Empire of the Dawn (Empire of the Vampire, #3)

by Jay Kristoff

“And made as you are in his image, your sickness is but a shadow of his own, mon ami. For there are none of us so bloodthirsty as the sovereign of heaven himself.”

“Like I told you, the graveyards of the world are full of fools who thought of fear as anything but a friend.

‘Being a cunt doesn’t make you clever. And cruelty’s a coin that’s only repaid in kind. I’d have thought you’d been served enough of it by now to know that.’

Sometimes I honestly wish I did. In night’s deeping, alone in my bed, I wonder what it would be like to be able to ignore the hypocrisy. The cruelty. To content myself with the thought that no matter how dark it gets, how senseless it seems, the Almighty has some kind of plan.’ I shook my head and sighed. ‘I envy you, old man. I truly do. To be able to look at the living corpses of slaughtered children and declare It’s his will. To roam endless fields of shallow graves and say He loves us still. To stare into the face of brutality, unchecked, unavenged, and to excuse it all with a wave of my hand and the answer for every hard question I ever asked a holy man: The Lord moves in mysterious ways.’ “I looked the bishop over, fangs stirring my gums. “‘But then I remember I’m not an infant. Hiding under a soft blanket for fear of the dark. Only a coward raises a fist to his child and calls it love. I name no one my Father who never loved me as a son. And I would scorn to lie meek upon the block and smile up at he who lifts the axe and tells me he has a fucking plan.’

Will you pray with me, my son?’ “‘I’d rather shit in my hands and clap.’