Here you go. The wonderful interview with Shane. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed talking to Shane.
Sabina: Hello Shane, thank you for coming
by and letting me ask you a few questions about you and your fellow Hunters
from the Executions Underground. Coffee?
Shane:
Sure, coffee would be great. Thanks for having me, Sabina. I was really
surprised when my author said you were interested in talking to me instead of
the other hunters. I would normally be everyone’s last choice. *He laughs
nervously*
Sabina: Here you go. Freshly brewed, I knew you were coming. *gives cup to Shane with a nervous smile* Shane, could you tell those who
haven’t heard of the Execution Underground, what it is you guys do?
Shane:
Normally, we don’t disclose what we do to the public, but I’ve been instructed
to do so for this interview. Basically, the Execution Underground is a clandestine
organization. We’re almost like a cross between the C.I.A and the Marines, but
more secretive than both. The Execution Underground is made up of elite men
who’ve been hand chosen by the organization and trained to become hunters of
the supernatural, some are discovered and brought into the organization through
incidents involving family members or loved ones being exposed to the
supernatural, but others, like me, are legacies. My father was a hunter, so
naturally, I became one, too. Each hunter has his own specialty and works
mainly in that specific field, generally under the direction of a division
leader. My personal specialty is the occult, as in witches, warlocks, magic and
the like, and my division leader is Damon Brock. I’m with the Rochester division.
Sabina: Can you tell us why a new team was
assembled in Rochester? Was there really a need for an entire team?
Shane:
There was absolutely a need for an entire division. With the absence of a
division in Rochester for so long, supernatural creatures started to flock
there. They knew they could get away with preying on humans since there were no
hunters in the area. When our division leader, Damon, first ventured into the
city he found that the place was practically infested with supernatural scum.
There are six hunters in our division, representing six different specialties.
We have werewolves, vampires, demons, witches and warlocks (that’s my
specialty), ghosts and poltergeists, as well as non-werewolf shifters in
Rochester and heavens know what else. There’s rarely a dull moment.
Sabina: Can you tell us a little about the
other Hunters?
Shane:
Honestly, I can’t say I know Damon or Trent too well; they tend to keep to
themselves. Damon’s our division leader and hunts vampires. Trent hunts
non-werewolf shifters. I don’t work with them often other than at division
meetings where we’re all *he makes quotations with his fingers* “attempting” to
work a case together. All of us in one room rarely mean smooth sailing. Let’s
be realistic: you’re sticking a bunch of alpha males in a small room and trying
to get them to cooperate. There is bound to be conflict. Anyway, I work with
Ash a lot on some of the cases he gets. Aside from being one of the hunters, I
take care of the division’s technological needs and E.V.P and other
technologies can be very useful in ghost hunting, so I help Ash a lot. He’s a
nice, slow-speaking Southern guy. The majority of the time I spend working out
in the field though is with David. He’s our resident demon hunter and exorcist.
The demonic and the occult have a lot of crossover amongst our fields at times,
so I’m a consultant on a lot of David’s cases. David is probably the nicest
member of the team, plus he’s always good for a laugh. Jace, our werewolf
hunter, is a little rough around the edges, but deep down he’s a good guy, too.
He and David have kind of tried to take me under their wing since they’re
friends and I’m the youngest member of the team, and probably the most
inexperienced as well. I’m not sure why they’ve taken an interest in me, but
they have.
Sabina: And what is your role among the
Hunters? What’s your expert area?
Shane:
The occult. That’s quite a broad term though and includes a lot of things, but
basically, it just means anything related to magic and sometimes magic which
crosses over into the demonic. Honestly, witch hunting isn’t a hugely important
role anymore, not as much as it used to be, so I mostly act as a consultant and
technician. I also teach in the Religious Studies department of the University
of Rochester, which allows the teams members access to a lot of important
University documents that they wouldn’t have access to otherwise.
Sabina: Why did you choose that area?
Shane:
My father was an occult specialist, so I naturally kind of followed in that path.
I never knew him. He died not long after I was born, so I guess that’s my way
of feeling closer to his memory.
Sabina: Being a bookish girl, I know the
importance of books- your fellow Hunters don’t seem to share that. How come? Is
it because they’re more the… shot first, ask later, kinda guys?
Shane:
Yes. Absolutely. That’s not to say that none of them are book smart or that
they’re overly trigger happy—you have to have a high I.Q to even be accepted as
a recruit—but their jobs require a lot more field work than mine does. I’ve
never truly been assigned a case of my own out in the field. I mostly work with
information, so I know its importance. They know information, especially from
books, is valuable, because when they need something looked up they come to me
for it, but I don’t think they realize how powerful it can be.
Sabina: With recent events in the Rochester
Unit, do you think the group will be able to work together as a team again? I
mean, with everything going on between Damon and Jace…
Shane:
Yeah, absolutely. We’re already back to work. Damon and Jace have a lot of
issues between them, but despite that we work things out. Not to sound sexist
or anything, but women who work together as a group and fight all the time seem
like they can rarely get over their differences. Men can fight and even go so
far as to punch each other in the face and then five minutes later they’re over
it, because they’ve gotten their aggression out. It’s just a different dynamic
when it’s all men working together, which for the Execution Underground, it is.
Out of tradition it’s still an all male organization. I don’t necessarily agree
with that policy, but it’s not my decision to make. From what I can tell
though, I think Jace realizes that if he’d been in Damon’s position, he
probably would’ve done the same thing. It wasn’t the carving on the girl’s arms
that implicated Jace—that was just going to cause Damon to bring him in for
questioning, which was a completely reasonable request that Jace just didn’t
want to waste time obliging—it was that detail compounded with the secret about
his bloodline coming out. It made Jace looks like a traitor and a liar, even
though he isn’t one. I think we all understand that. Damon didn’t do anything a
normal division leader wouldn’t have done. In fact, he could’ve ratted out Jace
and his secret to Headquarters, which would’ve been immediate grounds for
executing Jace as a traitor, but he didn’t. To me, that shows that despite
their differences, Damon has a lot of faith that deep down Jace is a good
hunter.
Sabina: I’m sitting with a report about
what happened that night, shortly after you were assembled as a team. (Readers:
Shadow Hunter) Has Damon changed since that? For better or worse? I do realize
you didn’t know him so well then, but still..
Shane:
Honestly, I didn’t know Damon at all then and I don’t know much about how the
division was formed other than that he was already in Rochester hunting
something—a vampire I’m assuming, based on his specialty. I’m not sure which
night you’re talking about. Was there an incident? You have me curious. I might
have to pull up all past reports mentioning Damon now, just to see what he was
up to.
Sabina: Well, it is classified information....What is happening in the Rochester
Division right now? Can you lift the veil a little? Are you hunting someone
special right now?
Shane:
I’m not hunting anyone specific at the moment, but some bodies have just shown
up in connection to what we believe is demon related activity. That’s David’s
specialty.
*Shane’s
phone vibrates. He reaches into the back pocket of his jeans and pulls the
device out. He answers and turns away. Lowering his voice, he mumbles into the
receiver as if to not be heard. A moment later, he jabs the off button on the
phone with his thumb, ending the conversation.*
Shane:
I have to go, Sabina. Urgent tech business that needs to be taken care of, but
it was great talking to you though. We should do this again some time. I
honestly don’t get to talk with nice, book-loving women, like you, often. *He
blushes, before shoving his phone in his pocket, standing, and then heading out
the door with a wave goodbye*
*fans myself* Oh my.... Such a sweetheart.... VERY good looking too!!! :-D Somehow, I wouldn't mind at all, having him rescuing me in the middle of the night! *winks*
About Kait Ballenger:
Kait Ballenger is a full-time paranormal romance author, wife,
bellydancer, graduate student, and soon-to-be-professor. She is the
multi-published, award-winning author of the Execution Underground paranormal
romance series. With a B.A in English from Stetson University, Kait is
currently earning an M.F.A in Writing. Kait believes anything is possible with
hard work and dedication. One day, she hopes to be a bestseller and to see her
novels on the big screen. Look for the next two books in her page-turning
Execution Underground series: Twilight
Hunter, book one (August 2013)
and Immortal Hunter, book two (January 2014), and don’t forget to check out Shadow Hunter, a
prequel novella to the series featured in the After Dark anthology along NYT
Bestseller Gena Showalter—now available in trade paperback, ebook, and
audiobook formats. For more information, please visit www.kaitballenger.com or
follow her on Twitter @kait_ballenger.
Find Kait here:
Buy Links:
Kait Ballenger is a full-time paranormal romance author, wife,
bellydancer, graduate student, and soon-to-be-professor. She is the
multi-published, award-winning author of the Execution Underground paranormal
romance series. With a B.A in English from Stetson University, Kait is
currently earning an M.F.A in Writing. Kait believes anything is possible with
hard work and dedication. One day, she hopes to be a bestseller and to see her
novels on the big screen. Look for the next two books in her page-turning
Execution Underground series: Twilight
Hunter, book one (August 2013)
and Immortal Hunter, book two (January 2014), and don’t forget to check out Shadow Hunter, a
prequel novella to the series featured in the After Dark anthology along NYT
Bestseller Gena Showalter—now available in trade paperback, ebook, and
audiobook formats. For more information, please visit www.kaitballenger.com or
follow her on Twitter @kait_ballenger.