Older sisters are far more powerful than vampires. Not even garlic or a crucifix will keep us away when we’re determined to meddle in your affairs.

The true measure of a man has nothing to do with years and everything to do with how well he looks after those who depend upon him.

There is none so blind as he who will not see.

Arian’s ebony hair was spread in a shimmering fan around her shoulders, reminding Tristan absurdly of Snow White in her glass coffin. Even in death, hadn’t the deceptive blush of life stained Snow White’s pallid cheeks? Hadn’t her rosebud lips parted as if to welcome a kiss from a prince who might never come? Hadn’t the creamy swell of her breasts tantalized every hopelessly naive kid in the theater into daring to believe her chest would rise just one more time?

Oddly enough, it was Prudence he studied beneath his lashes, not MacKay. The words he spoke came straight from his heart. “No. Because she felt ashamed. Because she felt dirty. After the things he did to her, she could never feel worthy of someone as fine as you.

My heart, as you well know, Bright Eyes, has always been yours for the asking. Or the staking.

To Fate, a fickle mistress whose sense of justice is exceeded only by her sense of humor.

I see a man,” she said softly. “A man with the roar of cannons still ringing in his ears. A man bloodied by life, but not beaten. A man with a scar that draws his mouth into a frown when he might actually long to smile.

Alone.’Twas her destiny to be ever surrounded by others, yet ever alone.

No thanks, I’ve already eaten.