After the death of Yoshika Funakoshi, Jamie Raleigh must decide what he's willing to do to keep leadership of the Funakoshi ninja clan within the founding family, with himself as its last surviving member. The story takes place after Gateway to Thera.With the death of Yoshika Funakoshi, Jamie Raleigh now lives his greatest fear . . . standing before the elders of the Funakoshi clan to petition for leadership. But telling his clan the truth about her death—that she was killed by a mutated wizard on an alien world—prompts a challenge against his leadership by an old rival. What is the leader of Adventure willing to do to keep the leadership of the Funakoshi within its founding family?This short story takes place after Gateway to Thera.

“Mac what would you think if I told you I hate being called sir, that I'd rather be called ma'am?”“The old lady is still calling you daughter isn't she?”“Mac this goes back way before we ever met grandmother. As long as I can remember I've felt I should have been female not male.”“I'm not sure I understand. Witches and vampires don't associate with each other. I guess in a way we are terrified of each other. Vampires tend to hide their magic because even the weakest witch in a fight could completely incapacitate the strongest vampire. If we can lure them into our magic before they are able to cast they lose their magic either through death of becoming a vampire.”“No they don't, it just becomes foreign to them. I can sense the different kinds of magic, and have yet to find anyone who could hide their magic from me.”“Sam that's not possible. I can sense another vampire but a witch is difficult at best for me and the other creatures that have magic I can't sense at all.”“Maybe you can't but I can. You don't believe me take me out somewhere and let me prove it to you. The magic calls to me, it wants me. I can tell you are holding your magic hidden right now. You're one of the strongest vampires I've ever come across, even stronger than Mac or Chuck who were both born vampires.”“Sam you don't have any magic, there isn't a witch alive I can't sense, and you have no magic.”“I have no magic Chris? I'm a natural born witch. My oldest sister is the most powerful witch to lead White Rose coven in a thousand years and her strength in the elemental magic is as nothing compared to mine. You think you have blood magic? How do you think it is no vampire can hide from me? I can command the blood magic the same as the elemental magic. I am White Rose! I am White Lotus! I am magic!”Chris stepped back with a look of shock and fear both in his eyes as I drew in my magic and he felt the enormity of it all. I felt all the magic flowing through me and asked again if he loved me.“How much do you love me Chris? Which is more important to you, your life, or your magic? Is it me you love or the magic I command?”“I never asked for the magic, a magic that has marked me for the remainder of my life. A magic that is so much a part of the lives of those I care most about. If the cost of sharing in your love is the magic that I have, take it I never asked for it in the first place. I only ever wanted the woman that completes me as a man.”“For all my life I was thought to be a man, but at no time was that true. I've been hidden away for a special time, a time which is still not here. You see father of blood the daughter of elements cannot be revealed until the time is ripe for her unveiling.”Kathy and Nicole both came running in fear in their eyes that something had happened to their mother of choice.I fell in a heap on the floor no idea what happened. Chris was bent over me helping me try to stand a worried look on his face.

Merry England!--Oh, merry England! What a difference has there always been between thee and every other land! What a cheerfulness there seems to hang about thy very name! What yeoman-like hilarity is there in all the thoughts of the past! What a spirit of sylvan cheer and rustic hardihood in all the tales of thy old times! When England was altogether an agricultural land--when a rude plough produced an abundant harvest, and a thin, but hardy and generous peasantry, devoted themselves totally to the cultivation of the earth,--when wide forests waved their green boughs over many of the richest manufacturing districts of Great Britain, and the lair of the fawn and the burrow of the coney were found, where now appear the fabric and the mill, there stood, in a small town, or rather, I should call it, village, some fourteen miles from Pontefract, a neat little inn, well known to all the wayfarers on the road as a comfortable resting place, where they could dine on their journey to or from the larger city. The house was constructed of wood, and was but of two stories; but let it not be supposed on that account that it was devoid of ornament, for manifold were the quaint carvings and rude pieces of sculpture with which it was decorated, and not small had been the pains which had been bestowed upon mouldings and cornices, and lintels and door-posts by the hand of more than one laborious artisan. Indeed, altogether, it was a very elaborate piece of work, and had probably been originally built for other purposes than that which it now served; for many were the changes which had taken place in that part of the country, as well as over the rest of England, between the days I speak of, and those of a century before.

Desperate women like Ransome find themselves at the end of the Galaxy in a dive drinking bad wine and worse whiskey and watching the exotic erotic allure of the dancing men. A night where the priestesses want to destroy the unbelievers is made worse when Ransome learns pirate Captain Jareta of the Hawk of Darion is in town. There is bad blood between these two women and former shipmates.Mabel Crowley, the only child of a wealthy English banker, wants nothing more than to be rid of her last name and wed her first love, stable-boy Charlie Archer, whose own hopes reside in becoming a partner in his father’s livery yard. Her parents forbid the union and whisk the impulsive child away to Bath so that she might forget her troubles. Distraught and vowing that she will never love again, Mabel impulsively accepts a teaching position while on vacation in Bath, certain that this will ensure her spinsterhood and prove her undying love for Charlie. Irene Hartley, a five-year-old student desperately in love with her new teacher, persuades her parents to offer Mabel a position as governess to their growing brood. Her father is Theodore Hartley, the obscenely wealthy and renowned railroad tycoon. Theodore sees how his daughter has grown attached to Mabel, and after his wife dies in childbirth, he makes Mabel an offer of a permanent nature to make his eldest daughter happy. Still madly in love with Charlie, Mabel returns home to find out whether he has carried the same love in his heart in the years they’ve been apart. She finds him boarding a train, in uniform, ready to serve his country in World War I. Will she act once again on impulse, or will she make her decision based on hope for her future? A sweeping romance of love, longing, and the nature of hope, E.H. Nolan's debut is a moving family saga that probes the deepest recesses of the human heart with subtlety, profound empathy, and prose filled with the emotion of open spaces and words left unsaid. Delving into the nature of sacrifice, family secrets, and the important of keeping promises and honouring commitments, Mabel Crowley captures the essence of the human condition as it delivers a passionate portrait of a life consumed by the power of love.

In the distant future, a sudden terrorist attack thrusts a human intelligence analyst into a maze of vicious alien gangsters, corrupt politicians and shadowy defense contractors - and partners him with an elite operative of the militant Krokator Star Empire, humanity's most prominent adversary to hunt down the ultraviolent faction known as the Forbidden Army before they can strike again.In the distant future, humanity has expanded into the stars and formed the Human Alliance. Over the centuries, they have fought numerous times with the alien Krokator Star Empire and for fifty years have been in state of perpetual cold war with their rival power. When a bomb goes off in the heart of the Alliance's capital and the krokator Emperor is assassinated during the holy week by an ultraviolent faction called the Forbidden Army, their decades-long détente will be challenged.The task of finding the perpetrators falls to Major John Gresham, an Alliance military intelligence officer tasked with finishing a colleague's investigation, and krokator Akgu Zurra, an unquestioningly loyal soldier dispatched by the Emperor's sister to hunt down the Forbidden Army's foreign supporters. When their paths cross, Gresham and Zurra come to realize that they face enemies beyond rogue terrorists, and that the Forbidden Army has friends from as high as the Alliance’s elite to gangsters in the alien slums. As the bodies pile up and the clock ticks towards the Forbidden Army’s endgame, their mission becomes more than just a mission – it becomes personal.Humans and krokator have always hated each other, but the unlikeliest of partners will have to work together in "The Forbidden Army", the first novel in "The League of Planets Adventure" from Henrik Rohdin.The League of Planets Adventure:Book One: The Forbidden ArmyBook Two: Thus Spoke the DragonBook Three: Servants of the Empire (Coming Summer 2014)

Growing up a disappointment, Shimusogo Rutejìmo has always struggled with proving himself worthy to his family and clan. All he wants is the magic to run faster than the strongest warrior, emulating his brother's strength and courage. When he is once again caught showcasing his poor decisions and ineptitude, he's sent on a quest for his manhood, a discovery of his true bravery and worth.Can the power of the weak save them all?Growing up a disappointment, Shimusogo Rutejìmo has always struggled with proving himself worthy to his family and clan. All he wants is the magic to run faster than the strongest warrior, emulating his brother's strength and courage. When he is once again caught showcasing his poor decisions and ineptitude, he's sent on a quest for his manhood, a discovery of his true bravery and worth.His journey proves perilous and contrived as the elders who were to guide his endeavors abandon him in the dead of the night, forcing him to forge on without the tutelage he needs to succeed. When danger begins to envelop him, it's up to Rutejìmo to find a way to not only gain inner courage and confidence, but to bravely save the friends he's encountered along way. But he'll need the clan spirit's ultimate speed to conquer the impossible. Can a meek man find the strength to fight for himself?

It's Day 7 in the quarantined mall. The riot is over and the senator trapped inside is determined to end the chaos. Even with new rules, assigned jobs, and heightened security, she still needs to get the teen population under control. So she enlists Marco's help--allowing him to keep his stolen universal card key in exchange for spying on the very football players who are protecting him. But someone is working against the new systems, targeting the teens, and putting the entire mall in even more danger. Lexi, Marco, Ryan, and Shay believe their new alliances are sound. They are wrong. Who can be trusted? And who will be left to trust? The virus was just the beginning. Fans of Life As We Knew It and those who love apocalyptic plots will love this modern Lord of the Flies. The sequel to No Safety in Numbers is a pounding, relentless rush that will break your heart and keep you guessing until the end.

15 year-old Axel is kidnapped to places unknown and meets someone he never expected to see.15 year-old Axel lives happily with his mother until he is kidnapped and taken to places unknown and he must find his way back home.

A glossary of foreign expressions to supplement the Solar Wind and Shooting Star series.This is a glossary of foreign expressions to supplement the Solar Wind and Shooting Star series.

Dan Sherman goes from a History Teacher to a Space Guardian in one day. He is transformed into one of the most powerful beings in the Multiverse.Dan Sherman had to take early retirement through bereavement. He started to have lucid dreams about a tall man who was beckoning him go to a certain place. He soon realized that this wasn't an everyday event. It was to be the start of a once in a lifetime chance to be a Space Guardian. How will he cope with powerful entities who will try to destroy him at turn?

This is a series of 5 short stories about a young boy who discovers that he lives in a magical world. He goes on various adventures finding new worlds, becoming new people and discovering new places.An unnamed man escapes from a seemingly endless life of killing. But, after a series of injuries as well as the destruction of an old friend's home, he finds himself at the start of a war that expands throughout time and space.(An old, abandoned short story... and possibly a prequel). = )

"Gizmo" is the GI term for the unidentifiable--and that's the way that Toddy Kent has begun to think of the reasons behind the rapid swing of his days. Somehow, Kent seems always to find himself regularly confronted with The Big Break every man would kill for--only to see it slip through his fingers. Kent's grinding out a paycheck buying gold on the cheap and selling it for the slimmest of profits when he stumbles into his latest, almost mythical discovery--pure, unadulterated gold in the form of a priceless watch he didn't exactly mean to steal. Soon Kent finds himself at the center of a whirlwind of danger involving everyone from the woman he can't seem to shake, bail bondsmen who get word of Kent's discovery, the Treasury Department, his pawnbroker, and a devious old man with a dog that may or may not be able to speak English, in a rip-roaring comedy of errors and would-you-believe-it bad luck unlike anything you've ever read. Who ever knew one lousy watch could bring so much trouble? And how many times can Kent avoid getting killed before his luck runs out for good?

A temporal exploration craft is struck by lightning and is forced to crash land at some point in the past. With their prime directive compromised, both the crew of the ship and, and the team sent to recover them, must race against time to avoid detection and prevent an earth-shattering disaster.The temporal exploration craft, 'Kolibri', is struck by lightning and is forced to crash land at some point in the past. With the possibility of their prime directive becoming compromised, and with time against them, both the crew of the 'Kolibri' and, and the team sent to recover them, must find a way stop the stricken ship's technology from falling into the wrong hands, or face the prospect of an earth-shattering disaster.

In search of the legendary Fountain of Youth for most of his life, Maverick is able to track its location to a small Central American village. Along with his assistant and with help from a young villager, Maverick makes his way to a cave where the fountain is believed to be. There, however, Maverick learns much more than he ever expected.Maverick is a respected archaeologist who has been searching for the legendary Fountain of Youth most of his life, and thinks he has finally found it. Along with his assistant Nicole and their young guide Iván, Maverick explores a Central American cave until he stands before the fabled fountain itself. But finding it is only the beginning of the Maverick's true journey.

It's 2097 and teens can fledge and grow wings. Fifteen year old Prissi Langue loves flying, school and her friends. However, after Prissi finds pictures of her dead mother with the man who invented fledging, she begins an investigation that uncovers long hidden secrets. Suddenly, it seems like everyone wants Prissi dead. Can Prissi fly far enough and fast enough to escape her enemies?Why is everyone trying to kill Prissi Langue? It's 2097 and teens can fledge and grow wings as they go through puberty. Fifteen year old Prissi has been having fun flying, goofing with her BFF Nancy, and stirring up arguments with her NQB (not quite boyfriend) Joe Fflowers. Despite her mother's death three years before, her dad's unending and very depressing grief, and Joe's threats to run away from school to avoid fledging, Prissi's life is pretty good.That is, until Prissi meets Joshua Fflowers, the man who invented fledging and one of the world's richest men. Intrigued with Joshua Fflowers, Prissi does some research and finds a picture of him with someone who looks just like her mother--except that her name is different and her dad professes to know nothing about it. As Prissi investigates, she meets a man who worked with her mother on some radical meta-mutational research a half-century before. Intrigued, Prissi keeps investigating and before she knows it her good life is gone. The chase is on. Over the skies of Manhattan, into the bowels of the drowned subway system, across the wasteland of eastern Long Island, the question becomes can Prissi fly fast enough and far enough to elude all the people who are trying to kill her?