“No matter what happens, always be yourself”

“No one has the power to shatter your dreams unless you give it to them.”

“Damn it, the man needed a keeper. Yeah, sure he did. A dark-haired, dimpled, dhampir keeper, which wasn’t going to happen, so just shut up. Sometimes I didn’t think it mattered what Mircea did in my head, because I was already crazy anyway. “It’s like someone invented you just to mess with me,” I said resentfully. “Quoi?” I sighed.”

“What is a ‘woman like you’? Saying it that way suggests you have no choice in the matter. That you’ve been cast in this role as a victim. They may want us to be victims, Alena, but we don’t have to agree to the role.”

“Stercus Accidit.[barren happens]”

“They-" He stopped and just blinked at me for a minute. "You know, people are always saying that you're cuckoo. Looney Tunes. Off the freaking edge. But I tell 'em, no, she's okay. She's got some...anger management issues. But you know what? They're right. You're nuts.”

“I stared at him, unable to believe this was happening. That he could justdisappear, along with everything rich and strange he’d brought into my life.Vanished, like magic.”