“Of course we are!” Jax says eyeing Levi like he’s lost it. “Has putting your human glamour back on stopped your brain from functioning or something?” He smirks.
“No dickhead.” He shoots back with no heat, “check for yourself.”
We all check our own phones.
“Well shit. How the fuck is that possible?” I ask just as we reach the classroom.
“I have a feeling it’s got something to do with those swords!” Maverick says his eyes un-focusing as he starts to try to puzzle out the mystery.
Chapter Fourteen
“In you come you lot, you’re very nearly late.” A kindly looking man says as he holds open the door.
We all take our seats, ignoring the looks thrown our way. It’s getting seriously old. Levi’s obviously had enough though because he lets loose a quiet growl and flashes a good amount of fang at them and they instantly snap their attention back to the front. The professor eyes us curiously but chooses to move on.
“Now as you are all aware Earth is not the only world or Realm. . .” He pauses as the door opens and two guys walk in casually chatting and not in the least bit apologetic.
A quick glance around at the other kids in the class shows several of them wincing and I focus back on the professor to see how he’s going to react to this interruption.
“This is the second time you two have been late. I was lenient the first time it happened since you were new here but I did warn you.” He says sternly as his eyes flash black, signalling that he’s a vampire. “You have an extra two hours of combat training every morning before classes for the rest of the term and you are no longer welcome in this class. It’s up to the other instructors if they decide to let you in theirs. If not then you will be sent home. Go to the Directors office now and explain what you’ve done.” He orders firmly leaving them and me gaping as he dismisses them entirely and turns back to face us.
“Thank fuck we weren’t late!”I send down our bond, making a note that we really need to remember to be on time to this lesson. I don’t want to get kicked out now.
“Where was I?” The instructor ponders for a second as his eyes stop flashing black with his obvious anger, “Ah yes, there are several different realms. The Earth realm, Demon realm and the Fae realm. These realms are all vastly different but each species intermingles in the other realms as is their wish. There are delicacies and goods that are only found in certain realms and whereas it is more common for vampires to settle in the demon world and shifters to settle in the fae world for example. This isnot a rule. I have a demon friend who lives in the fae world for example. All of the species including the subspecies pick and choose where they want to settle. Before the war with the order. . .”
Several hands shoot up as I lean forward in interest at the mention of the war I witnessed thanks to Nyx and the purple assholes.
“I will get back to the Order in a minute. As I was saying, before the war the realms were in constant turmoil with battles erupting regularly. The threat of the order bought all supernaturals together though and whilst we won that battle the Order have not been eradicated and so we continue to work together against the larger threat to our species.” He looks at us sombrely and a shiver goes down my spine.
“So they aren’t supernatural then?” Someone asks sounding confused and the instructor shakes his head.
“On the contrary, they are entirely human.”
His declaration is met with snickers and disbelieving looks. Me and my guys remain stoic, we all saw that vision and the utter destruction that the Order can cause. If it wasn’t for Nyx and her men the war would’ve been lost. Even with them the devastation was extreme.
“I can assure you that they are nothing to scoff at.” He snaps and everyone falls silent, “They may be human but they have somehow managed to develop weapons that work against us and technology that renders our gifts completely useless. That is why we put so much emphasis on your combat classes. You need to be able to defend yourselves without using your gifts or shifts as is the case for the shifters. The main objective of the Order is to enslave us and use us for their own desires and purposes. If they cannot do that they eradicate us.”
He lets us sit for a minute or two to absorb what he’s saying and the severity of it and turns to the board behind him starting to draw a design. It starts off looking like the peace symbol which I find ironic since the order are anything but peaceful. The vertical line of the peace symbol has been turned into a crucifix and instead of there being a line around the symbol in the shape of a circle, there is the inscription,De finibus regni obtinere Altera daemonibus.It circles around it in a similar fashion, cutting through the cross just underneath the horizontal lines of it and then finally, circling the entire design including the top of the cross are two snakes, one chasing the other in an endless pursuit but never touching.
“This is the symbol of the order. If you are ever doing an investigation and this symbol appears, you retreat immediately and call in one of the specialist teams to take over. Unless of course you’ve chosen to undergo extra training and become a part of one of those specialist teams yourself. The majority of you however will be dealing with supernatural rogues and more mundane things like territory disputes and domestic disturbances. In short you are the supernatural police. This class is not just for information on the realms but also where you will learn safety protocols, our laws as well as containment and extermination protocols.”
Extermination as in killing? I guess it shouldn’t really shock me. The initiation to get into the school was killing a bunch of rogue vampires. I guess it just threw me for second. It’s one thing to do it in self-defence it’s an entirely different thing to potentially be sent out on jobs where the sole reason is to kill. The only saving grace I guess is that we know for certain that they will be guilty of the charges that are held against them and have hurt innocents.
The supernatural world is a brutal place that runs by a completely different set of rules and laws. It’s going to take my human thinking brain a little while to get over that. I can already feel my way of thinking changing though. Even as early as defeating those rogue vamps on the way here, I did that without blinking and I haven’t thought twice about how brutal we really acted. That’s the thing though when it comes down to it I am supernatural, my instincts and reactions have always been more brutal than most but now I am allowed to be that way and it’s that, that will take some getting used to.
“We will focus more on that next lesson since we are starting to run out of time now. For now I’ll give you a bit more information about the realms. Each realm has its own climate and terrain vastly different from each other and Earth. As well as the realms being different, quite often there is a vast difference between each section within each realm. They of course have different foods and ways of living as well as different monarchies or several different monarchies I should say as each one is as big as earth or bigger.
“There are also training academies very similar to ours, but focusing more on their own realms whereas our academy focuses on all of the realms. During your study here you may be asked to study at one or both of them to gain experience and extra training. Especially if you intend to be one of the specialist teams that deal with the Order and the worst offenders. The academy in the Fae realm is called Black Onyx Academy and the demon realm one is called Blood Moon Academy. We will learn more about how their training differs from ours and more about the laws and realms later on.” He looks over at us as he leans back sitting on the edge of his desk and crossing his arms, “We have just enough time to talk a little bit about weapons. This lesson has been a bit all over the place but I promise that we will be going into each topic in more depth as we progress. I like to give you all a little taste of what’s to come.”
“So a brief introduction to weapons. You’ve all been through the initiation,” he rolls his eyes.
He clearly does not approve of it and my interest peaks, exactly how many of the staff don’t agree with that barbaric initiation? Something to ask Nicole after dinner I guess. As soon as initiation is mentioned the atmosphere in the room immediately gets tense and uncomfortable. There’s clearly some trauma left over from everyone’s experiences. From what Becky briefly said when she dropped us at our roomeveryone arrives in groups. It just so happens that we had the advantage of knowing each other and how we all fight. I can imagine that it’s a lot harder when you don’t know these things and it makes me wonder how many of the people that arrived in those vehicles and went through initiation actually arrived at the school. My heart sinks and anger burns in my veins.
“So you have probably figured out that guns will only work in slowing most supernaturals down, as is the norm with this sort of thing there are exceptions to the rule. These exceptions go both ways. There are certain supernaturals that a gun could potentially kill but you would have to have bullets made out of certain materials or you risk just pissing them off more. The only material that will work in exterminating any supernatural is a stone that’s a mix between obsidian and sodalite with gold veins running through it. There is another pure black stone that works one hundred percent on every known supernatural but it is incredibly rare and hasn’t been found for years and years. There is an example of this down in the library. The swords of Nyx were said to have been wielded by the goddess herself in the great battle against the Order.”
The guys all turn to stare at me their eyes dipping to my covered fore arms.
“Should we check to see if they’re still there?” Jax murmurs.
