Laura Bradley Rede

“I feel like I will split like a wishbone, but who will get their wish?”

“It's not about whether her heart beats, it's just about whether it loves.”

“I never really appreciated the self-contained miniature universe that is me. I fall in love with my breathing too late, fall in love with it just in time to lose it, walk into the show just in time for the fireworks grand finale.”

“If escaping a lycanthrope has taught me anything, it's the importance of sensible footwear.”

“Ah, yes" he says, "The old story: 'Boy eats girl.”

“I like the fact that she thinks. The human face is so legible that it sometimes seems possible to watch their thoughts, the way you can see fish moving in a lake by the little ripples they make on the surface.”

“Then he is up and off the couch in one fluid motion - remarkable considering no one gets up off our couch gracefully.”

“I know I shouldn't turn to look at Cicely, no matter how much I want to. So I don't. But I can't stop myself from looking in the rearview mirror, as if looking at her indirectly will help somehow, like looking at an eclipse.”

“A good guy would have been more of a bastard to her, hurt her to avoid hurting her worse.”

“Cicely glances over at him. She looks a good kind of nervous when she should look a bad kind of scared.”

“I know the story by heart. The book is just a "do not disturb" sign, to make sure no one talks to me.”

“Just a few feet behind them, I can't help thinking about a line from the battered Shakespeare in my bag: "A swan trooping among crows." Except in this case it's the opposite: I am a crow trooping after swans.”

“Even the blood is quickly washing away in the driving rain, I wish my conscience could get clean so fast.”

“For a minute I consider taking my iPod out of my pocket to give myself a little music to make the walk go faster, but then decide against it. The pre-storm rustle of the forest feels like the right soundtrack for my restless thoughts. Music would only jolly me out of my funk, and I'm in the mood to wallow a little longer.”

“My Mother always wants to know why I don't just take things down, but I like it the way it is - like layers of sediment in an archaeology dig, or overlapping scales of armor. My room is the safest place I know.”

“Without her, there wouldn't be a me any more. I'm human because I love her.”

“You want to know why I brought you out here." "The question had crossed my mind, yes. But I figured it was probably to buy me horses or feed me caviar. Or, you know, to kill me." He looks up surprised. "Kill you? No. And in the future I would say if you suspect someone wants to kill you, you shouldn't follow him into the woods.”

“I could not separate our fates now any more than I could sort the blood from the ash. We are tied together by our love of the same girl.”

“I had to make you love me." His dark eyes meet mine. "What I didn't count on is falling in love with you.”

“It is an intensely beautiful world. More and more, I think of it as Cicely's world. More and more I wish it were my world, too. A minute ago, I hoped I wasn't bonding, but now, I almost hope I am. Because its either that or I'm falling in love.”

“Listen, I have been through Hell in the last few hours. I have been chased and clawed and bitten by vampires - twice! One of them being you! And my leg is torn and my mind is blown and I'm wearing somebody else's pants! I need to sleep, I need to eat, I need to wear my own damn clothes, and what I don't need is for some vampire to smile at me all amused like I'm the wife in a fifties sitcom!”

“Luke is not what you'd call a confident driver. In fact, he drives like someone's grandpa. "Luke," I say, "You have done this before, right? I mean, you do drive?" "Of course I drive!" He shoots me an indignant glare. "It's just that I learned in England. I'm used to driving on the other side of the road." "You pretty much are on the other side of the road.”

“You think I can't pull it off, don't you? You think I'll look stupid next to someone like Luke. You think he's too good for me." This is my chance. I should say yes and make her hate me, kill her last bit of hope. Easy. Like staking a vamp. "I think you'll look beautiful." I turn away. "No one's too good for you. No one's good enough.”

“The clock is ticking. I should be leaving right now. But what I want to do is take Cicely in my arms and press her up against me hard enough to make her not care that I'm messing up her lipstick. I want to pick her up and carry her back through that doorway. We're only a few strides from the couch, only one rip away from ruining that expensive fabric, the dress she must have bought to wear for him.”

“I press my lips to the curve of her neck, just to prove I am strong, just to prove I can do it. But I can't. I'm going to bite.”

“Luke grabs my hand. I turn to see a look of pure horror on his face. "This," he says, "is a dance?" "You were expecting what?" I say. "Why are they not dancing?" I look around the gym again. "Well, most people are dancing." I nod at the freshman boys, who have resorted to doing the robot. "They're dancing." Luke looks completely unconvinced. "And the music," he says, "is it always this.....loud?" I laugh. "You sound like you're forty. You have been to a dance before, right?" Luke looks offended. "Yes. Of course. But it was more..." he surveys the gyrating bodies around us "....civilised that this." He turns to me accusatory. "And you. Have you been to a dance?”