Melika Dannese Lux

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

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 in the mirror.

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 these past months, and that was no dream at all._______I was still fighting against the awful truth, not wanting to give in, searching my mind for a logical explanation__ut there was none. And the most horrible realization of all was that I had known, somewhere deep inside, ever since the day I first set eyes on Vladec Salei._______Plague carrier._______Living death._______Drainer of life._______The phrasing did not matter. No euphemism could strike fear into the hearts of men the way that single word

I know the consequences, Manon,_ Ilyse conceded. __ know the fate you endured might one day be my own. But I refuse to be a prisoner for the rest of my life.

I used to ask myself, __ergei, 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.

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

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

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 on themselves. What have they ever done for you except control your life? They tore you away from your sister; they ripped you from your home. Did you ask to be saved? No! Forget them and start over...with us, your true family, my Corcitura, my own.

She is so tiresome. __m I a vampire, am I a wolf, am I a vampire, am I a wolf, I cannot decide, so I__l be both!

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

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 more than a harmless man who happened to use vampirism to get what he desired. Some remnant of his mesmerism was still upon me. I had never been able to shake the feeling that he was tucked away in a corner of my mind, that he could read my thoughts, know what I was thinking. He had done something to me, but what that was, I had never been able to discover. All I knew was that the feeling had been with me since the morning I woke up and found myself in Venice.

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

I__e read about this in books, imagined it in my mind countless times since I__e been here, but to actually witness it is something entirely different. I thought I was prepared, but nothing__o amount of book learning or supposed life experience or bravado__an make you invulnerable to the sight of a vampire drinking blood.

I__ 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 away.

Don__ listen to the ramblings of fools,_ he said, smiling grimly. __hen it comes down to it, if they knew the truth, no one would want to live on this earth forever.

She rounded on me with such ferocity that for a moment I didn__ recognize her. A flash of fangs, a dark gleam in her blacker-than-night eyes. It was the most vampiric I__ ever seen her.

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 whole again, I can never go back. All these things he has given me. Better than my supposed mother and father ever could. For that, I owe him my life and allegiance.

Not all vampires are created equal, you know.