The Silent Soldiers

person standing right beside me. The closer I looked at the little man I began to realize I had seen him before. Wait, this was the little man that had met Matt and me at the airport. “What are you doing here Mr. Rathburn?” I asked. “Not now, Luke, there will be plenty of time for explanations later. Right now I have to protect you,” he explained.

  I suddenly remembered where we were and the shape we were in. We were surrounded by wolves that continued to circle closer and closer. The huge cat was standing just outside the purple sphere that Mr. Rathburn was producing from one of his tiny hands he had raised in the air. I wasn’t quite sure what he was or what he was doing, but I soon realized that he was saving me from the cat. The cat began to scream the dreaded sound from the previous dream. He also extended his claws and reared on his back feet and began to slash at the sphere trying to break through.

  Nhados quickly realized he wasn’t going to accomplish his desired task. With one final scream, and a very swift movement he leapt back into the air, transforming back into the cloaked figure, and flew out of sight over the stone wall. After this I suddenly came to, and realized I was back in the dinning hall. I was lying on the floor looking up at everyone staring down at me.

  “What just happened?” I asked. “Did you have another dream, Luke?” Grandpa asked. “As a matter of fact I did. How on earth could I have a dream while I was wide awake?” I asked. “Well, I think you have just confirmed that you have in fact inherited your grandmothers’ gift of prophecy,” Grandpa explained. Everyone looked around at each other not knowing what to say or what to think about what they had just witnessed.

  “You must tell me what you saw straight away,” Grandpa said rather anxiously. “Well it was exactly the same as before, except for one thing. Instead of the purple light blinding me, I could see what was happening this time. Jackson Rathburn, the little man that picked us up at the airport yesterday, was there. He was generating some sort of shield around us that kept the cat from getting to us. The cat slashed and screamed but could not get in. The cat gave up and jumped back over the wall. That’s when I woke up,” I described in as much detail as I could.

  “Is he talking about who I think he is?” Uncle Charles asked. “I believe so,” said Grandpa. I could see the look of fear cover the faces of the three adults. Curiosity took over Ava and Matt.

  “Uh, a little help would be nice,” I said and stuck my hands up in the air. Matt came to the rescue and pulled me up to my feet. I sat down at one of the huge tables to try and collect my thoughts about what just happened. This was all getting weirder by the minute. Matt and Ava made sure I was ok while the three adults were in a heated discussion. I guessed Grandpa was telling them a little bit about my new “gift.”

  “You must not go outside the mansion alone, Luke,” Grandpa told me with enough authority to scare me a little. “If it is true that you have the gift of prophecy, you must not leave the mansion under any circumstances. If your visions are correct, it can only mean that Nhados has in fact returned to the earth realm. It also means that he has found a way around the protection barriers that Rachel has in place,” Uncle Charles explained. “That’s not possible,” said Rachel. “Well, the only way it could happen is if there is in fact a traitor among us. Luke and I discussed this earlier. Someone living or working inside the mansion must be responsible. We will find out who is giving Nhados information,” Grandpa said with a vicious growl escaping from deep in his chest. “I can not wait to get my hands on whoever it is that is betraying the pack. I will find great pleasure in ripping them to pieces,” said my uncle with the same sort of growl that grandpa had just displayed.

  “So, what do we do now?” I asked. “We must carry on normally. Nobody can know about your visions, Luke. We must keep this between the six of us in this room if we are to capture the traitor before they escape. We must all keep our eyes peeled for anything suspicious going on here for the next few days. I believe that sooner or later the traitor will become known to us,” Grandpa said.

  We all agreed to keep quiet, and keep a watch out for the traitor. Grandpa said he had urgent business to attend and headed out of the dinning hall. Uncle Charles told us he and Matt had to go. They had important things to see to. I knew they were chomping at the bit to get outside, now that it was dark, so they could go off on their run. I hollered at Matt to come to my room as soon as he woke up in the morning as they ran out of the dinning room. I heard him shout, “ok,” as they ran down the hall together.

  That left Rachel and Ava there with me. We sat in silence for a few minutes not really knowing what to say to each other. I excused myself and headed to the kitchen where I asked the staff to fix me a little something to eat. I didn’t care what it was as long as it was food. They agreed and told me they would bring it to me as soon as it was ready. I asked that they bring it to my room instead and they nodded their acceptance. I grabbed a couple of sodas to take with me and added a mental note to check the fridge in my room to see if there was anything in it.

  I headed back through the dinning hall and said good night to Rachel and Ava. Rachel returned the good night and left for the hall leading out of the dinning hall. Ava asked a little shyly if I was interested in having a little company for the rest of the evening. I told her that would be great as we headed for the exit doors. We walked in silence back up to my room. I told Ava I was going to take a quick shower while I waited on my food to arrive. She nodded and headed to the sitting area. I grabbed a change of clothes and headed for the bathroom. I took as quick a shower as my body would allow so I wouldn’t leave Ava waiting alone for very long. She was posted up on the couch with one of the texts Grandpa had left for me when I exited the bathroom.

  “What are you reading?” I asked as I made my way over to where she was sitting. “Just reading a little about Vampires,” she said as her face blushed a little. “Are you sure you want to waste your summer trying to tutor a bunch of losers like Matt and me?” I asked with a smile. “You are definitely not a loser,” she said as she got up and walked over to stand in front of me.

  I could feel the heat begin to rise in my face as I noticed her slowly inching her way toward me. I had never been this close to a girl, and had no idea what I was doing in that department. I decided to go for gold. I started leaning closer to her and slid my hands around her waist to pull her to me. Just as our lips were about to touch there was a knock at the door. Talk about bad timing. We both jumped and moved away from each other very quickly. I regained some of my composure and headed to the door as someone knocked again. I opened the door and the kitchen worker brought in a tray and placed it on the little bar in the kitchen area.

  Ava and I both said “thank you” at the same time a little embarrassed. He gave a little bow and headed out of the room closing the door behind him. I offered Ava one of the sodas and we both sat down at the bar. We didn’t talk a lot while I ate, and we definitely didn’t talk about what just happened. After we ate Ava thanked me for letting her join me, and much to my surprise bent over and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. That was the closest I had ever been to actually being kissed by a girl. It sent a chill down my entire body. Ava said a quick good night and left the room just as quickly.

  I hoped really soon we might have the opportunity to finish what we started before we were interrupted. I covered the tray and climbed in bed. For once, in the past two days, I didn’t have a million thoughts running through my head. I only thought of one thing as I drifted off to sleep, and that was all about the beautiful Ava.

  9

  I woke up the next morning realizing I didn’t have a single dream all night, which was a good thing. I remembered I wanted to check the fridge to see if there was anything in it. Much to my surprise, it was full of sodas. There were also some of the essentials like milk, lunch meat, cheese, and stuff for sandwiches. I decided to explore the cabinets and found cereal, bread, and tons of
snacks. I thought to myself I had died and gone to heaven. This was every teenage boys dream to have a room full of sodas and snacks. I found dishes in some of the other cabinets and fixed myself a bowl of cereal. When I finished my breakfast I brushed my teeth and got dressed for the day.

  I decided to read through some of the text books I would be using for summer school. I still had not warmed up to the idea of having to go to school all summer. At least I wouldn’t be taking the boring stuff like math and science. It made me feel a lot better about the whole idea. I settled on Vampires 101. I made myself comfortable in the big armchair next to the fireplace.

  I opened the book to chapter one, titled, vampires in history. This chapter told all about the origin of vampires, and about some of the most famous ones throughout history. It even told quite a bit about “Dracula.” I thought Dracula was a fictional character in movies. I scanned through the rest of the book and noticed chapters on different Vampire abilities. There were also some on weaknesses as well. I was surprised when I realize I already knew some of the things in the book.

  One chapter in particular that