Hunter Academy - Book 1

ANSWERS

JESSICA

We search through all the books and papers for a few more hours, when my belly lets out a loud rumble. All the guys laugh at me, and all I can do is laugh at myself.

"How about we wrap this up, get something to eat, and head back home?" Dane asks. We all agree, and start getting everything put back together. When we're finished, it looks more organized than when we started. We head out of the conference room to find Stefan. It takes us a few minutes of wandering around, and a few whispers between Sam and Leo, to find him. I have no idea what they were whispering about, but if they wanted everyone to hear, I guess they would have said it loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Did you all find the information you were looking for?" Stefan asks us. We can't all fit into the room he is in, so Sam and I are standing outside the door.

"We did. Thank you very much for allowing us to go through them. We took pictures of the things we found the most informative, if that's okay." Leo says.

"Fine. Fine." He waves his hands. "Whatever you need. Feel free to call or come back anytime you might need my help." It's obvious he's busy, and a little distracted. I laugh a little to myself, or what I thought was to myself anyway. Sam nudges my shoulder and gives me a huge grin. I just smile right back.

"He just seems like all the nerdy stereotypes you would think about someone in this line of work," I whisper to him.

"It seems so," he whispers back, and nudges my shoulder again. We all say our good-byes and thank-yous, and head back out to the Jeep. Leo looks at me, and I just arch one eyebrow. He gets in the front. That's what I thought!

"What sounds good to eat?" Sam asks as he climbs in and shuts the door behind him. We all settle and buckle up.

"I'm down for anything. I'm starving." I say.

"How about Chili's?" Leo asks. I'm already nodding my head, knowing exactly what I'm going to get.

"Sounds good, man." Dane says, settling himself beside me. Sam puts the Jeep into gear and takes off.

"Okay, so can I ask a question? If you can't or won't answer just say you can't or won't answer. Anything you tell me has to be better than the nothing I have found scouring the web, or what my friend Matt has told me." The guys all look at each other, and not for the first time, I swear they're all telepathic. They are seriously having a silent conversation. Leo and Sam look at Dane at the end as if it's his decision.

"Go ahead and ask away," Dane says, waving his hand in invitation.

"What is The Academy? Does everyone in the organization hunt supernatural creatures? Do you do anything else? How many people are there? How are you chosen?" The guys all laugh at my rapid fire questions.

"Slow down," Dane chuckles. "One question at a time." My mind works out which question I want answered first.

"Okay, what is The Academy?"

"That's not so simply answered, but I'll try." He pauses. "Okay, so simply put, The Academy is an organization that helps people. We do volunteer work, such as help out in homeless shelters, or help people repair their homes. We also help out kids who have less than desirable home lives."

"Alright, does everyone hunt like you guys do?"

"No. Us three and our council of three, and one guy in Charleston, are the only ones who know about the supernatural side of our world. And now you."

"And my Memaw, and two of my best friends, Belle and Cara." Dane looks a bit shocked.

"You told people?"

"You didn't tell me not to, and I doubt I would have listened if you had. These are the people closest to me. I don't keep secrets, and I'm an honest person who can't lie for shit." I laugh a little bit. "Kriss could always tell when I was trying to hide something from her. It made it really hard trying to plan a surprise of any kind. Trust me, they would have known something was up and called me out on it. Besides, it's not like I'm out there o a sidewalk with a sign that says 'End Of The World' or anything." He seems to mull this over.

"Fair enough. Anymore questions?" He asks with a smile. I could really gets used to these guys smiling at me. They invite a smile in return. I'm not sure I've smiled this much in months. Sam pulls into the Chili's parking lot and parks the car. "Which will have to wait until we're finished eating, because this can't be discussed in public." I nod in understanding and move to get out of the Jeep.

We all head to the entrance, Sam holding the door for all of us to go in ahead of him. There's a wait in the lobby, so we opt to sit at the bar instead. As we all settle, the guys grab menus. The bartender comes over to get drink orders. I get a Coke, and the guys all get sweet tea. While she gets our drinks, the guys look over the menu. Sam notices I'm not looking and looks at me questioningly.

"I already know what I want. I knew the second Leo said 'Chili's.' He just chuckles. The bartender comes back with our drinks, and we're ready to order. Dane orders wings, Leo orders ribs, Sam orders shrimp tacos, and I order the Quesadilla Explosion salad. We all watch the sports on the televisions, talking about our teams and what this season of football is going to be like. Leo is the only one who isn't a Chiefs fan, which is a black mark in my book, and I tease him relentlessly about liking the Seahawks. He cringes everytime I call them the Shehawks, which makes Sam and Dane laugh at him. When our food comes, we all dig in and eat, and continue ribbing each other about sports. When we finish, the bartender drops the check. I manage to grab it before Dane has a chance to. He tries to fight me for it.

"Nope. I'm taking care of this. You guys let me tag along on this trip. You won't let me give you money for gas, at least let me pay." You can tell it's taking everything in him to agree to let me. I just give my card over to the bartender without waiting for an answer. She runs it and brings back the receipt for me to sign. I leave a generous tip, and we all head out.

DANE

Snow is such an awesome person. The fact that she knew so much about sports was awesome. I had no problem answering any of her questions about The Academy. I didn't really delve too much into it, and there's so much more to us than charity work. What she doesn't know is one of the things I found while looking through all that stuff back at Stefan's. I found a prophecy. It doesn't bode well for her. The guys and I will have to do a little digging back at the bunker to see what it means before bringing it to her attention. Hopefully we can figure out a way around it. If not, Jess is in more danger than we originally thought.