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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 67e59a6 | So sorry," Calypso said, waving his cigarette in a slow circle. "I should have asked before I lit up. Does anyone mind if I smoke?" "Duh, yes," Josh snapped at him. "It's a filthy habit. And it's making my eyes water. I have very sensitive--" "But I don't like you," Calypso said. "Does anyone else mind, or are we all copacetic?" | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 62d6929 | Not always true. In '08, that was the first and only year we played Monopoly. Four people died. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 9bf197a | Jenna Rearden thinks you might be the Devil." "Yet here you are." I finished my drink. "Lucky for you, I only take payment in cash." I folded the envelope into my pocket, rose, and shook his hand. His grip was firm, with calluses like lunar rocks."I'll call you," I said and made my way out into the afternoon sun." -- | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 430df94 | It wasn't...it wasn't anything personal," he finally said. "Funny," I told him. "When somebody tries to screw somebody else over and fails hard? That's always the first thing out of their mouth. 'It was only business.' 'It wasn't personal.' Thing is, to the guy getting screwed? It's always personal." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| c57bcf7 | Watch your mouth," Emma said. "I can't...I can't even deal with you right now. Go to your room. We'll discuss this in the morning." "Mom, c'mon--" I could see Emma's eyes flash copper from across the room, glowing like orbs of pitch and fire as her voice went guttural, dropping too deep for any human throat. "To. Your. Room." Melanie didn't need to be told twice. She vanished up the hallway. Emma straightened her blouse, closed her eyes, an.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 353d139 | Problem there," I said, "is Lauren's a strategist. A damn good one. If she's not thinking about the long term..." Harmony finished my thought. "Then there isn't going to be a long term." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| ca00543 | Tonight, Lauren Carmichael and her followers are going to open the Etruscan Box. If she succeeds, it's pretty much game over for the entire planet. Not that we'll be around to worry about it, because Las Vegas will be a smoking crater. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 337513d | I pretended to think, stalling for time. "Something you want, something you...oh, right! It just arrived. A big pile of 'fuck you' with your name on it." I gave him the finger. Sullivan frowned. "What?" I said. "Not your size? I'm sorry, all fuck yous are final." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 25ba92e | From the looks on his follower's faces, I'd done a decent enough job of creeping them out. Two of them looked nervously at the duffel, as if they'd just found out I'd brought a pinata stuffed with anthrax to the party. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 1feb2e6 | Any suggestions?" "Boom-boom. Clump of C-4 the size of a butter stick," Jennifer said. "Loud," Bentley said, "but they'll almost certainly be alerted to your presence as soon as the assault begins, no matter how you go in. Loud and disorienting might be to our advantage." "Wait," I said, "plastic explosives? You can get that?" "Darlin', I deal in mass quantities of recreational substances for a living. Outlaw bikers are some of my best cust.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| bb38e32 | You know the Honeydew? It's a no-tell motel that rents by the hour, and the management has a permanent case of cash-induced amnesia. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| df33fdb | I could see the smudge of a pistol in his reflection's grip, aimed right at my back. "I'm pretty good at reading people," I said calmly, not turning around. "Figuring out their motivations. What makes them tick." He didn't say anything. I could almost hear him breathe. "You're thinking, right about now," I said, "that I'm the straw that's breaking the camel's back. That if you took me out of the picture, your life would be a whole lot simpl.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| b793da0 | Was that...was that some kind of demon?" he said. I looked over at the bottle and shook my head. "No. No, that was just a major-league asshole." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| b978908 | Well, the only person I really have to impress is Sullivan, and from what I heard he wasn't keen on spending too much time having a deep conversation with the guy. Hopefully he'll overlook it." "And if he doesn't?" Harmony asked. "Then he tears me into itty-bitty pieces and scatters my body parts all over the desert. And this officially becomes the worst plan I've ever had." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 4251c25 | She arched an eyebrow. "You already know?" "I stole his soul, lost his soul, exorcised his soul from another person's body, stuffed him in a bottle, pulled a short con, and now the Choir thinks I'm Gilles de Rais." Pixie just stared at me. She rested her palms on the tabletop. "You have got," she said, "to do a better job of keeping me in the loop." "It's been a really busy couple of days." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 70dd47e | If all goes well, I'll see you at the banquet. If I don't show, scrub the job and get out any way you can." "Why wouldn't you show?" Ben asked, nervous again. "Because," I told him, "that means I'm dead." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| b91837b | Rule number four of magic, the one that any responsible teacher drums into their students' heads until it's as second nature as breathing, is you do not fuck with demons. Yes, I'm aware of the irony of a man named Faust arguing against trafficking with the powers of hell, but I've learned from hard experience. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 7eb82d5 | You were going to betray me!" Sullivan roared, slamming his fist on the table. Lauren bared her teeth. "You were going to betray me!" I jumped up onto my chair and climbed onto the dinner table, standing in the heart of the powder keg. "Ladies! Gentlemen! You're both right! You were all about to betray each other. Congratulations and welcome to Las Vegas. If I could have the floor for a moment?" | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 81a80e1 | The fact is, it just wasn't meant to be. Crazy rich lady who wants to blow up the world, crazy demon asshole who wants to invade hell...I know, you had high hopes, but this relationship just wasn't going to work out." "I am going," Sullivan seethed, "to kill you." "Not if I get to him first," Meadow said." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 99b4979 | We believe in keeping up with the times," she said. "It's not all backward Latin and slaughtered goats." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 8c3963f | Oh," she said, putting her hand to her mouth in mock surprise. "Do you mean you weren't just feeling slightly airsick, and a bottle of ginger ale wouldn't help your stomach feel better?" "I suppose," I said, unscrewing the cap, "you may kinda sorta have a point." "Besides, you get the most adorably consternated look on your face." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 454344f | we heard the clinking of glasses and faint, conversational laughter. A human torso, crudely butchered, lay across a glass table with its innards still wet and glistening. Lauren sat beside it, dressed in her Sunday best and sipping tea from a delicate porcelain cup. A man in a dapper black suit sat across from her. His face was a featureless black void, a smudge of frozen smoke. "Eugene!" Lauren said. "You're just in time for high tea." "Ab.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 858ca55 | A woman dressed for tennis and clutching a digital camera did a double take, looking at the suited thugs and then at me as if wondering if she'd seen me on television. No, no, they're not my bodyguards, I felt like saying. They're just here to break my kneecaps if I run. Or maybe break them anyway. We'll see how the day goes. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| f4ddebf | Just very, very bright. So bright that there isn't a single shadow in the shot." Dell looked back toward the steel shelves. "Uh, you know that'll like, wash out everything, right? I mean that's not really how it's done--" "Listen to me." I moved closer, leaning against the counter. "Our needs are very specific. We want to kill shadows. Got it?" "Kill shadows," he repeated, blinking. "Okay. Hey, sure, you're the customer, whatever. Let me gu.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| d47ed99 | Why are you whispering?" "I'm on the roof of an evil flower shop, and I don't want to get shot." "That sort of answer," he said, "really shouldn't surprise me anymore." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| b6b0a3d | That kind? How many kinds of zombies are there?" "There's the kind that eat people, the kind that don't eat people..." Margaux's voice trailed off as she thought it over. "Two. Two kinds. Plenty of variations, but when you're looking at a dead man walkin' your way, that's the one question you need answered fast." "And don't shoot for the head, that just pisses 'em off," Corman said," | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 7705e38 | There a point behind that history lesson?" I asked. "Only to establish a certain level of, shall we call it, prior claim?" "I'm not positive," I said, "but I think after sixty or seventy years it becomes more of a finders, keepers sort of situation." Angelo slapped his knee. "Now, you see? That's almost exactly what Nicky Agnelli said" | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 1fe5942 | Most modern cell phones have a built-in GPS chip, even if you don't have any kind of GPS software. Allegedly to make it easier for emergency services to find you when you dial 911." "Allegedly?" Caitlin asked. "It also makes it easier for our burgeoning police state to keep tabs on innocent citizens," Pixie said. "Have I told you what the NSA does with voicemail--" I cleared my throat." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| af0bb79 | Hey," I said, panting, "next time you find out that a major crime syndicate wants to take over Vegas, maybe let me know before I go to the city where they live? Send me a letter, maybe? Send up some smoke signals?" "Wait, what?" Nicky said. "The Outfit came after you in Texas?" "In Chicago, Nicky. Where the job is. The job you set me up for." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 99fa0a8 | Does it still look like Jules Verne built a brothel?" I nodded. "I think they call that steampunk now, but yeah. It's also got free-roaming man-eating shadows for a security system. And does anyone know who owns the place? The locals just call it 'Management." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| c2961e5 | I ended up back at the airport before dawn, drinking black coffee from a recycled paper cup and listening to the come-play-me chimes from a bank of slot machines in the concourse. Vegas's farewell to the tourist traffic, suctioning out the last of their pocket change before kicking them back home. Every minute I spent here was a minute lost forever. I blew on my coffee and tried not to pace. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 5c5a7bc | lights dangled from the warehouse scaffolding, their power lines running to a portable generator that chugged and coughed like a heavy smoker running a marathon. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 2a1ca28 | If I was bound for hell, I'd drag her down with me. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 018e1c7 | I hit the arrow key one last time and froze. I'd captured it, all right. It nearly filled the frame, so big it would have to squeeze through the loft's doors to move around. Or squirm through. I couldn't take it all in at first. My eyes darted around, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. There were broken arms and opposite-facing legs, a bloated torso lined with sewn-on hands that grasped and pinched. And there were heads. I counted f.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 89f329e | My goal, on the other hand, was to convince you to meet me somewhere remote. Somewhere I could finish you off without fear of interruption. So I prepared a--" "I know," I said. "The book's a fake, and you let me steal it." He blinked." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| bfa9b05 | I could see the sorrow in her eyes as she gently brushed his hair aside and kissed his brow. Then she snapped his neck. Ben's corpse tumbled to the floor. Emma sank to her knees beside him, mute. She brushed her fingertips along his lifeless arm. If this was an action movie, that would have been her cue to say something badass. But this wasn't a movie. It was just a stupid dead man and a grieving widow and a gulf of pain I couldn't imagine. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 524c941 | A sharp crunching sound echoed across the cramped office. Pinfeather's eyes went wide, his body rigid as a steel pole. He looked down. Caitlin's hand was buried in his chest up to the wrist. A rivulet of blood guttered from his mouth as he tried to speak. Caitlin put her lips to his ear as her fingers curled around his pounding heart. "Like you said, this is Vegas," Caitlin whispered. "And in Vegas, the house always wins." She yanked her ha.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 3f966fd | And for the record, yes, a Taurus Judge probably WILL blow a demon's face off at close range. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| e426da8 | I looked around, my heart pounding faster, trying to spot it before it could get the jump on me. The creature was near, but the noise sounded like it was coming from everywhere at once. No, I realized, not everywhere. It's just very, very close. I looked up. Nine arms clung to the ceiling above my head by their twisted, blackened fingernails. Five heads looked down at me and screamed as one. 15. I felt the creature's scream more than I hear.. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 2ef47d6 | I promised Coop two things before he died," I said. "One, I'd get his cut of the score to his wife. Two, I'd send Stanwyck to hell where he belongs. I'm keeping those promises." "The latter," Caitlin said dryly, running a sharp red fingernail down her menu as she read it over, "can be arranged, with pleasure." "I'm in," Pixie said. "Let's kill him." The table fell quiet." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 00ff8a9 | I gave Caitlin a look. She shrugged. "Don't know what you want me to say," Caitlin said. "I don't understand why humans get so worked up over killing in the first place. This is pest control. You kill him, he goes to hell, he hopefully gets put to good use. Nuisance solved." | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 3300531 | The princes of hell were too old, too powerful to operate on Earth. They couldn't even set foot here without kicking off the apocalypse ahead of schedule. So every prince had a hound: the one demon in their court who was smart enough, tough enough, and mean enough to take care of their court's business and scare all the other hellspawn into submission. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| d212521 | Sunrise came like a stampede of bulls, kicking me out of bed and into the shower as my mind lurched into high gear. | Craig Schaefer | ||
| 2f6e340 | Just think of it like this: you've got two options, and you have to pick one." I held out my hands, palms upward, juggling them up and down like the arms of a scale. "Free money? Bullet in the head? Free money? Bullet in the head? Now, I'm no professional merchant such as yourself, but if it was up to me? I'd take the free money." -- | Craig Schaefer |