Author's note: Hi! I hope everyone is enjoying this so far (I know there's not much to go on yet). Just to say I know at some point I said this will probably be Brittana...I meant definitely, it just might take a while to get there so please be patient! Also just to verify for future chapters, this story kind of goes from the end of Showmance and ignores pretty much everything that happens afterwards, or some of it might happen but not in the right order, or might happen in a different way, or it may already have happened 'off-screen'...make sense? Probably not, sorry if it's confusing! If you're enjoying it (or even if you're not, let me know why!) or if you have any questions please feel free to review or PM. Either ways, on with the chapter :-)

"Training for you, Santana..." He seemed to hesitate. She didn't look ready to hear this. Was it too soon? But they were running out of time. She had to know. "You are a vampire slayer."

Santana's face shifted into one of total confusion and she opened her eyes to take in his face for a moment, before it cracked into a smile and she began to bark out laughter. They both knew how ridiculous it sounded, and for a moment Brad worried the seriousness of the news had totally gone over her head. But her eyes betrayed her. Somehow she knew he wasn't joking.

Santana's laughter died down quickly and left her looking quite lost. Brad gestured towards the chairs behind her and she took a seat silently, looking up to him as he moved closer and he began filling her in on the basics. He didn't want to rush though everything, and he certainly didn't want to give her more information than she could handle, since this was literally life-changing news. But she needed to be informed as soon as possible.

"It is written: in every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will face the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer." He recited. Santana didn't look any more enlightened so he continued. "When a slayer dies a new one is chosen. She will develop the powers and skills necessary for performing her duties as a slayer. She cannot reject her destiny or change who she is. Once she becomes a slayer she can't go back-"

"Vampires aren't real." Santana clung to this thought as if it would turn around everything Brad had just told her. "Vampires aren't real, so you don't need slayers. I don't have to be a slayer if there's nothing to slay." She looked into his eyes as if pleading with him to agree with her. She didn't even fully understand what he was telling her but she knew from the sound of it that it was something huge. She couldn't deal with that right now.

"I'm afraid they're very real. They try to keep to themselves, obviously, but you may have heard in the news about people disappearing, and then showing up dead later with strange markings on their necks...all of the blood drained from their body...sound familiar?" Santana took a moment to think about it, and it made sense. She had heard about these deaths. Thankfully, none of them were anyone she knew personally so she tended to just ignore them. She'd only heard of one person from McKinley experiencing a similar fate.

"Last year a girl from the cheerios disappeared and was found in the cemetery. She died of blood loss..." She trailed off. Brad nodded, but Santana didn't see. Santana looked to the front of the room, but from her expression you could tell she wasn't really seeing it. This was insane. She turned to Brad as another question arose. "You said when a slayer dies, a new one is chosen...so who died?"

Brad looked to the ground as he answered, looking suddenly a lot less enthusiastic about this conversation. "Her name was Claire. She didn't go here. She was from Crawford County Day, the girl's school on the other side of town." Santana looked down too, as if trying to convey respect for the loss. They both stayed silent for a moment, Brad allowing Santana time to think over the bomb he had just dropped on her.

She was trying so hard to wrap her head around it. It was as if the information she had just acquired had opened up a whole new side to the world. She wasn't sure she was okay with it.

"I know it's a lot to think about. But we need you to be ready, and soon. Lima is on a hellmouth – a kind of 'hotspot' for supernatural evil," Brad quickly explained at Santana's look of confusion. "You are the only slayer, the only one who can fight them, and I don't want to rush you, but the sooner you are ready the better. That earthquake wasn't just tectonic plates, Santana. Something big is coming. You need to be able to handle it. We need you to protect the world."

Santana slowly sat back in her seat as the full weight of her situation settled on her. Lima is crawling with evil. Vampires were real. She's the only person who can stop them. It's her destiny. She's stuck like this. Why me?

The bell ringing to signal the end of lunch interrupted the heavy silence that had settled in the room and Santana didn't hesitate to grab her bag and make her way to the door. Brad called after her."Santana, we need to discuss this furthe-"

"I'm going to be late." She didn't even turn around as she pulled the door open so sharply that the handle itself came off as the door swung open. Brad didn't make any attempt to follow her.

She walked quickly down the hallway to her locker as the hallways were slowly clearing from students heading to class. She paused at her locker and leant her forehead against the cool, slightly dented metal. This was going to be an incredibly long week.

She had just swapped out her books and was closing her locker – gently, this time – when she heard footsteps at the end of the now empty corridor. "Lopez, Coach Sylvester wants to see you in her office." the voice of one of the other cheerios rang through her ears. Santana didn't really acknowledge her, just turned in the direction of Sue's office and tried to think of an excuse for her actions in the pep rally. Nothing came to her.

"As you may have figured out..." Sue peered down through her reading glasses to check the name on the file on her desk "Lopez, I want to know why you decided to pull that little stunt in our performance this afternoon. If you hadn't acted so quickly you could have gotten that girl killed." Santana stood in front of Sue's desk as the coach glared up at her intently from her seat. The cheerio remained silent, completely unsure of what to say. "Were you trying to harm her, or did you think the practiced routine wasn't good enough?" Sue's face dropped a little of its' harshness at the next point. "If you thought that the routine could have been more exciting, Lopez, you just needed to say so. I've been contemplating a routine involving sky-diving but I'm not sure the world is ready for it yet."

"Sorry coach, it was an accident. Won't happen again." Santana just wanted to take her punishment and get out of there.

"Of course, I don't mind sacrificing a few cheerios for the sake of a groundbreakingly fantastic routine," Sue continued as if Santana had never spoken, and Santana's previously meek expression turned into one of concerned curiosity and confusion at the coach's confession, "but first of all, that's my call to make, not yours; and second of all, that's the kind of thing you save for a championship, Lopez. While I like the way you think, and admire your enthusiasm in making my routines as dangerous and entertaining as possible, it's not worth the paperwork if a cheerio dies just for a pep rally at our own school." Santana raised an eyebrow. Coach Sylvester moved to put the student file away in her desk. "Either way, potential death risk or no, your actions deviated from the routine I choreographed, and for that you deserve punishment. Detention every day after school this week, no excuses. You can make up for any missed cheerleading practise in your lunchtimes."

"Thanks, coach." Santana turned to leave, feeling slightly relieved about her punishment. Considering the danger she'd put one of her team-mates in, and coach Sylvester's ruthlessness in the way she treats most students, she definitely got off lightly.

"Oh, and Lopez?" Sue's voice caught her just as she got to the door. She turned back towards the woman.

"Yeah, coach?"

"Nice catch." Sue said, before turning back to the journal on her desk. Santana made her way to class.

The bell rang at the end of the day and Santana was in no rush to get to her detention. Emerging from the classroom and turning to her left she walked past Quinn and a couple of other cheerios on the way to the room her detention was being held. Quinn tapped her on the arm as she walked past.

"You're not coming to practise?" She asked, sounding surprised. Santana turned to face her.

"Can't. I have detention." Quinn's face dropped into disappointment.

"How did you get detention? Who gave it to you?" Granted, the brunette cheerleader wasn't exactly she perfect student, especially not when her attitude was involved, but she usually managed to avoid any real punishments by casually mentioning how upset Sue would be at the treatment of her national-championship-winning cheerleaders – most of the staff were scared enough of the coach that the cheerios could get away with more than most students.

"Sue. After what happened during the pep rally." Santana really hadn't wanted to bring it up any more than she needed to but since Quinn was capable of putting the pieces together for herself either way she figured there was no point in beating around the bush.

"Oh yeah. What the heck was that, Santana, you really scared Jenna. She said you tried to kill her," Quinn barely took a breath before launching into scolding her team-mate, "I'm surprised you're still on the squad. You can't afford to get kicked off, Santana, we're in glee club now, we need cheerios to balance it out or we're going to get the crap ripped out of us. Do you know what it feels like to be a loser? Those slushies look like they feel horrifying-" Quinn continued to wind herself up as she spoke and Santana decided to cut her off at one of her more arbitrary points before Quinn could get super-bitch angry or coax Santana into some kind of argument over anything important.

"They do. And I still need to kick Karofsky's ass for having terrible aim. Thank you for reminding me. See you tomorrow, Fabray." She said with apathetic sarcasm before turning and marching away.

"Lopez! I wasn't finished!" Quinn's call went unacknowledged so she turned back in the direction she was going and made her way to practise.

Santana arrived at her detention, held in what was usually the home economics classroom, five minutes late thanks to her run-in with Quinn.

"You must be Santana Lopez. You're late. Have a seat." An unfamiliar voice greeted her from the teacher's desk across the room. The woman, who had dark brown hair and a strong jaw was staring at Santana as she entered. Santana muttered a "sorry" before taking her pick of seat. There were no other students in the room. That's kind of weird. Like I can't be the only person in school to get afterschool detention today?

"Where is everybody else?" Santana decided she might as well ask. Brown eyes continued to follow her to her seat. The teacher, who Santana hadn't seen before, ignored her question. Something about the intensity of the woman made something within Santana feel...off. Santana tried a different approach to filling the silence. "Who are you?"

"My name is Shelby Corcoran. I'm the new librarian." The older woman explained after a moment's silence. Santana nodded but noticed that Shelby kept her eyes on her the entire time, as if sizing her up in some way. After a minute or so, she spoke again. "You know why you've been given this detention?"

"Because I...modified the cheerleading routine in the pep-rally." Santana decided not to tell this woman more than she might already know given that she was supervising her punishment. She had little doubt that someone slightly more right-minded than Sue might actually care to ask the nitty-gritty questions about what Santana did, and how. A silence stretched out between the two as Miss Corcoran seemed to consider Santana's answer, once again holding her gaze as if waiting to see from Santana's face how honest she was being, but also perhaps looking for something else – confusion? Remorse? The student did her best to stare right back at Shelby, not giving anything away, and eventually Shelby's expression changed into a smirk.

"Well, at least no-one was hurt."

Santana got the distinct impression that this woman knew full well what had happened, the full extent of what Santana had done. From what Santana could gage from overhearing the other students discussing the rally performance, the rest of the cheer squad had done a good enough job at making her actions seem deliberate – in fact, most of the squad seemed under the same impression, perhaps just assuming that Sue hadn't bothered to fill them in on the unexpected twist to the grand finale of the routine. However, the woman in front of her - still holding her gaze - seemed not to have been fooled. Santana got a similar feeling of unease as she'd had with Brad in the choir room earlier.

Finally Shelby broke off her gaze and turned around the rummage through her bag. Santana actually felt relieved that their staring contest was over. "So...how does this detention work? You want me to write lines or can I just get on with some school work?" Santana asked, her attitude growing back as she changed topic.

"I was thinking I might give you some light reading." Shelby stated as she turned back around and dropped a heavy, old book on the desk in front of Santana. Santana frowned before looking more closely at the book. She let out a gasp as she noticed the title.

VAMPYR.