“But even then I knew how it was going to be, I could feel the coming silence in the long, poisonous pauses that expanded as the night progressed.”

“The pause - that impressive silence, that eloquent silence, that geometrically progressive silence which often achieves a desired effect where no combination of words, howsoever felicitous, could accomplish it.”

“As I touched the beast I remembered how, even on that long-ago night, I could feel a tremendous thing moving in the depths below me, something vast and white and singing.”

“... I could feel a nostalgia for the evening already setting in, a longing for the existence of this night building before my eyes.”

“I don't want you to be the shifter." Rokan's voice was quiet, and her human sense of smell told her nothing about how he felt. "I haven't wanted that for a long time. Since before I knew it was possible for you to not be the shifter." A pause then - so quietly that even she could barely hear him, "Since before I knew I loved you.”

“It is the silence that frightens me so in the evenings and at night...I can't tell you how oppressive it is never to be able to go outdoors, also I am very afraid that we will be discovered and be shot.”