He-ey, there we go. Thank you all for your response last chapter, you really know how to make a writer feel loved. Most of you had questions, and let me assure you: they will be answered. Although I should warn you that a couple of the questions will not be answered during this arc. So, keep sending me your questions (and if you want a more personal response you're welcome to PM me, although of course I won't give too much away) and your theories, and I'll try to update soon. Now, have a chapter that should actually explain some things...

X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X

"You have three seconds to let go of me or I'll scream," Tori says, looking pointedly at where Beck's hand is still clamped around her upper arm. He clears his throat, mumbles something that sounds vaguely like an apology, and lets go. Tori makes a show of dusting off her jacket, giving Beck the kind of glare that Jade would be proud of.

"Really, though," Beck says conversationally, as if he hadn't just dragged her into the janitor's closet against her will, "are you actually going to use screaming as a threat?"

Tori frowns. "What else would I use?"

"I don't know." Beck hops up onto an empty trashcan, entirely casual and seemingly unconcerned despite how stressed he'd been when he'd interrupted Tori and Jade in the courtyard less than five minutes prior. "But you saw what you did to me last night. You know that bloodline hunters have more strength and quicker reflexes than normal people. I just thought you'd go for fight rather than flight."

"Stop saying that," Tori says, feeling again that strange mixture of pride and fear over the words bloodline hunter. Last night Beck had explained the basics to her – before Trina had kicked him out at around midnight, acting as head of the household while their parents are in Miami – and Tori had promised she'd think about it, but there's still some part of her that doesn't believe his words. But the scariest thing is that most of her does believe it.

"You can't run away from this, Tori," Beck says, his voice friendly enough but with a note of warning in it. He seems to take his hunter duties very seriously, which Tori finds simultaneously impressive and intimidating. "You're a bloodline hunter. You were born into it. Whether or not you choose to -"

"I know, I know," Tori interrupts dispassionately. "It's in my blood, it's my birthright, blah blah blah."

Beck surveys her quietly for a moment, and then gives a resigned sigh. "You should be taking this more seriously," he says, sounding almost like he's disappointed in her. That more than anything makes Tori bristle.

"You don't get to take the moral high ground here, Beck," she says, the sharpness in her voice making him blink in surprise. "You broke into my house last night and attacked me just to prove a point."

"I wasn't proving a point," Beck says cautiously. "I was… testing a theory." In response to Tori's glare, he quails. "I guess that's not any better."

"No," Tori agrees, "it's really not."

Running a hand through his hair, Beck sighs again. "Look, I know I went about it the wrong way, but I needed to know whether you were really a hunter and that seemed to be the most sure-fire way to find out. I was just trying to help, I swear."

"Help," Tori echoes dismissively. "You were trying to help me by sneaking into my room and -"

"Okay, okay." Beck holds up his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, all right? I shouldn't have done it. But would you have listened to me if I hadn't?"

"I don't know," Tori says honestly. She takes a minute to consider it. Beck had attacked her in order to trigger her – what had he called it? – primal responses. Ingrained reactions to certain stimuli, such as perceived danger. She'd let her hunter instincts take over and that had allowed her to take Beck. And if he hadn't proved that to her in such a visceral, physical way, she may not have believed him. "Maybe not," she allows. "But you could have at least tried to talk to me about it."

"Right." Beck pauses, then gives her a cheeky smile. "Next time I have to tell you about your werewolf-hunting ancestry, I'll do it in a less confrontational way."

Despite herself, Tori smiles. "Good."

After a couple of moments, Beck's manner becomes more serious again. "How much do you remember of what I told you last night?"

"About what it means to be a hunter?" Tori questions. When Beck nods, she says, "Most of it, I guess. Why? Are you about to give me a pop quiz?"

This time Beck's smile is apologetic. "Actually, yeah."

Tori rolls her eyes. "Really?"

"Yes." Beck leans forward, his expression darkening. "I just need to know you're ready for what I'm about to tell you."

Caught off-guard, Tori doesn't respond right away. "You mean there's something else you have to tell me? Something worse than being told I'm a bloodline hunter?"

"That wasn't a bad thing, Tori," Beck reminds her. "It just… it changes things."

"Okay." Tori leans against the wall, waiting for Beck to quiz her. God, she thinks, school hasn't even started yet and I'm having my first pop quiz of the day. "Let's just get this over with."

"Good." Beck's eyes light up, and when he speaks again there's a touch of authority in his voice; Tori makes a note to ask what exactly was involved in his hunter training, and how on earth he managed to complete it while still getting good grades at school. "So, first question: what's the Alliance?"

Tori closes her eyes, thinking back to what Beck had said last night. "The Alliance of Hunters is the governing body for all werewolf hunters," she recites, and then she cracks one eye open, waiting for Beck's confirmation. He nods, and she closes her eyes before continuing, "They're in charge of training new hunters, determining protocol, and researching werewolves."

"Good," Beck says again, and Tori opens her eyes in time to see him smile. "Now, tell me about hunters."

Tori nods, thinking. "They're the hands-on guys," she says, and with every word she realizes that she's starting to believe what she's saying. She'd been beyond sceptical last night when Beck had first told her about werewolves and hunters and how she was already involved in the supernatural without even being aware of it, but now it's starting to make sense. It feels right on a level that Tori can't consciously understand. "They do the actual hunting – tagging, capturing, killing when necessary. They go through a year of intensive training before they're given clearance to hunt in the field."

"Exactly," Beck says encouragingly. "And when is it considered appropriate to apprehend a werewolf?"

Apprehend. Tori isn't entirely sure what the word means, and she's not game to ask, but it makes her shudder internally anyway. She doesn't know much of the methods that the Alliance uses, and something tells her that they aren't pleasant. She's not ready to know about them yet. "When it's been proven that the wolf in question is a danger to society," she says promptly, wondering how she can memorize all this so quickly but can spend hours studying and not remember a thing, "and only when given the order by someone in the Alliance."

"Okay," Beck says. "That's good. You remember most of it."

"I remember it," Tori says carefully, "but I'm not sure I believe it." She pauses, and then finally gives voice to something that's been bothering her since last night. "If I'm a bloodline hunter, wouldn't that make Trina one too?"

"Probably," Beck says. "Unless you're adopted."

Tori shakes her head. "I've seen my birth certificate. I've seen Trina's too."

"So she's a bloodline hunter too," he agrees. Then, noticing the look on Tori's face, he asks, "What are you thinking?"

"Does she know about this?" Tori muses, more to herself than to Beck. "And if she does, why hasn't she told me about it?"

Beck shrugs. "Why don't you ask her?"

"Actually," Tori says, pushing herself off the wall and heading for the door, "that's a good idea."

"I meant after I tell you this new information," Beck says, hurrying after her, but Tori doesn't slow down until she reaches Trina, who's walking past the janitor's closet on her way to class. Glancing at her watch, Tori realizes that the bell will go in less than two minutes.

"Trina," she says, grabbing her sister by the arm to pull her to a stop. She's rewarded with an irritated glare.

"What do you want?" Trina demands, shrugging out of her grip. "And why the hell are you so worked up?"

Tori is hardly aware of Beck coming up beside her, although she does think she can hear him warning her against having this conversation right now. She ignores him. "Do you know anything about werewolves?" she says without preamble.

Trina's eyes widen and she glances from Tori to Beck, as if expecting him to offer a rational explanation for Tori's ramblings. When he doesn't, she turns back to her sister. "What are you talking about, Tori?"

"Werewolves," Tori repeats with more force. "What do you know about them?"

With another confused look at Beck, Trina shrugs. "Not much," she says, and Tori relaxes slightly, quickly convincing herself that if her sister doesn't know about it, then it can't be real. Then Trina adds, "Just the basics. They Change every month, tend to hang around in packs, and are dead scared of the Alliance."

"The… Alliance?" Tori echoes blankly.

"Yeah," Trina says, still looking confused. "The Alliance of Hunters? The guys in charge of making sure the werewolves don't murder us all in our sleep?"

"Actually," Beck chimes in, "if they're in their wolf form it's not considered murder -"

He breaks off under the heat of Tori's glare, and falls silent once again.

"So werewolves are real?" Tori asks.

"Yes," Trina says with exaggerated slowness, "werewolves are real."

Tori stares are her sister, dumbstruck. "And you didn't think to mention this to me?"

"I thought you knew," Trina says, completely unabashed. At that moment the bell goes off, and Trina moans. "I didn't have time to check my hair before class. Oh, no."

And still fretting over her hair, she darts off, leaving Tori and Beck staring after her.

"So you believe me now?" Beck asks as the hall fills with students – their friends among them, drifting in from outside.

"I believe you," Tori says. She'd hoped that if Trina had denied all knowledge of the supernatural then she might be able to put this all behind her, but if both Beck and Trina believe that werewolves are real, who is she to argue? Her initial reluctance had never been because she didn't believe, she realized; it was because she hadn't wanted to believe. "So what did you want to tell me?"

Beck starts to speak, but cuts himself off as the group catches up to them. "Not now," he says under his breath, and then he mouths, Janitor's closet and Lunch.

Tori nods, letting him know that she understands, and then they go their separate ways. In the periods leading up to lunch, Tori keeps a careful eye on her friends. Cat seems more like herself today, Andre seems less distracted, and whatever Robbie and Beck had been arguing about yesterday is completely forgotten. It's just Jade who's acting strangely, more subdued and a lot less cynical than usual.

But she doesn't get a chance to bring it up, because Jade's always talking to Cat or Andre or she's seemingly immersed in her work. Still confused by how nice Jade had been that morning, Tori doesn't want to push her luck by asking her about it. She's worried about Jade, but it's probably not her place to intervene.

She pushes all thoughts of her friends from her mind as she slips into the janitor's closet at lunch. This time, at least, Beck doesn't launch a sneak attack. Instead he stands there, looking all solemn and serious, and waits for her to close the door behind her before he speaks.

"You're not going to like this," he warns.

Tori spreads her arms wide, indicating that after the first big revelation nothing can be worse. (She's wrong.) "What is it?"

Beck takes a deep breath, and Tori braces herself for the news, suddenly very apprehensive. "Jade's a werewolf," he admits in a rush, and before Tori can say a word he adds, "and I think she's going to try to kill you."

X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X

Well, I hope that made things bit a clearer. As always, your reviews are very much encouraged, and I'll see you all next time!