"First of all," he says, "the reason it's a matter of discretion, and part of the reason it is unjust, is that people who attempt to go public with this information have a way of winding up dead."

"Oh." She pauses, clearly a bit thrown off. "Any - specific reasons?"

"It is, very often, apparently vampire assassination.  They don't coordinate very much, but they and other supernatural beings are oddly skilled at coordinating about that."

"What do vampires - do?"

"Stalk the night, kill people for their blood, occasionally sire new vampires.  ...I don't know that they have hobbies."

"Are they intelligent? The one I - apparently - fought was talking..."

"You might say they assume the intelligence of the human whose body they inhabit.  And their memories, and some aspects of their personality.  Not any of the, ah, redeeming aspects.  None of them have any qualms about killing and maiming and - tormenting."

"But they can be talked to?"

"If you mean, are they capable of speech - yes.  If you mean, can they be reasoned with..."

"Has anyone tried?"

"I imagine many of their victims have."

"Yeah. 'Course, lots of people won't reason with someone weaker than them."

"...I can't advise that you - proselytize to vampires.  I don't believe they will be at all receptive."

"I won't let them hurt people. But I think I should try."

"Effort spent attempting to reason with vampires is effort not spent exterminating them," Giles says, rather severely.  "Vampires are not capable of reason or empathy.  But they are extraordinarily capable of appearing reasonable, or empathetic, or put-upon by an uncaring world.  It is one of their primary strategies, and attempts to reason with them play into it."

"And I have no one's word for that but yours."

"I have a great deal of literature on the behavior of vampires that you are welcome to peruse," Giles says.  "But at this stage in your education you should be learning how to defend yourself against them."

"Don't object to self defense. But there's some stuff I'll wanna learn for myself. I'm not just gonna be a good little girl and do everything you tell me."

"I can see that.  But you are welcome to verify the things I have told you."

"Anything else?"

"Yes.  You should know the strengths and weaknesses of vampires, and your own abilities as a Slayer.  I've mentioned some things - you will be stronger, faster, more athletic and acrobatic.  Some of your dreams will probably be prophetic, although these can be difficult to identify and interpret.  Some Slayers develop a sense of who is and is not a vampire, but it can be difficult to distinguish this from ordinary fallible human intuition, and you should not attack someone based on it until you are already very sure of it."

"Any other benefits? How much stronger?"

"In addition to being harder to injure, you will heal more quickly and cleanly than an ordinary human.  Broken bones will cooperate with being set and knit completely within days; bruises will fade in hours; shallow cuts may heal in minutes or even seconds.  Measuring a Slayer's strength is tricky; Slayers have been known to break down wooden doors with relative ease and throw people across rooms, but not, for example, lift cars above their heads."

"So I'm unlikely to have any Superman world of tissue paper problems."

"Well, you will want to be extremely cautious if you find yourself in a schoolyard scuffle, but I would advise against that sort of thing in any case."