Etched in Bone (The Others, #5)

by Anne Bishop

“We look at the same things, but we don’t see the same things. It made me realize how easy it can be to screw this up and send the wrong signal.”

“Anger and reason are rarely partners,” Chen replied. “And do the Others not purchase things like gasoline for their vehicles?”

And Sierra had ended up being called Sissy by her brothers, a word Twyla suspected meant something different for each boy—for one a term of affection, for the other a term of derision.

Maybe it was human nature to want to please the person who rejects you, who wants you to prove you deserve to be loved.

It was a hard truth for a mother to admit, but Cyrus James Montgomery had never loved anyone but himself.

Did she sometimes snap at her children when they pushed too hard or annoyed her too much? Sure. Every parent did on occasion. But true anger was rare, even toward Jimmy—and that’s what Monty saw in her now.

And now it had come to this: Sissy feeling betrayed, feeling like an outsider, because her family loved her enough not to help her continue on this path.

Vlad stared at Simon. “Meg told the Elders they were . . .” “Bad puppies,” Simon finished. “Yeah.” A minute passed before Vlad said, “Why?” “They didn’t say ‘please’ when they asked for cookies.”

“The motto in my parents’ house was ‘no unkind words, no unkind deeds.’ And if you were unkind, even unintentionally, you were expected to at least try to make things right.”

“Officer Karl!” she said when she reached Kowalski. “What’s happening? Do you need help? Should I peck its eyes out?” Jimmy stopped thrashing as if he were helpless and sat up. Peck its eyes out? What kind of shit talk was that?

And he enjoyed beating people down with words and intimidating them with a large body and a big voice.