CHAPTER 28.

"I BELIEVE IT'S HER TALENT," White said as he and Christopher rejoined us.

"Excuse me?"

"Talent. Many A-Cs do have them, I believe you're aware." White seemed amused.

"True enough. But I'm not an A-C."

White coughed while everyone else looked slightly uncomfortable. "No, you're not. You're also not a human any more, either. And you've always been good with animals."

"Well, sure, but the cats and dogs have been my family's pets for years."

He pointedly looked at the Poofs. "And yet, the Royal Pets don't really obey anyone. Other than you. Supposedly Poofs will only obey their owners. And the head Poof."

"Harlie's the head Poof."

"True enough. However, I've seen Harlie do whatever you want, whenever you want it, unless you weren't phrasing your request in a way that would ensure Jeffrey would remain safe."

"It's a nightmare," Jeff said. "Fine, let's worry about this later, and by later I mean tomorrow."

"Wait, we haven't seen what Christopher and Chuckie's cards said."

Christopher looked as though his world was still spinning. Amy took the card out of his hand. "Congratulations on your recent nuptials. We wish you many happy years of fruitful marriage and hope these birds will serve you well as you take your place within Earth's hierarchy."

"That's nice."

Amy shook her head. "There's more. That first part was on the front of the card. This was on the back. 'As the Primary to His Royal Highness, we would like to warn you that we fear a threat against our mutual friend from a common enemy. Please take all due precautions.' It's not signed, but it's in different handwriting from what was on the other side. It matches the handwriting on Tito's card."

"The Primary?" This was a new one.

"It's an Alpha Four title," White answered. "Chief Councilor, which is Councilor Leonidas' full title, would correlate for Earth into a position similar to that of the British Prime Minister. The Primary, however, is different. Primaries tend to be a blood relation of some kind to the King, but the function is similar to that of the U.S. Vice President. It could also technically correspond to Christopher's role here, as Charge d'Affaires."

"So, if Alfred had been crowned King of Alpha Four, the Primary might have been Stanley Gower?"

"Exactly. Well done." White looked pleased with my insightfulness. As did the Peregrines. Go me.

Amy, however, looked upset. "It's got to be my stepmother and Al Dejahl," she said to Jeff.

Jeff shook his head. "Why not just say that? They told Tito what the birds were for, they told Walter and Kevin and everyone else how to use them for security-why be cryptic to Christopher? Particularly about a threat?"

"What do you think, Christopher?"

He blinked. I got the impression that Christopher was still thinking about the fact that his father was romancing Nurse Carter. "Same as Jeff. I've got no idea why they do anything they do. I don't see any reason to be sending us hidden messages attached to attack birds."

"Possibly because they were worried about the birds or the messages being intercepted," Chuckie said. "If the threat to 'our mutual friend' means Martini, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for them to be concerned that something would happen with the deliveries."

My throat felt tight. "Someone's out to hurt Jeff?"

"Possibly," Jeff said. He sounded irritated. And tired. "But right now, let's just get the last message to Reynolds and go back to bed."

Chuckie looked at his card. "Huh. You'd think they'd have said something similar on mine."

"What does your message say?" Jeff asked.

"Mine's like what Naomi and Abigail got. 'Please consider taking up residence with the rest of the American Centaurion diplomatic mission. Your skills will be needed within far more than without.' It's Leonidas' handwriting."

"Well, that's ominous." I looked at the Peregrines. "That's why they sent these birds now." Sure enough, the flock all bobbed their heads.

"I'm living in a zoo," Jeff muttered. "Fine," he said in his normal voice, "so we have a new threat. Nothing we haven't had before, I'm sure."

"Common enemy sounds like my wicked stepmother," Amy said for the third time. I hoped this didn't work like Beetlejuice and her mentioning LaRue three times meant she'd show up. I waited. No puff of smoke, no evil villainess standing in the room. I allowed myself to be relieved.

"Could be," Kevin agreed. "But we have other common enemies. And since none were named specifically, I wouldn't limit our thinking at this stage."

"Are you going to do what he asks, Chuckie? And by you, I mean you, Naomi, and Abigail. You've all stayed here before." If Councilor Leonidas thought we needed Chuckie and the Gower girls living here, then we probably needed Chuckie and the Gower girls living here.

Jeff and Chuckie looked at each other. "You're here so damn much anyway," Jeff said finally. "You already have your own room."

Chuckie laughed. "True enough. So do Mimi and Abby."

They nodded. "I think you need us right now," Naomi said. "So we're staying. Like Chuck, we're here a lot anyway."

"But it looks like the Peregrines are only going to go with those of us with children," Doreen pointed out. "I don't understand why, or how they're going to be protecting anyone if they're all with Kitty."

Considered this. As well as all the notes, the ones to Christopher and Chuckie in particular. "Maybe we have the majority of the birds because we have Jeff."

"Or Jamie," Denise said quietly.

"You think they're after my daughter?" Jeff said with a growl.

Denise shrugged. "Weren't they before?"

"Yeah, they were. And now we have more hybrids, too."

"Raymond and Rachel aren't hybrids," Kevin pointed out.

"But they're kids, in the Embassy. And, let's be honest-you and Denise are both great looking enough to pass as A-Cs. I wouldn't want to bet that whoever the Peregrines were sent to protect us from would ignore them."

I realized we were saying this in front of the children, and Raymond and Rachel were old enough to understand we were talking about scary people stealing them in the night. A quick glance at their expressions proved I'd indeed freaked them out. I wanted to do or say something to reassure them, and fast.

Before I could open my mouth, their two Peregrines both cooed. At the Poofs. Several Poofs growled back. The Peregrines squawked quietly. The Poofs mewed. This went on for a while.

Jeff sighed. "What's going on?"

I gave up and didn't even pretend I had no idea. "They're arguing. The Poofs don't want to do what the Peregrines are suggesting." The male Peregrine I knew was ours, specifically, looked straight at me. "Oh. Um, Poofies? I know you're all jealous. But the Peregrines are clear-Poofies were here first, and everyone loves the Poofies, so the Peregrines will be good. But my Poofies have to be good, too."

Several Poofs detached from the Poof side of the room and bounded over to the Lewises. "We already have our own Poofs," Denise reminded us.

The Poofs jumped onto their shoulders, purred, and disappeared. "Um, now I think you have more. So that Raymond and Rachel won't need to worry. They'll have their Peregrines and several Poofs. Nothing's going to get any of the kids, not with Poofs and Peregrines on the job, right?"

There was much head bobbing and wing flapping from the flock and a lot of purring from the Poofs.

"Well done, Missus Martini," White said. "Now, children, it's late and we were all awakened rather rudely. Let's deal with everything else in the morning, including moving new residents in more permanently and so forth."

"Dulce will continue to monitor the Embassy," Gladys shared. I'd forgotten she was still on the com. "Will alert Embassy personnel if the Peregrines attack. Or if any more show up."

"Great, Gladys," Jeff said. "Thanks. And good night."

"Dulce out."

Everyone took this as their cue to go back to their beds. Walter's Peregrines went with him, which was interesting. He wasn't a little kid, so I figured they were the flock's version of Security. Which potentially meant the pair with Walter were even more badass than the rest of the flock. Something to contemplate. Tomorrow.

Jeff, Jamie, and I walked down the hall to one of the smaller bedrooms, meaning it was easily as large as my entire apartment had been, back before it had been blown up by my first megalomaniac enemy, aka Ronaldo al Dejahl's father. The remaining members of the flock followed us.

"Peregrines, in here. You sleep in here. Don't destroy anything. Use the toilet. Flush. Or something." Jeff shook his head. "I'm reduced to giving orders to birds. How did we end up here, baby?"

"No clue. Can we go back to bed now?"

The Peregrines filed into the room, flew on top of the bed and settled down. All but one that was clearly on guard duty. Jeff started to close the door and the bird screeched.

"Huh." Jeff closed the door. All the birds started screeching. Great soundproofing or not, apparently a flock of Peregrines could be heard no matter what. He opened the door. Instant quiet. "Wonderful. If I find you've destroyed or messed on anything, you'll all be dinner."

We went back to our bedroom and checked on our Earth animals. They were all huddled together, other than Bellie, who was clinging to her perch. "Wow. The pets don't like the Peregrines, do they? I wonder why not. They're really just big birds."

Bellie looked up. "Bigger birds are coming! Bigger birds are coming!" She didn't sound happy about it. At all.

"Bellie, is that one of Daddy's secrets?"

"Daddy's secrets will help bigger birds! Bellie loves Jeff."

"Jeff loves Bellie," he said soothingly. He moved the Poof Condos back into our room, taking time to pet each Poof. While I held Jamie, Jeff got the cats and petted them, then put them into the biggest Poof Condo.

He ended up picking up each dog, too, even Dudley-and picking up a Great Dane was never for the faint of heart or weak of back-and putting them into their beds. I'd never seen my animals this scared.

Bellie's perch was the last to move. "You okay with her being in the room with us?" he asked me.

I didn't care much for her, but it was obvious the bird was still terrified. "Yes, it's okay. She's too scared to be out in the living room, and I don't think she should be in the nursery alone, either. I assume Jamie's going to spend the rest of the night in bed with us?"

"You know it." Jeff put Bellie's perch next to a Poof Condo. "Bellie needs to be nice to all the other animals," he said to her.

"I'm not positive the cats won't try to eat her, though."

Jeff coughed. "Ah, they tried that already. She's a lot like you-quite the fighter."

"So that's why the other pets got moved out of the bedroom?"

"Somewhat."

"You know, I'd argue about this, but since we have two dozen Peregrines, give or take, down the hall, I'm just going to opt for going to bed and hoping our Animal Kingdom remains peaceful."

We got into bed. Jeff put up a pillow barrier on one side so that Jamie couldn't roll off the bed. Then I wrapped around her and he wrapped around me.

"You know, this was an insane day and an even crazier night, but it's so nice to be snuggled together like this again that I frankly don't care about all the rest of the crap."

Jeff chuckled. "And here I'd thought you'd only missed the great sex."

"Oh, trust me, I missed that more than anything. In fact, I'm kind of bitter that tonight's events have ensured we can't fool around a little more right now."

Jeff kissed the side of my head. "That's what tomorrow's for."

CHAPTER 29.

THE NEXT MORNING WAS PRETTY GOOD. The Peregrines hadn't destroyed too much in the bedroom. By that I mean they'd chosen to use the room's bathtub to do their thing and otherwise hadn't clawed up the furniture, drapes, or carpeting. Jeff wasn't amused, but we had nowhere else to put them yet.

Jamie was sleeping through the night now, but the disruption from the night before meant she was a tired, cranky girl when I woke her up for breakfast. We fed her, then Jeff rocked her back to sleep and put her down into her crib.

This enabled us to have yet more sex. I was great with this. Whoever was once again after my husband wasn't going to get him without a lot of pain from me. I'd spent a month without Jeff. I refused to spend longer without him.

Once all of us were up for the second time, we were able to really get up and get going. Jeff had work I couldn't know about to do, but that was fine. I had my own little team, and we had an investigative reporter to round up, a senator to grab, and some special K-9 cops to visit. My day was going to be plenty full.

Jeff put Bellie back into her enclosure. She seemed better today than she had last night. The cats and most of the Poofs stayed in the bedroom. The team Walter had assigned to take care of the dogs arrived, and the dogs practically killed them with love and excitement to leave.

The Peregrine situation was explained to the agents, along with their additional Peregrine cleanup duties. They looked as excited as we felt. I figured it made taking care of the dogs look better. Hey, I was all about the ridiculous optimism sometimes.

"I really hope the Peregrines and the pets get comfortable together. The dogs and cats had no issues at all with the Poofs."

"Don't know what to tell you baby. Maybe it's because the birds are large and not cuddly at all."

"And we have twelve breeding pairs-we could start the Attack Peacock Breeding Program."

"Maybe that's what Alexander wants. Who knows?" He kissed me. "Shall I take Jamie down to Denise on my way?"

"Nah, I'll do it. I may keep her with me today anyway."

"Don't take her into any dangerous situations."

"I won't. I'm just not sure she should spend all day with Denise right now. A few hours here and there when nothing much is going on is fine, but all I'm going to do is visit people who aren't going to attack her."