going on outside, and I decided I'd had enough. I went to the door and stuck my head out. Marco was gasping for breath on the sofa, and two of the guards were bent over a cell phone.
"What are you doing?" I demanded.
"Trying to record this," the smart-ass from the shopping trip told me. "Nobody is going to believe us otherwise."
"Well, cut it out. It isn't funny!"
"On what planet?"
I glared at him, which did no good,because he simply went back to to tinkering with the phone. So I looked at Marco. "Can't you do anything with them?"
Marco flopped a hand at me, tears streaming down his reddened cheeks, and tried to say something. But all that came out for several moments were asthmatic wheezes. I bent over his prone form, starting to worry about him, and he put a hand on my neck and pulled me down.
" It ... is ... funny," he gasped. ~ Karen Chance

Dorina?" Louis Cesare's voice was loud in my ear. The one I had squeezed against the
phone, which was squeezed against my sore shoulder, becuase I was using both hands to
keep Ray's point in his pants.
"The fey, damm it!" I told him. "They're for the fey!"
"Which one?" Louis Cesare asked, his voice going velvety soft.
"All of them- No Ray! Ray, cut it out!"
"All of them? ~ Karen Chance

Have you lost your mind?"
"No. It got scared and ran away. ~ Karen Chance

She was the oddest combination of contradictions he'd ever met -innocence and sensuality, candour and diplomacy, anxiety and utter fearlessness. He hadn't even begun to figure out how her mind worked. But she was damn well going to live long enough for him to try. ~ Karen Chance

He leaned over and removed the lid, and some really wonderful smells steamed out. But I wasn't going to get excited, not this time, because it was probably Bambi in shallots or Nemo with fennel or - ~ Karen Chance

I did have regrets these past six months," he told me quietly. "I found it a curse as much as a blessing, all that time to think. About the things I could have said, that I should have told you ... ~ Karen Chance

I moved to assist, but never got the chance. there was some pretty violent banging for a minute, and then a tearing sound. Finally the stall door flew open, and Ray's shirtless body emerged and started bitch-slapping everything in sight.
His aim was off, probably due to the difficulty of having his eyes on the other side of the room, but he made up for it with sheer determination. ~ Karen Chance

You look furious," Pritkin said, watching me.
"I just - I can't understand not fighting for your life - for what you want. Just giving up - "
A corner of his mouth quirked. "No. You would not understand that. You never stop trying, do you?"
"What else is there?"
"Despair. Hopelessness. Anger. Depression."
"But those don't get you anywhere."
He huffed out something that might have been a laugh, only it didn't sound happy. "No. They don't. ~ Karen Chance

I tossed it on a pile with the coat, my stiff-with-cold jeans and the expensive scrap of silk that had been wedged up my ass for the past half hour. ~ Karen Chance

The most temptation I'd experienced had been with Tomas, the Senate's spy who had been feeding off me without permission, and Mircea, who was probably plotting some nefarious scheme. I have no taste in men. ~ Karen Chance

You know, dulceata, there are times when I truly believe you are the most frightening person I know.
Thank you? ~ Karen Chance

I was tops at the Scarlet O'Hara school of emotional distancing. I always thought about the uncomfortable stuff tomorrow, and, as everyone knows, tomorrow never comes. ~ Karen Chance

Country is based on folk music, which has been around for centuries - "
"So has the plague. ~ Karen Chance

Pritkin and Mircea mixed like oil and water, only not so well. ~ Karen Chance

Fresh blood at midnight isn't red. It's a purplish black that easily blends into the shadows. ~ Karen Chance

You said something else ... something about needing me, for me. What did you mean?"
"I meant-I mean, well, we're friends-"
"Are we? Are we friends?"
"I-yes. What else would you, uh.."
"I am not sure what I would call it. I had never given it much thought until recently. There did not seem to be a point."
"Yes, yes, exactly. And there's no reason to suddenly-"
"But I suppose I shall have to now, if I am returned, that is. Won't I? ~ Karen Chance

How did you hear about that?' 'Are you kidding me? So far, I had that runt Kyle-' 'I hate him. I hate all vamps. That complete toad, Michael-' '-tell me you were pregnant by a vamp-' 'kidnnaped me and-Kyle said WHAT?' 'and then a member of the Domi shows up and informs me-' 'The Domi sent someone HERE?' '-that you're actually pregnant by the late king of the Fey.' 'Late?!' Heidar squeaked. ~ Karen Chance

I rotated my eyeball - and, goddamnit, even that hurt - to see the leader of my bodyguards peering at me. ~ Karen Chance

I can get others to do what you do. They won't be as good, but ... okay. It could work. But it doesn't matter because no matter how good they are, they can't replace you. They can't because I don't need you only for what you can do. I need you ... for you. ~ Karen Chance

A legend is merely a history man decided to bugger. ~ Karen Chance

This was Dante's. Crazy was what we had for breakfast when we ran out of Corn Flakes ~ Karen Chance

One day, you will say it to me again. You will be sober. And you will mean it. ~ Karen Chance

I couldn't seem to remember much of anything else, either, including who the hell I was. But that still wasn't the problem.

No, the problem was that I'd woken up next to a vampire.

One who was maddeningly hard to kill.

"If you would but listen to me for a moment," he said, as I slammed his pretty red head against the concrete floor for the SIXTH FREAKING time.

"Okay," I panted, wondering what the hell his skull was made of. Granite? "Let's chat."

Of course, that would be difficult since I'd just changed tactics, grabbing his throat & squeezing for all I was worth. ~ Karen Chance

And even then, it's not like you did all that much," I said, talking over him, because it was the only way to get a word in edgeways with Pritkin sometimes.
He had filched the bottle back to take a drink, but at that he lowered it and looked at me, his eyes very green next to the amber liquor. "What?"
"I just meant, it wasn't all that and a bag of chips. You know?"
He blinked at me.
"No offense," I added, because he was looking kind of poleaxed. Like maybe he hadn't had a whole lot of complaints before. Which was, frankly, pretty damn understandable. But I feigned indifference. "I mean, it couldn't have been that bad if -"
"Bad?"
"Well, not bad bad."
He just looked at me.
"I mean, I came and everything, so that has to count for some -"
I cut off because I was suddenly enveloped in a strong pair of arms, and my head was crushed to a hard chest. A chest that appeared to be vibrating. It took me a few moments to get it, and even then I wasn't so sure, because Pritkin's face was buried in my hair. But I kind of thought - as impossible as it seemed - that he might be ... laughing? ~ Karen Chance

I was the kind of gal who thought the nightgown drawer was where old T-shirts went to die and ~ Karen Chance

Louis-Cesare looked pained. Ray was even dirtier than I was, and his bright red briefs had gotten a tear across the butt at some point, flashing a glimpse of hairy cheek whenever he moved. An awesome trophy he was not. ~ Karen Chance

My tried-and-true philosophy of keeping people at a distance was taking a beating lately. It wasn't working so well with Mircea, and Pritkin had somehow bulldozed past every defense I had before I'd even noticed. I still wasn't sure how he'd done it.
He wasn't that good-looking, he had the social skills of a wet cat and the patience of a caffeinated hummingbird. In between crazy stunts and, okay, saving my life, he was just really annoying. When we'd started working together, I'd assumed it would be a question of putting up with Pritkin; then suddenly the stupid hair was making me smile, and the sporadic heroics were making my heart jump and the constant bitching had me wanting to kiss him quiet. And now I cared more than was good for me. ~ Karen Chance

Is anything going to kill me if I use your bathroom?" I finally asked.
"Knowing you?" Pritkin's voice was muffled since he hadn't raised his head.
I frowned. "Is that a yes?"
A couple of fingers came up to massage his temple. "That is a no. Assuming you didn't bring anything deadly along with you. ~ Karen Chance

Round-the-clock security meant that some of them got stuck on the day shift, which was hard on vampires. At least I assumed that was why, after a week or two, they started looking a little peaked. ~ Karen Chance

Mircea leaned over to refill my wineglass, and a section of his bare chest showed under the robe, along with a hint of dusky nipple. It's a good thing I'm too stuffed to move, I thought hazily. I would so have jumped that. ~ Karen Chance

The guy appeared to be on the verge of tears.
"Zere is no more bread," he confessed tragically, like someone admitting witchcraft to the Inquisition. ~ Karen Chance

All I want to know is why a party of Fey wanted to kill me," I said
heatedly.
The beetle's lips twisted enough to show fang. "Doesn't everyone?"
Radu hustled me out the door before I could find out if the vamp's plump
little carcass would fit into his overstuffed desk. ~ Karen Chance

So I guess this makes me your sidekick, right?" he asked. "Like I could be ... " "Robin?"
He scowled. "I ain't no Robin."
"What's wrong with Robin?"
"What's wrong?" Ray rolled his eyes. "Two words: green Speedo. And he was lame. Batman was always having to save his ass." I didn't say anything. ~ Karen Chance

If I'd had enough breath, I would have screamed, both at the sensation and at the sheer pettiness of the bastard who wouldn't allow me even a tiny chance of escape. ~ Karen Chance

I started to duck under the spears, only to have the two vamps on the other wall suddenly appear in my face. Or, at least, their crotches did. Another day, I would have made a cute remark about heat and leather jock straps, but I wasn't feeling real cute right now. ~ Karen Chance

A courteous war mage. The world really was coming to an end.
And then Pritkin ran back around the corner followed by half a dozen groggy people. He glanced at the cells that still had to be emptied. "You aren't done yet?" he demanded.
The world righted itself. ~ Karen Chance

I see you.
You always did, I thought, watching sparks dance in his eyes. ~ Karen Chance

What bug crawled up your ass?" I demanded.
"If you mean, why I am upset? I should think that would be obvious!"
It took me a second, but I got it. "Oh, come on. You're not still pissed about–you did the same damn thing to me!"
He had the utter gall to look offended. "I did nothing of the sort–"
I stared at him. "And just how do you figure that? You stripped me butt naked, diddled me over a desk and stole my duffel bag. And my clothes!"
Somebody made a choking sound. I glanced up to find the door to the study open, and the old vamp looking scandalized. "Diddled?" Anthony asked, apparently delighted. Mircea closed his eyes. ~ Karen Chance

Any day that starts off in a demon-filled bar in a casino designed to look like Hell isn't likely to turn out well. ~ Karen Chance

Huh."
"Huh what?"
"Would you look at this?" he asked, examining a small box. "It says it glows in the dark."
"So?"
"So, what use is that to anybody? I mean, what am I supposed to do? Write her name in
the air with it? ~ Karen Chance

I didn't eat."
"What difference does that make?"
"I'm not like you. I can't recharge by feeding off someone. I need food."
"I know that! When was the last time you ate?"
"Yesterday."
"Yester
why the hell didn't you eat?"
"We had to go buy condoms, remember?"
"And you couldn't grab a sandwich on the way out?" he said hysterically. "I'm gonna die because you couldn't grab a sandwich? ~ Karen Chance

I don't know. Just pick one." "Well, there's a lot of choice. I mean, you got your flavored, your ridged, your pre-lubed, your thin, your super-ultra-thin, your super-ultra-thin-pre-lubed, your ... Huh."
"Huh what?" "Would you look at this?" he asked, examining a small box.
"It says it glows in the dark. ~ Karen Chance

They'll have to eat first. And by the time they're finished, you'll be back."
"With the condoms." "Right." "For the giant orgy you're convinced we're about to have in the backyard."
"Dory! Just go!" "I'll go with," Ray said, getting up. "I need a snack." Which was how I ended up condom shopping with a vampire. ~ Karen Chance

You could say I'm on the troubleshooting squad."
"Troubleshooting?"
He put a hand on the back of his waistband. "I see trouble and I shoot it. ~ Karen Chance

There are things we want, and things we may have ... Sanity lies in knowing the difference. ~ Karen Chance

The Circle had been less than thrilled by its choice, but we'd finally come to terms. As in, they were no longer trying to play Whac-A-Mole with my head. Only now they seemed to think they had the right to make sure that nobody else did, either. That was a problem, because the vampires felt the same way and the Senate didn't share well. ~ Karen Chance

I couldn't see Pritkin's face very well, just a pale blur against the shadows, but he didn't sound happy. Some people thought he had only one mode ... pissed off. In reality, he had plenty of them. Over the past few weeks, I'd learned to tell the difference between real pissed off, impatient pissed off and scared pissed off. I suspected that this was the last kind. If so, that made two of us. ~ Karen Chance

Pritkin might be a hostile son of a bitch, but he was a damn good guy to have in a fight. ~ Karen Chance

I remember watching an old Dracula movie once with Alphonse and having him laugh himself sick at the sight of a vamp only a few days out of the grave supposedly raising another one.He'd been impossible for weeks afterwards,mercilessly teasing all the weaker vamps in court about the three-day-old baby that was more powerful than them. ~ Karen Chance

Pritkin, it's a hotel room, not a death trap!" A glance over his shoulder showed him impatient blue eyes under a fall of messy blond curls. "Anyway, you're here."
"I can't protect you from everything," he forced himself to say, because it was true. It was also frankly terrifying in a way that his own mortality was not. He'd never had children, but he sometimes wondered if this was how parents felt when catching sight of a fearless toddler confidently heading toward a busy street. Not that his charge was a child, as he was all too uncomfortably aware. But the knowledge of just how many potentially lethal pitfalls lay in her path sometimes caused him that same heart-clenching terror.
And the same overwhelming need to throw her over his lap and spank the living daylights out of her, he thought grimly, when she suddenly popped out of existence. "Cassie! ~ Karen Chance

They were too cold and there was no lime, but today was obviously about hardships. ~ Karen Chance

Thank you, Captain Obvious."
"I'm on the Senate," he reminded me. "It's Lord Obvious. ~ Karen Chance

Mr. Complete Lack of Sympathy ~ Karen Chance

I'd been declared - over my loud and sustained protests - Pythia, the chief seer of the supernatural world. ~ Karen Chance

I looked up to find a slim blond figure standing in the doorway to the kitchen. For a frozen second, I looked at him and he looked at me, and then I screamed and threw my coffee, which hit him square in the groin. ~ Karen Chance

No, Miss Palmer. What is bizarre is that I currently have a vagina. ~ Karen Chance

That wasn't so bad," I decided, after downing the shot. Maybe I was getting my rhythm.
"Because you threw it over your shoulder," Scarface told me, looking smug.
"Did not." I looked behind me, only to see an outraged vamp with fey wine dripping down his face. "Oops."
"It was for luck," Ray said defensively, wrapping both my hands around a glass.
"Drink!"
I drank. ~ Karen Chance

When we'd started working together, I'd assumed it would be a question of putting up with Pritkin; then suddenly the stupid hair was making me smile, and the sporadic heroics were making my heart jump and the constant bitching had me wanting to kiss him quiet. ~ Karen Chance

Can we just do this?" Ray asked tightly, clinging to Zheng's already slightly elongated arm. Because Louis-Cesare wasn't the only one with a master power around here.
"Let go," Zheng told him. "I'm the rubber band; you're the spitball. And spitballs don't hold on to rubber bands."
"Die in a fire," Ray told him savagely. But he let go. ~ Karen Chance

For once, fate us taking a problem off our hands gratis. Let's smile, say thank you and stay the hell out of it! ~ Karen Chance

I have a theory about war mages," I said. "The more powerful they are, the worse the hair. ~ Karen Chance

Louis-Cesare. It's good to finally have you in hand. ~ Karen Chance

I have to fix this," I told him, as clearly and calmly as I could. "If you want to help me, then help me. Don't shield me, don't protect me, don't bury me alive. Help me . ~ Karen Chance

You'll be all right, Cassie."
"No! I won't be! I need you-"
"Why? What can I give you that others can't?"
"What?"
Green eyes suddenly burned into mine. "It's a simple question. You said you need me. Why?"
"I-I told you. This job-"
"Which you're handling admirably."
"I am not! I couldn't even get to my parents without help!"
"There are other demon experts-Jonas for one."
"But I need you!"
(...)
"Then give me a reason."
"I...there's so many-"
"Name one."
"I can name a hundred-"
"I didn't ask for a hundred; I asked for one. And you can't give it to me."
"Yes, I can!"
"Then do it!"
"I..." I stared at him, because he looked like there was a lot riding on my answer. Maybe everything. ~ Karen Chance

You love me?"
He just looked at me for a moment. And then he reared back his head and laughed, a rich, mellow sound, unreserved and unashamed. " No, not at all. I regularly battle gods for women I dislike! ~ Karen Chance

I looked up, but had to crane my head back, leaving the features above me wrong-side up. The clear green eyes were the same, and, unfortunately, so was the spiky blond hair. It didn't look any better from this angle, I decided. ~ Karen Chance

I keep hitting [Escape], but I'm still here!
Unknown, but used by Karen Chance in Hunt the Moon ~ Karen Chance

The getup, sort of mad scientist meets Rambo, would have made me smile, except that I believe in showing respect for someone carrying that much hardware. ~ Karen Chance

This is getting surreal," Marlowe murmured. "Even for this place."
"Cassie is here-mentally," Mircea told him.
"I gathered that."
"She seems to find it difficult to understand why I do not wish to have her in my head, unannounced, any time she pleases
"
Marlowe gave a bark of a laugh. "Oh this should be fun. ~ Karen Chance

I looked him over for a second and suddenly it clicked. "Still want me to be mean to you?"
His eyes widened. "Yeah?"
"Well, come on then."
A minute later I had an oversized T-shirt that worked as a dress, a belt to shove my weapons into and a too-large leather jacket to toss over it all. I slammed out into the hall, leaving the guy tied to the desk chair by his underwear. Judging by his expression, he'd just leaned a valuable lesson about screwing with strange women. ~ Karen Chance

I dodged behind Mac for cover and refused to take the bait. I glanced at my nonexistent watch. 'Oops, look at the time. Guess I have to be going now. Let's not do this again sometime, okay?'
Before I could move, Pritkin was there, jamming the medallion into the skin of my upper arm.'Ow!'He looked at me expectantly. I glared at him. 'That hurt!'
What do you see?'
A big red mark, ~ Karen Chance

I started to get up, but that hand tightened on my foot. I wanted to pace, needed to let off some of the nervous energy that kept me from eating half the time, kept me from sleeping. And just when I told myself I was being paranoid and everything would be fine, something tried to drown me in the goddamned bathtub.
But I didn't get up. Because then I'd lose that bried, human connection. A connection that shouldn;t have been there, because Priktin wasn't the touchy-feely type. He touched me in training, when he had to, and grabbed me in the middle of crises. But I actually couldn't recall him ever touching me just ... because. ~ Karen Chance

There was a time when you trusted me with your life!"
"And there was a time when you used your brain instead of blindly following orders, ~ Karen Chance

I didn't really want to talk. I'd wanted him there, but I asn't sure why. Maybe just to have someone to drink with. Actually, that sounded pretty good at the moment. I sat on the seat of the chaise and he sat on the foot, and we just drank at each other for a while.
After a few minutes, he leaned back against the railing, like maybe he wanted a backrest, and I shifted my feet over to make room. But I guess I didn't shift far enough, because a large, warm hand covered my right foot, adjusting it slightly. And then it just stayed there, like he'd forgotten to remove it.
I looked at it. Pritkin's hands were oddly refined compared to the rest of him: strong but long fingered, with elegant bones and short-clipped nails. They always looked like they'd wandered off from some fine gentleman, one they'd probably like to get back to, because God knew they weren't getting a manicure while attached to him. ~ Karen Chance