The Purity of Blood: Volume I (57 page)

I could feel
Thomas roll my sleeve up and move my arm around.
 

Daniel reached
over and kissed Lucy on the cheek.
 
She
said something to him that made him drop her hand and turn back towards the
house.

“Amazing,”
Thomas muttered.

“What’s
amazing?” Daniel grunted, storming in the door.

“Her arm.
 
I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Daniel suddenly
looked alarmed and hopping out of his chair, came around the table to stand
next to him.

“What happened?”
he said equally shocked.

I looked down
and saw nothing out of the ordinary.
 
I
picked up the paper with my other hand and went back to reading and allowed them
do what they wanted.

“It looks almost
completely healed,” I heard Thomas say.

I could feel
their stares move up toward my face.

“I told you it
wasn’t that bad,” I said, still trying to read.

“Don’t kid a
kidder, honey.
 
It was
that
bad,” Thomas insisted.

“I heal fast,
always have,” I muttered, still looking down at the paper.
 

“There’s just no
way,” Thomas moved my arm around testing the joint, but I took my arm back from
him.
 

“That
does
hurt a little you know.”

He reached out
and took my wrist.
 
“What’s this?”

I looked
over.
 
“A rash.
 
Got it a while ago.”

“You still have
that?” Daniel asked taking a closer look at the small reddish rash.

“Apparently so”
I replied sarcastically taking my arm back for the second time.

“Humans don’t
heal that fast,” Thomas said matter-of-factly as he shook his head.
 

I ignored
him.
 
My parents had told me from as
early as I could recall, not to let people discover I was special.
 
I needed to blend in and be like everyone
else.
 
Although, admittedly it was next
to impossible to blend in this house full of vampires.

Out of the
corner of my eye, I saw Daniel nod his head towards the living room and when he
walked that way, Thomas followed him with Lily getting up and tagging
along.
 
I stayed put.
 
I had a feeling I knew what they were talking
about.
 
I’d let a few too many things
slip while I’d been around Daniel.
 
He
was a smart guy.
 
I’m sure he was
catching on to more than I would have wished.
 

A minute later,
Lucy came in the back door.
 
She walked
over to the table and stopped.
 
After
glancing in the direction of the whispered voices in the living room, she made
no attempt to follow them.
 
Then suddenly
she looked down at me.

“You’re still
here?” she asked with obvious distaste in her voice.

I looked up to
meet her stare.
 
“Do I have a choice?” I
answered with equal distaste in mine.

She took Thomas’
seat across from me.
 
“There’s always a
choice, honey.
 
If I were you I’d get out
of here while you can.
 
After all, how
long do you think a human can survive in a house full of vampires, even a house
of
good
vampires?”
 
Then she glanced over to the other three who
were now walking back into the kitchen.

“Randall
called,” Daniel said.
 
“He says the blood
hunter was back on campus last night.
 
He
seems to have searched most of the places you usually frequent and was in your
room for a while but left.
 
Randall
thinks he’s waiting to draw you out.”

“What about
Darcy?” I was suddenly terrified, realizing she might get caught in the
crossfire.

“Randall didn’t
say, but he didn’t see her in your room so she’s probably still alright.”

It was the
still
in that sentence that I didn’t
like.
 
My friends were bound to start
looking for me.
 
I needed to call them,
but what was I going to say?
 
If I said
I’d left school for a while they’d see that all my things including my car were
still there and know something was up.
 
I
had to think of something quick because I couldn’t trust that Lucy wasn’t right
and that I was ultimately in just as much danger in this house as I was back on
campus.
 

The rest of them
retired into the living room to talk over what might be done next, but I stayed
in the kitchen and stared out the windows at the last of the fading patch of
green grass in the backyard.
 
I felt as
if I was sitting at the bottom of my emotional barrel, as if one more decision
would break me body and spirit.
 
Closing
my eyes, I took a deep breath and heard words that had been spoken to me many
years ago.
 
They were saying you’re never
more powerful than when you’re empty, because only you decide what will fill
you up again.
 

I lingered in
the kitchen a few minutes longer then joined them in the living room.
 
I stood behind the sofa listening to them
discuss tactics and strategies.
 
While
the others sat, Daniel paced by the windows.
 
He seemed to be leading the discussion yet every so often he’d look my
way with an almost vacant expression.
 
All the light had gone out of his blue eyes.
 
Gone was any lingering emotion he might have
ever harbored for me.
 
I think I was just
a problem to him now.
 
Judging by the
tension in his jaw, I had to guess my nail had hit home just as it was intended
to.
 
Strange, why did it feel like it was
causing my own heart to bleed now?

Finally it all got
to be too much for me.

“Do you think it
would be alright if I go out back and get some fresh air for a few minutes?” I
asked when their conversation lulled.

“I think that
will be fine.
 
Just stay within thirty
feet of the house to be on the safe side,” Thomas said before Daniel could
offer the objection I could see in his eyes.

Leaning over, I
picked my jacket up off the back of a nearby chair and left them to their
meaningless chatter.
 
Like any of it
really mattered anyway.
 
When I walked
into the kitchen, I grabbed Daniel’s keys off the counter and headed into the
garage.
 
I was in luck; the garage door
was still open.
 
I quietly slid into his
car, and as fast as humanly possible, started it and began to race up the
driveway to get as far away from them as quickly as I possibly could.
 
I knew I didn’t have long.
 
Daniel was too fast.
 

When I gained
the pavement of the main road I glanced in the rearview mirror just in time to
see Daniel skidding to a halt at the end of the gravel drive.
 
He would have continued to chase after me,
but a car came along right behind me and there was no way he could follow on
foot without being seen.
 
The last thing
I saw before I rounded the corner heading down the mountain was him turning in
a blur to run back down the driveway.
 
I
guess he was more attached to his plaything than I’d have thought.
 
But more likely it was because I was stealing
his beloved car.
 

I knew I had
only a short time before he ran back to the house and jumped into another car
to follow me.
 
With a committed
determination fueled by my fight or flight instincts, I jammed the accelerator
pedal all the way to the floor.
 
I was
feverishly praying there were no police up ahead because, badge or no badge, I
wasn’t stopping for anyone.

I wished I’d had
more time to think through my plan, but I had to leave before the Professor
returned.
 
If he was truly reading my
thoughts, I’d have no chance for a successful escape once he returned.
 

I raced through
the streets of New Paltz to the far side of campus and parked in a satellite
parking lot for commuting students.
 
Quickly jumping out of the car, I ran full speed down to Capen Hall and
up to my room.
 
I scribbled a quick note
to Darcy saying I’d decided to go home for a week or so to see my parents.
 
That Daniel had dumped me and I needed some
time alone and I’d call her in a few days.
 
Throwing my duffle on the bed, I hastily threw a bunch of items
including my laptop and whatever else I thought I would have taken home with
me.
 

Three minutes
later I was running back down the stairs and tossing the bag into the back of
my car.
 
I pulled out of the parking lot
with tires squealing and sped off campus to the back of the satellite lot where
I’d left Daniel’s car.

I parked my tiny
hatchback behind a dumpster at the back of the lot where it was unlikely to be
seen by anyone I knew.
 
I’d thought about
taking my car, but if for some reason Daniel decided to chase me, I sure wasn’t
going to outrun him in my car.
 
I pulled
out the duffle and tossed it into the passenger seat as I slid down into
Daniel’s car again.
 

I’ve never stolen a car
before
I thought to myself as I pealed out.
 
Too Bad!
That’s what he gets for kissing that blood sucker,
was my only
response as I sped out of town and headed south on the thruway.

At that point, I didn’t know if
Daniel was behind me, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
 
I’d discovered that if vampires were
anything, they were unpredictable.
 
I
also didn’t know where I was going next except that I wasn’t going home.
 
If the blood hunter was still tracking me,
he’d know I’d gone back to my room, taken my car and abandoned it off
campus.
 
Hopefully he’d see the note I’d
left and know I wasn’t planning on coming back for a while.
 
With any luck, he’d follow me instead of
sticking around where my friends would be in danger.
 

As for the bunch
I’d left up at the house?
 
I didn’t
know.
 
It wasn’t their fight.
 
They had no connection to me that warranted
them risking their lives.
 
But for some
reason I couldn’t understand something told me the Professor and Daniel
wouldn’t let it go that easily.
 
Besides,
I didn’t like the idea of other people fighting my battles even if I were
outrageously overpowered.
 
Of course the
real question was how fair a fight would it be.
 
I’d never squared off against a vampire before.
 
Some part of me almost looked forward to
it.
 
I shook my head.
 
This was obviously the overly masochistic
part of my psyche talking, the part of me that lacked any sense of self
preservation.

Strangely as I
drove along, I could have sworn I could feel the Professor.
 
Somehow I knew he was angry at me for
leaving.
 
It was almost like I could hear
his voice in my head.
 
They were going to
follow me.
 
Even if I’d have preferred
they didn’t, I guess I didn’t care if they did.
 
I’d try to avoid them as best I could, but in the meantime, it seemed
more important that I put as much distance as possible between me and the
people I cared about.
 

Still having no
idea where I was going, I raced down the highway at what seemed like the
Ferrari’s top speed.
 
When I looked up to
see a sign for Interstate Eighty-four, I swerved hard to get off at the exit
knowing Eighty-Four went into Connecticut.
  
I didn’t want to go home, but I wanted to go someplace where my
familiarity with the lay of the land would give me an advantage.
 
I’d spent countless summers and weekends at
relatives of my mother’s over in Rhode Island, and my familiarity with the area
I thought would serve me well.
   

The last of our
close relatives in Hopkinton had moved away a few years back.
 
I figured it would be as safe a place as any
to hide where there was no one to endanger if I were somehow followed.
 

A little less
than an hour later I crossed the border into Connecticut and seeing the Ferrari
was almost on E pulled off at the first exit to get gas.
 
Careful not to use any credit cards, I went
inside and paid cash.
 
No use in making
it any easier for anyone who might be looking for me.
 
All part of Keeping off the Grid 101.

After filling up
the car, I parked off to the side of the station, pulled a pair of jeans and a
sweat shirt out of my duffel and changed.
 
When I finished, I took a moment to lean back in the super plush leather
seat and just breathe.
 
My hands hurt
from the intense grip I’d had on the steering wheel for the past hour.
 
As I breathed, I could smell Daniel.
 
His seductively masculine scent lingered in
the car like a pleasant memory I wanted to forget.
 
I missed the way I’d feel when he’d held me
in his arms, when I’d inhale deeply, drinking in this scent right before he’d
kiss me.
 
It was intoxicating, way more
so than the schnapps had ever been.