Knights of Desire [Flights of Fancy 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read online

  Flights of Fancy 2

  Knights of Desire

  Shane Rawls has been a marine for sixty years. She's seen a lot in that time, but she's never seen real knights and dragons, though, especially the delicious Sir Landis and Sir Clemmons. As she finds herself attracted to the two men, Shane falls into the clutches of the evil king of the dragons.

  Sir Clemmons and Sir Landis have a war to fight. The lizards are killing people, including Landis' wife, and now they have kidnapped the beautiful woman from the stars who has enchanted them both.

  Shane, Landis, and Clemmons must deal with their attraction all while trying to stay alive and end a war that has cost the lives of countless men and dragons. Can the three survive the evils of this medieval world? Can they overcome the limits of their feelings and find love in the aftermath?

  Sensuality Rating: SCORCHING

  Genre: Ménage a Trios’/Quatre, Science Fiction

  Length: 44,000 words

  KNIGHTS OF DESIRE

  Flights of Fancy 2

  Melodee Aaron

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Erotic Romance

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK VERSION: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to one LEGAL copy for your own personal use. It is ILLEGAL to send your copy to someone who did not pay for it. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book.

  KNIGHTS OF DESIRE

  Flights of Fancy 2

  Copyright © 2008 by Melodee Aaron

  E-book ISBN: 1-60601-141-3

  First E-book Publication: August 2008

  Cover design by Jinger Heaston

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2008 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  FOREWARD

  The Flights of Fancy series is set in what I call The Immortal Love Universe. This universe spans the entire galaxy and some twelve billion years starting in 1940 AD. You'll sometimes hear it called The Ike Payne Universe.

  Even though it is set in the same universe as For the Love of Payne, Desert Heat, and The Polyamorous Princess, the stories of Flights of Fancy are not a part of that series. There are some common characters readers will recognize, but they are mostly in minor roles consistent with the shared setting. The tales of Flights of Fancy also take place many years after the stories mentioned above. While you don't need to read the other stories to enjoy Flights of Fancy, readers may find additional information about the universe in those earlier tales that will add to their enjoyment.

  Flights of Fancy deals with an entirely new group of people aboard the science and diplomatic starship HMSS Daedalus on a voyage of discovery in the far-flung reaches of the galaxy. On this mission, the crew encounters many strange and wonderful people and civilizations. When people come together, no matter the place and time, their tempers, passions, lust, and love often flourish.

  This second story in the series follows the crew of Daedalus further into the nether regions of the galaxy where they encounter aliens very similar to humans. For these people, distance in space distorts the history of time.

  Join me now as we explore the future, or at least one possible future.

  Keep Loving!

  Melodee Aaron

  August 2008

  Guatay, California

  KNIGHTS OF DESIRE

  Flights of Fancy 2

  Melodee Aaron

  Copyright © 2008

  Chapter 1

  Happy Landings

  "There's little I can do, my lord." Sir Clemmons shifted nervously in his armor. King Sayid was in a bad mood, and the man had a long history of making people disappear when they made his mood worse. "Without more men, the lizards will keep control of Yamat Valley."

  "That's not acceptable, good sir knight." The king leaned sidewise on his throne, his crown resting casually far back on his head. "Tell me what you think you need."

  "Sir Landis and I could take the valley if we had a thousand more men."

  The king's laughter echoed through the throne room. "That won't happen!"

  "Even five hundred would help."

  "Landis..." Sayid seemed to drift off, his eyes looking at some point far in the distance Clemmons couldn't see. Suddenly, his gaze snapped back to the here and now. "Perhaps it was a mistake to send both of you on this mission. Is your personal relationship interfering with your command skills?"

  "No, Sire. What Landis and I share is personal. This is professional." He fought the defensive urges welling up in him. "I would be the first to face that possibility and would resign my command if I thought my life with Landis was affecting my ability to serve you."

  The king stared at him for a long time. The love Clemmons shared with Landis had often been a matter of controversy at court, and many didn't approve. Clemmons knew both he and Landis went far beyond their normal duties to the crown, mostly to prove to the others that two men could be lovers and knights at the same time. So far, for more than six years, it had worked, but he wondered if the king were about to change all that.

  "Clemmons, you have served me long and well." A thin smile came to the king's face. "And so has Landis." The smile faded suddenly. "While your personal life is of no concern to me, if it starts to affect your ability to serve the realm, then I will step in."

  "I understand, my lord."

  "Then we are clear." The smile returned. "I'll see if I can get you more men."

  * * * *

  Shane adjusted her body armor to get rid of the pinch on her shoulder caused by the strap. New armor was always a pain in the ass, even worse than new boots, until it broke in. Once the pain receded a little, she flipped the helmet visor down and made a quick glance around the rock she used for cover.

  Reflexes and skills learned in six decades of training and honed by more than two hundred combat missions in the service of the Emperor as an Imperial Marine allowed her to gather a staggering amount of information in the instant she exposed herself. In her mind's eye the infrared images marking the positions of the other two members of her team still glowed red with white outlines. Sergeant Kyle, the mission commander, lie in wait behind a small moss-covered boulder eleven meters to her right and two meters ahead of her. Private Meyers stood nine meters to her left and a meter behind her, crouched behind a tree.

  She also saw the objective, a small gun emplacement protected by five hostiles, twenty-five meters ahead and less than half a meter to her left. The enemies clustered in a loose group, and their higher-than-human body temperature made their images glow orange-white in the infrared vision provided by the visor. The business ends of their laser weapons glowed with searing brightness in the after-image. One of the five sat at the controls of the heavy projectile gun of the emplacement.

  Intelligence said the aliens hadn't broken the latest code yet, so the team used the communicators in their helmets.

  "Kyle here. I
'll lay a grenade up to them, and then we go. Meyers, you take left flank. Rawls, you take center. I'll take right."

  Dave Meyers was young and new, but so far he seemed steady enough under orders. "No covering fire, Sergeant?"

  "We don't need anything more than the grenade."

  Shane smiled behind her visor. The boy had never seen a close-quarters nuclear grenade in combat. She flicked the tongue control of the communicator. "Copy, Sergeant."

  "Good." When Kyle jacked a grenade into his launcher, a loud click came through the communicator. "In three, two, one—" A familiar thud announced the launch of the small atomic bomb. "Go!"

  The intelligence on ground actions with the aliens was sketchy at best, and they didn't know a lot about what sort of defensive and offensive weapons the enemy had. They knew even less about how well trained the soldiers were. She didn't think of it, so Shane held no animosity toward Kyle for not knowing that the alien gun emplacement had a protective force field that absorbed the nuclear blast of the grenade. Someone had trained the soldiers very well, too—they reacted instantly to the explosion, opening fire as soon as the team left cover.

  The explosion created enough of a distraction that Shane was able to drop behind a tiny rock, much too small to hide her fully, but it gave her some cover. Meyers wasn't so lucky. The laser beam from one of the alien hand weapons tracked across his chest, and smoke puffed from his armor. It wouldn't kill him, but the kinetic energy created from the absorbed photons flung Dave backwards as effectively as hitting him in the chest with a sledgehammer. He was going to be sore for a few days. If they lived that long.

  The burp of the gun emplacement rang out through the dying reverberations of the grenade, and she realized it didn't sound right. Laser light, glaring white in the infrared of her visor, flickered around her. She used her tongue to flick the helmet to normal light, and saw that instead of the bright green or red hue she expected to see, the beams glowed in a dark, blood red, flickering in and out of visible light as it faded back and forth across the line between red and infrared. She studied the rays from the lasers and listened to the projectiles from the emplaced gun. The pitch of the whine was off, like the rounds came from very, very far away and receded.

  She smiled suddenly as the answer came to her. Doppler shift.

  The force field worked by absorbing the kinetic energy of a weapon. To get their own weapons to fire through the field, the aliens used low-velocity systems, and the force field red-shifted the total energy.

  Shane flipped her rifle over in her hands and worked the controls. The weapon normally fired five-millimeter projectiles at outrageous speeds and rates. The default muzzle velocity was around seventeen thousand meters per second, but it was adjustable, so she slowed it down to the lowest setting, about a hundred meters per second.

  She pressed the communicator switch with her tongue. "Buy me some time!"

  Kyle came on. "Copy. Light 'em up, Meyers!"

  The battlefield came alive with the reports from high-velocity projectiles, the electrical crackling of lasers flashing the air to plasma, and the red-shifted burps of the enemy gun.

  Shane leaned out from behind the rock and pulled her rifle tight to her shoulder. Twisting her hand in the shoulder strap to steady the weapon, she calmed herself and her pulse slowed. Controlling her breathing, her finger moved slowly on the trigger as she aimed, not at the aliens but at the flashing muzzle of their heavy gun.

  Counting her pulse and respirations, she shut out the sounds and images from her mind and focused on her target. Shane had exactly one chance at this. Her index finger moved slowly, all of her experience and training coming to bear, and she squeezed the trigger smoothly and without jerking.

  The dull thumping sound of her rifle was different from the normal sharp crack she was used to. Shane could imagine being able to see the slug winging its way toward the target moving only about twice as fast as the average family car.

  Of course, she couldn't see the bullet. She did, however, see the effect.

  The low speed allowed her small projectile to slip unhampered through the force field, and it struck dead center in the muzzle of the alien gun, meeting an outbound bullet someplace in the barrel. The resulting explosion ripped the gun apart, the shrapnel flying out in all directions. The effect on the aliens was about the same as putting them in a blender set to liquefy.

  Kyle speaking through the settling silence made her snap back to reality. "Well done, Corporal. End simulation."

  The holographic simulation wound down and the battlefield faded from view, puréed aliens and all. The emplacement, rocks, plants, and other features dissolved into the plain gray box that was the combat simulation deck aboard Daedalus.

  As Kyle and Meyers came to congratulate her on completion of her final test for promotion to Sergeant, Shane stood and flicked up her visor.

  * * * *

  Elsa was a little disappointed when she had to talk to Admiral Reeves instead of getting to see Lord Admiral Q. She was also objective enough to know that the main reason she wanted to see Q was to get some material for late-night fantasies in her cabin. Not that Zach Reeves wasn't hot enough in his own right.

  The problem was that, while Q was unattached, Reeves was married. In fact, he was married to Claire—as in Fleet Admiral Claire Reeves, MD—as in Princess Claire—as in the eldest child of the Emperor. Rumor even had it that when, and if, the Emperor ever stepped down, Zach Reeves was the heir apparent to the throne.

  He smiled out at her from the screen. "Sorry Q couldn't be here, but even the Lord Admiral needs a vacation now and then. What can I do for you, Captain Davis?"

  Since when did a simulated human need a vacation? Elsa couldn't help also wondering whom Q might be with on this so-called vacation. "Just a routine report, Sir. The Admiral asked that I provide a report prior to making any new contacts."

  "I see. Yet another detail Q left out when he briefed me." The smile broadened. "Might as well get on with it, then."

  "Yes, Sir." She sent data on the planet Daedalus had found to the Admiral's screens. "Fairly routine. A main-sequence star with a class-M planet. Water, oxygen, and all the rest. We have life signs of a remarkably human-like people down there, as well as a wide array of animals."

  He studied the screen to his right for a few moments, presenting his profile for her to admire. Yes, Zach Reeves wasn't bad at all, but he was no Q. "Any signs of spacecraft?"

  "None. We're not even getting radio signals. The imagery shows an agrarian society with lots of what look like farms and grazing land."

  He looked away from the data and back at her. "I see no reason to restrict your exploring this place."

  "Thank you, Sir."

  "Oh, before I forget, the Emperor asked me to pass along his well-wishes on your recent birthday." He grinned. "I can almost remember fifty-two."

  Like most of the royal family, Reeves was old. She thought he was someplace around three thousand, but she wasn't sure of her history. He looked about thirty, and his wife didn't look a day over twenty-two, though she was about the same age.

  "Thank you, Sir, and please tell the Emperor I said thanks as well."

  "I will. If you need anything out there, just yell, but it will take us a while to get to you."

  "Understood, Admiral."

  He nodded. "Very well. Carry on, Captain Davis."

  The screen faded to black.

  * * * *

  "Speak to us of the war." Handley shifted slowly on his raised dais, the torchlight glittering off the green-gold scales of his long tail.

  Handley's habit of speech using the royal plural made Cedric's head hurt. He flicked his long, pointed ears to show his mild consternation. "The men are outnumbered, and they are frightened. Our warriors on the ground and in the air have control of the battle, and we are simply toying with the men to increase their fear."

  "Very wise, Cedric, very wise." Handley's yellow eyes sparkled as he relished the thoughts of a thousand frightene
d men and its worth. "You use their own fear against them."

  "Yes, Sire. Stories of this battle will spread among the men and make them reluctant to attack again."

  "This pleases us." The greenish-gold tail twitched once with pleasure. "When will you end the battle?"

  "I haven't decided that part yet. I wish to get full impact from the situation before letting the surviving men flee." As the senior officer, Cedric had full control of the battle, subject only to a direct order from Handley.

  "Very well. Advise us when your plans evolve." Handley grinned his approval and huge white teeth, nearly a quarter of a meter long, showed rapier-sharp. "For now, terrify the men in our name."

  Cedric extended his wings, flexing them at the shoulder to raise them high in the air in a salute to his king. "As you command, My Lord."

  * * * *

  Captain Ells smiled at her. "Well, Sergeant, looks like the landing party is ready, and you're in command of security down there."

  "Yes, Sir." Shane hesitated. "I just wish there was an officer in command."

  "I understand, but we both know the regulations. Until we get a replacement for Major Spencer, I can't leave the ship for routine missions. That means I have to trust landings to senior enlisted personnel, and that's you for this mission." He grinned a little. "This is all routine, and you know your job. Hell, you've been a grunt longer than I've been alive."

  Spence had stayed behind with the cute little diplomat to help rebuild things on that rat-hole planet. Shane understood that part—what man wouldn't stick around to be with a pretty woman? The idea of him also hooking up with a man—an alien man—confused her a bit. She also wondered what made the girl want to end up in bed with two hooked-up guys.