The Silent Soldiers

by Travis Stinnett

powers before you can have them permanently. We still do not know about your vampire hunger and whether or not you must feed on blood, or if you can eat normal human food.”

  “Well I can tell you I really could go for a cheeseburger and fries right now. I have really worked up an appetite today,” I said with a little laugh.

  “So, you are actually craving human food instead of wanting blood?” Ava asked.

  “Well, yeah, I don’t want blood. The thought of drinking it definitely makes me LOOSE my appetite. GROSS!” I said.

  “That is wonderful news, Luke,” Grandpa said very happily, “It will be great to find out you can survive on normal food and not blood.”

  “We must not let anyone outside the four of us know about our findings here today. If word of Luke’s power reaches the outside world he could be in great danger,” Grandpa said.

  “Ok, so we all agree on this. Nobody can find out about me. Unless we are down here alone, we need to have the spell in place. I can live with that if it will possibly save my life,” I said. Rachel reapplied the spell to suppress my powers and we decided to keep all of this to ourselves. I couldn’t wait to talk to Matt about all of this. There was no way I was going to keep this from him. Grandpa said after the change we would remove the spell for testing and training for a while until we had more time to figure everything out. We headed for the elevator, and more importantly the dinning hall. I was starving!

  Back in the foyer I parted ways with Grandpa and Rachel. Ava decided to tag along and grab a bite to eat with me in the dinning hall. Grandpa told me he would see me again later, and that Ava would probably have lots to tell me about what went on around the mansion. Ava and I reached the dinning hall and I grew very excited to see Matt at one of the tables. He was shoveling in a monster sized amount of food, like I had that morning, like it might run away from him. Matt and I had always had good appetites, but I don’t think I had ever seen him put away food like he was now.

  “Hey, Matt, glad you decided to join the land of the living man,” I said as we approached the table where he was sitting by himself. He was the only one eating in the dinning hall and I wondered why they needed all of these tables if nobody ever used them.

  “Who’s your friend, Luke?” Matt asked. “She’s hot!” he exclaimed as I took the seat next to him.

  “I’m sorry, Matt, this is Ava, Ava, this is Matt,” I said. Ava and her mother are witches. They live here at the mansion,” I said.

  “Yeah, my mom and I live here. She works and I go to school here,” she explained.

  “They have a school here?” Matt and I asked at the same time.

  “Yeah it’s not like a regular school; it’s for all the supernatural kids whose parents work here. We learn to use our powers a little, and learn all about the different supernatural creatures that exist. We also do normal education stuff too, but mostly it’s supernatural.” Ava went on to explain that everyone who worked at the mansion lived here, and that all of their children attended classes. She said there were about fifteen kids all together.

  “Most everybody goes away for the summer, but with the full moon being tomorrow night a lot of the shifters will be back some time tomorrow.”

  “How long have you lived here?” I asked.

  “I have lived here all my life. My mom moved here after your parents went into hiding. She knew she was pregnant with me, and didn’t want anything to happen to us if someone found out she had created the spell for your parents. We have been here ever since,” she said.

  “That’s cool,” I said not really knowing what else to say about it. Ava asked what I wanted to eat and left for the kitchen to place our order. I took the opportunity to talk to Matt for a second.

  “Dude you will never believe what happened today,” I said.

  “Man, after what happened to me last night, I would probably believe just about anything,” Matt said.

  “I wonder when your dad will get here. Have you heard from him?”

  “I haven’t heard anything yet, but we should talk to Grandpa and see if he knows. I can’t wait until he gets here and we can run together,” Matt told me looking and sounding totally excited.

  “What do you think about Ava?” I asked kind of shyly. Matt let out a little laugh and said,

  “I told you she was hot. You like her don’t you?” Matt asked.

  “I just met her today while I was looking for your room. She told me where you were. Man, we have so much to catch up on. Let’s go up to my room after we eat and talk. I’m sure Ava can tell us a little more about what the heck is going on here,” I said just as we noticed Ava coming out of the kitchen. Our lunch arrived shortly after Ava came back to the table, and we ate pretty much in silence. We all had a lot on our minds, and I couldn’t wait to get upstairs and talk about things with my cousin and my new friend.

  “Let’s go back to my room,” I said.

  “Ok,” Matt and Ava said together. We got back to my room and the first thing I noticed was that my bed had been made perfectly, and all of my dirty clothes and towels had been carried away. Someone had left a small stack of books lying on my bedside table. I motioned that they should have a seat around the fireplace. It was way too hot for a fire to be going being that it was summer and all. I walked over to the bedside table and picked up the books. I noticed they were the size of regular text books we used in school. The book covers read; Vampires 101, Shape Shifters 101, and Witchcraft 101. The more I looked at them the more I realized that’s exactly what these were. I carried the books back over to my friends and sat in one of the empty arm chairs.

  “What are these, Ava? And what do you think they are for?”

  “Oh, man, looks like they have you signed up for summer school just like me.” Ava told me.

  “Are you freaking kidding me?” I asked

  “Dude, I hope they don’t have me in summer school,” Matt said with a little nervous giggle.

  “Why don’t you run to your room and see if they left you any books. Then you will know for sure.”

  We waited for Matt to run to his room to check. While he was gone I looked through the Vampire 101 book. A couple minutes later Matt burst through the door with a look of utter shock plastered on his face and the same three books under his arm.

  “Looks like we will all be in the same classes for the summer,” Ava said very excited.

  “Man this sucks. I thought we were only going to be here for a couple weeks for vacation. I didn’t think we were staying the whole summer to go to school!” Matt exclaimed a little hysterically.

  “Calm down a little bit bro. I’m sure there is a logical explanation for all of this,” I said. Matt took his seat and I was ready to get down to business.

  “Ok, let’s catch up on everything that has happened since we arrived at the Mansion,” I said. I started telling Matt everything that happened yesterday evening after we arrived, up to the point of hearing the wolf howl and falling asleep. Next it was his turn.

  “Well, I wasn’t feeling very good so I went to my room and crawled in bed for a few minutes. It wasn’t long before Grandpa came in and explained what was happening. He told me I was about to change into a wolf. Can you believe it? Well I couldn’t believe it either and laughed at him. He was serious, man. He told me to watch as he changed into a wolf right there next to my bed. I didn’t know whether to scream for help or run like hell. Anyway, he immediately changed back to his normal self and told me I needed to come with him. By this time it felt as though my bones were turning to liquid or something. We barely made it out to the back garden before I started to change, and oh my, it was exhilarating,” Matt explained.

  “What happened next?” I asked excitedly.

  “Well, I don’t remember a whole lot after that other than running super fast alongside two other wolves. One I recognized as Grandpa from his change in my room. The other was a much smaller wolf with a light brown coat.

  “That must have bee
n Adriana. She is your Grandpas’ secretary, and second in command until your dad gets back, Matt,” Ava said.

  “What do you mean until my dad gets back?” Matt asked. I could see the confusion on his face, but it all began to make complete sense to me. I began to tell Matt what I was thinking.

  “Grandpa is the leader of the pack here in Eerie.”

  “Actually, he is the leader of the whole Little Rock pack,” Ava cut in. I continued. I told them that Matt’s father, who was Grandpas’ oldest child, was second in command under Grandpa.

  “Remember all of those times over the years that your dad left for long “business trips?” I asked. “Yeah, he left us in the care of that hot babysitter, Becca,” Matt said starting to understand what I was getting at.

  “That’s right, and I bet if we looked up all the dates that he was gone, most of them would be during full moons,” I said.

  “Man, that explains so much,” Matt said.

  “You guys never knew any of this?” Ava asked.

  “We had no idea. Uncle Charles never told us anything,” I said.

  “Matt, your dad has been at the mansion for every pack meeting that I know of. I have seen him for most of the full moon runs as well,” Ava proclaimed. Next it was my turn to talk. I started telling Matt all about the underground headquarters. I told him about the locked down entrance, and all the cool stuff that was down there. I started to tell him what all had happened to me that