The Purity of Blood: Volume I (50 page)

Daniel stayed by my side all afternoon.
 
I wanted to think it was because he wanted to
ensure my safety.
 
But part of me
wondered if it was because he didn’t want Lucy telling me anything similar to
what she’d already let slip.
 

As the afternoon drew to a close
and the shadows started to creep across the lake, he got up saying it was time
to take me back to campus.
 

“Yes, go feed
her!” Lucy said.
 
“Her stomach has been
growling for some time now and she’s too polite to say anything.”
 

Daniel shot her
a dirty look while Professor Walker turned his head so as not to let me see his
smile.
 
Of course I blushed as usual,
embarrassed at being the only human in the room.

I started
towards the garage door with Daniel behind me or so I thought, but when I put
my hand on the door knob, I glanced over my shoulder to see Lucy with her arms
around Daniel’s neck.
 
She lingered,
whispering something in his ear.
 
When
she let go, she gave him a peck on the lips.
 
Professor Walker casually walked by with no reaction as if this was
something he saw every day and thought nothing of it.
 
I’m not sure if it was shock, embarrassment
or awe, but I quickly turned back to the door and opened it before Daniel had a
chance to see that I’d been watching.

As I entered the
garage, I heard the faint sounds of a car making its way down the gravel
drive.
 
A moment later a silver BMW
convertible appeared making its way down the drive way.
 
Daniel strode past me into the middle of the
drive as the car came to a stop next to him.
 
I watched as a tall handsome man got out of the drivers’ door, then quickly
ran around to open the passenger door for a lovely Asian woman with long jet black
hair.
 
They both looked to be in their mid-thirties
and affectionately hugged Daniel hello as he walked over to greet them.
 
Even as they greeted Daniel, they seemed to
keep one suspicious eye trained on me over his shoulder the whole time.

The man was very
tall with golden blonde hair that was cut short, but shined in the fading
sunlight like spun gold.
 
He had intense
green eyes and a kind face with the appearance of a person who’d never looked
at someone in hate. The woman had long flowing black hair, a china doll
complexion and flawless Asian features.

“Is that her?”
the woman asked.

“Yes, this is Sara,”
Daniel said, as he waved for me to join him.

“Sara, this is
Thomas and Lily.
 
More old friends.”

Unlike Lucy,
they greeted me warmly if not a little uneasily.
 

A moment later,
the Professor came out through the garage also happily surprised to see them
and welcomed them with open arms.
 
As he
did, I heard Thomas quietly ask “Is mother here?
 
I was hoping she would be.
 
It’s been so long.”

The Professor
shook his head no; a shadow crossed his eyes as he did.
 
Disappointment I think it was.
 
He quickly erased the look and
enthusiastically waved them inside.

There was a
strange formality to the Professor that intrigued me.
 
At first I’d thought it was just some façade
he put on for the humans, and to a certain extent that was true.
 
But even as I watched him greet these new
arrivals he was warm and welcoming yet still seemed to retain a certain
uprightness in his demeanor.
 

Watching him, I wondered if it had anything to do with how
old he was.
 
Daniel had said he was the
oldest of them all.
 
How old was the
Professor anyway?
 
Maybe his prim and
proper manners were a reflection of the times he’d grown up in.
 
Watching him interact with his fellow
vampires, I began to think I’d find myself churning these thoughts over more
and more as the semester wore on.
 
In
many ways, the Professor was more of a mystery to me than Daniel was.
 
There was just something about him that was
so strangely familiar.
 
It was like a
song you’re sure you’ve heard long ago, and hard as you try you can’t remember
quite how it went.

We drove back down the mountain
without much conversation.
 
He apologized
for Lucy’s behavior and said she’d always been a handful as long as he’d known
her.
 
But I couldn’t help but notice how
he smiled when he talked of her, so I guess he didn’t mind handling her.

Part of me
wanted to think it was a good sign that he was introducing me to his “family”,
but another part thought he was more convinced than ever that it would never
work between us.
 
It seemed obvious to me
that our two worlds could never coexist in harmony.
 

Instead of
turning toward campus, he proceeded up Main Street, then pulled over and parked
in front of the Italian restaurant he’d promised to take me to before he’d
disappeared.
 
One of the things that
always made me stop out front of the old red brick building was their
sign.
 
I loved the way
La
Strada
D’Oro
was chiseled in the wood and painted with
intricate gold lettering in the sign that hung above the door.
 
Whoever made it, took a simple sign and
managed to make it a work of art.
 

A minute later
we were seated at a secluded corner table.
 
At its center sat a Chianti bottle with a lit candle coming out the top,
layers of wax dripping down its sides.
 
It was cheesy, but I liked it anyway.
 
After looking over the menu, I ordered the spaghetti with meatballs and
nibbled on garlic bread while we waited for my food.
 
At first, our conversation was just polite
small talk, as if we were avoiding any meaningful discussion.
 
But then I found myself laughing at something
he said.

As the
discomfort of the afternoon faded away, I began to watch the way the
candlelight sparkled in his eyes when he smiled or laughed at something I
said.
 
He told me funny stories about
growing up on a farm and I listened as best I could through my continual
laughter.
 
In return, I told him all
about my family and growing up on the beach in Wading River with my parents and
brother.
 
He listened with rapt attention
to my every word which in turn made me feel bad that I was skimming over such
large parts of my childhood.
 
Not that
I’d ever consider telling him, but he probably didn’t want that stuff in his
head anyway.
 
Besides, he’d never look at
me so adorningly again if he knew the real me.
 
Maybe that was why the Professor didn’t want us together.
 
Surely if he could read my mind, he’d seen
some of my darker recesses.

When the food
finally came, I was too happy to eat, but he insisted.
 
With his own brand of fascination, he
observed me as I carefully wound the pasta around my fork then ate it, bite by
delicious bite.
 
He watched me like I was
the most captivating thing he’d ever seen.
 
Unnerving?
 
Maybe, but also
flattering.
 
Whether they are or aren’t,
everyone wants to think they’re fascinating in one way or another.
 

After I
finished, he insisted on dessert so I indulged in a piece of tiramisu that had
to be one of the best desserts I’d ever had in my life.
 
The way it almost melted in my mouth was
heavenly, causing me to sigh as I swallowed my first bite.
 
I think Daniel enjoyed it more than anything
he’d ever watched me eat, or so he commented as I put the fork down after my
last bite.
 

When he dropped
some bills on the check and pulled back my chair, he smiled and said the
evening was worth every penny.
 
As I
rose, he took my hand and we walked out the door onto the evening streets of
New Paltz.
 
I wish I didn’t feel that now
familiar tingle when he touched me.
 
I
looked down at his hand holding mine for a moment and when my eyes travelled up
to his, I saw he was watching me.
 
Giving
my hand a gentle squeeze, he smiled.

“My girl,” he
said just above a whisper.
 
“I really
like holding your hand.”

I blushed.

“I really like it when you blush too,” he said with a shy
smile as his other hand came up to caress my rosy cheek.

When we got back to campus, he walked
me up to the back of Capen Hall and lingered, asking me more questions about my
life before him.
 
I answered, but all the
while I was looking at his perfect lips as he spoke, watching them curve and
move with his expressions.
 
I wanted to
feel them on me, to feel that he loved me with more than words.
 

I was
momentarily lost in the distraction of this thought when he suddenly pulled me
to him and did just that.
 
His strong
hands traveled down my back and came to rest at the base of my spine as they pulled
me gently toward him.
 
I felt the velvet
of his lips on my own and the sweetness of his breath as it mingled with
mine.
 
His lips travelled down my neck
slowly as his hand came up to gently caress the other side of it.
 

I sighed at the
sheer pleasure of it, but it came out as more of a moan.
 
Leaning back he took my face in his hands and
after staring deeply into my eyes for a moment, he kissed my lips both tenderly
and with force.
 
Caught up in his spell,
my hands pulled him closer wanting more while my fingers found their way up to
fist in his silky hair.
 

Then all too
soon, he let me go and took a deep breath as if to re-center himself.
 
I looked up at him as best I could through
the swirly haze of hormones that had settled on me.
 
His eyes were a shade darker I thought, or it
could have been the shadows from the street lamp.
 
Smiling, he squeezed my hand and said good
night.
 
After giving me a gentle kiss on
the forehead, I watched as he strode back to his car leaving me to collapse
onto the stairs in a puddle of happiness.
 
How could I ever have doubted him?

DANIEL

As
I started down the driveway to the house, I was grateful the
only sound I heard within its walls was silence.
 
I wasn’t in the mood to hear what they had to
say.
 
I knew they weren’t happy that I’d
brought Sara to meet them, but they
had
to accept her.
 
If they didn’t, – well,
if they didn’t I was considering leaving and taking Sara with me.
  

When I got out
of the car, I heard them a few miles off in the woods to the north, probably
looking for dinner.
 
They’d probably find
a deer.
 
It wasn’t their normal routine,
but I had to assume they were treating themselves, or perhaps consoling
themselves for having to be subjected to Sara’s presence.
 
I still wasn’t sure how they could do that
even as sparingly as they did.
 
I’d never
killed an animal before.
 
I’d never
wanted to tempt fate that I wouldn’t be able to go back to intravenous once I
knew what it was like to actually drink blood.

I walked in the
house and as usual the living room was filled with the glow of candles and a
roaring fire.
 
Randall was seated on the
sofa reading a book.
 
Without a word, I
dropped down into the seat across from him.
 
A few minutes later he put down his book and looked up at me.

“Say it,” I
couldn’t stop myself from saying.

“What were you
thinking bringing her up here like that?
 
Lucy is a loose cannon.
 
Who knows
what might have happened.
 
I thought you
cared about Sara.”

“I love her,
Randall.
 
And you know she loves me.
 
You knew it the minute she looked at me in
the lecture hall.”

“Yes well, I saw
a lot of things.
 
That was only one of
them.
  
I see a few things have changed
since she came to school here.
 
I seem to
have neglected her, thinking she was too close to me here on campus to be in
any danger I wouldn’t see coming.”
 

He spoke
calmly.
 
Randall rarely raised his voice.
 
He glanced down at the pages of his book and
then back up to me.
 

“If you really
loved her, you wouldn’t want all this for her,” and he waved his hand
around.
 
“She wasn’t meant for our
world.
 
I know this isn’t something you
want to hear, but I think you know it’s true.
 
If you really loved her, you wouldn’t force her to choose you over the
life she was meant to live, a life with a husband, children,
grandchildren.
 
What can
you
offer her?”
 
He paused waiting for a response.

“I can make her
happy.”

“Today?
Yes.
 
But what about tomorrow or twenty
years from now?
 
She needs a human,
someone she can grow old with, someone she isn’t secretly worried will kill her
in the middle of the night.”

I stared at him,
unable to believe the words that were coming out of his mouth.
 
He was right.
 
I’d thought them all before and knew there was truth in them, but I was
in love and love is, I was finding out just as blind as I’d heard it was.

“I love you,
Daniel.
 
You’re as much a son to me as my
own boys were.
 
I want you to be happy
that’s all.
 
Believe me when I say that,
in the end, this isn’t going to make you happy.
 
It’s best to end it before it’s too late.
 
End it now, while you can still get out.
 
If you don’t, you’re going to have to watch
her die someday and I don’t want you to have to endure that.
 
Love makes you do stupid things; I know that
more than anyone.
 
Things that you can
regret for eternity.”
 

He sighed as he
got to his feet and went over to stand by the fire.

I couldn’t
speak.
 
I didn’t want to admit there was
even a hint of a possibility he was right.

“I know you,
son.
 
You know she’s better off with
him.”
 
His words shook me out of my
trance.
 
“That’s why you don’t like him.
 
You know there’s something different about
him – and you’re right.
 
I knew it last
year when I first spotted him.
 
I hadn’t
seen one of his kind for over a hundred years.
 
They’re rare.
 
He’s what she
needs, and she – well, I’m sorry to have to tell you, Daniel, but she has
feelings for him too.”

“No,” I said
quietly.

“I’m afraid
so.
 
Yes, she loves you – the human you
at least, but part of her also looks at him and wonders.”
 

He walked over
and picked up his book.
 

“You love her,
of this I’m sure.
 
I have faith that in
the end, you’ll do the right thing by her. – Well, I think you’ve got a lot to
think about.”

Without another
word, he walked out of the room leaving me to wonder if he was telling me the
truth, or if I’d somehow inconvenienced some intricate plan of his.