A lot of things should have been, Zigmund, but they aren’t. Are you going to be miserable about the things you cannot change, or do something about the things you can?

If I were pressed, I would admit that she was beautiful, in a dead bride sort of way.

His character is like an emerald—multifaceted and enhanced by inclusions.

She is so tiresome. ‘Am I a vampire, am I a wolf, am I a vampire, am I a wolf, I cannot decide, so I’ll be both!

Death stalked toward us on padded feet. And it was not alone.

Affronts to her reputation pierced her to the heart, though I couldn’t understand why, since she had very little character left to defend.

Because, my dear Eric, I have tasted the secret knowledge. I know how much to say and when to pull back. I know what to see and not see. And now that I have become...

I had lied to myself from the very beginning, deceived myself into believing that I was being fanciful and overly imaginative. Surely such monstrosities only existed in nightmares? Yet I had lived through a nightmare...

He was mocking me. I could see his mouth beginning to lift in a maddening smirk, a smile that was half sardonic and half secretive, as if the fate of the world depended on the...

How does one go on after doing such unspeakable things? It’sall rather simple, really,” he continued, speaking in someone else’s voice. “Say to yourself, ‘What things?’ And it becomes clear…you are blameless. They brought it...

When it comes down to it, if they knew the truth, no one would want to live on this earth forever.

Stefan needed me. Ha! Stefan needed me, as what? His next meal?

Thirteen years of friendship had bonded us together more thoroughly than if we had been born of the same mother. Even at this late stage, I was unwilling to let him go.

I’ve read about this in books, imagined it in my mind countless times since I’ve been here, but to actually witness it is something entirely different. I thought I was prepared, but nothing—no amount of...

Not all vampires are created equal, you know.

Darkness enveloped us again, and for the first time in years, I welcomed it.

I know the fate you endured might one day be my own. But I refuse to be a prisoner for the rest of my life.

She rounded on me with such ferocity that for a moment I didn’t recognize her. A flash of fangs, a dark gleam in her blacker-than-night eyes. It was the most vampiric I’d ever seen her.

I used to ask myself, ‘Sergei, would you rather spend your money on drink or women?’ and thanks to the club, I spend it on both and am called a patron of the arts.

I’d go to hell and back and cut off the devil’s head myself to save you.

A decision made during a moment of weakness can ruin your life. To date, I had made three.

what might have been had his gaze fallen upon some other miserable wretch? Yes, you would have been destitute, starving in the streets, scraping for your next meal…but even beggars are free.

and I’ll swear it again; no matter what you do, you will never conquer me.

Maybe I had been making a greater monster of him than he really was, or maybe I was still under his influence, for I was certain that he wanted me to believe he was no...

Sergei doesn’t yearn for love…he thirsts for domination, and now he has finally achieved it.

There was something in her eyes that made me trust her. Maybe it was because they held the same cynicism, the same world-weariness I saw in my own every morning when I looked at myself...

I’m not asking for your forgiveness. I have done no wrong according to my kind. I never meant to turn you. I just wanted to have a little fun with you before they took you...

Pity…

With Stefan, the line between good and evil, right and wrong, becomes increasingly blurred.