Page 67 of Black Hollow: Awakening

Will smiled, shrugging.

“People who don’t have their own room like to see other people’s rooms,” he noted, and Liam burst out laughing. “And I… Well. I don’t have any siblings, so I’m curious about the concept.”

“It’s all right,” Liam said lightly. “I don’t complain. Much. Except Benji recently got a girlfriend and he hogs the bathroom for hours.”

“Is that the youngest one?”

“No, the one your age.”

Will was about to object, but then he remembered that Liam was a year older than him. Right.

“Does he go to our school?”

“No, he commutes to New Wing. He’s fascinated by big-city life.”

Will thought for a moment, watching Wareen move around the room, before blurting out, “You mentioned that the conflict between vampires and werewolves is a complicated thing. What did you mean by that?”

“Why’s that on your mind?”

“Norma made a joke recently about your unusual friendship and I started wondering if it’s really that rare.”

“Naah,” Liam said dismissively, still looking around. “Everyone who talks like that is thinking about some ancient history. Before the Agency existed and all that. ‘Cause, you know, a single werewolf, vampire, or witch can usually handle a human. But there’s a method for dealing with each of them, right? Hunters know them perfectly. And even without them, a mob of angry villagers with pitchforks can get the job done. So imagine a community where vampires and werewolves live side-by-side. Vampires feed on humans. Werewolves don’t.”

“Okay…”

“So a vampire feeds. Some rely on their charm, and that’s enough for them. You can always find willing victims. But accidents happen. And some probably like to make a mess. Violence excites them.”

“Like a serial killer?” Will asked with trepidation.

“I don’t know. It varies. It’s just that if you think of humans as a subspecies, you don’t really have scruples, right?”

“Mhm. Especially if you think of them as pigs,” Will summed up pointedly.

“He doesn’t really think that,” Liam said, laughing softly. “He just talks like that because he wants to push people away. But there are those who do think that way. Besides, even if it’s a model community where everyone is careful and tries not to hurt anyone… things sometimes get out of control, right? So let’s say the villagers find a mutilated body. One of them sees a monster fleeing. They start looking for it.”

Will listened attentively.

“Who do you think gets the blame? The charming lord with a pale complexion, beloved by the local populace, or the loner living in the woods who occasionally howls at the moon?”

Oh.

“Vampires just have a natural advantage. But that wasn’t enough for them. When there was trouble, they’d deliberately shift the blame onto us. I kind of get it, it’s a matter of survival, but according to the stories, some of them really played dirty. Many vampires considered us loud and hard to control, and therefore attention-drawing. From Hunters, for example. Get it? So they would create circumstances to drive werewolves out of their territory. Or to cause a lynching. If someone knows what they’re doing, they can force a werewolf to transform, and that’s enough to ruin them.”

Will nodded in understanding.

“And there’s one more thing… You know, werewolves live about as long as humans. We don’t get sick much and stay strong for a long time, but one way or another, we eventually die. And yes, some werewolves did terrible things too, waged wars, raided villages, and so on… But those werewolves are dead. It’s hard to be held responsible for them, right? But vampires…”

“…are ageless.”

“Yeah. So unless someone took them out, they still exist and are doing just fine. Even the worst ones. That’s a problem, isn’t it?”

Will nodded, deciding to change the subject.

“I think you’d feel lonely here.”

“Really?” Liam didn’t sound convinced.

“Mhm. You’re used to living with a large family. I only had Dan for a whole year, and I still haven’t gotten used to him being gone. It would be even harder for you.”