Luminous Dreams (Box Set)

By Alexa Piper

Nine tales exploring the strange flavors of sensual dreams.

When desire and lust combine in the dark imagination of the sleeping mind, the results burn hot as phoenix fire and take us on a journey to meet two lovers who are anything but human. We may find ourselves deep in the woods where dryads have been waiting to offer seduction under the cover of leaves, or we may find a candy trail we simply have to follow.

These are nine stories of magic and magical things, of shapeshifters and fortune-tellers, of witches and their charms. Two women fall for one another even as two handsome vampires decide to share the woman they both claim, and a muse strikes inspiration in a dancer. Myth and dream meet love and lust in this collection of nine sensual stories which explore different worlds, different characters, and different constellation of lovers. Each story is a journey worth taking.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changeling Press
• Release date: Apr 18, 2021

Book preview

Luminous Dreams (Box Set)

Alexa Piper

All rights reserved.

Copyright ©2021 Alexa Piper

BIN: 009775-03170

Formats Available:

Adobe PDF, Epub

Mobi/PRC

Publisher:

Changeling Press LLC

315 N. Centre St.

Martinsburg, WV 25404

www.ChangelingPress.com

Editor: Jean Cooper

Cover Artist: Bryan Keller

Adult Sexual Content

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Table of Contents

Luminous Dreams (Box Set)

Candy and the Witch

Candy and the Witch

Phoenix and Styx

Phoenix and Styx

Fortune’s Song

Fortune’s Song

The Night Train -- Story of a Passage

The Night Train

I Will Feed You Honey

I Will Feed You Honey

The Acorn Princess

The Acorn Princess

Nocturnal Conquests

Nocturnal Conquests

A Raven by Day

A Raven by Day

Drinks and the Other Witch

Drinks and the Other Witch

Acknowledgement

Alexa Piper

Luminous Dreams (Box Set)

Alexa Piper

When desire and lust combine in the dark imagination of the sleeping mind, the results burn hot as phoenix fire and take us on a journey to meet two lovers who are anything but human. We may find ourselves deep in the woods where dryads have been waiting to offer seduction under the cover of leaves, or we may find a candy trail we simply have to follow.

These are nine stories of magic and magical things, of shapeshifters and fortune-tellers, of witches and their charms. Two women fall for one another even as two handsome vampires decide to share the woman they both claim, and a muse strikes inspiration in a dancer. Myth and dream meet love and lust in this collection of nine sensual stories which explore different worlds, different characters, and different constellation of lovers. Each story is a journey worth taking.

Candy and the Witch

Alexa Piper

When Gretel finds a candy trail in the woods leading to succulent desires, she doesn’t walk blindly into its trap -- she lays one of her own.

Candy and the Witch

Brother,

I know I haven’t written in a while, but then letter-writing seems old-fashioned, even for you and me. I am also sorry I haven’t yet taken you up on the offer to come visit you in the city. You know I will once I’m ready, but you also know I don’t long for the bright lights and the tall glass and steel buildings like you do. While I do miss you, I have always been most comfortable here, in the country.

The garden is coming along wonderfully. It really does pay to put out treats for the gnomes! Simple milk chocolate does it for the ones living in our garden, although most people will tell you chocolate milk is better. Of course, just because most people say something, doesn’t mean they are right.

But, Brother, I didn’t just pick up paper and ink to talk about household chores or the growing of herbs. I must write to you because I think that you would want to know -- I have met someone.

I was out in the woods looking for mushrooms -- I know you can mail order some of the ones I want for my potions, but quality can be an issue, so I prefer to get my ingredients myself, put in all the legwork and get my hands dirty if need be.

In any case, I went deep into the woods because, as you know, the real strong stuff only grows deep inside, and when I was scanning the ground, what do you think I found? What I saw lying there, all wrapped in color, were lollipops, of all things. Obviously, I knew better than to unwrap and taste them, but I did pick one up and put it in my basket. Then I looked around and noticed another, and another, and another, all laid out in a nice, neat little lollipop trail. You can probably guess how it goes -- I followed the lollipop trail that would lead me to the gentleman I mentioned, only it led me to his house first.

Now, Brother, you have always been a creature of many charms. Some hereabouts still say an unnatural amount of charm which you must have gotten from strange parentage. You have, at times, been ostentatious. You have been notorious. You’ve probably used more hair gel in a week than I ever did in all my twenty-three years. But even you would have stopped at the thought of turning our house into a candy house curiosity.

And a candy house is where the lollipops led me. It had icing on the shingles, brownies and gingerbread for bricks. As I came closer, I could see that even the garden had been enchanted to grow candy flowers, and its fence was made of white-and-red candy canes.

Needless to say, I didn’t taste it, only foolish girls get drawn in by all that sweet stuff, not me. (And please, if you think to bring up our gingerbread lover again, just don’t. As I have told you a dozen dozen times, he kept begging me for the feel of my teeth on his skin whenever he saw me wear my bespelled fox-fur coat. Well, Brother, scowl and snort as much as you can, yet don’t blame me for that gingerbread man!)

At any rate, I still was curious what kind of person would live in such a house and put out a lollipop trail. (I had no doubt that the lollipops had been left intentionally. Yes, there were possible explanations. Someone could have been carrying a sack of the stuff, and that sack could have burst -- all ridiculous stuff. Your brain and my own are too well-trained for tough cookie logic to believe in that kind of coincidence.)

So I did what the curious do, I went up the peanut brittle garden path to the door, and I knocked, three sharp, precise knocks that echoed strangely off the sugar-coated door.

My gentleman opened the door, but of course, he wasn’t yet my gentleman, just the maker of the trail.

Yes, he said, all polite and handsome, golden-haired and brown-eyed. The three topmost buttons of his shirt were undone so I could see his shaved chest, could see he was well-built, muscular.

His smile told me he knew I was looking, and that he was enjoying my eyes on him.

You left a lollipop trail, and it distracted me from finding all the mushrooms I need, I told him, keeping my voice unyielding as bricks, real bricks, not confectionery things like the ones his house was made of.

Oh, you are a witch, then? he asked. I have to confess, the way his high forehead wrinkled when his eyebrows went up with the question very much got my attention. And did I mention his chin, his cheek bones? Perfect both. If I were an artist, I would ruin pencil after pencil trying to sketch their edges.

Yes, I said, and kept it at that. He was leaning on the doorjamb and I could see his hand, his very long fingers, not a smudge of dirt on them.

You don’t say, he said with a smile. I am an enchanter myself. Like I hadn’t figured that out from the silly candy house, from his soft hands when a person living in the woods normally has calluses to spare! Who but an enchanter would build a house of sweetness in the middle of the woods? Enchanters can be such peacocks, truly. I told him no less, but using more and choicer words.

Oh, but I am not at all a peacock! he said. I just like my art. I like getting creative with it. And isn’t that what you do in your craft? Get creative?

Well, you can imagine, we had a nice conversation about creativity, and I was particularly creative with my word choice once again. And then he said: Talking to you makes me feel like I’ve known you since forever, but the truth is I don’t even know your name. I’m Sebastian.

Gretel, I said.

Sebastian invited me inside to show me his place. He had less sugary stuff inside, although there were a few marshmallow flowers and a chandelier made of sugar plums. He showed me a few of his experiments, and oh, Brother, you would have liked to see them too! He had created a fountain pen that could dye its ink in accordance with the mood of the user, a divination chess board (the rules of which I have all but forgotten now), and plants, a lot of plants. Some had flowers that glowed in the dark, some talk (when a lie is told, for example, they will point out the liar and what they lied about), some can even extract their roots from their pots and walk on them like on little tiny feet to plant themselves somewhere else. Unfortunately, Sebastian says half the time they die before finding a sunnier spot with nicer soil.

But I am sure I am boring you with all this. You want to know the details. You want to know how Sebastian came to be my gentleman.

Well, it is simple, really.

So tell me, Bas (that’s what I was calling him by then), what makes you leave lollipop trails out there in the woods?

He shrugged. I guess… I dunno. I wanted to see who picked them up, who would go for the sweet stuff.

What if I had licked one of them? I asked, and he blushed, just a little bit.

You… would have come here, very eager… eager to lick something else.

So you put an aphrodisiac in the candy? I asked him.

Well, no, he said. I just enchanted them to encourage desire.

Now, by then we were sitting on his loveseat by the fire. He had made tea, but I had stubbornly stirred mine without drinking any of it. After all, I still remember the taste of that poisoned apple our lovely, lovely sorceress queen offered me and I foolishly took. Aw, but she was unique, wasn’t she, our mirror-loving queen? How much you too could have enjoyed her if you had a taste for women at all. Wouldn’t you agree, Brother?

So when I tell you the impression I had of Bas by then, know that it was untainted by anything magical. He had lovely hair, golden I told you, but it was the really curly and sparkly soft kind that you want to run your fingers through, and my fingers, Brother, were itching to take a handful of that hair and pull, gently. Then there were his shoulders, quite a bit broader than you would expect to see in an enchanter.