When he left, you spent all your energy holding on to him. You could be happy if you let go.

Because there was nothing more terrifying to me, more excruciating, than the thought of turning away from him. it was an impossibility.

There’s something… strange about the way you two are together. The way he watches you — it’s so… protective. Like he’s about to throw himself in front of a bullet to save you or something.

It was amazing how instantaneously the choking fear vanished, amazing how suddenly the feeling of security washed over me - even before I was off the street - as soon as I heard his voice.

Over my pile of ashes

A hundred yards away, Mike Newton was lowering Bella's limp body to the sidewalk. She slumped unresponsively against the wet concrete, her skin chalky as a corpse. I almost took the door off the car.

The bond forged between us was not one that could be broken by absence, distance, or time. And no matter how much more special or beautiful or brilliant or perfect than me he might be, he was as irreversibly altered as I was. As I would always belong to him, so would he always be mine.