by Vivian Venus
TRAPPED WITH THE WARRIOR
Kyp Vandell is the crown dragon-prince of Raspharion – a dashing alien warrior with unmatched fighting skills and a charm as sharp as his blade. Kyp is long overdue to be mated, but his heart remains closed to the idea of love ever since she left without even a goodbye.
When Kyp diverts from a routine diplomatic mission to investigate a mysterious ship under attack by pirates in the depths of space, he is shocked to come face to face with the girl who left the planet with his love – the strong and beautiful warrior, Crysta Gage. A powerful radiation storm disables their ships, trapping the two former lovers together, leaving them no choice but to confront their past and the secret love that they once shared.
Crysta knows she needs to tell Kyp the reason why she disappeared without a trace all those years ago, a secret she kept to protect him. Will it destroy any chance for the two to rekindle the fire of their fated romance?
Written by Vivian Venus
Copyright© 2015-2016 by Vivian Venus. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the copyright owner and publisher of this book.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Subscribe! (Link)
Join my mailing list for updates and freebies!
CHAPTER ONE
“A battle,” Kyp Vandell said with some surprise as he observed the streaking flashes of light appear on his ship’s viewport monitor. “Perhaps today may not be so boring after all.” His streamlined royal cruiser had just left the atmosphere of the foreign planet he had visited on a diplomatic mission, when his systems notified him of the disturbance off in a distant quadrant in deep space.
His mission had been a boring routine one, part of his occasional duties as the crowned dragon-prince of Raspharion. His younger brother had just been married, and Kyp was satisfied not to be the focus of attention for once, even it was just a short amount of time. The informalities when meeting people now ended up going to his brother’s marriage rather than his own extended bachelorhood, and he was more than happy to go into detail. Anything to avoid those probing questions into his romantic prospects.
Over the past few years, ever since his coming of age, the crowned prince had developed quite a reputation as a ladies man. A playboy, even. It wasn’t something Kyp would refute, but it wasn’t something he liked to speak about either. There was a time when he had believed in true love and all of that, but that was in the past. He had found her, fallen in love, and then she had disappeared from his life. Gone, without a trace, and with her went his faith in destined love.
The holographic control orb materialized by his arm as he activated his navigational systems and throttled the engines to take him to sub-light speed. He thrust his arm into the control orb and twisted it, taking manual control. A holographic panel appeared on his opposite side and his fingers danced across it, calling up sensor read outs as he came closer to the conflict.
He was close enough now that he could see the action straight through the view port. It was a ship to ship battle, energy blasts exchanging between the two vessels like arcs of lighting, popping and careening off defensive shields. One of the ships had no allegiance markings, and by its rough appearance he guessed it was a pirate ship. The other ship…
Kyp’s eyes widened in surprise as he saw its markings. It was a Raspharion cruiser, come from his home country. He could see the aft airlock was opened, meaning there had already been a boarding. The pirates were inside, likely ransacking the ship and fighting whoever was aboard.
He punched the engines. “This is going to be an interesting day,” he said, grinning to himself. It had been a while since his sword had seen some action.
By the time the pirate ship had identified him on their sensors it was too late. He moved his ship with the precision of an expert pilot, trained by the top warriors in the nation since birth, and shot just two blasts from his cannons. The pirate ship exploded into a plume of flame.
“Now to clean up the garbage,” he said, and swung his ship parallel to the friendly vessel. He strapped on his armor, glimmering and intricately crafted as fit for a prince, and pulled on his helmet which was fiercely shaped like a dragon’s head. He fastened his sword to his waist and then hit the airlock, opening his ship up to the coldness of space. Then he threw himself out.
His body spun in the empty weightlessness of space and he sailed straight into the other ship’s airlock, where he hit a sensor on the wall and sealed it. The door hissed shut as the inside pressurized, and he drew his sword from its scabbard. It was long and wickedly curved with a glimmering blue-silver blade, its hilt adorned with blue gems that glowed faintly. The weapon was Kyp’s most prized possession, a symbol of his rite of passage into manhood. And now it would taste pirate blood.
He tapped a sensor on the wall next to him and the blank wall in front of him rippled like water before spreading open to form a doorway. Two men stood there, backs to Kyp. They turned around, shocked at his arrival, and lifted their guns at him. His blade flashed and sang as it cut through the air, and the men slumped to the floor, their weapons cleaved in half.
He made his way through the ship. The pearlescent white paneled hallway was scorched with energy blasts as dark as the black faux stone paneled flooring that was common in Raspharion vessels, and the bodies of several pirates lay dead. Whoever was here was putting up a good fight, most of the work had been done.
A really good fight, he thought.
Asides from the poor sacks who must’ve been ordered to guard the door at all costs, there didn’t seem to be anyone left alive onboard.
A burst of energy vibrated the walls, and he turned and made his way down the hallway towards the noise. It was the cargo bay. He prepped his blade and punched the door control and the door hissed open just in time for Kyp to watch as a woman wearing a pair of dark goggles rushed at a burly pirate and knocked a pistol from his hand. The man then drew a blade and brandished it in front of him. The woman held a long staff with one end that was crackling with blue energy, and she spun it in front of her and held it in a defensive stance.
Kyp felt a shiver go down his spine. He knew that weapon, and he recognized that stance. There had been only one person he had ever known to use that weapon with that stance.
He felt a burning flash of rage behind him and spun around, just barely dodging an energy blast from a pirate who had snuck up on him. The man shot his gun again but only hit air – Kyp spun and dodged, then whipped out a throwing blade and flung it into the man’s arm. The gun fell to the floor, and seconds later his body followed it.
Kyp spun back around. The fight inside the cargo bay was over. The burly pirate fell to his knees in front of the woman, and she let out a fierce scream of anger as she swung her energy staff and its end connected to his head and finished him off with a brutal crack.
She straightened up and looked at Kyp. Then she pulled off her goggles. Kyp’s heart did a flip as his suspicions were confirmed.
It was her.
He could recognize the movements of her body anywhere, even after all these years. How could he not…
She deactivated her polearm and tucked a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear. Her face was dripping with sweat from the battle, her eyes still fiercely narrowed with
battle ready concentration.
“Who are you?” she demanded. Her eyes quickly flicked up and down Kyp’s armor. “A knight from Raspharion?”
Kyp found himself. He gripped his helmet and released the seal clasp and pulled it off. “Crysta Gage,” he said, smiling, his face not revealing the conflicting storm of emotion he felt inside. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Kyp…? What are doing here?”
Kyp had his own questions brewing. Where had she been all these years? Why did she leave him without so much as a goodbye? He held them inside.
“Helping you out,” he said plainly. “I was passing by your sector after a diplomatic mission to Duron and noticed the battle. When I saw the Raspharion markings on your ship I had to assist. But…I never could’ve imagined it’d be you.”
The memories of their relationship together were flooding back to him now – the time they had met outside the training barracks where her father had been a soldier in the royal army. She had been watching from the outside, practicing and imitating their training even though she wasn’t allowed to. He had caught her there, and she had threatened to knock his head off if he told anyone. At the time she didn’t know he was the Prince.
He remembered their secret rendezvous in the forest by the castle, late at night when no one would ever find them, where they had made love for the first time in an open meadow under the stars. He remembered her father passing away, and how afterwards Kyp had promised to care for her, no matter the cost. He was a prince and she was just a lesser-dragon, a commoner. He didn’t know how he could ever tell his parents but he never got the chance… Only a few days later she had vanished.
Now here she was again. That time was long in the past, and Kyp was a changed man now, or at least that’s what he told himself. He suddenly began to feel eager to leave and return Crysta to memory.
“Thanks,” she said, and then walked out of the room past him. Her scent caught his nose for a moment.
“Crysta,” he said. “What are you doing out here?”
“Chasing these guys. They had something of mine. If you don’t mind giving me a hand with their dead bodies before you go?”
“…Sure.”
He helped her drag the bodies of the pirates to the waste airlock, where they dumped them into space. They worked silently, and after they were finished he retrieved his helmet and went to leave. Years ago, when he was still searching for her, things would’ve been different for him. Now he just wanted to return to things. “Will you be okay from here?” he asked.
She nodded. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
“Thanks for saving me, Kyp Vandell,” she grinned.
He walked into the airlock and threw himself out, back to his ship.
CHAPTER TWO
Crysta had been shocked to see the valiant crowned prince of Raspharion standing there in her ship like a ghost from the past, and she did everything she could to keep herself in the present. It was almost too much for her, and her emotions threatened to overwhelm her. She wanted to hug him tightly, tell him how sorry she was for leaving him the way she did and not a day had gone by that she hadn’t thought about him. She loved him dearly then, and right now…she didn’t know what it was that she felt. Was it just the memories of the past suddenly rushing over her, or…?
If Kyp felt anything now, his face certainly hadn’t betrayed his inner emotions. Certainly he had moved on, it had been so long. No, she knew he had. She had heard the rumors of the crown prince’s “appetites”. She had been surprised - it didn’t sound like the Kyp she knew, but the years could change a man.
She remained distant. She reminded herself she had a task to finish. As Kyp sailed out of the airlock back to his ship, she felt some relief. Maybe she could find a way to see him after she was done. It was what she had planned from the beginning, before her quest had stretched out through the years. She wondered if he would care to see her again, back home.
She walked briskly through the ship, giving quick inspection to the damage done by the pirate’s weapons and then entered the cockpit and dropped into the pilot’s chair. Immediately her mind refocused. There was no time for sentiment now. It was time to finally get her father home.
Holographic displays appeared as she worked to get the ship started but when she hit the controls to engage the thrusters, nothing happened. She frowned and toggled it again, rechecking the sequence. Silence.
A light pinged on the control board and she cursed under breath. She had sustained engine damage during the fight.
Then suddenly Kyp’s face appeared on her display. “Having some trouble?”
She sighed, slightly embarrassed. “Something’s broken.”
“Need a hand?”
She hadn’t expected that. “Sure.”
Kyp came back on board, and the two of them ran tests and narrowed down the source of the problem to a set of power relays that ran to the engine room. It was a fairly easy repair but would just take time for them to complete it, and they set to work with their minds focused on the task.
At first it felt a little strange to be working side to side with Kyp, and they worked in silence. Crysta found herself sneaking glances at him to confirm that he was really there. She wanted to know everything that had happened with him in the time they had been apart, and she so wanted to finally explain to him why she had left, but she was hesitant. She had thought about this moment for a long time, but now she was afraid. After some time, she steeled her courage and spoke up.
“So, what have you been up to these past years?”
Kyp silently mulled over the question. What could he tell her? His thoughts immediately went to the time right after she had vanished, to the pain he had felt. How he had secretly looked for her, unable to ask his parents or any of the court for help without revealing their secret relationship. Thinking about it now, he felt foolish. He should’ve gone to his parents then.
He couldn’t even go to Crysta’s family. They couldn’t know she had been involved with royalty, there was too great a chance of it getting out. Through his own digging he had been able to get information that she had left the planet suddenly, that the family was in shambles from her father’s death. Kyp could only assume that she had gone mad with grief…but he never quite believed it. It just didn’t seem like the answer, like her.
“My little brother got married,” he said as he pulled a charred component out from underneath a series of crisscrossing metal tubes. He handed it to her and she exchanged it for a new one.
“Rhys? The same little Rhys that you told me loved to run around playing dragon?”
“The very same,” he said, inserting the part. “You’ll have to lock it in, my hands won’t fit all the way in there.” He backed away and changed places with her as he handed her a tool.
“That’s incredible,” she said, but it was a painful reminder to her just how long she had been away. Long enough for a young dragon to become a man…and for her prince to move on. “And…what about you?” She found her heart beating faster as she waited for his answer, hoping she wouldn’t regret asking.
“Me? Marriage? Hardly.” He laughed. “Not that my parents haven’t tried. Being a prince and all, you know.”
“Oh? They tried to set you up, huh?”
“Many times. And some were good matches too. But they never worked out. Not for me.”
“Why?” she asked. “What happened?”
Kyp was silent as he laser-welded on some components, mulling over the question. Crysta immediately regretted asking – she knew the answer already.
“Things…never were the same after you left.”
Her heart fell. The room was silent except for the sizzling crack of the laser welder against hard steel. Then there was a loud pop and the lights flickered, and energy began to hum through to the engine.
“There we go,” Kyp said, setting down the welder. “We did it.” He smiled and helped her to her feet. “Things sh
ould be all fixed and ready now, I think. Why don’t we go up front and check the diagnostics?”
He walked away from her, and she found herself staring at his back and trying to will herself to just tell him everything. The words never came, and he vanished out of sight. She cursed under her breath and hurried after him.
“Thanks for coming back to help,” she said, checking the diagnostics readout. “That would’ve taken so much longer without you.”
“Not a problem.”
“Listen, I—”
The display blinked a red warning and a chime sounded throughout the ship.
“What is that?” Kyp asked, frowning.
“It’s a conditions warning. It says…there’s some kind radiation storm in our sector. Shit, the system was off while we were doing the repairs. We didn’t hear any of the advanced warnings!”
