Oxford Blood (30 page)

“We shouldn’t fight,” Caroline concluded. “Let’s just forget
we had this argument. I accept that you weren’t trying to stop me going out of
spite, but I’m going and that’s that. Are you going to go or shall I see you
the night after at the ball?”

Feeling slightly sick, Harriet nodded and hugged her.
Afterwards, Caroline made her excuses and went off to her rehearsal of a
Streetcar Named Desire.

The party was the next night, Midsummer’s Eve, and it seemed
it was going to go ahead as planned.

Chapter Fifteen

H
arriet
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. It was looking increasingly likely that she’d just have to
stand there whilst her stepfather orchestrated a massacre of the year’s most
beautiful and successful students.

Harriet was desperately missing 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 was also standing in the porters lodge, looking
fantastic in a short, fitted red dress. The time to stop her from going to the
party was long past, 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.

“Oh thanks, yours is very pretty too; green really suits
you,” Caroline replied, the excitement at the night ahead clear in her voice.
“Actually I was going 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 and 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. All the windows were completely blacked out. She knocked
lightly on the driver’s window, but there was no response. 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, as there was a solid black
glass partition between the front and back of the car. The voice however
sounded oddly familiar and unusually well spoken for a taxi driver. They drove
in silence for a while. As with her mother’s car, the windows were darkened on
both sides, so 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.”

“So 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 wasn’t entirely sure she was
doing so of her own free will, but couldn’t believe that Archie could be strong
enough to mesmerise her.

Nervously, she sat down beside him. He was wearing the full
Cavaliers’ outfit, white tie with the blue and silver waistcoat and bow tie. He
was as attractive as the other vampires, but looked rather more frail than most
of them. His blue eyes were almost glowing, and his skin was 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?”

Harriet was surprised by the direction the conversation was
taking. 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. I
have been doing a lot of killing however.”

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

“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. It was as though I was in a dream, until 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 through
her horror. “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, it was George. He was the one who
opened up her neck and who 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 car felt
very hot suddenly 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 had eighty years to
George’s centuries. She couldn’t imagine how easily he’d beat a two-year-old
vampire.

“Or 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. They were all so unsuspecting.”

“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 irrationally, and
then remembered what George had done.

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

Once again, Harriet had that odd sensation of her mind and
body fighting against each other. This time she was sure he was mesmerising
her, using the power of all the drained vampires. She tried to resist, but
found her arms 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 decided to give 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. Presumably, it was protected against attacks.

“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.”

Harriet wondered whether 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 tried to
resist, but Archie’s powers were too strong. Within moments, the world began to
go dark. For a second she felt the chilling sensation of his inhuman teeth
piercing her neck, and then, perhaps luckily, she passed out.

***

Caroline was having the most wonderful time. Born into
privilege she was used to grand events. As a small child, she’d regularly been
brought down to her parents’ drinks parties, and paraded in pretty little
dresses for the admiration of all their friends. As a teenager, she’d worked
the underage charity ball circuit with aplomb, and at Oxford, she’d had her
fair share of interesting nights. Nonetheless, the scale and style of the
Cavaliers party was like nothing she’d ever experienced.

All the guests were beautiful and perfectly dressed,
although she had a cheerfully smug feeling that she was looking the best of any
of them. The bright red dress she’d bought especially for the occasion
dramatically showed off her hourglass figure, clinging tightly to the waist
then billowing out below. She’d worn the red Jimmy Choos that her parents had
given her for her birthday, and persuaded her mother to lend her some of her
jewellery, most of which had originally belonged to her great-grandmother and
which added a wonderfully vintage twist. She wore her long blond hair wavy and
loose, and had kept her make-up fairly natural other than a smear of the most
vivid red lipstick she could find.

Ben looked adorable in his pristine white tie, inherited
from his grandfather. Like all the candidates, he seemed terrified, but she’d
done her best to reassure him. She had no doubt the Cavaliers would pick him, and
wanted the selections over so they could get on with being the party’s golden
couple. The clearing was enchanting, lit with flares. The decorative
scaffolding reminded her of Harriet’s warning and made her momentarily uneasy,
but she shrugged the feeling off with yet another glass of champagne.