"What doesn’t break us only makes us stronger, Gran liked to say, but it never did make me feel any better."
"You think you’ve seen it all, and then you see something that just takes your breath away."
"The way I feel right now, just about anything will do."
"You’re fit as a fiddle," the school nurse proclaimed in a cheery Irish brogue.
"This wasn’t just a new chapter in my life; it felt like a whole new book."
"We’re just happy to have a place where we can be ourselves. Besides, who would believe it?"
"It felt more like late August than early October, not that I was complaining."
"It’s wonderful! This is my favorite place on campus; I come here every full moon. Before now I’ve always come alone."
"Thank you," I said, knowing that it wasn’t enough, not really.
"There are some things in this world that are worse than monsters, aren't there?"
"Some people don't want to believe anything beyond the ordinary. They walk right into danger with their eyes wide open, refusing to see what's right in front of them."
"Trust me, they dragged me to a ton of doctors. Never could find a medical explanation, so they just called it a mild seizure disorder and left it at that."
"He loved his job, didn't he? He did. Maybe more than he loved me."
"Your visions are a part of you, Violet. They're a gift."
"Let's just forget about it for now and enjoy what time we have left till curfew, okay?"
"What makes you think you can forgive the unforgivable, Violet? Pardon the unpardonable?"
"I'll make sure to remind you that you said that, okay? When you're running away from me as fast as you can."
"No matter what your secrets are, no matter how terrible you think they are, you won't lose me."
"You’ve got to understand that whenever I’m with you, there’s this battle raging in my mind. The selfish part of me wants you, wants you to accept me, to care about me. But the other part... wants to protect you from me."
"I’m just saying that it’s late, and that you’re swaying on your feet you’re so tired."
"Let’s just be clear on that point, Violet—I am a killer, a monster."
"I spend four years at Winterhaven every decade or so. Blackwell makes sure the faculty forgets me between my stints there. Occasionally I change my name."
"Blood is our primary source of sustenance, but food is just—extra. Kind of like dessert is for you."
"Given the choice of an eternity damned to this fate of mine, or death—well, I’ll take a mortal’s death any day. Have you any idea just how long an eternity is?"
"But I’m not sorry that it happened to you. Otherwise you’d have died a long time ago, and I never would have met you."
"Just consider it a blood-borne disease very much like malaria. And, like malaria, ultimately treatable and possibly curable."
"The most I can take is a dose every two weeks. I have to allow the effects to completely wear off before I can take more."
"Far more than you realize. But only a female vampire can make a male, and vice versa."
"One of the more unpleasant side effects is that a vampire can’t achieve . . . er . . . sexual release without simultaneous penetration of the fangs."
"Anyway, I didn’t want you to come looking for me and find me gone without an explanation. You’ll be safe here with Trevors."
"No, it’s much more complicated than that. It’s an actual exchange of mitochondria, and then the infected mitochondria attack the host’s cells."
"All vampires can communicate with one another telepathically, if they want to. But it’s not really true telepathy, psychically speaking."
"Instead, you’re basically stuck with whatever level of maturity you managed to reach as a mortal."
"You have no idea. Scares the crap out of me every time."
"Hey, just be glad you don’t have to room with a shifter!"
"Like I said, he surrounds himself with very powerful female vampires, for one."
"I’m putting it off because it’s Christmastime, Vi, and I’d like you to enjoy your holiday. That’s why."
"Propagator? Julius’s mission is to spread vampirism as far and wide as possible."
"A Sâbbat. Born on a Saturday. Comes from the word ‘Sabbatarian.’"
"My vision aside, there’s no evidence to support that."
"I love you, Violet McKenna. God help me, but I do."
"The only way to test the cure but to inject it in myself."
"I want to be rid of this," he said, his voice breaking. "A few more years and . . ."
"Either I find a cure, or you fulfill your destiny and destroy me. There’s no other way."
"Honestly, I don’t know what I’d do without you."
"You’re a much better roommate than Allison was."
"I need to see you, I called out in my mind. Now."
"Because I was afraid you’d react just like this, that’s why."
"I do love you, Violet. I know you don’t believe me, but my feelings for you have nothing to do with her."
"Forget it, I don’t want to talk about this anymore."
"How can I know it’s me you love, me you want, and not just the memory of her?"
"Because I’m telling you so, Violet. Because I’ve never lied to you."
"Our feelings for each other were ebbing, replaced by the distrust of two natural-born enemies—vampire and Sâbbat."
"Yeah, Winterhaven was probably the best thing that had ever happened to me."
"We needed my friends and their combined powers, and we needed them badly."
"You have my word," I said, my voice a whisper.
"He thinks he's pretty close to getting it right."
"What were three ordinary vampires against five psychic kids, a shape-shifter, a vampire, and a vampire slayer?"
"I loved Isabel, I never got over her death. I never loved you; only her."
"I’m not going anywhere. All my friends are here."