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the rosemary oil covering my clothes and skin. I smelled like one of Mom’s casseroles.
Verity specializes in urban cryptids, who tend to wear shoes and have running water.
the Church Griffin is a breed of miniature griffin that basically combines the raven with the Maine Coon cat,
My baby sister is devious enough to make your average bogeyman seem like an open book.)
my great-grandfather, Alexander Healy, who was one of the premiere cryptozoologists of his time. (That’s not as impressive as it sounds. There weren’t many cryptozoologists in his time.
“Lindworms are a sign of a healthy ecosystem,” I said, straightening. “Now let’s get out of here before the healthy ecosystem eats us.
Tourists and school groups milled listlessly on the paths, slowed down by their recent meals, while the diurnal animals did basically the same thing inside the open-air habitats.
She didn’t carry a hunting rifle on a regular basis, but aside from that, she was everything I’d ever wanted in a woman,
(Big cats turn out to be surprisingly popular in Australian zoos, maybe for the same reason that kangaroos and koalas are so popular in North America: they’re so weird they’re unbelievable, if you didn’t grow up with them.)
When she pulled away, her smile had become something sweeter and darker, like cherry cola syrup.
Reptiles are fascinating things, but you have to be willing to spend a lot of time waiting for them to move.
They look like pale, black-haired humans, for reasons that only nature can explain. Nature’s not talking, possibly because even nature realizes that giving perfect camouflage to apex predators is sort of a dick move.
I’ve always found it best to do as I was told when dealing with my grandmother.
Nametags made things a little easier on her, and hence a lot easier on the rest of us.
“Our relationship with the mice is . . . complicated. Just remember that being a god doesn’t actually give you any authority and you’ll be fine.”
We have Faith, Holiness, but there is Faith, and then there is Common Sense. Sometimes the one must take precedence over the other.”
There is no better backup system in this world than a colony of Aeslin mice. They may demand to be paid in cheese and cake, but once they know something, they know it forever.
“The Time of Science is upon us.” Live with Aeslin long enough, you learn how to pronounce capitals. It makes things easier.
“To be fair, Australia does sound sort of fictional if you’ve never been there.”
Even if I stole a copy of his autopsy report (and let’s be honest here: I was going to steal a copy of his autopsy report), I wouldn’t have all the data.
He was a pretty well-liked guy, and I was going to miss him when it came time for me to move on to being someone else.
If they were going to try and pin Andrew’s murder on me, there wasn’t much I could do about it, aside from being innocent. Since I hadn’t killed him, I figured I had that part in the bag.
“I’ll never understand the human idea that children are invariably more valuable than adults,” said Dee. “If you have twenty adults and twenty children, and half of them are going to die, you can’t save just the kids. They’d all starve to death.”
She was perfect, except for the part where if she met my family, she’d scream and run away.
The world could end, and anything morphologically feline would find a way to take a nap.
Dead bodies didn’t bother him, since he’d been one (or two, or three) himself at one point,
“Are you all right?” “I am. Andrew’s not.” “Now, you don’t know that. He could be getting his afterlife orientation right now.”
My Aunt Mary used to babysit my grandmother, and she died decades before I was born. That doesn’t stop her from showing up at every family reunion and Christmas party she can get to.
You’re not the only answer to every problem.”
I know you want to serve the cryptid community, sweetheart. Well, tonight, you serve the cryptid community by babysitting.”
I wanted to be a good boyfriend, no matter how bad at it I was.
“Sarah, it’s Alex. Can you look at me for a second?” “Math is happening,” she scolded, not turning her head.
they really think a home should be a home, and not a house where you’re temporarily living.”
I don’t run the reptile house.” Shelby snorted. “Come off that, Alex. You run Dee, and Dee is the force that holds that place together.
(Why the old batteries, I don’t know. Maybe there’s some sort of natural law that says every drawer without an exact defined purpose has to contain a certain number of batteries.)
If I die this way, Antimony is going to decorate my statue for the holidays for the rest of time.
“You’re the one who had a gun hidden in your trouser leg!” “Shoulder holsters mess up the line of the shirts I’m supposed to wear to work.”
“Alex would make a terrible Martian,” said Sarah. “He doesn’t have a giant laser and he’s not planning an Earth-shattering kaboom.”
Stop acting like she’s not a person.
“I promise we won’t kill her and dump her body in the nearest ravine,” said Grandma, sounding annoyed. “Just go, all right?”
“Love to Verity, ongoing tolerance to you.”
“We’ve come to an agreement,” said Grandma. “She doesn’t attempt to kill anyone who lives in this house, I don’t arrange for her sudden disappearance.
“A basilisk will actually leave most of its prey unchanged, counting on suffocation to provide the killing blow.” “Why?” asked Shelby. “Crunchy outside, chewy inside,”
I know I should be taking this all terribly seriously, but this is so much like listening to my own family argue that it’s actually very relaxing. Do let me know if we reach a point where I should be running for my life, all right?”
The reptile house there was operated by one of the rare dragons who had chosen to go into something other than professional money-making.
“You really tried to hug a manticore? Alex, I never thought you had it in you.” “I was six,” I said, trying to recover my dignity as I put the Tim Horton’s bag down on the table. “It looked like a puppy crossed with a scorpion. Of course I wanted to hug it.”
“They’re not extinct,” I said. “They just don’t get out much.”
“Is anyone in Ohio human?” “I am,” I said. “You’re a Price, you don’t count,” Shelby shot back.
“I’m from Australia. I see stranger than women with snakes for hair when I look out my bedroom window.”
Dee hit the gas, and I was forced to violate several local and state ordinances if I wanted to keep up with her.
