Tyler

by Kathi S. Barton

  “You don’t gotta be nasty about it, you candle sucker.” She smiled at him before continuing. “I decided that instead of saying fuck all the time, I’d make up some new things to call people. What do you think?”

  ~*~

  Jazzie was still laughing when they got into the car. Not only was Glenda found in contempt of court, she was also taken right back to jail, in chains, and all without another word being spoken by the judge.

  Judge Harper’s face was nearly purple with rage when he pointed at Glenda and jerked his thumb towards the officers there with her, and then he pointed at the door. Christ, it was the funniest thing she’d ever seen. The three of them were ready to order lunch when Tyler was called away.

  “I have something to tell you.” Jazzie asked Rayne if it was about Ryan. “It is, as a matter of fact. He’s here to talk to you.”

  “I see.” She looked around the restaurant, mostly to gather herself up for this. “Is he pissed off still, or does he want to make amends? It’s a little too late for the latter of the two, and he’ll have to deal with his own death without me.”

  “Neither, actually. It’s about his son. He wants to ask you a few questions, then he said that he’d tell you a few things too.” Jazzie wasn’t sure she wanted to know what he wanted from her, but nodded at Rayne. She waited while she looked to her left. Rayne seemed to be pleased when she looked at her. “He wants to know if Joey is his son.”

  “Of course he is. I’m not the one that cheated, he did.” She lowered her voice when she noticed how loud she’d spoken. “What else does he want to know? I swear, if he’s accusing me of something else, I’m going to dig him up and beat the crap out of him.”

  “You know, I don’t say this to many women, but I do love you. You are so meek looking, and give off the impression that you wouldn’t say shit if you had a mouthful of it. Another saying from Kelley. But I tell you, when you’re cornered, you’re like a bear with large claws. Good for you. He wants to know if you can help him find his girlfriend.” She asked her to repeat that. “The woman that he was killed with. He wants you to find her for him. I can answer this if you don’t mind. It would be my pleasure.”

  “What a fucking idiot. His girlfriend. He actually asked his wife, the woman who put up with his shit for over a year, if I knew where his fuck buddy was.” Jazzie just shook her head. “How the hell does he expect me to...? Don’t you need to be alive to get an erection?”

  “Yes. Mostly he needs blood, of which he has none. And you know, I think that you’re the first person, living or dead, that has gotten that.” She looked in the direction that Rayne had been looking, and wondered if the idiot even knew that he was dead. “He does. He doesn’t care for it, but he knows. But his fuck buddy, as you called her, has moved on. I guess she didn’t have as many things to resolve as this idiot did.”

  Jazzie thought of the kind of sex that Ryan had liked at the end of their marriage. It wasn’t really sex other than he got an erection and stuck it in her. She was beaten up, fucked like he was trying to kill her, and hurt inside as well as her body. Jazzie knew how lucky she was that she’d been able to carry Joey to term.

  “What did he want to tell me? I don’t know about you, but I’d like to get this over with right now.”

  Rayne was smiling as she looked in the direction where Ryan was.

  Jazzie thought about all the things he could have asked her, and he’d not cared enough about her to know. Like was she all right? Did she have enough money? She knew that he’d not care or even think to ask. If it wasn’t about him, then Ryan never cared.

  “He said to tell you that when you get to where he is, he’s not going to stop doing what he did to you before. He can’t do that, just so you know. If Ryan were to hit you, for any reason, then he would be gone. Also, and here is a biggy, he can’t hurt you while you’re alive.” She started to say that she was an immortal when Rayne shook her head. “He doesn’t need to know a great many things about you. All right? The next thing he wants to tell you is that he wants you to give his son to his mom. She wants him, and could raise him to be a better man than you could.”

  “That is not going to happen. Not to mention, I think that after today, she’s going to be spending a great deal more time behind bars.” Rayne said that she would be. “Tell him no; she will never get to visit him either. Not so long as there is breath in my body.”

  The salt shaker on the table fell over. Water spilled from the glasses. As Rayne cleaned it up, she told Ryan to behave or she’d stop this right now. She even asked Ryan if he needed to be reminded that she was the Death Watcher. Apparently, he’d said something to Rayne that she’d not told Jazzie. Whatever it was, it had pissed him off. Jazzie asked what he’d said.

  “That you were going to raise him to be a pussy. I’ve heard that from others like him before. That since you have no intentions of showing him how to hurt women, then he’ll be a pussy. Anyway, he wants his mom to raise Joey so that he can be better prepared for women like you.” Jazzie asked her what that meant. “Women who do not know how to listen to their husbands. Apparently, he believes that you weren’t shown that men were superior to women, so you didn’t understand that you needed knocking around a lot. I would love to find the first person that might have said that to their son. I’m betting that he was a wuss, and that he only taught his kid that so that he’d think to make him stronger. They’re all idiots. Or what did Glenda call Judge Harper?”

  “Which time? Once she called him a douche waffle. Then right before he had her tossed back in her cell, she called him a candle sucker. That one took me a moment to figure out.” They both laughed. “Tell Ryan that I’m going to teach my son to be a good man.”

  “He said thank you.” Jazzie laughed and said not his kind of good man. “Yeah, I was hoping you’d tell him the difference.”

  “I’m going to teach him to be a kind and generous man. One that people can depend on when they’re in trouble. Someone that people can look up to, especially his own children. A man that will love his wife unconditionally and treat her with respect, not the back of his hand.” Rayne told her that Ryan said she had it all wrong. “No, I don’t think so. I’m going to hope my son becomes like his father, Tyler Winchester, my husband.”

  Whatever she had expected to happen, she thought that she was prepared for it. But the total lack of anything happening scared her more—sort of the calm before the storm sort of thing. And when Rayne told her that Ryan was gone, Jazzie felt a sliver of fear race down her back. It was telling her, she thought, to be ready. For anything.

  “I’m going to have Tyler change me.” Rayne told her that was an excellent idea. “Yes, I think so too. And while I know that I’m an immortal, I’m still scared of this. It’s too...well, it’s too everything.”

  “You’ll be able to protect Joey better as well. While he too is an immortal now, he can be hurt badly.” Jazzie nodded and looked around the room. “Let’s eat. I know that you are more than likely not hungry, but I promised Tyler that I would at least get you to eat a salad. Come on, you know how many calories you’ve been burning lately.”

  “You’re right. But I don’t want a salad. I want a burger and all the trimmings. Fuck this crap.” Rayne laughed and Jazzie joined her. “I decided just now that I’m not going to let an idiot rule me. I didn’t let him before, and I’m surely not going to now.”

  “Good for you.” The waiter took their orders and brought back their salads right away. Jazzie wasn’t much of a French fry person, so had opted for a salad. Rayne did the same. “I love salads, and Gabe will eat them, but I try really hard to make sure that he has lots of meat. So when I go out, I try to get some greens in me when I can.”

  The two of them talked for the next hour. Tyler did join them, only to be called away again. He was still working with Caleb and the things that had happened within the pack. Jazzie told Rayne that she thought that he was enjoying it, and that she was glad that he had stuff to do.

&nbs
p; “Gabe was glad to help out too, but I think it bothered him a little to think he might have had to do what Tyler did the other day.” Jazzie said that it had bothered Tyler too, but it had been necessary. “Yes, I agree. And the people that were involved, they’ve been sent away. They wanted to talk others, the living, into finishing their job. That is against the rules of the dead.”

  Jazzie had heard that, that there was a book for the dead. And that they were sort of given the rules of their kind as soon as they stopped living. The book—she wondered if there really was a book, like in that movie, but didn’t ask. She didn’t want to feel foolish, and she was having such a good time.

  After lunch, they strolled along the shops. Joey was at his Grandma Winchester’s, and she was sure that if she came back too soon, Sara would be unhappy with her. She’d never met a person that loved children as much as Sara did. They talked about the upcoming holiday, the plans that they were having, and the fact that Rayne thought that Dominic was dreading having a mate.

  “I agree. He told Tyler about the leprechaun he saw.” Rayne said that she’d heard too. “I’m not sure why I think this, but I have an idea that he’s going to be mated to a little person.”

  “They get larger when they wish, or have been in the human world for a long time.” She said she’d not known that. “I think Sara has a book on that sort of thing. Her sister married one by the name of O’Reilly. I’ve yet to meet him.”

  “I guess we’ll have to see.”

  When they parted ways at the deli again, she walked to the Winchester home. She loved the old house, and was so happy that the boys had updated it for their parents rather than buy them a new home. As she entered the house, she heard Joey crying and Kelley talking to him.

  “Now see here, you little boy. I didn’t mean to scare you like that. But a man has to sneeze. It just snuck up on me.” She heard him laugh, and Joey stopped a little. “I seen you sneeze a time or two, didn’t I? Did I make all that fuss? Nope. I just let it go. Now, I’m an old man, and I have me some creaky spots that might make some noise. If you and me are going to be buddies, which we will be, then you’ll just have to trust me when I tell you, they’d never hurt you. Now, let’s me and you take us a snooze and wait for your momma to get here. I’m hoping we can get us a good long one in, but we’ll see.”

  Slipping back out the door, she walked to her home. She might do with a nap herself. And she knew as surely as she was happy that Joey was in good hands. They both were, as a matter of fact.

  Chapter 8

  Glenda was pissed. This wasn’t going to get her grandson to her, the way things were going. And she was sick to death of people telling her that her son was a degenerate. He was no such thing. He was just outspoken and did things his own way. Motherfuckers were going to make her do something drastic if they didn’t stop.

  The cell she was in had been cleaned while she was gone. Not that she had anything, but she thought that someone had also gone through her things. The books that had been in the room when she’d gotten there were out of order. And her personal items were mussed with too.

  She was thinking about her plans and how she was going to get them into gear when the lights down the hall suddenly started to pop. The light bulbs just shattered and rained down on the floor like the snow had been earlier out on the road. Then when the camera that was down at her end blew off the wall, Glenda stepped back, wondering what the fuck could be next.

  Her cell door rattled like someone was trying to get to her. Curling into a tight ball, she hid as best she could from whatever was out there. When the door shook hard enough that the paint started to chip off, Glenda started to cry. She was going to die, she knew it.

  Then it stopped. While she watched between her fingers, terrified to see what would happen to her next, the door to her cell slowly moved open. It took her a moment to realize that something or someone was helping her escape. Ryan. It had to be her son.

  Moving slowly so as not to be hit in the face with the door should it be a joke, she was standing in the hallway when the door slammed shut behind her. When it seemed to lock back, Glenda put out her hand to it and drew it back quickly when the pain shot up her fingers. It was icy cold. Not only that, but she could now see the frost on the bars as well as the broken lock. She had no idea how to communicate with her son, but she called his name when the coldness touched her back.

  “Ryan, you want me to get little Ryan?” The eerie sound made her cover her ears. It was loud and painful. Glenda made her way to the door to leave this area. “I don’t know if you have plans for me on the other side of this door, but I’ve already gotten me a plan worked out.”

  When she was at the door, looking through the glass to see into the station, papers started to fly everywhere. Hats were tossed off of heads, and when they started to look in her direction, the water cooler on the other side of the room was lifted up and tossed down the hall. Again, away from the direction she had to go to leave.

  As soon as she was out of the station, she made her way to the street behind it. From walking around, trying to find herself someplace to stay, she’d scoped out several abandoned buildings that she could hide in. Almost as soon as she entered the one she’d liked, the sirens went off and the cruisers were scrambling.

  “I gotta move. I can’t stay here.” She stopped when the dirt on the floor was wiped. “That’s wonderful. You can tell me your plan. Oh Ryan, you have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

  Get baby. She told him that she was going to do that now. Kill Jazzie. Want her dead too.

  “I do too. I swear to you, I have hated her since they told me that you’d been hurt. I never dreamed that you’d die when they took you in to the hospital. Did they hurt you so that you’d die, Ryan? I’m going to sue them if they did—” Dirt was tossed in her face. “I’m sorry. I just miss you.”

  Get son. She said she would. Kill her. Dead. Jazzie dead. Tired.

  When he seemed to stop writing, she sat down in the dirt. There were so many questions, but she knew that he’d come back. Her son was there, he was helping her, and in turn, she was helping little Ryan.

  “I need some clothing. And I have to have a place that isn’t right up the polices’ ass when they come looking for me.” Laughing, she watched them scramble from her vantage point in the building. “They’re fucking stupid. Glorious cock jockeys.”

  She was still working on her words. So far there were two that she really liked—the cock jockeys was the best, she thought—and there were more that she was trying. Saying them aloud had helped her decide too. Sometimes in her head they sounded all right, but when she was able to use them, they were stupid sounding.

  Glenda knew that her chances of someone doing laundry and hanging it out to dry was going to be a long shot. But with her bright orange jumpsuit on, she couldn’t go very far, and she was fucking freezing. Thinking of how to fix both her immediate problems, she saw that the stores were all closed up. A little breaking and entering was called for.

  The police were still looking for her, and she was glad that she’d not gone directly to her home. She could see them there, the lights flashing in the evening darkness. Slipping between the buildings that were closed up tight, she went to the back door of one and saw that it was partly open. Slipping in, she nearly screamed when a woman came out of nowhere.

  Before she could scream or whatever she might have done, Glenda picked up the first thing she could reach and hit her in the head. Hurrying now—she wasn’t sure how much time she had if there was an alarm or something—she went to the front of the shop and found what she needed. Checking on the woman, knowing that she was dead, she found not only the keys but also a bank bag. She had cash now.

  Locking the back door when she found the alarm not set, she took her time finding some things for her to wear. The place had a lot of nicer things in it, dresses for Christmas and shit. But Glenda was able to not only find herself something to wear, but she also found a coat, gloves, and boots.<
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  Before she left, Glenda found the break room and snagged her some candy bars, some kind of yuppie shit, and a case of cold water. Not sure how she was going to get that to the place she was staying, she put as many as she could into a shopping bag and started for the door. Coming out, she saw just what she needed. A fucking shopping cart.

  Filling it with another coat and hat, she put the water in there as well. Breaking the vending machines had netted her a great deal of things, including sandwiches. All of it, now that she had a way to carry it, was stashed in bags. The bags she hung on the cart, along with a few more sets of clothing.

  As she was leaving again, she spotted the kids’ section. Glenda wanted it all, every little boy’s outfit. All the sleepers with trucks and animals on them. There were tiny shoes and socks. The problem was, she had no idea how big her little Ryan was. Yes, she knew his age, but she knew that it was a crapshoot on whether or not he’d gotten too big for them or he was still little. The last time she’d held him, he’d been just a newborn.

  Not taking them now, she knew that she’d have to get him things when she had him. As much as it broke her heart not to be able to supply him with some of the outfits that were there for the taking, she did pick up a pair of the little shoes.

  Going out the door, she realized that it was very dark and that wheeling the cart was much harder than she’d thought. Something else occurred to her as she made her way back to her hiding place—the cart was leaving a trail right to her. When all the things she’d gathered were stashed away, she walked back to the snow and began stomping and laying on it. It took her a great deal longer than she’d thought it would, and she had to sit down and rest a few times.

  “I’m going to have to get myself in better shape if I have a kid in the house.” Her heart hurt thinking about how Ryan was missing his son and the things he’d do. “Fucking twat.”