Laurell K. Hamilton

“It is the wee hours of the morning, ma petite. The room service menu is somewhat limited. Jason has donated blood twice to me tonight; he needed protein." Jean-Claude smiled. "It was either take-out, or he could eat Larry. I thought you'd prefer take-out.”

“Worry about the things you can control; the rest will either work themselves out, or they'll kill you. Either way, no more worries.”

“There are things that can harm a lot more than physically.”

“Falling does not cover the speed and abruptness of being thrown from less than ten feet high.”

“Why is it that most things you might willingly do under other circumstances become distasteful when you have no choice?”

“You have a high opinion of yourself, Anita. Confident. I like that. Always so much more entertaining to break someone strong. The weaklings fold and cry and snivel, but the brave ones, they almost demand that you hurt them." He stalked towards me, reaching out one white spider-hand. "Do you want me to hurt you?”

“Everyone turned towards me. The two female vamps smiled, most unpleasantly. They looked at me like I was a piece of candy and they wondered what sort of center I had. Soft and gooey, or hard with a nut in the middle? I'd had men undress me with their eyes, but I'd never had anything trying to picture what I'd look like with my skin off. Yikes.”

“I didn't try to pull away; things that can bench-press Toyotas don't let go.”

“If you are not a lady, then you are a whore. You do not want to know what would happen to a human whore within these walls." He seemed tired as he said it, as if he'd been there, done that, and hadn't had a good time.”

“Jean-Claude gave a low theatrical bow, never taking his eyes from her. "After you, my sweet. A lady should always walk before a gentleman, never behind.”

“I don't want him hurt because he got out of hand with me.""Yet you would have shot him."I shrugged. "I never said I was consistent, just serious.”

“He didn't look the least bit tired. A morning person, even after no sleep at all. It was disgusting.”

“Asking Jean-Claude not to be a pain in the ass was like asking rain not to be wet. Why try?”

“It makes me nervous when you keep answering all my questions with 'I don't know.' ""Me, too," I said.”

“Magic, if that was the right word, often rises and falls on your own belief in your abilities. I've seen very powerful people completely crippled by self-doubt.”

“What's the matter with you tonight?" he asked when we were out of earshot of Stirling and Co."I told you.""No," he said, "it isn't just the murder tonight. Hell, I've seen you kill people and be less upset afterwards. What's wrong?”

“I prayed as we walked up the hill. I prayed and felt a measure of calm return. No visions. No angels singing. But a feeling of peace flowed over me. Ii took a deep breath, and something hard and tight and ugly in my heart let go. I took it as a good sign that I'd get to Jeff in time. But part of me was skeptical. God doesn't always save someone. Often He just helps you live through the loss. I guess I don't entirely trust God. I never doubt Him, but His motives are too beyond me. Through a glass darkly and all that. Just once I'd like to see through the damn glass clearly.”

“It was after 2:00 A.M. before we got back to the graveyard. The Feds had kept us forever, like they didn't believe we were telling them the whole truth. Fancy that. I hated being accused of concealing evidence when I wasn't. Made me want to lie to them just so they wouldn't be disappointed.”

“Visions of such things would get you talking of demons, which Quinlan had done briefly. The police ignored him, and I didn't back up his story. Quinlan had never met a real demon, or he wouldn't have made the mistake. Once you've been in the presence of demons, you never forget it. I'd rather fight a dozen vampires than one demonic presence. They don't give a shit about silver bullets.”

“See if he's alive." It was a messy job, and I'd have done it myself, but I trusted me more than Larry to keep the vampires away. He'd saved me once tonight, but I still trusted me more.”

“Anyone who doesn't believe that the forest is a deadly place has never been lost in one.”

“Remember the three rules of vampire hunting. One: Never, ever look them in the eyes. Two: Never, ever give up your cross. Three: Aim for the head and heart. Even with silver ammo, it won't be a killing blow anywhere else." I felt like a kindergarten teacher sending her kiddies off to a hostile playground. "Don't panic if you get bitten. The bite can be cleansed. As long as they don't mesmerize you with their eyes, you can still fight.”

“He's not going to shoot us in the back by accident, is he?" Deputy Coltrain asked.I smiled, not sweetly. "He promised not to.”

“I had a moment to visualize Larry out in the dark all alone, unarmed except for his cross. The thought made my skin cold. I opened my mouth to yell at him and closed it. Never dress anyone down in public unless it's an object lesson. I said, "Any tracks?" I gave myself a dozen brownie points for yelling."Do I look like Tonto? Beside the ground is just grass and it's been so dry lately. I don't think there'd be any tracks.”

“I took a fresh mug of coffee. Grilling grieving families always goes down better with caffeine.”

“He thought I was a cop and deliberately didn't call me "officer" or "detective." I let it go. If I really had a professional title I'd have demanded it, but getting into an argument because he wouldn't call me "detective" when I wasn't one seemed counterproductive.”

“I could have just said I'm good at my job, but I didn't. Didn't want the police thinking I was holding out information when I wasn't. "I've got one advantage over a normal homicide detective, I expect it to be a monster. No one ever calls me in if it's just a stabbing, or a hit-and-run. I don't spend a lot of time trying to come up with nice, normal explanations. It means I get to ignore a lot of theories.”

“Larry and the pilot stood to one side, smoking, sharing that camaraderie of all people who are determined to blacken their lungs.”

“There are only two things you can do when you're dressed like Barbie Does Bondage; you can be embarrassed or you can be aggressive. Guess what my choice was.”

“It feels like we're in a Harry Potter book talking about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.”

“So many of us had been armed that there were holsters and weapons scattered among the passed-out bodies like mercenary prizes in a fleshy Cracker Jack box.”

“The Catholic Church sees voluntary vampirism as a kind of suicide. I tend to agree. Though the Pope also excommunicated all animators, unless we ceased raising the dead. Fine; I became Episcopalian.”

“ll K HamiltonSome days the lion eats you, but some times you shove your arm down it's throat and pull it's visera out through it's mouth and kill it. Of course, sometimes it bites your arm off, and then eats you, but you tried, that's what counts. Some days it's not about winning, but about fighting. If you don't try, the lion will most definetely eat you. But sometimes when you put your all into something, and don't give up even when the odds are so against you, you surprise the lion and yourself, and you win.”

“Naučila jsem se, že si musíte udělat čas na to, co je důležité. Musíte bojovat o to, abyste si do života vtěsnali malé kousky štěstí, nebo vás každodenní starosti sežerou.”

“trust me, Anita, if you get dead, especially if he blames himself in any way, he will be a force of destruction looking for a place to be aimed. And he's blamed himself for introducing you to Olaf here from the get-go. If Olaf did to you what he's done to some of his other victims, Edward would drown the world in blood to erase those images.”

“Sometimes you deal with the devil not because you want to, but because if you don't, someone else will.”

“I sipped my own coffee, heavy on the sugar and cream, trying to make up for the late work the night before. Caffeine and sugar, the two basic food groups.”

“It wasn't just my beast's hunger, but Jean-Claude's blood thirst and Richard's craving for flesh. It was all that and the ardeur running through all of it, so that one hunger fed into the next in an endless chain, a snake eating it's own tail, an Ouroboros of desires.”

“I wasn't afraid of him anymore, because I could smell his fear. You never had to be afraid of anything that was afraid of you.”

“All men love to talk about themselves, even the ones who are completely buggers.”

“I thought of several alec smart remarks, but you should humor crazy people when you're at their mercy; it's a rule.”

“He wanted you dead, now he doesn't, I don't know why. Chimera's crazy, he doesn't need a reason to change his mind.”

“She was hell on wheels and used to getting her own way.”

“If you're too damn stubborn to let yourself cry, then your body finds other ways to let it out.”

“Richard was a riddle with no answer, and I was tired of playing a game I couldn't win.”

“You either pay as you go with Raina, or you end up owing her, and owing comes with interest, and the interest is hell to pay.”

“She doesn't understand what she's asking, Jean-Claude said.No, but she asks, and if we do not do it, we will always wonder. I would rather thy and fail than regret having never tried at all.”

“He’s a senior in high school Bernardo. Jean-Claude is his legal guardian and had to enroll him in school. He comes home with homework and shit and then he wants to cuddle and have sex. It weirds me the fuck out.”

“I’ll take him to the hospital ” Bernardo said “but what do we put on the paperwork ” “Tell them it was a lover’s quarrel ” Olaf said. “Over my dead body ” I said. “Eventually ” he said. “Don’t be a sick fuck Olaf ” I said.”

“Since you won't give me your names I'll call you Thing One and Thing Two.”