***
When Stephanie came around, the inductees sat at a table sipping champagne. The difference that she had noticed between the existing Cavaliers and the new recruits had disappeared. Their minor flaws had faded away, and they had fuller lips, brighter eyes, more defined muscles. Like the existing members, they looked as though they had only just left the house – not a hair out of place, not a single wrinkle on their shirts or hint of sweat. Only their terrible paleness ruined the effect of perfection.
The failed candidates appeared to have undergone a similar transformation, but someone had staked them to the ground and they lay there in an unconscious state.
“They’ll die in the morning when the sun rises,” she heard an existing member explain to a new recruit. “It’s a shame really, but we can’t have failures hanging around and they know too much to just wipe their memories.”
“The girls seem to have woken up,” one member interrupted.
“Perfect timing,” said George. “Gentlemen, I’m sure you’re all still feeling a little frail and confused. Being dead for a while will do that to you. But go and find your partner and you’ll soon be feeling much better.”
George and Archie came towards her. Stephanie knew she ought to run, but her mind and body had become entirely separated.
“As a rule we aren’t sadists and don’t take more blood than we need,” Augustine intoned. “We try to avoid death and pain whilst still feeding our needs and urges. But to complete the transformation, we drink to the death.”
On cue, each of the old members leant forward and bit the selected girls. George sank his teeth into Stephanie’s neck, but it didn’t hurt. Instead, a pleasant warmth spread outward from the wound. After a few seconds, once the blood flowed easily, he stood back and guided Archie’s head to her wounds.
Archie held back. “I can’t,” he whispered.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” hissed George. “If you don’t drink now you’ll die. Really die. You must have known what you were letting yourself in for.”
“Fine, I’ll die,” he replied in a shaky voice.
George shook his head, held Archie in something resembling a headlock and forced his mouth onto the gash in Stephanie’s neck. For a moment, Archie resisted, but then some survival instinct kicked in, and he began to drink. Stephanie snapped out of whatever strange hypnotic state she had been in. Pain and terror hit her. She kicked, and screamed, and shoved Archie in the chest, but none of it made any differenceand . The other girls still stood there placidly, making no attempt to resist their partners’ attacks. All the Cavaliers turned to look at her.
“George, put her under, for goodness sake,” said Augustine. He didn’t raise his voice or alter his tone, but Stephanie got a distinct impression of surprise.
Archie continued to drink, seemingly oblivious to her screams and certainly resistant to her attempts to drag him off. George put his hand on her shoulder.
“Look at me, Stephanie,” he whispered. “Just relax.”
Stephanie’s muscles suddenly relaxed as though she’d had a massage and a hot bath, and her worries drifted away. Then the nerves in her abused throat sent waves of pain crashing through her body again. Every muscle tensed and her thoughts snapped back into focus. She resumed her screaming and pried at George’s hand.
“She’s resisting,” George shouted, sounding alarmed.
Augustine walked over, put a hand on her head and stared at her through narrowed eyes. “For a moment there I almost thought you were someone else. Especially considering that you seem able to resist George’s mind control. That’s most unusual.”
Stephanie wanted to plead with him to save her, but his expression quickly hardened.
“It’s obviously just a strange coincidence, and I can’t go around being overly sentimental. You won’t get away, so at least let me make it painless for you.”
Augustine’s words washed over her and, Stephanie found herself no longer able to move or even to scream. Archie continued to suck at her neck, and George held his head in place, presumably in case he tried to change his mind. As she lost consciousness, she finally remembered where she’d seen Augustine before. Not in Oxford, or even London, but back in her hometown, at her cousin Harriet’s birthday party when they’d both been kids.
And then Stephanie died.
PART ONE - FIRST YEAR, MICHAELMAS TERM
Chapter One
Oxford Blood (The Cavaliers: Book One) Page 2