Eudoxia is Marius’s first real antagonist after he steals Those Who Must Be Kept from the wicked Elder. Through her intervention, Marius and Akasha both discover that they have the Fire Gift. Eudoxia appears in Blood and Gold (2001).
During the reign of Alexander the Great, Eudoxia’s family migrates out of Athens to help establish the new and prominent city of Alexandria. Her mother dies when she is young, and she is reared by a detestable stepmother, but her stepmother thoroughly prepares Eudoxia for marriage, teaching her to read and write so that she can write letters to her family after she is married and read poetry to her children. She is delighted that a marriage to a suitable man is arranged for her before her fifteenth birthday.
One month before the wedding, her stepmother plots for her to be kidnapped. Once the kidnappers bring her to their filthy hideout, the vampire Cyril appears, kills them, and is so smitten with Eudoxia that he turns her into a vampire. Cyril dresses her in the clothes of her male kidnappers, and together they go hunting in the streets. He teaches her how to be a vampire with rough shoves and grunts. Afterward, he brings her to his lair, which is filled with the treasures of his victims, where he continues to treat her roughly by cutting off her long hair and throwing her into her coffin. Drinking blood and killing people never bothers her, but when Cyril cuts off her hair, she weeps bitterly, as if it is the end of life as she knows it. Cyril explains to her in simple terms the limits of her new vampiric life. She is glad that her hair grows back while she sleeps, but Cyril dislikes her locks and continues to cut them off every night. She observes that he never changes his clothes until they become worn, then he will steal fresh clothes off a victim, whereas she will often buy new gowns and make herself look beautiful. She also buys books and reads poetry to him. He finds all of this humorous; he does not understand her delight in beauty. They swim in the sea and hunt on the ships in the harbor. She is with him for several years and considers Cyril to be always rough and brutish but never cruel. One night he does not cut her hair, but leaves it long, and brings her to the Elder and to Those Who Must Be Kept. Eudoxia mistakes them for statues at first until Cyril pushes her forward and tells her to drink. She sees how Akasha’s hand rises ever so slightly and beckons her to drink from her neck. Akasha allows Eudoxia to drink as much blood as she likes, which makes her very powerful. Cyril’s purpose in having her drink from Akasha is to make her powerful enough to be on her own. As soon as she imbibes as much as she likes, Cyril leaves.
Soon afterward, Eudoxia continues the pretense that she is a man and establishes her house as a center of learning and philosophy. She visits the Great Library of Alexandria, and she learns of the world from the many people she entertains in her home. Priests from the blood temple try to persuade her to cease living in such a profane way, but she is more powerful, and she refuses them. Eudoxia lives in Alexandria for several more years until she meets a young man who, thinking she is a young man also, professes his love for her by forsaking marriage altogether. When she reveals to him that she is a woman, he is offended and rescinds his amorous offers. Eudoxia is offended and takes revenge by turning him into a vampire. Together they leave Alexandria for Ephesus and remain there until the Great Burning of 4 C.E. Eudoxia’s young paramour is burned to ashes, but the blood she drank from Akasha has made her powerful enough to withstand that Great Burning. Seeking answers, she returns to Alexandria to discover the fate of Those Who Must Be Kept, but Marius has already hidden them in Antioch.
Eudoxia seeks but never finds them. She moves to Constantinople, refers to herself as “the Vampire Empress,” and establishes a coven with two young male vampires, Rashid and Asphar, as well as the beautiful Zenobia and a number of other slave vampires. Around the fourth century, when Marius, along with Avicus and Mael, moves to Constantinople to protect Those Who Must Be Kept, Eudoxia visits them and demands that they give her Akasha and Enkil. When Marius refuses, Eudoxia attempts to destroy Avicus when Marius defends him and accidentally burns Rashid to ash with the Fire Gift. He is about to destroy Asphar next, when Eudoxia retreats. Upon her next visit, she politely requests to come before Akasha. Marius allows this, but when Eudoxia stands before the Queen, she is so emotionally overcome by the experience of being in the sacred presence of Those Who Must Be Kept that she offers herself to Akasha as a blood sacrifice. Immediately, Akasha takes Eudoxia and drains her almost completely of blood. Only after Marius’s desperate pleas does Akasha release Eudoxia, mostly drained and barely alive.
Following this, Eudoxia seeks to destroy the shrine beneath Marius’s house. After drinking the blood of a merchant, her vampires leave his corpse to rot in such a way that the mortals of Constantinople blame Marius. The mortals loot and burn Marius’s house to the ground. Furious, Marius goes to Eudoxia’s house, burns her slaves to ashes, including Asphar. Then he drags Eudoxia from her house to the ruins of his shrine. He flings her into Akasha’s deadly embrace. The statuesque Queen grips her tightly and drinks from her every last drop of blood. Akasha releases Eudoxia, and Cyril’s fledgling slumps to the ground. Akasha summons the Fire Gift against Eudoxia. A flame bursts from her heart and spreads throughout her veins until she is nothing but ashes. Marius kneels down like a poor scrubwoman to scour them away with his cloak. He weeps for Eudoxia, but only because she had so much learning and culture, so much potential to be better, yet failed miserably.
For more perspectives on Eudoxia’s character, read the Alphabettery entries Akasha, Asphar, Avicus, Cyril, Enkil, Mael, Marius, Rashid, and Zenobia.