Too Long a Soldier (Kingdom Key Book 3)

by TylerRose.

  “Do it and I will make a stain outta you,” she promised, not flinching.

  She made him see the beating he would get if he made one bad move. He took a step back and emptied his pocket. Two hundred and fifty dollars.

  “You’re fired,” Jerome said, and his eyes went to Tyler. “What else you got?”

  “That’s it for tonight. Be warned. I’m watching. I will catch you. Stop it right now if you need this job. Who is counting tips tonight?”

  “I am,” Lisa spoke up.

  “Put this in,” Tyler told her, handing over the $35. “Bust ass and let’s get the hell outta here. We all want to go home.”

  The group split into their various directions and she approached Giuseppe. “Shall I come back tomorrow?”

  He looked at the $250 she placed on the table in front of him, remembering that he’d thought he had no thieves among the crew.

  “Absolutely.” He held up the money to her. “Two hundred for six hours, with a bonus for a good night’s work.”

  “Thank you,” she said, taking the wad of twenties and tens.

  Jerome took her by the hand out to his car, watching for Cliff in all directions.

  “He’s gone,” she said.

  “So how was your night?” he teased.

  She told him about the pool hustler during the drive. Inside the house, he tried to take her to his room.

  “No,” she stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “I’m tired. I’m going to my own bed. I won’t sleep well. I’ll toss and turn half the night until the residual energies subside.”

  “Okay,” he conceded, moving in for a single kiss. “See you in the morning.”

  “Might be closer to noon.”

  She ported up. Money into her little safe, she went about her bedtime routine and changed into soft stretch pants and a t-shirt, and wasn’t surprised when Landra came to the door. She let him in.

  “I don’t wanna talk tonight. I’m tired.”

  “My intent was to stand guard. With the Indigenous known to the Congress, the danger to yourself is elevated.”

  “Fine. Stand at the front window and block that fucking light,” she groused, preparing the coffeemaker and her first sugar/creamer powder mix.

  In bed, brain churning, she fell into an exhausted sleep. Being so tightly focused over so many people for so long was draining in ways that couldn’t be described. Landra Ahr studied these new readings as she slept hard through the entire night, not waking even once.

  Noon, her eyes opened to see Julian smiling at her, his head on the other pillow.

  “Yay. I slept with you.”

  “She is less than half as strong as I am and can barely teleport,” she said.

  “Less Sistarian than you were as well.”

  Tyler got up to find the coffee brewed, and poured her cup. To the window, blanket that she kept there wrapped around her shoulders, she sat and picked up the cup to warm her hands.

  “Sta has not yet met her, right?”

  “Uhhh, wrong. She’s already living on the station,” he told her.

  “What happened to taking time to think? Going to Gramma Addie’s?”

  “I encouraged her to, Tyler. Really I did. She is much more readily clouded by his influence than you were.”

  “Slap the stupid shit for me, will ya,” she scowled.

  He grasped her fingers to get her attention. “Her acquiescence is a good thing for you. It lets Earnol relax and think he is totally in control. It is a good thing and we will let her go merrily on her path.”

  “Toward her doom,” she glowered.

  He took a big breath, looking out the window as he searched for a redirect that would satisfy her. He took the cup from her and put it down, held both of her hands.

  “Look at me. Hear me, Tyler,” he pleaded. “The Indigenous is the most important player in all of this. She is completely oblivious, but her failure is our failure. Yes, she goes to her doom. It cannot be helped. It is what must be. She never had a chance in the first place and you know it. But she in her proper role is going to keep you in play out here much longer before Earnol notices. Let her go, Tyler. Please.”

  Blinking at him in silence, with readings Landra Ahr would have to study closely. There was really something happening here. Something about “hear me” that pulled her into focus for that moment.

  “How are you after her Widening?” she asked, picking her cup up to sip.

  “I’m fine. It was simple. Not nearly so difficult as you were.”

  “They didn’t actually have sex in this timeline, she and Jerome.”

  “What did you do while she was Widening?” he asked.

  “Had orgasms.”

  “No! He pop your cherry?”

  “No. I am still virginal to penile penetration. I have to remain that way at least until the battle in February.”

  “Tell me, tell me,” he gushed.

  “Nope. You’re just going to have to suffer.”

  “My gods you are such a tease.”

  She smiled. “I also have a job.”

  “Oh?”

  “Head bouncer at Giuseppe’s.”

  “An interesting choice.”

  “I’m going to get Piledriver in as the House band from Thursday through Saturday as soon as I can. Gimme a couple weeks.”

  “That will be majorly cool,” he grinned. “Will you play on Fridays?”

  “No. That’s when Jerome takes the group. I’m not ready for them to know about that.”

  “Okay. I should get going. There’s a session of Council today. I’m sitting in more frequently now.”

  “That should please Earnol,” she said.

  “It does. Then I’m working with the Indigenous on her rudimentary control.” He kissed her cheek. “Enjoy your new job. Enjoy some life for a change.”

  He was gone. She dressed and went down for a sandwich.

  “Mornin’, sunshine,” Jerome teased as she poured cold coffee into a cup and put it in the microwave.

  “You guys coming to the restaurant tonight?” she asked, ignoring the jibe.

  “Hadn’t discussed it, but probably.”

  She built a roast beef sandwich with green peppers and cheese on a kaiser roll. “Julian was here,” she informed him, sitting opposite him at the table.

  “Was he? Landra didn’t tell me.”

  “Well, I am. It took months for Earnol to convince me to move up to the station. Took him three days with this one.”

  “Three days? How?” Jerome asked.

  “She’s not so strong-willed as I am.”

  “She’s not? Seemed pretty fuckin’ hard headed to me,” he said, brow furrowed in that “don’t like it” way.

  “Which tells you the influence he is exerting. She’s also in a more receptive state, her entire world turned inside out. She’s just learned why she never fit in anywhere. Just learned about aliens and space stations and galactic society. That’s very exciting and enticing.”

  “Why’d it take you so long?” he asked.

  “I went to my Gramma Addie’s for a month to clear my head,” she said. “Rather than taking his easy path, I backed away from the unknowns and the excitement of it. I don’t know why she didn’t go there. Gramma always understood. Always.”

  Jerome chewed his own sandwich slowly, watching the expression in her eyes that she tried so hard not to show.

  “You ain’t been to see her yet, have you?” he asked.

  “No. I couldn’t. Not with the Indigenous running around.”

  “Well, she’s out of the way now. Maybe you should go see her for a couple days.”

  “I’m workin’.”

  “Not on Sunday. Or Monday. Or Tuesday or Wednesday,” he pointed out. “Go visit yer Gramma. That’s an order.”

  “Well aren’t you mighty big in yer britches,” she mocked.

  “My britches fit just fine,” he said, turning the page of his newspaper. “You’re the only one between the two of us that’s still g
ot family. So go. Whenever you want for as long as you want. While you can.”

  “While I can?” she questioned.

  “Grammas die sooner or later. Be with her while you can.”

  Silence.

  “You know what? I think I will. I’m gonna go today before work for a little bit,” she said.

  Chapter Twelve

  Thomas/Odinlet the wary trio into his penthouse suite, each alone as requested. Hands offered, forearms or fists grasped all around in mutual respect, then they went to the table. Speaking plainly, he explained about the pending invasion and the ruse of the motorcycle show. He told its real purpose.

  “I was curious about that,” the President of Satan’s Soldiers said. “Bike show in the dead of winter in the middle of nowhere?”

  “It’s the most convenient way to get everyone where we need them to be,” Thomas said. “Everyone would have to be in Toledo on February 17th in time for a Welcome supper for club Presidents at 6pm. All I need is for any and all rivalries to be put on the back burner for a few months. We need to be self-enforcing in that. We have an important purpose and fighting among yourselves can wait until February 20th. Provided we aren’t all dead, that is.”

  “Who are we being welcomed by? You?” the President of the Bishops asked.

  “I am merely the sponsor and host. You’ll be having a meeting after supper with the person who is coordinating all our forces and pulling all this together. She’s the only one with all the information.”

  “She?”

  A question in all their eyes.

  “A remarkable woman we will refer to only as Tyler for now.”

  “Tyler? For a girl’s name?”

  “Wait, I know that name,” the President of the Bishops said. “That’s Nails’ jailbait he asked me to watch for when she ran away last year this time.”

  “Tiberius called me,” the President of Satan’s Soldiers said. “Said he wouldn’t put it past her to get off the Cali bus in Chicago and go back the other way to New York.”

  “She very nearly did,” Thomas said. “She stayed on and ended up with me in California. Trust me when I say she’s no little jailbait girl. Not anymore. You all know Tiberius is one hell of a fighter. Tyler is his equal in every way. She’s actually much more dangerous and will very soon prove exactly how lethal she really is. We will have the weapons, gentlemen; so you don’t need to risk bringing your own. They’ll be handed out the night before. There will be machine guns and rocket launchers for every room of four men. So tell me, brothers. Will you come make war with us?”

  Silence. They didn’t look at each other, instead staring back at their friend. A rare mutual friend who had always remained neutral, earning himself the name Switzerland.

  “I’ll need hotel rooms that time of year,” one said.

  “So will I.”

  “Hotel rooms are already booked and paid for. Just tell me how many men and I’ll tell you which floors of which hotel are yours. You pay for your gas to and from and your meals, aside from the supper for the Presidents, buffet reception for the members, and the breakfast before the fight.”

  “And the funerals,” the President of the Bishops said.

  “Tyler will do what she can to prevent as many deaths as she can for as long as she can. Eventually she will have her own battles to wage. If she loses, we all die.”

  “All? The entire army?” the President of the 69’ers questioned. “How many are we?”

  “We will have as many men as I can convince to join us. Bring every man you can. Talk to your chapters. Whatever you do, do not camp on the East side of the Maumee River. The bridges will be gone and you’ll be separated from your camp. The falling of our grassroots force will be the beginning of the end. Their soldiers will fan out across the city raping or killing everything in their path. They will burn everything and take everything, and leave Earth occupied by an army that will continue to kill and rape until every woman capable has born an alien baby. No one on this planet will ever be free again. Take some time and think about it but I need your answers within seven days.”

  Short rides back to their own clubhouses and each President made phone calls to get a current head count. That obtained, they told the chapters to tell every male member of every chapter to be at the Bikefest in Toledo Ohio on February 17th--and to be prepared for hell.

  Thomas/Odin went to his private plane and flew to Texas, to another such meeting with three more Presidents. Then to California for another in Los Angeles. The Ball Peen grapevine did the rest for him.

  One of his most organized assistants had a team ready to keep the chapter count and general attendee roster and make the phone calls to inform each chapter what hotel they were in. He also issued a gentle reminder of the unofficial truce and that any and all rivalries were to be put aside for the duration of Bikefest.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Dim hallway,entry, door at her back. Comforting dim, the smell of dust in the walls and Ancient Things. Such calm and quiet energy. Her oasis. That smell of something baking, tea, potpourri, old things and incense, talcum powder and wine. A hundred memory images were invoked in a single breath.

  The lump forming tight in her throat. Steaming mist hovering over filling eyes. Heart aching with grief for so much loss, and she sank to the floor with her back to the front door. Forehead on her knees, she gave in to the well-up of emotions heaving her overboard.

  “Who is there?”

  From upstairs, coming down, but she couldn’t answer.

  “Child?”

  Tyler looked up to see the face she loved above all others. The eyes that knew so much with so little judgment or disapproval. The one person who had always understood this troubled soul. The one person she’d missed the most.

  “Tyler, what’s wrong?” she asked, and lowered her frail old body to sit on the third step. Cane set aside, she held out her arms. “Come here, child. Tell me your troubles.”

  Tyler was there with a bounce and flash of hair, head in Gramma’s lap, hugging her and crying.

  “I’ve missed you so much, Gramma!”

  Firm hand soothing her back only made her cry harder in the one purge even the Sanctarians hadn’t been able to bring about. She had been here with Shestna, had been at Addie’s side when the old woman died.

  “Goodness, child, what happened? You act like you’ve not seen me in a hundred years.”

  “More like a few million.”

  “Come now, let me look at you,” Addie coaxed, and used her own handkerchief to wipe her granddaughter’s face. “Such beautiful green eyes. You are not my blonde and blue girl. Where did you come from, child?”

  “I can’t tell you everything yet, Gramma. I want to; but I don’t want you to be clouded by information that would influence card readings for the other. She may still come back to see you. She’s gonna need you a lot if she does.”

  “Where’s she gone?”

  “To a new life in the stars. You always said I have a gift beyond cards and mild premonitions and you were right. I can do a lot more. I wish I could tell you everything. Really, I do.”

  “You don’t have to tell me anything, child. Not one single thing. You’re safe here and I don’t want anything from you.” She kissed Tyler’s forehead, right on the third eye. “Let’s go make some tea and you can tell me what you can about your million years.”

  Over hot tea and the last piece of a fresh rhubarb pie, Tyler talked. Addie never questioned anything from this granddaughter.

  “When can you come again?” Addie asked when Tyler glanced to her watch for the fourth time.

  “Sunday, if that’s okay?”

  “Of course it’s okay. You obviously can’t go to your mother. Your father’s never been a help. Your bed is here for you whenever you want it. I’ll call your uncles. I know Radames would like to see you.”

  “I’d like that,” Tyler smiled. “I have to get ready for work.”

  “What’s his name, child?”

 
; “Who?”

  “The man you love. I can see it plain as I do you. You are very much in love.”

  “We can’t call it that yet, Gramma.”

  “Who is he in the Tarot?”

  Tyler smiled. “In the last reading you did for me, he was the Fool.”

  “Really? How interesting. But who is he to your heart? What do you see when you look at him?”

  “He’s a dragon, Gramma. And a tiger. Kind and tender when he wants to be and the most vicious, lethal man I’ve ever known when protecting what belongs to him.”

  “If you were the card the Goddess, what would you call yourself?” Addie asked.

  Tyler thought a moment, searched her soul for the answer. “Fate.”

  “And if he was the God? What would you name him?”

  “Death,” she replied with a nod.

  Addie nodded with an approving smile. “Fate and Death walk hand in hand, without fear, into the darkest depths of each other. He will not fear to look so long as you do not fear to show.”

  Tyler smiled at Gramma’s wise words, leaving off the correction about the emotion of fear. She grew tired of constantly correcting on that. Let people mistakenly think she felt fear. Their underestimations would only serve to help her defeat her enemies.

  “I love you, Gramma, even if you’re not technically mine,” she said, giving the old woman a hug.

  “Pshaw, child! Of course I’m your Gramma. If this is the place that calls to your heart, then here is where you have always belonged. Don’t get caught up in the semantics or the politics.”

  “See you Sunday,” Tyler said, and ported.

  Addie got her shoes on and grabbed up her car keys. A drive into town, to her favorite shop, and she scanned over the decks of cards. She found a beautiful set with violets on the backs and another of a dove. Then a lovely red rose…and a winged dragon breathing fire. She smiled, knowing they’d been waiting for her. Two new white candles as well.

  At home, the violets and the dove went up on a shelf for now. The Dragon and the Rose she opened and placed flat on either side of the lit candle and surrounded the whole with a silk ribbon to contain the purification ritual within. There they would stay until the candle was gone. Then she would carry them in her pocket and sleep with them under her pillow each night until Tyler asked for the reading.