You're burned into my mind forever. There is nothing, nothing in this world that will ever change that." And it was memories like that that made it so hard to comprehend this quest to kill him, even if he was a Strigoi. Yet...at the same time I had to destroy him. I needed to remember him as the man who'd loved me and held me in bed. I needed to remember that that man would not want to stay a monster.

This is politics. People in power never have to play by the same rules.

I've heard that the soul often recognizes truth when it hears it, even if the mind does not.

You've always been my equal, Roza.

Whether it's simply some fierce animal joining of mates or a sublime merging of souls, she is mine, and I am hers.

I love you, and beneath all that logic, calculation, and superstition, I know you love me too.

Because...Beacause it's so good, and there's only one chance to read a book for the first time, and I want it to last. That experience. I'd finish it in a day otherwise, and that'd be like...like eating a carton of ice cream in one sitting. Too much richness over too quickly. This way, I can draw it out. Make the book last longer. Savor it. I have to since they don't come out that often.