“I swim with all my strength. No superhuman surge, or pony heroics; it's just me at my most desperate.”

“But when the blood is mine, it can send the boy djamphir a little crazy. It's something about me being svetocha. Super-happy stuff in my blood even before I "bloom," something that reaches down and wakes up the crazy in anyone with a touch of nosferat.After the blooming hit, I'd have my own superhuman strength and speed. And that super-happy stuff in my blood would make me toxic to suckers just like Raid is toxic to insects.”

“Swimming is normal for me. I'm relaxed. I'm comfortable, and I know my surroundings. It's my home.”

“It's like swimming, underwater, this whole year. I just close my eyes. hold my breath, and keep kicking.”

“Prayer had fortified him. It would require an almost superhuman strength of purpose, an absolute resolve, to save my brother from himself.”

“My state of mind, and all accompanying circumstances, were just now such as most to favour the adoption of a new, resolute, and daring— perhaps desperate— line of action. I had nothing to lose.”