Raise the Blood Quotes

“What will you do to me, my little sparrow? Beat your hands against my chest? Scratch me up? Shout at me in that sweet, trembling voice? If that’s the case, you tempt me to villainy, simply by making me crave the punishment.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“Poor little sparrow,” he whispered, almost tenderly. “It only hurts because I want you so much.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“I’m sorry it hurts, Nadine,” he whispered, gently stroking her face. “But this is all I have to give you, and I love seeing you try to take it.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“In her naïve imaginings, he had been like the tortured hero of a gothic romance, possessing a heart filled with dark passions borne from even darker tragedies. His gregarious charm was belied only by the shadows in his eyes, and in their clear amber depths she had thought she had seen a Byronic torment to which she might pose the balm. And she had been right about all of that, save for one crucial thing:

He was not the hero. He was, in fact, the villain.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“I can’t imagine feeling that way about someone,” she said. “I mean, building a house for them, and then burning parts of it to the ground when they die, and burying them beneath black flowers—” She broke off, glancing at him. “Who does that?”

“My family,” he said.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“People love beautiful things, but it isn’t enough to simply love them from afar. They want to possess them, own them. Even if—in the case of living things—the cost of ownership is that it can no longer be alive.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“She could imagine how it would be. That was the worst part. The suggestive taunts that made her feel clumsy and hyper-vigilant, the soft touches that could spring like a trap—they painted a very vivid picture of what it would be like to fuck him, yes. He would not be nice or gentle, but he would be good, and he would gore her heart like any other trophy in this place just as soon as he was done playing with it.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“You were so sweet. At first, I told myself that I was looking for the lie beneath it, but by the end, I was just looking for another taste of you. And then you came here looking for your sister, and instead you found me. Waiting to fucking eat you up.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“Love is cruel, Nadine,” he said, in that soft, vicious voice. “Possessive. Unforgiving. If you open your heart to it, you’ll get it ripped out. I find it rather tragic that you romantics lay yourselves down in these honeyed traps, only to get eaten alive by what you claim to want the most.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“I feel kind of sorry for the boy. His father must have him in some kind of chokehold, dragging him back to this place. He’s a lawyer, you know—a good one, supposedly. Not that I could afford him.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“What the fuck is wrong with this fucking family?”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“At first she thought it was another one of her dreams.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“Terror flared through her, as hot as a branding iron.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“my horn seeks to pierce.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“Sobbing, she fumbled with the door, before letting it slam closed behind her despite his warning.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“She was crying in earnest now.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“I’m sorry to hear that.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“There was a pause, and then the voice said: “Your master.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“Thomas had said it started at seven.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“Was it a dream? She suddenly felt sick and scared.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“She had mostly packed for the outdoors, figuring her time here would be spent largely on search parties and other logistics.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“Nadine let out a frightened sound at the drag of his zipper and suddenly felt hard, hot flesh as he took her hand and made her cup him.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“Nadine screamed,”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“And now that my blood is risen, thy snow-white thighs shall cool my ardor.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“Sometimes talking to him felt like she was skating over a lake of thin ice. She could hear the cracks forming but was never sure where they were coming from, or how many fathoms deep she might be dragged before she could ever really get to know him at all.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“You do have a tender heart. It almost makes me want to spare you, just so I don’t have to watch it break.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood

“I used to think I was afraid of being lost, but then I realized I was afraid of who might find me.”
― Nenia Campbell, Raise the Blood