Archer held out his hands, and suddenly a bow and arrow appeared in his grip, as if out of thin air. They shimmered as if made out of pure energy or light, and yet were solid and sturdy as metal. He aimed the weapon directly at the terrifying figure. He yelled out “Vlorian! Step away from the girl and go back to the Vampire World from which you came!”
The evil man held up his hands and a shield appeared in one and a sword in the other. They were both made of a strange black metal that Dawn had never seen before. He said “I am Prince Vlorian to you; my father was the king, Lord Vladimus, before your people imprisoned him! I care nothing about the girl! I only want the crystal so that I can set my father free and he can take his rightful place as ruler. Then we will enslave the race of humans and drink their blood!”
Vlorian lunged at Dawn and Archer quickly fired an arrow at him. It was deflected by the shield, but when it struck the metal, Dawn saw that it was no ordinary arrow. It exploded in a flash of light, as if it had been made of pure energy. The blast shook the ground beneath Dawn’s feet and Aurora fell from her arms. The little girl awoke as her body hit the ground.
“Mommy! What’s happening?” Aurora cried out. Her young face filled with confusion and fear.
Vlorian recovered from the blast quickly and lunged at Archer, swinging his sword with all his might and deflecting arrows as Archer fired repeatedly at him. They both moved with such incredible speed, Dawn could hardly see their movements.
“Come to me, baby! We’ve got to get away from here!” Dawn called to her daughter. Aurora ran toward her mother’s arms, but Vlorian was faster. With his superhuman speed, he scooped up the child and held his sword to her throat.
“Give me the crystal pendant or I will kill her!” he cried menacingly.
Archer had an arrow ready to launch from his bow and trained the point right at Vlorian, but he dared not fire. He couldn’t risk the vampire prince killing the innocent child. He looked at Dawn and nodded at her.
With trembling hands, Dawn removed the necklace from her neck and held the ancient crystal pendant out toward Prince Vlorian. “Take it!” she cried.
Vlorian reached out his hand to snatch his prize. It was the moment Archer had been waiting for. He launched his arrow and it pierced the vampire right through the hand. He dropped his weapons and let go of the girl as he screamed out in pain and gripped his wounded arm.
Archer then fired arrow after arrow into the ground, surrounding Vlorian in a circle of exploding energy. The light from the arrow was blinding and Dawn had to shield her eyes as she took Aurora into her arms and held her close.
Prince Vlorian cried out in agony as the light surrounded him; he swirled his cape protectively around his body and suddenly vanished into thin air.
Chapter Five
“I think she’s finally fallen back to sleep.” Dawn Bright said with a sigh of relief as she exited her daughter’s bedroom. Dr. Archer Speedlight stood in the living room of her small apartment, keeping a protective vigil. He still gripped his bow in his left hand and his quiver of energy arrows was slung over his shoulder, although he no longer held one ready to launch. He smiled reassuringly at Dawn and relaxed his stance even more.
“You should get some sleep too.” Archer said gently. “Prince Vlorian will not be back tonight. Even if he tried, I will protect you. My species does not need sleep. I can keep watch all night long. You will both be safe; I promise.”
“I don’t think I could sleep after all that’s happened tonight.” Dawn said, sitting on her couch with a heavy frown. She looked at Archer and said “Who are you? What’s going on?”
Archer paced the room, trying to think of the best way to explain. Finally, he decided the only way to handle the situation was just to be completely honest. He sat on the couch beside her and told her everything.
“Hundreds of years ago, an evil race of vampires led by Lord Vladimus rose to power in the universe. He would conquer a planet, enslave all the inhabitants, and allow his hordes of vampires to drink their blood. The people of the planet Flonar tried to fight him, but they were losing the battle. My people discovered that our planet, Mathias, produced crystals that could be used to hold the light of sun. We developed a coffin that could be used to capture Lord Vladimus and gave it to the people of Flonar as a gift. They were able to defeat the vampire and lock him inside of it—he lies in there still to this day.
The coffin can only be opened with a certain crystal key. To protect the key, the people of Flonar asked my people to hide it by giving it to someone on another planet so they knew the vampires would never find it. That was three hundred years ago. Since then, the women of that family line have passed the crystal key from generation to generation, not even aware what it was. Their innocence and purity kept it safe and hidden from those who would seek to free Lord Vladimus.”
“My great-grandmother’s crystal pendant? I never knew!” Dawn whispered, looking at the precious family heirloom with even more awe than she had before. After a moment, she looked at Archer and said, “So what is your connection to the crystal? Why did you protect me tonight?”
Archer said, “The people of Flonar decided they needed to hire a guardian to protect the crystal. His identity needed to be secret even from the people of Flonar, so that he could not be sabotaged or corrupted. I was the one chosen for that task and for three hundred years I have done just that, secretly guarding and protecting the women of your family.”
“So why haven’t I met you before?” Dawn asked, her eyes bright.
Archer frowned with humiliation and said, “The women of your family have always been bright and perceptive. Your grandmother figured out that she was being followed by me and devised a very clever plan. She was able to change her name and went into hiding when she was pregnant with your mother. It took me twenty years to find her, and by then she had already instructed your mother to change her name and go into hiding as well. I have been searching for her and then for you, ever since. I heard word that one of Lord Vladimus’ followers had placed a curse on your offspring, and that she would die without surgery. I knew Prince Vlorian would be able to use that illness to discover your location. I became a doctor, hoping I could fine you before he did and cure her. I’m so glad I found you in time.”
“Me too.” Dawn said, with a look of gratitude in her sparkling eyes.
Dawn and Archer stayed up talking for hours. The more she got to know him, the more she liked him. He was intelligent, sensitive, dedicated, and brave. More than that, she correctly guessed that he was in love with her.
As they sat on the couch, side-by-side, with their feet propped up on her coffee table, he confided to her. “I know we just met today, but I felt like I’ve known you for a lot longer. I’ve watched over your relatives for three hundred years, and I’ve studied everything I could about you during my search to find you. I read the essays you wrote when you were a school girl and the diary you left behind at your mother’s house when you got married.”
“You did?” Dawn was embarrassed, but a little flattered too that he would go through so much trouble to find her. “I wrote some pretty personal stuff in that old diary.”
“It was beautiful, and so are you.” Archer said. Unable to help himself, he leaned forward and gently kissed her on the lips. They tasted soft and sweet, just like he knew they would.
Dawn drew back and blushed. It was first time a man had kissed her since her husband died nearly five years ago. She had always felt uncomfortable with the idea of kissing another man, but with Archer, it didn’t feel wrong or awkward. It felt perfectly right. She leaned in and kissed him again. He reached up and caressed her hair and she opened her mouth to him, wrapping her arms around him as he held her. Their kiss grew stronger and more passionate as they embraced each other and she could feel her heartbeat quicken.
“Sorry.” Archer apologized, pulling away from her reluctantly as they both struggled to catch their breath. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since I first saw you.”
“It’s okay.” Dawn assured him. “I wanted you to. In fact, I want even more.” They kissed again, clinging to each other with a passion neither of them had ever felt before. Dawn whispered, “Take off my clothes. I want to share myself with you.”
Tenderly and slowly, Archer peeled away the clothes from her body, exposing her tan skin inch by inch. Her breasts heaved with excitement as he removed her bra, and her rosy pink nipples puckered in the cool night air. She cupped her breasts in her hands, holding them up to him like an offering and said softly, “Kiss me here.”
Willingly, Archer tenderly took her left nipple into his mouth, kissing and suckling her hard nub and flicking it his tongue. It had been so long since Dawn had felt any kind of sexual excitement; she had forgotten how good it could feel. She gasped sharply at the sensation, and then sighed happily. She grabbed his head and pushed him deeply into her bosom, never wanting him to stop, as he went from her left breast to her right, licking and sucking.
“Come with me to the bedroom,” she whispered between gasps of pleasure and he nodded his consent. She grabbed him by the hand and led him into her bedroom and locked the door. He had already removed her dress and bra, so all she had left on was a pair of silk panties. Slowly, she stepped out of them and lay on her bed. She said, “Make love to me, Archer. I want you.”
Archer gazed longingly at her luscious, naked body. She was tan and voluptuous. He desperately wanted to make love to her, but he wasn’t sure if he should. Seeing his hesitation, Dawn guided him to lie beside her on the bed and slowly undressed him just as he had done for her. She kissed his muscular body, just as he had done to her, letting her lips work their way down his torso, to his groin. When her lips kissed his most sensitive organ, he drew a sharp breath of pleasure, and she felt every muscle in his body tighten in response.
“I know you want me just as much as I want you.” Dawn whispered gently. “I’ve never felt this way about a man before. I think we were brought together by more than the crystal. I think we were destined to be together.”
Archer nodded in agreement. “I’ve never felt this way about anybody either. I love you and I want to make you mine.”
With those words, Dawn straddled Archer’s naked body and slid herself on top of his throbbing organ, enveloping him into her wet folds. The sheer pleasure of it made them both gasp. Slowly and deliberately, they began to stroke together, bringing him deeper and deeper into her with every thrust. As their movements quickened in pace and intensity, so did their breathing and the level of their pleasure. Never before had either one of them experienced such ecstasy in the act of making love.
“I’m going to climax!” Archer moaned. He withdrew himself from her to hold off his orgasm, and massaged her with his fingers until his body had cooled off enough to continue. The movement of his expert fingers brought her climax, and she writhed and moaned on the mattress as he rubbed her folds in just the right way. As her screams of pleasure came to an end, she smiled up at Archer, feeling utterly happy. She didn’t think she’d ever feel as alive as she did now and she had Archer to thank for it.
“Now it’s my turn to orgasm.” Archer said. He bent Dawn’s legs high, toward her shoulders, and drove his organ deeply into her. He thrust into her with slow, deliberate movements, remembering the pace she liked best and was rewarded by her cries of pleasure. As he pumped, he used his fingers to delicately massage her outer folds in just the perfect place, and she orgasmed almost immediately under his expert touch. Feeling her muscles ripple around his organ caused him to ejaculate with a power and a passion more intense than he had ever felt before. It was amazing, like being thrust into heaven.
When their breathing finally slowed, they both lay collapsed in each other’s arms on her small mattress, smiling contentedly at each other.
“I’m so glad I found you.” Archer whispered as he stroked Dawn’s hair.
“I’m so glad, too.” Dawn said.
Neither of them noticed that the crystal pendant around her neck was glowing, as far away the coffin of Lord Vladimus began to move.
TO BE CONTINUED IN BOOK EIGHT: Dreams of the Heart - Volume 8
Dreams of the Heart
Chapter One
Lynxar said goodbye to his friend Bryan Hillman and went home to his wife Dr. Rachel Deering. He’d asked Bryan to turn into the Ghost and spy on the new cardiac surgeon, Dr. Archer Speedlight, who worked at Hillman Research Hospital along with Rachel. The information Bryan had brought back to Lynxar had him more worried than ever.
Usually, Lynxar could use his ability to read people’s thoughts to learn everything he needed to know about someone; but Dr. Speedlight had the ability to block him from his mind. This alone had Lynxar suspicious about Archer, but everything Bryan had learned about him was even more worrisome. It seemed the doctor had supernatural powers, including great speed, superior strength, and the ability to see things no human could see. He could look beyond great distances to see things on the microscopic level. It’s what made him such a great surgeon.
When Lynxar reached his home, the house was dark and he knew that everyone had already gone to bed for the night. He walked down the hall to his daughter Lynxiennia’s bedroom and peeked in on her. At only five years old, she looked so small and helpless sleeping in her bed with her doll tucked under one arm. Lynxar knew he would do anything to protect her
Rachel was already asleep as he climbed quietly into bed beside her, trying not to wake her. He lay on his pillow for hours, tossing and turning, but it was difficult to sleep with so many thoughts and worries troubling his mind. When he finally did fall asleep, his dreams were strange and very disturbing.
He saw himself on the jagged hills of Mount Bluerock on his home planet of Flonar. It was night, and the twin moons glowed orange in the sky. In the valley below, a war raged between good and evil that had been finished nearly three hundred years ago.
Down in the valley, the soldiers stopped their battle to watch as their two leaders stepped forward to settle the war with a fight to the death. On one side was Lord Vladimus, the dark and evil king of the vampires. He was extremely tall with a muscular build, red eyes, and skin as white as death. He drew an enchanted sword from his sheath and held it out, ready to use it to cut his enemy’s throat and drink his blood. Opposite of him, was the mighty Lynxarione, Captain of the free armies of Flonar, and also Lynxar’s father. It made Lynxar’s heart swell with pride to see him looking so young and full of life, even though he knew it was just a dream of an event that happened centuries ago.
Lord Vladimus waited for Lynxarione to draw his weapon and laughed with cruel malice when the Captain drew a fragile-looking sword made only of delicate crystal.
“That pitiful weapon is useless against me!” Vladimus sneered. “I will shatter it into a thousand pieces with one blow of my sword and then you will be defenseless against me.”
“Do your worst, for it will be your own end!” Lynxarione shouted as he held the crystal sword high and it shimmered with magical light. “This is no ordinary sword! It is a gift from the people of Mathias; the planet of crystals!”
Vladimus struck at Lynxarione with ferocious power and he defended himself with equal strength. As their swords clashed, the force of the impact caused the crystal sword to shatter, just as Vladimus had predicted, but then something else happened which the evil vampire had not anticipated. A blinding light was released from the crystal sword. It was the pure light of the sun, magically held within the crystal blade, as only the people of Mathias knew how to do. Vladimus cried out in pain as the light burned him. He dropped his sword and threw his cape around himself for protection, uttering hateful curses.
“Now! Quickly, before he recovers!” Lynxarione commanded and his soldiers brought forth a coffin made entirely of Mathias Crystal.
Lynxar watched as his father, along with the help of his best soldiers, pushed Lord Vladimus into the coffin and closed the lid. It was thrilling to see such an important act of hist
ory unfolding before his eyes. Then his father picked up a crystal shard from the broken sword and with the powers of his mind, molded it into an enchanted key. It fit into the lock of the coffin perfectly, sealing it shut and bonding the two items together. No other power or magic could ever open the coffin again and the vampire lord would be locked inside forever, with the crystal key as the only way to break the spell.
The vampire army, having seen their king defeated and imprisoned, fled the planet at once, disappearing back to their own realm in a puff of smoke. The good people of Flonar were free and they rejoiced. They marched back to the city, singing songs of victory and cheering loudly. Everyone, that is, except for a small group of men, who placed the coffin in a cave high on Mount Bluerock, where it stood enshrined as a monument to the war.
As the years passed, however, it became clear that the coffin was in danger. Followers of Lord Vladimus tried to steal the crystal key from Lynxar’s father in order to set the vampire king free. Many urged him to entrust the key to a Key Keeper for his own protection, but he was hesitant to do that.
“If I give the key to a keeper to hold, the responsibility of it would weigh heavily upon them, just as it does me,” Lynxar heard his father explain. “The vampires would be able to sense who held the key and hunt them down. They would be in just as much danger as I am.”
A soldier said to him, “Then the solution is easy, entrust the key to a keeper, but do not tell them what it is for. Then the vampires will not be able to find them.”
“A good idea, but impossible.” Lynxarione said. “Everyone on Flonar knows about the vampire war and how we defeated Vladimus with the crystal coffin. They would be able to figure out this is the crystal key. There is only one solution; we must hide it with someone from another planet, where they know nothing of the vampire war or even Flonar itself. Their own innocence will protect them.”
Lynxar Series - The Vampire King: Books 7-13 (7-Book Bundle) Page 3
