“There is but a gentle stillness inside every cerebral. Tiny waterfalls of blood vessels rushing, becoming lethal.”

“The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.”

“and so the man who called to her was simultaneously a stranger and a member of the secret brotherhood. He called to her in a kind voice, and Tereza felt her soul rushing up to the surface through her blood vessels.”

“Well, if it’s an order,” she said on a gentle tease, warmed by his words in spite of herself. “You know, for such a cerebral man, you certainly have powerful physical appetites.”His lips curved in a seductive smile. “Of course, I do. I’m a Byron, after all. It’s in my blood.”

“it's like your red blood is everywhere, not just in vessels.”

“It's hard to believe that this is how it's done. That this is how we get here into the world, by accident or design, the microscopic pieces of ourselves borne by fluids and blood and growing into a tiny kingdom of cells inside someone else's body It seems so difficult to become alive. So improbable.”