PREFACE

    I'd had more than my fair share of near-death experiences; it wasn't something you ever really got usedto.

　　It seemed oddly inevitable, though, facing death again. Like I really was marked for disaster. I'descaped time and time again, but it kept coming back for me.

　　Still, this time was so different from the others.

　　You could run from someone you feared, you could try to fight someone you hated. All my reactionswere geared toward those kinds of killers—the monsters, the enemies.

　　When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could youfight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give your beloved, howcould you not give it?

　　If it was someone you truly loved?