The Silent Soldiers

by Travis Stinnett

was about to go wrong. I bent over and placed my hands around the bar. I positioned myself to lift the weights like the professional lifters I watched in weightlifting competitions. I braced myself and lifted with all my strength. That was when the trouble started. I lifted the weights so fast that when it reached the end of my arms length it slipped out of my hands and went flying up in the air. It crashed through the ceiling above me. I immediately ducked for cover. You know what goes up must come down. That’s just what the thousand pounds of weight did. It crashed into the floor with such force that it cracked the concrete floor on impact.

  “Absolutely incredible,” Grandpa said in shocked disbelief.

  “You are stronger and faster than we ever could have imagined,” said Rachel.

  “Sorry about the floor…and the ceiling,” I told Grandpa.

  “Don’t worry about it, Luke, it can be repaired,” he said with a smile.

  “Shall we move on?” Ava asked. “Only if Luke is up to it,” said Rachel.

  “Bring it on!” I said. Next we headed back to the spell room. Rachel asked me to climb back up on the bed. I watched as she went to the closet and took out several small boxes and brought them over. She sat them down on a small work table close to the bed.

  “We need to test your weaknesses now, Luke. I have to tell you that some of this might not be very comfortable. Some of it might in fact be painful,” Rachel explained.

  “We don’t know if your body will react to these things the same way as a normal vampire,” Grandpa said.

  “I’m ready. This has to be done so we might as well get it over with,” Rachel opened the first box and pulled out a little vial that contained an off white, milky looking substance.

  “This is garlic, Luke. As you may or may not know vampires are allergic to garlic. It will in fact burn their skin,” she explained. She proceeded to open the vial and dip a long swab into the fluid. She brought the swab close to the back of my hand very slowly. Seeing that I wasn’t having any strange reaction she rubbed a small about of it on my hand. To everyone’s amazement, nothing happened.

  “Unbelievable,” she said. Next she tried holy water and silver. Much to our absolute astonishment and disbelief, I had absolutely no reaction to any of it.

  “This is outstanding!” Grandpa exclaimed.

  “I can’t believe he doesn’t have any allergies to any of the things normal vampires react to,” said Ava.

  “He is definitely, by far, not a normal vampire by any means. Even testing all of these things want tell us what his weaknesses could be. And, when he comes into his shifting powers, those weaknesses could change all together,” said Grandpa.

  “That is very true. We are only testing the things we know vampires have reactions to. With Luke’s genetic make up he could very well react to something that doesn’t effect other vampires. His strengths are much the same way. Vampires have many other powers than the ones we are testing for. Luke could also have powers that normal vampires don’t. For now, that leaves one test to be performed,” explained Rachel.

  “And what exactly would that be?” I asked nervously.

  “Sunlight,” they all said in unison. The day had been very productive so far. The spell binding my powers had been removed. I had super speed and strength, even compared to other vampires, and I had no reaction to any of the things that normally effect other vampires. The only other thing I had to worry about was whether or not I would be able to go out into the sun.

  “Are you ready for the final test, Luke?” Grandpa asked.

  “Absolutely. Let’s get this show on the road.” I got up from the exam table and followed them yet again out into the main room. This time instead of going into one of the other doors, we went back to the elevator. Grandpa scanned us in, and we all got in together. Grandpa took a chain from around his neck containing a key. He put the key into the slot on the elevator’s control panel and turned it. The elevator began going down again. A second later the doors opened and we stepped out into another smaller room. This room was completely empty in the floor area. I noticed barred doors along two of the walls that looked much like prison cells. The other wall contained regular solid doors.

  “What is this place?” I asked.

  “This is the holding area. Sometimes we must detain supernatural creatures until they can have a fair trial before the elders,” Grandpa explained. I followed them to one of the solid doors. Rachel opened it for us to go in. This room was empty except for huge light bulbs covering the walls. Another exam table was located in the center of the room. There was a door into what appeared to be an office. This area contained a control panel that I could see thru the observation window beside the door.

  “These bulbs are used to simulate the sun. We can turn them on and off from the control room. This will let us know if you are effected by sunlight,” Grandpa explained. They told me to lie down on the bed, as they proceeded to go into the control room.

  “Just relax, Luke,” I heard Grandpa say thru a little speaker.

  “We want let anything happen to you. There is going to be a flash of very bright light. It will only be a flash. Prolonged exposure to this light could cause you to burst into flames if you are not able to withstand the sun. We definitely don’t want you to burn,” Rachel explained.

  “I’m ready,” I said. In the next second I realized two things. Number one; there was a huge blinding flash of light. Number two; I had the most important vampire abilities, and none of their weaknesses!

  6

  After the sunlight test we went back into the main room of headquarters. Grandpa told us we should sit down and discuss a few things about what we had learned that day. We followed him into another of the rooms that was located around the main room. This room turned out to be a large conference room with a huge table. Grandpa motioned for us to sit down while he began to pace nervously back and forth thinking about what he should say to us.

  “What we have learned today, about Luke, is this. Luke obviously has the super abilities of the vampire, while at the same time seems to have none of their weaknesses that we know of. This is very interesting. We haven’t heard of a single being ever having the power that Luke possesses. We can definitely see now why they would want to capture him and bring him over to evil,” Grandpa said.

  “What do you mean?” I asked very confused.

  “Luke, this is the reason your parents put you in your uncles care all these years, and why they themselves went into hiding. The power you possess could greatly be used for evil, and your parents didn’t want that for you,” Rachel explained. Now I began to realize a little more about why my parents did what they had when I was born. Apparently they knew at my birth, somehow, that I would be very powerful.

  “How exactly would they or anyone else know what I would become when I was just a baby?” I asked. Grandpa and Rachel looked at each other for a minute like they really wanted to tell me something, but weren’t sure if they should. After a period of silence and questioning stares Rachel began to explain what they were talking about.

  “Luke, long before you were born there was a powerful shifter with the gift of prophecy. This shifter foretold of a child that would be born of two races. She said this child would grow into great power that could save all races from the evil that has plagued the world for centuries. We didn’t find out about this prophecy until after your birth. When word began to spread throughout the vampire and shifter communities of you being born of both races this prophesying shifter came to your parents and told them about the prophecy. Not long after, there were a series of attacks against your parents in attempts to kidnap you and take you to the underworld to be raised for evil. The beings that came against your parents were sent by a very dark wizard that had control over the underworld. His name was Nhados.”

  “You say was. Is he…dead now?” I asked.

  “We don’t know for sure if he is dead, Luke. Your parents and Rachel fought a great battle against Nhad
os. Rachel cast a very powerful spell that banished him from the earth realm. No one has seen any sign of him since that dreadful night,” Grandpa explained.

  “We believe the spell has in fact kept Nhados at bay this long. We do not know if it will hold him forever. We do know however that Nhados has many followers to do his bidding. We believe he will send them for you if he ever finds out where you are. We also believe he has been attempting to track you for the past thirteen years,” Rachel said.

  I suddenly realized that my parents really did send me away to protect me. I had lots of anger inside for what they did, but I did understand the reasoning behind it. I longed to be the normal kid I thought I was back in Dallas with my uncle and cousin. I knew that was all a thing of the past, and there was no turning back now.

  “We have one other issue at hand, Luke,” Grandpa said.

  “And what would that be, Grandpa?” I asked.

  “Tomorrow you turn fourteen, and it is the full moon. We don’t yet know about the shifter half of your genetics. We think we have learned most of your vampire half. Now we must overcome your shifter side as well. We are going to reapply the spell that binds your powers until after you change the first time. We do not know what to expect with the change, much like we didn’t know about your vampire powers. We need to learn more about all of your