by Robin Janney
“You’re singing to me?” she asked softly, once the song was done.
“You danced for me,” he answered just as softly, leaving soft kisses along her neck.
“You’re a better singer than I am a dancer,” Angela commented.
“I don’t know about that.” His lips found hers for a tender kiss again. He should have brought this up sooner, but he was already off his plans for the night. His wife had a way of changing his plans without even trying; she always had. “We need to talk about one thing, Angel. I think our doctors are right, we need to wait before we try for a baby.”
She nodded, biting her lips in what he knew was sorrow. “I know. Are you…I mean, how are we going to do that? I didn’t think you wanted sex with me anymore, so I didn’t get birth control from Dr. Ryan.”
“I don’t think we’ll do birth control right now. But until I pick up some condoms, I won’t finish inside you. Are you going to be okay with that?” Craig hated the look of resignation in her eyes.
“I don’t like it, but I guess.” She managed a wobbly smile. “I just need you inside of me again…”
“I need you too, Angel.” Craig kissed her again, with firm intent. Her emotions were a tempest, he knew that. His own weren’t too steady. He questioned whether it was the right time, but she was pressing herself against him as he kissed her. They weren’t all the way back to where he wanted them to be, but her need was consuming him and fanning his own. Her hands had already unbuttoned his shirt, and she was raking her fingers along his chest, his back and shoulders, his stomach, with just the right amount of pressure.
He found the snap to her dress at the back of her neck, pulled the fabric away from her to expose her breasts. He cupped them, running his thumbs over her nipples before dipping his head to nuzzle them. She smelled like roses and tasted sweeter. His hands slipped up her thighs and under her skirt. Finding her bare buttocks, his hands ran over the curves of them. She leaped into the familiar touch and he lifted her up, her legs wrapping around him. He put her up against the rock wall of their home.
“Right here?” he asked, breathlessly. “Right now?”
“No one can see in?”
“No one can see. I made sure of that.” He kissed his wife again, eyes searching her face as he did so. Her blue eyes looked back him, full of heat and longing. Why had he been afraid of this moment? He saw nothing but her, felt nothing but her as her fingers ran through his hair, over his neck and shoulders, down his chest.
When Craig moved his lips to her neck, her sigh was full of delight which his own heart echoed. He freed himself from his pants, rubbed himself against her.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Please Craig…don’t tease…”
Something in her tone caught his attention. He pressed his body against her, holding her up against the wall so he could run both his hands along her face. She said she needed him, but unsaid was she needed his gentleness. “Alright, Angel, I won’t…”
Lowering his hands back to her thighs, he slid all the way inside her without hesitation. His breath left him in a rush as she gasped, her head falling back to rest against the wall behind her. Her fingers curled almost painfully in his hair, but Craig barely noticed. All he could see was his wife’s blue eyes losing focus as she looked at him. Those eyes were glued to him, her lips quivering as she bit into the bottom one. His eyes never wavered from her face as he moved slowly inside her, not wanting to hurt her, wanting to draw this moment out. Craig wiggled a hand in between them, resting his thumb against her sensitive spot, and she jerked between him and the wall.
Angela’s legs tightened around him, her body pulling him deeper. It was a struggle for him to not go harder and faster, the way her body was crying out for. But his heart overruled his body, keeping this slow and gentle for her. He watched her pleasure build, watched her face go lax and her eyes glaze over. Her lips parted with a moan at the pleasure washing through her and he kissed them, teasing her tongue with his own.
Craig let himself go as pleasure rolled through her. It wasn’t enough. He pressed harder with his thumb, thrust harder until all he could hear was her voice saying his name in a breathy whisper laden with pleasure and joy. Her body erupted around him again, and this time she cried out. He followed her into bliss, his own throat emitting a low moan of pleasure which mingled with frustration as he remembered to pull out before finishing inside of her. That was going to be harder to do then he’d thought.
For an eternal moment, he held them there together. His throbbing member pressed against the outside of her body, and her limbs relaxed around him. Craig didn’t dare let go of her or try setting her down yet; he rather liked where she was. He nuzzled along her jaw back to her ear, his breaths as ragged as hers. “My God, Angela,” he said at last. “The things you do to me.”
His wife let out a sound that was a cross between a whimper and a purr. “I don’t remember doing anything except holding on.”
“You do plenty,” he replied. “I’m going to set you down now, can you stand?”
“If I have to.”
Chuckling, he lowered her to the floor, reluctantly releasing her.
He resituated his clothing, smiling as she watched him. Amused at her hungry scrutiny, he helped her fix her dress around her neck. Craig said, his voice full of promise, “Let’s go finish our meal, Angel. You’re going to need your strength, because there’s more where that came from.”
Her pleased smile was all the answer he needed.
F rom the French doors, Little Beast and Princess watched the couple rediscover their love for each other. Beast could see the ring of fire being rebuilt from the foundation up. And for the first time, Beast realized it was a product of both humans. It had never been Angela’s mind alone creating it.
“They are beautiful,” said the creature of light living in the canine.
“Humans are so frustrating,” muttered Beast. Really, she found the strangest things beautiful. He would never tell her he agreed with her. “Will he ever understand what his role is?”
“I don’t know. But males in general are usually frustrating,” replied Princess.
Beast had no answer for her teasing. “It is time. I am leaving.”
The dog flicked her tale. “You will be hunted.”
“You almost sound concerned.” Beast grimaced as he tried to smile. He patted her head. “But I know you’re not.” He walked through the glass doors and launched himself through the veranda roof and into the sky.
Princess watched him fly away, wondering if she’d ever see him again. Returning her gaze to the happy humans, she reminded herself why she was here and to rejoice with them in this moment of peace and love.
60
I t was the Dragon Dream.
Kevin would have recognized it even if he had never seen one of his friend’s sketches. Even before Craig had started sketching these scenes, he had told Kevin of them in vivid detail. The ground beneath his feet was gritty red sand, its heat scorching his booted feet. Dry scrub brush littered the ground, and in the distance were the blue hazy mountains where jagged lightning streaks flickered.
But that didn’t explain why Kevin was here; it wasn’t his dream. Perhaps he’d finally heard about it enough times and his mind had begun to produce it as his own? Somehow, he doubted it. There was a tangible reality to this dream which set his nerves on edge. And he wasn’t by nature a nervous person.
A low electrical hum filled the air, amidst inhuman shrieks and groans. The sand began to shift beneath his feet and was lifted in the air as a sandstorm began.
Uncertainty filled Kevin, and he turned in place looking for a way out. A glimmer of light in the distance caught his attention, and he began to walk towards it. When the wind began to howl, and the earth to shake, Kevin began to run. He didn’t know how he knew this, but he knew he had to get to that light. It felt good to run here, the weight he’d gained in the past year didn’t exist here.
After what felt like an eter
nity, he broke through what was now a screaming wall of sand. For over a hundred yards in front of him, the air was calm and still. There was a circle of calm, Kevin realized, centered around a brilliant tower of light. Feeling as though he was standing in the eye of a hurricane, Kevin shook sand out of his armor and walked towards the tower.
Armor? He barely noted it, the sight before him was one he’d never seen in any of his friend’s sketches or in his fantasy comic series. He’d have thought Craig would have mentioned a tower this eye-catching.
Kevin could see no door in the tower’s crystalline wall, and oddly enough it was surrounded by a blazing ring of fire instead of a moat. He could see no way to get in. He looked up, and up, and up some more. And yet he could see the child at the top, almost as if he were on her level. Angela Moore, ten years old and standing at the edge of the tower’s parapet. The girl in an elegant blue gown and a thin circle of silver filigree studded with diamonds encircled her temples, twin auburn braids trailed over her shoulders. Even as a child, she looked out as a queen calmly surveying her realm.
“My God,” Kevin whispered. He had never forgotten this child, or the screams of anguish which he had heard whispers of again in her emails and phone calls.
Her eyes caught his, despite the great distance separating them. Those blue eyes bore into him like augers, and he felt himself being weighed and measured. But apparently, he hadn’t been found wanting because a smile filled the child’s face.
“Enter, if you have the courage.” It was her adult voice, amplified a thousand times over and crackling with energy in the desert air. But it wasn’t just her voice, there was also a masculine element sounding like Craig blended in.
Behind Kevin, the sandstorm raged on, but it was background noise at this point.
Enter? Enter what? Through where? He looked back to the bottom of the tower, but there was no door. He was about to open his mouth to speak when another knight stepped through the wall of light. Walked through the tower’s crystalline walls and the ring of fire, as though none of it was there.
The other knight’s armor was a mixture of shiny and dull dented spots. He carried a long wooden lance, and a sword hung sheathed at his side. And it was most definitely his friend Craig looking at him quizzically through the opening in the metal helmet when the visor flipped open.
“Kevin? What are you doing here? And what are you wearing?” asked Craig.
“My God Craig, don’t you see this?” The tower had never been in any of his friend’s description of the dream, so Kevin couldn’t believe that the other man wasn’t as awestruck as he himself was. “The light, the fire…”
“What are you talking about?” Craig looked around. “All I see is the boarder of the Oasis. And the sandstorm in the distance, of course. It can’t touch us here, we’re protected. I’m not sure how I know that, but I do. I won’t leave this place again, not even in the Dream. But, strange that you’re here, you’ve never been in my dreams before…”
Kevin shook his head.
“Tell him what you see,” said her reverberating voice with wind chimes in it. It was just Angela’s voice this time, but otherworldly. The sheer power emanating from those simple words was dumbfounding.
“Oh my God,” muttered Kevin, looking around somewhat panicked. “Did you hear her?”
Craig shook his head slowly, looking as though he wasn’t sure whether to be amused or concerned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Kev. All I hear is the sound of water flowing and the occasional birdsong.”
Kevin envied the other man’s perspective. “Craig, just beyond you is a fiery ring. Its flames shoot maybe twenty feet into the air. And just inside that ring, is a tower of light. I don’t know what it’s supposed to be made of, but there are no openings of any kind. I can’t tell if it’s glass or crystal, and its color changes depending on how the flames flicker. And you just walked through it like none of it was even there. My God, it’s brilliant. And at the top, your wife – she still looks like the little girl we comforted – she stands at the edge like a queen surveying her realm.”
“What?” Craig asked incredulously. He looked around in confusion. “There’s just the Oasis, Kevin, and the Angel is the Oasis.”
“Of course,” Kevin muttered. “Even in your dreams…”
Shrieks filled the air as two beasts erupted from the distant swirling sand. They fought each other, wings flapping as they lashed out at each other with thick fists, though none of it disturbed the sand near where they were standing.
“Hey!” Craig shouted, dropping his lance and brandishing his sharp double-edged sword. It was perhaps the one piece of his outfit that shown the brightest in the flickering light cast by the fire behind him. He took a step in their direction. “Knock it off and get out of here!”
The one beast reared back his head and roared. Was that a demon?
“This is not over!” he said, his voice deeper than Kevin had ever heard before. “I will return, and she will be destroyed!” He vaulted into the air and flew away.
The other beast shrank in size until he was about three feet high. His left ear was missing its tip, and his wings looked tattered and torn. He staggered to Craig and Kevin, fell at their feet. He looked back and forth between the two men in confusion.
“Kevin, this is the Beast. Beast, this is my friend Kevin.”
“Why in the name of God would you introduce us like we’re all one big happy family?” Kevin demanded.
Craig shrugged, sword steady in his hand despite the words that followed. “He’s harmless. And it felt right.”
The Beast, still panting from his battle, split his glare between the two men. “I can’t stop it from happening. I can’t hold them off forever.” The Beast looked upwards, as if he saw the same tower he did, looked in awe as if he saw blazing beauty. A curious part of Kevin wondered what this demon’s perspective was; what was he seeing?
“She’s the key,” sobbed the Beast. “Don’t you understand? She has torn down our plans, from the moment you met her. And she will destroy everything they’ve ever planned for you, Jeremiah. Which, I don’t care about, except…They will come for your Angel. With their claws they will tear her apart; with their teeth they will shred her. They will ravage her because her death is no longer good enough for them. Your protection will not be strong enough Jeremiah, you can’t stand in their way forever…” The Little Beast let out a wail of despair, then fled back to the sandstorm, growing until it was a full demon that disappeared into the swirling maelstrom.
Kevin looked at Craig, whose face was set with a grim cast.
It was Kevin who spoke first. “Well, that was interesting…”
C raig awoke with a start, lightning flickering in the darkness. Thunder rumbled in the distance as he sat up, his arm seeking out his wife. Spent from a long night of loving, Angela was sprawled on her stomach next to him, one arm flung across his chest. He never understood how she could sleep like that, but she was sleeping peacefully.
Relaxing now that he knew she was safe, he reached across her and shut off the lamp she had requested be on while they had loved each other. She hadn’t asked for a light on in a long time, not since their original wedding night. Not even during their first night together after her return from the coma, some part of her remembering she didn’t need to be afraid. So now, it was just another concern…especially since he had wanted to see her just as much.
He began to lie back down in bed, intent on returning to sleeping but the buzzing of his iPhone as it vibrated against the wooden bedside table caught his attention. Glancing at the caller ID and seeing it was his friend Kevin, he crawled out of bed, trying not to wake his wife. “Kevin, yeah hang on.”
“Did I wake you?” his friend asked.
“No, not really; I haven’t been awake long. What time is it?” In the sporadic light cast by distant flickering lightning, Craig found his boxers where they had landed earlier in the evening and pulled them on against the chill of the bed
room.
“Five a.m. on my end. That makes it what, three, there?”
“Yeah, what’s up? You sound shaken.” Craig walked to the far side of their bedroom to stand at their large wall of windows. Impractical, especially in the winter time, but Angela had wanted them. They were the reason why the bed was near the fireplace, along with the bout of bronchitis she’d had their first winter here.
“Did you just have a Dragon Dream?” his friend asked.
“Yeah, I probably would have called you later because you were in it. We got to bed late and I haven’t had a lot of sleep.”
“Tell me what I saw Craig.”
That stopped Craig cold. Outside the windows, far to the south lightning danced in the clouds. Princess sat at the base of the windows, watching the storm and whimpering. “A tower of light. You said you saw a tower of light where I saw an oasis.”
“Go on. What else?”
“Fire. The tower was surrounded by flames shooting into the air; I think you said twenty feet high. You said my wife was a little girl, a queen standing at the top of the tower.”
“And as I was about to tell you how you underestimate your wife even in your dreams, two demonic beasts burst through the sandstorm.”
“I told them to stop.”
“One flew away after threatening you, the other you introduced me to.”
“They’re going to try to kill her,” whispered Craig. He turned back to the bed, where his wife stirred in her sleep. It didn’t sound like she was waking up, just looking for him in her sleep.
“Worse,” Kevin whispered as well. “They’ve been trying, and it hasn’t worked. You keep getting in the way. So, they’re going to try to destroy her.”
“Why? What is she the key to?” Craig asked, looking back out the window.