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

by Jay Kristoff

Gabriel tapped an empty leather pouch at his belt. “Behold the purse in which I keep my fucks for what you think of me.”

God didn’t want me. And the devil was afraid to open the door.’

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.

Oh, oui, the holy virgin.’ Astrid rolled her eyes. ‘Let me tell you, if the Almighty offered me the platter of shit that constitutes divine motherhood and yet denied me the pleasure of a good roll in the hay beforehand, I’d have told him to go fuck himself.’

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