I looked Edwin straight in the eye, using the opportunity to convey my truth.
“Yes, I’m ready to be a vampire,” I told him. “It’s what I want. I’ve known that for ever, I just hadn’t realised it.”
Edwin held the stare between us. I could feel his mind whirring, but I couldn’t read his thoughts.
When his next words came, they knocked me sideways.
“And how about your father? Does he know about your transition yet? What was his reaction to it?”
What the fuck?Myfather?
I’d never even known my father. Mum and Grandma had never so much as told me his name. My blood ran cold, like someone had walked across my grave, and Hans slammed his fist on the table.
“Edwin! Stop being an utter fucking idiot!”
Edwin’s gaze flicked from Hans’ to mine and back again. He seemed genuinely surprised, and Hans seemed genuinely fucked off.
“Jesus Christ, Hans. You haven’t told her yet?!”
“No!” Hans replied. “She’s had more than enough to contend with already.”
“What?” I asked, heart pounding. “You know my father? Both of you?!”
I hadn’t heard a single thing about my father in years. Every time I’d asked Mum or Grandma about him they’d cussed and told me he was an evil nobody who’d left the village and deserted us. They were pleased about it. They said he was a sinner.
“Seriously?” I asked Edwin. “You know my father?!”
Edwin looked right at me. “Yes, of course I do. Everyone knows your father.”
Everyone except me.
Yet again, I felt like I’d been raised blind and dumb, blinkered off from the whole world and everything in it.
Everyonein it.
“You really don’t know who he is, do you?” Edwin asked. He looked agitated at Hans. “Have you told her a damn thing yet?”
“Yes!” Hans snapped. “I’ve told her plenty.”
“Hardly,” Edwin snapped back, and I wished we could whip time back so I was still watching him sucking on Daniel’s arm, not sitting with my heart pounding, scared of another trapdoor explosion.
Edwin took a breath, and put on a fake smile for my benefit, although he was still talking to Hans.
“How is he going to feel about it when he finds out you’ve transitioned his daughter without so much as courtesy visit?”
“I don’t care,” Hans told him. “This is between me and Katherine, it’s got nothing to do with Thomas. Or her mother or grandmother for that matter.”
Thomas.
I put my cutlery down and held my hands up.
“Will someone please tell me what the hell is happening here?”
The silence was deafening until Edwin moved. He tapped Daniel’s shoulder as he got up from his seat.
“Come on, lover boy, bring your steak.”
I stared in shock across the table.