Where Dark Things Wait: Night Creatures Book One

Chapter Ten - Induction

They reached an empty lecture theatre, where Eorl had her take a seat in the front row, while he went to the lecturer's desk at the front and turned on the computer, and then the overhead projector.

"Normally we'd do this in groups, but the last intake was a month ago and the next intake isn't for two months," Dunstan explained as he opened a video that projected onto the large screen behind him. "You'll have to do some catching up on the introductory course, especially as the Major wants you fast-tracked."

"Fast-tracked?" she asked.

"Our intake tends to fall into two groups, those who have never served before and so need the full training experience, and those who have served their respective species in some capacity who can more or less slip straight into active duty for us," he explained. "You technically fall into the 'never served' category, but you also spent five years infiltrating, hunting, and eradicating a threat, on your own, with no back up, and the Major is giving you credit for that. You fall in a halfway house where you need all the training of a green recruit but you've already made enough of an impression that the Major wants you on the team. That's why you get me, not just as the person responsible for this company's training, but also as your partner once you're assigned to active duty. My purpose is getting you mission ready, and getting you there fast.

"To begin with, you need to catch up on the training modules you've missed. Introduction to the Supernatural World is a core module that all humans must take, including those who have only just discovered they aren't quite human after all. It's also a recommended optional for others who want to broaden their understanding beyond their own species. I'll give you the reading list and suggest you either visit the library or head over to the campus bookshop where they either have what you need or can order it in. Your second core module is physical training, which you will have between 8pm and 10pm, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and between 3am and 5pm on Wednesday. That continues after basic. Unfortunately for you, you're on a nocturnal schedule because I can't put you through your paces on the assault course when the sun's up."

She snorted a laugh at that, and Eorl tipped his head, asking, "Something funny?"

"The idea that a nocturnal schedule will be unusual for me. You don't track vampire movements by hunting them during sunlit hours," she reminded him. "Occasionally wiping out a nest during the day is useful. Sunlight is an ally. But if you want to talk to informants - to the types of informants who know which vampire is hunting where - then night is the time to do it... Not that I want to hunt down vampires anymore..." she mumbled, flustered.

"You don't?" he asked, arching a pierced brow. "You might be in the wrong place then. Look, some vampires need to be hunted down. The ones who killed your family? They needed to be taken out. Vampires have good people and bad people, just like any other species. The problem? Bad vampires are stronger, faster, and more prone to give in to basic instincts and drives, and then people get hurt. They draw attention to the supernatural, they cause rifts between species, and they murder on massive scales. We can't lock them up, though. There is no prison where we can lock the more murderously inclined away for all of eternity. Sending them to hell provides the only prison designed to hold them."

"So... Why were you so angry at me for hunting vampires?" she asked. "Why call me dangerous?"

"Well, you did go for my throat," he noted, and winked, which caused heat to pool in her belly. "But I called you dangerous because I didn't think you'd be willing to make the distinction between bad and good, or try to navigate the grey area between. You hate vampires. Your first reaction to me was to run like a monster was on your heels, and to smash your way out of a police car to do it. Yet you're here. You chose to stay when we offered you the chance to leave. You went and sat in the cafeteria with a demon, an incubus, and a vampire, and you're trying to adjust your outlook."