Alien in the House

ride.”
    “Okay, um, I’ll just get back and keep things rolling for tonight. And, you need to be careful, okay?” If Raul was after me, he might also be after Buchanan.
    He sighed. “I’m always careful.”
    Buchanan walked me back to the Embassy. No one seemed to be looking for me, which was well and good. So either Jeff wasn’t emotionally monitoring either me or Buchanan, or he’d felt that I had the situation well in hand and would grill me for details later. Issue tabled for now, then.
    Took the stairs up, in part to practice, because Christopher lived to ask me how much practice I’d put in each day and I obviously couldn’t share my recent exploits without breaking my promise to the Dingo. Why I cared about that I couldn’t say, but I’d been taught to go with my gut, and my gut said the Dingo was telling me the truth.
    And if Buchanan, who’d been there, hadn’t believed me about Clarence, would anyone else, even Jeff? I had no real proof, after all, and truthfully I’d never seen the man up close enough to be a hundred percent sure. Decided I’d table this issue as well.
    I was great with my A-C powers if I was enraged and channeling She-Hulk or racing after presumed-dead enemies. However, I still had to work at using my talents when things were calm.
    Well, my hyperspeed and superstrength talents. I’d scored other talents, and those I never seemed to have issues with.
    Which, as I left the stairs on the fourth floor a little fast, was a good thing. Two huge birds that looked like peacocks on steroids appeared out of nowhere. The Peregrines each grabbed one of my wrists and lifted me into the air. My speed slowed to normal and they put me down gently.
    “Thanks Bruno and Ken.” I gave liberal scritchy-scratches to our Royal Avian Protectors. “Lola and Barbie guarding the kids?”
    Bruno cooed and looked at me. Yes, their mates were on Nursemaid Duty. This was, as had been proved a lot during Operation Destruction, a really good thing.
    A soft mewing sounded and then there were balls of fluffy cuteness on my shoulders. “Harlie, Poofikins!” The Poofs were small balls of fluffy fur, with black button eyes, cat ears, and tiny paws. They could also go Jeff-sized if danger threatened, meaning that we’d seen the Poofs large and in charge a lot since we’d found out they existed.
    Chose not to ask why no Poofs or Peregrines had shown up for an assist earlier. Because the danger hadn’t been all that great was my guess. And I hadn’t called for them.
    The Poofs were also Royal Protectors, only we’d had them a lot longer than the Peregrines, since they arrived as part of Operation Invasion and ended up being the best wedding gifts anyone could get.
    Well, we’d had some of them longer. The Poofs were androgynous and mated whenever a royal wedding was imminent. Apparently the Poofs felt that many more people were getting married, they’d stocked up due to the Dino-Bird Invasion, or else they’d decided all of American Centaurion and our military and research side, Centaurion Division, were part of the Royal Family, because we had Poofs up the wazoo.
    Not that anyone minded, me least of all. Poofs for everyone and more Poofs for me was my motto.
    The Poofs and Peregrines had some rivalry issues, but our flock of a dozen mated Peregrine pairs and our massive pack of Poofs had chosen to listen to me and get along with each other.
    Yes, they listened to me, literally, and I could understand them, at least somewhat. Because the A-C “talent” I’d gotten by benefit of the Surcenthumain Boost was the ability to talk to the A-C animals. Dr. Doolittle had nothing on me. I hadn’t told my parents, Jeff, Chuckie, or Reader yet, but I was getting pretty good with our Earth dogs and cats, too. I wanted to save it for when I was sure someone had a camera handy, so I could preserve their expressions forever.
    Of course, the Peregrines were the reason we had a Zoo to go to tonight. Because Pierre wasn’t going to shuttle all our guests to the Washington Zoo. He meant the five-story building next to ours, which had taken severe water damage several months ago. It had been my idea to buy it, fix it up, and turn it into a zoo to house the Peregrines and anything else that might show up from the Alpha Centauri system.
    This idea, originally scoffed at by most if not all of my nearest and dearest, had turned into a goodwill gesture and publicity stunt that was working really well. The Peregrines