“H-How is that possible?” I whispered, staring at him with wide eyes. “You look perfectly human.”

My hands shook as I urgently reached out and ruffled through his hair. I didn’t see any horns or any other monster characteristics hiding in his bleach-blond locks. There were no scales hiding behind his normal ears or on his neck. Until he changed his clothes, his chest had been perfectly visible. There wasn’t anything there. Granted, I’d never looked below his belt, nor did I have the guts too.

In the end, I stopped moving and just stared at him, trying to wrap my mind around the bomb that he just exploded in my mind. I shook my head, instinctively rejecting the idea. “That’s not possible.”

Kesstel had just sat there on the couch, letting me touch him without objecting. When I finally stopped, the corner of his mouth kicked up again. “Do you think a normal being could hop from world to world?”

No. Honestly, I didn’t think that was possible. But I admit, there was a part of me that had purposefully put blinders on when it came to Kesstel. It took me so long to trust and rely on him — on anyone — I didn’t want to accept that there might be something that could damage my faith in him.

He kept his hands resting lightly on my waist as he spoke. It was like he was giving me some space but didn’t want me to get too far away. I guess he was still ‘purifying?’

“Scared?” he asked, his lips quirked in a mocking smile. Who was he mocking? Me or himself? I couldn’t help but think it was the latter. “But I won’t let you run. I thought I was just lonely at first. Now I’m thinking it was instinct that drove me to get you to accept me.” He looked up into my eyes. “I won’t hurt you. Out of everything and everyone in the world, you are the only person I will never hurt. For the sake of my sanity, I can’t afford to.”

A part of me was nervous. The same part that always ran away when he tried to get close. The part that instinctively knew that he was too dangerous to be around. Ironically that little part had been right. As a stray Boss that had made it out of the Gate, Kesstel could wipe me out of existence if I made him mad. In fact, after the scene earlier today, I doubted there was anyone that could stop him. At least not in America.

Another part of me, the part that had agonized over his disappearance and drove me to search Josu Rainforest for him every day, was more scared for him. Not of him. It ached, seeing the out-of-character mania he had just displayed in Gate Square.

The two parts warred inside me, clashing and scratching to get control. One trying to make me run, the other wanting me to soothe Kesstel’s wrinkled brow. In the end, I simply stood still between his hands. I swallowed and shook my head. “I just don’t understand.”

“Every time a world is devoured,” Kesstel said, “all the remaining inhabitants are injected with an energy crystal, the animals and the intelligent species that control the planet alike. Those crystals turn every surviving living thing into monsters, which are released onto the next world that the parasitic planet attaches to next. I’ve already explained this, correct?”

He didn’t fully wait for me to finish nodding before he went on. “This same thing happened on Kathar, my planet. I must have been the strongest living person left, because while everyone around me was turning into ape-like monsters — covered in long hair, with elongated arms and flat faces — I was fine. I could feel myself getting stronger and my mind going blank, but I didn’t physically change.” His fingers stiffened on my waist but didn’t squeeze me. “My memory was vague from that moment on. I remember the remnant of Kathar attaching to a Gate Vale on the next world. I remember at one point the intelligent species came into my world’s Portal. And watching my ape-like little brother being cut down by one of them.”

My eyes widened and my heart squeezed painfully for Kesstel. I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. It was like he needed to say these words. Had he ever been able to say them to anyone else?

Kesstel’s glassy eyes started to glow neon blue, as he was wrapped up in the memory. “I don’t remember what happened after. Just anger. I think grief? That was the last time I felt emotions. My body was moving like a puppet, attacking those intelligent species that invaded my world. I didn’t have control at all. I don’t think I wanted control. My memory blackened at that point. That world collapsed, then another. And I had a heavy hand in it.”

Gently, I reached out and brushed his hair, soothing him as best I could.

Slowly the light died in his eyes, until they had returned to a normal color. He glanced up at me, returning to the moment. He sighed and rested his forehead against my stomach again. “I regained my consciousness some time around that point. I couldn’t feel emotions, but my mind was awake enough to know what was going on. To know that all of my people were dead and I was the only one left. All of the monsters that were in Kathar’s remnant were external ones that appeared there when the parasitic monster devoured the last world and moved to the next. I figured if they could come into my world, then I could leave.

“It wasn’t until the next world that I gained enough control of the barrier to break out of my Portal. When I left it, since I was the Boss, my world collapsed and disappeared. As it should. Everyone was already dead, it was time to let Kathar and memories of it fade away.” There was a sad note hiding at the back of his flat voice.

I couldn’t help but reach out and hug him. He might be a Boss, but he was still hurting from losing his world. I couldn’t even imagine continuing to go on after that. I’d give up and die from the sheer heartbreak of it all.

He turned his head to the side and hugged me back.

For a second, we just stayed like that. “What happened next?” This couldn’t be all of his story.

He breathed a dry laugh. “I came out into a world that was much more technologically advanced than this one. The problem they faced was that they were so reliant on their technology, when it all stopped working after the parasitic planet attached to their world, they couldn’t recover. I thought I’d warn them so they could use their technology to destroy the parasite. They didn’t believe a word I said. They were only interested in the fact that I was an alien with black blood. They thought I would be more beneficial to them sliced up into pieces that they could experiment on. I had to nearly level one of their few remaining cities before they finally left me alone. That planet was devoured not long after, and I appeared on a random remnant world, since my original one was gone.”

An alien with black blood. No wonder he’d had such a reaction when I suggested he use his blood to prove the story of the parasite. Maybe the outcome might have been different, but it was just as possible that it would be repeating the same thing all over again.

“Wait, black blood,” I whispered and looked down at his blond head … which had been covered in black blood until very recently. “How … how much of the blood on you earlier was …” My voice died out as my face contorted into a horrified expression. There had been blood all over his body. And it hadn’t been a light, single layer. No, it had been caked onto his body repeatedly.

“Mine?” Kesstel finished for me, not nearly as upset. His lips dipped down in a thoughtful frown. “Maybe a little less than half? I wasn’t really paying attention, since I healed so fast, blood loss wasn’t an issue. It’s not like the worlds I went to had showers. If I wanted to be clean, I had to jump in a lake or wait for the rain. But that wasn’t really an option.”

“Wait, what happened after the Portal Burst collapsed?” I asked, for the umpteenth time. “Where did you go?”

Kesstel finally let me go and leaned back on the couch. I couldn’t help but notice that even though he wasn’t holding me anymore, his left knee shifted until it was resting against my right knee so he was still touching me. He looked up at me. “As soon as I walked in, I knew that world wasn’t connected to the parasitic planet. I just didn’t expect the Portal to shut like that after I killed the Boss. Usually when the Boss is killed by someone, that person becomes the new Boss. But this time, the fragment of that world collapsed, and I was in the void — lost between worlds.” His lips pressed tight.

I gaped at him. “The void between worlds?”

He nodded. “It’s like if you fill up a bowl full of marbles then pour water into the bowl. The water between the marbles is like the void between the fragments of the worlds the parasite had collected. It was troublesome, but I was able to break into the closest neighboring world, then I had to skip around before I found one that was connected to Eden’s Gate Vale.”

His nonchalant way of explaining something so complicated nearly blew my mind. “How many worlds did you go through?”

He shrugged. “Four.”

Four worlds? Four Portals? All alone? I sighed and pressed the heel of my hand to my forehead. God, he really was a Boss, wasn’t he? “I can’t believe you did all that in just two months.” I stepped to the side and dropped down on the couch next him. The plush, navy couch instantly formed around my body. Okay, I needed a couch like this. I didn’t know where I’d fit it in my tiny room, but I wanted one. As long as I didn’t have to pay for it.

There was a comfortable space between our bodies, but Kesstel still shifted until his knee was pressed against mine again. “Oh, is that how long it's been here? I’m glad it wasn’t too long. I would have been angry if I came back and you were an old woman.”

I tilted my head to the side. “Old woman?” Since I knew the reason why he wanted to touch me, I didn’t shift away. In fact, I kinda liked the warmth I felt on my knee through my jeans.

He shrugged one shoulder. “Time works differently in each world. It took much longer than two months for me to get through the four worlds back.”

I blinked at him, as a thought came to my mind. “How old are you?”

On Earth, the stronger the Hunter was, the slower they aged. Which is why Bethany looked less than twenty even though she was twenty-six and Jonovan looked only in his early thirties even though he was almost fifty. E Hunters weren’t as affected by this phenomenon. Henry looked about sixty, even though he was closer to seventy years old.

But how did it work for a Boss from another world?

Kesstel looked amused. “You mean, how much of a monster am I?” He leaned his head back. “I was twenty-two when my world was invaded and I became a Hunter. I stopped aging at that moment. As for how many years it’s been since then, I can’t tell you because of all the time differences — and I don’t know how much time passed before I woke up. After I regained consciousness, I spent a year and a half in the first world, according to their calendar, two years in the world after, and four years in the next. I’ve been on Earth for seven years so far.” He slanted me a look. “When you decide how old I am, let me know.”

I snorted. “It’s like playing roulette with your age, just waiting to see what number the ball falls on.”

“I’ll have to take your word for that,” he muttered.

I blinked at him. “Huh?”

“I don’t know what a roulette is,” he commented. “Other than it’s a ‘little wheel.’ But I have a feeling that’s not what you’re talking about.”

“It’s a gambling game,” I explained, completely confused by his words. How did he get a ‘little wheel?’ “And yeah, it’s played on a wheel. And, um, a ball that lands on numbers.” I knew what it was, but I had to admit, I’d never played it before. I wasn’t old enough to legally gamble, and there weren’t a lot of options around Garden City or Eden.

“Never mind, we’re getting sidetracked,” Kesstel said. “Since you are so intent on finding the parasite with me, I just wanted to tell you something I found out when I was lost between the remnant worlds.”

I instantly straightened up and stared at him.

“None of the Portals attached to Eden’s Gate Vale lead to the parasitic planet.”

*****