The Rakshasa,” said Percy pedantically, “are a different breed altogether from our vampires. Much in the same way that poodles and dachshunds are different breeds of dog. Rakshasas are reviled in India. Their position as...

I mean to say, really, I am near to developing a neurosis – is there anyone around who doesn’t want to study or kill me?”Floote raised a tentative hand.”Ah, yes, thank you, Floote.””There is also...

The vampire’s eyes were open, and he was staring at her intently. It was as though he were trying to speak to her with simply the power of a glare.Alexia did not speak glare-ish.

Professor Lyall looked modestly proud. “I am considered a bit of an expert on the procreative practices of Ovis orientalis aries.””Sheep?””Sheep.””Sheep!” Madame Lefoux’s voice came over suddenly high, as though she were suppressing an inclination...

…you have been fraternizing with warewolves overmuch! Military men can be terribly bad for one’s verbal concatenation!

Ivy returned his direct gaze with a particularly innocent smile. “The great advantage,” she said, “of being thought silly, is that people forget and begin to think one might also be foolish. I may, Professor...

Alexia’s books called this end of the vampire life cycle dissanimation. Alexia, who thought the action astoundingly similar to a soufflé going flat, decided at that moment to call it the Grand Collapse.

You, my child, will marry well. More than once.” (…) The lady retrieved the cards and shuffled them back together into one stack in an attitude of dismissal.Taking this as a sign her fortune was...

I like fish,” chirruped Tunstell.”Really, Mr. Tunstell? What is your preferred breed?””Well”–Tunstell hesitated–“you know, the um, ones that”–he made a swooping motion with both hands–“uh, swim.

That’s a very murky position,” objected Felix.”So’s the weather. But this is England, we must learn to live with uncertainty.

Ivy was particularly adept at being ignorant but could cause extensive havoc with the smallest scrap of information.

How ghastly for her, people actually thinking, with their brains, and right next door. Oh, the travesty of it all.

It had taken her a good deal of time before she believed that she was worth all that fierce affection he lavished upon her. To have it stolen away unjustly was that much more cruel.

Felicity was horrible and snide, but then Felicity had been a repulsive earwig ever since she first grew a vocabulary.

Lady Maccon stopped suddenly. Her husband got four long strides ahead before he realized she had paused. She was starring thoughtfully up into the aether, twirling the deadly parasol about her head.”I have just remembered...

Cats were not, in her experience, an animal with much soul. Prosaic, practical little creatures as a general rule. It would suit her very well to be thought catlike.

My dearest girl,’ said the vampire finally, examining Lord Maccon with an exhausted but appreciative eye, ‘such a banquet. Never been one to favor werewolves myself, but he is very well equipped, now, is he...

How have I never noticed she only required praise to find me acceptable? wondered Sophronia, not quite realizing that this, too, was a mark of her new education. Many was the lady whose belief in...

Having delivered the expected daily miracle, Floote stood in his usual stance and warily watched the Templars work.

Madame Lefoux accepted a cup of tea and sat on another little settee, next to the relocated calico cat. The cat clearly believed Madame Lefoux was there to provide chin scratches. Madame Lefoux provided.

The ill-informed masses included her own family among their ranks, a family that specialized in being both inconvenient and asinine.

Aw, Sophronia, how thoughtful. You brought me a present!

Oh, Major, you do so love to annoy, don’t you?””It is the stuff of living, my lady.

Sophronia and Dimity took a vacant love seat at the front, Sophronia dislodging a large, fluffy cat with a scrunched-up face. The cat gave her a disgusted look. Or seemed to; it was hard to...

And I find perfect beauty excessively boring, don’t you?

What do you want?” Sophronia was moved to exasperation.”Me? Stockings and breeches to come back in fashion. I do miss seeing a man’s calves.

But I don’t want to be a vampire drone.’ Sophronia winced. ‘They’ll suck my blood and make me wear only the very latest fashions.

[She] lost her patience, a thing she was all too prone to misplacing.

History wasn’t precisely revered for its accuracy at the best of times.

She took a moment to lament her lack of parasol. Every time she left the house, she felt keenly the absence of her heretofore ubiquitous accessory.

Alexia wondered what it said about her character that Ivy had genuinely believed she would intentionally go climbing about the side of a floating dirigible.

I suspect it may be like the difference between a drinker and an alcoholic; the one merely reads books, the other needs books to make it through the day.”(Interview with The Booklovers blog, September 2010)

Alexia figured, delightedly, that this meant he did, in fact, tend to traipse around his private apartments in the altogether. Marriage was becoming more and more of an attractive prospect.

His eyes are peculiar. There is nothing in them, like an eclair without the cream filling. It’s wrong, lack of cream.

What if all those strange and unexplainable bends in history were the result of supernatural interference? At which point I asked myself, what’s the weirdest most eccentric historical phenomenon of them all? Answer:the Great British...

Lyall’s face went deadpan as he relayed the details, as those who are tortured or raped will become when they retell the pattern of abuse

Werewolf change was never pleasant. That was one of the reasons pack members still referred to it as a curse, despite the fact that, in the modern age of enlightenment and free will, clavigers chose...

But we were talking about me and my problems.”Sophronia looked Monique up and down gravely.”I don’t think we’re going to solve those in the space of one carriage ride.

One could not blame a people for disliking vampires. Vampires were like brussels sprouts – not for everyone and impossible to improve upon with sauce.

See!

They poured out the lower doors and windows of the castle, howling to the skies. They evolved into a kind of cohesive moving liquid, flowing down the hillside as one silvered blob, like mercury on...

I suppose that saves us from having to determine what to do with a butler who goes around killing people. It certainly reflects badly upon our domestic staff. Still, I shall miss him. There was...

The important question is, what will your wear for a wedding dress, Alexia? You look horrible in white.

I never gossip. I observe. And then relay my observations to practically everyone.