How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Never in my wildest dreams had I ever expected to run afoul of a genuine vampire slayer. Blade and Van Helsing are fictional creations, after all; they're not supposed to be walking around in real life. (4.8)
Nina is shocked when they discover Casimir's remains. Not because she'll particularly miss him, but because she didn't think vampire slayers actually existed. Vampires have tried to keep their existence a secret, and they're not particularly threatening anyway because they're so sickly, so why would anyone go out of their way to kill them?
Quote #2
Horace has an irritating habit of teasing people as a form of stress relief. He was certainly teasing Dave, who had always maintained that werewolves might very well exist, though not necessarily in the form that populates most films and comic strips. (5.68)
Horace can be a jerk sometimes, but this exchange serves to show that this group of vampires doesn't actually know much about what's out there. If the laws of physics or whatever allows vampires to exist, then why not other supernatural creatures, too?
Quote #3
Unlike vampires, werewolves don't spread their infection. That's why werewolves are so rare. They come from a particular gene pool that originated in Spain or Portugal, and they're always seventh sons. (14.5)
Okay, so werewolves do exist in this world, and they follow rules of their own. A werewolf bite probably hurts a lot, but it won't turn you into a werewolf (good to know). They can be drugged or hurt like a human being can. And werewolfism is passed on genetically, from a particular gene pool.
Quote #4
"I'm not a complete idiot, Dave. I do understand that I'm living with a handicap. I just prefer to pretend that I'm not, occasionally—if you don't mind." (14.102)
Here we get a sampling of Nina's famous temper. Reuben has just made a pass at her, which Dave shot down, saying Nina doesn't get out very much because she's rarely up for any level of activity. Nina snaps at Dave that even though she's very aware of the reality of her situation, she prefers to pretend otherwise. Hey man, we get it: Sometimes inventing your own reality is better than slogging through the one you're stuck with. Why do you think we read so many freaking books?
Quote #5
To some of these Internet friends he'd expounded his theory about the role of evil on earth: how evil was a kind of spiritual waste product that had to be collected in certain "vessels," so that it wouldn't spill out and contaminate everything. (16.4)
Nefley sure has some, uh, interesting beliefs about the nature of reality. We're not really sure how he acquired them, and maybe he isn't either. Not that there's anything wrong with believing that evil exists in the world and takes certain forms—it's just what you do with those beliefs that matters.
Quote #6
Faced with this awful possibility, Nefley devised a honey trap. This he did after consulting one of his geeky Internet contacts, who probably took it for granted that they were both engaged in an online role-playing scenario. (16.9)
Oh, Nefley. Your beliefs about reality are so weird that the people you discuss them with probably assume that you're actually talking about a game instead. There's nothing wrong with having strange beliefs, but having to ask whether every conversation is real or fantasy might get a little cumbersome.
Quote #7
As it turned out, Casimir's corpselike appearance made killing him far easier than Nefley had anticipated. It was like spearing a wax dummy. (16.14)
Forget the vampire shows or movies where a staked vampire explodes into a bloody mess, or bursts into a cloud of ash that gets everywhere (including in the slayer's mouth—gross). In this version of vampire reality, Casimir's corpse maintains coherence as an ashy set of remains. It's apparently not too bad of an experience for Nefley, who decides to try to stick with his slaying spree.
Quote #8
By this time they must have realized that they were dealing with a rather strange sort of person. For one thing, Nefley kept babbling about the undead. For another, his entire flat was full of garlic and pentagrams and crucifixes and posters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (16.37)
When the McKinnons take Nefley captive, they don't seem to spend too much time wondering about his choice of interior decoration. Even though they're used to dealing with werewolves, it doesn't seem to occur to them that vampires might be a thing. We wonder how events might've gone differently if their reality had included the possibility of vampires existing…
Quote #9
"He might not look like a werewolf, but if your friend can turn into a wolf, he might be able to turn into other things, as well. He might have several identities." (17.38)
Surprisingly enough, it's Horace bringing up these points when an unconscious Nefley is brought back to Nina's mom's place. No one knows who he is yet, so Horace asks if he might be Reuben in disguise. That's when they realize that they don't actually know anything about how werewolves work. Whoops.
Quote #10
"We're vampires," I intoned. "You're messing with the undead."
In hindsight, I know that I must have sounded like a complete lunatic. Barry certainly thought so. He scowled angrily. "For God's sake!" he snarled. (22.27-28)
Barry McKinnon is not the most open-minded chap there is. You'd think he would be, since he runs an illegal werewolf fighting ring and all, but even with Nina and Dave apparently returning from the dead, he doesn't seem to be ready to believe they're vampires.