Page 12 of The Vampire and the Case of the Perilous Poltergeist

We rotated through our shotgun and rifle time. The academy used Remington 870s and Colt AR 15s, which were fun to shoot. We had the same models back at the Nomo’s office though I’d yet to see them out of the gun safe since the werewolf incident.

It was bizarre to think how far I’d come from being a Brit who’d never held a gun to being comfortable firing a variety of weapons. I was proud of me, even if my parents wouldn’t ever be. I squelched the thought: there was no time for self-pity.

Just before lunch we were told about our second squad challenge. Squad challenges were designed to be fun, team-building exercises that earned us minor rewards. They also allowed those of us who were a smidge competitive to let off steam and had the extra benefit of earning us some cohort kudos, as well as some time off campus.

The challenge was scheduled for after lunch. We had to go into Sitka, locate five different totem poles, have a squad photo taken with each of them, then return to the academy. Whoever returned first with the photos won an extra hour’s sleep in the morning and could skip physical training. An hour extra in bedwas a small thing to look forward to – but I mostly wanted to make sure Thorsen didn’t win it. Yes, I wasthatpetty.

If the supernats had made up a squad we’d have won easily, but we were split amongst the four squads so it was equal footing. The squads were divided as much as possible between men and women. My squad put together a plan during lunch; it looked like today I was having grilled-chicken pasta salad with a side of sneaky strategy.

As we finished eating, we agreed to go and get our phones. I ran up to my room, flung myself on the bed and reached for my phone in my footlocker. As my fingers closed around the device, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end and anxiety curled in my gut – together with the certainty that I wasn’t alone.Trust your gut.

There was a shadowy figure in the corner of the dorm. It was roughly human shaped, although its features were somehow obscured. My brain tried to fill in the features but failed, and a shiver of fear ran down my spine.

I pushed myself up to a sitting position, feet on the floor, ready to fight – or to run.

As my nerves stretched taut, a series of low moans came from the apparition. My sharp hearing could almost pick up words but I couldn’t quite make them out; it was like there was some weird disconnect between my ears and my brain.

As I continued to sit there, staring stupidly and not responding, the spirit grew agitated. It spoke again more forcefully but I still couldn’t understand it. All traces of fear left my body as I concentrated on its desperate attempt to communicate. Regretfully I shook my head. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t hear you.’

Frustrated, it swirled around the room and under a bed at the far end. The bed lifted three feet off the ground and slammedback down, and a foul scent like rotting eggs and meat filled the air. The ghost rushed towards me and then vanished.

My lethargic heart gave a solid thump as I tried to analyse what had just happened. For some reason my lizard brain hadn’t been afraid.Trust your gut.

Right. Well, the weird thing was that my gut was saying that maybe the poltergeist wasn’t as malevolent as we’d thought…

Chapter 10

I wiped my hands down my uniform pants and hurriedly grabbed my phone, shifting my eyes around the room in case the poltergeist came back. I wished I had time to talk with Sidnee but she was meeting with her team.

I pulled myself together, hurried down to join my squad and together we hit the ground running. We were now equipped with Satnav, should we need it; there were no express rules against it, so at least we’d know where we were going if we were somehow separated.

Jones, who was in our squad, was local and he knew where to find five of the closest totem poles. Over lunch he’d sketched out a route for us to take. Another of Blake’s golden nuggets was that having a local was a real advantage; one of our earliest lessons was about using local intel. There was a reason law enforcement often used confidential informants.

We set off under Jones’ direction. It was over a mile jog but we were relatively fresh; even so, I constantly had to remind myself to stay in the middle of the pack to avoid suspicion. My ego wouldn’t let me run at the back, but I happily kept pace with Danny. Jones, whose lanky build hid a competitive long-distance runner, took the lead easily. He was almost visibly increasing in confidence as we moved.

We had one of Thorsen’s besties in our squad, Frederick Miller, and I watched him doing his level best to keep up with Jones. Presumably he’d intended to be the front runner but Jones’ long strides stopped him. I kept a cynical eye on Miller; I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if Thorsen hadn’t given him instructions to sabotage our group. Hopefully Miller’s self-interest would win out, though I wouldn’t have bet on it.

As we trotted to our first totem pole, my phone vibrated with a text from Connor. I suppressed a girlish squeal of delight and checked it.

I emailed you what I could find about poltergeists. Most of the lore is vague, so not a lot of good info. I’m still digging into it. Love you.

Love you,I tapped back, keeping my response short since texting while jogging was surprisingly hard. I was salivating to check my emails and dive into the information, but this was one of the times where I needed to live in the moment. I was in the middle of a competition and pride wouldn’t allow me to give it less than a hundred percent.

I slipped my phone back into my pocket and pushed a little harder to catch up with Danny. He gave me an inquisitive look. ‘Boyfriend,’ I said.

‘Ah.’ Danny was a chatty soul.

It started to rain. It could rain here even in late autumn but that was better than ice or snow. I should have been better prepared: oh well, I wouldn’t melt.

We ran faster and soon saw the first totem pole. Jones arranged us and I asked a tourist to take our squad photo with my phone, then we were off to totem number two. Jones had taken us into the Sitka National Historic Park where there were a lot of totem poles, so luckily, it was close by.

We rushed through the park, successfully hitting pole after pole. With all five photos secured, we started back towards the academy at top speed – tophumanspeed. As we were leaving the park we passed another squad that had evidently had the same idea, but the other two teams were nowhere to be seen. Fingers crossed they hadn’t got back before us; I could really use that extra hour to investigate what the fuck was going on with that damned poltergeist.

Happily, we beat Thorsen’s squad to win the contest by three whole minutes. I couldn’t restrain my victory dance; I was more than willing to shove our success in his face, one wild hip gyration at a time. Yes, I was provoking him but he did stupid things when provoked and getting him kicked out of the academy was almost as much a target of mine as finding out about poltergeists and successfully completing the programme.

We had won the extra hour in the morning and I intended to make the most of it in the academy library. My squad’s spirits were high and almost all the other recruits congratulated us on our victory when we ate together. I felt warm and fuzzy when people took the time and effort to speak to Jones personally and praise him for his leadership. Clearly I wasn’t the only one who had a soft spot for the timid guy.

Dinner ran over and evening study was cancelled. I should have been cheering, but losing another supernat lesson stung. I did my best to paste on a happy face and mingle. When we were finally released back to the dorm, I pulled out my phone. I had two options: read Connor’s email or speak to the man himself. A second later I was dialling his number.

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