Too Long a Soldier (Kingdom Key Book 3)

by TylerRose.

“Sure.” Standing, putting the pipe down, she teleported them out to the back patio. “Better?”

  “Much. I know he is your lover and I am not, but I cannot stand to smell him on you,” he said, holding chair for her to sit in.

  “Not that it’s your business, but we don’t have intercourse,” she told him.

  He took her hand and kissed it. “There are many ways to be a woman’s lover without invading her sacred core, Femina.” He turned her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist, short fur around his lips prickling her skin.

  “Is that your goal?”

  “I have no goal where you are concerned,” he said. “Beyond making sure you are safe. You are very spoken for and bear his marks along with his scent.” He touched the bite on the side of her neck. “Even out here I can still smell him on you.”

  A slow smile crept across her lips. “You’re jealous.”

  “Who wouldn’t be? Knowing Voranian societal traditions and protocols, knowing you submitted yourself to them. To me. I must admit a part of me wants to speak up for what I feel belongs to me.” He sighed. “But you do not and it was a long time ago for you.”

  “Not that long ago,” she whispered, looking away quickly. “The nights are still chilly. Would you like some tea?”

  “That would be lovely,” he replied, sensing she needed a little distance.

  She went inside to put the kettle on and within two minutes felt Jerome’s approach in the hallway.

  “Don’t you sleep at night anymore?” he asked, slipping his arms around from behind and displeased by her immediate tension. “What?”

  “Shestna is on the deck.”

  “Yes, I know. Everything okay?”

  “It’s just difficult sometimes,” she said.

  “When’s the last time you visited your Gramma?”

  “Few weeks back.”

  “Then go spend a few days with her. Get away for a while,” he said.

  “Maybe.”

  She reached out with a hand and two calla lily cups came to her. Another reach for the tea bags and she opened two bags of decaf Earl Grey. Two bags went into the ceramic calla lily pot and another into both cups.

  “You’re going to let me go alone?” she asked.

  “I think you need it. You’ve been cooped up here too much. “

  “I appreciate the trust.”

  “I only want what is best for you, Ty. Right now it means letting you go away for a few days. Another time it might mean keeping you close at hand.” He kissed the back of her neck and went back to his own room.

  Another moment and the water was ready. She poured the pot full first, then the cups and carried the tray outside.

  “He is a possessive lover,” Shestna said.

  “So are you.”

  “I do not deny. You are well after last night’s excitement?”

  “Yes,” she said, placing his cup and sitting.

  “Is your craving worse today?”

  “Manageable,” she said, watching steam rise from her cup.

  “Is it really? Or are you showing another brave face?” he persisted.

  “If it wasn’t manageable I’d be dead, right?”

  “I did not mean to upset you, Femina.”

  “You didn’t. I hear more broadcasting from non-telepaths now. It can be very distressing,” she said in a softer tone.

  “As I recall, that was how Earnol got you to live on the station. Too much background noise.”

  She nodded. “Rather than teach me to live with it, he got me off the planet and safely sent away five hundred years into the past on a bullshit assignment.”

  “When it is time to confront him, I will make sure he faces every charge coming to him,” Shestna said.

  “Unfortunately, it’s not as much in this timeline unless it can be proven he altered things to prevent births or cause deaths.”

  “Or contracted deaths. Did he ever send anyone to kill you?”

  “Not that I’m aware of. When I caught the one Rosaas and Osan red-handed, Osan came to kill me. Mankell took care of him.”

  “What about Solomon?”

  “Not that I’m aware of,” she said, taking the tea bag out of his cup and squeezing it. “It’s still very hot.”

  He smiled at his cup, recognizing the ease of such a small service that would go unnoticed by most. She would know his fingers were sensitive to heat. He required such things of his mates if they were not so sensitive. In these quiet moments, he could see the wife she had been. Could see what his counterpart had seen beneath her many impervious outer layers.

  “When your battles are done, I hope you and your friends will come to Voran,” he said.

  “I’d consider it. Voran III has always been one of my favorite planets, even with its restrictive traditions.”

  They sipped from cooling cups, refilled from the pot. When it was empty, he said his goodnight and left her there. She ported to her room, able to sleep at last.

  Landra Ahr was there when she woke up. She packed a bag first thing.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To visit my grandmother,” she replied.

  “I do not think it wise for you to go alone.

  “Your objection is noted.

  “Someone should go with you,” he said.

  “What part of ‘getting away’ do you not comprehend?” she shot back. “I need a few days away. Jerome already has the number.”

  “What if Solomon tries to attack you there?”

  “Then one of us will die in Louisiana.”

  “Tyler.”

  “Landra.”

  She closed the zipper and lifted the suitcase to stand on its wheeled end on the floor. “I’ll only be three days. You might be my Sentinel, but you don’t tell me what to or not to do. I need this. It’s as simple as that.”

  He still didn’t like it but opted to let it go. “Very well. Please check in with Jerome once each day.”

  “I don’t need to be told that either.”

  She ported with her suitcase to Jerome’s room. He smiled up at her.

  “I just read that the Rovan supply seems to have all but vanished overnight for some strange reason.”

  “Gee, I wonder why.”

  “You’re all set?” he nodded to the suitcase.

  “Would you teach Landra this trust thing? He suddenly forgot.”

  “Sorry about that. You go and have a good time and I’ll tell Giuseppe to go on and give the job to Mark.”

  “Okay.”

  He gave her a long kiss, refraining from tongue work. “You better go before I get overprotective too,” he finally said.

  She backed away a step and was gone. He released a hard breath, hoping he’d made the right decision in letting her go on her own. Already he was aware of the emptiness in his soul because of her departure. He felt her absence more keenly than he thought he would. He drove to Chen’s to get a work out.

  Chapter Thirty Two

  “Tyler? Is that you?” Gramma Addie called up the stairs.

  Her face brightened like the sun on seeing her favorite grandchild.

  “Hi, Gramma,” Tyler replied, coming down.

  “You don’t look well, child. What has happened? You don’t feel right either,” she said with the hug. “Come to the kitchen. I’ll make you some tea and get you some pie.”

  Tyler told. The one person on this Earth she could tell literally everything. The overdose and Widening, increased abilities, burning the Rovan factory.

  “When is the last time I did a reading for you?” Addie asked after tea and pie.

  “My previous life.”

  “I’m sitting on two decks. Let’s do a Life reading for you.”

  A long and powerful reading it turned out to be, with her Queen of Cups Querent card changing to the Empress by the end. Earnol’s downfall. Successful endeavors. Rewards promised would be delivered. She would rule over empires.

  She walked the back of the property by the creek, thinking. />
  [May I see you?]

  Tyler smiled to herself. He just couldn’t leave her alone. [Certainly.]

  Shestna arrived and was confused by his surroundings. “Where are we?”

  “My grandmother’s home.”

  “The one I went to with you?”

  “Yes. I have a question for you.”

  “I will try to provide an answer,” he replied.

  She opened her mouth to ask, then paused.

  “Speak it, Femina,” he said, moving a lock of hair away from her eyes.

  “Is it possible the Emperor of Voran II might be inclined to send ten or twenty soldiers to help in the capture and destruction of the one he’s going to put half a million dollar bounty on?”

  “Going to put? It is done. He decided the crime is worth three quarters of a million Ruds and will happily pay it so long as he has either a body or a reliable witness. I do think he would consider his own soldiers reliable.”

  She pressed her bottom lip into her upper incisors for a few painful seconds. “Any chance those soldiers would come with the power of the Emperor’s crystal?”

  “Absolutely. It takes but two days to get from Voran to here in the Emperor’s fastest ship. The power lasts five days if not used in battle, though that last day it weakens.”

  She nodded slowly, and turned to him. Delegate. One of the cards had advised her to delegate more. “Sta, I need a small army to fight K’Tran pirates with me.”

  He took her hands, kissed them in turn. “It is yours, Femina. Tell me when you want it and it will be here for you. I will command it myself.”

  “You’re on the Council. How can you lead an army into battle?”

  “I am the son of an Emperor before I am a Councilman. I do as I please. It pleases me to help people who are wronged. The more I learn about Earnol’s clandestine operations, the more it pleases me to disrupt them.”

  “I have another question,” she said. “Should we be successful and kill Solomon and either kill or capture the K’Tran, I intend to take L’Roc-ai and the others to Taverages to free it. Would the Emperor consent to his army going to a second planet?”

  “We would have to stop at Voran III to let the soldiers recharge. How long would it take to get to their home?” he asked.

  “You’ll have to ask Landra Ahr. I don’t know off hand.”

  “I will discuss it with him You will be here visiting how long?”

  “Until the day after tomorrow. I needed time away.”

  “Your cravings are manageable?”

  She only nodded, getting tired of that question.

  “Come with me to Voran for the night,” he said.

  She froze several seconds with the unexpected invitation. “No.”

  “Even now you keep yourself for him?” he accused.

  “Jerome is trusting me to be here in my Grandmother’s home, to not use Rovan and to return day after tomorrow. If I violate any part of that trust, he will have no reason to trust me the next time I want to be away.”

  “He will not know.”

  “I will know and the Shestna of my timeline would never have suggested I so blatantly violate someone’s trust.”

  That shut him up.

  “You are right. Forgive me, Femina.”

  “Why do you keep calling me that when I keep telling you not to?” she suddenly asked.

  “I will call you Femina so long as you continue to call me Sta.”

  “I didn’t know that bothered you.”

  “It doesn’t. I simply know how impossible it would be for you to stop the habit.”

  “Careful or I’ll call you hubby,” she teased.

  He fumed over the reference remembered from one of her journals. “I am not your husband. Nor am I a disreputable trader.”

  She grinned at him. “Call me Femina and I will call you hubby.”

  “Call me hubby and I shall have to spank you.”

  “Yeah, you thought that was a deterrent when we were married too.”

  “Wasn’t it?”

  “Hell no. I liked it immensely.”

  He turned her around and pulled her roughly into his arms, taking the challenge presented in her eyes. “You are no woman I have ever met, Femina.”

  His softly fringed lips pressed against hers and she responded for a few seconds. She ended the kiss.

  “I am here to get away from my stresses,” she said. “Not clear the way for you.”

  He eyed her suspiciously. “You are keeping yourself for him. I will let you be and come to you with information I have gathered after you return to the warehouse. I expect Mankell will arrive shortly thereafter. K’Tran ships aren’t as fast as Voranian ones.” He released her from the hug and caressed her cheek. “Goodnight, Femina. Enjoy your time to yourself.”

  He vanished and she was relieved. If he wanted to press it, she wouldn’t be able to say no to him anymore than she could Jerome. She breathed a heavy sigh. There was no denying he tempted her. A lifetime ago they had made love on this very bed she now lay upon to sleep. Her skin burned to know him again, to be filled and consumed by him. His card in Gramma’s deck had been the Emperor.

  Then Jerome popped into her mind’s eye. Gramma and the reading had both said his card was the Fool. She yearned for him in the same way.

  The Emperor and the Fool. The two most powerful men in her life right now. She fell asleep thinking of them and dreamed of being with them both in the same bed. One with the tiger and the dragon in his soul and the other who was a tiger by birth. What a powerful encounter that would be. She dreamed of being with them both two hundred years and flying on the wind with them.

  She woke to daylight, rested for once and at peace with herself, the craving minimal. Life held possibilities again.

  The feeling held all day and the next when she teleported back to her room in the warehouse. She went down to the patio before Landra Ahr had the chance to come up. She had eaten supper with Gramma Addie but picked at a dinner roll. She waited for Jerome to finish eating before asking if they could talk privately. She opted for the roof rather than his room and he followed her up.

  “Shestna came to see me the first night I was there,” she informed him.

  “Okay. What he want?”

  “I asked for a small army. Soldiers will be made available to me when I tell him I need them.”

  “An army? Of Voranians?”

  She nodded. “All of them with the power of the Emperor’s crystal, which is a bigger version of your staff. They take power from it but it’s temporary.”

  “Interesting,” he said, certain she had more to say.

  “Killing Solomon will bring me three quarters of a million Ruds, That’s the universal currency of the Celestial Congress. My killing him will be legal so there’s nothing Earnol can do about it.”

  Jerome stepped away and back again. “He did this just because you asked?”

  “It’s his promise to me and he does not take oaths lightly.”

  “I guess not.”

  “There’s more.”

  “More? What more could there be?”

  “With a brief stop on Voran to recharge, they’ll go with us to free Taverages.”

  “Are you shittin’ me?” his eyes popped wide open.

  “I will discuss with Sta the possibility of new regiments arriving each day for a week. When one burns out, it returns to Voran to recharge. We’ll see. I have to do some recon to see exactly what we’re dealing with.”

  “Sure would be a good thing to have troops on hand ready to fight,” he agreed.

  “We wouldn’t have to depend on a resistance coming to fight with us,” she added.

  He grasped her hand. “You’re amazing, Tyler.”

  “No, I’m not. I’m just doing what’s right. I’m not playing by anyone’s rules other than my own. They have to learn to play by my rules.”

  “About fucking time,” he grinned.

  “That’s what I say too. First thing’s first. He may
be my Sentinel, but Landra needs to give me some space. I’m going to listen to some music and go to sleep.”

  He gave her a gentle kiss. “Night, babe.”

  Under headphones with quiet tunes again, this time with her mind and soul at peace, she was able to enjoy her buzz for the first time in some weeks. She was relaxed, things falling into place, and would soon be off this shit planet for good.

  [May I see you?]

  She humphed to herself. He could not stay away now he’d seen what his counterpart had seen in her.

  [You may,] she replied, then audibly when he appeared: “You don’t waste time. I’ve only been home three hours.”

  “I bring urgent news. The Emperor agrees to send one hundred of his most reliable soldiers powered by his crystal. You need only pick their date of arrival. They will likely be under the command of my brother Dorn.”

  “Good. Where will you be?”

  “Probably on the station waiting. I and Julian will be a buffer between you and Earnol.”

  “That works,” she said.

  “Mankell has arrived. He has collected his son and desires to meet the female his son tells him tales of. If you are to meet, it must be right now. He cannot wait. The Rosaas have commanded he bring Curry back at once.”

  She thrust out of the chair to look out into the night. Yet another of her former lovers back in her life,; but this one knew nothing of it. She, however, knew all about K’Tran traditions and protocol. She checked the clock. 10:30. She could feel Jerome was in his room, and took a change of clothes into the bathroom.

  Different day, different mission, but that same feeling in her gut. She had to do this. She was right to do this.

  “Wait here a minute,” she said, hair spruced up, eyes lined and shadow applied, and called Jerome on her phone. “I need you to come up to my room a moment.”

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, instantly serious.

  “Just come.”

  Up the stairs three at a time and she had the door open for him as he reached for the knob. She closed it again as quickly when he’d come in.

  “Shestna? Okay, what gives?”

  “Remember the K’Tran I brought out of the compound?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “His name is Curlein. Curry for short. He is the oldest son and heir to a K’Tran lord named Mankell. It’s a very ancient house and prominent family. Mankell is himself a powerful man.”