She handed me her teacup for a refill. I took it and ignored Daniel’s outstretched empty coffee mug.He arched his brows. You want a ride to school or not?If you don’t drive me in, Dad will have to. Th...
She dreamed she was back in that cell, fighting off the guard—Halmond—pulling back the knife to stab him. Only in the dream, he wrested it from her fingers and slammed it into her gut, and she gasped,...
She could be tagged, I said. And as we agreed earlier, not all of us need to get to safety. That means not all of us need to stay with Kenjii. I’ll take her. You guys go another way.Once again, our gr...
Remember when we met? Before you left, you said you were going to make a fool of yourself over me. That's still what you're worried about. That you'll find yourself doing things you never dreamed of d...
Release the demon under promise that I'd be repaid handsomely, my enemies destroyed? Hmm, where had I seen this before? Oh, right. Every demon horror movie ever made. And the horror part started right...
Rafe, I whispered.I turned. He was walking out of the forest and he was grinning and…and there was no and because that was all I could think.My eyes shut. I didn’t want them to. I didn’t care if it wa...
Rafe walked out of the forest. The leather jacket was gone, replaced by a tattered denim one. Instead of boots, he wore sneakers that looked as old as the jacket. As he walked toward us, his gaze was...
Rafe told everyone he was from Texas. That was bull. I’d dated a summer guy from Texas, and Rafe’s drawl was all wrong. His last name suggested he was Latino, and he kind of looked it, but his high ch...
Rafe grinned. So we are dating?No. You have to pass the parental exam first. It'll take you awhile to compile the data. They'd like it in triplicate.I turned to my parents. We have Kenji. We have my c...
Rafe didn't just flirt-he charmed girls right up to the point where they fell for him, then he changed his mind.I called him a player with attention deficit disorder.
Plenty of dead vegetation had blown in and dried out, and Daniel managed to knock rocks together, get a spark, and light a tiny blaze. Considering I’d escaped a raging forest fire earlier that day, I...
People today work as hard, if not harder, than they did thirty years ago. The only difference is the quality of the work they perform. They no longer accomplish anything of value. They only service th...
Penny, go see if she wants another sausage, Antone said. I’d like to see her eating more.I have a Snickers bar in my bag, the woman--Penny--said. I’ll take her that. Kids always like candy.Not sure th...
Our mom died last year when Annie was eighteen. Before the accident. So she got custody of me.Accident? It’s brain damage?The look in Rafe’s eyes, the grief…It hurt just to see it, and he turned away...
Our lips brushed. Then his eyes snapped open and he pulled back fast.I jerked away. Right. Bad idea. We--No. He pointed. That.I twisted to see a wall of smoke heading straight for us.
Our immaturity is scaring her off, I said. Sorry, Sam. Come back and we’ll act our age.No, I’m just grabbing some food. You two carry on. You’ve earned a maturity time-out. I let go of Daniel’s feet a...
Now, I was well aware that certain sports required certain modes of dress for protection, but I failed to see how wearing a sleeveless blouse on the course qualified as a safety hazard. God forbid the...
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 you...
Now I stood at the base of a tree and thought, I can’t do this. I remembered last night’s climb, the grief and the loneliness. Here on the ground, I could keep that at bay. But up there…Rafe was up th...
Not the surprise party thing again.Better work on your surprised face.I opened the door. No final words of warning?I trust you.I sighed. That’ll be my epitaph someday. So trustworthy. So honest. So bo...