The Purity of Blood: Volume I (73 page)

I blushed at the
remembrance.
 

“I won’t
lie.
 
I’ve considered my feelings for you
a few times.
 
But I don’t love you,
Ben.
 
I love Daniel.”

I reached out
and tried to put my hand on his, but he pulled it away.
 
I smiled anyway and quietly got up to
leave.
 
After I said my goodbyes, I began
to walk away only to hear Tabitha say, “I’m so sorry, Ben.”

“He may have won this round, but it’s not over yet. Not by a
long shot.”

At seven, I happily ran down the
stairs and out the back door of Capen Hall to see the shiny black Ferrari
waiting for me.
 
Daniel hopped out with a
radiant, drop dead gorgeous smile and opened my door, giving me a kiss as I got
in.
 
I loved that smile.
 
It was his carefree one.
 
I hadn’t seen it in a long while and had
missed the way it made me light up inside.

He took me back
to La
Strada
D’Oro
for
spaghetti and watched as I twirled the delicate pasta around my fork and popped
it in my mouth.
 
In the flickering light
of the candle between us, I remembered how unnerving I’d felt the first few
time he’d watched me eat.
 
Now I almost
enjoyed it.
 

“So, Randall and
Lois.
 
You promised to tell me their
story when there was time.”

“I did, didn’t
I.”
 
His smile faded a little.
 
“It’s not a very happy one, are you sure you
want to hear it now?”

“Well, give me
the highlights; you can fill in the details some other time.”

He settled back
in his chair and began.

“I guess I have
to go back farther than just when Randall became what we are now.
 
You should know that their marriage was
arranged by their parents.
 
In those kind
of small isolated communities like Hopkinton, marriages were partnerships more
than emotional relationships most of the time.
 
Randall will tell you he fell in love with Lois the moment he first laid
eyes on her.
 
She, on the other hand, was
a sensible woman and only agreed to the marriage because she thought Randall
would be a good provider and partner in life.
 
She didn’t love him, but she also didn’t think it was important that she
did either.
 

“He married her
knowing this, but he was convinced that in time she would eventually grow to
love him.
 
Her sensibilities and his
expectations were more common than you would think back then.
 
The lifelong journey together often took two
people from strangers to friends, and from friends to lovers.
 
This was what Randall hoped would happen for
them in the end.
   

“Years passed
and Lois was an excellent wife providing for all his needs, raising his
children and supporting him in every way she could.
 
But he knew she still didn’t love him the way
he wanted her too.
 
Still he loved her
with all his heart and believed that someday she would return his love with her
own.
 

“Their life went
on like this for many years so I’ll skip ahead to when he was bitten.
 
Randall was an older man when it happened,
seventy four.
 
He had gone out of town
for a few days to settle some business up in Providence, I think it was.
 
He was travelling back to Hopkinton in his
carriage when he came across what looked like a body in the middle of the
road.
 
He got down to see if he could
help, but the body was a vampire
laying
in wait for
him.
 
He sprang up, attacked Randall and
left him for dead deep in the woods.”

He paused when
he saw the look on my face.
 
“You’re
wondering why the trap.
 
Why not just
drag him down off the carriage and kill him.

I shrugged my
shoulders as I chewed.

“Vampires are
people too, Sara.”
 

Then he kind of
chuckled when he realized what he’d said.
 
“They get bored and find new ways to capture prey.
 
I have to assume that was why.
 
Anyway there in the forest, Randall went
through his transformation.
 
It took a
couple of days he thinks, but you can’t keep track of time when all this is
happening to you.
 
The pain is too
excruciating.”

“Do you think his
attacker meant to leave him alive?”

“He doesn’t know
and there’s no way to say for sure now.”

“What do you
think?”

Daniel paused
for a moment then said “Yes, I think it was probably on purpose.
 
But I’m the only one who thinks so.”
 

Then he turned
to watch a couple at another table kissing in the corner.
 
Although I had no clue why, I think it was
clear he didn’t want to talk about it anymore so I changed the subject.

“So what
happened next?”

“When he
regained his senses he knew something was wrong.
 
He felt the remains of the bite marks on his
neck and when he held his hand up to his chest, he couldn’t feel his heart.
 
Even though his throat burned with an
overwhelming thirst he didn’t understand, none of it mattered, his only thought
was for Lois.
 

“He ran back to
the house and found her sitting on the back porch waiting for him.
 
She took one look at him and knew something
was terribly wrong.

“He told her
what had happened, that he’d been attacked and woken up in the forest.
 
Of course at this point he had no idea what
had really happened to him.
 
Then he
reached out, took her hand and placed it on to his chest so she could feel that
his heart no longer beat.
 

“Did he look
younger then?”

“Yes.”

“That must have
freaked Lois out.”

“Yes, I believe
it did.”
 
He sighed, I think
uncomfortable with the subject.

“So what
happened next?” I asked as I twirled my fork around in my pasta.

“She started to
cry and told him she didn’t want to be a widow.
 
I think part of her thought he was dead already – some kind of
ghost.
 
She broke down and told him how
she’d desperately loved him for years, but had kept it hidden from him because
of her pride.
 
She’d thought that if she
ever told him how much she loved him, that things would change between
them.
 
She said she wouldn’t be able to
stand it if he ever tired of her and looked at another woman.
 
She knew that by denying him what he’d always
wanted most, her heart, that she’d kept him all to herself.
 
And here in the end, she finally realized she
should have confessed her love for him years ago.

“Randall was
stunned, he’d had no idea.
 
He said in
that moment of revelation, he could feel the warmth of her hand on his bare
chest.
 
He felt her blood as it surged
through her hand faster and faster, her pulse quickening under her
emotions.
 
He could hear her heart
beating so loud and so strong.
 
And in
that singular moment, he realized that after all these years, it finally beat
only for him.
 
He said he’ll never forget
how his eyes stared at her hand on his chest and how he followed the blood in
it up her arm until he looked up to see the desperate emotion that filled her
eyes.
 
That was when he lost
control.
 
The thought of a life without
her overwhelmed him and … he bit her.”
 

Daniel paused
for a moment, waiting for me to take in the enormity of what he’d just
said.
  

“Suddenly
realizing what he’d done, he dropped her and ran off, leaving her barely
alive.
 
He still didn’t know what he’d
become, but he knew what he’d done to Lois and unable to live with the
knowledge of it, he fled.

I stared at
Daniel totally wrapped up in the story.
 

“You’re not
eating, please finish,” he urged softly.

I cut up a
meatball and took another bite.
 

“So then
what?”
 

“I suppose you
could say that’s where their story really began, but let’s save that for
another time.”
 

He reached over
and gently placed his hand on mine, and for a moment ran his thumb across my
knuckles.
 
It was the smallest of
contacts, but even this small sensation generated a tingling sensation down
deep inside me.
 
When I looked up into
his eyes, he smiled, then pulled his hand back to pretend to take a sip of
water as our waitress passed.
 

I was satisfied
for tonight, but I wouldn’t let him forget to tell me what happened next.
 
It would give me something to look forward
to.
 
Of course, I was also wondering how
I was going to translate all this new information into my genealogy program.
 
I’d have to give that some more thought as
well.

After putting
his glass down, he reached over and turned over my arm.

“Your rash looks
better.”

“Yeah, it’s just
about gone now.
 
You know, I think I
figured out what caused it,” I said taking another bite of pasta.

“Well, don’t
keep me in suspense.
 
What mighty thing
was it that took down the great immune system of Sara Elizabeth Donnelly?”
 
He couldn’t hide his curious amusement.

“Darcy’s laundry
detergent.”

“You’re kidding
me?” he sputtered out.

“No.
 
I ran out so I borrowed hers.
 
Turns out it’s this strange concoction her
mother makes from scratch from some pretty weird ingredients.
 
I rewashed all my clothes and now it seems to
be going away.”

“Wait until
Randall hears that.”

“I took a sample
of it for him to play with when he gets back.
 
I thought that would make him happy.”

“You’re getting to know your grandpa pretty well now, aren’t
you,” he chuckled.

A week passed and Randall finally
returned.
 
I first knew he was back when
he walked into the lecture hall on Wednesday morning as if he’d never left.
 
It was an odd feeling to sit through his
lectures now.
 
To sit there and know he
was not only my teacher, but a vampire and my grandfather as well.
 

Although I’d
forgiven him for my childhood, I was still trying to find forgiveness in my
heart for what he’d done to me and Daniel.
 
I guess I could understand his point of view – to a certain extent, but
it would still take time to let go of my resentment completely.
 

When the lecture finished, Daniel invited me up to the house
for dinner that evening to celebrate Randall’s return.
 
I accepted his invitation, but I couldn’t
help but wonder two things.
 
First, if
Lois had come back with him, and second if I was going to be the only one
eating the dinner I’d been invited to.
 

After my last class, I changed
and headed up the mountain.
 
After giving
it a considerable amount of thought over the course of the day, I decided I was
looking forward to seeing Randall, to putting the past behind us and starting
fresh.
 
I wasn’t able to talk to him
after class because of the mob of students that had descended on him, all
attempting to get extensions for their projects that had been due just before
he’d returned.
 

Having had time to think about it, I’d finally accepted that
he was indeed my grandfather.
 
But
somehow when he looked at me, I still couldn’t help but feel violated for all
those years he’d had such a shadowy yet strong influence on the course of my
life.
 
I suspected as long as he was done
interfering with my life, these feelings would fade with time.
 
The question was, would he?
 
I know Daniel said he would, but the few
times Randall and I had talked about it back in Hopkinton, in his eyes I only
saw regret that I knew, not a trace of regret for having done any of it.
 
Without true regret, there can be no
repentance and so I remained suspicious.

I knocked on the heavy wooden
front door only for Randall to open it a few seconds later.
 
Smiling, he stepped aside for me to pass, but
I paused in the doorway and gave him a quick hug, which took him by
surprise.
 
I wasn’t sure why I’d done it,
except despite my lingering reservations, I wanted to think the best of
him.
 

Leaving him
behind at the door, I continued into the living room only to see Daniel enter
from the opposite hallway.
 
He paused for
a moment when our eyes met as did I.
 
Would it always be like this?
 
Would he always take my breath away?
 
I hoped so.
 
Recovering, he walked
over, pulled me into his arms and gave me a kiss hello.