Valyn_Mystic Protectors_An Angelic Paranormal Erotica

by Kathi S. Barton

  The whole house was heaven for her. There were rooms that were bigger than her tiny place before coming here. And they were set up with the most beautiful antiques, more beautiful than any she’d seen in catalogs. Even the master bathroom, with all its beauty, was big enough for several people to be standing in it.

  After thinking about what to wear, she opted for comfy with a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, then made her way down to the kitchen. Janie was just pouring tea into a pitcher when she entered the room.

  “Good morning, miss.” She told her the same. “I don’t know a great deal about you, so I made you a sample breakfast. If there is anything you don’t like, you tell me, and I’ll cut it from the menu, so to speak.”

  There was so much food on the large platter that she looked at Janie once again. “Is someone joining me for breakfast? Perhaps an army of hungry men?” She laughed so that Janie would know she was joking, and she could see the relief on her face. “I’m not used to having people work for me. I’m sort of new to this having money thing. There is a great deal I’m not used to, but this servant thing—that is what you’re called, correct? Well, this servant thing is a little overwhelming.”

  “Servant is fine, miss. Or you could just call me Janie. That’s what Valyn calls me. Did he tell you how I came to be here?” Jenny told her that he had, and was glad that she’d not been wrapped up in the robberies. “I am too. To think he was doing that right under everyone’s noses. I’m very glad to be out of there, to be honest. This job, cooking for someone, has been my dream for a very long time.”

  Jenny tasted the food on the platter. The only thing she didn’t care for was the cantaloupe. There were other fruits on the platter as well, and she loved the strawberries most of all. Janie took notes while she ate, and laughed with her when she moaned about the taste of some of the things.

  After eating and talking to Janie about food to fix for them, she didn’t know what to do with herself. Wandering into the living room, she was startled to see Boss there. He was enjoying a cup of tea and some scones. He asked her to have a seat.

  “I have a favor to ask of you.” She told him that she wasn’t all that talented at much. “You are very talented in a great many things. Never let anyone tell you differently. But this favor, it has to do with the surgery, or hospital if you wish. It seems like such a mundane job, but I promise you, the people that you’ll interact with will be much happier for you talking to them.”

  “Now talking I can do.” He laughed when she did. “What do you need me to do? I was just thinking that I don’t have a job or anything to do to occupy my time wisely. The other women do, I know, but I’m not very good at combat. I don’t like pain. Or inflicting it.”

  “Understandable. But the job. You would be handing out books to those that wish to read them. Flowers when they are brought in. It’s a good job, and I think you’d be perfect at it. You will brighten their days much like you helped Valyn.” She told him that she loved Valyn, it had been easy to help him. “And he loves you. I’ve never—well, not for many years have I seen him smiling as he is today. Nor did I remember that he likes to whistle. I have you to thank for that.”

  “No thanks are necessary. As I said, I love him. But I will do the job for you. I can speak several languages too, so I can help those that don’t speak English.” He nodded, and she realized that he’d already known that. Embarrassed again, she changed the subject. “Dusty and the other women are looking into the credit card that I’m paying on. I guess I knew that everyone would know about it, but they didn’t have to go to any trouble for me. I had a fair trial, I suppose, and I was found to have taken it out and spent the money. I don’t know who might have done this to me, but I guess it’s all water under the bridge now.”

  “They’ll find out for you. Just you wait and see.” She smiled at him, loving the man for being so kind to her. “All right. You show up at the hospital first thing tomorrow and they’ll be ready for you. I cannot wait to see the faces on the people whose lives you touch in doing this.”

  When he left her, she decided that she couldn’t stay in the house any longer. Picking up the phone, she realized that she had no idea what anyone’s number was. Frustrated, she thought about Renie and how much she liked her.

  Hello, Jenny. The voice in her head startled her. I’m assuming that since you seem to be frightened a little, no one told you about this magic that you have. You can talk to any of us now. Just do what you did and think of one of us, and we’ll be there for you.

  I was going to call to see if you’d like to go shopping with me. I know that it’s probably not your usual thing to do, but I don’t have a car and I hate driving in the snow. This was much nicer than the phone would have been, Jenny thought. She could even feel her emotions about the idea of shopping with her. Renie wanted to spend time with her. I can be outside if you don’t want to come up the driveway.

  You most certainly will not. You’ll wait in the warm house until we come and get you. She smiled at the sternness of her voice. Renie, like the other women, had a mouth on her that would make her blush at times. This is perfect. We had a lunch planned that you were going to come to anyway. Now we can make a day of it. The rest of them are happy to go too. We’ll be there in a bit.

  Someone that loved her. A shopping spree. Friends. And money. Jenny wasn’t sure she ever wanted to wake from this dream if it was one. She was as happy as she’d ever been. Thinking of a coat, she was dressed warmly when the knock at the door came. Jenny was ready to have some fun.

  ~*~

  “Someone is digging around in that credit card company again. They won’t find anything but dead ends, but I thought you’d like to know.” Samuel Mercer looked up from the application he was filling out in someone else’s name. “Here are the names and socials I was able to get from downtown. There are a few of them on there that could be fun picking out. None of them have much, but they’ll be found guilty the same as the rest of them were.”

  They both laughed, and Betsy Whitaker kissed him on the mouth when she went by him to the filing cabinet. This was the best scam that he’d ever done. And it was also turning out to be the most profitable.

  “I have four more applications filled out for you to mail. I even put a little mustard on one of them to make it look like they did it from their own kitchen table.” He looked at them and laughed again when he saw that he’d misspelled the street name on one of them. He’d just leave it too. It looked better than being perfect. “When are you going to close up the Boseman Credit Union? I’ve seen where a few of those people are taking this to court. Won’t do them a bit of good—we’ve already moved on. And the one before that was...let me see. Ah yes, Becker Credit Union. However, I want to be ready to start up the next one. I’m calling it Harney Institute and Trust. What do you think?”

  “You’re writing these down, aren’t you? I’d hate to mess up at this point by calling us the same name we used before.” He showed her the sheet of paper that he’d written on in neat order. “Good. I knew that you’d think of that before I did. Oh, there hasn’t been a check from two people. I have their names right here. One is Jennifer Hale—she is supposed to pay four hundred a month. Then there is Ashley Knisley. Hers isn’t so large of a pay off as the Hale girl is, but still a hundred bucks a month is a hundred bucks.”

  “Do you have phone numbers for them?” Betsy handed him her notes that were messy and out of order. After finding the two phone numbers, Samuel handed it back to her. He’d have to work on it if he laid it on his desk. “I’ll call them around dinner time. That’s always good for a laugh or two.”

  After finishing up another application from Harney Institute and Trust, he picked up the phone to call the women. They were such easy targets, he’d come to realize. Most of them were dumber than a post, and probably crying in their beds at night.

  Talking to Ashley first, he giggled when she started sobbing about how she just couldn’t make the payment any more. She’d lost her job,
and there wasn’t any money to spare for her kid’s dinner.

  “I’m sure that is all fine and good, but you did make the charges on that credit card, and the courts told you to pay us every month so that you don’t go to jail. Who do you think is going to feed your children if you’re in a cell, far away from them?” She sobbed more and said that she’d figure something out soon. “See that you do. And there will be a late charge attached to next month’s bill. Have a nice day.”

  Next he tried to call Jennifer, but the number that they had was not a working number. And when he called directory assistance to find out what she’d done, he was given an area code that he’d never seen before. He just knew that little bitch had skipped town.

  “The Slayer residence.” He thought that he’d gotten the wrong number and started to hang up. “Hello? Who is it you’re trying to reach? Perhaps I can help you.”

  “I was calling for Jennifer Hale. I don’t suppose you know where I can find her, do you?” The man told him to hold on. After a few minutes, the man came back and told him that Jennifer Slayer was out for the day, and he didn’t know when to expect her. “I was looking for Jennifer Hale, not Slayer. I think I have the wrong number, so—”

  “I do believe that is her maiden name, so you do have the right number. But as I said, she is out for the day and I don’t know when she’ll return. Can I take a message for her?” Samuel thought about leaving his phone number—it was a burner phone anyway—and decided what the fuck, she’d never know where he was by that.

  After the man repeated his message back to him, Samuel hung up. She had money, it seemed. And a great deal of it if the butler’s voice was any indication. He had a rich snob tone in every syllable. Leaning back in his chair, he decided to have himself a little fun. Pulling up a search engine, he put in her maiden name as well as her married name. He got several hits immediately.

  She’d married very well, it seemed. The announcement in the paper said that they were residing in the husband’s home town. That made Samuel very happy. They were only a short drive away from him. There was no point in sending her another notice; he’d just go see the woman and demand full payment now. And if she didn’t have it, well, he’d call the police on her.

  He made a list of things that he wanted to say, and things that he’d need to have with him in the event that he had to call the police on her. There really wasn’t much that he thought he’d need to prove that she’d been charged with credit card fraud. But, just in case, he took along the application that he’d used to get the supposed credit card.

  There were never any charges on the card. Hell, there wasn’t even a card to charge against. It was all phony. Just a scam, a good scam that he and Betsy had come up with when she’d been charged with the same thing. However, the difference was, there had been charges and Betsy had made them. They’d had a very good time with that card too.

  When Betsy returned several hours later, he had a good list going, as well as how much money they’d need. It had to be gotten out of the safe that was in the basement of their home. No banks for them, no sirree. A bank would want information that neither of them wanted to give. Like their names, for one thing.

  Betsy was a wanted criminal. She’d not only murdered her husband several years ago, but she had burned their home down with him still in it. That had all sorts of charges going along with it, some he didn’t understand even today.

  He too was a wanted man, but his crime wasn’t murder, but armed robbery. He and his brother had robbed the First National Bank and Harold had killed a cop. Harold had been shot too, and later died from his injuries. Of course, Samuel had helped him along on that, but it was his fault for getting shot in the first place.

  They weren’t nice people, he thought with a laugh. And they never claimed to be either. Betsy was as mean as a rattlesnake when she was upset, that was why he did all the phone calls for them. She was better at paperwork. There wasn’t much that would piss her off there.

  “When do you want to leave here? I’m thinking that we should take our time, let her think that we’ve forgotten about it.” He told Betsy that he’d called and left a message. “That’s good. Now if she only calls us back. Do you think she will?”

  “I wouldn’t. And the fact that she’s also skipped town on us means that she’s not thinking of anything but what is good for her. They have money too.” She asked him how he knew that. “I don’t have their address, it only says here what town they live in, but a butler answered the phone. That’s how I found out that she’d married.”

  Betsy sat down and stared at him. She wasn’t really staring at him but thinking. It had freaked him out before he figured out that was what she was doing. Her eyes went all blank and her face went lax. She looked like she was dead, she was so still. He also knew never to touch her when she was in this state. He’d been hit before, badly, when he’d tried to get her to wake up.

  After about thirty minutes of her staring off, she finally looked at him. That was another thing that had freaked him out about this thing she did. She knew things that he would never think of.

  “You’ll need to get your suit dry cleaned to make a good impression. These people have money, so we want to flash it around that we do too. For all we know, we could be much more fortunate than them, and we don’t want to piss them off from the start. You know how the rich snobs can be. I’m so glad that we’re not at all like that. Also, you’ll need to have everything you’re going to use with you the first time you go see them. You might not get a second chance.” He made notes while she spoke in her eerie kind of voice. “A limo won’t be too much—it’ll show that we have class. I’ll book it for us now.”

  While she was gone, he put all the things he’d gathered up in his briefcase. She’d not told him about that, but he thought it might look more professional when they got there. He went to their bedroom to get his suit to have it cleaned.

  Samuel thought this was going to be epic. Confront the girl where there were people around to embarrass her. To him, that was the ultimate insult, to be embarrassed by those that might have respect for you. Not that he knew all that many people who had any kind of respect for him. But he really didn’t give two shits if they did or not. He was happy. And he was rich.

  Chapter 5

  Jenny hadn’t dressed up for her first day on the job. Michael had told her, late last night, that the people she would be helping would not be as friendly to her if she was dressed to the tens. After correcting him that it was to the nines, she decided to wear something she wore all the time. Jeans and a shirt.

  So she had loaded up the cart they’d given her, plus the small chocolates and mints she was told she could hand out, and was on her way. Jenny was also armed with a list, which included names of the people who might need some cheering up, and who was still recovering. There was also a list of the diabetics on the floor. She might not have thought of that.

  “Hello. I was wondering if you had any books on building a bomb?” Jenny wasn’t sure what she should tell the man, and must have looked very shocked. His laughter made her realize that he’d been joking. “I’m sorry. But you should have seen your face. What sort of things do you think I could do with a bomb, dear? I’ve been in this wheelchair longer than I was able to walk. I would like a mystery if you have one.”

  “Yes, we have several.” She helped him get one of the books and told him that she could get the series for him if he liked that one. Jenny had an endless supply of books, she’d been told, and could ask for and get the ones that she didn’t have. “This is one of my favorite authors. He writes a good chiller that makes you want to sleep with the lights on for about a week after you’re done with it.”

  “Oh, I like a good chiller. Yes, I’ll take this one. You’re new here, aren’t you?” She told him it was her first day. “Don’t let some of the people here run over you. There are a couple of them that’ll keep you in their room all day, just talking about nothing.”

  She thought about
pointing out that he was doing the same, but he turned in his chair and rolled away. But she was having so much fun just talking to people that she didn’t care how long she let them talk.

  When she entered the next room on her list, she could smell impending death. Jenny wasn’t sure that was actually what it was, but when she entered, she could see three Protectors in the room. That was new to her, seeing them when she knew that no one else could. Nodding to them, she asked the people sitting in the chairs if she could give them a little break, that she’d not mind at all to sit with the woman in the bed for a little while.

  “Oh, that would be lovely. I just need to stretch my legs a bit. And Mom, she’s so ill right now, I do hate to leave her. But I need to walk.” Jenny told her that she’d be right there when they came back.

  As soon as they were out the door, she looked at the three with her.

  “You can see us.” She nodded at the man who spoke. “I’m Tholan, this is Peter and James. They’re watching over Ms. Jackson for her final breaths.”

  “Do you always come to them?” He told her not usually, but she was a special client. “I’m new to this. Valyn is my husband.”

  “Ah yes, I should have known. I was told that you’d be here today. Welcome.” She thanked Tholan and peered down at the woman. “She is near her end of this life. I’m here to take her beyond this realm to make sure that she has special treatment. Her works have saved a great many children, and she’s helped a lot of motherless children make a mark in the world.”

  “She won’t pass while I’m here, will she? I mean, I won’t mind being here when she does, but I think her family needs to be here, don’t you think?” Tholan told her that they’d be back in plenty of time, and thanked her for giving them this rest. “I could see that they were exhausted. How long have they been here with her?”