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“One day as a lion is worth ten thousand as a lamb.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“Solnyshko.”
― Charlaine Harris, A Longer Fall

“Well, then, it seems the Almighty gifted you a functional brain. Huzzah and hurrah. They seem in rather short supply around this fucking place.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“She flooded my mind with thoughts of Borin, broken and dead in the dust, and it only made me stronger because I am Felda and I bear the grief of centuries as my burden and it makes me strong. I would break her for this. Her body jerked as I took control. I raised her hands to her face. I made her hook her own thumbs into the corners of her mouth and pull. I watched the blood flow, warm and wet. I made her drive her fingers into her eye sockets. She began to wail. And then I made her split her own face apart. I felt her skin rip. I heard her bones crack. I made her pull again. And again. As she had done to others, so I did to her. I watched as, with one giant movement, she pulled herself apart. Blood fountained up the walls. Things puddled out on to the floor. She had stopped making a noise, but I wasn’t ready to let her die yet. I stood over her. ‘I am Felda, Daughter of the Gods, and you, demon, are ended.’ A tiny piece of something in the wet, red accumulation of things that had once been a demon moved slightly. It might have been submission. It might have been a plea for mercy. It wasn’t important. I put my foot on it and ground it into nothing. It pleases men to believe their gods are good and kind and merciful. We are not. The other demon was easy. It tried to run but the very ties that bound it to Elizabeth prevented its escape. It begged for my mercy. I thought of the burden Elizabeth carried on my behalf. Every day. I looked at the demon that had cast its long shadow over her life and imagined how much lighter her life would be without it and that pleased me. I think it thought my hesitation meant I was considering its request for mercy. It tried to plead for its continued existence. Quite unsuccessfully.”
― Jodi Taylor, Long Shadows