dad,” Jenna said as we approached Dante.
“Hi, baby girl,” Dante responded. I saw Jenna blush a little at her fathers response.
“Dante, I need you to enter the soldiers into the computer so they will have access to headquarters,” Grandpa told him.
“Absolutely, Mr. Carrington,” Dante said. We followed Dante over to another of the many doors located off this main floor. This room was quite small, and contained several pieces of computer equipment. Dante started with me and asked me to place my hand on what appeared to be the same type of scanner that was on the wall of the elevator. Dante punched the buttons on the keyboard and I watched as the light scanned my hand.
“You’re good to go, Luke,” Dante said. Dante continued with each of us until we were all entered into the network.
“I know you all have been in the network already thanks to Jenna and her amazing talent, but now you can access it on your own. Just use your full name and your temporary password is your birth date. You can change them both once you sign on. Now if you all will head back upstairs to dinner, Luke and I have a couple things to discuss,” said Grandpa.
I told them I would find them a little later and watched as they headed out the door. When they were gone Grandpa walked over to what appeared to be a safe. It had a keypad and he proceeded to punch in numbers.
“I am giving you a key that will give you access to the cells. I trust that you will only use it when completely necessary. I know you will probably want to question Adriana. I completely understand. I just ask that you take the rest of your team down there when you decide to do it. We will not do anything with her for a few days. This should give you plenty of time to uncover the things you need to know for your coming battle. I’m positive with the help of your team you will get her to talk. Feel free to use whatever means necessary for that to happen,” Grandpa told me.
I couldn’t believe the authority, responsibility, and trust that Grandpa was instilling in the soldiers. I felt much pride in my heart and gained much respect for Grandpa in that very instance.
Grandpa dismissed me from the room to speak to Dante. I headed back upstairs to join my friends for dinner. I thought to myself as I headed up the elevator that nobody had even asked about my vision this afternoon. There had been so much excitement that I hadn’t even thought about it myself until now. Who could the woman have been that Nhados was torturing?
It was getting pretty late in the evening by the time I reached the dinning hall, and my friends were the only ones there.
“Hey, Luke, are you ok?” Ava asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?” I asked Ava.
“You look as if something might be troubling you,” she replied.
“I was just thinking about the vision I had back at Thados’ house. I forgot to tell Grandpa about it. It was quite disturbing,” I said.
“Tell us about it,” said Jenna. Everyone focused their attention on me as I began to tell them the details that I remembered from the vision.
“Who do you think it was that Nhados was torturing like that?” Matt asked.
“I don’t have any idea,” I replied.
“I would think it has to be someone significant or you probably wouldn’t be having a vision about it right?” Ava asked.
“You’re probably right, but I really don’t have any idea who it could possibly be. I’ll just have to wait and see if I have another vision about it,” I said.
“Grandpa kept me down there after you guys left to give me this,” I said as I pulled out the key he had given me.
“What is that?” Matt asked.
“It’s the key to the elevator. It unlocks the holding area. He suggested I take you guys down there and see what we can find out from Adriana. He said we had a few days before they would decide what to do with her,” I explained.
“You actually think she is going to tell us anything?” Jenna asked.
“Grandpa said he thinks we could probably come up with something to make her talk,” I said.
“I’m pretty good at persuading people to talk,” Dakota said with an evil grin.
“What about a truth spell?” Ava asked. “That would work as long as we ask her the right questions,” said Matt.
“I have an idea. I don’t know for sure if it will work, but it’s worth a try,” said Jenna.
“Let’s hear it,” I said.
“Well, you know that I can enter stuff through electricity right? What if we were to hook her up to like an EKG machine and see if I can search her head? There is a small amount of electrical current in the brain. Maybe I can go in and see what she is thinking. I know it sounds like a long shot but it’s worth a try,” Jenna explained.
“That just might work. It is definitely worth a shot. I’ll prepare a truth spell just in case,” said Ava.
“Ok, you get the spell ready and meet us at headquarters. Do you think we have some type of equipment we can use down there?” I asked Ava.
“As a matter of fact there is a room down there that they use for people who have been injured. There are tons of first aide supplies, and I believe there is some equipment as well,” Ava said.
“Let’s do it. We will meet you down there,” I told Ava. We all headed to the foyer, and Ava separated and headed up the stairs to her room. I scanned us in at the door in the foyer and we headed for the elevator. When we reached the main floor of headquarters Dante pointed us to the medical room and we searched for something we could use. We located the EKG machine in the corner of the room, and searched the drawers for some of the little sticky pads that connect the electrodes to the skin. We took the equipment back to the elevator. When the doors opened, Ava was standing inside. We all piled in the elevator with Ava and headed down to the holding area.
We got off the elevator and realized that Adriana was still unconscious. This was to our advantage for sure. I was afraid we would have to wrestle with her to get her secured for the procedure we were about to perform. I went into the room that they used to test out my sunlight sensitivity and rolled the exam table out into the main room. Dakota helped us load Adriana onto the table and get her strapped down in case she woke up. We hooked up all the little electrodes according to the diagram on the machine and turned it on. Jenna walked over to the machine and laid both hands on top of it. We all watched as Jenna did her thing inside Adriana’s head. Several minutes passed before Jenna spoke.
“I’m not getting a lot of clear thoughts. It’s as though I’m looking through her eyes, but I’m really not getting complete pictures,” Jenna said.
“Keep trying,” I told her. Suddenly Adriana began to move a little and opened her eyes slowly. As soon as she saw us standing around her she started to struggle.
“Oh, wow, things are a lot clearer now,” said Jenna.
“What the hell is she doing?” Adriana yelled as she stared at Jenna.
“Shut up!” I yelled back at her, “We are going to find out exactly what you know.”
“No! Get her out of my head. I can feel her in there,” Adriana screamed as she made every effort to get off the table. Adriana let out a fierce growl and I knew exactly what she was about to do.
“She is going to change!” I yelled. But Ava was already on top of it. There was suddenly a puff of smoke around Adriana. When the smoke cleared we noticed that the thin silver net was again binding her in place. I smiled over at Ava as Adriana began to scream with frustration at being outsmarted again.
“I am going to enjoy killing each and every one of you when I get out of here,” hissed Adriana.
“And what exactly makes you think you are ever getting out of here?” I asked.
“You really don’t think the pack will let you go after you betrayed them do you?” Ava asked.
“They will surely take off your head before they allow you to be a member of this pack any longer,” said Dakota as he walked into one of the rooms off the main room we were in. We waited for him to return.
When he did he was carrying a big roll of duct tape and held it up with a smile so we could all see it. He tore off a strip of it as he rejoined the group and fastened it securely over Adriana’s mouth.
“That should shut her up,” Dakota said.
“Let’s continue,” said Jenna. “As I was saying, I can see much more clearly now that she is awake. I see a cave. Adriana is going into the cave. She is walking along a tunnel. She walks for quite a ways before she comes to what appears to be a dead end. She puts her hands against the wall. The wall seems to start rippling like when you throw a stone in water. Now she is walking through the wall. Everything goes black for a second and then opens up into a beautiful forest. I have never seen trees and flowers like these anywhere.
She must have entered another dimension. She is looking all around. There are creatures all around her. They are looking out at her from where they are hiding. She must have shifted because she is much closer to the ground, and she is running through this forest. There is a stream on her right, and she appears to be following it. She is still running following the curves of the stream. I can see another cave in the distance. She shifts back to human form as she approaches the cave. She is going in.”
Adriana began to thrash around again trying to free herself. When she realized it was no use she became still again. I could see fear and anger in her eyes as Jenna continued with a play by play of her Adrianna’s actions Jenna was pulling from her head.
“She walks through the cave for quite some time. There are many tunnels leading off in different directions but she keeps straight. She comes to a stone wall with a door blocking her way any further into the tunnel. There are vampires guarding the door. They bow to her as she opens the door and walks in. She enters a room that is completely empty except for someone standing in the middle of it. It’s a tall figure standing there. It is wearing a black cloak with a hood pulled up over its head. She is walking around to stand in front of the person. Wait, the room is not empty. There is a small stone pedestal in the center of the room holding up… It’s the sword!” Jenna exclaimed. Jenna let go of the machine and looked around at us.
“I think we just found out how to get to the sword,” Jenna said,
“The figure in the room was standing over the sword moving his hands around it slowly. Every time he got too close to it blue sparks would fly and he would jerk his hands back very quickly,” Jenna explained.
“I’m guessing he can’t take it for himself,” Ava said.
“What else did you see?” Matt asked.
“Did you see what we might be up against?” Dakota asked.
“The only creatures I saw were the ones after she walked through the wall and the two vampires at the door into the room with the sword,” she said.
“Surely he has more than a few demons and a couple vampires protecting the sword,” I said.
“That’s all I saw,” said Jenna. I walked over to the head of the exam table that Adriana was securely fastened to. I reached down and took hold of the corner of the tape over her mouth and gave it a swift pull yanking it off of her face. Adriana let out a scream.
“I want you to tell us what Nhados has protecting the sword,” I told Adriana.
“I’m not telling you anything,” she replied.
“You can either tell us, or we can go back in your head. One way or another we will find out,” I said.
“The least you can do after betraying the pack is to tell us what we need to know,” said Matt. I watched as Adriana closed her eyes. A few seconds later she opened them.
“Only Nhados himself knows the protection he has up around that sword,” she began in a much softer voice. If I hadn’t already been through so much crap with her I might have felt a little sorry for her.
“You will never defeat Nhados. He is more powerful than you could ever imagine,” She said.
“We have a few tricks up our sleeve,” said Ava. I could tell Adriana truly believed that there was no way we would ever over power Nhados.
“I know I am as good as dead now, but I honestly can’t tell you what I don’t know. Nhados keeps everything secret. He doesn’t trust anybody, not even me,” Adriana said as a tear ran out the corner of her eye. I don’t know why, but I actually believed her.
We untied Adriana and put her back in her cell while Ava stood ready to throw another capture spell at her if she got out of line. She went quietly back in and we put away the equipment we had been using. We were headed back to the elevator when another vision hit me.
This was the same vision as before. I followed the sound of the woman screaming to find Nhados torturing her with the whip again. He continued to whip her, and she continued to scream. This time, just before the vision ended, the woman raised her face toward the top of the cave and screamed with all of her might,
“Luke, please help me!” I woke up with my friends starring down at me again.
“She knows me!” I exclaimed.
16
“Who knows you?” asked Ava.
“She called out to me. She said my name. She was begging me to help her,” I explained.
“You can’t tell who the woman is?” Dakota asked.
“No, I can only see her from behind. I haven’t seen her face, but from the back she doesn’t look like anyone I know.” Matt helped me off the floor. We went back to the main floor of the mansion. We came to Grandpa’s room and I stopped to knock on the door. Nobody answered so we continued on into the foyer. I went into the great room and nobody was there either. I really wanted to talk to Grandpa about what we had found out from Adriana. I also wanted to tell him about my vision. Guess it would have to wait until morning. We all headed upstairs and went to our own rooms in silence.
I decided to take a shower before I climbed into bed for the night. I called the kitchen and asked them to bring me up something to eat before I got in. When I got out of the shower my dinner was waiting for me on the bar.
I signed into the Silent Soldiers network while I ate. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but I wanted to check it out anyway. I browsed through the files on each of us. I noticed they had updated Ava, Matt, and Jenna’s powers. I finished eating and put my laptop away. I didn’t see anything on the network that I didn’t already know. I turned out all the lights and climbed into bed. I didn’t realize how tired I was. I fell asleep instantly. I woke up the next morning feeling rested. I couldn’t believe I actually woke up on my own. Usually somebody was knocking on my door at the crack of dawn. I looked at the clock on my phone and noticed it was getting close to noon. I grabbed my computer and slipped out of my room heading for the dinning hall.
I noticed that more and more people were starting to be in the dinning hall for meals. I knew it was getting close to time for school to start back and everybody was finishing up their vacations. I went in and requested a sandwich and chips and waited while they got it together. I took my lunch and grabbed a soda out of the fridge and headed for the library. As I headed through the great room to get to the classrooms and library I noticed Grandpa sitting next to the fireplace. I decided now was as good a time as any to tell him about the visions. I walked over to where he was sitting.
“Hi Grandpa, how are you today?” I asked.
“Well, hello Luke, I’m doing quite well. How are you?” he asked.
“I wanted to tell you about the visions I had yesterday if that’s ok.”
“Of course you can, Luke, have a seat,” said Grandpa. I began telling him about the visions, and the difference between the first and second one.
“The woman calls out to me for help, Grandpa,” I told him.
“Can you tell who the woman is?” He asked.
“No, I only ever see her from the back,” I said.
“I feel like I’m being pulled to help this woman, but I have no idea where to even begin to find her,” I said.
“I’m sure in time it will become clear what you are supposed to do, Luke,�
�� Grandpa said.
“I’m sure you’re right,” I replied.
“I think we need to go after the sword soon,” I said.
“I was planning to talk to you all this evening once Dakota has risen, but yes I agree we should go soon,” he replied.
“Let’s meet downstairs this evening so we can discuss the mission,” I said.
“I will meet you all just after dark,” Grandpa replied. I told Grandpa I was going to do a little studying in the library and that we would definitely see him this evening. I sent out a text message to everyone letting them know the plans. I told them I would be in the library, and that they should all come to headquarters just after dark.
I had never been to the library before. I had seen the sign on the door in the hallway that held all of the classrooms. When I entered the hall I noticed it was completely dark except for light coming from one open classroom about halfway down. I searched the walls for a light switch with no luck. I walked slowly down the hall listening for any sound of movement or voices. As I approached the open doorway I began to hear voices in the room. I stopped and listened to see if I could tell who was in the room before I passed the doorway.
There were a number of different voices that I could hear. I knew there were several people in the room. The only voice I recognized was that of the elf, Jack, which protected me from the attack by Nhados. I listened closely to what was being said.
“Queen Ezelah has in fact been a devoted ally to this pack for many years. They have fought at her side through many battles,” I heard Jack say.
“And the Queen greatly appreciates all the pack has done for the faerie world,” a female voice said.
“I just don’t know what we faeries can do to assist the pack against such great power,” another female added. I had inched my way as close to the doorway as possible without anyone inside the room being able to see me in the hall. I couldn’t resist sneaking a peek into the room once I was close enough. I wanted to see who Jack was talking to, so I moved my head close enough to see into the room with one eye. I heard someone say,
“Somebody’s out there,” and instantly heard several little pops, like the sound of a cork shooting out of a bottle. Jack was standing on the little platform at the head of his class as though he were teaching. When I looked around the class there was nobody there. I could see a shimmering dust on top of several of the desks along the front row. It looked as though someone had sprinkled glitter on them.
“Luke, what are you doing here?” Asked Jack in a confused voice.
“I was headed to the library when I heard voices coming from your class. I was just going to stop in and say hi,” I said, not telling him the whole truth, “Who were you talking to?” I asked looking around the room once again.
“It’s safe, guys,” Jack said. Again I heard the little pops and my eyes grew large as I realized what was making the noises.
“What are they?”
The Silent Soldiers Page 25