“No one stays the same, David. Everything you are is a direct result of something that's affected you in your past, whether it was horrible or wonderful -- no one has the right to destroy themselves because they can't deal with the pain. You have to learn from it. It's not over--the good in your life--it's not over until your dead.”

“You don't know how to take no for an answer, do you?”“That wasn't a no,” I teased. “Now—” using his wrists to drive his hands, I pushed them down and jumped as he lifted me up again, “—show me what's so scary about this vampire side.”“Ara, we—” he tried to speak, but I leaned down and gripped his lips tightly with mine, then pulled a little—using my teeth.He drew back abruptly and stared at me, wide eyed, but with a tentative grin. “So, you don't wanna be a vampire, but you like using your teeth?”“I'd like you to use your teeth.”“Physically. Not figuratively,” David practically grunted.“Stay out of my head, vampire.” I bared my puny teeth at him; he chuckled. “Now, do as you're told. Bite me.”

“I know you like me, Ara. You don't have to pretend, just because you think it's improper to fall for someone at first sight.” His eyes lit up, shimmering green like a glass marble held up to the sun. “I can see that you feel the same way I do.”Oh, my God! Is this the point where I can jump off the swing and fall into his waiting arms? No. Don't do that. Don't read into it too much. I looked away from his gleaming, white-toothed grin, and clutched the ropes of the swing tighter.”

“Then, I guess, I can only hope that you will change your mind. But I will love you, without a doubt, for all eternity.”

“So...you faze out, hear voices, and blame your tempered outbursts on a fictional creature living in...” he looked down at my stomach, “your belly.”“Precisely. The boy catches on quick.”

“So, what were you about to do that day, then? Float away or something?”“No.” He looked up from the ground and smiled. “I was about to lift you in my arms and run, vampire speed, to the closet room under the auditorium stage.”“You would not,” I said, my tone ringing in question.“Ara—” he raised one brow, “I'm a guy. Not a saint.”

“Books are the reality you get to choose; life is the reality you hide from inside a book.”