Oxford Blood (The Cavaliers: Book One)

by Georgiana Derwent

Harriet waited in the Porters’ Lodge, her mind whirling. With only hours to go before the ceremony began, she had no idea of how to stop the deaths and the transformations. She’d probably just have to stand there whilst her stepfather orchestrated a massacre of the year’s most beautiful and successful students.

  Harriet longed for her necklace. She’d never needed protection from enchantment as much in her life. As a compromise, she’d put on the old crucifix that her aunt had given her so long ago. She remembered Tom saying that its effect on different vampires would vary – she hoped that most of the leading Cavaliers were the superstitious type.

  Caroline also stood in the Porters’ Lodge, looking fantastic in a short, fitted red dress, her deep tan and simple make-up absolutely perfect. The time to stop her from going to the party had passed, and Harriet remembered that she had promised to drop the subject.

  “I love the dress,” Harriet said, trying to be as friendly and normal as possible, just in case she never saw her again.

  “Thanks, yours is very pretty too; green really suits you,” Caroline replied, the excitement at the night ahead clear in her voice. “Actually, I’m planning to wear something similar for the ball tomorrow night. Anyway, I guess you must be going to the party. Does that mean you’re dropping all of this death and destruction stuff?”

  “I don’t want to argue with you, Caroline. You’re one of my best friends. Just try to be careful, please.”

  Before either of them could say anything else, two taxis pulled up. A driver stepped out of the first one and called for Caroline.

  “See you there then,” her friend said, stepping calmly into the car.

  No one got out of the second taxi, but Harriet assumed it must be for her. The blacked out windows reminded her of her mother’s car. She knocked lightly on the driver’s window, but no one responded. She managed to open a back door and climb inside.

  “Is this my taxi?” she called. “I’m Harriet French.”

  “It is indeed, Harriet. Sit down, make yourself comfortable and we’ll be on our way.”

  Harriet couldn’t see the driver due to the solid black glass partition between the front and back of the car. The voice, however, sounded both oddly familiar and unusually well spoken for a taxi driver. They drove in silence for a while. The odd windows meant she could no more see out than anyone could see in. It made the ride very disconcerting.

  Eventually the car stopped, and the partition slid down. “Archie!” she said, surprised. “Why have they got you driving? Isn’t it dangerous sending you out during the day?”

  “Oh, if I went into the sun it’d kill me, but the younger we are, the better we’re able to stay awake during the day and it’s quite safe in the car.”

  “I suppose this is another of your attempts to prove that you’re a team player, like when you got the swords.”

  “Something like that. I intend to prove my loyalties quite conclusively tonight.” He sounded exhausted and rather sad. “Come and sit in the passenger seat. It’ll be easier to talk that way, and there’s a lot I want to say. We’re in the underground car park in the Westgate Centre, so it’s quite safe for you to open the door.”

  Harriet much preferred having a closable partition between them. Nonetheless, she got out of the car. She didn’t seem to be entirely in control of her legs, but surely Archie couldn’t be strong enough to mesmerise her.

  She sat down beside him, trying to keep as much distance between them as possible. He wore the full Cavaliers’ outfit, white tie with the blue and silver waistcoat and bow tie. Despite being as attractive as the other vampires, he appeared rather more frail than most of them. His blue eyes glowed, and his skin looked oddly flushed.

  “Will this be your first Summer Party as a vampire?” Harriet said, trying to normalise the situation by making conversation.

  He laughed softly. “I hope it’s my last. It’s astonishing just how well everyone seems to adapt to being a murderous animal. Do you think there’s something wrong with them to begin with, or do you think the fact that I’ve still mostly got my human emotions and feelings means there’s something wrong with me?”

  The conversation threw Harriet. Sometimes they expressed regrets for an odd specific incident or sulked about not being able to go out in the sun, but all of the vampires she’d met seemed overwhelmingly positive about their changed state.

  “If it means you don’t go around killing people and acting like a total bastard in the way some of them do then that’s obviously a good thing,” she said cautiously.

  “Well I wouldn’t say I’ve ever acted like a total bastard. I’ve always thought of myself as a gentleman. Your cousin certainly agreed. Although I have been doing a lot of killing.”

  Harriet went cold. “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “You should have seen them all last year. They went to that party as humans, and they woke up as monsters. When the older members had them bite their dates, they ripped their throats out without a moment’s hesitation.

  “I tried to do the right thing. God, I tried so hard. Attempting to resist the blood when you first wake up, it’s like attempting to hold your breath until you pass out. Every synapse in your brain, every nerve in your body is trying to force you to do what you need to do to live. But I’ve always had a lot of willpower. I’d have held out and died or become some hideous half-dead creature that they’d have put out of its misery. Except he held me down, and as soon as I had the first taste of her blood, I just couldn’t stop. I felt as though I was in a dream, but then she collapsed, and it was suddenly all very real. She was lying there dead, and it was all my fault.”

  Harriet listened to his story in horror, sickened both by his pain and by the suffering that the girl must have gone through.

  “I loved her you know, truly. I guess a lot of them would have said the same about their dates, but in the end, they were just food to them. Stephanie was different.”

  “Stephanie.” Harriet could hardly get the words out. “It wasn’t an overdose, was it? You killed my cousin.”

  “In the technical sense, yes, and I promise you that it hurt me more than anyone else. Really though, George did it. He opened up her neck and he held me down until I physically couldn’t help but drink. Afterwards, he laughed about what your mother would have made of it and whether she’d have cared.”

  She couldn’t have known. Her mother had always had a soft spot for the pretty and talented Stephanie, often asking about her on her visits.

  But George. The way he’s acted towards me, and all the time he must have been laughing inside knowing what he’d done. The heat of the car pressed in on her, and she could barely breathe.

  “In the weeks afterwards, they tried to make me drink from other people. I wouldn’t have to kill them, they reassured me; I’d just have to take a few sips to keep my strength up. The thought sickened me. Every time I tried, I just saw Steph’s face. I grew weaker and weaker, and finally, they managed to force me again. Physically, I felt much better, but mentally I hated myself.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Harriet said, trying and failing to fight back her tears. “Every vampire has to drink blood. I’m sure you didn’t hurt them. You can’t hate yourself.”

  “Oh, don’t worry; I got over the self-loathing fast. What’s the point in hating yourself when you can hate others and seek your revenge? Why kill myself when I could kill George?”

  “He’s much stronger than you,” she said immediately, thinking about Tom and George’s duel. Tom at least had eighty years to George’s centuries. She couldn’t imagine how easily he’d beat a two-year-old vampire.

  “Or rather, I was. You see, I came up with a solution to both my problems. Drain a vampire and the blood is so potent that you can get away without drinking from a human for several weeks. More importantly, drain them and you get all of their power. I’m amazed more vampires don’t do it. It’s quite astonishing how firmly the old codes of honour hold.”

  “
So you killed them all? Charles and Crispin and Peter?”

  “Absolutely. A few others as well, outside of Oxford. I started with the weaker ones, and as their blood made me stronger, began to work my way up. No one suspected anything.”

  “So do you think you’re strong enough to fight George now?” she asked.

  “It’s hard to say. He has the blood of a strong maker on his side as well as the years. But now I’ve at least got a decent chance.”

  I need to warn him, Harriet thought, and then remembered what George had done.

  Archie looked at her firmly. “Give me your hands,” he said.

  Once again, Harriet her mind and body fought against each other, but now she understood. The power of all the drained vampires gave him the strength to mesmerise her. Despite her best attempts to resist, her arms shot out in front of her. Archie moved alarmingly fast, grabbing her wrists, twisting them behind her back and tying them together. Next, he took some wire cutters from the dashboard.

  “I suppose I’d better deal with your necklace. Infuriatingly, despite being born in the late twentieth century secular society, my parents still gave me a religious upbringing. Crucifixes don’t have much effect on atheist vampires, but even though I now very much doubt there is a God, I still find that they burn.”

  Carefully avoiding the cross itself, he leaned over and cut the chain so that it fell into her lap. Once again, Harriet wished she still had the Piso pendant.

  “I thought you wanted to kill the vampires and save the humans,” Harriet shouted between sobs. “Why are you doing this to me?”

  “It’s unfortunate, and for what it’s worth you have my sincerest apologies. It pains me in particular that it’s Stephanie’s cousin who will have to be the second human I kill, especially considering that you look so alike.”

  “You’re going to kill me?”

  “I’m afraid so. If I’m holding you hostage, I don’t believe Augustine will risk trying to stop me lest I kill you and break his beloved Adelaide’s heart. In addition, draining you should give me the last burst of strength I need. If I could have some of Augustine’s blood, I’d be almost guaranteed to beat George. Of course, he’s untouchable, but he gave his blood to your mother, and when she continued to feed you her milk after she was turned, you got a trace of her blood and thus his power.”

  “You’re saying I have some vampire blood?”

  “Absolutely. Why do you think you’re so resistant to mind control, even when you’re not wearing your lovely little necklace? Why do you think you can see vampire’s memories when you taste their blood? And you must have noticed that even if he lost, Tom put up a better fight against George once he’d drunk from you than could reasonably have been expected.”

  Did Archie knew that George had drunk from her too? She certainly wasn’t going to tell him.

  “Well, I can only apologise again. I’m going to take most of your blood now but finish you where they can all see. Close your eyes.”

  Dimly remembering what he’d said about her mother’s milk having given her the power to withstand the mind control, Harriet grit her teeth and focussed on staying conscious, but Archie’s powers overwhelmed her resistance. Within moments, the world went dark. For a second, her neck burned as his inhuman teeth pierced the vein, and then, perhaps luckily, she passed out.