third bag was already in the microwave heating up.
“What’s going on?” Grandpa asked.
“I was attacked,” Dakota said nearly back to his normal self. I could see that the wounds were completely healed now.
“Where?” Grandpa shouted.
“I always scale the fence to hunt the woods surrounding the property when I rise every evening. I have been hunting animals there for a few weeks now. Someone must have been waiting for me out there. As soon as I jumped the fence I caught an unfamiliar scent. I started to follow the scent, and as soon as I caught sight of the animal I felt the silver wrapping around my body,” Dakota explained.
“What about the arrows?” I asked. “I blacked out for a short while, and when I came to I was looking up at you, Luke,” said Dakota.
“What was the animal that you found?” Grandpa demanded. “It was a huge black cat,” said Dakota in nearly a whisper.
“Nhados,” Grandpa and I said at the same time.
“Nhados must have his people surrounding the property. He probably found out you have been hunting on the other side of the fence. He set up a trap for you, but why did he keep you alive?” Grandpa asked.
“I think he just wanted to send us a message. He is just letting us know he is there,” I said as I continued to stare down at Dakota. Jenna and Ava had made it back by then, and stood a short distance away.
“Looks like the protection spells are still holding. I think if they weren’t he would have attacked already,” Ava said.
“I think you are right, Ava,” said Grandpa.
“We need to increase security just in case,” I told Grandpa.
“I’ll get right on it,” he replied.
“Can you stand up?” I asked Dakota.
“I think so,” he replied as I bent down to help him up.
“Man, I am so glad you’re alright,” Matt said.
“Me too,” the girls said at the same time.
“You saved my life, Luke,” Dakota said, “I am forever in your debt.”
“You would have done the same for us. I’m just glad we decided to go out for a run tonight,” I told him.
“I think I need to sit down again. I’m still really weak and dizzy,” said Dakota.
“Let’s go up to my room and you can lie down for a while,” I told him as Matt and I got into position to help him upstairs. We slowly made it to my room and helped him into bed. Ava and Jenna took off Dakota’s shoes and helped him get a little more comfortable.
“You can sleep here for the day if you like. I’ll stay with you so I can keep an eye on you,” I told Dakota.
“Thanks for everything, Luke,” he replied.
“Why can’t this dude find something better to do than pick on a bunch of kids?” Matt asked.
“Grandpa says he want stop until he kills me now. He knows I want come to him now that I have the sword,” I said.
“Well, crap,” said Matt just as I blacked out.
The vision that came into focus this time was completely different from the others. I was no longer in the woods in the mountains. I was standing in a city on a sidewalk. I look around at the buildings towering above me. I look up at the building in front of me and noticed the sign said Peabody Hotel. I wondered to myself what city I could be in.
“LUKE!” I heard my mother’s voice call out.
“Mom! Where are you?” I asked.
“I’m here, son, please hurry,” said my mother.
“I don’t even know where you are!” I yelled back. I woke up at this point and jumped to my feet. I raced across the room and yelled for Jenna,
“You have to look for the Peabody Hotel,” I told her.
“Luke, there is a Peabody in Little Rock!” Ava exclaimed excitedly. Jenna jumped into action and pulled up the Peabody Hotel website for us to look at. A picture popped onto the screen and I immediately recognized it from my vision.
“That’s it!” I yelled. “What’s it?” Matt asked.
“That’s where my Mom is,” I replied.
“I raced to the bed and grabbed the sword which instantly transformed me into the white uniform from my first encounter with it. I thought it was quite odd that it hadn’t done anything to me when I pulled it out the other day with Jack.
“That is way cool,” Matt said.
“Let’s go,” I said as I headed for the door. Dakota must have been feeling much better because he jumped off the bed and followed us down the hall. I sent a text message for Grandpa to meet us at headquarters as we raced down the stairs. Grandpa was standing at the security table as we came off the elevator. He was more than a little shocked when he saw me come off with the sword attached to my back. The other four ran to the dressing room to change as I told Grandpa about my vision.
“She is at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock,” I said.
“Are you sure?” Grandpa asked.
“Yes. We need you to drive us there to pick her up,” I told him. Just then everyone else joined us at the security station dressed in black uniforms. I immediately noticed the SS Silent Soldiers logo on them. We followed Grandpa over to the large black hummer parked against the far wall. I jumped in the front seat as everyone else climbed in the back. Grandpa got in the drivers seat and started up the engine.
Grandpa drove to the far end of the room as a giant garage door opened to what appeared to be a huge elevator. He drove right into the elevator and punched some buttons on a little console where the stereo should be inside the dash of the hummer. The garage door closed behind us and we started moving up. A few seconds later the door in front of us opened and we were looking at the outside. Grandpa drove out of the elevator and I glanced around realizing that we were driving out of the tower located on the left side of the mansion.
Grandpa barreled down the driveway toward the gate. I saw as we got closer that it was already starting to open. Grandpa never slowed down. He sped out of the driveway and onto the blacktop heading back the way we came from the airport months ago. We picked up speed after we hit the freeway heading into little rock. I had never been to this part of the city, so I had no idea where we were going. Grandpa must have known exactly where the hotel was because he exited the freeway and headed into downtown. A couple minutes later we were pulling into the front of the hotel.
“How do we know where she is?” I asked.
“I will see if I can track her,” said Grandpa. We entered the front of the hotel and Grandpa immediately went to work trying to pick up my mother’s scent.
“This way,” Grandpa said as he opened the door to the stairwell. We raced up two flights of stairs before we followed Grandpa out into a hallway. He slowly walked down the hall continuing to follow my mother’s scent. Grandpa stopped in front of a door and knocked sharply. Nobody answered so he turned the knob. Surprisingly the door opened with ease.
“Sandra? Are you here?” Grandpa asked. I heard a soft moan coming from inside the room as I turned on the light switch beside the door. Light flooded over the gruesome scene in the middle of the bed. My instincts took over as I snatched the sword from my back and leaped through the air toward the monster attached to my mother’s neck. The sword melted through the vampires’ neck causing his head to fly across the room. I landed on the floor and turned back to watch as the body on top of my mother crumpled into a layer of dust covering her body.
“Vampires!” Dakota snarled and whipped an arrow into his bow as he turned around to look down the hall. I bolted for the door and we watched at least a dozen vampires come out of rooms on each end of the hall.
“Dakota, you and I will take the ones on the left, and the rest of you, take the ones on the right,” I said as the vampires started to move slowly our way. I realized I still had the sword in my hand as I got ready for the attack.
“Nobody is going to take my mother from me again,” I snarled through my teeth toward the group of vampires. A complete rage washed over my body as I felt my fangs exte
nd for the first time. Everything around me suddenly became much clearer. Dakota let the first arrow fly and it hit one of the vampires directly in the chest causing him to turn to dust. I charged into the others with my sword flying. With every strike of the sword I cut off a piece of vampire causing them to crumble to the floor in a pile of dust. In a matter of seconds all the vampires on our end were dust piles on the floor.
I looked up to check on the rest of the team and noticed they too had a dozen or more dust piles on their end of the hall. Matt and Jenna both had swords. Ava, I noticed, was standing with her hands at her sides. An orange red flame engulfed each of them. Wow! I thought to myself as Dakota and I walked back to the hotel door.
Grandpa was standing in the doorway holding my mother in his arms.
“We have to get her back to the mansion quickly,” he said as he headed for the stairs.
“What’s wrong with her? What did they do to her?” I asked as I followed him down the stairs. “A vampire has nearly drained all of her blood. If we don’t get her a transfusion soon she want make it,” he replied. Grandpa put her into the back of the hummer and I crawled in with her. Everyone else climbed in and we were rocketing toward the mansion.
I heard Grandpa shouting orders into his phone as we raced down the freeway. “I need Dr. Blevins to meet me at headquarters in fifteen minutes, and I need a cleanup crew to the second floor of the Peabody Hotel stat,” he said.
I looked at my mother for the first time and felt greatly troubled by her appearance. Nearly every