walked in silence back into the mansion and up the stairs toward our rooms. I told everyone they were welcome to join me in my room if they liked. The only one that took me up on the offer was Dakota. I showed Dakota his room, and then we headed down to mine.
I offered Dakota a soda, but he reminded me that vampires can only ingest blood. This led to the subject of why exactly he had followed me to my room.
“What are you exactly?” Dakota asked with a confused look on his face.
“I’m part vampire and part shifter,” I said with a smile.
“I couldn’t figure you out, man, I knew I sensed vampire in you. Then you threw me for a loop when you changed into that wolf,” he said with a laugh. Just then there was a knock at my door.
“Come in,” I called, figuring Matt had decided to join us after all. To my surprise it was Professor Vance.
“I came to invite Dakota to have dinner with me,” he said.
“I was wondering if someone was going to show me where the snacks were before I had to go and munch on one of my friends, Dakota said with a smile.
“The first thing you will learn around here, Dakota, is that we never feed from anyone that lives at the mansion unless they are willing,” said Professor Vance.
“So we have to go off campus to feed?” Dakota asked a little disappointed.
“Not exactly,” said the professor, “Mr. Carrington owns a blood bank. He keeps a nice supply down in the kitchen. When you get moved into your room they will set you up with a refrigerator and a microwave for your personal use,” Professor Vance explained.
“Oh, cool. TV dinners,” said Dakota. We all three started to laugh at that. Professor Vance and Dakota left the room in search of their dinner which left me alone. I began to think about the events of the day, and the conversation I overheard Adriana having earlier with the mysterious person on the other end of the phone. The more I thought about it the more I realized I needed to find out what she was up to.
I decided to test out my vampire senses and abilities to spy on Adriana to see what I could find out. I peeked out of my room to see if anyone was in the hall before I snuck down past the stairs to Adriana’s room. I put my ear to the door listening closely for any movement or voices coming from inside. After I had been listening for several minutes I decided nobody was in the room and decided to search the mansion.
I quietly searched the entire mansion with no luck. I decided she must be outside. I thought for several minutes before I made up my mind to continue my search outdoors. I didn’t want to upset Grandpa by going outside alone, especially in the middle of the night. I went out through the pool room into the garden making sure I stopped frequently to listen for voices and footsteps. I definitely didn’t want to be caught out here. I also focused on staying in the shadows so I wouldn’t get caught by the security lights and cameras. I made my way slowly around the perimeter of the mansion as I continued to listen all around. I reached the end of the building and listened for any sounds coming from around the corner before I risked taking a look.
I noticed that this end of the mansion was quite dark compared to the back. I didn’t hear anything so I moved just enough to see with one eye around the corner. I searched the yard for any sign of movement. I wondered to myself why the security lights would be turned off as I began to sense that something was wrong. This end of the mansion was completely dark. I couldn’t understand why security hadn’t already investigated the situation. I could see perfectly well with the vamp vision and realized my vision was even stronger than my hearing. I caught a glimpse of movement along the edge of the woods and focused on that area. I froze in place when I noticed what had caught my attention. A medium sized brown colored wolf was creeping along the wood line concealed by the shadows of the trees. I instantly recognized the wolf to be Adriana from the pack runs we had over the past few months.
I made myself move and ducked back around the corner. I quickly fished my cell phone out of my pocket and sent a quick text to Jenna asking her to tell her dad to check the security lights. I checked to make sure my phone was on silent so Adriana wouldn’t hear it go off. Jenna replied asking what’s up. I sent back that I wasn’t sure yet but something was up with the lights being off. I stuffed the phone back in my pocket and peeked around the corner again just as the wolf turned and headed deeper into the woods. I watched it go out of sight before I shot across the yard so fast there would be no way the cameras could have showed anything. I stopped just inside the cover of the woods. I listened and searched through the darkness. I kept my distance from the wolf as I followed her a little deeper into the woods.
I continued to watch the wolf as it crept slowly. Suddenly the wolf stopped dead in its tracks and quickly snapped its head back to look in my direction. My heart began to beat so fast that I could hear it pounding in my ears as I jerked my head back behind the tree that was concealing the rest of my body. I stood there with my back pressed against it as I tried to calm myself. I nearly let out a startled scream when a hand came around the tree and clamped down on my throat so fast and hard cutting off my air. I was frozen with fear as I was lifted into the air and turned around to face my attacker. I looked down into the fiercely dangerous eyes of Adriana.
“Why in the hell are you following me?” She asked with a growl. I couldn’t answer her. For one I didn’t really know what to tell her the reason was, and two she still had my air cut off with her hand clamped on my throat. I just hung there in the air staring down at her.
“You are not supposed to be out here alone at night. I should march you straight to your grandfather, but being out here alone couldn’t be more perfect. My master will be so pleased with me when he finds out I have captured you for him,” she hissed, “Now you will get what is coming to you.”
My vision began to get fuzzy from the lack of oxygen to my brain. I knew I had to act quickly before she did what she was threatening by turning me over to Nhados. She didn’t have to tell me who her master was. I slashed my nails across her face as I closed my eyes and focused on changing. I landed on the ground on my side and immediately jumped up and looked up at Adriana with a growl. I noticed she had blood dripping down her face and realized there were four slashes running diagonally from her hairline down to her chin on the opposite side. I watched as she too quickly changed into the brown wolf I had been following. I could smell the blood as it dripped from the wolf’s chin onto the leaves below. That let me know that I had really gotten her attention. She would think twice before she grabbed me again.
We both looked quickly as we heard a howl coming from back at the mansion. I knew immediately it was Grandpa’s howl. Jenna must have talked to her dad, who in turn contacted my grandfather to let him know something was going on. When I looked back toward the wolf, Adriana had disappeared.
“Chicken,” I thought as I heard the wolves running through the woods behind me. I half expected her to say something back in my head as several of the pack members, led by Grandpa, approached me suddenly.
“Luke, what are you doing out here?” Grandpa asked. I could tell he was very angry and wanted to yell at me, but he stayed calm and waited on my reply.
“I would rather us go back to the mansion so I can talk to you alone, Grandpa,” I said in what I hoped was a firm voice. “You need to look for Adriana and bring her in so she can tell you why she attacked me out here,” I told him. Everyone in the pack could hear what I was saying but they waited for Grandpa to give the order. Grandpa let out a series of barks and yips and the rest of the pack set off in different directions with their noses to the ground looking for her scent. I turned and headed back toward the mansion and Grandpa followed.
When I got back to the mansion I changed back to my human form and went in through the door in the garden. I didn’t stop until I sat down in one of the chairs in the great room. I heard Grandpa close the door behind him as he came in. Instead of coming in and taking a seat he walked over and glared down from his position in front of
me.
“I want to know why you disobeyed me and went outside alone,” he said in the same angry voice from before.
“I know I should not have gone out alone, but that is not the problem at hand here. I do apologize for disobeying you, Grandpa.” Grandpa walked over to the chair across from me and sat down on the edge with his elbows on his knees. He sat there for a minute staring at me. He seemed to calm down a bit before he spoke.
“Tell me what’s going on,” he said in a softer and much calmer tone. I started by telling him about the conversation I overheard yesterday between Adriana and the mystery person on the other end of the phone. I told him that after everyone else went to bed tonight I decided to do a little spying on her to see if I could find out anything else. I continued to tell grandpa about looking for Adriana, and about following her in wolf form into the woods. As I told him the details of Adriana’s attack, I could see the anger rising back into his face. After I completed the entire story Grandpa sat there in silence as he thought about everything I told him. It took several minutes before he finally spoke again.
“I’m not happy with your actions tonight, Luke,” he started, “But I am very proud of your work. You have single
The Silent Soldiers Page 21
