Hero Rising

  HERO RISING

  Secret Guardians #1

  by

  H.T. Night

  Acclaim for the novels of H.T. Night:

  “Vampire Love Story is a passionate story that is told from a refreshing perspective. This book was a blast. Night invents a brand new world for the Vampire genre. Great Job!”

  —Summer Lee, author of Angel Heart and Kindred Spirits

  “Vampire Love Story is a hip and timely vampire novel filled with real characters and some of the coolest vampires since The Lost Boys! You’re going to love Night’s completely original take on the supernatural.”

  —J.R. Rain, author of Moon Dance and The Body Departed

  “Night is a true storyteller. Winning Sarah’s Heart is thoughtful and inspirational.”

  —Elaine Babich, author You Never Called Me Princess and Relatively Normal

  OTHER BOOKS BY H.T. NIGHT

  STANDALONE NOVELS

  The Fourth Sunrise

  Romeo and Juliet: A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story

  VAMPIRE LOVE STORY SERIES

  Vampire Love Story

  The Werewolf Whisperer

  Forever and Always

  Vampires vs. Werewolves

  One Love

  Divine Blood

  Sons of Josiah

  Love Conquers All: Part One

  Love Conquers All: Part Two

  ENTWINED SERIES

  Werewolf Love Story: Part One

  Werewolf Love Story: Part Two

  The Rise of Kyro

  Loving Maya

  Werewolf Without a Cause

  Angel Love Story

  HEART OF A WITCH SERIES

  Witch to Choose

  A Witch’s Magic

  Witch Love Story

  Witch World

  WINNING SARAH’S HEART SERIES

  Cody Greer

  Looking Good, Cody Greer

  Lovesick Quarterback

  A Very Cody Christmas

  Be My Valentine, Cody Greer

  Spring Love

  DEADLY DREAMS SERIES

  Controlled Chaos

  Massacre Revealed

  SECRET GUARDIANS

  Hero Rising

  Hero Unbound

  Hero Hunted

  VAMPIRE NATION SERIES

  Forbidden Destiny

  WITH J.R. RAIN AND SCOTT NICHOLSON

  Bad Blood

  SCREENPLAY

  Getting Yours

  POETRY

  Everlasting Love

  HERO RISING

  Published by H.T. Night

  Copyright © 2013 by H.T. Night

  All rights reserved.

  Ebook Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Dedication

  I dedicate this to all the people who I’m lucky enough to call you my friends.

  Acknowledgment

  Special thanks to Eve Paludan, J.R. Rain, Alberto Silva, Margaret Cervenkas, April M. Reign, and Liz Jones for all their help.

  Hero Rising

  There are sixteen years between the end of One Love (2012) and the beginning of Divine Blood (2028). In Divine Blood, some questions are answered about Josiah Reign and his family, but some events are specifically omitted. Hero Rising begins the tale of those “lost years.”

  The actual real world—the Tandra world—is destroying itself. Nations are dissolving into a breakdown of divided community loyalties and an escalation of turf wars.

  Josiah decides to go on a crusade to help the Tandra—or humans—escape from the evil that is all around them. This is where his alter ego (Vampire Superhero) rises from deep inside him. He mysteriously protects the Tandra world for six full years.

  During the years 2015 thru 2021, Josiah becomes a modern-day superhero. His sole purpose is to help those who are unable to help themselves. He becomes their protector, the one who fights for them and at times, he is their only hope.

  This is how it all began…

  Chapter One

  I was on my way to spend a couple of days with Tommy, my closest and dearest friend. Referring to Tommy as my best friend sometimes wasn’t enough. There were times when I felt we were closer than brothers. We had both risen to glory in mixed martial arts and had an unprecedented history in pro fighting. And in vampire-werewolf fighting, too. We just naturally had each other’s backs through the years. That usually meant we got into a lot of fights outside the ring, too.

  Tommy had been engaged to my sister, but Maya and our parents had died in a tragic car accident, a few years ago. The tragic event bonded us for life. Since then, Tommy and I had had a very unusual connection. Sometimes, we were on opposite sides of an issue, but most of the time, Tommy and I saw eye to eye. One thing I’d learned over the years was that no one had my back more than him. I had his back, too. Sometimes, we felt like it was us against the world. And sometimes, it really was.

  Tonight, I was going to see my old friend. In my eagle form, I spread my large wingspan across the sky. It felt great to be the great white eagle. I flew away from my island of Helena and made my way toward California. It was a long, healthy flight that took three to four hours, and was three times faster than a jet.

  When I said my island, I did mean my island. I owned the damn thing and the one next to it, too. The islands had been given to me by my dear friend, Helen, right before the great battle with Krull.

  About twice a month, my wife Lena allowed me to get away and spend some “bro time” with Tommy. As a werewolf, Tommy didn’t feel comfortable living on an island with a bunch of vampires and he was firmly rooted in Southern California, where he grew up. Where we both had.

  Tommy trusted me and my vampire crew, to a point, but that was as far as his trust went toward everyday Mani. Visiting Tommy every couple of weeks gave me a nice break from raising two-year-old twins. Yes, we had twin boys, Jason and Joshua, and they were our life…Lena’s and mine.

  Though I loved my family deeply, I missed my best friend so much and I missed our deep camaraderie. I was still young and loved to hang out with Tommy and just eat pizza and watch sports. It was nice to get away from the madness. We often re-watched Pulp Fiction on DVD—Tommy and I could recite nearly every word. We were dorks…tough-as-nails dorks…but dorks, nonetheless.

  Like I’d said, Tommy didn’t like to visit the island too much, mainly because he was grounded…I could fly, but he couldn’t. Werewolves were more like Tandra than Mani were. Tommy had to take a private jet or plane to get here and it was costly and time consuming.

  I, however, was not grounded. I could fly in two forms. I could fly in my vampire body, which was very similar to humans except I had sharp incisors, I could read weak minds, move objects telepathically, and sometimes heal. Flying was the main thing, though. It was freeing and powerful, a dream come true for anyone.

  My other form was a big, giant white eagle with a large beautiful wingspan. My environment was pretty surreal whenever I took on that form. I had to admit I think that it was the coolest of all my abilities. I could become the great white eagle whenever I saw fit.

  The eagle form had its advantages because I could fly much faster as the eagle. Also, I could be out in daylight, something I could not do in my Mani form. That was why I always transitioned to my favorite species whenever I traveled away from the island. That was, if I wasn’t using my island’s private jet or helicopter.

  Tonight, I was in my eagle form soaring through the night sky, heading toward Tommy’s house in Anaheim Hills, California. I often flew at such high altitudes that sometimes it was hard for me to breathe. I needed to fly high, so I would not be seen by the Tandra—the humans—i
n their airplanes. I often flew lower at night because it was harder to see me and I didn’t worry so much about cell phone cameras and ending up on the Internet as a viral video. I could breathe a whole lot easier at lower altitudes and also enjoyed the scenery a lot more.

  Tonight would be a little different. Actually, it was shaping up to be a lot different.

  Chapter Two

  For kicks, I decided to visit my old house in San Bernardino. I’d sold it a couple of months ago, and had made a little bit of dough. I hated always depending on Hector’s money to survive. We’d netted $300,000 and that would be plenty for my family to live on for a while. Running and owning an island that was catered to your personal and family’s wellbeing made it almost impossible to ever spend my own money. All I knew was that money was getting spent, but I wasn’t sure by whom.

  I had transitioned from eagle back to a two-legged Mani and landed in an empty parking lot that was up the street from my old house. I had visited Tommy many times over during the past two years, but this was the first time I had a hankering to see my old house. In a weird way, I was being drawn to the area from the night sky.

  I began to smell smoke but I thought it was just a bunch of chimney smoke isolated in one area. As I looked down toward downtown San Bernardino, I could see that an eight-story building was on fire. Fire appeared to be coming from the bottom two floors and spreading upward.

  I decided I needed to land close to the fire but not too close because there were too many people outside —I would surely be spotted from the air. I didn’t want that to happen, so I decided to land in a vacant church parking lot, a quarter mile from the burning building.

  I followed the thick smoke smell in what I called a fly-skip. A fly-skip was where I ran and glided. It enabled me to get to any destination faster than driving a car or walking. The problem was, I was fly-skipping down a major street and I was certain that people must have seen me. Hopefully, it would just look like I was doing wind sprints. I tried to be careful, but I had a weird feeling about the smoke. The smell of smoke led me down 4th Street, right into the heart of downtown San Bernardino. The smoke was so thick that I could hardly breathe now. I could now see where the smoke was coming from. I was now a block away from the flames.

  I could see people with handmade signs hanging out the windows on the upper floors. Some people were holding signs outside the window, signs that read, “Everyone is up here!” and “Help us down” and “Please don’t make us jump. There are children.”

  The smoke was thick. I was becoming sick, confused and disoriented by the smoke. One thing was for sure…I had to help these poor people in this building. I looked up at the building. Considering I had zero fear of heights, I knew the height of the building wouldn’t be a factor. But flames. Yeah, I was cautious about my own hide like that. I had to step out of my comfort zone and help the Tandra who were in trouble. There was no way I could turn my back on them right now. This disaster was staring me in the face. If I didn’t help, it would haunt me for the rest of my days if I walked away from people who could have been saved.

  I was going to have to fly up to the floors where the fire hadn’t reached. I knew the building would surely start to collapse around the people inside, no matter what floor they were on. I needed to get to the safer floors.

  The fire was approaching the third floor now. I had to fly around and start carrying people down. That would be the best way to get them to safety. I wasn’t sure if the entire world was ready for what they were about to witness. In their eyes, I would be a man flying. I thought the Internet would begin to go nuts once I was revealed to the world: a flying man.

  The likes of me in flight, out in the open, could be detrimental—not just for me, but for all Mani. This was about me making a decision for myself. I was by no means going to out the Mani. I needed a disguise fast. Where the hell would I find a mask? In an amazing twist of fate, I looked to my right where there was a liquor store. I could see that they were selling Mexican wrestling masks behind the counter. There were tons of them in all sorts of colors. What a crazy thing to sell. Apparently, the proprietor must have been a big fan of the sport.

  I slipped inside the liquor store, wearing my black trench coat and looking rather pale, as usual, in a black button-down shirt with black slacks. I decided to buy a blue mask and a red one. I kept my head down so the cashier wouldn’t get a good look at me. He probably thought I was stealing something. Not quite. I bought a second mask in a larger size because I needed to make sure that one of them fit.

  I went outside and slipped behind the wall and put on the red wrestling mask. I walked around and looked at myself in the reflection of the window. I looked ridiculous. I was wearing all black with a red wrestling mask. I looked like Darth Maul from Star Wars, but a lot sillier. The red mask made me look like the devil or something out of a whacked science fiction movie. Oh, well. It fit. That was the main thing, and people needed my help.

  I swung around back to Fourth Street. I was neither an architect nor a firefighter but I imagined the fire would continue to rise—all the stories above the floors were in imminent danger.

  I did what I had to do. I wasn’t going to worry about the consequences. I knew I had a mask on, no matter how silly it looked, and that guaranteed that I couldn’t be identified by either man or Mani. I figured if there were any immortals out, they might have been able to figure out it was me. I had been out of the immortal spotlight for a couple of years, and out of the mixed martial arts ring for even more years.

  I wasn’t going to worry about that. There were Tandra in trouble and I was obligated. After all, I was half-Tandra. I was as mortal as any dope on the street, but that was a big secret to my enemies. Other Mani were immortal unless killed a certain way. I was much stronger than other Mani, yet my mortality secretly placed me in a much more vulnerable position.

  I was going to save these people because that was what I knew was the right thing to do. When a man saw emergencies like this, he didn’t question why the powers-that-be made sure he were there at that very moment.

  When all was said and done, I did the right thing. Helping others was a longing that could not be quenched—to save others was so deeply ingrained in me that I could never do enough to help others. I think it was because I hadn’t been able to help my parents and sister when they died a few years ago in the car crash. I never really got over my feeling of being powerless in that crisis, to save them. Years later, I couldn’t stop saving people, as if I could make up for my failure to my sister and my parents. It wouldn’t bring them back, but I never again wanted to see a Tandra die when I could have somehow prevented it.

  Since I had been able to fly, I’d kept that information far from humans. They were about to experience something they’d never seen before. My identity would remain anonymous since I’d be wearing my red Mexican wrestling mask, but nonetheless, it would be me in my mortal skin flying up to save them from being burned alive or killed by smoke inhalation.

  I made my way to the building and the firefighters were hosing down the first two stories, but were not yet able to go in. A ladder truck was getting its gear in place and I was appalled at how slow the mechanism moved. The fire seemed to be spreading rapidly and it was going upward—the wind wasn’t helping matters at all!

  I knew I was about to do something and that there would be no turning back from it. I was going to reveal to the world that I existed, even though I hoped they wouldn’t figure out who I was. Surely, I would be recorded by someone’s cell phone camera or a news crew. I stepped up to the fire. I knew I could be burned alive and perish just like any other human, so I had to be careful. I was a husband and a father. I had one important attribute, and I would need to exploit it. I could fly and I was quick as hell at it.

  I stepped in the command post area where only firefighters were allowed. They already had the crowd-control yellow tape up.

  One of the firefighters looked at me and said, “Hey, freak! Step back! It’s
dangerous over here!” I grinned at the words “freak” and “dangerous.” This man had no idea what I had been through over the past couple of years. All I was to him was a dork wearing a wrestling mask. He probably thought I was mentally ill. I nodded at him and didn’t move. This made him more irate. “Seriously, man,” the firefighter continued, “Get back behind the firetrucks and get out of the way!”

  The firefighter stared as I suddenly elevated my body up in the air. His mouth dropped open and it was obvious that he could not believe what he was seeing. I gave the firefighter a military salute and then I headed toward the fourth floor.

  A lady was hanging out the window. Screaming. I was now flying out in the open in front of the crowd. I hadn’t felt this free in a long time and being watched excited me. It must have been the exhibitionist in me, the one where I drew strength from a crowd watching me, like when I was a mixed-martial arts fighting professional.

  I didn’t have time to get introspective about the significance of the moment. The lady hanging out of the window was coughing from smoke inhalation and about to fall. I flew to her and lifted her up and out of the window.

  “Oh my God!” she said. “Who are you? I mean, what are you?”

  “Hang on,” I said as I held her and lowered myself to the ground.

  The firefighter’s jaw was still open in shock as I set the lady down before him. “I’m going back for more,” I announced with a smile. The lady and the firefighter were dumbstruck but I didn’t have time to explain. I didn’t want to. I just flew back up there.

  The next people I helped were a couple of kids, screaming and crying. When they saw me, they almost forgot they were in a burning building. Kids always wanted to believe in heroes, and these two were seeing one up close and personal for the very first time.