Beth Fantaskey

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.

As you wish, of course." Lucius lowered the volume on an old record player, which spun a warped vinyl disk that wailed unfamiliar music, scratchy and whiny, like cats fighting. Or a coffin with rusty hinges opening and closing over and over again in a deserted mausoleum. "Do you like Croatian folk?" heasked, seeing my interest. "It reminds me of home.""I prefer normal music.""Ah, yes, your MTV with all the bumping and grinding. Like a shot of raging adolescent hormones administered via television. I'm not averse.

I knew that most people would consider us too young to talk about lifelong commitments or marriage, but I couldn__ imagine taking her to bed without that promise. Even if it meant never being with her, I didn__ want to have one desperate, hurried, hidden night. I wanted to put a ring on her finger. I wanted a future__r nothing. I knew, in her heart, that she would want that, too

I like pink."Lucius sniffed. "It's just red's sorry, weak cousin.

Fear is the worst kind of grave, because it buries one alive.

Stupid Romanian bloodsucker. He was lucky I hadn't bestowed another exalted scar on his imperial body.

Everybody should have a librarian.

She, of all people, knew the sacred trust that word -- "librarian" -- implied. Because a librarian was supposed to to be a spiritual, intellectual mentor who kept your secrets and didn't give you a funny look when you checked out a book on the care and feeding of pythons...A librarian opened up new doors for you, intellectually, too, without shoving you through them.A librarian was important.

Why did I sign up for this?''Because we grow by challenging ourselves.

It is strange how love is a source for power___an spur the desire to fight to the death, or to fight back from something that seems like death for long enough to write a coherent note___ut also of weakness.

I was wrong to insult you, and not only because you are my hosts. I am afraid that I mistook kindness for weakness. My apologies. I stand - only with your aid - profoundly corrected.

This is eternity, Antanasia," he said, both warning and imploring. "Eternity.

One should never confuse fashionable with beautiful

My greatest friend is truth.

I must endure, fighting the temptation simply to become slack-jawed like most of my school 'peers' (they wish!), who will themselves into a collective, vacant, trancelike state for the duration of each class. (Although I sometimes secretly envy their ability to empty their minds completely for a full fifty minutes, reanimating only at the sound of a bell, like Pavlov's dogs...)

Lucius shrugged. "Perhaps in time you will find it useful.""Sure. I'll keep it on my shelf right next to The Idiot's Guide to Becoming a Mythical Creature.''Lucius actually laughed. "Very funny. I didn't know you made jokes.""I'm a funny person," I defended myself. "And by the way__ don't snore.""You do snore. And you mumble, too."My blood froze. The dream . . . "What? What did you hear?""Nothing too intelligible. But it must have been a rather pleasant dream. You sounded ecstatic.

Where do you. come from?" Frank challenged, puffing his chest, a little bolder now that he could breathe. "Some of us are starting to wonder.""I come from civilization," Lucius retorted. "You wouldn't be familiar with the territory. Now pick up the books.

Ranerio wrapped his hand around mine, guiding my fingers like Lucius had done when he'd shown me the latch behind the dressing-room door mirror. But while the warrior I loved had been offering me an escape route, the pacifist was trying to show me how to fight.