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Her eyes snapped back to her father. “What? How would I know?”
He frowned. “Don’t you two... talk?”
“Oh. Uh, yeah, I guess we do.”
“So where is he?”
She had to stop herself from glancing at the door again. She wasreallybad at this, she realised. “I don’t know. Probably at college, or at home. Do you want to talk to him?”
“Gods, no. I just wanted to make sure we’re alone.”
Cara felt that familiar stab of guilt, but she tried to keep her face neutral as she stayed silent.
“I came to talk to you,” Eric said. “About the war.”
“Are we calling it that?” she asked.
“We should be. I don’t like it, but we have to face reality.”
“I thought the elders hadn’t made a decision.”
“They haven’t. Yet.”
Cara sighed. “I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“It’s not that simple,” her dad said.
“Why not?”
He didn’t say anything for a second, and then he shrugged. “I suppose there’s no reason not to tell you. It’s about Samuel.”
“The leader of the vampires,” she said.
“Yes, the vampire lord. In a strange way, our coven owes him. Decades ago, in 1962, there were three voids in Edinburgh. You might know some of this after your research, but there’s a lot that you probably didn’t find in any witch books.”
“Why wouldn’t it be there?”
“Because we don’t like to admit that our enemies are people, too. The voids brought devastation and an unimaginable loss of life. Everyone and everything supernatural fled the city, trying to outrun the voids and hoping that their violent urges would be sated by everything that already happened.”
Eric took a breath. “They were wrong. The voids tore through what was left, driving everyone out and killing anyone who remained. It was a miracle that the humans didn’t figure out what was going on. Suddenly, witches and vampires found themselves on the same side. Our people had lost our leaders and most of our strongest warriors, but we couldn’t leave. This is our home, and it always has been.”
“You needed help,” Cara said, starting to piece it together.
“Yes. Samuel had lost just as much as we did, and he wanted revenge. He called it justice, apparently, but we all know what the truth was.”
“You’re talking like you were there.”
“Not me,” he said. “I’m not quite old enough for that, despite what you might think.”
She tried to return his smile, but she didn’t think it was convincing.
“The elders were there. Of course, at the time, they weren’t elders. They were just witches. Along with some of the older witches, they fought alongside Samuel, and they witnessed the lengths he was willing to go to. It worked, in the end, and he killed the voids and saved our people at the same time. But the elders know exactly what he’s capable of.”
“So they’re afraid.”
“Terrified,” he said. “As we all should be.”
“But we could win,” she said. “There are a lot of us, and he’s one vampire. I know he has a lot of followers, but he’s still just one man.”
