Oxford Blood (The Cavaliers: Book One)
Page 41
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Three days after the fatal crash, Adelaide had turned up at Kate’s house to collect baby Harriet.
“But the police said you were dead,” her sister-in-law cried.
Adelaide somehow managed to convince her that there’d been a misunderstanding. The glimmer of hope in Kate’s eyes when she’d believed for a moment that reports of her beloved brother’s death had also been greatly exaggerated faded to dull resentment at realising that Sam had died whilst Adelaide had lived.
She stayed at Kate’s for a week, sleeping for most of the day and blaming it on being weak from the accident. At night, she snuck out to bars, charmed sleazy men and took them outside to drink their blood. Back at the house, she held Harriet tightly and fed her from her breasts as she always had. She worried about the safety if it, but with every day that passed the baby had grown, looked stronger, seemed more alert.
On the seventh day, a by now almost openly hostile Kate followed her out of the house and into the centre of town. When Kate saw her bite down on the neck of the mesmerised bar patron, she hadn’t screamed, had just calmly called out her name.
Adelaide spun round, shocked. Would it be better to put her sister-in-law in a trance and make her forget, or just kill her? Before she could act, she heard crying and realised that Kate, smarter than she would have given her credit for, had Harriet cradled in her arms. Not wanting to risk making her drop the baby, Adelaide froze.
“I think I deserve an explanation,” Kate said. “I’ve known something hasn’t been quite right all week.”
Adelaide decided to try some degree of honesty. “The car crash. Sam died on impact, but I just about stayed conscious. My boss, Gus, came to help, and he did this to me. I’ll never die now, but there are these downsides.”
Kate nodded. Adelaide had always regarded her as stolidly down to earth with no belief or interest in the supernatural, but it seemingly hadn’t crossed Kate’s mind to disbelieve her.
“Forget this,” Adelaide pleaded. “I’ll take Harriet, and I’ll leave your house. You’ll never have to see me again, never have to worry about all of this. No one will hurt you.”
Adelaide revelled in the way she didn’t feel the cold, the way the rain didn’t touch her hair and makeup, how well she could see in the dark. Kate, on the other hand, was soaked and shivering. It was clear where the balance of power lay, and Adelaide expected her to readily agree.
“Oh, you’ll go away, and I’ll never see you again. I’ll even manage not to tell the police, I know they’d only call me mad. But if you seriously think I’m letting my brother’s daughter be taken away by a monster like you then you must be stupider than you look.”
With that, she ran, turning the corner and throwing herself into a taxi, which sped away. Adelaide was about to give chase (she hadn’t pushed her powers yet, but suspected she could keep up with a car if she needed to), when she felt a firm grip on her shoulder.
“Of course, I could pursue them with ease. I could catch the car and kill the bitch and bring you your baby,” Augustine said.
Adelaide wondered how long he’d been there.
“But strangely enough, I think she’s right in her way. I would love a stepdaughter, but our world is no place for a baby. She needs to grow in the sunlight; she needs the company of humans and a proper education. Let the aunt bring her up. We will arrange visiting rights, and when she is older we can claim her back.”
She’d cried then, in a way she hadn’t cried at Sam’s death or at the shock of the change. Gus held her, and gradually she’d understood the sense of it, but it hadn’t made letting her daughter go any easier.
PART THREE - FIRST YEAR, TRINITY TERM
Chapter Thirteen