Цитаты из книги Blood orange

He stares at me in confusion, mid-reach for the kettle.

I stride over to him and grab his face, my palms pressed against his cool cheeks, his stubble scratching my skin. “Fuck me,” I whisper, staring deep into his eyes. Oh these eyes, how dark and rich they are, as they’ve always been. I’ve lived so many lives staring into these eyes.

I may have believed in God, but people were wrong about Hell.

Hell isn’t a place. It’s inside you.

Christ on a bike.

I’ve been having my dalliances with Dahlia over the last couple of weeks and I’ve grown closer to her than I ever thought I would be with anyone ever again. She’s brought me her darkness, but in doing so has made my world so much brighter.

He leans in and kisses me on the cheek. “I already did. First day I laid eyes on you.” He pulls back and then gestures to the building. “Speaking of, we better part ways before I end up interfering in that studying of yours, though I know you’ll pass with flying colors.”

This time the press of his lips is so faint, so light, and yet it makes my knees tremble, my stomach to do summersaults. “Dahlia,” he says, murmuring against my mouth. “I don’t want you to be ashamed of your darkness. I don’t want you to be afraid of it. I am not a delicate man. I am brash, volatile, controlling and demanding and I always, always get what I want. What I want is your darkness to play with mine. I want to make it come so beautifully alive, so that we can revel in it together.”

A wash of cold air comes over me. “I didn’t. Too bad I don’t believe in ghosts.”

“You don’t have to believe in ghosts for them to exist. They just need to believe in you.” He gestures behind him with his chin. “Come on. We’re the last ones in here. I need to close up.”

“You’re still here,” Valtu’s voice comes from behind me, his words rough and elegant at the same time. I suppress a shiver and twist in my seat to glance at him over my shoulder. He shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on me like that, but I was hyper-focusing on my work, my senses are dulled, and he is a vampire after all. They can be as silent as snow.

The fire in my bones, the hunger in my gut, the pure animalistic urge to kill and fuck and eat. The soldiers felt it too, and all the horses were gone, and even the general had dismounted before his stead took off on him.

Mina’s hair flowed around her like a cape, red and chestnut, shades of burnt bark and raspberries, strands of blonde catching the light as the wind pushed it off her face. Her hair was the color of the fiery light from a dying sunset, one last burst of crimson before it faded into night. Her skin the color of fresh cow’s milk, eyes the color of unfurled leaves. Her smile was sunshine.