Emerging from the Darkness: An Earth Guardian Novel

By Stephanie Condella

She is now a freak of nature


After being kidnapped and experimented on by a group of sadistic scientists, Blaze has finally escaped. Now on the run from the people trying to turn her into a weapon to be used for evil, she comes across something she thought could never exist. Vampires. As she fights off the evil bloodsuckers, a man comes to her aid who ignites a passion in her she's never felt before.


He is a warrior fighting to protect humanity


Dean has spent centuries protecting humanity from the evil that wants to destroy or enslave them. In all those years he's never come across anything like Blaze. Not quite human and not vampire he had never met anyone that could inspire the amount of protectiveness that he felt when he found out what had all been done to her. He made it a personal mission to help her escape the scientists who had tormented her.

As they battle this new threat together, Blaze brings back to life a part of Dean that he thought to be dead long ago. Can Dean save Blaze of torment and being used for evil or will Blaze have to sacrifice herself to save the man she's come to love?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468540611

Stephanie Condella

She is now a freak of nature… After being kidnapped and experimented on by a group of sadistic scientists, Blaze has finally escaped. Now on the run from the people trying to turn her into a weapon to be used for evil, she comes across something she thought could never exist. Vampires. As she fights off the evil bloodsuckers, a man comes to her aid who ignites a passion in her she's never felt before. He is a warrior fighting to protect humanity… Dean has spent centuries protecting humanity from the evil that wants to destroy or enslave them. In all those years he's never come across anything like Blaze. Not quite human and not vampire he had never met anyone that could inspire the amount of protectiveness that he felt when he found out what had all been done to her. He made it a personal mission to help her escape the scientists who had tormented her. As they battle this new threat together, Blaze brings back to life a part of Dean that he thought to be dead long ago. Can Dean save Blaze of torment and being used for evil or will Blaze have to sacrifice herself to save the man she's come to love?

Book preview

Prologue

My name is Blaze. I have no last name because someone who doesn’t legally exist does not deserve a last name-at least in the government’s handbook. The reason I say that is because I used to be human, but sadly I haven’t been human for the past year and a half. I was kidnaped at the age of 26 by some people in white coats and a black van, and when I next woke up, I found myself alone and strapped to a metal table. As I looked around I saw what looked to be a hospital room. It had the same type of machines and instruments sitting out on a metal cart next to the bed I was on.

I came to find out later what they were planning on doing with those instruments. Once I escaped I found out that I had been in that lab for a year. They spliced me with different animal DNA to make me what I have become today.

Unfortunately, while all this was going on, my family was told that I had been killed during a drive-by. They had set up everything perfectly; they even had the witnesses and evidence of what had happened. When I finally escaped from the hell hole I was in I found out what had happened and I felt sorry for the men that had been arrested and convicted for a crime that actually never happened.

It took me awhile to come to terms with the situation I had found myself in. I couldn’t go to my family for help because I didn’t want them to become targets. So for that reason as well, I couldn’t go to my friends either. I had stashed some cash away in a place where only I would know where it was. Then I found out that my family had sold my car after they heard that I had died. I decided to go and steal it back from the person they had sold it to. It is a 2003 Ford Mustang convertible. I love that car and it kept me connected to my family in a way.

So now that I am alone, have some money and a car I decided to start a new life as what I am. I’m not 100% human anymore thanks to my being spliced with certain animals; I am now part bird, wolf and panther. I know it sounds weird but apparently the crazy lab coats decided to see what would happen if they put together natural born enemies into one body. Well, I can tell you it’s not pretty. I’m able to shape-shift into what I looked like when I was human but that’s not my true form anymore. My true form now is a human shaped panther with black wings and the ability to howl like a wolf and roar like a panther. I have some other abilities too but you’ll find out more throughout the book. I don’t want to bore you anymore than I already have with this introduction. I also hope that this won’t scare you but it probably will, because it certainly is a nightmare for me.

This is my story.

Chapter 1

It’s been 6 months since I escaped my prison. I have traveled from Waukesha, WI and I have been making my way south. I decided that I would get some enjoyment out of this nightmare that I call my new life, so I’m making my way to places I’ve always wanted to go but have never gotten the chance to visit. First on my list is New Orleans. I just want to see what all the hype is about for Mardi gras and I’m hoping that with so many people in one area that maybe I could get lost in the crowd. I’m pretty sure that the people I escaped from are out there looking for me as we speak. I mean let’s face it, if a major experiment that you were hoping to use as a weapon got away, wouldn’t you go hunting for it? So taking my time, because let’s face it I’m really not in a rush to get anywhere, since I have nowhere to go. I have been using what little cash I have left to pay for cheap motel rooms at night and what fast food restaurants I could afford.

About 3 hours into my driving through Louisiana to get to New Orleans I decided to stop off and camp out in a forest I was driving by. I would never have decided to camp out when I was fully human but now that I’m mainly animal I have more of an affinity for sleeping outside. I pulled my car deep enough into the forest so it wouldn’t be seen from the road by anyone, then I found a good sleeping spot under the shelter of some overgrown trees and other foliage. After taking out the sleeping bag I had bought from an outdoors store at my last stop in town, I finally lie down and fell asleep pretty quickly. I must have been asleep for only a couple hours when I woke to the feeling that something was wrong.

I got up from my shelter and took a look around me but I didn’t see anything suspicious. So I opened up my senses that thanks to my new DNA have been enhanced to three times stronger than humans’ natural senses. I heard a branch break not more than 100 yards east of where I had made camp. I started out quietly heading in that direction and I started to think that maybe I had been hearing things when I couldn’t smell anything different than the scents of the forest around me.

I was getting closer to where I had heard the snap of the branch, and as I continued on ahead I could start to see something outlined in a clearing not too far from where I was standing. I could guess it was probably an animal of some kind but I couldn’t quite make it out to be sure. To get a better look I decided to climb the tree I was next too and once I was high enough I started jumping from branch to branch (I silently thanked my panther DNA for that ability).

I was finally close enough to make out that what I had seen was a wolf. It was a male and he was the most beautiful wolf I had ever seen. He had very dark brown fur to the point of almost being black and his eyes were a brilliant green. I could tell from his stance that he had also heard the same branch breaking that I had. I started scanning the area around us to see what could have made that sound. As I scanned the area I noticed something shining to the east of where I was perched in the tree. By the shine I was able to determine that it was in fact the barrel of a gun. Now I’m not too up on the different types of guns so I couldn’t tell what type of gun it was. All I knew was that I needed to do something before this wolf became a trophy for a hunter. Realizing that the danger was a hunter I figured out why I couldn’t smell him before. He must be wearing some hunter spray so that he could not be sensed by the prey he was hunting.

Not really caring about the consequences I quickly shifted to my true form and using my wings I glided over to land softly behind where the hunter was laying camouflaged on the ground. I startled him by yanking his camouflage off of him. If you value your life in any way, I wouldn’t shoot that wolf. I said as he quickly turned to point his rifle up at me.

Who are you? What do you want? he asked as he lay there trying to see what I looked like in the dark of night.

I’m no one of consequence but I want you to put down your weapon and leave this area now and never come back. I replied as I watched him intently making sure that I could dodge out of the way in case he got trigger happy.

No way. I have a right to be here. This wolf has been terrorizing my cattle and running off with one every night. he retorted.

Are you absolutely 100% certain that this is the wolf picking off your herd? Because he doesn’t look like he’s been eating all that well. If he was picking off your herd every night he wouldn’t be as skinny as he is right now. If you are not certain then this wolf has a right to continue living.

No I’m not certain this is the one but a wolf is a wolf. If I kill this one that will be one less wolf that I have to worry about coming onto my land and killing my cattle. He then decided to crawl back away from me and stand to put enough distance between me and the barrel of his rifle. I want to see who you are. Why don’t you step clear of those trees so I can see what you look like. After all I will need some description to give to the authorities of who it was that assaulted me in the forest.

I started to step into the clearing where he would be able to see me by moonlight. I was still in my true form so he was going to see me in my full animal side. This should be fun. I haven’t assaulted you yet, but the night is still young. Just give me a reason. Then I fully stepped into the clearing and I was enveloped in moonlight.

His jaw dropped and he became as pale as a ghost. I expanded my wings out to their full 8 foot wingspan and I said, Good luck describing this to the authorities.

What was his immediate reaction? He fired at me. I was able to dodge out of the path of the bullet thanks to my enhanced reflexes. I turned back to him to find him aiming back at me to fire again. I needed to do something and quick, so I lunged at him anticipating that I may have to take this next shot in order to take him down and end this confrontation. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the wolf leap towards the hunter and bit down on his forearm which caused him to lose his grip on his rifle and it clattered to the ground. I grabbed him by the collar of his camouflage jacket and threw him to the ground. The wolf let go of his forearm and came to stand right by my side acting as my bodyguard. I would rather not kill you even though you tried to kill me, so I would suggest that you do as I say. Leave this forest now and know that if you ever hunt another wolf in this territory I will be there to stop you, and next time I won’t be so merciful.

After I stood back up and backed away from him a couple steps, I leaned down to pick up his discarded weapon. When he saw me pick it up he shot bolt upright and took off through the woods. I looked over at the wolf still standing at my side and said, Thanks for the help; hopefully he won’t be bothering you again. With rifle in hand I started to make my way back to my little camp site. As I was walking I had the distinct feeling that I was being followed. I turned to look and see if I could spot whoever it was, thinking it was the hunter coming back for round 2, I was surprised to see it was the wolf following behind me. Go back to your pack. You should be safe now. But he just stood there staring at me, like he was trying to tell me something. I decided to see if he would follow me back to camp so I went straight to my camp. As I put down the rifle under my sleeping bag, I turned back to see he had indeed come back with me. What’s the matter boy don’t you have a pack?

It then dawned on me that that must be the reason he was alone in that clearing. He must not belong to a pack, and with the fact that I must smell part wolf to him, he thinks to bond with me. I decided to test it out, so I shifted back to my human form and knelt down in the grass. Would you like to travel with me? We could form our own pack of 2. Maybe you’ll actually keep me sane because now I’ll have someone to talk to. Sensing some sort of kinship with me, he walked over to me and began licking my face. I laughed, Okay fella why don’t we both turn in for the night and then in the morning we’ll hit the road.

As I settled down in the sleeping bag he curled up by my side and settled down to sleep. You know if you’re going to be staying with me you’re going to need a name. How about Shade? He picked up his head turned to look at me and licked my face again. Alright I’ll take that as a yes. Good night Shade. See you in the morning.

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I was jolted awake the next morning because I couldn’t breathe very well. When I lifted my head I found Shade lying on my chest, Shade you big lump, you’re cutting off my air supply. I started to move, but because of his weight I couldn’t move a whole lot, but it was enough to wake him up. He licked me in the face and got up off of me to stretch. Well I guess I don’t need to ask how you slept. I hope you don’t plan on using me as a bed again, I really don’t think my lungs could take it.

After we both stretched and got everything packed up and back in my car, Shade and I headed back out to the road and started out for New Orleans again. I figured I would have to stop a few times at some fast food restaurants to make sure that Shade could get some extra muscle weight on him. He just looks too skinny to be at a healthy weight for what I can only guess is his full grown size for an adult male wolf. Although, I doubt a wolf will be able to survive on just fast food, I think I might need to get a part time job and maybe stay in New Orleans for a little while. Just long enough to earn some extra money so that I could afford to buy him some dog food that might be alright for Shade to eat. I highly doubt that it would be safe to let him roam and hunt at night for his food. I just saved him from a hunter, the last thing I needed was to save him from animal control and the local police department.

I decided to worry about it more when I earned some extra cash and was able to get some groceries. Finally coming into New Orleans I started circling around the outskirts of the French Quarter looking for a good place to stay for the night. I figured that the rest of the day I would spend checking out the area to see if anywhere was hiring part time help. Of course, I would need a place that’s not going to ask too many questions of someone who doesn’t have a social security number or any other type of ID.

After driving for a about 10 minutes I saw this nice little bed and breakfast and figured I would check it out. I pulled into the little parking lot and pulled into a space right in front of the building. I turned to Shade and said, You stay here, I’m going to go check to see if this place is animal friendly. Hopefully we will have a nice soft bed to sleep in tonight. Be right back.

I left the car and locked the doors, even though I’m sure that if anyone tried to steal my car that one look at Shade in the front seat would have them turning tail and running in the other direction. As I walked through the front door of the bed and breakfast, I had to stop and take a good look around. There was a quaint little sitting area to the left of the entry where there were people sitting and reading books, magazines, the paper and talking to friends and family. There were family pictures hanging from each wall, which led me to believe that this must have been a house at some point and then turned into a bed and breakfast. As I shook myself out my nostalgia of having a family like place to stay, I walked up to the counter and was greeted by a little old lady.

"Hello dear, how may I help you?

Hi, I was wondering if you guys accept animals, I just found a stray dog a few towns back and he’s kind of attached himself to me. I was hoping to find a nice place to stay for the night and I’m really hoping it would be okay if he stayed in the room with me.

Of course, we’d be more than happy to have the two of you as our guests. Just as long as he doesn’t make any trouble and you’re always with him, it’s perfectly fine with us.

I smiled at her, Thank you. Now I’m hoping that for a night here, it won’t be too expensive. I only have a couple hundred dollars in cash on me, so how much for a night?

You look like you could really use a good night’s rest, for the night it’s only fifty dollars. How does that sound?

Really? That’s all you’re going to charge me, even for letting my dog stay here?

It’s absolutely no trouble at all. Plus you have that kind of face that says you are a nice girl that won’t cause us any trouble. So do you want the room or not?

Absolutely, thank you so much. I don’t know how to thank you.

No thanks necessary dear. Just enjoy your stay.

I gave her the cash and as she handed me the key she gripped my hand in hers and said to me, My name is Ruth, if you need anything at all just let me know.

Thank you Ruth, I’m Blaze and if I need anything you will be the first one to know.

I took the key from her and headed back out to the car. As I stepped outside I saw that there were a few teens edging closer to my car and staring at Shade, who was staring right back at them. I walked up to the car and unlocked the doors, Can I help you kids?

One of the three teen boys standing there and looked up when I asked them that question, We were just wondering what kind of dog that was. He looks pretty big to be a dog.

He’s a stray I found not too long ago, but I think he’s a mutt. Just a mixture of breeds, but I think he may have some wolf in his background.

Their eyes widened and they looked back at Shade who decided at that moment to howl. They watched in stunned silence until Shade finally stopped and looked back at them. After that they decided to take off down the street almost tripping over each other in their haste to get away.

Way to be incognito. You’re supposed to be more a normal canine then wolf, otherwise we will get in trouble. After all, you’re supposed to be a wild animal and not wandering around in the middle of a crowd. So if you could keep the howling down to a minimum and only when there’s no one else around to hear it that would be great.

I opened his door and he got out and stood by my side. I took the keys and popped the trunk to take out my bag of supplies that I still had left and headed back into the bed and breakfast. As we headed to the stairs to go to our room on the second floor, I noticed that everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch us. I looked at Ruth whose eyes had gone extremely wide. I smiled at her and just kept heading to the stairs. I motioned Shade to start up the stairs ahead of me. He got to the top of the stairs, sniffed and looked around and then turned back to me and quietly yipped at me to let me know everything was clear. I kind of liked that I really didn’t need to train him at all; he really already knew how to use his own survival training and that seemed to be extremely helpful.

The number on the room key was 4, so I headed down the hall and found that room 4 was the last room on the right. I unlocked the door and turned the knob. As I opened the door I found that it reminded me greatly of a home I no longer had. It took me a couple minutes just standing there to finally shake myself out of the effect the room was having on my emotions that seemed to be one of the few things that stuck with me to remind me I was still somewhat human. I closed the door behind us and went to the bed to set my bag down. I checked out the rest of the room which wasn’t too large, it had a small closet and a pretty nice bathroom. It had an old fashioned claw foot tub and shower head, along with an old style pull chain toilet and deep basin sink. I was very excited to know that I could take a nice long soak in a tub that was deep enough to cover up to the neck. In my old life I didn’t exactly have the best tub to soak in, it wasn’t very deep and if you wanted to soak up to the neck you had to let your legs hang out and slump down into the tub, it wasn’t very comfortable. I made a mental note to myself to hurry with my wandering today so I could come back and take a nice long bath before bed.

I left the bathroom and saw that Shade had gone and made himself quite comfortable on the bed. Is this your way of trying to tell me I’m going to need to sleep on the floor? Because just so you know that is not going to happen. Either we share or you get the floor.

He looked at me and growled. You can growl all you want but remember I can growl right back. At the moment though, you can have the bed, I’m going out and wandering around to see if I can find a place for a job and earn some extra cash for us. So you guard the room and I will be back later. I left the room and locked the door behind me, as I put the key in my pocket I wondered if maybe things were starting to look up for me after everything that’s happened.

Chapter 2

My hope was pretty much gone after spending all afternoon wandering in and out of all the shops, restaurants and cafes in the French Quarter. It is now 8 o’clock at night and I still had yet to find anywhere that would hire me. Everyone was crowding the sidewalks and streets in the area to party and enjoy the night in New Orleans. I was walking behind a group of people when I heard what sounded like a fight going on in an alleyway that I had just passed. I turned back to see what was going on and as I entered the alley I could smell human fear and something I have never smelled before.

As I went further down the alley I could make out that there was a group of five men, one was being held down to the ground by the other four, one at each of his limbs. As I sneaked up a little bit closer and ducked behind a dumpster along the side of the alley I could see that the man on the ground was shaking and crying out in fear for them to let him go. Out of the other four, two were blond and two had dark brown hair. The four of them started