Werewolves in The Eversfield Academy Vampire Hunters series by Betsy Flak

Today, you discover the origin of werewolves in The Eversfield Academy Vampire Hunters romantic YA urban fantasy series.

Okay, that's not completely right.

Werewolves don't exist in The Eversfield Academy Vampire Hunters series.

However, the myth of werewolves opposing and hating vampires does!

To dive into the origin of this myth in the world of the Nightstalkers, first we need to dive into the exceedingly rare Animal Diviner, or Beastie.

So, here's an excerpt from School of Shadows (The Eversfield Academy Vampire Hunters: Book One) by Betsy Flak.

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From School of Shadows (The Eversfield Academy Vampire Hunters: Book One) by Betsy Flak

Chapter Fifteen: a beastie, a floral diviner, and a thief

Author's note: I cut a few lines from the actual version to keep this excerpt focused on Beasties.

Setup: At the annual Semester Start dinner at Eversfield Academy, Marina's older brother Gabe pulls her away from relaxing with her friends to talk about her annoying new roommate Lila. Written from Marina's perspective.

Marina's arms crossed over her chest. Her heart thumped an angry tattoo against her ribs. "What?"

"Is it possible for Lila to be a Beastie?"

Marina's anger evaporated. Confusion replaced it. "What? No. Why?"

"I dunno." Gabe raked his fingers through his ink-black locks, his hair as dark as Marina's own but lacking the blue tint that marked her as a Water Diviner. "When I went over to her, she was standing by the window, staring outside. She said she was watching the animals out there."

Marina's brows furrowed. First off, why had Gabe gone to Lila in the first place? She'd told him that Lila was fine, both in terms of any impact from his Portency and in terms of being at risk of any talents manifesting in the near future. She'd checked while Lila was napping this afternoon.

If Lila's Latent talents were on the brink of manifesting, Marina should have felt them, as long as they were one of her talents, as long as they were Water, Wind, Earth, Weaving, or Healing. Fire tended to be obvious when it was close to manifesting too. Lex would have felt any manifesting Fire from Lila this morning, especially with Lex being as strong and sensitive to Fire as she was. Marina might have even felt it with her Water. It would have recoiled from any manifesting Fire.

That left only Cyphering, Portency, and Empathy, with the latter two being rare. Empathy was all but unheard-of.

It also left Animal Divining, the third subcategory of Earth Divining.

That was unheard-of. No one was an Animal Diviner—or a Beastie, the unofficial nickname for Animal Diviners. No one had been, not since they'd started keeping decent records. And even before that.

No, as far as they knew, the last Beastie had died over a century ago.

So, no, Lila was not a Beastie.

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As of 2016—when School of Shadows takes place—no Beasties exist any longer.

However, the werewolf myth has existed far longer than that.

And extends back to when Animal Diviners did roam the planet.

Do you know what Beasties could control?

Animals.

(Okay, that's not exactly right. A proper Animal Diviner would tell you that they don't control animals. They request the help of animals, and animals more than often oblige, just as the Beastie would oblige had an animal asked for help. But I digress.)

Back in the day, Animal Diviners often worked with large packs of wolves to take down vampires—or as any good Nightstalker calls them, to take down the Indestructible.

From these single magical humans hunting vampires with packs of wolves surrounding them, the myth of werewolves existing and hating vampires in the world of The Eversfield Academy Vampire Hunters was born.

Happy reading as always,
Betsy

P.S. Why did I decide to skip having a single werewolf in my vampire-and-vampire-hunter books?

It's simple. I don't like reading about them.

I know, right? That's weird for someone who loves reading vampire and vampire hunter books.

But hey, I'm not in charge of my brain or my muse. All I can say is that neither particularly likes reading or writing about shifters. 🤷‍♀️

At least as of this moment. As always, I reserve the right to change my mind, lol.