47
" Barrons Books and Baubles had been ransacked!
Tables were overturned, books torn from shelves and strewn everywhere, baubles broken. Even my little TV behind the counter had been destroyed.
"Barrons?" I called warily. It was night and the lights were on. My illusory Alina had told me more than an hour had passed. Was it the same night, nearly dawn? Or was it the night following our theft attempt? Had Barrons come back from Wales yet? Or was he still there, searching for me? When I‘d been so rudely ripped from reality, who or what had come through those basement doors?
I heard footsteps, boots on hardwood, and turned expectantly toward the connecting doors.
Barrons was framed in the doorway. His eyes were black ice. He stared at me a moment, raking me from head to toe. "Nice tan, Ms. Lane. So, where the fuck have you been for the past month? "
― Karen Marie Moning , Bloodfever (Fever, #2)
50
" Have you ever had one of those moments when time just freezes? You
know, when the world suddenly goes deathly still, and you could hear a
pin drop, and the squishing sound your heart makes is so loud in your
ears you feel like youre drowning in blood, and you stand there in that
suspended moment and die a thousand deaths, but not really, and the
moment passes and dumps you out on the other side of it, with your
mouth hanging open, and an erased blackboard where your mind used to
be? "
― Karen Marie Moning , Bloodfever (Fever, #2)
55
" Don‘t do it. I let you push me pretty far sometimes, but not this time. I will not have you put your"—it took me a moment to find the right words—"sorcerer‘s brand on me, so you can hunt me down whenever and wherever you please. And that, Jericho Barrons, is non-negotiable."
Well done, Ms. Lane. Just when I think you‘re all useless fluff and nails, you show me some teeth."
You win. This time. I won‘t tattoo you. Not today. But in lieu of that, you will do something for me. Refuse and I tattoo you. And, Ms. Lane, if I chain you up one more time tonight, there‘ll be no more talking. I‘ll gag you. "
― Karen Marie Moning , Bloodfever (Fever, #2)