Oxford Blood (24 page)

“I can’t believe that,” Caroline said, shocked. “Sure, he
must have been upset about the election results but he strikes me as the type
more likely to kill his opponent than himself.”

“You never know what’s going on inside someone’s head,”
Olamide said.

Harriet nodded, but the more she thought about it, the more
she found herself agreeing with Caroline. Harry hadn’t been unhappy when he’d
stormed off, he’d been furious. She remembered George’s words about Edward’s
sister. A vampire had killed her and they’d made it look like a crash. Could
they have made it look like a hanging this time?

The news subdued all of them, and one by one, Harriet’s
friends left her room. Harriet tried to interest herself in a book about
Renaissance Popes but couldn’t get her mind off Harry. She was desperate for it
to grow dark so she could find Tom and voice her suspicions. The weather had
been better over the last few weeks and she had been relishing the beginning of
spring, but now the fact that it was staying lighter later infuriated her.

She ate dinner in hall sullenly. Several people came over to
offer their congratulations and it took all her self-control to give polite
answers.

Returning to their staircase she found Tom’s door locked but
she knocked loudly and after a moment Tom opened the door. From his unusually
dazed appearance, she assumed he had only just got up.

“Hey you,” he said, going in for a kiss. “I’m so proud of
you. I’m sorry I had to rush off last night, but now we’ve got time to
celebrate properly.”

He picked her up and carried her to his bed. For a moment
Harriet, forgetting why she’d come, giggled and clung to him. Tom pinned her to
the bed with his inhumanly strong arms and began to kiss her all over.

“No, Tom, not now. I need to ask you something,” she managed
to get out between gasps.

Tom gave her one more kiss then released her and sat up,
looking puzzled. All Harriet wanted to do was lie there and luxuriate, but she
forced herself to her feet.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you want to play?” Tom asked, sounding
almost hurt. “We can go for a drink or something if you’d prefer.”

“Harry Fitzrovia is dead,” Harriet said. “He appears to have
hung himself. I say that’s an overreaction to losing an election and even to
losing a Cavalier place. What did you and the rest of them do to him?”

Tom looked at her sadly. “I’d have preferred that you didn’t
have to know about the unpleasant side of the Cavaliers.”

“I need to know Tom. I’m sick of lies and evasions and
half-truths from all of you.”

“Fine. In that case, yes, he was killed. Not by me, by
Rupert, but like everyone else I had to give my judgement and I had to watch.”

Harriet sat back down on the bed before she fell down. All
day she’d suspected that something along these lines had happened, but having
it calmly confirmed by her boyfriend was almost more than she could deal with.

“But why? What had he done to make you all so angry?”

“It’s quite simple. When he lost his election, he failed.
The Cavaliers want the best of the best. We don’t accept failure in any arena.
As you know, we start with fifteen potential candidates and only ten make it to
the summer party. Over the year, as they let us down, the remainder are drained
by the Senior Members.”

Harriet wanted to rail against the unfairness and the horror
of this. She wanted to ask why they couldn’t just reject candidates instead of
killing them. But she knew that however much she tried to relate to them, the
Cavaliers weren’t human and they didn’t play by human rules.

“So behind all the glitz and glamour and tradition you’re
all still monsters,” she said finally, almost chocking the words out.

“In the top ranks they do what has to be done,” Tom said,
reaching out to her. “For most vampires however, whilst they’ll feed most days,
the only time they kill is on the day they’re turned, in order to complete the
transformation. For those changed by the Cavaliers, that means their guest at
the summer party.”

Harriet tightened her grip on his arm, her horror making her
hysterical. “Oh this whole vampire thing had been presented as absolutely
lovely. A lot of charm, a bit of hypnosis and anyone will give you just enough
blood to sustain you. No one mentioned killing innocent people and new recruits
draining their dates’ blood.”

Tom took her hands, and in her panic she didn’t resist.
“It’s regrettable, but it’s how the magic works. The blood of a new vampire’s
maker brings them back from the dead, but until they drain a human they are
powerless, stuck between life and death.”

Harriet tightened her grip on him. “So you’re saying that
you basically approve of this? And that you’ve drained and killed someone
yourself, back in the day?”

His voice was shaking slightly but he looked her in the eyes
as he replied. “Yes I did. All of us have. I did what I had to do live, the
same way people always do. I wouldn’t say I approve of it as such, but I
condone it and I’m not racked with guilt. I should have told you. I know how
much you hate being kept in the dark about things. It was just that I knew
you’d react like this.”

“You knew I’d react like this.” Harriet was actually
laughing. “It’s called having human feelings Tom. Of course I’m not going to be
cool with murder.”

She thought about all the vampires she now knew. All of them
had killed at least one person in return for their endless life and youth. If
the leaders killed all the unsuccessful candidates each year then God only knew
had many people George must have killed over the centuries. Suddenly her
thoughts drifted to her mother. It was almost impossible to believe, but if
vampires had no power until they’d drained someone, she must have done it too.
Harriet felt sick.

“So who was it you killed?” she said after a seemingly
endless silence. She didn’t really want to know but had to ask.

“A daughter of another big family in the county,” Tom said
blankly. “We’d played together as children and attended the same dances later
on. My parents and hers were hoping to marry us off. I wouldn’t have ruled it
out but I wasn’t really interested, and I was born just about late enough to
get my own say in that sort of matter. I couldn’t think who else to invite as
my guest though, and I thought she’d be pretty and well bred enough to impress
the committee. In those days our summer party was considered as a must do part
of the debutante season.

“A lot of the girls still had a chaperone, but they were
hypnotised almost from the start. The girls were very pleased when they
mysteriously turned a blind eye to their drinking and dancing. I hardly
remember killing her. When you first wake up nothing makes any sense. You’re
empty of all blood. The urge to drink someone else’s is like the urge a
drowning man feels to breathe air. Some of the men took a little coaxing, but I
have to admit I had my teeth in Cecilia’s neck in thirty seconds flat. I felt
better once it was over. Calmer, able to think almost normally. I never felt
particularly guilty but I never felt the urge to kill again either.”

Harriet forced herself back to her feet. “I’m leaving. I
don’t want to hear this.”

“Harriet wait, please. I know this is hard for you to hear.
I know I did something wrong. But I’m not a monster I swear.”

Harriet thought hard. “If you’re really not a monster then
you’ll help me stop it happening this year.”

She saw a flicker of hope in Tom’s eyes, but his voice
sounded defeated. “I’d have no objection to that, but it’s not possible. I’m
relatively weak; you’re human. What could we do against the entire rest of the
committee and four hundred years of history?”

“If you want to stay with me, you need to make amends. If
you want to do that, then you’ll find a way. I need some time alone. Come and
find me when you’ve decided whose side you’re on.”

Before she could lose her resolve, Harriet rushed out of the
room and climbed the stairs back to her own. For hours, she sat alone at her
desk, browsing the internet and trying not to cry.

Just as she was about to go to bed, there was a knock on the
door. She opened it and let Tom in. He gave the silk and lace nightgown that
she was wearing a hungry look, but managed to stay business like.

“I’ve already risked everyone’s wrath to be with you against
your mother and Augustine’s wishes,” he said. “I might as well push my luck
further. I have no idea how we could stop the summer party, but I’ll work with
you and together we’ll do our very best to find a way.”

***

The next day, still racking her brains for a solution,
Harriet set out with the others to see the final days’ racing. Ben greeted them
cheerfully enough at the boathouse, but his nerves were plain to see.

“It’ll be the first time we’ve been Head of the River in
five years,” he explained. “We can absolutely do it. All we’ve got to do is
stay ahead of Oriel, and we’re definitely the better team this year. The only
trouble is there’s more motivation in chasing a boat than just rowing as fast
as possible through an empty expanse of water. Plus I’m scared that we’re
complacent and they’re hungry.”

All Harriet could think about was whether or not the
Cavaliers would kill Ben if his boat lost. She clenched her fists, willing Ben
and the rest of the team to row as hard as they possibly could.

Some people in the college’s boathouse were working on the
principle that victory had already been assured, downing Pimm’s and singing. As
it was a Saturday and even science students didn’t have to work, the crowd was
the biggest it had been all week.

When the race started, Harriet cheered and chanted along
with everyone else. As Oriel’s boat drew closer to Lilith’s however, she had to
close her eyes. Everyone was taking the race very seriously, but only she knew
that it could well be a matter of life or death. She kept them closed until the
cheering started again, louder and more enthusiastic tahn before. Caroline
grabbed her and screamed with joy.

“Did you miss it? We made it over the line! We’ve won!” She
rushed off to find Ben.

Harriet slumped against the edge of the balcony, utterly
emotionally drained.

“Phew, that was fun,” Ola said. “Shall we go and
congratulate Ben too once Caroline’s finished with him?”

Harriet agreed, and they climbed down the stairs. The path
was full of overexcited college members. Caroline had managed to forcibly push
through the crowd to reach Ben, but Harriet and the others held back.

“Congratulations!” Harriet said, once they’d finally managed
to get near him. She gave him a hug.

“Thanks,” he replied, out of breath but happier than she’d
ever seen him before. “I don’t think I’ve ever rowed so fast in my life. Oriel
certainly gave us a fight. I feel quite sorry for Joe actually.”

“Who’s Joe?” Harriet asked.

“Oh another Cavalier candidate, he was rowing in their boat.
I hope the committee cut him some slack, he couldn’t have rowed much better
than he did.”

Harriet pulled Ben aside. “Listen to me,” she whispered.
“Find this Joe. Tell him to get on the train to wherever he comes from to go
and stay with his parents for a while. Don’t ask me why. Just do it.”

Ben was wide-eyed, but nodded. “I don’t know if he’ll listen
to me of all people though. He’s going to be sulking after I beat him.”

“Make him listen,” she pleaded, before they were swept back
into the flow of college well-wishers.

***

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 had
cried.

Adelaide had 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 had faded to dull resentment at realising that Sam had died whilst
Adelaide had lived.

She’d 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’d snuck out
to bars, charmed sleazy men and taken them outside to drink their blood. Back
at the house, she’d held Harriet tightly and fed her from her breasts as she
always had. She’d worried about whether this was safe, 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 had
followed her out of the house and into the centre of town. When Kate had seen
her bite down on the neck of the mesmerised bar patron, she hadn’t screamed,
had just calmly called out her name.

Adelaide had spun round, shocked and trying to decide
whether it would be better to put her sister-in-law in a trance and make her
forget, or just kill her. Before she could act however, she’d heard crying and
realised that Kate, smarter than she would have given her credit for, was
holding Harriet tightly. Not wanting to risk making her drop the baby, Adelaide
had frozen.

“I think I deserve an explanation,” Kate had said coldly.
“I’ve known something hasn’t been quite right all week.”

Adelaide had wondered how to react and decided that some
degree of honesty was probably the best policy. “The car crash. Sam was dead on
impact, but I was just about conscious. My boss, Gus came to help and he did
this to me. I’ll never die now, but there are these downsides.”

Kate had 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 had 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.”