The Purity of Blood: Volume I (28 page)

“Miss Donnelly,
I need to speak to you for a moment,” Daniel called in a slightly more serious
tone than usual.
 

When I glanced
back at Tabitha, she looked like she was going to burst.
 
Smiling, I shrugged my shoulders at her
frustrated smile and started down the stairs to the podium, taking a perverse
pleasure in thwarting her plan of attack.
 

“I said that’s
all the time I had for today ladies and I meant it!
 
Please go to your next classes!”
 

Reluctantly they
left, but not before shooting daggers at me with their eyes as they retreated
up the stairs.

When they were
out of ear shot, Daniel smiled as I approached him at the podium.

“So, how about
dinner tonight?” he asked.

“I think I’m
busy, sir,” Rodney answered as he gathered his papers, not realizing I was
standing there.

“Gee, that’s too
bad, Rodney,” Daniel replied, trying not to laugh as he turned back to me with
an unusual smile.
 
“How about you?
 
Are you free?
 
I thought we might try something different and go to that restaurant at
the top of the faculty tower.
 
I hear
there’s a nice view from up there.”

I waited for
Rodney to walk out the door before quietly saying “I thought you didn’t eat.”

“Yes, but you do
and I like to watch.”

“Okay.
 
That sounds nice, but a little creepy.
 
I might even venture so far as to say kinky.”

He laughed. “
That
you find creepy!
 
Now that’s funny.”

I shook my head
in exasperation.
 
I wasn’t sure what kind
of friend he was going to make if he was laughing at me already.

“I’ll pick you
up at six,” he said as he gathered up his papers and started towards the
door.
 
Suddenly, he stopped and looked
over his shoulder.
 

“And in case
you’re wondering, Miss Donnelly, this
is
a real date.”

He smiled the
most devastatingly beautiful smile I’d ever seen and walked out before I had a
chance to say anything.
 
Not that in the
wake of that smile I could have formed a coherent sentence even if I’d wanted
to anyway.

When I finally
gathered up what remained of my scattered wits, I ran up the stairs and out the
door.
 
When I rounded the corner of the
hallway outside, I spotted Tabitha leaning against the wall waiting for me.

“Aren’t you
going to be late for class?” I asked.

“So, don’t you
think Daniel was acting a little out of the ordinary today?” she asked,
proceeding carefully.

“How so?”

Act dumb!

“You sure you
don’t want to tell me what kept you so busy this weekend that you blew off your
friends and didn’t call me back?”

I looked at my
watch.
 

“Gee, I’m going
to be late if I don’t get a move on.
 
Bye.”
 
I turned and hurried off in
the opposite direction, escaping her prying eyes.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” I heard her say, but I was
halfway down the corridor already.
 
I
wasn’t worried. Tabitha wasn’t going to tell anyone anything she didn’t have
confirmation of.
 
Now, had it been Darcy,
I’d have been horrified.

The day just couldn’t go by fast
enough.
 
My classes seemed endless and as
much as I tried to pay attention, it was hopeless.
 
All I could think about was Daniel.
 
I’d never met anyone like him before and it
wasn’t just that he was a vampire.
 
In my
estimation, he was the first man who’d ever had feelings for me, who actually
knew me for more than a casual acquaintance.
 
He was so different from any man I’d ever met.
 
Sometimes he acted like an excited boy, and
sometimes, when I gazed into his eyes, it was like seeing the soul of an old
man who’d experienced all that life had to offer.
 
I had to admit, the combination was very
appealing.
 
It made me wonder what about
me would seem attractive to someone like him … well, other than my blood that
is.
 
I had to admit, all this baffled me
in equal proportion to my not understanding why it was his not being human
didn’t seem to bother me at all.

I’d be lying if
I didn’t mention how aware I was of the many things he wasn’t telling me,
things about his past as a vampire.
 
Part
of me said – they happened before we met and the past is the past.
 
Why should they matter now?
 
But another part of me was whispering – they
could be important.
 
They could reveal a
part of him he may be hiding for other reasons, dark reasons.
 
I had to wonder how often the dark, vampire
Daniel I saw the other night came out.
 
That night at the back of Capen Hall obviously wasn’t the first
time.
 
What dark things had he done and
did I really want to know the full extent of them?

Deep down I knew
it was dangerous to pretend that he wasn’t some sort of monster.
 
I knew I could only get hurt if I let it go
on too long, but I’d come to realize he had a hold on me I couldn’t
explain.
 
Maybe it was a vampire thing,
some sort of mind control.
 
If it was, it
didn’t feel like it.
 
I just hoped he
wasn’t toying with me the way our cat toyed with a mouse he’d caught, playing
with it happily until he finally pounced and put it out of its misery.
  

What was I to him?
 
Student, acquaintance, friend, his date for the evening?
 
Or was I something he’d play with until he
was ready to pounce and put me out of my misery?

My last class ended at four,
giving me two hours to obsess about what I was going to wear tonight.
 
I’d heard my friends talk about the
restaurant he was taking me to.
 
It
wasn’t really fancy, but I still didn’t want to go in my usual jeans and
sweater combination.
 
I pulled out
everything in my closet that had potential, which let’s face it, wasn’t
much.
 
After trying on a dozen different
combinations, I settled on a fitted black denim skirt that came to just above
my knees and a plum colored silky blouse.
 
I tried it on and looked in the mirror.
 
Yes, this would do.
 
Nice, but not
too nice, like I was trying too hard or something.
 

Staring at
myself in the mirror I wondered if the blouse might be too low cut.
 
It showed a lot of neck.
 
I had no idea what the protocol was here.
 
I didn’t want him to feel like the penniless
kid with his nose pressed up against the window of the candy store.

But then again,
what did he mean by the word “date”?
 
Did
he mean date as in a time and place to go eat together, or did he mean a
romantic date?
 
Looking in the mirror, I
saw my shoulders slump.
 
He probably just
meant as friends and I was reading way more into this than was actually there.
 
I mean look at me, I was a mass of
uncontrollable red hair with boobs that were way too big.
 
If I was a guy, I’d certainly ask Darcy or
Tabitha out before someone like me.

I must have lost
track of time because just as I’d finished rehanging my clothes in the closet,
I heard a strange noise coming from the window.
 
It sounded like a bird pecking on the glass.
  
When I turned in that direction, I heard it
yet again.
 
Curious, I walked over and
pulled the string on the blinds only to see Daniel standing below, looking up
at me as I opened the window.

“What are you
doing?” I asked in a loud whisper, not wanting to attract the attention of my
neighbors.

“You’re not
answering your phone,” he said, smiling as he held up his phone.

“Oh, shoot!
 
I forgot to take it off silent after
class.
 
Sorry about that.”

He smiled
again.
 

“That’s
alright.
 
This was something I’d always
wanted to do anyway.”

I shook my head
trying not to laugh.
 
“Come around to the
front door.
 
I’ll meet you there in a
minute.”
 

I took a moment to grab my purse and double check myself in
the mirror.
 
It would never be the
reflection I wanted it to be, so this was going to have to do.
 
Slipping into the only nice pair of pumps I
owned, I headed for the door.

Daniel sat waiting for me on the
low brick wall just outside the front door.
 
If I’d have taken a guess, I’d have said he’d done what I had and tried
to dress nice without looking like he was trying too hard.
 
Of course, he always looked much more
fashionable than I could ever hope to.
 
I
guess that was one of the side effects of money.
 
He’d never mentioned it, but I assumed he had
plenty judging from his clothes, car and house.

As I pushed the
door open, he stood and sauntered towards me.
 

“You look lovely
this evening,” he said politely.
 

All I could do
was roll my eyes and say “Thanks, so do you.”

He gestured in
the direction we were to walk, and as I started off, he came along side
me.
 
The sun had just dipped behind the
tall trees lining the quad, and the cooler breezes of evening were beginning to
make their presence known.
 
It didn’t
bother me, but I shoved my hands deep into the pockets of my jacket for
warmth.
 

“It doesn’t look
like we’re going to get much of an Indian summer this year,” he said, noting my
reaction to the chill.

“I don’t
mind.
 
I love the Fall.
 
This is my favorite time of year.
 
I love to feel that nip of cold in the
air.
 
Seems like the heat of summer will
never end at home.
 
I’m always looking
forward to this weather.”

It only took a
few minutes to walk across campus to the Faculty Tower and take the elevator up
to the top floor.
 
As the door opened he asked
“Have you ever been up here before?”
 
I
said that I hadn’t.
 
“Neither have
I.
 
The Professor and I don’t get much of
a view from our side of the building.”

The hostess gave
us a table next to the windows with one of the best views.
 
The room seemed oddly quiet except for some
soft music in the background.
 
There
weren’t many people dining here this evening which I attributed to it being a
Monday night.
 
Through our window Mount Mohonk
loomed in the distance, bathed in warm red light from the reluctant last throws
of the setting sun.
 
The white tower at
its summit looked strangely pink in the amber light.

After a minute,
our waitress came over and gave us menus to look over while she took our drink
orders.
 
She seemed much more interested
in Daniel’s order of water than my diet soda, but perhaps it was the man
ordering that had captivated her attention.
 
She was practically drooling on her order pad.
 
Daniel didn’t seem to notice, his eyes were
fixed on mine, smiling a strange, enigmatic smile I didn’t understand.

“So what looks
like it would be something good to watch me eat?” I asked slyly, as I peered at
him over the top of my menu.

“Very funny,” he
shot back with a sarcastic smile.
 
“But
I’m sure if I looked hard enough, I could come up with something.”

When the
waitress came back, I ordered the fettuccini
alfredo
and grilled vegetables.
 
After she wrote
it down, she looked at Daniel who said he wasn’t hungry and would just nibble
on mine.
 
She gave him an odd look as she
walked away, but didn’t say anything.

After she left,
we fell into conversation about class and Tabitha.
 
I think he was curious to know more about the
girl who got to sit in the seat next to me every other day in class.
 
As we talked, I found myself examining him
closely.
 
Eventually, it occurred to me
that he didn’t really look seventeen.
 
If
I recalled correctly that was how old he’d been when he’d died.
 
So why did he look older than that?

“You’ve got that
look on your face again.”
 

“What look?” I
asked, rousing myself from my thoughts.

“The one you get
when you’re thinking about asking me something.
 
What is it?”
 

He sounded
resigned, as if he’d finally accepted his fate.

“Am I that
obvious?”

“No, but you
have … subtleties I’m beginning to pick up on.”
 

Something about his
statement horrified me.

“Well, I was
just thinking that you look older than seventeen.
 
If I had to guess, I’d say you look more like
twenty-two or twenty-five.”