Damon Torrance Quotes

“Abuse can feel like love. Why?' Starving people will eat anything.”
― Penelope Douglas, Nightfall

“If you ever insult my wife again,” I tell him, “I’ll take my son fishing using your eyeballs as bait.”
“Yes, sir.”
― Penelope Douglas, Conclave

“I’m not a good father.” I breathed out a sigh, clutching her. “Ivarsen has no discipline. He’s going to be undriven. Fane is neurotic. Everything has to be perfect. Gunnar is going to blow us up with his machines. Dag has refused to eat a vegetable since birth, and Octavia’s going to wind up in a fucking asylum when she finds out real life pirates are just terrorists with grenade launchers.” I gulped, hating that after thousands of years there was still no proven method of raising kids. “I don’t know what to do. How the hell would I know what a good parent does and doesn’t do?”
― Penelope Douglas, Fire Night

“Just wanted to hold you.” His voice loomed somewhere over my head as my eyes started to close. “And say I’m really fucking sor—”
“What?” I asked, giving out and falling into him. “I can’t understand you.”
“Don’t let me go,” he whispered in my ear. “Don’t let go.”
“I’m gonna…” My mouth was so dry. “I’m gonna send you to jail.”
His lips rested against my cheek, and I thought I felt his body shake with a silent sob.
But as I fell into sleep and oblivion, his words were sharp and clear in my ear. “Then you better hope I never get out.”
― Penelope Douglas, Kill Switch

“He’s temperamental, but he’ll compromise,” Kai explained to Bryce. “We’ve been through this before.”
“Compromise?” Bryce whined. “He threw an ax at my head!”
“If I’d thrown it at your head, I would’ve hit your head,” I growled low.
There was silence, and then I heard Bryce’s voice. “I’m outta here, man.”
― Penelope Douglas, Conclave

“What does he look like?” Winter whispered up at me, her voice raspy.
I smoothed my hand over both their heads. “Like next year he’ll be running around in the fountains with us,” I told her. “He’s perfect, baby. Black hair, a little pissed off…”
She snorted, and I thought about what he’d look like in a year when he was walking and running and laughing and playing. I wanted the noise. I wanted it all over the house. I wanted it filling our lives from here on out.”
― Penelope Douglas, Conclave

“Kai’s kids had great manners and were fairly quiet. Athos was smart, ambitious, and determined. Will’s children never fought him on anything. They did what they were told the first time he asked.
My kids…
But I stopped the thought in its tracks, remembering Ivar helping his mom make pancakes this morning.
My kids could be really sweet, actually, couldn’t they?
Gunnar was so good about helping with spills, so his mom wouldn’t slip. Fane helped her pick out books at the store for Dag and Octavia, describing the pictures and story, so she knew what to buy.”
― Penelope Douglas, Fire Night

“I darted my eyes to hers. “Don’t let me go,” I told her, breathing hard. “No matter what you hear or what they say, don’t let me go.”
― Penelope Douglas, Kill Switch

“You made the world look different,” he told me. “You always had, and it struck me as odd, because I had hated to watch my mother dance growing up. It was just some elaborate lie that I couldn’t stomach, but you…” He trailed off, searching for words. “It was pure, and it was a dream. I didn’t want to change you. I just wanted to be a part of it all. Of everything beautiful you were going to do.”
― Penelope Douglas, Kill Switch

“And although I was paying the bills and building us a future, I did relent when Banks gave the house back to Winter, including ownership of everything in it. Banks advised Winter to keep it solely in her name, though, so she could kick me out whenever she wanted.
They laughed about that one.”
― Penelope Douglas, Kill Switch

“Why is she crying?” I barked at the doctor.
“Because it fucking hurts!” she yelped, answering for him.

“Well, give her something!”
“It’s too late for that now,” he mumbled through his mask and then peered over Winter’s legs. “Plus, you wanted natural childbirth, right?”
“What the fuck for?” I burst out, looking down at her like she had three heads. “We didn’t talk about that.”
― Penelope Douglas, Conclave

“I wanted her to dream, but this was where dreams were dangerous. Nothing ever happened how you wanted it to. It was going to be harder than she thought, and she would fail many times before she won. That was what she didn’t know yet.
It wasn’t the fight that got you. It was the lure that you could always quit.”
― Penelope Douglas, Fire Night

“This is black; fear, falling, release...excitement, risk, danger...
And at any moment, death.
Freedom.”
― Penelope Douglas

“I’d loved how he didn’t get mad at my mistakes and waited for me to do things at my pace. Just like now. He wasn’t mad I cut him.”
― Penelope Douglas, Kill Switch

“I always dreamed of having this room in my house someday with splatters of red paint all over the walls and sheets, so I could dump drunk friends in there who would wake up in the light of day the next morning, shitting their pants at the massacre on the walls.
The small delights in life.”
― Penelope Douglas, Kill Switch

“If I ever thought I couldn’t do something with her, then I wasn’t doing it at all.
“Your place is at my side,” I told her. “Say it.”
She whispered, “My place is at your side.”
“Louder.” I shook her gently, but my tone was firm. “My woman doesn’t ask permission. She’s a force. Say it louder.”
Her chin started to tremble, but her voice burst out strong. “My place is at your side.”
And I kissed her, making sure she fucking believed it. She was always wanted.”
― Penelope Douglas, Kill Switch

“She held in her tears as she kissed me and whispered, “That’s not your life anymore. I don’t leave.”
I couldn’t help the smile that broke out as she kissed me again. I wouldn’t admit it to her, but that fucking made my night.”
― Penelope Douglas, Kill Switch

“I descended the small pathway toward the orchestra section, watching her, the long, gauzy gray costume flowing in layers around her legs and her hair flying around her as she spun and bent backward. There were no words to describe how beautiful she was.”
― Penelope Douglas, Kill Switch

“I kiss her. “Do you really think I’d not let you have something you wanted?”
She smiles. “Really?”
“You want a motorcycle; you get a motorcycle.”
Her face lights up with her beautiful, excited smile, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen.”
― Penelope Douglas, Conclave

“Yes, I made enough mistakes to last a lifetime, but I’m not a bad parent, and that’s just about the worst thing you can be.”
― Penelope Douglas, Conclave

“But fuck, I was going to love them. I didn’t care about being perfect. I just wanted to be everything my father wasn’t. I wanted this with her a million more times, and no matter all the shit that still lived inside me, I already knew I was better than him.”
― Penelope Douglas, Conclave

“She paused and then said, “I love you.”
A pang hit my heart like it always did when she said that. Like I was falling for her all over again.”
― Penelope Douglas, Conclave

“He’s perfect, you know?” I scaled my hands down her back. “You did an amazing job. I just hope he has more you than me in him.”
She nodded, agreeing, and I gave her a swat on the ass.
She laughed. “So what are we naming him, then?” she asked.
“We didn’t decide?”
“Not that I remember.”
I closed my eyes, shaking my head. God, I had no idea. Nothing old, please. And nothing biblical.
Oh, and nothing unisex. Like Peyton, Leighton, or Drayton.”
― Penelope Douglas, Conclave

“Whatever. I wasn’t fucking staying. I’d rather pierce my eyeballs than lie here, resting.
I’d rather chug a gallon of piss warm milk than stay in bed, doing nothing.
I’d rather get a third degree burn on my dick.
Or develop a peanut allergy.”
― Penelope Douglas, Kill Switch

“I stared at her, thinking about all the times that would come up over the years ahead where she would think we’d move faster without her. Have more fun without her. Get to enjoy the full extent of an adventure without her.
Have more freedom without her hanging on.
I wasn’t living like that. I wouldn’t let her live like that.”
― Penelope Douglas, Kill Switch

“I didn’t deserve anything I had, but I was doing everything to make sure I’d deserve whatever came. We’d have the family we would make, our friends, and our home, and every fucking night, I’d have her right here, surrounding me and getting lost with me where the rest of the world didn’t exist, and it was just us.
Always just us.”
― Penelope Douglas, Kill Switch

“Mayor Fane?” he teased to Erika, I assumed. “Two idiots are drag racing around Thunder Bay. Can you call the station and tell all units to report to Delphi heading east?” he asked and then clarified. “Alllllll units.”

I heard her voice on the other end. I couldn’t tell what she was saying, but it sounded like an angry ferret.

“Don’t be a douche,” he said, picking at the cord of his hoodie. “What else do you do all day anyway?”

More angry chatter.

“Suck me,” he mumbled, and then she said something else, and then he said, “Yeah, your mom…”
― Penelope Douglas, Nightfall

“Absuse can feel like love. Starving people will eat anything.”
― Penelope Douglas

“The crime was I couldn’t tell her who I was. And the crime was she didn’t love me back.”
― Penelope Douglas

“After a while, you get tired of pretending that you’re in control of everything that happens to you, and you start being what happens to everyone else.”
― Penelope Douglas, Nightfall