I’d go to hell and back and cut off the devil’s head myself to save you.

— Melika Dannese Lux

If I were pressed, I would admit that she was beautiful, in a dead bride sort of way.

— Melika Dannese Lux

I had lied to myself from the very beginning, deceived myself into believing that I was being fanciful and overly imaginative. Surely such monstrosities only existed in nightmares? Yet I had lived through a nightmare these past months, and that was no dream at all.  I was still fighting against the awful truth, not wanting to give in, searching my mind for a logical explanation—but there was none. And the most horrible realization of all was that I had known, somewhere deep inside, ever since the day I first set eyes on Vladek Sale.  Plague carrier.  Living death.  Drainer of life.  The phrasing did not matter. No euphemism could strike fear into the hearts of men the way that single word

— Melika Dannese Lux

I know the consequences, Manon,” Close conceded. “I know the fate you endured might one day be my own. But I refuse to be a prisoner for the rest of my life.

— Melika Dannese Lux

I’m not asking for your forgiveness. I have done no wrong according to my kind. Furthermore, I never meant to turn you. Furthermore, I just wanted to have a little fun with you before they took you away.

— Melika Dannese Lux

I used to ask myself, ‘Sergei, would you rather spend your money on drink or women?’ and thanks to the club, I spend it on both and am called a patron of the arts.

— Melika Dannese Lux

I’ve read about this in books, imagined it in my mind countless times since I’ve been here, but to actually witness it is something entirely different. I thought I was prepared, but nothing—no amount of book learning or supposed life experience or bravado—can make you invulnerable to the sight of a vampire drinking blood.

— Melika Dannese Lux

Maybe I had been making a greater monster of him than he really was, or maybe I was still under his influence, for I was certain that he wanted me to believe he was no more than a harmless man who happened to use vampires to get what he desired. Some remnant of his mesmerism was still upon me. I had never been able to shake the feeling that he was tucked away in a corner of my mind, that he could read my thoughts, know what I was thinking. He had done something to me, but what that was, I had never been able to discover. All I knew was that the feeling had been with me since the morning I woke up and found myself in Venice.

— Melika Dannese Lux

Not all vampires are created equal, you know.

— Melika Dannese Lux

She is so tiresome. ‘Am I a vampire, am I a wolf, am I a vampire, am I a wolf, I cannot decide, so I’ll be both!

— Melika Dannese Lux