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

by Jay Kristoff

“Some people are born lucky, coldblood. And some people make their own.”

“It’s only in faerie tales that everything works out for the best with a magik spell or a prince’s kiss. It’s only in storybooks some little bastard picks up a sword and wields it like he was born to it. The rest of us? We have to work our arses off. And we might not ever taste triumph, but at least we dared to fail. We stand apart from those cowards whispering on the sidelines about how the strong did stumble, while never daring to set foot in the ring themselves. Victors are just folk who were never satisfied being vanquished. The only thing worse than finishing last is not beginning at all. And fuck finishing last.”

“‘A life without books is a life not lived.’

“What is sin at all?”

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

“‘I have forever, boy.’ “‘I am forever.’”

“‘Hearts only bruise. They never break.’

“When there’s little you can do, do what little you can.

You only appreciate the sunshine after you’ve stood in the pouring rain.

We believe in life after death, because oblivion is too dark an abyss to stare into.

“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. “And so. I did.”