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Soht I awoke in the bathroom to find myself in a pool of my own blood I was cold and not very shocked to see that the wound in my shoulder had healed completely I stumbled into the bedrooh the day and awoke at dusk I felt like hell, groggy, disoriented I had to reotten to pick up the kids!

I was just about to hop out of bed until I remembered it wasn&039;t my job to do so anymore Danny&039;s mother picked them up now I slumped back into bed, iations had vanished Perhaps that was a good thing in away, since I did not operate well during the daylight hours And, for the first time since the kids had been taken away frouilt�Da sense of freedom No kids to pick up No dinners to cook, no husband to attend to or worry about

Freedouidly on the bed, reveling in the surprisingly soft mattress Why had I not noticed how soft the mattress was? A moment passed, and then another, and then my heart sank

I had no children to pick up from school and no one to cook for! II repulsed hiood times with Danny But I wouldn&039;t miss these past few years

But I would seeI could do about it now, although I vowed to get theh, there was nothing to do but lie here and hurt�Dand wait for true night to fall The drapes were thick and heavy and kept out s at home were, in fact, the saht after my attack, I had wanted to board up the s, but Danny resisted and we coed h it still ached, there was no evidence of a wound Another few inches over and I would have been dead My only saving grace had been a last-second alar that told ht of the va potshots atabout hi him�Dwhich was a definite option�DI just wasn&039;t sure what yet

First things first I needed to figure out how the hell he kept showing up without ood habit for an investigator to have So I was certain he wasn&039;t following me

Of course, there are other ways to keep tabs on people, especially tabs on vehicles In fact, at HUD, we had e devices

As I waited for the sun to set, I turned on the boob tube and flipped through some news channels and a re-run or two until I caaaame I liked the quiet athered his thoughts while the world waited My father was a ood, but not great, which is why he never le-A ball Still, surrounded by aels were up 3-2 Tile up theto someone else Someone I barely recalled, yet remembered in detail I was a different person now The pre-attack Samantha as opposed to the post-attack Samantha were two different people Hell, two different species

Salmon had a nice butt So did ain as I watched the game So how the hell did it heal so quickly? What caused this to happen? Ancientme alive? Was I even truly alive? Or was I dead and didn&039;t know it?

Bengie Molina, the Angel&039;s catcher, ripped a line drive back to the pitcher The pitcher doubled-up Sal

Perhaps I was nothing h sense to move on But on to where? I didn&039;t feel dead

It was the eighth inning, and the Angels brought in their closer, El Toro, the bull Percival was a big s He looked like a bull I liked the way he squinted and curled his tongue He looked like a gunslinger Except this gunslinger slung baseballs He struck out the first batter in four pitches

Perhaps I was a plague on the earth, an abnormality that needed to be cleansed Perhaps the world would have been better off if the vampire hunter&039;s arrow had hit ho frolasses but he chose not to while pitching, forcing hinals, blocking out all other distractions On his next pitch, the batter popped out to center field

Perhaps I didn&039;t need to knohat kept me alive Perhaps my existence was no more a mystery than life itself Hell, where did any of us coht comforted me

Percival struck out the next batter and pu

I was suddenly content and at peace with myself I would have ordered room service if fresh plasma was on the menu Instead, I sipped froht And when the sun finally set, whenseemed unrestricted and my body fully alert, I was ready to take on the world

Oh, and the Angels won

With all the tiame this season

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