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‘Glaring’ at him was probably a better word for it, really. It was obvious that the man didn’t want him in the car, and he definitely didn’t want Cara to be sitting right beside him. Nick tried not to take it personally. Cara had told him about her father’s history with voids, so Nick couldn’t blame him for the way he was acting.
“Put on the radio,” Rose said.
Eric glanced over. “What?”
“Put on the radio. Music, the news, the weather, whatever. We could cut the tension in the car with a knife, and it’s distracting. Put on some background noise.”
Eric’s jaw clenched, but he turned on the radio, and the sounds of the local news filled the car.
Nick let the words wash over him, but he didn’t really hear them. He doubted the others were listening, either. They all had much more important things on their minds.
“This is close enough,” Rose said, eventually. “We can’t get any closer or the vampires will notice our presence.”
Eric sighed and turned the next corner, finding an empty parking area a couple of minutes later. “This should work.”
They parked and the women started getting out of the car, but her father didn’t move an inch. He just stared at Nick in the rearview mirror. Once the others were outside, Eric got out, and Nick did the same.
Cara joined him. “Ignore my dad. The others will be here soon, and everyone will be so busy that nobody will have time to stare at you.”
“It’s fine,” Nick said.
Three other vehicles pulled in shortly after that, and of course, every single person was watching him like a hawk. They climbed out of their cars, and Cara’s mother waved them over to her. She had several charts, diagrams and maps of Edinburgh spread across the front of the car.
Slowly, the witches moved towards her, giving Nick a wide berth.
“Maybe I was wrong,” Cara said.
Nick walked away from them, giving them the space they wanted. “Not wrong, but it’ll take them some time. They’ll come around.”
She followed him and raised an eyebrow. “You sound very confident about that.”
He shrugged. “If we managed to convince Jay, we can convince anyone.”
“Speaking of him...” Cara waved as Jay climbed out of the final car, and he returned the wave as he followed a few people, presumably his family, towards the crowd gathered around Cara’s mother.
“So how does this work, exactly?” Nick asked. “I’d move closer to your mom to hear what she’s saying, but I doubt it would go down well.”
Cara glanced around and spotted a stone wall. She pulled herself up, sitting on it and slipping her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. After a second, she grinned. “Hey, we’re the same height.”
He laughed. “Finally,” he said, leaning closer to her. Another thought occurred to him and he stopped. “I’m guessing your dad would lose his mind if I kissed you right now.”
“Probably. It might be worth it, though.”
He glanced over at the witches, and even though they panicked and quickly looked away, it was obvious that they’d been watching Nick and Cara.
“I value my life too much,” Nick said, giving her a sheepish grin. “I wouldn’t put it past your father to throw a car at me.”
Cara glanced over at them. “Now that you mention it, I wouldn’t put it past him, either.”
“So, the spell? You said it can incapacitate the vampires?”
The brief explanation came right before they got into the car with her parents, but any further conversation was stopped by the lethal stares and suffocating silence from the driver’s seat.
“Basically, we’re capitalising on the vampires’ mental power. It’s supernatural, of course, which means we can use it. The spell we’re casting today should take that power and turn it back on them. We can put them into a light, temporary sleep. It won’t last long, but it should be enough to give us time to get in and out before they wake up.”
“Should?”
She hesitated. “I’ve never seen it done successfully before. It takes a lot of time, effort and coordination to carry out.”
