The Knight of Her Dreams (Dragons and Dreamphasers) (7 page)

Deepening his kiss, Dominick gently parted
Julianna’s lips to touch her more intimately.  She felt a shiver run through
her again, stronger than before, an odd sound escaping her as she felt his arms
surround her more completely to lower her against the steps.

Feeling the edge of the stairs against her back
brought a slight gasp from her, but Dominick was instantly beside her, his arms
cradling her close against him, making her feel like she was floating.  His
caresses were so warm and soothing against the fabric of the gown that seemed
to just lightly cover her skin.  And his kisses set her whole being afire.

When he finally pulled back to gaze at her, his
eyes were tender.

“Julianna… how could any man be unmoved by you?”
he murmured.

She smiled, a slight laugh bubbling up which
earned his curiosity.  “Not so yourself, sir,” she told him lightly.

He echoed the smile back into her eyes, amusement
lighting his features, despite the raggedness of his breathing.  “Even with the
fires of passion kindled between us, am I to be reduced to remaining
forevermore ‘Sir’ to you?”  She laughed again, before a more serious smile
stole through.

“Dominick,” she amended.  “Or would Sir Dominick
suit you better?”

“Ah, back to playing the knight in shining armor,
am I?”

“Perhaps.  Although armor is cold, whereas you
certainly are not,” she said teasingly.  “I think you should stick to the title
of knight and forget the rest.”

“And are you to be the damsel in distress?”

“Hmmm, I’d rather be just a damsel in this
dress.  But you seem warm enough to play the part of the dragon.”

“What an interesting idea,” he replied, growling
in a deep voice as he kissed her neck.

She gave a quick squeak of laughter, just before
he returned more serious attention to kissing her mouth again.  Julianna barely
managed to stifle the urge to laugh again upon thinking of how silly it would
seem for the dragon to be kissing the damsel.

He quickly saw to replacing her amusement with
desire, his arms’ hold on her waist tightening while his other hand edged the
gown off one shoulder.  Her breathing quickened as he kissed her bare skin
there, the feeling sending her pulse racing.

“Julianna... my dear sweet Julianna,” he
murmured, his voice little more than a whisper against her cheek as he kissed
her again.

She smiled against him, even as she suddenly felt
an odd cottony sensation pulling her senses away.  Her eyes expressed
apprehension as her vision of Dominick became strangely blurred, growing
steadily worse.

“Dominick, what...?” she gasped suddenly,
clutching him fiercely, her eyes questioning him.  If his expression held an
answer, it was lost to her due to a sudden brightness obscuring her vision.

The last thing she felt was his grip tightening
on her, while his voice shouted out her name, nearly in desperation, “
Julianna!
”

*****

Her eyes popped open, and she
found herself alone again in the darkness of her room, where the sun’s rays
were now burning it away.  Rays that had been resting on her eyelids long
enough to wake her.

“
What?
” she gasped, bolting upright.

The sound of birds chirping outside was her only
reply.

“It was all a dream?” she whispered in disbelief,
not disregarding her strangely racing heart.  After blinking a few times at the
sunlight, she brushed a hand against her mouth tentatively.  She could almost
feel
the memory of Dominick’s kisses, and that alone seemed very strange, since it
was all an illusion.  One that certainly seemed real moments ago, yet...

It was just a dream.

Of course this was just as well, she supposed,
since she could now remember quite vividly the last part of her dream where
she’d wantonly given herself up freely to Dominick’s warm embrace.  If she
hadn’t woke up when she did, they might have...

Yes, they
‘might have’
indeed!

“Damn,” she murmured regretfully.

“Damn!” echoed the frustrated
Dominick, upon returning to his own realm.  After an ensuing set of angry
curses, he wasn’t too surprised to hear the familiar mocking laughter of his
annoying elder brother.  Glancing over to the far wall of his room, his eyes
narrowed.  “I’ll thank you to keep your amusement to a minimum, Riff!”

Sitting opposite him casually,
his brother coolly ignored the warning, as he would with anyone else.  But to
be fair, in the name of blood relations, he treated Dominick with some
respect... using his most irritating pranks on him instead.

As far as Dominick was concerned,
the only similarity between them was their appearance.  Even though Riff was
three years older than Dominick’s twenty-seven years, he and his brother shared
nearly the same face.  Unlike Dominick’s wavy hair though, Riff’s own was
fairly straight, and unlike his brother’s deep blue eyes, Riff’s were an emerald
green.

Those eyes combined with Riff’s expression were
often mirthful, especially at times like this.  Due to his capability for
endless troublesome shenanigans, some had dubbed him Riff-Raff.  Only his
enemies spitefully used this other name, which always earned them a dose of
fistfights in return for their
understanding
.  His friends and
family knew better, and would only refer to him as Riff.

At the moment, he appraised his brother with
curiosity.  “No can do, Bro,” he said cheerfully.  “At least, not until you
tell me
all
the details.  Was this one pretty, Phase?”

Phase?

Dominick started for a moment, before shaking his
head to clear it.  Remembrance came swiftly towards his middle name Phaser,
which his brother and father frequently used.  As an occasional after-effect of
using his special powers to travel into the mind of an extremely distant
person, once again, he’d experienced memory lag upon returning.  It didn’t
always happen, and some might consider the side effect laughable; but in truth,
it wasn’t pleasant for the person experiencing it.  Still, since it was
infrequent, he wasn’t about to let it
faze
him now.

While an unusual name in many
outer regions, Phaser was an accepted name for a supernatural living on the
mist-concealed island of Barokka.  The island was comprised mainly of
supernaturals, a race of people who were gifted with inborn magic abilities. 
Whether bearing one magic ability or two, sometimes a supernatural would have a
separate name based on an ability or a personality trait, in addition to having
a second more ordinary name.  Some of the supernaturals preferred the added
distinction.

Although Riff didn’t have an
alternate name, his own was actually a nickname.  He’d once sworn he’d never
reveal his true name to anyone outside of his immediate family.  Though they
disagreed, even Dominick would never break that trust.

Dominick’s names emerged from a parental
disagreement, where his father wanted to name him Phaser after his supernatural
ability known as dreamphasing, while his mother preferred the name Dominick. 
Hence, he was born Dominick Phaser Westbrooke.  His father was only mollified
by this decision when his mother said that she’d chosen to give their son the
same initial as his own name.

He preferred his true name, especially when
meeting females in the dream-state who resided on the other planet he
frequented via astral travel, since he knew it to be more accepted there.  A
name that curiously enough had been remembered by the attractive woman Julianna
whom he’d met with again last night on that self-same planet… Earth.

Earth being the foreign world on the other side
of the sun.

At least it was foreign to most on their world of
Chavernos, with the exceptions of dreamphasers like him.

Rubbing his eyes tiredly,
Dominick then leaned back against the comforts of his bed, resting his head
against his hands on the pillows.

“Phase?” Riff prompted.

Ignoring the impatient look on his brother’s
face, he merely stared at the ceiling lost in thought.

This was often quite literally the case of a
dreamphaser.

Despite the unknown explanation of whatever
forces of nature had granted the supernaturals of Chavernos their varied inborn
magical abilities, the fact stood that their powers
did
exist. 
Dreamphasing was only one ability, and very often a dreamphaser had a second
inborn ability as well.

A supernatural’s powers were usually genetic, yet
often differed even amongst direct family members.  Dreamphasing was the one
exception that was shared by many of the supernaturals, but a second inborn
ability would generally be more distinctive.  Oddly enough, some
supernaturals—and especially dreamphasers—could go the majority of their lives
unaware of having a second inborn ability unless actively sought out or
accidentally triggered.

Such was the case of Dominick and
Riff.  Both were dreamphasers, but to this point, neither had any knowledge of
a second inborn ability, although they did have friends who were both
dreamphasers in addition to having secondary powers.

Dreamphasing was an ability that was normally
considered both useful and pleasant.  However, in the rare case that a dark
soul abused the ability, it could be devastating.

The basic principle of dreamphasing was
two-fold.  First, it allowed a person to effortlessly transmit his or her astral
spirit from one location to another; and secondly, it would allow that person
to safely travel in astral form into another’s dreams.  Whether to become a
part of a nightly fantasy, or even if only to control one’s own dreams, it
could provide confidence to the recipient.

Most dreamphasers limited their astral traveling
to visit other dreamers on Chavernos, only stepping out of this boundary on
rare occasions that might warrant it.  These supernaturals made it a rule to
stay away from the minds of beings of other worlds.

Dominick had never been the type to listen to
rules.

Instead, he’d made use of his ability to travel
across the vast distance to Earth.  In his astral form, he often satisfied his
curiosity by secretly visiting the people of this world.  He gained a
fascination of the differences between the two worlds, seeing the various
buildings and structures the Earth humans had created, and seeing some of the
forms of entertainment they enjoyed, although the technical devices remained a
mystery.  And of course, finding pleasant company in dreams was always welcome.

Yes, that planet in the solar system certainly
had some good things to recommend it!

Despite rare occasions of a brief
memory lapse upon returning, or sometimes in the dreams themselves, dreamphasing
was fairly safe to the astral voyagers.  There was no known limit to how long a
dreamphaser could remain in another’s dream, until of course the other person
woke up, a fact which could send the dreamphaser back home instantly.  Not
always though, since a dreamphaser did travel in astral form, and might choose
to linger in the astral plane if desired.  Dominick himself usually only
lingered before entering a person’s dreams, except on rare occasions.

His dreamphasing ability, which
had been identified as a child by the experienced physicians of Barokka who
were most familiar with it, had been honed with help from his grandfather Chaos
who was also gifted with it.

When he was fifteen, Dominick had first traveled
to Earth with him, and after a few visits, the young man’s curiosity grew
towards the distant planet.  By sixteen, he was traveling there on his own. 
Shortly afterwards, he began to notice and appreciate the ability to meet fair
damsels in their dreams.

One of the only things he had in common with his
elder brother.

Now, just over a decade later,
Dominick still traveled occasionally to Earth, but he’d tapered down on his
visits with female dreamers lately.  For of all these women he’d encountered,
no matter how pleasant their brief company was, the fact remained that dream
affairs had become unsatisfying over the years.  Contrary to his carefree
bachelor attitude, Dominick sometimes found himself wishing that he had one
special woman in reality, rather than those who were only of brief dreams.

Perhaps... a woman like Julianna?
he wondered.

“Chavernos to Phaser!” Riff
shouted in his brother’s ear, jolting Dominick to turn to him.  Narrowing his
eyes at his grinning elder brother, he was tempted to send Riff a nightmare
later!  “By Chaos, you’re impossible when you’re off daydreaming.  I asked you,
was this one pretty?”

Dominick paused before answering, for some reason
ill at ease with his brother’s typically glib remark.

“Pretty enough,” he commented dryly.

“Well, don’t just sit there close-mouthed!”
chuckled Riff.  “Cut to the chase, and tell me what happened.  What was she
like?”

Dominick grimaced at this particular question,
knowing what he referred to not so subtly.  He knew it shouldn’t bother him, as
he and Riff had often discussed their dalliances with females in the dream
realm.  If their father knew, he’d likely have skinned the pair alive, but as
the brothers were discreet, this never happened.  As it was, their grandfather
who
did
know, was less than pleased at this idle use of a supernatural
gift, and never made secret his disapproval.