day when Ava suddenly stopped me.
“Luke, your Grandpa told us not to tell anybody what went on down there today,” Ava reminded me.
“I have to tell Matt. He is my cousin, and my best friend. We never keep secrets from each other,” I told her.
“Ok. But I’m not getting in trouble for running my mouth, so, you’re on your own with this one. So, I continued with my story. I told him all about me being part vampire and part shifter. I also told him about the spell that had been placed to suppress my powers all these years. I went on to explain every detail about what I went through with the spell being removed, and all the tests. Then I told him about having the spell reapplied, and Grandpa telling us not to tell anyone and why. Matt stared at me the whole time with shock and disbelief plastered on his face.
“They think I fill some kind of prophecy of a savior that will aide in ridding the planet of evil,” I said laughing. Matt began laughing with me and we were both laughing so hard we fell out of our chairs rolling on the floor.
“You shouldn’t be taking this lightly,” Ava said with great authority in her voice, “You are destined to be the great leader of the Silent Soldiers. You are the whole reason the Silent Soldiers was established in the first place.”
Matt and I both stopped laughing while Ava talked, and now we sat on the floor staring at her in shock.
7
“What are you talking about?” I asked Ava.
“Your Grandpa didn’t tell you the whole story about the prophecy and the Silent Soldiers. I probably shouldn’t even be telling you myself, but I think it’s important that you know what you’re getting into. Your parents told your Grandpa about the prophecy and what they were told. After you went into hiding with your uncle, and your parents fled to Europe, he began preparations here at the mansion for your return. I was too young to remember the construction that took place here at the mansion, but my mother has told me stories for as long as I can remember. She told me stories about what the mansion looked like before. And, she told me all about the creation of the Silent Soldiers headquarters. She has also told me for years and years about you, and that one day you would return here to lead the soldiers against evil.”
“So, you’re saying all of this is for me? It can’t be, I’m just a kid,” I said.
“You may be just a kid, but you could grow into the most powerful being any of us has ever seen.”
“Man, that is super cool, Luke,” said Matt. I sat there staring at the empty fireplace, not able to speak, with a million thoughts pouring through my head. All of this information was flooding me so fast over the past couple days that I wasn’t sure I could take anymore. My family turned out to be supernatural creatures. I, myself, was a mixture of these creatures with unheard of abilities, and I was destined to lead a group of soldiers that my Grandpa created into battle against evil. Was I leaving anything out? Oh, yeah, I had to go to school all summer.
I asked that Matt and Ava let me have some time alone to think about all of this. They agreed, and headed for the door. I looked over at the stack of books on the floor beside me and suddenly realized how exhausted I was from everything that was going on. As the door closed behind my two visitors I stood and walked over to the bed and climbed in. I fell asleep with tears streaming down my face.
Just as I dozed off, the dream started again. The dream was pretty much the same as before, only this time I noticed much more detail about my surroundings. For one, I noticed in the distance through the woods I could just make out the mansion with all of its security lights. Another thing I noticed was the great rock wall that surrounded Grandpas’ property. I suddenly realized that I had in fact been dreaming about being on this property before I even knew it existed. Next came the glowing yellow eyes. I couldn’t explain it but somehow, now that I had learned so much, I sort of knew that the eyes surrounding me were there for my protection. I felt completely comfortable even hearing the sudden, bone chilling, wolf howl so close to me.
That’s when the next difference came into effect. Instead of the huge black cat running after me I heard a voice that said:
“Come to me, my son, and take your place at my side where you belong,” the voice spoke with a very heavy accent that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I looked to the top of the wall in the direction of the voice and immediately became frozen in place. Towering over me was a huge figure of a man dressed in a black hooded cloak. The cloak covered his entire body, arms and hands included. The only thing I could see was his glowing red eyes. The same cat like eyes I had seen in my last dream.
“Who are you?” I asked, barely able to speak.
“I believe you know who I am, my son,” said the cloaked figure. I really did feel that this was the guy Grandpa told me about. What was his name again? Nhados, I thought silently to myself.
“Come to me,” the voice repeated.
“I will never come to you, Nhados. I will never stand at your side. I will never be evil,” I said with as much confidence as I could possibly generate.
“It will be such a waste to have to kill a young being with so much power,” the voice boomed.
“Just try it, and see what happens, Nhados,” I yelled, not completely realizing what I was saying until it was out of my mouth.
I could tell that the cloaked figure became furious by the sudden flare of his glowing red eyes. In one swift movement Nhados leapt into the air. On his way to the ground, he transformed into the terrifying black cat. This was the same black cat that had attacked me in my last dream. This time I didn’t turn to run. I, instead, stared straight into the cats’ eyes. I could see in my peripheral vision that wolves all around me were getting closer as they began to circle around the cat and I. There was a sudden flash of purple light. I closed my eyes instantly from the blinding power of it. Just as I got them closed I heard the chilling sound of the cat as it began to scream. I couldn’t tell from the sound if it was from anger or pain. I hoped that it was pain as I shot up out of my bed wide awake.
“Ok, that was just freaky,” I said out loud. Nobody was there to hear me. I checked my phone and realized it was late in the afternoon. It was a little after five. I thought that maybe Uncle Charles would be here by now. I slowly walked out of my room and across the hall to Matt’s door. I knocked a couple times with no answer. I headed down the hall to Ava’s room. Nobody came to the door at her room either so I decided to go downstairs to look for them. As I reached the bottom of the stairs, Adriana came out of the great room. She told me,
“Just the man I was coming to see. Your Grandpa will see you in here.” She opened the door and motioned for me to go in. She smiled at me sort of strangely as I passed her into the room. Her look and smile frightened me a little. It wasn’t the kind, warming, smile she had given me the night before. I couldn’t explain it but she gave me the feeling she knew something she wasn’t about to tell me. I brushed it off and went on into the room.
“Glad you could join us,” Grandpa said. I looked immediately toward his voice and noticed that he wasn’t alone like I had hoped. Ava and her mom sat on the couch next to Matt.
I had made up my mind to tell Grandpa about my dream in hopes that he could shed some light on what it might mean. I wasn’t about to talk in front of anybody else.
“Hello Luke. Grandpa says we are moving here to the mansion permanently,” Matt said a little more excitedly than I would have expected with this news. I thought Matt would be a little sad about having to leave all of his friends back home, but apparently he was happy about this idea. I, on the other hand, felt happy at the thought of not returning to Dallas. The only real friend I had back home was Matt, and he would be here with me. The more I thought about it the happier I was in fact. My best friend was here with me, and I got to be with Grandpa full time. I was definitely ok with living at the mansion.
“That is correct, Luke. You, Matt, and Charles will be living here at the mansion while you are in training,” Grandpa explained. Now that
I had learned more about what was going on here I was quite anxious to begin this “training.”
“That sounds great,” I said.
“Please join us,” Grandpa said motioning for me to come take a seat. I realized Matt had caught me off guard. I was still standing across the room from them. I made my way across the expanse of the “great” room. I took a seat in the other empty chair.
“I hear you went against my wishes, Luke. I have to admit it angers me a little that you disobeyed me. I do, however, understand you needed someone you knew to talk to about what you are going through,” Grandpa said with much sympathy in his voice. “Matt will be a great companion for you as you take on this important task of learning to control your powers,” said Grandpa.
“So what have y’all been talking about?” I asked curiously.
“We were going to bring Matt up to speed on everything we learned today, but as it turns out he already knew the whole story and then some,” Grandpa said as he looked over toward Ava.
“Yes, sir, I told him all about it. Ava also told us more about the Silent Soldiers,” I said expecting Grandpa might become angry with her.
“She has told me about your little chat. I can’t say that I blame her for filling you in on more of the story. How do you feel about all that you