Clay and Elena Moments
What's for breakfast?
Clay:Pancakes right?
Elena:From scratch. No shortcuts.
Clay: And ham, I assume. What else?
Elena: Steak.
Clay: For breakfast.
Elena: Ты сказал(-а) I could have whatever I wanted.
Clay:Can I get Ты some Фрукты to balance that meal?
Elena: No, but Ты can dig up some bacon. бекон, бэкон and eggs.
Clay: Dare I ask for a little help?
Elena:I'll make coffee.
Elena Going to Work
As we were returning I saw a familiar figure sitting on a bench outside my office building. I made some excuse for not going inside and circled back to Clay.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
He turned and smiled. "Hey darling. Good lunch?"
"What are Ты doing here?"
"Guarding Ты remember?"
I paused, "Please don't tell me you've been sitting here all morning."
"Course. I didn't figure I'd be welcome in your office."
"You can't just sit here."
"Why not? Oh, let me guess. Normal people don't sit on улица, уличный benches. Don't worry, darling. If I see any cops, I'll switch to the bench across the road."
"I don't work in my office all day, Ты know. I'm covering a rally at Queens park this afternoon."
"So I'll come along. At a безопасно, сейф distance making sure Ты don't have to endure the horror of publicly associating with me."
"You mean you'll stalk me."
Clay grinned, "A skill that can always use improvement."
"You can't just sit here."
"Back around we go.."
"At least do something, Read a book, a newspaper, a magazine."
"Sure, and let some mutt sneak past while I'm doing the daily crossword."
LeBlanc meets Clay
"Jesus Christ. Where the hell did the pack find Ты two? At a пляж, пляжный волейбол tournament? Great tan. Любовь the curls. He's not even as big as I am. He's what, six foot nothing? Two hundred pounds in steel-toed boots? Christ. I'm expecting some ugly bruiser bigger than Cain and what do I find? The Далее Baywatch star. Looks like his IQ is low enough. Can he chew gum and tie his shoes at the same time?"
Clay stopped playing with his chair and turned to face the mirror. He got up, crossed the room and stood in front of me. I was leaning forward, one hand pressed against the glass. Clay touched his fingertips to mine and smiled. LeBlanc jumped back.
"Christ," he said, "I thought that was one way glass."
"It is."
"Shit."
Elena and Clay breaking into the compound
Step 3: Disable the vehicles.
This was one thing Clay and I could not do. Why? Because we were both so mechanically challenged we rarely pumped our own gas for fear we'd somehow screw up and the car would burst up in flames before our eyes. Here was Adams chance to make up for the botched chokehold. After we snapped the door locks, Adam flipped up the hoods, pulled out a few wires and metal things and declared the vehicles unusable. All Clay and I could do was watch. Worse yet, Paige advised Adam on a few ways to make the damage less detectable, so even the mechanically inclined guards couldn't quickly deduce the problem. Not that I was envious. Who cared whether Ты could change motor oil when Ты could snap a rottweiler's neck in 2.8 seconds? Now that was a practical skill.
Elena: Escape from the compound- Take One
Matasumi studied me for at least three full minutes, then said, "Please do not use this opportunity to attempt escape."
"Really?" I looked at the metal bands strapping my wrists and ankles to the chair, then at the trio of guards behind me."There goes that plan."
Elena: Escape from the compound- Take Two
(The Guards)
They stared at me with expressions so blank you'd think they were guarding the chairs instead of live people. I caught one's eye and gave him a shy half-smile. He didn't even blink. SO much for seducing the guards. Damn. And they looked so cute........in a GI Joe, molded-plastic, automaton kind of way.
Elena at the wine and cheese party
"What does your husband do?" Leah asked me.
"Clayton's an anthropologist," Bauer answered before I could deflect the question.
"Oh? That sounds....fascinating?"
Sipping her wine, Bauer gave a giggling laugh. "Admit it, Leah. It sounds perfectly awful."
"I didn't say it," Leah said.
"No, but Ты were thinking it. Trust me, this guy is no tweedy academic. Ты should see him. Blonde curls, blue eyes, and a body....Greek god material."
"Got a photo?" Leah asked me.
"Uh, no. So how do Ты like-"
""We have some surveillance pictures upstairs," Bauer said. "I'll Показать them to Ты later. Elena is a very lucky girl."
"Looks aren't everything," Leah said, flashing a wicked smile. "It's the performance that counts."
I studied the bubbles in my wine glass. Oh, please, please, please, don't ask.
Leah downed her wine. "I have a question. If it's not too personal."
"And even if it is," Bauer сказал(-а) with a giggle.
Oh please, please, please-
"You guys change into Волки right?" Leah said. "So when Ты and your husband are wolves, do Ты still... Ты know. Are Ты still lovers?"
Bauer snorted so hard the wine sprayed from her nose. Okay, that was the one Вопрос even worse than asking how Clay was in bed. This was a nightmare. My worst nightmare. Not only thrown into a wine-and-cheese party with two women I barely knew, but with two women who knew everything about me and were getting a wee bit tipsy. Let the floor open up and глотать, ласточка me now. Please.
"This is really good cheese."
Jeremy
I made the mistake of giving Jeremy a copy of the St Johns скорая помощь Official Wilderness First Aid Guide. He'd liked it so much he had me buy copies for all of us so we could keep them in our перчатка, перчатки boxes and fix our own emergency amputations. Call me a wimp, but if I ever lose a limb, and there's no one around, I'm a goner, even if the guide does have wonderful instructions (complete with helpful illustrations) for tying off the injury with a stick and a plastic garbage bag.
Jeremy and Elena's summary of witches and vampires
"I see the witches drove," I said, gesturing at the Accord.
"So much for teleport spells and magic broomsticks. And look at this place. It's a legion Hall. We're going to a meeting of a Сверхъестественное races in a Legion Hall. On a beautiful summer day, without even a thunderclap in the background couldn't they have found a rotting Victorian Mansion somewhere?"
"The mausoleum in the cemetery was booked. If Ты look up in the far left corner under the eaves, I believe I see a cobweb."
"That's a streamer. A розовый streamer. From a wedding reception."
"Well, I'm sure you'll find some cobwebs inside."
"Sure, right Далее to the Ladies Auxilary snack table."
Jeremy bent to read the schedule Опубликовано behind a cracked glass ease. "So what are we booked under?" I asked. "The New Age Alternate Lifestyle Conference?"
"No, the corporate Technology Workshop."
"Great. Witches without broomsticks, teleport spells, или imagination. What's next? If there are any Вампиры in there, they probably don't drink artificial blood plasma substitute. Sterilized, of course."
Jeremy: Ypu missed lunch. Did something go wrong?
Clay: Nah, We just got hauled down to the police station for questioning.
Elena: After we took care of Cain (I сказал(-а) before Jeremy suffered any major chest pains.
Jaime and Jeremy moment
"Uh, oh, Jeremy,"she stammered. "It's me Jaime. Jaime Vegas, from the uh-" A short embarrased laugh."Right. Well, just thought I'd make sure in case Ты didn't recognize my voice, er, not that I'd expect Ты to recognize it, but Ты might know other Jaimes...or Ты might have forgotten who I was since the council meeting , uh...oh, I guess that was just last month, wasn't it? So, uh,oh, right, I was coming for Elena," Jaime finally managed to get out. "Is she there?"
Slight pause. "Oh, umm, yes I have her cell number and I could call, but, uh-" nervous laugh. "Well if she's out with Clayton it can wait. или it had better wait. Not that he's- well, Ты know-"
A pause and a high pitched laugh. Jaime closed her eyes and mouthed an obscenity. The only thing worse than Актёрское искусство like a fool is hearing yourself doing it and not being able to stop. "So I'd better not disturb them if I want to stay on his good side- well assuming I'm on his good side , which of course I can never tell, but i figure as long as he's not paying much attention either way, that's probably not a bad thing." She took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut, wincing. "Anyway, I'll let Ты go and I'll call Elena later. I just wanted her to check the newswire for me-"
Pause. "No, past stuff. Well Последнее past. Murders. Not the kind of thing you'd read of course -" another pause. Another spine-grating laugh. "Oh right. That's exactly the kind of thing Ты read. Gotta keep your eye out for those brutal волк slayings -er, not that all Волколаки are brutal or, uh, well-" deep breath. "Let me run it by you." Within ten minutes, she had a page filled with cases, a few complete with names, but most with just locations или details that would further searching a snap. "Wow," she said. "You're amazing- I mean your memory is amazing. Not that Ты aren't- Oh someone's at the door. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. Really appreciate-"
Nick
He made a Показать of unbuttoning his рубашка and shrugging it off, making sure I saw a good display of his muscles. Undressing was like some damned mating ritual with these guys. They seemed to think that the sight of a handsome face, muscular biceps, and a flat stomach would turn me into a helpless mass of hormones, willing to play their juvenile games. It usually worked, but that wasn't the point.
Elena and Clay snuggling on a couch
Nick:What's this? Bedtime?
:You look positively content Clayton. That wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that Elena is cuddled up with you, would it?
Elena: It's cold in here.
Nick: It doesn't feel cold.
Clay: It's cold.
Nick:I could start a fire.
Clay: I could start one too. With your clothes. Before Ты get them off.
Nick held up a half pair of white panties and grinned at me. "Wild dogs? или just Clayton?"
"Oh, god." I walked over to snatch the underwear from him, but he held it over his head, grinning like a schoolboy."I see Paris, I see France, I see Elena's underpants!"
Karl Marsten
"I'm suprised he doesn't send Рождество cards," Antonio said. "I can see them now. Tasteful, embossed veilum cards, the best he can steal. Little notes in perfect penmanship,"Happy holidays. Hope everyone is well. I sliced up Ethan Ritter in Miami and scattered his remains in the Atlantic. Best wishes for the new year. Karl."
Paige
"Walking is good, though I can just imagine what the humidity has done to my hair. I'm going to meet your family looking like a poodle with a live wire shoved up it's butt." -Paige
"Three hundred dollars for photocopying? What did Ты do? Hire Franciscan monks to transcribe my file by hand?!"
So we ran-away from the gun-toting state troopers, through a swirling mass of spirits, pursued by baying hounds, surrounded by screams of the damned. Ты know, I think the mind has a saturation point beyond which it doesn't give a damn. Spirits? Hounds? Cops? Who cares? Just keep running and it'll all go away.
This whole running-away business is getting tedious, so here's the condensed version: Run to water. Tramp through water. Fail to evade hounds. Throw fireballs at hounds. Make mental note to send sizeable donation to RSPCA. Reach road. Jog to car. Collapse, wheezing, beside car. Get dragged into car by Cortez. Mutter excuse about childhood asthma. Make mental note to Присоединиться a gym.
Meeting Troy- take one
"Benicio wants to talk to me," I said. "I'm honored. Tell him to come on up. I'll put on the kettle."
Red Ties mouth twisted. "He's not going up. You're going over there."
"Really? Wow, Ты must be one of those psychic half-demons. Never met one of those."
Meeting Troy - Take Two
"You ever seen this scene in a movie?" he asked.
I looked around. "Now that Ты mention it, I think I have."
"Know what happens next?"
I nodded. "The hulking bad guy attacks the defensless young heroine, who suddenly reveals heretofore unimaginable powers, which she uses to not only fend off his attack but beat him to a bloody pulp. Then she escapes out the handy escape hatch and shimmies up the cables. The bad guy recovers conciousness and attacks, whereapon she's forced, against her own moral code, to sever the cable with a fireball and send him plummeting to his deah."
"Is that what happens?"
"Sure. Didn't Ты see that one?"
Meeting Lucas
"You are not my lawyer. Want to know when I'd hire a sorcerer to represent me? Ten минуты after being hit by a transport and declared brain-dead. Until then, scram."
"Scram?" His eyebrows rose an eighth of an inch.
"Leave.Go. Get lost. Beat it. Take your pick. Just take it with you."
Embracing Vampire Heritage
My light-ball hung over the only object in the room, a massive, gleaming, ebony black, silver-trimmed coffin.
"Just when Ты thought it couldn't get any worse, huh?" I said. "At least it's not a mausoleum."
"He's sleeping in a box Paige. It doesn't get any worse than that. A mausoleum, at least Ты could fix up, add some skylights, perhaps a nice feather постель, кровати with Egyptia cotton sheets..."
"He might have Egyptian cotton sheets in there,"I said. "Oh, and Ты know, it might not be as bad as Ты think. Maybe it's just for sex."
Eve
Jaime:"It keeps me toned."
Eve:"So does kickboxing. And it's a damed sight еще practical too. Some guy jumps Ты in an alley, what are Ты going to do? Assume the lotus position?"
"We can't bother ghosts in purgatory? What the hell is purgatory for, then?!" -Eve
