Scarlett Rue

“Alessandro’s eyes narrowed. “Let’s see what happens if I do this.” He reached over, took my hand, gently rubbed his fingers on mine, and kissed my knuckles. All my hormones stood up and gave him a standing ovation. Damn it, Alessandro.”
― Ilona Andrews, Sapphire Flames

“Were you going to poke them with a stick?” Keelan growled. Hakeem looked uncertain. “Yes?” “When you find freaky shit in the scary woods, you don’t poke it with a stick. It can explode in your face. What do you do instead?” Hakeem clearly didn’t know the answer to that question. I almost felt sorry for him. He had just turned eighteen this year, and this was likely his first real outing. “You ask the Consort. The Consort knows everything.” “Oh,” Hakeem said. Keelan pivoted to me. “Consort, please tell us what this is.” “I have no idea.” Keelan blinked, his teaching moment temporarily derailed. He took a second to recover. “How do we proceed?” I held my hand out, and Hakeem surrendered his branch. “I’m going to poke it with a stick.”
― Ilona Andrews, Magic Claims

“I am afraid that Oompa Loompa Barry, didn't make it.” “What do you mean Barry didn't make it, he's an animatronic, Pip, not a fish you won at the carnival.” At this, I frowned as I held a finger up and said, “Okay, now that totally wasn’t my fault, Stevie was totally fine when I went to bed that night,” I argued. “Pip, you topped his bowl up with a bottle of vodka you thought was water… Stevie died three sheets to the wind that night and pissed as a fart.” Okay, so she had a point, I did do this.”
― Stephanie Hudson, Beast And The Imp

“I work alone. That's my natural setting. Second, I thought you were just a normal person who somehow knew about werewolves. I didn't have all the relevant information. Had I known you had a haunted house, a magic broom, and a devil dog on your side, my initial response would've been different.”
― Ilona Andrews, Clean Sweep