Linda — The Mother Working for Samira

Linda — The Mother Working for Samira The witch helping Samira isn't there because she woke up one morning and decided vampires ought to run the world. Linda has a son who's dying, and Samira offers her something the people she trusted won't give her: a way for him to keep living. That's a much uglier recruitment pitch than a villain simply offering money or power. Linda's desperation is already there. Samira just has to make herself the only available answer. Vampires: The Eternal shows us the medical side first. Linda is told the disease has spread too far for surgery, and an experimental treatment isn't covered. She turns to her coven. Their leader refuses to interfere with what she calls the goddess's will. So Linda is caught between people who can't offer the treatment she needs and people who won't use the power she believes could help. Samira arrives, kills the coven's leader, and promises to make her son eternal. She even connects it to her own past, when she was sick and dying before she became a vampire. I don't read that as kindness. Samira sees a woman who can be useful and knows exactly what to offer her. But I can understand why Linda takes the offer seriously. Being told to accept your child's death is very different from being the person who has to do it. At Samira's castle, Linda is doing real work. The magical system has been adjusted to look for age rather than just a supernatural presence, which helps locate the old vampires in Paris. That isn't a real scientific scanner with a number we can calculate. It's the story's magic, and Linda is helping make it useful to somebody dangerous. She also keeps a photograph of her son. That small detail does more for me than a speech about loyalty would. While Samira is thinking about her new world, Linda is still thinking about one boy. When she overhears the plot against Samira, she intervenes. She warns her and magically stakes the bald vampire involved. Linda ends up dead with her throat torn open and her son's photograph still in her hand. Afterward, Samira acknowledges that Linda died saving her and orders the child cured and made eternal. We don't actually see the treatment or the child's life afterward, so I'm not calling that a happy ending. It's an order given after the mother has already paid with her life. Linda is only a supporting character here, but she's worth remembering because she shows how this kind of villain gets help from people who aren't chasing the villain's dream. Samira wants a world reshaped around her faith. Linda wants her son to survive. Those two goals overlap just long enough to destroy her. Source: Vampires: The Eternal #1–3.