The blue and steel sword that cut off President Price’s arm embedded into the wall and sent fissures all the way to the roof, raining down bits of stucco dust.

Price was still screaming. Whether it was from shock or pain, either way he was loud.

Mark and Penny swore in surprise behind me. They must have followed after I kicked President Price.

I stood up and turned to face Kesstel as he walked past Mark and Penny toward me. The two Hunters jolted in surprise, as if they didn’t even realize he was there.

I nodded at the arm on the ground. “A little exaggerated, don’t you think?”

“He attacked my person, so I removed the part that offended me. I think I went a little too easy on him, don’t you think?” Kesstel tossed the question back at me then turned to the whimpering Price. Casually, Kesstel reached out and jerked his sword out of the wall, leaving a considerable hole. With a controlled flick of his wrist, the edge of the pretty bastard sword rested on Price’s cheek, indenting the flesh but not cutting. Yet.

Price froze, not even breathing to keep from losing more than just an arm.

“Jyn is too nice for her own good. She gave you a warning. I’m not. You might as well bury yourself with your cousin when you get home, while you still have the money to do so.” His oppressive aura leaked out, targeting Price like a drill and making his already pale face ghastly. Kesstel flicked his wrist again and smacked the flat of his pattern welded blade against Price’s head. He stood up and looked at me. “Done?” His sword disappeared.

I nodded and glanced at the two standing like statues behind us. “Done.”

Mark stepped around me and pulled an elastic tourniquet band out of his Items Bag. With a stony face, he dropped to the ground next to the bleeding man and tied the band around what remained of his arm.

Penny walked over and looked down at the arm lying on the ground. “Should I take that with us?” There was no urgency in her expression. Either she had too much experience with scenes like this, or she just didn’t care. Both were possible.

Price gasped for breath and moaned in the pain. “Get me … a Healer!”

There were two Healers I knew that could grow Price’s arm back. I’d personally watched Jonovan grow back body parts — without him I would have an odd number of fingers. And I knew that Healer Laurel could, I just hadn’t seen her at work yet. There were probably other Healers in the camp that could as well, or else they wouldn’t be on the expedition.

Mark pulled Price over his shoulder and hoisted the gasped man up. “Let’s go,” he said to Penny. He paused to glance at me before they walked away.

I stayed by Kesstel and watched them go. “What are you going to say when they get mad at you?” I looked up at him. “No injuring each other is one of the rules of the expedition,” I reminded him.

He smirked and took my hand. “Price attacked first. I was simply defending my partner. There are witnesses to validate the order of things. What are they going to do to me?” He guided me to walk side by side back to our camper. “None of them can beat me. Or will they try to ground me? They’ve been hounding me for days to act. They aren’t going to make me sit on the sidelines now.”

I hummed under my breath. Everything that he said was true. “I did have the situation in control, you know.”

“Yes. But I was still too angry to hold back.” He brushed his thumb against the back of my hand.

My heart skipped a beat. In order to distract myself, I glanced up at him. “Are you really going to take away his money?”

“Yes.” There was no hesitation in Kesstel’s voice. “You should have told me he was the one that kept sending those killers after you.”

I shrugged. “It was actually his cousin, and that’s not a problem anymore. Do you even have the ability to attack Price like that? It’s a lot different than just stabbing him with a sword.” I couldn’t imagine being able to bankrupt a person. It sounds way too complicated.

Kesstel smirked, his eyes narrowing. “I’ve been on Earth for nearly eight years now. I have connections and subordinates set up where I need them. You can’t stand on top of the masses if you’re only strong in one aspect.” He glanced up at the half moon over our heads. “I didn’t know how long I was going to be here, and I wasn’t about to let myself fall into an uncomfortable position again. I agreed to babysit Miss Wilks for that period of time, but it also allowed me to infiltrate the Association’s structure. Any and all information that goes into the Association also crosses my desk. Knowledge is power and the right kind of power can smother another person. Easily.”

My fingers tightened around his. “Did you really have that hard of a time in the other worlds?” I knew that one attempted to experiment on him when they found out he was an alien. Were the other times that hard too?

“Not as much,” Kesstel admitted. “It’s easier to accept things when you don’t have emotional reactions. Since I couldn’t get mad or feel betrayed, it didn’t affect me as much. It was just another thing that was happening to me. But that one time was enough. If I didn’t learn, I’d be an idiot.”

He made it sound so easy. From setting up a network in the Association, to jumping around from planet to planet. I smiled in defeat. “I don’t think I could do what you do. Not in a million years.”

Kesstel stepped forward and opened the door to our camper then motioned me in. “Obviously. You haven’t been taught to. I spent my life in Kathar learning how to gather and manage information, where to apply the right pressure to get what you want.” After I stepped in, he followed me up and shut the door. “It’s actually easier here. Since every Hunter falls over themselves when they realize I’m an S. Since strength is key in Eden, I don’t have to worry about opposing political parties and making sure that everything is balanced for the economy to run smoothly.”

“But there are politics here,” I reminded him. “There’s a balance in the Guilds’ power. Even though the ranking changes often, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t important. And if one Guild gets wiped out suddenly, hundreds of Hunters will be affected. And the people who are attached to them.” I sat on my bed and looked up at him. “Emma belongs to President Price’s Guild.”

Kesstel’s mouth twitched in displeasure. After a second, he sighed and leaned against the cabinet. He crossed his arms in front of his body and stared me down. “So you’re saying that you don’t want me to do anything to President Price. After all that he’s done.”

I paused. My fingers drummed on my thigh while I thought. “No, it’s not really that. I’d love to see Price get his just deserts. I just don’t want the Stone Mace Guild to fall apart. Emma’s in the good group, but I don’t know what will happen if their Guild collapses. I’m sure they’ll try to stay together. Unfortunately, that might not work out if they join another Guild as a team. And I hear that forming a Guild is tough. Small Guilds don’t get the opportunities that large ones do.”

“Noted.” Kesstel held out his hand and a small bag of dried cherries appeared in his palm.

“What does that mean?” I asked as I took the cherries. I popped one in my mouth and paused before slowly chewing the tart fruit leather. “I like the sweet ones better,” I muttered and ate some more.

“Tart ones are better before bed.” Kesstel took some out for him and started to eat them. “It can help with sleep.

Oh, right. It was still bedtime, even though I didn’t feel tired. That’s what I get for sleeping the day away. “When did you become such a dietary guru?” I knew he spent more on my snacks than I did on my whole day's worth of food. Even after I said something, he still kept it up.

“Since I met you,” Kesstel said back, completely dead pan. “I didn’t know it was so hard to keep a young lady healthy until I met you.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I didn’t know that someone could care so much about my health until I met you.” I chewed some more cherries. “Were you like this with your family too?”

He paused then shook his head. “Not until the end. My father was that way with my mother — he tried every day to spoil her rotten until she got mad. I used to sit back and mentally shake my head at him, thinking that he was being silly. But I understand why he did it now.” His eyes softened and a smile curled his lips as he obviously relived the moment. “It wasn’t until I started losing family members one at a time and resources became scarce that I began to pay more attention to my family’s physical well-being. When it was just my youngest brother and I left, I realized I’d be alone if he was gone. I tried my best to make sure he was as healthy as me and kept him out of harm’s way, so that I wouldn’t lose him too. In the end, I watched him turn into a monster before my very eyes. And when an intelligent species from the next world cut him down, I didn’t even flinch because I couldn’t control my own body. Couldn’t feel the emotional pain. Even though a part of me was screaming in my mind.”

My heart hurt listening to his story. I didn’t even know how I’d handle something like that happening. Then again, he couldn’t control what happened anyway. I set my dried cherries aside and stood up. My arms wrapped around his waist and I leaned my head on his chest, listening to his heart under my ear.

“You’re not going to lose me,” I said quietly. “You don’t have to be alone now.” I paused. “Neither of us do, now that I’m strong enough to follow wherever you go. I’m going to be there for the rest of your life, and you’re going to be there for the rest of mine.” I smiled up at him. “Deal?”

He smiled softly and kissed my forehead. “Deal.”

“Ah,” I muttered as I thought of something. “We’re not going to Siberia. I hope you haven’t bought any snow gear yet.”

“No?” Kesstel shifted and sat us down on his bed.

I leaned against his side. “No. Goddess said that there isn’t a Portal open to the parasite right now.”

“Is that so?” As soon as I said her name, Kesstel looked less than pleased. “Does she have an idea when one will happen?”

I shook my head. “But she should be able to tell when it does. When her world collapsed, a giant scorpion-man monster appeared through a Portal. Then her world fell apart,” I said thinking. “Maybe the Portal to the parasite doesn’t open up until right before the world collapses.”

“A giant scorpion-man?”

I noticed the contemplating look on Kesstel’s face. “Does that ring a bell?”

He blinked out of his thoughts. “Yes. A giant scorpion-man appeared before one other world fell apart that I was in.”

“Hmm. Maybe there’s a connection?”

“Maybe,” Kesstel said slowly, still thinking. “What it means is that we can’t attack the parasite until right before Earth falls, if that’s when the Portal between the two opens up.” He met my eyes. “Which is a bad thing for Earth. After Earth is damaged to that degree, it might not ever recover. Even if we kill off the parasite.” He paused. “And if the parasite is dead, if Earth still collapsed, we won’t be able to travel to another planet to survive.”

*****