pte

's furnishings, so she didn't turn on the light. She glanced at the glowing numbers on the clock. It was after midnight and she was certain that the sudden light might attract notice. She didn't know if anyone was wa

o pace. Her heart was racing and part of her expected the man, possibly followed by a lynch mob of others to come racing down the street to her house. She doubted they would w

her eyes and took a deep breath. She held it and counted slowly to five. She then let her breath out in a slow steady stream. She repeated the process unti

uckily, the wood of that door warped slightly and

nd actually thought about it. "He seemed surprised, but not upset, " She said. "If anything he lo

ay they set the thermostat to sixty degrees. Recently, Cassie realized that they just set the thermostat for 'away' when they weren't home and the system automatically dropped the temperature. The blocker Abraham put on her prevented the system

a thick pair of wool socks to keep her feet warm, she wondered what she should do with herself now t

, ' she thought. 'The librar

tles to an on-line book store. A few were translated into English, even fewer had electronic versions. The e-books, she ordered and downloaded. The physical books, she ordered as well. They had yet to be delivered. There was one book where she could f

Latin on Saturday perhaps trying to read more than

y padded across the house in her socked feet, making no sound. She exited the hallway and moved from the kitchen to the living room, her feet registering the move from the carpeted hallway to the tiled kitchen and back to carpet. At the edge of th

ed the room. The walls were still lined with floor to ceiling bookshelves. Her father called them library shelves, and each shelf had a glass fronted door on it. The book titles could be seen through the glass, but if you wanted t

o copy down titles, she almost missed it as nothing else on the shelf looked relevant. It was filed between books on Art, a treatise on the importance of Renaissance art in Italy on one side and a vo

back. Even with the door locked, she didn't want to sit with her back to it on the off chance a lynch mob did arrive befor

rem F

and the laptop to the right. She opened the laptop and turned it on. From what she learned anyone who was other put off some form of energ

e notes. "Maybe that can be a question I ask on Saturday." She was still uncertain what sort of conversation she would be having

old herself as she op

had to look up. As she translated, she typed in each sentence to save it for later. When she was uncertain if she was putting the sentence together c

, turned off her computer and closed both her dictionary and the book she was translating. She stood and stretched, then returned the book to the shelf, thinking about what she read as she picked up her

gear and retrieved Herman from the front hall closet. After warming up, Cassie went through her morning routi

ring with an actual partner." While it let her practice, fighting Herman wasn't nearly as challenging as keepi

already warmed up her muscles, Cassie took her place at her starting mark between the old yew and elder trees and began her self-imposed running course. Each week she lengthened it, using the walk back to the house to cool down.

h her, she put on a pot of coffee to brew while she went to put away her gear, shower and dress for school. Normally, she only

gered over a large cup of coffee, heavily doctored with cream and sugar. Without

ve that. There was just too much that seemed to fit with what was going on with her li

ontinue working on the translation, but somehow didn't think that was a good idea. If Enki wa

ater." Thus far it was the first concrete thing she found that did mention the gates and she really wanted to know more. "But it isn't worth bring

owed away and all doors locked, Cassie got into her car and headed towards school. The streets were less of a roller rink this morning as the afternoon sun melted the road ice, letting it run to the

still had an engine with oil and gas, there were a lot of computerized bit in most of them now. She wondered if it hampered their

e didn't see anyone out of the ordinary in the yard. No one, with tusks or otherwise, was standing around. She didn't have to pretend not to see anyone or anything out of the ordinary. As she could feel the tirednes