When I felt her yield and kiss me back, and realized I had a fighting chance to make this all work out somehow, I had hope.That was far deadlier than any knife or mace.

I think you enjoy messing with people.""That's a purely hypothetical supposition on your part," the bastard says.

Does your family play games, too?" She tries to sound off-hand."No. Just me - and my brother."Which means her parents are in the casinos, then, leaving this kid in a collapsing mine. Okay, a virtual one, but still.

Come here. Then we'll talk."That sounds like a bad idea to her. "I can hear you fine right here.""Is it the arrows?" He kicks bow and quiver into the stream and grins a grin that puts the devil to shame. "There. Now I'm harmless.""No?" He tilts his head, shifting to his side so he can lean his stubbled chin on his hand. "Well, harmless enough. Don't you think?""No.

You're going to the ball?""Aren't you? I was led to believe we had no choice in the matter."Vol cracks a wry smile. "Ah. You've met Kira, then.""If that self-congratulatory guinea pig in my doorway this morning was Kira, then yes. We're acquainted.

You're screwed, scum, and not in the way you'd like, either. Irony's a bitch, isn't it?""You wouldn't say that if you knew who I am."Vol's bounty hunter laughs. "Trust me, I've seen an asshole before. Drop the sword now.

If she sees him again, she isn't sure what she might do. Only that it will include grievous bodily harm and possible grounds for her own firing.

They stare at her, not seeing the woman she is or the girl she was none too long ago, but a mere puzzle. An intractable puzzle - bemusing and a little frustrating, but capable of being solved nonetheless.

It symbolises strength."Bastien snorts. "It certainly doesn't provide any.

Why do you fight me?" His voice is soft again, as textured as velvet. "Can't you see I'm doing everything I can to help you?""Help yourself off the edge of a cliff," she growls.