Sam is fifteen, orphaned, hiding a secret and has been living in foster care for the past year. Her Aunt Olina is a widowed, recluse oddball who spends her life in a closed off home speaking to her dead, taxidermies dog Elvis. Together the two learn to overcome the obstacles life has dealt them, trust one another and become family.

Wealthy big game hunter, Wilson Frields, funds an expedition going deep into the Florida Everglades to search for the Calusa: a lost tribe of Native Americans. When the team discover the gruesome remains of another expedition, Friels admits he is searching for the Calusa's Fountain of Youth and its guardian, a mythical and deadly beast. As they delve deeper into the Everglades, the bloodthirsty beast begins to stalk and kill members of the group and, in one struggle, their leader Brinson Thomas is injured and begins to metamorphose into a creature himself. His only hope: to drink from the waters of the Fountain. The terrible truth behind the Calusa must be discovered if any of them are going to get out of there alive!

Sheena's parents were archaeologists who died in the jungle when she was about six years old, leaving their daughter Shirley Hamilton. She was taken in by Kali, a local Shamaness of a tribe who brought her up, and five years ago she was taught how to morph into animals and birds, acquiring their abilities, even flight. Further, she became a mythical creature called "The Darachna" who relies on people' fear of the unknown. For this she covers herself in a dark liquid mud which allows her to be largely unseen in the low light of the jungle, and with more than normal strength, agility and speed, and armed with a pair of gloves with bone claws, she is a formidable one woman fighting force. She does kill sometimes.

They used to run the country. Now they're running for their lives! Two on-the-lam former Presidents of the United States. Framed in a scandal by the current President and pursued by armed agents, the two squabbling political foes plunge into a desperately frantic search for the evidence that will establish their innocence.

In the early 21st century, mankind has colonized the oceans. The United Earth Oceans Organization enlists Captain Nathan Bridger and the submarine seaQuest DSV to keep the peace and explore the last frontier on Earth.