MY MOOD IS FAR DIFFERENT ON THIS TRIP TO see Sandra than it was on the first. No fancy dress, no sexual fantasies buzzing around my head like wasps around water. I want two things this time-free Sandra and send Avery to hell where he belongs. Every day I learn more about what it means to be a creature who is not human, and every day I find another reason to hate what I've become. If the alternative were not so bleak, if I didn't have my family and David to counterbalance the evil, it might be an unbearable burden.

What I'm going to do when they are no longer part of my life, I refuse to consider.

My eyes keep straying to the rearview mirror. It's been two days since Williams' watchdog and I had that unintentional run-in at Mister A's. During that time, I've yet to spot Tom's Escalade. Either he's changed vehicles or he's been pulled off the case by Williams and I have a new shadow.

Or Williams called off the surveillance altogether. Maybe he thinks it's no longer necessary to tail me since I won't be around much longer to cause him grief. One bite from a werewolf, and it's good-bye, Anna. Something he's wanted since the beginning. In spite of his lofty rhetoric, I've felt his resentment grow. He hasn't been able to fashion me in his own image any more than Avery could. And like Avery, allowing me to live as I wish is something he can't seem to accept.

Fuck him.