Quotes from Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Vultures devour the fallen. Hyenas destroy the weak. Humans kill that which they fear. Survive and be strong, or die, cornered by your prey, trembling because the night is dark.

As it was, they had never even managed a successful first date before their romance had gone the way of Romeo and Juliet's -- except that Romeo and Juliet didn't wake up the next day, leave the crypt and say, Now what?

Now she was a killer, a mercenary. And that was all.

The inherent dangers of youth will never change. Volatile hearts and ill-advised flirtations can hardly be compared to the hatred and slaughter of war.

It is a cruel thing to do, to cage such a beautiful, passionate animal as if it was only a dumb beast, but humans do so all too often. They even cage themselves, though their bars are made of society, not of steel.

You may come back as soon as your senses have returned.

They say the first of my kind was Alasdair, a human raised by hawks. She learned the languages of birds and was gifted with their form.

Are you a god now, Risika, deciding who is to live and who is to die?

Kendra] also referred to Tizoc Theron, one of the most powerful mercenaries in all of vampiric existence, as her Tizzy. The Inquisition was a dreadful inconvenience, World War II was a little spat and the fall of Midnight, the vampiric empire that had reigned for centurie, was an unfortunate event.

It means that all witches who hunt will turn their full attention on the ones Dominique considers responsible for my murder. They will call on their allies. They will track down anyone they have ever know to have a connection to the killers, without worrying about messy treaties with SingleEarth or other normally respected neutral havens. I don't suppose they care that your are not, in fact, dead, Nikolas said. Sarah shook her head. In their eyes, I am.

My cousin tried to kill me today, he said. He realized that his voice held an edge of hysteria. She nearly succeeded. But I guess that's fair, since I was trying to kill her at the time.

Yet he wasn't doing anything threatening at the moment. Instead, he was regarding her with curiosity. "Sarah Vida, I presume?" he inquired, voice civil. "Making sure introductions are out of the way before we fight?" she asked flippantly.

Humans are often this way. They go about their lives, constantly working, complaining of boredom one minute and overwork the next. They pause only to observe the niceties of society, greeting each other with 'Good morning' while their minds are somewhere else completely.

I fed on one of the true monsters—one of the many 'witch hunters' who interrogated and jailed the accused, seeking guilt where there was none. How humans can do such things to their fellows is beyond me. They torture, main and kill their own kind, saying it is God's will.

Betia laughed a little, shaking her head. She leaned forward and kissed my cheek as she grabbed my hands and pulled me to my feet. Her brown eyes glittered with a devil-may-care recklessness that warmed me to my toes. If it would make her smile that way, I would dance all night.

Betia kissed my forehead. I won't leave unless you ask me to. I- Her lips touched mine chastely. The future will come. I will be there, if you want me.

I fought; I fought for the immortal soul the preachers had taught me to believe in. I do not know whether I ever believed in it—I had never seen God, and He had never spoken to me—but I fought for it anyway, and I fought for Alexander.

You don't have to speak. Words fade, she whispered. I know that better than anyone. Words are forgotten; they are regretted. Unnecessary. I know.

We're plotting reformation of life as we know it," I replied, somewhat flippantly. "Oh, is that all?" she teased. "Why not start with breakfast?

Amazing how far we had come. A few days ago, I had been surprised to see Rei and Valene accepted as dancers in the nest; now anyone who wanted a part in this project was welcome. We had achieved half the goal of Wyvern's Court simply by dreaming of it.

Forever is too long to live in fear

Days and weeks and years. My brother never returned last night. Days and weeks and years. How long until their assassins find me? Danica Shardae Heir to the Tuuli Thea

IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE physically possible for Erin to be awake at one in the morning. The medication she had taken after dinner—a handful of pills in a multitude of shapes and colors—should have put her to sleep a long time ago. Normally they did. But tonight she was still wide awake.

Loss of that loyalty, respect and trust would destroy the Cobriana. Loss of their royal line would destroy the serpiente. If the serpiente refused to acknowledge Danica's child as their monarch, no number of guards would be able to keep that child on the throne. I had walked this precarious balance before, when I had declared Danica my mate. If necessary, I would do it again.