In this case, a private word meant two rooms over next to a painting of a crow in flight. The frame shook a little whenever their voices reached the right pitch. They weren't loud enough to breach the privacy spell that Percy had cast upon the door; however, neither needed to be for Sarah to get the conversation's gist.

  'What the hell were you thinking?' Percy probably hissed as he cuffed his son upside the head. 'Do you have any idea who that is?'

  Sarah pictured Raul shrugging, largely unbothered by the blow. 'Does it matter?' he'd ask. 'She's the first women I've met who isn't a blood-relation. It's not like I'm spoiled for choice.'

  The argument would've only gotten louder from there. And why not? As a healthy male, approaching his early twenties, Raul must've been used to thinking with his dick. He even had the right kind of build for it: i.e. very chiseled and tan. Maybe not to the point where he'd be appearing in a slew of commercials, but it was a good-looking host all the same.

  ...Or so Sarah would've said if she wasn't attached to Pallsburg's nervous system. Since she was, his rugged jawline wasn't exactly doing it for her. Not beyond the dirty thrill of being forced to fuck him, anyway.

  'Stop that,' Sarah ordered as she shoved her host away from their groin. 'We're working, right now. You can fantasize about getting railed when we're finally off the clock.'

  Pallsburg lifted their shoulders in a small apologetic shrug. 'Sorry,' the woman subvocalized. 'This is sort of just how I am.'

  Sarah hated the fact that she could relate to such a sentiment. It made things twice as awkward when they reconvened in the kitchen and she felt an urge to lunge towards the food. It was the scent she decided after briefly freezing in place. Something about the steamed produce immediately dragged her back to her childhood. The salt, maybe - or the faint atonal screech, which accompanied the fragrant leaves. Either way, the memory of tearing into a small pile of kelp kept playing through her head while she approached the home-grown feast.

  The kids had a similar reaction. Rather than break themselves out of it, though, Jessica laid a hand on their shoulders and gently escorted them to the table. 'Sit,' she signed once they'd been pressed into a chair. 'Do you know what you want?'

  Cassandra nodded and reached for a bowl of broccoli. She was quick about it - eager - but the youth made sure she had a solid grip on the dish before spooning the vegetables onto her plate. Her brother was the opposite; instead of sprinting for the peas, he carefully served himself one legume at a time while searching for the largest specimens.

  Percy returned before the boy could move on to the rice. "Sorry about the wait," he said with Raul's muffled apology following half a second later. "If I knew our discussion was going to take so long, I would've let it lie until after diner."

  Amanda kept her reply cordial, lest she cause another fight. "Don't worry - you're good. Neither of us are going to take umbrage over such a small disagreement."

  Small was right, Raul didn't even look bruised as he flopped into an empty seat. "What are we having?" he asked. "The Western Garden? Someone pass me the beets."

  His mother obliged and then exchanged them for a basket of eggs. Carrots and artichokes soon followed. Each time, he'd take a portion of what was being offered, and each time, the dishware would eventually work its way towards Sarah.

  Jessica made sure to catch her eye whenever a platter arrived. She looked pleased. Self-satisfied. Mocking, even. So much so, that it took an uncomfortably long time for Sarah to recognize the emotion behind her smirk. It was pride. Jessica was proud of the domesticity on display. Yes, it was a delight to be able to rub their largesse in Sarah's face; however, the alien would've been beaming even if she'd been forced to microwave a hot pocket.

  'Do you get it, yet?' she inquired, her hands silent and still. 'Can you see what we've made of ourselves?'

  The question remained firmly unspoken by everything except her eyes as Sarah met the voracious gaze across from her. On her left, Cassandra asked to be excused, so she could get the apple sauce from the fridge. On her right, John reached for seconds instead of his neighbor's plate. Jessica's grin widened the longer everyone went without fighting.

  "So, where's Tank?" Sarah asked in an effort to wipe it away. "Your foster kid out butchering Babe for a fresh rasher of bacon?"

  Jessica's smile refused to budge. Some of her amusement did fade, though, into a sort of condescending tolerance. Raul answered in her stead. "He's probably in the upstairs bathroom, taking advantage of the empty tub. Our foster sibling's still getting used to being a hundred miles from the nearest coast."

  'Strange,' Sarah thought. 'You'd think he'd have acclimated during the lead up to his trial.' "What about you?" she asked him. "Do you also yearn for the sea?"

  Raul pressed his hand to his heart. "Honey, if you were there, I'd yearn for the backseat of a Buick."

  A small frown appeared on Percy's face before it migrated over to Amanda's. It seemed Raul was determined to keep flirting, despite the disapproval of all and sundry. Sarah could almost respect his drive. If she wasn't craving someone slimmer, she might have let the guy shoot his shot. As it was, it'd be revenge-sex at best, and she wasn't in the mood unless Amanda screwed her again at the seed.

  Speaking of which, this farse was nearing its conclusion. In a couple of minutes, the Vermont cell would either have to let Raul leave or do more than put their foot down. Jessica sensed it too; it was why the faint scent of sulfur leaked across the table as she got up to fetch desert. 'I thought we should do something special tonight in honor of our guests,' she cheerfully informed her husband. 'You don't mind, do you, dear?'

  Percy grimaced but went along with her suggestion. "Fine. It was bound to spoil, regardless."

  Sarah cocked her head to the side while Jessica retrieved a metal box from the freezer. "What's this?" she asked. "Are you making soft serve out back too?"

  'Not quite,' Jessica replied before carefully lifting the lid. 'You see, the Montreal cell got a little pushy last year and left several of their members behind when they fled. We thought about burying them with their hosts, but they really are an excellent source of nutrients. And well... waste not - want not, no?'

  Sarah refused to flinch, despite Pallsburg's instinctive distaste. "In that case, you'd better give Raul the brain: he'll need it more than the rest of us."

  Cassandra snickered as she accepted a few slivers of tail. Amanda got a fin and Sarah half of a tendril. The rest was unidentifiable, save the skull, which indeed went to Raul. 'Enjoy,' Jessica signed after licking the blood from her thumb.

  Sarah waited for Amanda to give the okay and then sucked down the limb like spaghetti. It reminded her of freezer-burnt calamari. She blamed the texture by and large - that oddly chewy crunch. Whoever the bastard had been, he must have arrived with the First Wave because if he'd departed any later, his corpse would've borne thicker scales.

  'Still, as threats go, I suppose I've seen worse,' Sarah conceded after glancing at the gruesome CV. 'Nothing says, "fuck with my kid and you'll die," like a pre-established body count.'

  The sound of cracking cartilage echoed around the table until the others were done flensing the bones. By the time everyone was fully satisfied, little remained of the dead, except for a few odd stains in the box. Even those might not linger overlong, given the way Cassandra was eyeing the container.

  "This has been fun," Sarah mused as she picked a bit of gristle from her teeth. "A real Mardi Gras at Gitmo. With that being said, unless you've got another asshole on ice, I believe we need to get going."

  Jessica hovered by the sink, weighing whether she should stop being cute. Once they'd left, her only recourse would be revenge, and that wouldn't revive the dead if they decided to murder Raul. It shouldn't come to that - Sarah was pretty sure the cell was on the level - however, everyone in the kitchen was a killer, so she didn't blame them for being concerned.

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  "...Raul," Percy called out, his voice quiet and firm. "There and back, understand? I don't want to go looking for you, only to learn you fell asleep in a McDonald's parking lot."

  "Sure, pop," Raul agreed, the very picture of blithe disregard. "We shouldn't even need until sundown."

  Percy wasn't reassured by the speed of his son's assent, causing him to leave for the hall closet. "Here," he said when he returned. "You may as well take the C7 with you if you're going to be sticking your neck out. Make sure to remember that the magazine has a tendency to catch ever since your brother hit the Keller's dog with the stock."

  Raul grabbed the rifle by the barrel and slipped it into the crook of his arm. Like most infiltrators, knowledge of its operation had been implanted back on Deravan, ensuring there'd be no reason to doubt his skill. He still made a show of checking the port and the action.

  "I'll meet you outside," Sarah informed him dryly. "Let me know when you're done fondling your gun."

  Amanda rose to follow, so the cell wouldn't be tempted to jump her. Neither of them said anything until they'd reached the parasite's car. Then Sarah felt a set of nails dig into her shoulder as her ex spun her around. "What the fuck was that?" Amanda hissed, a hairsbreadth from drawing blood. "Are you trying to piss me off, or did tonight's shitshow just come naturally?"

  Sarah made a half-hearted attempt at playing dumb. "Is this about my penis pun? I was under the impression that you and Pallsburg weren't the most 'monogamous' of pairs."

  Her air quotes framed the warspawn's ruddy face. Amanda brushed Sarah's hands aside and shoved her against the C-max with a scowl. "Okay, first of all, fuck you. Don't you dare compare Julie's sacrifice to your impulse to suck Raul's cock. Second, do you think this is easy for me? Do you think this is fun? It's bad enough I've got to watch my ex squirm around in my girlfriend's skull; I certainly don't need to be an extra in your netorare fantasy as well."

  "About that..." Sarah began before Amanda cut her off.

  "No. Shut up. I'm not done, yet, because if all you did was flirt with some barely legal jailbait, then I wouldn't be this fucking furious. You put both of our lives at risk, though, when you decided to act like a cunt. Worse, you put Julie's life at risk, and I don't think you even care."

  'What do you think?' Sarah asked her host. 'Are you feeling ignored? Have I taken advantage of your virtue and generosity?'

  Pallsburg's lust spiked while she retreated away from their throat.

  'Yeah, that's what I thought,' Sarah concluded as a surge of anger built beneath her sardonic amusement. Because how much did Amanda truly know about what was going through Pallsburg's head? Did she have to work to remain cheerfully oblivious, or was this just another convenient lie?

  She supposed it didn't matter either way. "You done?" Sarah asked when the farmhouse door swung open. "Did you get all of that out of your system? Good. Because I need you to get your game face on. It's time to go to work."

  Amanda kept her glare up for a moment before she let the animosity dissipate into her typical wholesome cheer. She narrowed her eyes into a pair of violently happy slits. "We're not done talking about this," Amanda swore.

  "For now, we are," Sarah disagreed while Raul approached the edge of the property.

  "Is there a problem here?" he asked, his focus shifting between his two grim escorts. "I figured we'd at least get away from the windows before risking the dirty deed."

  Amanda grimaced and waved her hand at the cultivated valley. "No one's fucking anyone, metaphorically or otherwise. Now, quit throwing out pick up lines, and show us this path you took to the seed. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can all get on with our life."

  A flicker of resentment pulled at the corner of his lips. Raul must have truly gotten soft on his parents' farm because he was slow to tuck it back behind his teeth. "Easy for you to say," he grumbled. "You're not the one who's going to be trapped here in the middle of nowhere."

  He said it like a joke, but the punchline fell far too flat. In the time it took Raul to stalk off through a carpet of fallen leaves, Sarah could already tell that he'd meant every word. Amanda was even sharper; she didn't need Raul to reach the treeline in order to take the youth's full measure. "Please, don't start," Sarah's ex complained irritably. "I'm sure the last thing either of us wants to hear is you hankering for the call to adventure. Just... shut up and walk the trail."

  Raul flipped her off without glancing over his shoulder. Partially, so he wouldn't slip down the slope, but also because it helped hide the blush that abruptly broke out along his cheeks. "Yeah, well, fuck you too. Maybe your friend enjoys my witty repartee. It doesn't always have to be 'me-me-me' with you bellicose young pricks."

  There was a dark part of Sarah's heart that reveled in the offense which immediately overwhelmed Amanda's composure. Watching her get mistaken for Mannly's lot was a rare treat and hard to argue against without coming off as childishly petulant. "Yeah, Amanda," Sarah needled her. "Maybe I relish a bit of self-deprecating small talk. You might come to enjoy it too if you only gave this world a chance."

  Amanda shut her gaping mouth and turned towards the birch trees with a scoff. She'd clearly prefer to focus on their pale boles instead of entertaining Sarah's fractious pique. And perhaps that was fair. The mana level was inching up the longer they followed Raul through the brush. In fact, about fifteen minutes into their journey, Sarah noticed that they were beginning to see physical manifestations of the Light's influence crowding out the local biome. In this case, that meant tiny streams of water, which burbled and bucked across the ground. Not to the extent that the rivulets were uprooting the ferns or the foxgloves but rather with a natural insistence that reminded her of snowmelt slipping into a storm drain.

  It smelt somewhat similar too. Sarah blamed the marsh that was waiting at the base of the hill. Every once in a while, the surface would release a couple bubbles, and they'd carry a whiff of pond scum up to their elevated perch. Amanda engaged her core, so she wouldn't have to deal with the odor. Sarah weighed doing the same and then remembered her loadout had switched.

  "How far out did the denizens range the last time you were up here?" Amanda abruptly inquired.

  Raul paused by a carpet of switchgrass to think about the question. "Three... maybe four hundred feet from the skein? Something like that. They've probably gotten a lot farther, though, now that the government have hit them."

  He rested the C7 against his hip and waved at the charred scars on the other side of the marsh. "It's the spores, you know? Anything that wasn't incinerated in the blast would've been carried away by the explosion."

  They were about a klick from the seed's south side, judging by the ache in Sarah's tendrils. If Raul's analysis was correct, then they could've stumbled past a fruiting chamber secreted amidst the slick vegetation. Sarah planted her foot against a log, so she'd be able to get a better look at the base. It took a bit of wiggling to get the wooden billet to roll; however, the parasite felt bitterly vindicated when she noticed some florescent slime clinging to the bark. "Your fungaloids look anything like this?" she asked, pointing towards the bright green ooze.

  Raul doubled back so he could peer at the unearthed sludge. "A little," he admitted as he sucked on his two front teeth. "The fully grown version was ambulatory, though, and stood over seven feet tall. They reminded me of an obese jellyfish to be honest. If you flipped one upside down and forced it to drag its hood behind it, you'd be halfway to imagining the reality."

  "What'd get me the rest of the way?" Sarah asked him curiously.

  "The noise," Raul replied. "Those fuckers would not shut up the entire time they were chasing the police. I don't think they were even speaking words; they just produced that 'schlup-schlup-schlup' sound as a side-effect of moving around."

  Sarah waited a second to see if Amanda would make the obvious joke. Unfortunately, she was still too pissed to take the opportunity when it was presented to her. "What a shame. I suppose we'll have to..."

  Sarah cut herself off as the harsh crack of an unsuppressed rifle snuck up and slapped her in the face. It was coming from the north, specifically within a cluster of cattails that were growing along the edge of the marsh. There was too much brush in the way to isolate the shooter's precise location; however, after listening to the rapid report, Sarah could tell that he wasn't alone.

  Amanda frowned. A few seconds later, the echo of a grenade going off reached their position on the hill. "I don't sense any fungaloids," she announced before squatting amidst the dense brush. "Can either of you see what they're firing at?"

  Raul followed her down into the mud and silently shook his head. Every once in a while, there'd be a flicker of muzzle flash, but that only gave them a direction; depending on what kind of sights the soldiers were using, their target could be a quarter mile off.

  Sarah still waited for Amanda to say that they should help the squad out, anyway. She was left twiddling her thumbs.

  "Not going to comment?" she eventually heckled the other warspawn. "Maybe you should remind Raul that he has a duty to defend his countrymen."

  The parasite in question laughed at the wry remark. "I'm pretty sure you lose that sort of camaraderie once you've blown up a Seven-eleven."

  Amanda kept her own counsel as a long stream of flame leapt from the drooping undergrowth. Focused on the western flank, further up the trail, the fluid landed amidst the muddy scarp and then tumbled over the shifting foliage. A series of wet slurps erupted from the sizzling weeds. It was met by a loud string of gunfire from the flamethrower's more conventional friends. When the bullets stopped deflecting off of the gloppy dirt, there was a brief pause before one of the fungaloids rolled down the hill.

  "You-"

  Amanda raised her finger in the universal sign to shut up. A few seconds later, the soldiers pumped another couple rounds into the trees and then went back to shooting at the marsh.

  "You think that's all of them?" Raul finished, his tone not shifting, despite the frenetic interruption.

  Sarah shook her head. "I doubt it. It doesn't matter, though. I think we've seen enough to confirm your father's story. Amanda, are you satisfied with this, or do you want to wander closer, so you can see the white of their eyes?"

  The parasite didn't get a chance to respond. In the time since Sarah had turned to her companion, one of the soldiers had gotten up and pivoted towards their position. She could almost see the chain of logic which followed. 'Civilian in the Quarantine Zone. The vegetation next to her is rustling. Last time it was a monster. Open fire.'

  A short burst of 7.62 raked across her ex. Amanda didn't even have time to scream before she fell ass first into the muck.