The Lantern's Ember

My stubborn little witch,” he said softly. “Don’t believe for a clockwork minute that you are unlovable. If I were a mortal, a man not doomed to walk the earth as a haunted specter, I would be the first suitor in line. Please believe that.” She hiccupped. “You… you’d want to court me?” Jack laughed. “Court you? I’d follow you around like Finney and stare at you all moony-eyed. I’d spend my days fending off your other would-be suitors, my evenings charming Flossie, and my nights stealing kisses at your window.

In my experience,” the lantern began, his voice soft, “places like the oceans or the heavens, an undiscovered forest, a great underground chasm, or the mystery of a woman’s heart and mind are not the end of a journey, but a beginning. Do not let fear of the unknown prevent you from discovery, vampire; otherwise the story of your life will be a dull tale indeed.

All I ask,” the doctor said, “is that you keep in mind that all creations, all advances, all inventions, come with a price. They can be used for good or they can be used for evil. But in my philosophy, mine is not to determine politics or to decide if a certain advance should be created. Mine is to determine if it could be created. There’s no use in debating the morals when I don’t even know if something will work.

For a witch, you certainly don’t know much about how hauntings work.

Ember,” he said, his voice husky. She liked the way he said her name, especially at that very moment. “Yes, Jack?” she answered; her own words sounded throaty and thick and full of longing. “This was a mistake.

Ember had never imagined a kiss to be so innocent and so wanton at the same time. Her whole body trembled, and she felt as if she stood on the cusp of something wonderful. That if she was just brave enough to step over the edge, she’d experience the most exhilarating moment of her life.

It always takes more energy to join and build than to destroy, my dear.

It's not the ones who look different from you that you should be careful around,” Deverell said. “It's the ones who look human.

The air felt thin and bursting with life. It always seemed to Ember that on Samhain, the world sucked in a breath and held it, waiting for the chime of midnight to ring, and then it slowly exhaled, blowing all the unseen things far back, away from the world of the living.

Finney asked everyone to carve pumpkins and light them to mark the path from the crossroad to the town. The tradition caught on, and soon crossroads all over the world opened on that one night and the mortal realm was haunted by ghosts, goblins, witches, werewolves, and vampires.

Yegor,” he called loudly as if the man was hard of hearing. “You must give the boy a tour of the lab.” “Yes, master,” Yegor replied. The doctor stopped and turned to his servant. “Yegor, how many times must I say it? You are to call me Doctor, not master.” “Of course, Doctor Master.

If you held the very key to everlasting life in your hand and the door stood before you, ready to open and reveal all the secrets of the eternities, would you be brave enough to unlock it and step through?” “No,” Jack said abruptly, tossing down his napkin. “There are some things we aren't meant to know; some people so villainous, the world is better for their deaths.