Strange Practice (Dr. Greta Helsing, #1)

by Vivian Shaw

Even if there weren’t mysterious zealots with poisoned spikes out there looking to perforate him, he wouldn’t have looked forward to braving the elements; it took some little time to first select and then thrall somebody, and then find somewhere they wouldn’t be disturbed for the few minutes it took to drink, and all this was much more tiresome to contemplate in the rain. Besides, it really did make his hair frizz.

How does Ruthven change from sixty or seventy kilos of bipedal humanoid into a few grams of regrettably adorable bat?”

“I’ll put on a kettle,” she said. “If we’re going to have a council of war we might as well have a nice cup of tea while we’re doing it.”

I’m almost certain that claiming to be the Voice of God when you are not, in fact, the Voice of God is something upon which Heaven frowns. The job’s taken, you know.”

“Put those back,” he said. “I have had to overlook a number of personal inconveniences just lately, but I am not having you ruin the edge on my good knives by using them to chop up violent lunatics. If you insist on coming with us, go and get one of the damn swords over the dining room mantelpiece, and try not to hurt yourself with it.”

at the moment things are a little fraught in terms of infernocelestial politics;