“I cannot let the fear of the past color the future.”
“I have good news and bad news The good news is that the jeep is still where we left it, and I got the damned thing working again."
"What's the bad news?"
"Something took my fuzzy dice.”
“Oh, don't mind me," came an extremely sarcastic voice near the wall. “You two go ahead and make out–I'll just sit here and bleed quietly.”
“There are no good choices, Allison,' Kanin offered in a quiet voice. 'There are only those you can live with, and those you can work to change.”
“You will always be a monster - there is no turning back from it. But what kind of monster you become is entirely up to you.”
“I don't believe in fate," he said carefully, "but... I do believe everything happens for a reason. That there is some plan, some meaning to this darkness we live in.”
“The lesser of two evils was still evil.”
“You're still beautiful and dangerous and incredible, and I'll keep telling you that for as long as it takes you to believe it. But right now, all I want to do is kiss you, except I'm terrified that if I try you might throw me off this balcony.”
“Only death will take me away from you, vampire girl," he whispered. "And even then, I'll watch over you from wherever I end up.”
“I sheathed my blade and glared at him. "And here I almost thought you weren't a complete bastard."
"Well, that's your mistake, not mine.”
“I know what it’s like to miss someone. To feel like you’re just…wandering around, lost.”
“Now we're going to save a bunch of dirty meatsacks from a bunch of dirty cannibals? Why don't we rescue some orphaned kittens and put food out for stray puppies while we're at it?”
“Next time you two decide to go on a bloody killing spree, at least send me an invitation so I know that you care.”
“For the rest of my existence, if I lived to see the end of this world, there would never be another Ezekiel Crosse. There would never be another soul as bright as his. And that both terrified me and made me savagely - and maybe selfishly - determined to keep him. Zeke was mine now. Forever.”
“This is the most I have ever been in the sewers in one place. If someone had said to me a month ago, 'Hey, Jackal, guess where you'll be spending most of your time in New Covington? Ankle-deep in shit!' I would've ripped their lips off.”
“What do you think he wants?”…
“Don’t ask me, I’m not a psychotic maniac.” He paused. “Well, not as much of a psychotic maniac.”
“Don't tell me you fell something for the little . . . oh.' The vampire blinked, then curled his lip back, disgust and pity crossing his sharp features. 'Oh, sister. Really? That's just sad.”
“Well," I ventured as we left Salazar's office, stepping back into the long hallway. I glanced over at Kanin, Zeke and Jackal, and shrugged. "What now?"
Jackal rolled his eyes and stepped away from us. "What now is that I am going to relax for a few hours without listening to the lot of you whine at me. 'Ohhh, don't hurt the humans, ohhh, we have to save refugees from mole men, ohhh, Kanin's dying.' Ugh." He made a disgusted gesture with both hands. "It's enough to make me puke. I am going to the bar to get this taste out of my mouth. You all can do whatever you want.”
“Allison."
I almost collapsed in relief. "Yeah," I whispered, forcing a pained smile as he stared at me as if I were a ghost. "It's me. Damn you, Kanin. You were a pain in the ass to find, you know that?"
Kanin didn't answer. Without warning, his hands rose, pressing to either side of my face as I went rigid. His stare was awed, hopeful, as if he couldn't quite believe I was real and had to touch me to make sure I wasn't a phantom.
"You're here." I barely caught the whisper, and Kanin's eyes closed again as he bowed his head. It was a broken sound, a man desperately grasping at the last thread of hope, when he had been in the darkness for so long. "You came."
And, as I stood, shocked, against the wall of the cell, Kanin sank to his knees in front of me, holding the backs of my legs. The top of his bowed head pressed against my thighs. "You came," he repeated, a chant holding him to sanity. I swallowed the lump in my throat and touched his broad shoulders, biting my lips to keep the tears in check, as the cell door opened with a creak, and the Prince beckoned us both to freedom.”
“It's not the physical scars that are the most painful.”
“So...." He picked a yellow cat skull out of an alcove, turned it toward me, and moved the jaws up and down as he asked, "What do we do now?”
“When I was Allie the Fringer, I used to collect books like this, from anywhere I could find them. Of Course, in the Fringe, owning them was highly illegal. The vampire lords didn’t want their cattle to be able to read—it might put ideas in our heads if they knew what life was like before. But one of my greatest secrets was that I could read. My mom had taught me when she was still alive, and I’d clung to that accomplishment fiercely. It was the one thing the vampires couldn’t take from me.”
“What's the matter? Scared? Need your big vampire brother to go down first.”
“He paused, gasping for breath, but continued in a soft, steady voice. "Allie, I...I love you.”
“You're not a saint. You're a demon. Own up to it.”
“You have no idea how hard this is for me, but...maybe, this isn't the right time. Not now, in a vampire tower...with them all around." He opened his eyes, giving me a pleading look. "Do you understand...what I'm trying to say?"
I smiled. "You're turning red, did you know that?"
"Allie!" Zeke blew out his breath in a huff. I laughed, released him and stepped back.”
“I watched him depart, steeled myself and then walked over to Kanin, who hadn't moved from his place in the corner.
"That was interesting." he mused in a toneless voice as I joined him along the wall. "I assume that last display was solely for my benefit?”
“Lesson learned. I was a monster. I would never forget that again.”
“You have my promise, vampire girl. I don’t intend to give up. I’ll fight beside you for as long as I can.”
“Don't wait for life to tap you on the shoulder.Go out and tap it.”
“As a second step to familiarizing ourselves with the virtue of patience, it is also very helpful to think of adversity not so much as a threat to our peace of mind but rather as the very means by which patience is attained. From this perspective, we see that those who would harm us are, in a sense, teachers of patience.”
“That's the sacred intent of life, of God--to move us continuously toward growth, toward recovering all that is lost and orphaned within us and restoring the divine image imprinted on our soul.”
“Kiddies, Graphic Design, if you wield it effectively, is Power. Power to transmit ideas that change everything. Power that can destroy an entire race or save a nation from despair. In this century, Germany chose to do the former with the swastika, and America opted for the latter with Mickey Mouse and Superman.”
“No matter how good you get at reframing, the single most important rule about managing the interaction is this: You can’t move the conversation in a more positive direction until the other person feels heard and understood. And they won’t feel heard and understood until you’ve listened. When the other person becomes highly emotional, listen and acknowledge. When they say their version of the story is the only version that makes sense, paraphrase what you’re hearing and ask them some questions about why they think this. If they level accusations against you, before defending yourself, try to understand their view. Whenever you feel overwhelmed or unsure how to proceed, remember that it is always a good time to listen.”
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