Content in a way he’d rarely been before Mercy, he simply stroked her until she purred. It delighted him as it always did. “I made you purr.” A lazy yawn. “I’m faking it.

When the kid began to flag, Riley picked her up, swung her onto his back, and kept running. The leopard in Mercy growled in approval - whatever his faults (and they were many and legend), Riley knew how to take care of the innocent.

A long-dead angel who thought to own me,” was his enigmatic answer, the silver in his eyes almost liquid. “I tore out his throat. After that, I ate his liver and his heart. The remaining internal organs weren’t as tasty so I gave them to his other creatures.” Elena’s hand tightened on the handle of the knife, conscious Naasir carried gleaming blades of his own in the sheaths strapped to his arms. “I wouldn’t think a vampire who killed an angel would be permitted to live.” A slow, feral smile. “I didn’t say I killed him.

Sophia got up, taking one last look at the extraordinary daughter Councilor Nikita Duncan had borne.

To be haunted by my heart is no threat.

Eternity would mean nothing without you. For no power on this earth would I trade my Elena.

Looking at her, bedraggled and beaten, some might have seen weakness. He saw strength, determination, and a will no one could crush.