Piper (Queen's Birds of Prey #4) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,60
sisters that Daddy was a poop head and that she’d show them the ropes. “You are forbidden to speak to your sisters and brother. That’s it. I’m putting my foot down.”
“Well, you’d better be picking it back up because I’m going to be with them as much as I possibly can.” Miley stood up to her dad, toe to toe, and it was then that Piper realized how tall she’d gotten. “Don’t try and do it, Dad. If you do, from what I’ve heard, you’ll only make me want to disobey you even more. Now, we’re not going to fight today. This is a great day for a celebration. Right, Dad?”
Joel looked at her and frowned. The poor man had three daughters he thought he could protect from everyone. Didn’t the man realize he was married to the worst role model there ever was? Laughing when she stood up, she took the baby from Grant and sat on the bed again.
“Whatever the other aunts and your mom don’t teach you, you can depend on Aunt Piper to teach you.” She looked at Grant as she continued. “Now that your mom has shown us it’s not that big of a deal to have a baby, then perhaps I can have you a cousin or two—”
“Holy shit. I just figured it out.” Everyone turned to Duncan, who had been quietly standing back while the rest of them traded off babies. “Sorry. I was just thinking about the fact that you’re all birds.”
“Well, good for you. We’ve been birds for a long time now, dummy.” Piper laughed when Mercy spoke. “Now that you’ve established what everyone else in this room already knew, what the fuck are you talking about? Or have you had a stroke? That would be a better reason than you just being tuned into the fact we’ve been—”
“How many eggs do you suppose a falcon would have, Mercy? In the event you’re going to give me a smart assed answer, which you always do, they have three to four. You had three this time.” He looked at her. “Piper? How many do you suppose a phoenix has? Again, three to four. You six, you’re having children, but you’re going to, I think, have them in batches.”
“Batches? Did you just call my children a batch? You moronic fuck. I’m going to—”
Duncan backed away from the bed, holding the baby he had up as a shield.
“Hush, Mercy. I need to think.” They all turned to Blaze, who had only just returned from her honeymoon with Bryson. “Hawks can have four to five eggs, I believe. Are you suggesting that I could have as many as five at a time?”
“I’m not sure. There aren’t any books or information out there on birds, or for that matter, any kind of creature such as you guys are. For all I know, it could just be a coincidence. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how many the next of you have. Is anyone here going to have a batch of babies?” Blaze raised her hand, as did Jude. Piper didn’t know, didn’t have the slightest idea how to tell if she was having a baby too. She looked at Grant, who shrugged. “Well, I guess in less than a year, we’ll know for sure. I, for one, am happy about this. But then, it’s not my body that is going through birth.”
“Way to bring down a room, Duncan.” He told them all he was sorry. As he made his way to Jude, Joel spoke again. “The thing we need to figure out is who we go to, to figure out this thing. As Duncan said, we are working with a lot of unknowns here. I think we were all wondering if there would be eggs born or not. That has been cleared up.”
“Not necessarily.” They then looked at her. “I mean, we are none of us the same sort of bird, right? For all we know, one or the rest of us could have eggs. Holy shit, this is scarier now than it was before. Too many unanswered questions if you ask me.”
“Does this mean you don’t want to have children?” She looked at Grant and smiled. “Good. I’m glad to hear that. However, there is nothing to worry about. Eggs or live births, one or five babies at once, we have the means and the magic to make it work out for all of us.”