Alien vs. Alien

building next door, where are the Peregrines staying?”
    All the birds continued to look at me. They now looked as though they wanted to roll their eyes but were simply being polite.
    “I’m scared of the birdies, Mommy,” Rachel Lewis said in a qs said iuiet voice.
    One of the pairs looked at each other and went over to the Lewises. Bird necks were extended, coos were given, bird heads were reluctantly patted, then less reluctantly patted. Smiles and giggles ensued. The birds cooed again, then rejoined the flock. They all looked at me. Expectantly. Then sat down. En masse.
    Reality dawned. “I’m going to have to keep these things right here, aren’t I? At least until their aviary is built. Wow, it sucks to be me again.”
    Jeff sighed. “I’m just praying they don’t have to sleep in the bedroom with us.”

    Yi

CHAPTER 27

    W E DISCUSSED IT AND DECIDED TO SEE IF, by chance, each set would go back to their original recipients. This sounded like a great plan, only the birds all looked alike.
    To everyone else, at any rate. I could definitely see differences. I chose not to share this.
    The others tried moving around and calling to the birds. They didn’t budge. I had a sinking feeling about this. I got up and walked toward the back bedrooms. The Peregrines got to their feet en masse and followed me.
    Two of them stopped and stood by Doreen, Irving and Ezra. Two more trotted over to the Lewises. The exact same two that had gone over to comfort Rachel and Raymond earlier. The others looked at me expectantly. “Oh, good. Doreen, you get to have your set with you. Feel lucky.”
    “Trying to.”
    “Failing like me?”
    “Pretty much, yeah.” The birds cocked their heads at her. “Oh, fine. But no being mean to our Poofs!” Everyone in the Embassy had their own Poof by now. We had plenty after all, and I felt it was a wise security measure. Besides, the Poofs were beyond cute. Who wouldn’t want one? Well, the Peregrines, based on the looks they were giving said Poofs.
    Who were quite unhappy, if their continued quiet growling was any indication. They’d gone back to small, but they were eyeing the Peregrines like nobody’s business. The Poof that had attached to Jamie was perched on her, clearly ready to eat any Peregrine that came near.
    “That’s right, Peregrines. The Poofs were here first, and we love them. If you want us to love you, you have to play nicely with the Poofs. And the dogs and cats. And any other birds we happened to have around. Any animal that was here first is higher on our collective totem pole than any of you. So you need to leave them alone or protect them, depending. As well as be good birdies and all that jazz.” I looked at the Lewises. “You guys okay with your new family pets?”
    Kevin shrugged. “As long as they don’t attack us again, sure. If they do, I’m going to start an interstellar incident.”
    “Should we be concerned that they’ve only attached to the families with kids?” Jeff asked quietly.
    “No idea. At all. Naomi, Abigail, does your card give us` any clue about that?”
    “No,” Naomi replied. “Our card said, ‘While these birds will be most at home in the palace, they will help you control and stretch your talents while keeping you safe. Please enjoy them with our compliments.’ So I guess either Sis and I are expected to leave ‘our’ Peregrine set here, or Alexander thinks we live here.”
    “Or that you should,” Chuckie said slowly. “I’ve looked at the handwriting. The cards to Martini and White are in the same hand. All the others are in a different hand. King Alexander wrote the cards to his closest kinsmen.”
    “And Councilor Leonidas wrote the rest, didn’t he?”
    Chuckie nodded. “That would be my assumption, yes.”
    Nurse Carter looked at the card in Naomi’s hand. “Yes, the card Richard received was in that handwriting.”
    “He let you see it?”
    She looked embarrassed. “It was, as he said, personal. But for the two of us.”
    “Oh, one of those ‘congrats on hooking up and welcome to the family’ kind of messages.” The Peregrines all cooed at me. It was as if they were telling me they loved that I was so intuitive. I didn’t share this thought with anyone else either.
    “What did everyone else’s notes say?” Jeff asked.
    Kevin pulled theirs out. “Captain, these birds will form the basis of the palace’s defenses. While they can and should travel with the Royal Family and their other