other types of vehicles. They were all solid black with the letters SS painted on them. I assumed this was the Silent Soldiers logo. All of the vehicles looked as though they were completely brand new. The black paint shined brightly under the fluorescent lights in the room. As we continued down the length of the room I noticed doors on either side. We made our way to the end of the room and entered the last door. As we walked through the doorway I noticed lots of equipment. I couldn’t imagine what it was or what purpose it served. There was also a bed in the middle of the floor that looked like a doctors office exam table.
Sitting in the far corner of the room I saw Ava, the girl I had met earlier that morning. She was still as beautiful as ever. I also noticed an older lady in the room. She was nearly as beautiful as Ava. This lady had the same curly red hair as Ava, but hers was much longer. Both of the girls were dressed pretty much the same in black skirts and knee high black boots. The only difference was the style and color of the shirts they were wearing. I immediately noticed their similarity. I came to my own conclusion that this must be Avas’ mother.
“This is Rachel Hadison, and her daughter Ava. Rachel is the witch I was telling you about last night. She is the one that created the spell for you to be born.” Grandpa explained.
“Yes, sir, and the one that suppressed my powers,” I said with a little resentment. I probably shouldn’t have said it the way I did. After all, it wasn’t her fault. Rachel was only doing what my parents asked of her.
“It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Luke,” said Rachel with a sort of shy little smile, “I am so very happy you have finally come to join us. You are a spitting image of your father.” This was the first time anyone had referred to either of my parents as living. I really didn’t know how to respond to what she said.
“So, both of you are witches?” I asked not being able to think of anything else to say.
“Yes. I am a witch. Ava is a witch in training. She is turning out to possibly be even more powerful than me,” Rachel said very proudly. The room fell silent for a few seconds. We all turned to Grandpa to see what would come next.
“Luke, Rachel is going to remove the spell binding your powers today. We plan to run some tests to see what you are capable of, and what vampire weaknesses you may have. I don’t want you to worry. We are only going to test the bare essentials. Vampires have so many powers that it would be quite impossible for us to test them all. We plan to do a little at a time, as much as you can handle, and replace the spell once were done. We have to be sure you can control your powers before you get to keep them permanently,” Grandpa explained, “Do you think you’re up for that?”
“Uh, I guess,” I replied. I was definitely more than a little nervous with all of this happening so fast. I was also nervous about Ava being here watching me if I screwed up.
“Ok, Luke, are you familiar with any of the powers that vampires possess?” Rachel asked.
“A little bit. Grandpa explained some of it to me last night.”
“First, let’s get you to lie down on the table. We are going to apply these restraints, mainly for our protection, just in case you can’t control yourself,” Rachel said. I climbed up on the table. Rachel and Ava began strapping me in place. As Ava finished the last strap around one of my wrists she leaned close to my ear and whispered.
“Everything will be fine, Luke. Just relax and let us take care of you. There is no reason to be nervous. My mother is very powerful. She will not let anything happen.” Her soothing words helped me relax a little.
“I’m ready.” For the first time I noticed a huge pentagram drawn around the bed in the middle of the floor. The bed I was lying on was located directly in the middle of it. I watched as Ava went to one of the little closets and began taking out a variety of different candles. She began placing them around the pentagram. I had only ever read stories about witches. What was happening in the room seemed to go along with some of those stories. Next Ava pulled out a very old leather bound book and laid it on a podium that Rachel brought to the edge of the pentagram.
Ava turned the old brittle pages very carefully looking for something that I assumed was the spell they would use. Rachel began to chant softly. All of a sudden the lights in the room went out. The candles began to light one by one all by them selves. This was a little weird for me witnessing magic right before my very eyes. I never knew it even existed up until the night before.
Now that all the candles were lit I saw Rachel walk over to the book on the podium as Grandpa and Ava moved into the corner of the room. It seemed to me as if they were ready to run out the door at the first sign of trouble.
Rachel began reading from the book. Her chanting slowly increased in volume and intensity as she read. The flames of the candles grew much larger. I started to feel my body relaxing. A feeling of warmth started in my feet and moved slowly up the length of my body. I had never experienced anything close to the feeling I now encountered. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the exhilarating feeling of warmth throughout every inch of my body.
I suddenly heard everyone gasp. This immediately brought me back to reality. I opened my eyes to notice that the candles had gone out, and the lights were back on. I looked around at everyone starring at me.
“Did it work?” I asked.
“Well, see for yourself, Luke,” Grandpa said as he slowly walked over to my side with a small mirror. I looked in the mirror and could barely believe what I was seeing. My face seemed to be paler than normal. My skin was silky smooth, and completely free of any blemishes what so ever. I also noticed that my canine teeth had somewhat elongated coming to a sharp point. It was nothing like the movies, with the long fangs that were sharp as needles. But, it was definitely very noticeable that I had fangs. I absolutely could not believe it. I had fangs!
“How do you feel?” Grandpa asked.
“I feel fine. I really don’t feel any different than before.”
“So, you don’t feel the urge to jump up and bite one of us do you?” Ava asked as a nervous giggle escaped from her throat.
“Of course not. Why would I want to bite anybody?”
“Well, we were afraid when the spell was removed, and your vampire instincts kicked in, you would have the uncontrollable urge to feed,” Rachel explained.
“Man, I ate so much for breakfast I don’t think I could eat again for weeks,” I said laughing.
“That is a very good sign,” Grandpa said with a smile.
“We are going to remove the restraints now, Luke,” Rachel said with some hesitation.
“You’re sure you feel alright?” Ava asked.
“I feel fine, guys. I told you I don’t feel any different than before.” Rachel and Ava began to remove the straps while they watched for some sort of reaction out of me. I started to yell boo but I thought better of it with a powerful witch that could do who knows what to me in a split second if she thought there was to be danger. After they removed the straps they helped me up off of the table.
“Well, that went well,” I said, “What’s next, Grandpa?”
“We need to test your strength and speed, Luke.”
“Let’s do it!” I exclaimed. I had to admit. I did feel better than ever. I wasn’t nervous or scared anymore, and I was a little excited about what I could do. I didn’t feel any stronger or faster than I had when I woke up that morning, but we would see. I followed them out of the little room back into the main area of “headquarters,” as Grandpa called it. We walked out to the middle of the floor and looked to the far end of the room.
“I want you to run down as fast as you can. Stop when you get to that wall at the end,” Grandpa explained.
“Sure,” I said. I got down into position, as though I was a track star about to run the hundred meter dash, and prepared to take off.
“Go!” Grandpa yelled. Before I knew what happened I was standing face first against a wall. I turned around slowly realizing that in the blink of an eye I was on the op
posite end of the room from where I started. I was speechless and exhilarated all at the same time. I took off again and an instant later I was standing in front of Grandpa back at the other end of the room.
“WOW!” Grandpa said with great excitement, “I have never in all my years seen anyone or anything move as fast as you, Luke.”
“Really? Is that good or bad?”
“That’s amazing, son. Ready to move on?” Grandpa asked.
“Absolutely! I can’t wait to see what else I can do after that,” I followed them again into another door across the room from the little spell room. This room was quite a bit bigger with a much taller ceiling. It was stocked full of every different piece of exercise equipment you could think of.
We walked into the center of the room next to a set of weights that were lying on the floor. I noticed immediately that it was full of hundred pound weights; five of them were arranged on each end of the bar.
“You do realize that’s a thousand pounds right? There is no way humanly possible for me to lift that,” I said.
“You’re probably right, Luke. But you have to remember we aren’t really dealing with the human possibility,” Rachel said with a little laugh.
“Oh, right,” I said kind of embarrassed. I walked over to stand in front of the bar and motioned for everyone to back up in case something went wrong. And something definitely