put yourself in great danger for the second time by going to the underworld alone,” he said as his relief turned to anger.
“Grandpa, I will tell you everything. Right now I have something very important to tell you. Matt is going to pick up Ava right now, and she has a prisoner with her. We must prepare for their return,” I told him.
“Prisoner? Who have you taken prisoner, Luke?” Grandpa asked.
“You will never believe this, but we have brought your wife Elizabeth back from the underworld. She claims she has been a prisoner all these years,” I said as I watched Grandpa’s face fill with anguish at the thought of his traitor of a wife coming back to the mansion.
18
I told Grandpa about finding Grandma chained to the wall in pretty bad shape. I also told him everything she told us about never betraying him or the pack. Grandpa was speechless as he stared down at me.
“Why did you go to the underworld by yourself, Luke? It was very irresponsible of you to take the risk,” said Grandpa. I started by telling him about the meeting I interrupted between Jack and the faeries. I then told him all about Ava and I being taken to the faerie world to meet with the Queen. Grandpa listened intently as I explained the events of the day. When I finished telling him everything he was quiet for a few seconds. When he spoke again all he could say was,
“faeries!” I waited for him to say something else, and when he didn’t I asked,
“What’s wrong Grandpa?”
“Luke, you must never trust the faeries. They may seem wonderful in the beginning, but their good deeds only benefit themselves in the end. Even if it causes harm to the ones they are helping.”
“That’s the same thing Ava said, but we were already in the underworld when she decided to share the information.”
“Luke, I understand that the faeries tricked you into doing this. And I am greatly relieved that you were able to obtain the Koichi sword unharmed, but you still have much to learn. You simply can not go off on your own. You have to rely on your team to help you.”
“I know Grandpa,” was all I could say as I hung my head in shame. I was saved from the uncomfortable situation as Matt burst through the doors into the great room.
“Luke, Ava has taken her straight to the holding area. I think we should go down and make sure everything is in order,” Matt said. I stood and headed toward the door. I stopped just before going out and turned back toward Grandpa. He was just standing there staring at me.
“Grandpa, you have to come with us. You know Jenna can find out if she is telling the truth,” I told him. Grandpa closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he finally opened them he slowly made his way over to us.
“Matt, we need Jenna and Dakota to meet us down there,” I said.
“Way ahead of you, dude. I text them to meet us there on our way back to the mansion,” said Matt.
“You’re awesome, Matt!” I exclaimed.
“I know, man, I been trying to tell you that for years,” Matt laughed.
“What exactly happened while I was gone?” I asked as we waited for the elevator.
“Well, we don’t really know at this point. We thought we were being attacked. Vampires jumped the fence all over the property at once and started slowly toward the mansion. Security informed me of the situation and I gathered everyone to hold them off. We shifted and began chasing the vampires all over the property, but they never engaged us in battle. We continued to chase them until they eventually gave up and jumped back over the fence. We thought they were just messing around with us, or testing our forces. When we reviewed the security tapes from the mansion we realized the vampires were just a distraction. We watched as Nhados entered the mansion. He used magic to gain access to the holding area. He actually came to rescue Adriana. I am completely puzzled as to why he would take on the pack to rescue her,” Grandpa explained.
While Grandpa was bringing me up to speed on what happened we entered the elevator and began the descent. The doors now opened to the holding area. The rest of the gang stood there looking into the cell where they had my grandmother. They had removed the chains from her wrists before locking her in the cell.
“Elizabeth, why have you returned after all these years?” Grandpa asked.
“Sam, I know you don’t believe me, but it was never my choice to leave you,” my grandmother said as tears started falling down her cheeks.
“We will see about that,” I said before I jumped into action. Moving faster than any of the others could see I opened the cell door and grabbed my grandmother up. I strapped her to the exam table we used for Adriana.
“Do your thing, Jenna,” I said as we watched Matt and Dakota hook her up to the machine that would allow Jenna to access her mind.
Jenna acted as a polygraph machine to let us know if my grandmother was telling the truth to the questions we asked her. I explained to her what we were going to do before we began with the questioning.
“What would cause you to betray us, your family?” Grandpa asked first.
“Samuel I would never betray you or the pack. Nhados captured me and took me to the underworld. He tortured me into telling him about the prophesies. I have always loved you, Sam, and I always will,” Grandma told him as she began to sob.
“She is telling the truth,” said Jenna.
“But I watched you run into the forest the night you disappeared. Nhados was nowhere around,” Grandpa said as tears of his own escaped and made their way down his face.
I watched as Grandma closed her eyes holding back more tears as she began to explain.
“You didn’t see me running away. Nhados is more powerful than you can imagine. He has found a way to combine his wizard powers with his shifting powers. By combining these powers he can shift into anyone or anything he chooses. You saw what Nhados wanted you to see that night. You thought you saw me running away, but what you really saw was Nhados shifted to my form running into the woods. He wanted you to think I abandoned you and the pack to join him. It seems as though he succeeded. I have longed for you to rescue me all these years, Sam.”
“Why did Nhados leave you and the sword unguarded to rescue Adriana?” I asked. I watched as Grandma began to smile.
“Well, Nhados knew that I had a vision. He whipped me until I could hardly bear the pain. The vision was of you and Ava coming to get the sword with the faeries. I knew I couldn’t tell Nhados about my real vision, or he would have captured you both with ease. Instead I convinced him the vision was of Adriana capturing you and bringing you to him. I explained to him that Adriana was the key to bringing you over to evil. It worked out better than I thought when he took every available guard and headed for the mansion. I knew when you would come, Luke. I started yelling for help in hopes that you would hear me and come to my rescue,” Grandma explained. We all looked to Jenna.
“Everything she says is true,” said Jenna. We all watched as Grandpa removed the straps holding Grandma to the table and took her into his arms. They hugged each other and began to let out heavy sobs together. I motioned for everyone to follow me so we could give them some privacy. I knew they had lots to catch up on, and would want to be alone. We all headed back up the elevator together.
“Man, what happened to you?” Dakota asked. I pointed to the sword attached to my back as if nobody had noticed it.
“I can’t believe you went after the sword without us,” said Matt.
“It wasn’t our fault. The faeries warped us to their world and had it all planned out. I don’t know exactly what they had up their sleeve by helping us get it, but once Luke grabbed it the faeries just disappeared,” explained Ava. We got off the elevator and went into the conference room. I told them the whole story of the day with the faeries and our trip to the underworld. After that, Matt told us what happened at the mansion while we were gone. It was mainly for Ava’s benefit because I had already learned what happened from Grandpa.
“I’ve been thinking since we got back to the m
ansion about something and it is really getting to me,” I said.
“What’s up?” Jenna asked.
“Well, Nhados waltzed in here and rescued Adriana from the holding area completely undetected. All he had to do was throw out some vampire interference and the mansion was left wide open. We have to find a way to keep him away from the mansion or none of us will ever be safe. Don’t you think he is going to be super pissed to find out that not only did I get the sword, but that his psychic has also been taken?” I asked.
“That’s a very good point,” said Jenna.
“I haven’t thought about that,” said Dakota.
“I can’t understand how Nhados keeps getting passed my mother’s protection spells,” said Ava.
“Has she put up any new ones since we found out about Adriana being a traitor? If not, that is how he is getting in,” said Matt.
“Ava, you and your mother need to get together to work out some new spells to put up to keep Nhados and his army from getting back in here,” I said.
“Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to do it tonight if possible,” said Dakota.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t put it past Nhados to attack anytime after he finds out there is no chance of bringing me to his side now. Ava, talk to your mom and let us know if there is anything we can do to help. Jenna, you should help your dad with security duty tonight until they can get the new spells up. It would be great if you could go
The Silent Soldiers Page 29
