Vampire politics make the very complicated dance of manners that is werewolf protocol look like the Hokey Pokey.

Mercy," he said,"in a fair fight between near equals, I'll back you every time. It's the demons, vampires, and river devils I worry about, and I'm working on that.

I was talking cannibalism, not romance.

The best way for me to protect you is to encourage you to be able to protect yourself.

If there was such evil in the world, was it possible that there was good, too?

Moonlight streamed in, sending loving beams over his face. He closed his eyes and basked in it, and I could tell it was calling to him, even though the moon was not full. She didn't speak to me, but Samuel had once described her song to me in the words of a poet. The expression of bliss on his face while he listened to her music made him beautiful.

In this dream, I wasn’t a coyote shapeshifter trying to hold a werewolf, I was Coyote’s almost daughter, and I had all the strength of the world in my arms.