#0064: Meredith Gentry Series #1: A Kiss of Shadows, by Laurell K. Hamilton

[orbitaldiamonds]

Meredith Gentry Series #1: A Kiss of Shadows
by Laurell K. Hamilton
p.6 I stared at him, and finally understood. "You know we should walk away from this one, but you can't bring yourself to pass judgment on them. You can't bring yourself to condemn them to death."
     He nodded. "Yes."
     "What makes you think that I can do it, if you can't?"
     "I'm hoping one of us is sane enough not to be this stupid."
     "I won't get you all killed for the sake of strangers, Jeremy, so be prepared to walk away from this one." Even to me, my voice sounded thin, hard, cold.
     He smiled again. "That's my little cold-hearted bitch."

p.9-10 Some days I was better at it than this. Some days I was worse. I could have tried to get the measure of her psychically, to see if she had more than bone structure going for her, but it was impolite to read another person's magical ability at first introduction. Among the sidhe it's considered an open challenge, an insult that you don't believe that the other person can shield himself from your most casual magic. Naomi probably wouldn't have taken it as an insult, but her ignorance was no reason for me to be rude.

p.20 "If you're powerful enough, you can put a spell on an ad so that the ad brings you what you truly desire, not necessarily what the ad says you want. It's why I ran the ad that Ms. Gentry answered. Only people with magical ability would have noticed the spell on the ad, and only people with exceptional gifts would have been able to see through to the true writing underneath. The true writing listed a different phone number than the ad. I know that anyone who called that number was capable of the job."

p.26 For a building to be warded, not just an apartment, but a whole building, meant that the protective spells had to be put into the foundation of a building. The wards had to be poured with the concrete, riveted into place with steel beams. It took a coven of witches, or several covens. No single practitioner could do it. It was not a cheap process. Only the most expensive high-rises or homes could boast of it.

p.30 Jeremy sat behind his desk, watching the show, fingers steeples, an amused smile on his face. He'd shown the polite heat in his eyes when I first took my dress off and stripped to the lingerie, but after that he'd just tried to keep from laughing as Maury Klein's total lack of heat. Jeremy had complimented me on the amazing contrast between the perfect white of my skin and the blackness of the lingerie. You're always supposed to say something nice the first time you see someone in a state of undress.

p.44 Both human and sidhe culture abhor an adulterer. The sidhe don't have to worry about fornication, but once you get married, give your word that you will be faithful, then you must be faithful. No fey will tolerate an oath breaker. If your words is useless, then so are you.

p.45 His car matched the rest of him: expensive, sleek, fast. A black Jaguar with black leather seats so that it was like sliding into a pool of darkness. I put my seat belt on. He didn't. He drove fast, weaving in and out of traffic. It would have been impressive if I hadn't been driving in LA for three years. Everyone drove like this out of sheer self-defense.

p.45 The house was neat and small, the smallest in the neighborhood, but it had the largest yard. There was actually enough land on either side that even a Midwesterner would say it had a good-sized yard. The house looked like a place for kids to wait for daddy to come, while mom rushed around in her power suit trying to fix dinner after a hard day's work.

p.84 Other people will try to make you miserable; don't help them by doing the job yourself.

p.154 Distrust showed on his face. I guess I couldn't blame him, but I was getting tired of holding his emotional hand. I don't want to hurt him, but I wasn't sure I wanted to tie myself to him forever. It wasn't the tentacles--it was the heavy emotions that seemed to swing back and forth so quickly. He was going to be a high-maintenance partner when it came to his feelings. Men like that are so damned exhausting that I usually avoid them, but Sholto could offer me things that others couldn't. He could give me back my home--for that I could shovel emotional shit for awhile.

p.214 "Doyle," I called.
     He came back around the corner. "Yes, princess?"
     "If she tells you that we're going to be executed for this, there is one bright spot."
     He put his head to one side in a birdlike movement, "And that would be?"
     "We can have sex, real sex, flesh into flesh. If we're going to be executed for something, we might as well be guilty of it."
     "I never thought I could face my queen with this and have a divided mind on what I want her to say. You are a tempting thing, Meredith, a thing that a man might trade his life for."
     "I don't want your life, Doyle, just your body."

p.218 I had a ten inch knife in a side sheath, the tip of which was tied around my leg with a leather thong for fast draw, like an Old West gunfighter. The leather thong also made the sheath fit the movement of my leg better. Without a sheath tied off, you ended up having to move it every time you shifted position, or it tended to poke into your body or get caught on things.
     I had a Spyderco folding knife clipped over the under wire of my bra. I always carried at least two blades at court as a rule. The guns would only be allowed in certain parts of the sithen, the faerie mounds. But I'd be allowed to keep the knives. Before the banquet tonight, in my honor so Doyle informed me, I'd add more blades. A girl could never have too much jewelry or too much weaponry.

p.222 "He is the Prince of Old Blood, and I for one would not want him using that ability on me on the dueling ground. He could bring every bleeding wound I have had in over a thousand years of battle to me at once."

p.273 I added a small brush to the lipstick in my small purse, then had to decided whether I was going to take more makeup to use to freshen up throughout the evening or a small sleek canister of mace. I chose the mace. If you have a choice between extra make-up or extra weapons, always choose the weapons. Just the fact that you're debating between those two choices proves that you're going to need the weapons more.

p.350 There was a terrible beauty to the scene, like a very pretty slice of hell.

p.363 He smiled at me upside down like the Cheshire cat. "If you'll let go of my arms," he said, "I promise to throw myself on top of you at the first hint of danger." His smile widened to a grin. "In fact, with your permission I'll throw myself on top of your body at every opportunity."

p.419 "I'd like to be jealous," Galen said. "I was all set to be jealous, but damn, Frost, can you teach me how to do it?"

NAMES: Eluned, Essus, Siobhan, Andais, Taranis, Besaba, Fflur, Barinthus