Ever hear of the phrase, Banging you're head on a brick wall?" Ah, but you forget, Darren, vampires can break brick walls with their heads.

...The pain didn't bother me. In fact, I welcome it: It meant I was alive.

Underneath me, Sam Grest - who'd been my friend and saved my life - lay perfectly still and slipped further and further into the final sleep of an unfair and horrible death.

For an hour or more he was neither human nor vampire, just a howling, hungry creature of dark delights.

What are you doing?" "Looking for my fangs." "We don't grow fangs you idiot!

Better to die for my people in my own land than rule in another and suffer a lifetime of cowardly guilt.

But I also slaughtered you real mother and father. In a moment of mad rage, I took their lives and left you an orphan. If you choose to take my life as a payment for theirs, you will be within your rights and no vampire will hold it against you. Pass judgment on me, Gavner Purl, and let your hand rise or fall as destiny decides it must." -Larten Crepsley