Too Long a Soldier (Kingdom Key Book 3)

by TylerRose.

  “No penetration,” he agreed. “I have hands and a mouth. Whenever you want them, you come to my room. No strings. No boyfriend girlfriend stuff. At least not for now. Deal? Just don’t leave.”

  “Deal. But you get off too.”

  One hand on his cock and the other cupping and stroking his balls in her palm, she brought him to orgasm between them, against her belly. Washed off, dried off, naked in bed and he used two fingers to give her a mind-blowing clit popper, telling her things he was going to do to her soon as she said yes.

  She slept soundly in his embrace, peacefully, and woke gently at about dawn.

  “I’ve been curious,” he said, having barely slept a wink and watched her in the dark all night. “If you are eighteen and performed the urn ceremony, how old were you when you started training with Chen?”

  “That is a complicated story. I learned from him in the other timeline. A few weeks at one time. Then a couple years in his Kwoon. When I was in the womb, I communicated with him telepathically and he would sit in meditation or perform forms. I would feel through him and absorb everything I could. When I was born, he started working on my leg strength immediately. When I was three, he would get on his knees to start teaching me.”

  “You had your full adult consciousness all that time in the womb?”

  “Yes. So you’ll pardon me if I suddenly feel claustrophobic now and then.”

  “Were you inside a surrogate female?” he asked, curious as hell and none of this explained in the journal.

  “No. A cloning chamber with an artificial womb.”

  “Okay. But if you performed the urn ceremony, how come you don’t have the scars?”

  She took his hand. “Charge it up.”

  She rubbed his hand from elbow toward hand on the underside of her forearm. Like magic, the white ridges raised from her skin. The dragon.

  “Very cool. How’s it do that?”

  “I asked the Sanctarians to help me keep them hidden for now,” she yawned, and fell asleep again.

  Chapter Seven

  “What is this thing Halloween?”Roc asked, seeing the costumes and candy lining the entry aisle of the grocery store the first week of September.

  “Oh, there’s a whole lot that goes into that one,” Tyler chuckled. “See, first there’s all the ancient harvest type festivals all around the world. Celebrating the abundance of food that would get people through the winter. Then there’s the revering the dead rituals and festivals. Then there’s the wearing of costumes to confuse evil spirits. Used to be Pagan harvest celebrations but when the Roman Emperor Constantine fell prey to his soothsayer’s manipulations and converted to Christianity, he started hijacking Pagan holidays to convert the pagans. So harvest celebrations and festivals of the dead eventually became All Hallow’s Eve. He did the same with the Winter Solstice by making it the season of Christ’s birth and giving the new religion a pile of saints to worship to replace the many pagan gods.”

  “Wait. An emperor chose to make a date in the end of December the birthdate of a man who had lived centuries earlier?”

  “Yes. Christ was actually born the end of June and the North star was our planet Jupiter.”

  “How does a planet continue to exist living with such outright falsehoods?” Roc asked, truly at a loss to comprehend.

  “Myth is a huge part of every society on Earth. Myth usually does have a root in fact somewhere. You just have to dig past all the bullshit to find the reality of what actually happened. It is the nature of humans to make up fantastic deities to explain everyday things they cannot comprehend. We know thunder is caused by lightning ripping through clouds and those clouds slamming back together again. But people thousands of years ago made up a god named Thor to be the God of Thunder and his father Odin as the king of the gods. Ancient Greeks made up Zeus as the king of the gods and his weapon was the lightning bolt. His whole family controlled all the things from the rising and setting of the sun to who fell in love with whom and who looked after the dead and punished the evil. Almost every society on Earth has those gods. They just have different names.”

  Roc just shook her head and picked up a fruit she’d not seen on their other excursions. “What is this?”

  “Star fruit. You can see why,” Tyler replied, and cut off an end to take an interior slice for Roc to taste.

  She put it into a bag to pay for the one they cut.

  “That’s an interesting texture but I don’t know if I like it.”

  “We’ll slice up the rest very thin and put it into a salad and you can try more later,” Tyler said, reaching for the kiwis.

  “What is this?”

  Tyler looked over. “Uglee fruit.”

  “Yes, it is ugly. How many varieties of apple are there?” she asked, seeing the huge crates with hundreds and hundreds of apples piled to her waist.

  “Over seven thousand, but only a certain particular few show up in most of our grocery stores.”

  Thus began a five minute lesson in the taste and texture of different kinds of apples and one of each with a sliver out of them went into separate bags for purchase.

  “What are we going to do with one each of six apples?” Roc asked.

  “Make a pie, of course.”

  “Oh. What’s this?” Roc asked, holding up a big waxy something.

  “Rutabaga. Cooked like a potato but I never use them.”

  “Ah. What’s this?”

  “That’s a leek. Part of the onion family but a pain to clean. Sand gets into all the layers so I don’t use them often. Here, try this.”

  A pluot.

  Roc took the slice and tasted it, so trusting that Tyler hoped she wouldn’t be repulsed. “It’s interesting but the flavor seems weird.”

  “I agree. It’s a hybrid made from a plum and an apricot. Would you like them?”

  “Now and then, but not as an everyday fruit,” Roc had to say.

  “Okay. I won’t get any today. Let’s go get the meats. I wanna get back before it rains.”

  “Tony is coming up for dinner tonight,” Roc told her.

  “I know.”

  That was it on the subject.

  Supper was a bit awkward but cordial enough. She and he simply did not interact. That was for the best. Soon as the meal was over, she had to leave anyway.

  “You don’t have to go,” Jerome said, having caught up to her in the hallway.

  She smiled. “Yes, I do. It’s an actual thing that’s been planned for two weeks. It has nothing to do with Tony being here. I don’t know what time I’ll get back. Might be very late.”

  She ported up to her room to change clothes and then ported to Mickey’s house. Instant release of tension. Totally different atmosphere and she relaxed palpably.

  Piledriver had a gig at Droghers again, but with a meeting afterward. Dicer, the leader of the Droghers, was no man to fool with. He had given her, in her previous existence, a few nights example of what it was to be with a very strong, very dominant man. Not unlike Nails. He had given her a spanking and laughed to learn it was no deterrent and only made her want more. He’d also taught her how to handle a knife.

  “It’s bottomless night, little girl with the curls,” he said, meaning she shouldn’t be wearing stretch pants. Or panties.

  “I don’t have underwear on,” she replied, pouring a Jack and water over a glass full of ice.

  He stepped up close behind, hand sliding down over her bottom and fingers going up firmly over her puss.

  “So I feel,” he said, chin close to her ear. “But that’s not what it means and you know it.”

  “Things are different now, Dicer,” she replied, capping the bottle and unaffected by his familiarity.

  His hand gripped her ass, other closing tight over her breast as he pulled her backwards against his solidness.

  “Dicer, Sir,” he corrected.

  “If you’re trying to turn me on, you gotta do a lot better than that. You don’t intimidate me anymore. Get off me.”


  He didn’t budge. “Is that so?”

  “Don’t maul me in public again.”

  Elbows knocking his hands away, she walked out of his grasp, half a dozen men watching them at the bar top.

  “Stop your feet,” he said firmly.

  She halted about ten feet from him and turned back, glaring. “What?”

  “Quiet Room. Now,” he scowled.

  She guzzled her drink down first, thumping the glass onto the nearest table, and led the way into the rear room that had been soundproofed to keep noise from the bar at a minimum. Before she could turn around inside, he had her bent over the thick arm of the leather upholstered chair with her stretch pants ripped apart and pulled down to her knees. The telescoping pointer whizzed down to zing her across the buttocks three times in rapid succession and he pulled her upright by her hair to hold her tight and hard to him.

  “My rules are my rules. If you are here, you will obey them. We will not have this discussion again.”

  He walked out, leaving her there to undress accordingly. She needed to masturbate first, the painful welts across her ass having sent her clit into relentless pounding.

  “What’s this meeting at Rosary Cathedral tonight?” Chops asked when Dicer returned to their usual table.

  “I don’t know. If it’s at a church, it cannot be war,” Dicer replied, watching Tyler come out from the room.

  She had new clothes on. A black dress down to her knees. When she took the stage, the band went into a series of the angriest songs he’d ever heard her sing back to back.

  No You Don’t, for openers

  You Better Run, totally rocked out

  Promises in the Dark

  Helter Skelter

  Red Vision

  Sanctuary

  Don’t Happen No More

  Go

  Enter Sandman

  Nine songs and she left.

  Thinking over that minute in the Quiet Room, Dicer realized she hadn’t made a sound. Hard as he’d whipped her with the metal pointer, she had not made a single sound and had not flinched when others would have been howling, begging and apologizing.

  He got on the phone with Nails. “You made contact with her yet?”

  “No. She’s been living with Tiberius and I’ve left it be. I will tonight after the meeting. Make it look good. She has to think we’re on opposite sides for now.”

  “I’ll be on my way shortly,” Dicer told him.

  Ten pm and the band was done. Dicer and Chops headed for their bikes and down to Collingwood Boulevard. Turning into the parking lot between the church and the school, they slowed their roll.

  “That’s Nails’ bike,” Chops said. “What are the Knaves doing here?”

  Bikes parked, they went into the side entrance and were met by a nervous nun who escorted them to the meeting room in the back.

  Three other men were already present. Nails, Dalton, and Father Jim, who was extending his hand to introduce himself.

  “I’m your host for this meeting, but it was called by a mutual friend who knows you all. There is something important to discuss, if you will please sit.”

  “Who called the meeting?” Dicer asked, sitting on one side of the two tables angled to make a V.

  The seven and a half foot tall metal…robot-looking thing…walked in, with Rose behind him. Black jeans and tank top with black dress shirt over it. She did the talking.

  “Gentlemen, you know each other. You are all men of strong convictions and experience. This is Landra Ahr. He used to be humanoid. Now he is not. He is Commanding General of the armed forces of a planet called Taverages. It’s in a distant corner of Gamma Quadrant. We are here to request you work together toward the common goal of preventing Earth from suffering the fate of Taverages. It has been attacked and is held captive by an invading army that is on its way here.”

  “Rose, what are you talking about?” Nails asked impatiently.

  “Rose is that hot chick you wanna fuck every time you watch her sing. My name is Tyler and I’m as much a warrior as any of you. The fact is that, on the morning of February 18, Earth is going to be attacked. Right here in Downtown Toledo.”

  “Why here?” Dicer asked.

  “Because another mutual acquaintance has a power source the leader of the invading army wants. He’ll destroy anything in his path to get it. They will kill every man who fights back, rape every woman they find, smash every building, and then start taking survivors to replenish and build their own force. Soldiers will be left behind. If the DNA is a match, they will begin to impregnate as many females as they can. They will kill every female that cannot breed. They will either subjugate the entire planet or leave it a dead rock.”

  “Why should we believe any of this?” Dalton asked.

  “Because it is truth. Show them,” she glanced up to Landra Ahr.

  Video projected on the wall. War. They all recognized it, even if the weapons were shooting blasts of energy instead of bullets. They watched several minutes of the rape of Taverages until she said it was enough. Landra Ahr switched to still photographs of several people.

  “This is the man who wants the power,” Tyler pointed to Adamantine. “This is his right hand man and scientist. That is his son. I know a bunch of Dicer’s men will be downtown that day. Someone is going to have a court date before Judge Penn. Bring every piece of bad ass fire power you can get by then. Iron Knaves, you do the same. They’ll hit fast and hard and it’s for keeps. No second chances. No surrender. You got family on the East side? You get them to go away for a couple days. The refineries are going up and you have never seen a fireball like you will on that day.”

  “You’re talking like it’s Armageddon, girl,” Dalton said, and flew backward out of his seat almost before that girl word was out of his mouth.

  Pinned to the wall near the ceiling, the breath knocked out of him, held there by her outstretched hand.

  “Call me girl one more time and you’ll be breathing through a tube for the rest of your amazingly short life,” she glowered at him.

  She dropped him that distance to the floor.

  “Things are different. I am not the blonde you used to know. I’ve been places and I’ve done things. You don’t want to believe me? Fine. You’ll be late to the party and thousands of people will die. I cannot save them all. If we fail, millions will die.”

  “What about the army?” Chops asked. “The USA has one of those.”

  “Which we cannot trust. We cannot tell them any of this and you know it. The army will arrive, but it’s going to be half an hour late. By then, we either will have won or lost. This invasion will roll over US troops like a steamroller over tinker toys.”

  “Okay, hold on a second,” Nails stopped her. “How many total are in your own force? Without any of us.”

  “Seven.”

  Dead silence.

  “Seven? Tyler, that’s a suicide mission,” he said, anger rising.

  “We have no choice but to fight. Odds are we seven will be dead. We are prepared for that. So long as Adamantine is defeated and dead, we are fine with any outcome.”

  “There were a lot of soldiers,” Dicer pointed to the pictures on the wall. “How many does he have?”

  Landra Ahr spoke up. “Fifty thousand foot soldiers that are flesh and blood. Several thousand mechanoids similar to my form but with humanoid cores. Rather like the Cybermen of your Doctor Who television series, but bigger. Some of them can also fly. The Davis Besse nuclear power plant is also in immediate danger.”

  “So you are seven against some fifty five thousand?” Nails questioned.

  “We will be focusing on Adamantine, his son, and the scientist,” Tyler said. “Without a ground force, we can do nothing about foot soldiers, the damage they do, or the people they kill. That isn’t where our fight is. If we bring down the three in leadership, the rest will crumble.”

  “So you want us to take the heat off civilians caught in the wrong place. Occupy the foot soldiers so you
can do your job,” Chops said.

  “Yes. Without a grassroots force, any civilians down there are either dead, raped, or forced into their army.” She looked from Dicer to Nails. “You both know me well enough to know that I don’t ask help from anyone unless I have to. I cannot think of a group of men better suited or better trained for the job.”

  Nothing to say to that.

  Dicer sat back in his chair with that grin she knew. “I’m liking the idea of being there before the US army.”

  “Can’t say I’m hating it,” Nails agreed.

  “Then we have reached an accord,” she decided. “No chicks know shit. They talk too fuckin’ much and that will get us killed before the battle even begins.”

  Heads bobbed.

  “You can reach me through Mickey or Father Jim if you have any questions.”

  She walked out, Landra Ahr close behind, through the cathedral to the door at the front and out onto the wide, shallow steps. Landra Ahr took to the air at once to fly home. Dicer and Chops went out the side door. She heard three bikes fire up. Chops, Dicer and Dalton all rode out.

  Nails she felt coming for her. The first time she’d seen him, of course he’d have to make more personal contact. He came out the front doors, came down the few steps and sat on one.

  Looking over her shoulder, she came within a distance and sat on the same step an arm’s length away.

  “That’s not how you present yourself to me,” he said.

  “Then we do not speak, because I don’t kneel to anyone now.”

  She was on her feet, ready to head down the steps, and he snagged her by the forearm to hold in place. He’d always been strong. The strongest lover she’d known until Shestna.

  “Let go of me.”

  “Don’t run,” he said, and opened his hand. “You’re not wearing a coat and it’s chilly out here. Sit in front of me.”

  No jolt of electricity from him, but his energy was still so potent it reached her in ways few men ever could. Her posture eased and she lowered to sit sideways between his thighs on the wide step. He leaned forward, open coat allowing him to share his body heat.