Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire, #1)

by Jay Kristoff

Let the dark know my name and despair. So long as it burns, I am the flame. So long as it bleeds, I am the blade. So long as it sins, I am the saint. And I am silver.

ASK ME NOT if God exists, but why he’s such a prick. Even the greatest of fools can’t deny the existence of evil. We dwell in its shadow every day.

Because if the Almighty is willing to put an end to all this wickedness, but somehow unable to do so, then he’s not as almighty as the priests would have you believe.

Margot Chastain, First and Last of Her Name, Undying Empress of Wolves and Men.”

with the principles of your Order, de León. Those who do not learn from the past suffer the future.

“He was a hopeless drunkard with a smile that could charm the unmentionables off a nun, and fists even angels feared.”

“I’ve lived thirty-five years with the name my mother gave me, coldblood, and never once have I seen the meek inherit anything but the table scraps of the strong.”

“Besides, who the fuck would want to inherit an earth like this?”

there’s a difference between those who swim with the flood and those who drown fighting it. And its name is Wisdom.

But if your faith in the Almighty was strong enough, the aegis made you untouchable.

vampire.’ “It was Aaron de Coste who’d spoken,

‘We are hope for the hopeless. The fire in the night. We will walk the dark as they do, and they shall know our names and despair. For so long as they burn, we shall be flame. So long as they bleed, we shall be blades. So long as they sin, we shall be saints.’

“KNOW MY NAME, YE SINNERS, AND TREMBLE. FOR I AM COME AMONG THEE AS A LION AMONG LAMBS.

Because it wasn’t a hero Talon forged that day as I breathed that beautiful poison into my lungs. It was a chain. And one I shall never break.

“No fear,” he bid them. “Only fury.”

“What kind of hero are you?” Gabriel laughed, shaking his head. “Who the fuck told you I was a hero?”

I could tell at a glance they were press-ganged militia—most had seen too few winters, the others, far too many.

“‘De León. Ye live.’ “‘Sadly.’ “‘How?’ he hissed. “‘God didn’t want me. And the devil was afraid to open the door.’

Nor the legend that Fabién himself cannot be slain by any warrior of woman born.

“A life without books is a life not lived.

Put a man in a room for a hundred years with a thousand books, and he’ll know a million truths. Put him in a room for a year with silence, and he’ll know himself.”

“‘The world needs bad men, boy. We keep the monsters from the door.’ “‘But that’s the problem, hero. Bad men never realize when the monster is them.’

I tell you now and tell you true: One hand holding a sword is worth ten thousand clasped in prayer.’

by the Pontifex of the One Faith,’ Chloe said. ‘The idea of the Redeemer taking a mortal lover was declared a sacrilege, and the descendants of Esan, blasphemers.

Dead shall rise, an’ stars shall fall; “‘Weald shall rot to ruin ae all. “‘Lions roar an’ angels weep; “‘Sinners’ hands our secrets keep. “‘Til Godling’s heart brights hea’en’s eye, “‘From reddest blood comes bluest sky.’

A life without books is a life not lived.’

Your past is stone, but your future is clay. And you decide the shape of the life you’ll make.’

‘One day as a lion is worth ten thousand as a lamb.’

Hearts only bruise. They never break.’

I asked myself if God loved us, how it was he could hate that we found love ourselves. How he could allow such suffering to go unanswered. How he could have deemed it wise to create a world that cradled horrors such as these.

Let the dark know my name and despair.

I know this world is cruel. That saints and sinners suffer one and the same. I know every time you give a piece of yourself to someone, you risk

them breaking it. I know there are some wounds that never truly heal, and sometimes all that’s left of people are their scars. I know time eats us all alive.’

and I remembered; there is a time for grief, and a time for songs, and a time to recall with fondness all that has been and gone. “But there is a time for killing too. “There is a time for blood. “And a time for rage. “And a time to close your eyes and become the thing hell wants you to be.

one hand holding a sword is worth ten thousand clasped in prayer.