“I suck the blood out of Ben's towel for what feels like hours. I lie down on the floor, the towel hanging from my mouth and spread out across my chest. I'm in bliss. I can't really describe how it feels to have another person's blood in your veins, feeding to your heart, even just a little bit: a human's blood, not a pig's, two legs, upright and elegant, hints of something---of foods and memories and experiences, of birth, of being ill and getting better, of love and grief and fear---in its flavor. I feel huge; I feel like, if I were to stand up and run toward my studio wall, I'd just break through it. Like I could trample on cars and people outside, whole families under one foot, roaring until shop windows shatter. The sun would be drawn to me and would be consumed by my hair, which would grow and grow and then spread across the sky and turn day into night. The ground would quake around me; little moles that had been sleeping would emerge from their holes, and rabbits from their burrows, and I'd pluck them out of the ground like bean shoots and swallow them whole.” BloodVampireThirstOverpowered Book:Woman, Eating Source: Woman, Eating
“I feel myself leaning forward; my eyes are closed. Everything is a very deep, dark red. Then, I feel hot skin on my lips. My mouth opens. My tongue feels its way. Ben's skin is sweet. I feel immensely powerful. I feel like my whole self is contained in just my teeth; they're ready to bite.” BloodVampireTemptedCraving Book:Woman, Eating Source: Woman, Eating
“There is a plant called the ghost pipe, because it is ghostly white, almost blue. Were you to cut open this flower and study it, you'd find no chlorophyll inside. It can grow in the dark, under the cover of fallen leaves and undergrowth in forests, under soil. It doesn't need to photosynthesize, because it is a parasite. It uses fungal networks to suck energy from photosynthesizing trees. Its roots look like clusters of tiny fingers that grope toward and connect with huge white webs of fungus that in turn connect with the thick roots of trees.” WhitePlantVampireRelatableHybridNocturnalParasiticPerennial Book:Woman, Eating Source: Woman, Eating
“The demon in me is probably a solitary animal. In popular culture, people like me are always associated with bats, and maybe that's fitting. I can imagine hanging upside down in this studio for hours at a time, dribbling white saliva from my mouth, then flying solitary in the night, picking insects out of the sky.” VampireHybridBat Book:Woman, Eating Source: Woman, Eating