The Silent Soldiers

and prepare yourselves to intercept this one that chooses to trespass onto my property,” Thados ordered. It could not have come at a worse time, but as the trolls left the room my sight went black and a new vision came into focus.

  I couldn’t tell exactly where I was other than the fact that I was in cave. I could hear a woman screaming in the distance. I immediately began making my way toward the sound. The screams became louder and more agonizing as I grew closer. I also began hearing a snap before each scream. I took great care in peeking around the corner to see where the screams were originating. I was horrified by the scene before me. There was a gray haired woman facing the rock surface of the cave. Her arms and legs were stretched out and secured to the walls with chains. The familiar black cloaked figure stood several feet behind her with a long silver whip in his hand.

  “You will tell me what I want to know woman,” He snarled at her before he struck her again across an already bloody back. The woman screamed again in terrible pain as smoke rose from her back with each strike.

  “You will have to kill me. I refuse to betray them,” the woman cried.

  “We shall see about that,” he said as he struck the woman with the whip once again. I awoke with a start as the woman cried out in pain.

  “Luke, are you ok?” Ava asked as she looked down at me.

  “I’m fine. I had another vision,” I said.

  “Thados and your grandfather had to go after the person in the woods. Jenna and Matt went with them. I stayed here to take care of you while they were gone.” Just then the door to the foyer burst open with a bang. We watched nervously as an unexpected Adriana walked through the open door.

  “Ah! What a surprise,” Adriana said with a sneer.

  “Looks like I get to kill two birds with one stone. I came to kill a trouble making wizard, and as a bonus I get to bring my master what he desires the most,” Adriana continued. I glared at her trying to let her know I was prepared to do more damage like the side of her face. I could tell it was healing but it appeared it would leave a nasty scar.

  “You will not lay your hands on Luke again. Not if I have anything to do with it,” Ava said.

  “Shut up witch!” Adriana shouted, “I will enjoy choking the life out of you in the process.”

  “I see the damage I caused to your face is sticking around for a while,” I told Adriana.

  “You want be as lucky a second time I can assure you,” Adriana said just before she shifted to her wolf form. I immediately shifted myself and we both growled at each other.

  Everything else happened almost too fast to understand. Adriana jumped into the air to clear the couch that stood between her and us. I was too focused on the wolf to see what Ava was doing beside me, but there was a puff of purple smoke all around the wolf as it flew toward us threw the air. The smoke completely engulfed the wolf. We heard a thud on the floor. As the smoke began to clear we looked down at a helpless Adriana. There was a very thin, nearly invisible, silver net tightly wrapped around Adriana in her human form. Adriana wiggled and screamed but it was no use. There was no way she could escape.

  I looked at Adriana with wide eyes and immediately turned to Ava. Ava was standing there smiling with her hands on her hips. I could tell she was very proud of herself for what she had just accomplished.

  “I tried to tell you that you would not lay another hand on him, but you didn’t listen,” she told Adriana with the huge smile still plastered on her face.

  “How did you do that?” I asked after I changed back to my human form.

  “A little capture spell I created,” Ava said very proudly.

  “That is amazing, Ava,” I said. “Looks like the Callan ritual is really paying off.” We both turned our gaze back to Adriana. She laid motionless glaring back at us.

  “Let me go immediately,” she spat at us.

  “I really don’t think you are in any position to be giving orders,” I said.

  “Your little trickery will never stand against my master, witch,” Adriana said with a snarl. “He is more powerful than you can ever dream of being!” She shrieked.

  “We will just have to see about that,” Ava said. Just then Grandpa ran into the living room with a very concerned expression.

  “What happened?” Grandpa asked. Ava and I both pointed down at Adriana. Grandpa circled around the couch to see what we were pointing at.

  “YOU!” Grandpa said as a growl rose up in his chest. Adriana could think of nothing to say as she stared up at him.

  15

  We watched in amazement as Grandpa grabbed Adriana’s feet and began dragging her out of the room.

  “What are you going to do with her?” I asked.

  “She will return with us to the mansion to be judged by the pack,” Grandpa said as he dragged her out of the room. A few minutes later Jenna and Matt came back into the room followed closely by Thados, and a few of his trolls. We all sat down again. Grandpa returned and sat down with us.

  “Now, where were we before we were rudely interrupted?” Thados asked.

  “The binding spell,” Ava said.

  “Ah, yes, I remember now,” Thados replied, “I will be more than happy to assist you in any way I can. Especially if there is a chance you can stop my brother. He has completely crossed over to evil. I don’t think there is ever a chance of bringing him back. Do you have the things you need to perform this spell that you speak of?” Thados asked.

  “Yes, we do,” Ava said.

  “Very well, we will go out into the garden and prepare. Please, follow me,” said Thados. We followed Thados through the house and out the back into a beautiful garden. We watched as Ava set up the circle to cast the spell. Thados stood just outside the circle waiting patiently to give his donation to the process. Ava lit the candles as she chanted in a language I didn’t recognize. When the candles were lit she walked over to the table that was set up in the center of the circle and grabbed a long pointed knife. She also got a small bowl from the table as well. She walked over to Thados and he thrust out his hand toward Ava. She said a few more words and lifted the knife up to the sky. She brought the knife down quickly and in one swift movement sliced a thin line across Thados’ wrist. She held the bowl under his wrist as the blood slowly ran into it. She took the bowl back over to the table as she continued to speak in the strange language.

  Ava added a few ingredients into the bowl and stirred it around with the knife. Smoke began to rise from the bowl and swirl around up to the sky. Ava picked up a glass ball and held it in the smoke just as the smoke changed colors from white to red. We watched as the ball filled with the red smoke. The glass ball sucked the smoke right out of the air. Ava walked over and handed me the smoke filled ball. The spell was complete. I held the power to bind Nhados in the palm of my hand.

  Thados suggested we make a few extra spells just in case we didn’t make it with the first. I thought that was a great idea to have back ups, but also distressed that Thados didn’t believe in the power of the soldiers.

  Ava packed up her things while we thanked Thados for his assistance. We headed back through the house to the front door.

  “My debt to you has been settled,” I heard Thados tell Grandpa.

  “I greatly appreciate your help with this. I know you still have love for your brother, but he must be stopped,” Grandpa replied.

  “I know. If I didn’t think he needed to be stopped I would not have helped you,” said Thados. We said our goodbyes and exited the house back into the creepy front yard. We climbed back into the car silently.

  “Where is Adriana?” I asked.

  “You didn’t think I would allow her the comfort of riding up here with us did you? I put her in the trunk.” Grandpa said with a smile. No body said much on the way back to the mansion. We sat in silence thinking about the events of the day.

  We arrived back at the mansion just as it was getting dark out. Dakota was standing on the steps up to the house. He greeted us as we
exited the car. Jenna and Matt walked with him back into the mansion bringing him up to speed on today’s excitement. Two men came from inside and walked around to the trunk. They pulled Adriana out and removed the silver net from around her legs so she could walk. They led her in the front door as we followed. We entered the elevator together to ride down to headquarters.

  After Grandpa removed the little key from around his neck and stuck it in the slot I knew exactly where we were headed. The elevator began its descent. When the doors opened we were indeed in the holding area. The men led Adriana over to one of the cells and placed her on the bed. One of the men took a syringe out of his pocket and gave the protesting Adriana a shot of the clear liquid. Adriana immediately fell silent and went to sleep.

  I didn’t know exactly what would happen to Adriana, but at this point she had attempted to capture me twice. I really didn’t care what happened to her. I believed she deserved everything she had coming to her. I watched as they removed the silver net completely and walked out of the cell locking it behind them. We headed back to the elevator leaving the unconscious Adriana in the cell. When the doors opened I realized we were on the main floor of headquarters. We followed Grandpa off the elevator over to Dante, Jenna’s dad, who was posted up in front of the security camera screens. The two men that had locked up Adriana stayed on the elevator to go back to the main level of the mansion.

  “Hi,