A Cruel Thirst

I don't know what the proper protocol is for one holding a weapon to my throat.

Why are you staring at me like that?" she snapped. "Like what?" She simpered. "You are gazing at me as if you wish to kiss.

Besides, Lalo has already asked for my hand, and I have accepted, right Lalo?: She shot daggers at him with her gaze. "Yes. Indeed. I... I'd like to..." He shoved out the last two words as if they pained him. "Marry Carolina.

We are in love!" "What?" all three men said in unison. She spun to Lalo and narroed her eyes at him while she was turned away from her father. "Tell them, mi amor," she said through her false grin. He gaped her, and she squeezed his arm. He forced a smile.

Should you be handling a gun in your state?" Carolina asked. Mama scoffed. "There is nothing stronger than a woman with children to protect.

She brushed a thumb over his beautiful cheek. "Find me when I move to the other side." Tears slithered down his temples. "I won't rest until I do.

Why do you look so terrified?" "Because..." He gulped. "Because I desperately wish to kiss you.

There is power in blood and vows," she said. "We make a promise here and now that we will find each other again. No matter what happens, you will return to me. We have believed in each other enough to get us this far, let's not stop now.

Hope is a strange thing, don't you think? It can pull you out of your darkest thoughts, but also leave you destroyed if that hope turns into nothing greater.

She used to see the world in black and white. Right or wrong. Monster or human. Why did Lalo have to add color where it didn't belong?

Maybe it is selfish of me to beg for you to not give up when you've been through so much," she said. "But life isn't something one just eases through. Life is a constant battle. Every moment of peace, every smile, every kiss that is worth a damn must be earned. So fight with me, Lalo. And if you are too weary from everything you've already been through, then I'll raise my fists and fight for us both.

All of us are monsters in one form or another,” Lalo said. “Perhaps the vampiros are a physical representation of that, but humans can be just as ugly on the inside. Your ancestors weren’t evil for acting on love.

Will you marry me? Will you experience whatever the world has to offer with me, Carolina Victoria Fuentes? Will you dance with me always? Now, and when we're old and gray and thereafter, when we find ourselves in El Cielo?

Tell her that she was always my special girl and to continue giving the world hell.

Alma was just a woman who was grieving. I don't think I can judge her because, now that I have loved romantically, I don't know what I'd do if I lost you.

I cannot face this world without you.

Nothing you do to me will ever be too much.

He loved her. He loved her, and it scared the life out of him.

He could only pray she survived this journey because the world would be darker without her in it.

Everything inside Lalo ached for her comfort.