Alien in the Family

“You’re a protector. Good of the many and all that.”

“Not over you. Never again—no one and nothing else over you—you understand?”

I nodded and again managed not to cry. Martini shifted me to his hip, and we took a look around. ACE landed us back pretty much where we’d been. All of Animal Planet was still with us, which made sense since their ships were here.

Kitty, ACE must go back to Paul. If ACE stays any longer with Kitty, ACE will destabilize.

I understand. ACE? Thank you again. For everything.

Our world to protect and love.

Yes. I looked up at Martini. “Jeff, we need to get to Paul.”

Gower wasn’t that far away from us. He looked crappy. Reader helped him over. “Hope he can handle the transfer back.”

“I can,” Gower said. He put out his hand and I took it. The heavy-duty electric charge went through me and finally stopped. I leaned my head against Martini’s shoulder until the dizziness and nausea passed.

Gower straightened up. I saw his body repair itself even faster than A-C normal. “ACE doesn’t like you hurt?”

“Nope. Thankfully.” Gower looked around. “We need to get everybody healed.”

“Let’s see if telecommunications is back or if we still have reason to curse Bitch Leader and her gang.” My purse was nearby, but Martini pulled his phone out so I didn’t have to get out of his arms. I was more than okay with this.

“I have a dial tone.” Martini looked around. “We need to verify that all bases are still secured.” He was back to full Commander Mode. Other phones came out, and it was business as usual.

Martini dialed. “Dad? Yes, we’re all still alive. Yes, all the nice people from the A-C solar system, too. Yes, they’re dead. Your father, too,” he added quietly. “Huh? Yeah, the Poofs, ah, ate him.” Martini’s eyebrow rose. “Okay, yeah, we all agreed with their choice. Yeah, no loss at all, believe me. Kitty installed Alexander as the new king. Yes, we were on the home world. No, we didn’t want to stay. Long story.”

He sighed. “Yes, I brought it back with me,” he muttered. “I’ll give it to you when we see you. What? What do you mean it’s mine now? I don’t want it!” Martini was quiet, but the look on his face said he was losing whatever argument he was having with Alfred.

“Yes, of course I’ll take care of it,” he said finally, in a tone of total resignation. “Kitty has one, too. So do some of the others. Look, can we talk about this later? What do you mean it’s important? I think the safety of our people and our bases is more important. Fine, fine, look, really, is everyone in Vegas okay? Uncle Richard? Kitty’s family? Good. How about the kids? Good. Okay, we’ll clean up here, be back there sometime in the next few hours. What do you mean you’ll all be up? It’s the middle of the night! In fact, it’s heading toward dawn. What? Are you kidding me? Okay, fine, fine. Go back to the craps table, so sorry to bother you with all that end of the world stuff. Yes, love you, too.”

He closed his phone. “Well, that was . . . odd.”

“Is your dad okay that his father got . . . eaten?”

“Yep.” Martini shook his head. “Apparently Leonidas wasn’t making nice and covering up in regard to the Poofs. If the Poofs eat anyone in the royal family, it’s because they’ve made a determination a better ruler’s at hand, just like he said. So, if you’re eaten, you deserved it.”

“Wow. That’s a lot of power given to fluffy bundles of fur.”

“Tell me about it.” Martini eyed Poofikins, who’d crawled up onto my shoulder. “You sure you want to keep them?”

“The Poofs rock. They ate Adolphus, not you, me, Alexander, or Renata.”

“Good point.”

“How’s everyone else?”

“Oh, just fine. They’re all at the craps tables. Apparently your Nana Sadie is a craps queen and has been showing off her technique. The few who aren’t playing craps are either at the blackjack tables or, God help us, in the baccarat room.”

“Who’s in the baccarat room?” Kevin and Chuckie both started to snort laughter. “Oh, no. You’re kidding me. My mom’s playing baccarat?”

“Gotta figure,” Kevin said with a grin. “We call her Jane Bond at the office.” I learned new things about my mother every day. “By the way, Jeff, thanks again.”

“For what?” Martini asked.

“For getting my wife and kids stashed with the others in Florida. I just talked to her—the kids are all having a blast, but she was glad to be there to give Gladys a hand.”

“You’re part of the team, you get the same security,” Martini said with a shrug.

“Never stop appreciating it.”

I could see the Animal Planet folks were getting ready to leave. “Jeff, need down for a minute.” He released me slowly. I found my shoes and grabbed my purse. There, properly dressed again.

Felicia was hurt, but she was going to be okay. Willem and Wrolph were both injured as well but also seemed likely to recover. Wrolph was being tended to by Claudia again, and I got the distinct impression he had a crush on her, if his tail wagging when she looked at him was indicative.

Neeraj was looking beaten up, but not too terrible. The rest of the Animal Planet folks were similar.

“You all leaving now?” I tried not to sound disappointed and failed.

Queen Renata nodded. “We have done what we came to do, in that sense. You have many things to get back to.”

“Yeah, uh, that’s sort of why . . . hang on a second.” I stepped off a bit and dug out my cell phone. “Mom? How’s the baccarat room?”

“Fine. I’m wi

“I’m alive. We saved the world.”

“Good. Need to concentrate.” Nice to see where her priorities truly were.

“Mom, did you ever get a hold of Amy, Sheila, and Caroline for me?”

She heaved a sigh. “Yes. Sheila was flattered that you wanted her to be in your wedding, but what with the delay in your making any kind of decision, she’s had time to find out she’s expecting number four and would rather die than try to shove into a bridesmaid dress, even though she’s probably only barely showing. They can’t come, either, expenses. And her husband would be insulted if we offered to pay.”

“Okay.” I couldn’t be hurt—reality was what it was. “How about Amy?”

“Can’t come now, can’t come in six weeks. Talked to her right before telecommunications went down worldwide. She was assigned a huge case because, let me mention, she wasn’t able to say when exactly she needed to come to the States until it was too late. She can’t leave for the next few months. Career-making kind of thing.” Amy was a corporate lawyer working in Paris for one of the huge conglomerates. The only stuff she did was career-making, so again, not a surprise. “She’s sending you an overwhelmingly too generous gift to make up for it.”

“Okay. That’ll be nice. Caroline?” I held out no expectations.

“Caroline could have come in six weeks because she apparently knows you well enough to have arranged for a week off any time one to four months from now.”

“Wow.” Cool. I had three bridesmaids. “That’s a perk.”

“Well, the senator loves her. I wouldn’t expect anyone else to get that kind of consideration. However, at this moment she’s in Paraguay with a full senatorial team on a fact-finding mission, and even if they’d let her leave, by the time she could get here, it would all be over.”

“Ah.” Okay. Back to two bridesmaids. “Such is life. What facts are they finding?”

“It’s need to know, and you definitely don’t.” Mom’s tone shifted. “Kitten, are you really okay?”

“I think so. I’ll know in a few minutes. Go back to the baccarat, Missus Bond.”

“Hilarious. Love you. See you soon, I hope.”

“Yeah. Love you, too.” As I hung up, Reader ran over to me.

“Girlfriend, Jeff’s asked Kevin to be in the wedding party, too. I tried to shut him up, but he was clueless. I’m amazed he hasn’t asked Reynolds at the rate he’s going. You want me to get him to retract?”