Alien in the House

and I are hitching a ride with Cliff. Hopefully that means the paparazzi will clear off and leave you guys alone.”
    Nathalie laughed. “It makes me nostalgic. But do you want us to go back to your Embassy, or would you like to just go home and collapse?”
    “Honestly? I’d like to collapse. But I want you guys to be careful. There’s been a lot of bad and weird going on.”
    Brewer nodded. “Let’s all get a good night’s sleep and we can regroup tomorrow. I’ll be happy to help Jeff with the bills. Not that I don’t think that he can manage them all on his own, but I had help when I came on and it really does make it easier if you have someone to show you the ropes.”
    “Absolutely. You know, you’ve been over to our place, why don’t we go over to yours tomorrow? That way Nathalie can show me her portfolio while you and Jeff work?”
    They both beamed at me. Clearly this was a suggestion they liked. I knew without asking that Jeff would like it, too. After all, he’d been trying to have us become friends with this couple for months now.
    “It’s a date,” Nathalie said. “Brunch at our place? Bring your daughter, too, if you want. We don’t have children yet but that doesn’t mean we don’t like them.”
    “We’ll see how she’s behaving.” Jamie was always pretty darned well-behaved but I wasn’t sure how good an idea it was to have her exposed right now. There were assassins and Clarence and probably bears, oh my. “She’s had a fun couple of days and may just want to stay home.”
    “See you around eleven, then?” Brewer asked.
    “It’s a date. I’ll call you if something changes, but otherwise, we’ll see you tomorrow.” Gave them both hugs, which got photographed, and then trotted back to Jeff.
    “I’ve told the jocks what’s going on,” he said. “They’ll gather anyone else who matters and get them home. They already have the princesses in tow. And the mountain of bills I have to read and form an opinion of in a week.”
    Had a moment’s worry about leaving Rahmi and Rhee unattended and in the care of males, but decided that they’d behaved well so far and there was no time like the present for them to get used to how things here worked.
    Cliff led us out of the Capitol building. True to expectations, all the media followed us. It was raining, so I put up my hood. “How far are you?” Chuckie asked.
    “I parked on Southwest Drive,” Cliff said. “No worries, we’re not too far. Can’t wait for you to see it, it’s great. I haven’t been this excited about a car in years.”
    “So, what kind did you get?” I asked as we walked quickly through the wet. Chuckie didn’t care that much about cars and since A-Cs had reflexes that were so good they actually weren’t able to safely drive, I was the only other “car person” here.
    Cliff grinned. “Toyota RAV Four EV. All electric. It’s great. Wanted it in red, but they only make it in white and blue, so I got the blue. Tricked it out with everything extra I could, too.”
    Spotted a blue car in the near distance. “Is that it?”
    “Yeah. And, don’t worry about being cold, Kitty. It has the remote engine starter. I can have it running and warm inside before we ever get there.”
    “I’m not worried about being cold, but if your car can do something about the wet, that’d be great.”
    He laughed. “Well, I’ll get her started and the heat on. That’ll help.”
    As Cliff pulled out his key fob and clicked the button I felt something with feathers slam into me.
    So when Cliff’s car exploded, I wasn’t nearly as surprised as I could have been.



CHAPTER 69
    O F COURSE, this didn’t mean I wasn’t surprised. And I wasn’t the only one.
    We were close enough to the car that the blast threw all of us back. Sure, I’d had help from Harold, but the men flew backward, too.
    We were lucky—because of the angle of the blast in terms of where we were, we were thrown onto grass instead of concrete. This was good in that we were unlikely to be hurt because of the fall. However, it meant we were all covered with mud. The less said about the state of my nice white dress the better.
    There were scattered screams and a lot of yelling from the paparazzi. Jeff rolled to and then on top of me. “Kitty, are you okay?”
    “Yeah. Harold knocked me back. Are you alright?”
    “Yeah, I felt something hit me right before the blast. I’m assuming it was a Peregrine, since it didn’t hurt me. We need to get