'Are you intending just the three of you to go?'
'Well, us and the pilot, yes.'
'You must have bodyguards with you, ma petite.'
'If we take guards, won't the locals be even more sure we've come to take them over?'
'Some, perhaps, but if our enemies were to realize that my human servant, her leopard to call, and her King of Beasts were all alone and unguarded, I fear the temptation would be too great to see what would happen to the rest of us if the three of you died.'
'Kill enough of our power structure and the rest die with us; yeah, I remember the theory.'
'It is more than theory, ma petite. You have seen Nathaniel and Damian almost die when you drained them of energy. You have felt the loss when Richard and I were injured. Let us not test the theory of what would happen if three of us were injured simultaneously.'
'Agreed, but it has to be minimal guards, Jean-Claude. We're going to be seeing Micah's family for the first time. Let's not scare them too much.'
'You feel confident that you can protect yourself and them with minimal guards?'
'With the right ones, yeah, I do.'
'So confident, ma petite. It is both admirable and a little frightening to me.'
'Why frightening?' I asked.
'Just because you are dangerous, even deadly, and kill easily and well, does not make you bulletproof, ma petite.'
'Or bombproof,' I said. 'I'm not Superman. I know I can be hurt, and I'll have Nathaniel and Micah with me. Regardless of the metaphysical fallout, if they got hurt I don't know what I'd do.'
'And if it were I that were hurt?'