• The Lost Pages of Bendore:


    Bendore was a wizard that traveled through time collecting information, and wrote everything from the past to the future in one book. Then his assistant Raul killed him and stole his book. In the process of stealing the book some pages where "lost". When Raul goes to get one of the pages from Bendore's daughter, Rayne, he falls in love with her. Rayne is a Vixen Daughter, a creature of fire, and because of that she is expelled from her school. Now she begins her search to find all the lost pages of her father's book, Halmaj, and to find herself.


    Book 1: The Locket of Secrets

    Chapter ONE: The Beginning

    The Academy was larger than it was the last time Raul had been there. It had a new addition on the west wing. It was quite obvious that the addition was a terrible attempt to replicate the original building. The original seemed to…flow. That was the only word Raul could find to describe it. He took great pride in the building, but frowned at the monument at the center of the walkway. It too was new, and he liked it even less than the addition. On it there was miniature sculpture of a man. He was fairly handsome and had an air of great wisdom about him. His face had a fatherly appearance, and it was very familiar to Raul. Underneath the sculpture there was a description of the man’s life and his deeds. It started with his name, “Creagan Bendore…”
    “Always the successful one. Always being the best of the best even when he’s dead! He got all the glory for the Academy, but he didn’t create it, I did.” Raul growled deep in his throat and headed up the Academy stairs.
    A girl, maybe a novice, looked at him from under long, dark eyelashes. He gave her a charming smile that made her blush deeply. As he walked past her his smile turned into a grimace.
    Raul looked around. The Academy had changed quite a bit from the last time he had been there. The main office was now what looked like a very large janitorial. He sighed; he was going to have to ask for help.
    He then came upon another girl, this one a little older than the last one. She was pretty too, her hair was long and dark, and she had very large eyes. He stopped in front of her and she seemed to quit breathing.
    “My dear, I am afraid that I am a little lost. Could you direct me to the main office? It is very important, so if you could just simply tell me the way?” He said tell a little more forcefully then necessary, he didn’t have time to have a stray puppy following him.
    The girl gave a small sigh, “Anything…”
    It seemed to apply to more than what he needed at the moment. He looked the girl over again. She was very pretty, but he didn’t have time. He gave her one of his best smiles, this one more breath taking then the last. “Please, just tell me the way and I’ll be off.”
    She smiled a smile that made him a little uncomfortable. “You know, it’s a little confusing, you see they’re renovating the main office. If I showed you the way…”
    She had understood him, but wasn’t taking “no” for an answer. It was all he could do to not shake the girl. “You’re a lovely girl, but I do not have time for petty games…at all. I have a good memory; I can find my way once you tell me.” He spoke coldly and sharply.
    Her face melted into a look of shock, but she quickly forced herself to gain composure and smiled as she said so quickly that he had difficulty following her, “Head down that hallway, when you get to the third hall to the left, take it. Go strait to the stairs and up to the second floor. Its room 561A. Good luck.” Her last to words were spoken sharply. Raul could feel his patients slipping, but lucky for the girl she walked away quickly with out a glance back.
    He then turned on his heels muttering about foolish girls.

    “Nydia, please, you know I can’t. Something might happen.” She looked pointedly at her friend.
    Nydia started to pout,” But you haven’t been out in so long. Anyways all we’re going to do is eat and maybe dance a little. What’s the worse that could happen? Maybe scorching your dress?”
    “Something, anything might happen. Besides, I have one good dress left; I’d rather keep it like that.”
    Nydia smiled, on the brink of laughing when the door suddenly flew open.
    “Have you seen him?” Trinity exclaimed.
    Nydia got excited, this was exactly what she needed, an excuse. Rayne looked at Trinity evenly, as if she was a toddler who had just dumped a bowl of soup on the floor.
    “Trinity, we have told you time and time again that you have to knock before you barge into this room.” She sighed at Trinity’s disappointed face,” Seen who?”
    “Nobody knows who he is, but no one can argue that he is the most handsome man in Aimila. I saw him first! He smiled at me. Right then I could feel a definite connection between us.” She nodded as she spoke giving her the appearance of the wooden water bird that sat on the Headmistress’s desk.
    Rayne and Nydia looked at each other. A slow smile appeared on Nydia’s face, Rayne frowned.
    “No.” Rayne said. “We don’t even know if he’s a student.”
    “Aww come on Rayne, what if he is? Live a little. Besides, he’s new and handsome and-”
    “A jerk.” Jolie walked into the room.
    “Doesn’t anyone knock any more?” Rayne pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
    “I offered to walk him to the office, but he got really….cold toward me.”
    They all looked at her waiting for her to continue, but she just looked back blankly, eyes glazed over.
    “Well? What happened?” Trinity asked impatiently.
    Jolie had a reputation of letting her mind wander, and many people tended to quickly loose patients with her.
    “What? Oh, sorry. Well, I watched him walk past Trinity. And then he looked toward me. And I was suddenly trying to remember how to breathe. Then I nearly passed out as he started to walk over to me.” She waited for a moment and then Trinity gasped loyally. Rayne shared a look with Nydia and rolled her eyes, which earned them a glare from Jolie. “Anyways” She started as if she was interrupted, “he had a lost look on his beautiful face. He said that he was and that he needed directions to the main office. I told him that I could take him there, but he got all cold and snappy. He said that he didn’t have time for ‘petty games’ and that he had a ‘good memory’. I just don’t understand, we were getting along just fine!” Trinity got up to comfort Jolie when she said, “I mean I did better than you.” Trinity patted Jolie’s shoulder once and then looked at her in shock.
    Nydia looked at Rayne. “I still think you should check him out.”
    The Trinity giggled and Jolie glared at Nydia’s idea, but stopped when she shot them a look. “Come on Nydia, you heard what Jolie said. He’s a jerk.”
    “No. Think about it. He’s absolutely gorgeous, and new, and you need to have a little fun!”
    “I’d rather not. We’ll see what happens, until then I am going to study for my history test. You two need to leave, and I need to remind you” she looked at Nydia, “about a couple things.” Nydia smiled. She knew that Rayne was going to take a look at this guy, and also knew what Rayne was going to talk to her about. Her smile became somewhat smug as Trinity and Jolie left. Rayne sighed, what Nydia wanted Nydia got, no matter what the price.

    Raul sighed. He had planned on getting the job done quickly and quietly, but half the Academy already knew there was a new guy and he hadn’t even made it to the office door. As he got closer to it he went over his plan again.
    First, he had to find her. Second, he must get close to, get her to trust him, and find out who she trusts and cares for the most. Last, get that page. Too much depends on it to not find it.
    He had to do it all quickly and as quietly as possible, and without harming her. She was too valuable to have damaged. He also had to make sure that nobody remembered him, especially a choice few.
    Raul didn’t want to hurt anyone, but he had to get that page, and if it meant a little blood, then so be it. As long as it wasn’t her own.

    Rayne was in her room when a tentative knock came at her door.
    “Just a minute.” Rayne scrambled to clean up a little. No one knocked on Rayne and Nydia’s door besides teachers or the Head Mistress. As she passed by the door she looked through the spy hole to see who it was.
    It was the new guy, Leon. Rayne dropped the books in her hands onto her feet. She breathed in deeply through gritted teeth to stop from yelling.
    “Are you alright?” He asked through the door, “I heard something fall.”
    “Yeah. Hold on.” She said, strain in her voice as she quickly gathered the books. Rayne looked for a place to put them and saw Nydia’s bed, unmade. She ran over to it and threw the books on top of it. Then she pulled the covers over the top of them.
    Rayne crossed the room quickly and only hesitated a second before opening the door.
    “Yes?” This was the first time she’s spoken to him since the accident in Chemistry.
    He looked nervously away, and Rayne nearly laughed. He was nervous when she had been the fool days earlier. Then all thoughts of laughter fled from her mind as he turned to look at her again. He looked deeply into her eyes, and her breath caught. He had beautiful hazel eyes that seemed to be constantly changing, and she realized that she couldn’t look away, not that she really wanted to, but she just couldn’t do it. Strangely he seemed to be just as entranced by her own eyes.
    Finally, after what seemed like long moments he spoke. “I was wondering,” he swallowed, “if you would like to go out with me one night?”
    Rayne opened her mouth but nothing came out, his voice sounded like silk in the wind.
    “If you don’t want to I’ll understand. I’ll…just be going now.” He started to turn away, the disappointment couldn’t be missed.
    Somehow Rayne found her voice again. “Wait! Yes, yes I do want to. When?” He turned around, with a grin as big as any Rayne had ever seen. Oddly, it didn’t look funny on him like it would have on anyone else.
    “Third sun tomorrow night, at the Swan?”
    Rayne’s heart seemed to skip a beat. All she could do was nod in excitement. She was scared that if she had said anything it would have come out in a squeak. She seemed to do a lot of foolish things around him.
    An hour later Nydia walked into a spotless room. “Something good happened here?” She spoke as she looked around.
    Rayne bit her lip and nodded.
    Nydia looked at her. “What happened? Did a prince come and sweep you off of your feet?” She giggled at her own joke but stopped short as Rayne nodded.
    “Wow! Who? When?”
    “Leon. Oh, about an hour ago. We have a date tomorrow at the Swan!” She could hardly hold in her excitement.
    “Wow.” Rayne said and plopped down on her bed, and jumped back up immediately afterward. “What the hell?” She flipped back the covers to reveal a pile of books.
    “Ooops.” Rayne ran over and gathered up the books then dropped them in a corner.
    “So much for a clean room,” Nydia muttered under her breath and then spoke louder, “I told you to check him out.”

    “How did you do on your History test? I got 75 out of 100.”
    Rayne looked up at Nydia from the papers she was reading. “Huh? Oh, 100.” She went back to her papers.
    “What? How’d you do that? I studied all night while you just read you book. Plus I eve looked off your paper.”
    Rayne shook her head,” You looked off Jacob’s paper. Remember way back when you tried to get me to go out with you and Tamic? I had pulled out my History book to block you out of my thoughts. It worked pretty well; I’ll need to do it more often.” She smiled at her friend to let her know that she was joking. “I wasn’t studying last night because I had already taken the test. Professor Manrio had me take it early so I could help correct 1st hour’s tests. That’s what I was doing. He gave me a bit of extra credit”
    “Well you could have given me the answers.”
    “I had to catch up to your score some how, didn’t I? If it makes you feel better, with out the extra credit I got a 73.” They both smiled.
    As they were walking through the science corridor Monique joined them.
    “They’re talking about him again. You’d think that after you and Leon began going out they’d lay off or something.” She then started in on how handsome he really was. Rayne and Nydia rolled their eyes.
    “Mmm,” Rayne nodded in agreement to something she didn’t really hear, though, Rayne was thinking about Leon. He knew almost everything about Rayne, but she knew almost nothing about him. When she asked anything about his life, he’d brush it off so casually that Rayne wondered if she really asked. Plus, he’d been acting weird lately. Yesterday he started asking questions about Nydia. He’s never done that before, and that now made Rayne nervous. To add onto all of that she’s had this compulsion to do anything for him. It felt as if he had her mind and feelings in the palm of his hand. When she was near him she could feel everything, be aware of everything, and when she was away she felt almost nothing.
    “Rayne? Rayne?”
    Monique had moved past his hair and was starting on his eyes. She had no idea how beautiful they really are.
    “Shut up, Monique. You do go on about him nearly as much as they do!” Nydia drew in a breath and looked at Monique’s shocked face. She gave her an apologizing look.” We’re going out again tonight, if you and Jacob want to join us? I’m sorry. I was a little harsh just then. We’ll see you tonight, ok?” Monique looked a little hurt, but to Rayne it looked as if it was a cover up. Underneath Rayne could have sworn she saw a glint of anger. Monique walked a little ways away, but didn’t leave. Nydia turned to Rayne.” Are you all right? I don’t think you should go out tonight. I know you were almost excited about it” She smiled, knowing that wasn’t the truth. “But you don’t look too good.” Nydia moved to put her hand over Rayne’s forehead.
    Rayne carefully ducked away. Honestly she was feeling fine, not including the almost feeling nothing sensation, but if she and Leon could get out of going out tonight…”You know what? I’m not feeling well after all. I heard there was something going around the Academy. I’ll talk to Leon and tell him the date is off for tonight.”
    Nydia nodded in agreement smiling a knowing smile, and then followed Monique.
    When they were out of sight she sighed and allowed herself a small smile.
    “I see we’ve gotten out of another date.”
    Rayne gasped and turned around. “Leon! Were you eavesdropping?” she raised one eyebrow, he always liked it when she did that.
    He gave her one of his breath taking smiles, “And if I was?” Playfulness was plane in his voice.
    She gave a big dramatic sigh,” Well, I’ll just have to do something drastic won’t I? Like leaving you.”
    His smile faded into a tight frown.” You wouldn’t do that, would you?”
    “What? No! I would never leave you, ever. I was only playing.” She pressed her face into his chest; he always liked it when she did that, too.
    He gave a sigh and tensed slightly, “Go lay down and sleep some. You look tired.” He paused, “Good bye, I… I’ll see you later.” He sounded as if he wanted to say something else, something more.
    “O.K.,” She couldn’t help but do as she was told. Besides he was right, she was tired.