" He held the ribbon that tied her bodice. "You like to read about vampires but your mother thinks its unhealthy. Do you really want so desperately to become aligned with the night?"
She frantically shook her head.
"I can show you a more ancient evil," he promised in a soothing voice. He tugged on the ribbon, untying the bow. "One that has existed since the beginning of time."
"Right." She tried to force the word out with a sarcastic tone, but failed.
"Not many people know about the Atrox and its Followers, but you will," he assured her.
"You're not being funny anymore," she answered with more whimper than anger.
He let his finger trace up her body to her chin and lifted her face until she was forced to look in his eyes. "I was never trying to be. I was only trying to explain what I am."
She looked quickly behind her as if searching for a way to escape.
He paused for a moment, hoping she would run. When she didn't, he continued, "I can dissolve into shadow. Stay that way for days if I want. It's one of my powers."
"Stop teasing me," she whined. "You're scaring me now."
He leaned closer. "I can also enter your mind and take you into mine. Do you want me to show you?"
"No," she pleaded. It wasn't the strange light in the graveyard that gave her face such an unnatural pallor now. The true beauty of fear shimmered in her eyes.
"Let me show you." He seeped into her mind and brought her back into his. He could feel her struggle and then stop. He let her feel what he was, the emptiness and evil. "

― Lynne Ewing , The Sacrifice (Daughters of the Moon, #5)