Too Long a Soldier (Kingdom Key Book 3)

by TylerRose.

  A moment of silence, fingers in fingers.

  “Thanksgiving is coming up. Do you already have plans?” she asked.

  “No. I don’t usually care much about Thanksgiving or Christmas.”

  “Well, I agree with Christmas. I don’t think we should decorate much; but we should have a Thanksgiving dinner and invite Tony and his parents, and Gable’s mother.”

  “You think that wise?” Jerome questioned.

  “I think it unwise to keep family out and it could be the last Thanksgiving any of us spend with family. We should not take that away from others simply because we have no family to speak of.”

  Jerome was disquieted by reality. Again. “I didn’t think of it like that.”

  “You go over and invite Tony’s folks personally. If you tell him to do it, he’ll never bring it up and he won’t come over either.”

  “I wish I knew what his deal is. He’s too unfair toward you,” Jerome said. “I don’t like it one bit.”

  “Some people have to be a specific way. Like my mother. Nothing I do will change anything about her either. You just gotta let it go. Let him go. He doesn’t have to like me in order to do his job and I don’t need him to like me.”

  “Okay. I’ll try.”

  “Thank you for the trip to Pennsylvania. I enjoyed the drive and the view.”

  “Yer welcome, babe,” he replied, arm over her shoulders. “It’s getting cold. Let’s go in.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Gable’s mom Ana; Mr. and Mrs. Kelly, Vivienne and Roberto (step father), Tony, Gable, Star, Roc, with Jerome sitting at the head of the table and Tyler at the foot.

  At her insistence, Jerome had gone to a carving class at the Swedenhouse. This was not your traditional meal, however. Mashed potatoes and dressing of course, but Tyler had insisted on making a whole filet mignon roast. She got it through the restaurant in order to get an uncut, untrimmed piece. She made a turkey breast as well, and brought home a tub of gravy from Giuseppe’s. Fresh sautee-steamed asparagus in butter, creamed corn (which she’d shown Roc to put over mashed potatoes instead of gravy), caramelized Brussels sprouts, bowl of papaya and star fruit. Piles of dinner rolls Gable had made. Instead of cranberry sauce out of a can, Tyler made a sauce out of cranberry jelly with a little rum. Roberto enjoyed that over his turkey instead of gravy and Jerome quickly followed suit.

  Five bottles of a nice rose wine finished off through the meal and much conversation about growing up and stories of families in the seventies and eighties. Much laughter, but Viv noticed the scathing glances her son threw at Tyler.

  Dishes cleared, the first load started in the washer, the pies were brought out. A pumpkin and a cream cheese with a can of cherry topping. Dessert served out, tea poured, the men moved to the living room for football games.

  “Tony hasn’t been very kind to you,” Vivian said quietly to Tyler. “He told me why and I have told him what I think about his attitude. I’m sorry he treated you that way.”

  “You don’t have to apologize for him. How he deals is his problem and not your fault.”

  “I didn’t realize I was raising a woman-hater until he broke up with Cassie a few weeks back. He won’t talk about any of it. He got an apartment on Secor last week.”

  “Ty? Babe? Can you come help me with a thing?” Jerome popped his head into the room.

  She followed him out and up the stairs to her own bedroom.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Viv has a tendency to keep going. I should have warned you.”

  “It’s okay. This was my idea, remember?”

  “And you’ve been on duty all day. Take the rest of the day to yourself. I know it’s not easy around non-telepaths. I can see you’re getting tired.”

  She was. A quick kiss and he left. She chose to start with a long soak in a tub of hot water. Comfortable in stretch pants and a t-shirt, she put her feet up to watch “Like Water for Chocolate” in the dark. Five minutes into the movie, Roc came knocking. The party was breaking up and she came in with a tray of hot tea and more dessert. And a dish of papaya to eat with her cream cheese pie.

  “I’m not used to so many people. I come bearing pie,” she said. “Can I share your quiet?”

  Tyler smiled. “Lemme restart the movie or you’ll be lost. You have to read most of this movie.”

  Tea cup in hand, in the moments of worst heartache, heroine crocheting a blanket. Tyler knew too well that inability to be warm. Dabbing tears with a tissue, she acknowledged her own grief and accepted it and let it go.

  “What was that?” the Empress of Voran asked, feeling the sudden change in her first son’s energy.

  “I don’t know,” he replied. “Someone in a great deal of emotional pain and I’m the one who feels it.”

  “Where is this poor soul?”

  “I don’t know, Mother,” he sighed, looking up to the sky on the balcony. “It’s everywhere. No specific direction. No concentration. There for an extremely intense moment and then gone.”

  “Gone? All at once?”

  “Yes. Unexpected, with no pattern. Four or five times now in the last three moons.”

  “Is it male or female?” Alila asked.

  “Female, that I can make out.”

  “Well, that excludes nearly half the universe.”

  “But is not helpful,” he groused.

  “Aahhh, but it is your poor soul, Shestna. Not mine. I don’t have to be helpful. No one can be of help. You have to find it on your own.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Decemberarrived.Tyler and Jerome spent hours a day with Chen. Sparring together, individual lessons, Jerome saw firsthand the minute nuances and near perfect control she had over her abilities. He saw how she used them, or didn’t, in a fight. When using Kung Fu, she didn’t really use much of her psionic talent. She didn’t need to. He learned to use the Staff Power to cushion a fall and soar through the air. Not quite flying, but as close as he could get.

  Bumps and bruises healed fast on him. Matter of a day for the sprained ankle. Took longer for her, however, and when she almost fractured a rib, they both dialed it back considerably.

  All of a sudden it was snowing. And Christmas.

  Having seen how the holiday stressed her, he booked a two week cruise to the Caribbean. They flew to Florida on the 16th, spent that day and the next in Disney World, then drove a rental car down to Miami. They spent another day on a chartered fishing boat out in the middle of nowhere. They swam in the water more than fished, however, enjoying the silence and solitude.

  A fin broke the surface some twenty feet away and Jerome was out of the water in a flash. Tyler, however, took a breath and dove under the water towards the animal. The captain was horrified.

  “What is she doing? Is she stupid? That’s a tiger shark!”

  “Ty-ler Rose! God damn you!” Jerome exclaimed when she rode by holding onto the shark’s dorsal fin. “You are insane!”

  She and the shark circled the boat three times before he wanted to go off hunting for food. His curiosity had been satisfied and she’d conveyed a peaceful message. Tyler climbed up the ladder for a rest and some water.

  “You’re crazy, you know that?” Jerome said, handing her a towel.

  She just smiled and told the Captain to head back toward shore. Shower and changed into fresh clothes, she into a little black dress he surprised her with, and they went out to a seafood boil dinner.

  “I never done this,” he admitted, looking at the pile of mudbugs between them.

  Memories of Shestna darted through her mind as she taught Jerome to peel the shells off crawdads and suck stuff from the heads.

  The cruise boarded to leave port on the 20th and would disembark back in Miami on the 4th of January. Dancing in the night club, swimming, enjoying drinks by the pool, they pretended for a while that February wasn’t looming on the horizon.

  On the balcony of their suite on Christmas Eve, both confessed to getting the other a present. He opened first, f
inding a leather lighter case for his belt. Inside was a gold Zippo with a winged dragon breathing fire etched into one side.

  He smiled. “It’s beautiful, babe. Thank you.”

  He put a small rectangle in her hands. Opening, she found a small pipe with twisting lid. The bowl was white and blue marble, carved into the shape of a rose. The twisting top made the top edges of the petals. The shaft was carved ebony wood.

  “It’s wonderful. Thank you.”

  “Tell me honestly. Where do you see yourself in a year?” he asked.

  She looked at him a little too long and he knew she was trying to see it.

  “I don’t see a year from now,” she admitted. “I can’t see past Valentine’s Day. We’ll find out who lives and who doesn’t and then I’ll find out if I can see farther down the road.”

  He lit a cigarette with his already packed and filled dragon lighter. “Is it the fire that bothers you or the smoke from the cigarette itself?” he asked, seeing her discomfort.

  “I don’t know.”

  He smiled to himself. She was full of don’t know.

  “Let’s go to supper. I’m hungry for one of them Jamaican spice rubbed steaks.”

  In bed together, late at night, her energy finally stopped crackling against his. Holding her in the quiet after a lovely anal fisting, she released one of those long sighs.

  “It’s so quiet out here,” she whispered. “Almost like being in space with nothing around. I can’t even feel the energies bouncing off your Staff Power.”

  “You can feel that? I don’t even feel that,” he chuckled, and looked to see she was asleep.

  Christmas Day, and one of the reasons Jerome had booked this particular ship. Twenty players staking fifty grand each. Million dollar Texas Hold ‘Em tournament. One of the players had not shown up in Miami and there was a spot open.

  “I’ll play. He can stake me,” she pointed at Jerome.

  “I’m sorry, Ma’am, but a player cannot stake another player in this tournament.”

  “Gimme a phone,” she decided, hand out, fingers waving toward herself.

  A phone on the counter and she dialed Thomas’ private line.

  “Hi. It’s Tyler. I need fifty thousand dollars.”

  “When?” he asked.

  “Right now. This very minute.”

  “Who do I need to talk to?”

  “This person,” she said, and turned the receiver over to the man minding the money. “My banker.”

  A matter of minutes and she was funded and ready to play.

  “He gives you fifty grand just ‘cause you asked for it and doesn’t even ask you why?” Jerome questioned.

  Tyler smiled and gave him a shrug. “I’ve made him many thousands of times that amount.”

  Table assignments went up. A quick kiss and they went in opposite directions. Six tables of four players. The winner of each went on to a table of three. The last two standing would go head to head with all the money they’d already earned. Each player was allowed to restake once.

  Tyler’s table finished first, Jerome’s last. Break for lunch with a walk up and down the deck holding hands, they were back at two o’clock for the next round. They were at different tables again. She finished off her opponents first and had to leave the area. Jerome came down to the last hand. His full house of Kings over nines beaten by four tens.

  Another break for supper but she napped first. A light dinner and another walk and she sat down to business. With re-stakes, the table was worth $1.9 million. Jerome had not re-staked. He took a seat in the crowd where he could see her cards if she lifted them enough. She only touched them twice. Once on the deal and the second to show.

  She did not engage in conversation but her leg bounced pretty much from start to finish of every game. She had no tells, eyes blank as the wind. She read a book soon as she tossed in her bid or checked.

  “Why aren’t you paying attention?” one of her opponents said, flustered with her constant bouncing and ignoring the game.

  She looked him dead in the eye. “Because I don’t need to. The longer you stall and hmmmhaw around, the less you have in your hand. Just fold already so he can bet the roof as usual, since the less he has the more he bets. Let’s get on with the game so I can win this hand. You two waste a ridiculous amount of time trying to psyche each other out when you’re both going to lose anyway.”

  The room erupted in oooohs and laughter, and she went back to her book. He folded in frustration and the bet moved on to the third player. Two hands later, he was out of the game and Tyler was playing the one who had beaten Jerome.

  Ante in, first two cards dealt, Tyler tossed in $5000 and finished her drink. Glass held up, the waiter came forward to take it and get her another.”

  “You drink a lot when you play,” her opponent commented.

  “And you flap your gums a lot,” she said, flipping the page of her book.

  Play went on to the last card.

  “Jesus Christ, call or fold already,” she finally said when he’d been sitting there for ten minutes. “Either way I’m taking your money.”

  He folded. She showed to prove she had the cards to win the hand, and was at once holding 1.6 million dollars.

  He opened, she called. The first two cards and she folded.

  “Do you ever bluff?” he asked.

  “Cost you all you got to find out,” she replied, eyes on her book.

  He fucked around for ten minutes before going all in. He really had no choice at this point. She took it with four kings over his full house. Raucous applause.

  “No, Mr. Niklaus. I never bluff,” she said, closing her book. “I don’t have to with everyone else around me openly broadcasting whether they have winning or losing hands.”

  The congratulatory rounds, the presentation of the prize and the money was deposited into the account from which she’d been staked.

  “I shoulda staked you and sat it out,” Jerome chuckled. “Congratulations. You’re a woman of independent means.”

  “I need to make a phone call,” she said. They went out to the deck and she used her own phone to call Thomas.

  “You won almost two million dollars, love. Good for you.”

  “You saw already?”

  “Just got the courtesy call from the bank, yes. I’m putting it into a separate account I’d already set up for you. I’ll send you an ATM card so you can use the money. It’ll be waiting for you when you get home.”

  “Thank you, Thomas.”

  Phones turned off and put away, they went for a late supper.

  “I never could enjoy silence with someone,” he admitted, eyes over the rail at the late night waves, holding hands. “Until you.”

  She let his statement stand. But he saw her yawn one time too many and took her to their room. She’d expended a great deal of energy at the game. He let her rest, meditating while she slept.

  They were barely in the doorat home on January 5th when Gable seized her for a hard hug and planted a huge kiss on her lips.

  “Thank you!”

  He walked away.

  “What was that about?” Jerome stared after him.

  Tyler smiled at Star, who was grinning back like the cat that ate the canary.

  “So he liked his Christmas present?”

  “Ooooooooh yyeeeeeaaahh.”

  “Next I’ll teach you how to use ice and icy hot,” Tyler said, walking through with suitcase rolling behind her.

  “Teach her what? What did you teach her?” Jerome asked.

  “What does it matter?” Tyler shot back at him. “You don’t let me down there anyway.” She ported up rather than carry the heavy suitcase.

  “Don’t let?—What did you teach her?!” he shouted up the stairs.

  “You don’t let her blow you?” Gable asked, incredulous at the thought, and laughed. “Oh my god! What a fool you be! Woman! Get up here and do it to me again!”

  “What did she teach you?” Jerome asked.

  St
arbird just laughed and jogged up the stairs.

  “Nobody tells me anything,” he muttered to himself. “How was your two and a half weeks, Roc?”

  Roc looked up from the seat in the telephone nook. Tyler had her on to the history of the Roman Empire. She looked up from the book and smiled.

  “They were fine, thank you.”

  The phone rang and she went pale. She reached. She pulled back.

  “I’ve never seen a telephone that bites,” he winked at her.

  She picked it up at the start of the third ring, and smiled too wide, her voice softening to honey.

  “I was hoping you would call.”

  A pause, finger twirling in the coils of the cord like a teenager.

  “I would like that. Thank you. See you then.” She hung up.

  “See who when?” Jerome asked, having not recognized the voice on the other end.

  “Demitrius,” she smiled.

  “Demitrius? Meechi?”

  “He is taking me to dinner tonight. Excuse me. I must get ready.” She all but ran up the stairs.

  “I leave for two weeks and the house goes apeshit on me,” he muttered, going into the Command Center. “What’s up with Roc and Meechi?”

  “Gable took the women to Giuseppe’s for Christmas Eve dinner. Demitrius was there with his mother. They all shared the table. He is quite taken with Roc. He took her out on the 28th and New Year’s Eve also.”

  “You’re allowing it?”

  “I am encouraging it. She has been lonely with the four of you paired up. I have explained to him her inability to be physically intimate and the reasons for it. Not the assault, but the moral standings of being High Priestess. She is enjoying the distraction and the companionship. I have told her that if she chooses to be intimate, I will discuss the matter with the sisterhood when the time comes.”