Page 24 of Guardian's Heart

She tilted her head, her eyes challenging me. "But how do youknowthat's true? They could just say so."

"I sense it in here." I touched my chest where my heart sat.

"Okay, right."

I shook my head. I had never talked to anybody about this, well, there had never been a reason to, but with her, it felt like a compulsion to do so. And to make her understand.

"Space Guardians have a deep ingrained sense of a person's aura; bad people give off vibes—"

"Vibes," she scoffed. "And you truly believe this?"

"Yes," I confirmed. Why was she being so stubborn about this?

"And I'm a good person?"

I didn't hesitate. "Yes."

She laughed. "You're wrong. I'm as bad as they come. I killed my husband."

I stared at her. For the first time in my life, I was rendered speechless. As much as I listened to my inner self, I didn't get any bad vibes from her. I knew she had scoffed at the word, but it was true. I could tell a truly evil person by just looking at them. Felt it in the marrow of my bones.

"You’re lying," I accused.

"Nope." She glared at me. "So no bad juju coming off me, eh? Are you sure you didn't misinterpret it with others you killed?" I had no idea whatjujuwas but ignored it.

"Positive." I studied her. "Why did you kill your husband?"

"He was bad in bed." She deadpanned.

Once again, I was rendered speechless until I realized this time shewaslying.

"You're lying," I repeated the same words from earlier.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. You're the voodoo man here. You tell me."

Again, I had no clue what she meant. "Nova." I looked at her, and she looked down.

"I don't know why I did that." Her voice sounded apologetic. "It's not a joking matter. I think I killed a man, Zaarek. I am a bad person."

"I don't believe that." I took her chin and gently lifted it to look her in the eyes. "Why do you think you killed him and what did he do?"

"He beat me. It was only a matter of time before he would kill me, so I took him out into the swamp and as far as I know, he never came back out."

"Swamp?"

She waved her hands around this area. “It’s a wilderness like this. No houses, no people for miles on end and filled with water, gators, snapping turtles, snakes," she shrugged, "all kinds of nasty critters."

"So he got lost and died because he couldn’t figure out how to survive?"

"If you put it that way… " she trailed off and nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much what I did."

She shook herself. "Enough 'bout that. Tell me what else you Space Guardians do when you're not assassinating people."

I didn't like how abruptly she changed the subject. I still had a hundred questions. But I understood. I could tell that what she just told me wasn't something she shared with anybody, and I felt a certain sense of validation and connection for her having done so. There was also a rising urge inside me to kill the man for hurting her. I wished I could have brought him back to life just to make him suffer for what he had done to Nova. It was surprising how intense this surge was, stronger than usual. Every fiber of my being inside me screamed to protect her. So I indulged her and said, "Sometimes I get to rescue people, like this mission proves, where I find stolen humans and bring them back."

"But not to Earth," she argued.

"Do you want to go back to Earth?" I asked, confused. As far as I heard, the Cryons were controlling the planet, killing indiscriminately, abducting, and pretty much raping the entire planet for its resources.

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