Malaina Karpinski

“Now. Bram, you are a good friend and an uptanding young man, but I'm afraid that tradition dictates I now attempt to scare you within an inch of your unlife."
"Understood," Bram said, taking his arm back as I got myself under control.
My father is a gentle-looking man. Thus, why I started laughing again as he attempted to look stern. "What are your intentions concerning my daughter?"
Bram cast a look my way, laughing himself, before clearing his throat and doing his best to look scared. "Why, to care for and protect her until I rot away, sir.”
― Lia Habel, Dearly, Departed

“I heard my father trail off, my face hidden in Bram's chest.
"Ah...I should have told you about that," Samedi said, sounding a trifle embarrased. Bram urged me back again and bent down to give me another peck on the lips, a calmer one. I melted into it.
"You do realize that this is wrong?" Bram joked. I opened my eyes and found him looking at me as if he wanted to rememorize my face.
"So,so wrong," I agreed, reaching up to finger another new cut he'd acquired on his hairline. The skin along his right cheek was lightly singed. He was still the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
"No, it's all right, Samedi," I heard Dad chuckling. "It's all right.”
― Lia Habel, Dearly, Departed

“Michael gave her the five-sentence rundown. "A fluid-borne disease made the dead come back to life. They like to attack the living. There are hundreds of them out there. The only way to kill them is to get them in the head with a weapon. There's a good chance we're all going to die."
Vespertine was quiet for a moment before saying, with her usual coolness, "That will be engraved on a plaque someday, sir.I vote you Poet Laureate of the Undebuted Set.”
― Lia Habel, Dearly, Departed

“I killed one! I stabbed it in the head with a parasol."
Even Nora couldn't find words for this revelation. Renfield was the first to comment. "I can't tell if that's the most inspiring thing I've ever heard of the most horrifying.”
― Lia Habel, Dearly, Departed