raphael

For the first time in forever, he was stunned to silence. Not by her words, but by the tenderness in her hands, the worry in her eyes. He was an archangel. He__ been wounded far, far worse and shrugged it off. But then, there had been no woman with sun kissed by the sunset and eyes of storm gray to tear into him for daring to get himself hurt.

When we set about accounting for a Napoleon or a Shakespeare or a Raphael or a Wagner or an Edison or other extraordinary person, we understand that the measure of his talent will not explain the whole result, nor even the largest part of it; no, it is the atmosphere in which the talent was cradled that explains; it is the training it received while it grew, the nurture it got from reading, study, example, the encouragement it gathered from self-recognition and recognition from the outside at each stage of its development: when we know all these details, then we know why the man was ready when his opportunity came.

The bastard kissed her. She was so mad, she bit him hard enough to draw blood. Raphael pulled back, lip already beginning to swell. __e are no longer even, Elena. You__e now in debt.___ou can deduct it from my slow and painful death.

Nothing's ever gone. We fool ourselves that things fade, but they never do.

Under her palm, his heart beat strong and sure. It was such a human sound, so honest, so real.

I look into my heart and see the abyss looking back at me.''I won't let you fall.

You can see where it was, years ago. Like an old woman who was once beautiful, but time has taken her beauty away.

Somehow the idea of Montgomery as a fairy doesn't have the same effect on me as it appears to have on you.-Raphael

What is it about her, Duncan?_ he said finally. __he fights me at every turn, then nearly dies defending me. She comes more than willingly to my bed, then runs the very next morning. She wants nothing to do with me, and yet I find her... fascinating.

Would it be so terrible, sweet Cyn?_ he whispered. __o spend eternity at my side?_ But she was too far gone in sleep, and Raphael didn't know if he wanted to hear her answer anyway.

...there__ no such thing as a dirty fight.

You do realize this makes your wings even more unique.""Are you saying you shot me as a cosmetic procedure?

Option 1: Attempt to back out.Probable result: Death after painful torture.Option 2: Do the job and hope.Probable result: Death but probably no torture (good)

I know human nature. We might sacrifice a few, because we are stupid and hardwired for group survival. But we would never die in the thousands because a god wished it. Those kinds of numbers require material gains, like power, wealth, territory.

It was a tribute to Raphael that lesser artists wanted to copy his work, but this_ this was a travesty. The fresco consisted of Galatea__ apotheosis, wherein she is surrounded by mythical creatures. A beautiful scene, with all the potential in the world, but very poorly executed here. Galatea herself looked vapid and empty. The rest of the painting indicated pure ignorance on the part of the painter. I shook my head in confusion. The giant Polyphemus was depicted with two normal eyes, when clearly he ought to have but one. Triton, for his horn, was using not a shell but an actual trumpet of brass. I nearly laughed aloud at that observation; would not such an instrument be completely destroyed by seawater? Who the devil had painted this monstrosity?