Where Dark Things Wait: Night Creatures Book One

Chapter Twenty-Two - Myths and Monsters

Too many eyes turned towards her as she joined the queue of trainees outside the designated lecture theatre. They watched her in curiosity, in accusation, and some in awe. She wondered what irritated them most; that she'd slept with a superior or that the Major had wanted her on the team in the first place, enough so to admit her even though she'd missed intake.

"Apparently that was a good run yesterday," said a woman with skin the colour of oxidised bronze, reminding Kalyna of the bark of a young willow tree; not yet craggy and rough, but smooth almost to the point of having a lustre. Her hair had a vivid orangey-yellow hue, like the autumn leaves of a weeping willow, although her eyes were the bright green of summer foliage. She had a striking appearance, from her strange colouring to her high, delicate cheekbones. She had a narrow, pointed chin, and perfect, petite nose, as well as hollowed out cheeks that were so flawlessly contoured that they almost seemed unreal.

The stranger had a good foot on Kalyna's height as well, although she was thinner. Much thinner. Kalyna wasn't overweight, not after the last five years living on the street, but the woman's waist looked several inches narrower. If she'd been human, Kalyna would've worried about her. But she wasn't human, and 'willowy' seemed to be her dominant characteristic. In fact, her slight but tall build and perfect features gave her an ethereal look, like some woodland sprite, which Kalyna guessed she could well be.

"I try," Kalyna conceded with a slight shrug as she focussed on the topic at hand rather than on her companion's appearance. "I've never needed to compete with supernatural types before. Pushing myself is... interesting."

"The way I hear it, you've competed with plenty supernatural types," a scornful voice said from further down the line. "Hunting them. Tracking them. Murdering them in their beds..."

Several others looked towards her, and she drew herself up straighter, determined to look defiant as she turned reproved eyes on James Price.

"The people I killed deserved their fate," she insisted, a chill to her tone. "They believed they could murder without consequence, and they were wrong. I was the consequence. I don't regret a single life I took, and while I regret tarnishing all vampires with the same brush, the vast majority were never on my radar. The only people I hunted were child killers, at the bare minimum, and many of them were rapists and abusers on top of that. I didn't go after people with clean records. I went after those who make me look positively angelic."

"No one made you the arbiter of justice," Price hissed, his amethyst eyes as cold as his tone.

"You're right," she agreed, nodding. "No one designated me my role, because no one had that role. My children were four and six years old when they were attacked, along with their father, while walking from a Christmas Market to our car. They were bitten, drained, and their bodies were left in a backstreet. No one could give me any answers. No one offered any justice. No human authority would admit the truth, and no vampire authority would take responsibility. My family were just one in a long line of dead left by those who killed them. So I did what I needed to ensure my own justice, and to ensure the perpetrators were finally stopped. I don't regret that. I will never regret that."

"It wasn't your place," the vampire argued, folding his arms over his chest.

"So whose was it?" she demanded. "I was raised human. I had no contacts with any vampire authority to ask for help. The mortal authorities couldn't close the case and no supernatural law enforcement stepped in to assist. Unless supernaturals are going to offer support to mortals or mixed-bloods when they fall prey to us, then we need to expect that sometimes some will retaliate."

"And what about all the times in history when humans have killed us?" Price prompted; his expression stony. "What about the times they have hung or burned innocents as witches, or consorts of Satan, or abused them for being 'possessed'? Would you say the same of human culprits? That if human authorities refuse to step in, we can make our own justice?"