Be yourself-- Matthew Clairmont. Complete with your sharp vampire teeth and your scary mother, your test tubes full of blood and your DNA, your infuriating bossiness and your maddening sense of smell.

I wanted to know how humans came up with a view of the world that had so little magic in it. I needed to understand how they convinced themselves that magic wasn’t important.

I know,I can smell it, too.

Gallowglass returned to Sporrengasse with two vampires and a pretzel.

Wordlessly I looked back at him, astonished that a kiss on the palm could be so intimate.

That evening, rowing on the quiet river as sunset turned to dusk, I saw an occasional smoky smudge on the towpath, always slightly ahead of me, like a dark star guiding me home.

I want a simple, ordinary life . . . like humans enjoy.