Alien in the Family

jumped off my shoulder and turned Martini-sized. It didn’t growl, though. It roared.
    “Holy shit!” Kyle and his guys fell back. I took the opportunity to run for the door.
    Len came with me. “What the hell is that thing?”
    “Experimental protection weapon. Top secret. Come if you’re helping, otherwise, thanks again for the save.” I bolted for the stairs.
    There were pounding feet behind me. Len and his crew were following me. I could hear the line screaming. Good.
    Ran up the stairs, saw the door Martini’d ripped off its hinges. Good, right spot. Reached the roof to see the fighting still going on. Grabbed my Glock and tried to figure out who to shoot.
    There were two Martinis fighting. Both were hurt, one more than the other. But I couldn’t guess who would have done more damage between the real Martini and Kyrellis. Christopher and Gregory were rolling on the ground, blurry but there. So they were tiring. I pointed to them. “Guys, get them separated. One’s a bad guy, one’s another Federal agent. The Fed’s in a black Armani suit.”
    The football players ran over and surrounded Christopher. I stopped looking. Hopefully that would turn out okay.
    “Kyrellis!” They both looked at me. Damn, that didn’t work. “We’ve found all the bombs.” Lie, but maybe it would cause a reaction.
    Did. They both went back to hitting each other. Hard. One landed a great uppercut and the other staggered back, toward the edge. I wanted to run and grab him, but what if it wasn’t “my” Martini?
    “Hey, Kitty!” I turned at the sound of Len’s voice. They had Christopher and Gregory separated. “Who’s who?”
    I ran over, and pulled Christopher out. “He’s the Fed. Keep this other guy under control. Hurt him if you need to.” I looked at Christopher. “You look awful.”
    He shrugged. “It’ll pass. How’s Jeff?”
    “Um . . . no idea.” We stepped a little closer. “Have you seen him fight like this? Can you tell who’s who?”
    Christopher studied them. “She’s imitating his fighting style. No way to tell.” He sounded as worried as I felt.
    “Great. Find out if we’re going to have an explosion.”
    He pulled out his phone and I inched closer to the fight. The Martini who was more hurt got knocked to his knees. The other one slammed his fist into the side of his head. He went down.
    “Jeff?”
    The one standing looked at me and nodded. The one on the ground groaned. I went to him and pointed the Glock at the one standing. “Say something.” The Martini standing rolled his eyes. But he didn’t speak. And I didn’t hesitate.

CHAPTER 37

    KYRELLIS TRIED TO RUN, but I hadn’t been joking—my mother had been working with me on rapid firing techniques. I hit her torso and kept firing. By the third bullet, she shimmered and turned back into herself. By the eighth bullet I gave up on the torso and hit a knee. She went down.
    “Christopher, need you and the guys, and my purse!”
    Christopher pulled some of the football players off Gregory, and they covered Kyrellis. Len ran my purse to me. “That was weird and amazing.”
    “Thanks. Need your help.” I dug through for the case where I kept Martini’s adrenaline. Got it out, filled the huge needle. Ripped his shirt open. “He’s going to start thrashing, and he’s really strong. You need to help me hold him.”
    “Okay. Will you tell me what’s going on later?”
    “Possibly.”
    Martini’s eyes fluttered open. “Baby? Were you sure that wasn’t me?”
    “Hush, Jeff. Of course I was sure. Why do you think I waited until you were on the ground?”
    “Gee, thanks.”
    “I meant I had to wait to see if the Martini standing was going to speak to me or not. I didn’t want to distract the real you.”
    “I feel like crap.” He was gasping. I knew this scenario well.
    “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.” I, as always, hoped. I bent down and did my ritual. Kissed his forehead and said, “I love you, Jeff,” against his skin. Then I reared back and slammed the needle right into his hearts.
    He bellowed and started thrashing. “Shit!” Len flung himself onto Martini’s body. “You weren’t kidding!”
    I heard the sound of running feet and felt the roof shake. Looked over to see the linebackers coming our way. “Oh, great.” I was trying to hold Martini’s upper body and get the harpoon put away without getting hurt or killed.
    Kyle’s eyes were wide and he looked as though he’d been scared sober. “I