The Purity of Blood: Volume I (31 page)

“Well, I’m not
exactly sure, but – I think we may be sort of friends now.
 
I don’t know, maybe more than friends?” I
said as if it had just occurred to me.

“More?” she
almost whispered.
 
I looked over to see
surprise and maybe hope in her eyes, but it quickly seemed to fade, tempered by
concern I think.

I was walking
down the hall towards the stairs and stopped.
 
Tabitha wasn’t next to me anymore and I turned to see her standing about
ten feet behind me motionless.
 
She was
staring at me open mouthed.

“Yeah, I
know.
 
I’m kind of having the same reaction
to it myself,” I said as she recovered herself and started to catch up to
me.
 

“Exactly when
did this happen?”

“I’m not really
sure, it happened so fast.
 
Seems like
one thing led to another and then I’m up at his house, and then we’re going to
the festival together, and then we went out to dinner last night and he wants
to see me again today.”
 

I thought this
sounded like a good abbreviation of the truth.
 
No need to fill in all the sordid details if she didn’t ask.
 
There it was again, that stunned look behind
her eyes.
 
I think that’s how I felt; I
was just too confused inside to show it outwardly.

“I’m just –
surprised.
 
I never had a clue.
 
I have to admit that I kinda wondered if he
was gay myself.
 
I mean a guy that good
looking, who dresses that well and brushes off all the good looking girls on
campus.
 
Come on, who wouldn’t wonder?”

“Well, I’m
pretty sure he’s not,” I said with a smile.
 
Gay?
 
No. – Vampire?
 
Yes.

Inwardly, I
rolled my eyes at myself.

“Wow,” was all
she could say in response.
 
And well,
that pretty much summed it up for me as well.

We walked down
the stairs, out the front door and started cross campus in silence.
 
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her
mulling all this new information over under that sleek black bob of hair.

“So when are you
going to bring him by to meet us?” she finally asked.

“Yeah, I was
wondering about that.
 
It doesn’t seem as
if the guys really like him, so I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

“Oh, they’ll
make an effort if you bring him buy.
 
Well, Mike will.
 
Ryan may take a
little longer.”

“Alright, I’ll
ask him about it when I see him today.
 
We’ll see what he says.”
 

I was by no way
convinced this would end well, but knew there was really no easily avoidable
way around the introduction.
 
My feelings
for Daniel were hard to explain to myself and impossible to explain to
Tabitha.
 
I’d never had a relationship
before.
 
I think I wanted time to figure
out what was really going on between us before I introduced him into my circle
of friends.
 
Blending these two worlds
seemed like it would uselessly confuse things even more, and I woefully felt
inadequate to the task of figuring it all out anytime in the near future.
 
I had no idea what the protocol was for a
human relationship, let alone one with another species.
 
I sighed.
 
There really was no one I could go to for advice in this situation, was
there.

“Wow, Daniel,”
she muttered.

“Yep.”

“So did he ever
tell you what happened to the Professor?
 
I can’t believe he’s been gone this long.”

“This is my stop,”
I said, pointing to the Humanities Building.
 
“I’ll call you later, I promise.”

“Alright.
 
I’ll hold
you to that,” she shouted over her shoulder as she kept on walking.

After my psych class dismissed I
filed out of the crowded lecture hall along with the sea of other students.
 
Coming out the large wooden doors into the hallway,
I found Daniel leaning against one of the concrete pillars that ran down the
center of the long atrium.
 
When he
caught sight of me, a smile lit his face and I momentarily forgot that he was
anything other than the gorgeous man I’d spent last night dreaming about.
 

“What are you
doing here?” I asked.
 
Almost
indescribably happy to see him, I could feel the goofy grin forming on my
face.
 
Yet I still had the haunting
feeling I should be protecting myself more.
 

“How did you
know where I was?”

“Now that I know
your scent so well, you’re not that hard to find,” he whispered, leaning in to
my ear.
 
I think he was smelling my hair.

“Oh – guess I
should shower more.”
 
I blushed, more than
a little embarrassed.

“That wouldn’t
matter, it’s the scent of your blood and you can’t wash that off no matter how
hard you scrub.”

We started to
walk towards the exit.
 

“So when is your
next class?”

“In about thirty
minutes – over in the science building.”
 

We strolled
outside and started in that general direction.
  
I saw him look down at my hand like he wanted to take it, but he looked
hesitant again, almost as if last night had never happened.

“What are you
thinking?” he asked, as his eyes rose to meet mine.
 

“Nothing
really.
 
Tabitha stopped by this
morning.
 
She asked me about you, about
the look you gave me in class yesterday morning, and I had to tell her
something.”

“What did you
say?”
 

He instantly
perked up, though he tried to hide it.

“I said I
thought we were kind of … well, sort of … maybe dating now.”
 

He stopped and
stared at me.
 

Oh shit!
 
I knew I shouldn’t have presumed that!

He didn’t look
mad; instead he looked pensive, as if weighing my words carefully.

“
Humm
… dating.
 
I
really hate that word, so woefully inadequate to the task.
 
As if there was something proper about trying
people on for size, looking for one that fits and casually discarding those
that don’t.”
 

I looked up to
see the hundred and twenty four year old in him rear his head.
 
I wanted to laugh, but suppressed it, not
sure if I’d offend him if I did.

“You make it
sound so sordid.”

“It is!” he
protested.
 
“At least it would have been
when I was your age.”

“Okay, old
timer” I smiled, poking him in the ribs.
 
“What should I have said then?”

“I suppose that
word will do for now, at least as something to tell your friends.
 
But I want you to know that my intentions are
not as casual as the word dating would imply.”

Not as casual?
 
What was that supposed to mean?

“Tabitha also
wanted to know when I was going to bring you around.
 
I told her I’d have to ask you about
that.
 
You know, to meet my friends.”

“What do you
think?
  
I’m not sure that’s such a good
idea.”

“Well, not that
I know a lot about this, but I think it would look suspicious if I didn’t.
 
If you ever want to get off on the right foot
with them, it would probably be best to do it sooner rather than later I would
imagine.
 
We can put it off for a while
though.”

“If you say
so.
 
I’ll defer to you as more of an
expert in modern human social interaction than myself.”

“Tabitha asked
me something else.
 
She asked if you’d
ever mentioned where the Professor had gone off to.”

He came to a
stop as we approached my building and sat down on a bench.

“No, I didn’t,
did I.
 
It’s a very long story, too long
for today.
 
And to be honest, I’m a
little sketchy on some of the details myself.”

As I sat down
next to him on the bench, he reached over and gently put his hand on mine.
 
When I looked up, he’d closed his eyes as if
relishing the sensation of his skin on mine.

“I’ve waited
nineteen hours to do that,” he said, eyes still closed.
 
Then he smiled as his bright blue eyes found
mine.
 
I blushed again.
 
“I love it when you do that.”
 
He gently brushed his hand against the side
of my cheek.
 

Whoa!

His touch felt
electric, sending tingles up and down my spine.
 
Shaking my head, I snapped myself out of his spell.
 

“I’d better get
going.
 
I need to review my notes before
class starts,” I muttered as I stood up.

“So how about I
stop by the dining hall and pick you up after you finish eating dinner.
 
That way you can introduce me to your
friends, and then we can go take a drive or something.”
 

“You’d do that
for me?”

“You’d be amazed
at the things I’d be willing to do for you, Miss Donnelly.”
 
He smiled, thinking about his words.
 
He looked amazed by them.

Then he stood
and opened the door for me.
 
I told him
I’d see him that evening, and with a smile went inside to class.
 
As I walked down the hallway, I could still
feel the tingle where he’d touched my face and gently placed my hand on top of
it.
 

Would I feel
this way about him if he were only a human?
 
Or did he have some special vampire power over me he didn’t want to tell
me about.
 
Not that I’ve have cared if he
did.
 

Sitting there waiting for class to begin, I found myself
wondering if he hadn’t even kissed me yet, could we really be dating?

“Tabitha tells us you’ve been
standing us up to spend time with that Daniel guy,” Mike said as I set my tray
down on the table.
 
He sounded like he
wasn’t sure he believed it, which I wasn’t really sure if I should have agreed
with or been offended by.

“Um – yeah, I
guess so.
 
We’ve been hanging out a bit
over the past week or so.”

“Interesting …”
he said, letting his voice trail off.
 
My
confirmation seemed to set off a chain of thoughts in his head.

Tabitha, who was
seated next to him, appeared to be closely inspecting some particularly
interesting piece of broccoli on the plate in front of with her fork.
 
Either that or she didn’t want to look me in
the eyes and admit she’d spilled the beans.
 
I didn’t care at this point.
 
I just
wished I’d had a bit more time to figure out exactly what my relationship with
Daniel was or wasn’t before I had to face an inquisition about it.

“So what’s he
like?” Mike asked.

“What’s who
like?” Ryan asked, unexpectedly dropping down in the empty seat next to me.

“Daniel.”

“Daniel who?”

“You know,
Darcy’s gay boyfriend,” Mike said, gesturing towards one of the nearby tables
Daniel had been frequenting.

“How would Sara
know?” Ryan asked as he dug into his dinner.

“She’s dating
him; at least that’s what she says,” Mike answered nodding in Tabitha’s
direction.

“She’s what?”
 
Dropping his fork, Ryan stared back at him
with unbelieving eyes.

“Hello.
 
I’m sitting right here,” I complained to no
one in particular as I rolled my eyes towards the heavens.

“So, what’s he
like?” Mike repeated as he turned back to me.

I finished
chewing my food.

“He’s nice.”

“That’s it?” I
watched as Mike raised an eyebrow my way.

“He’s
very
nice.”

“So you’re
saying Sara is dating that guy?
 
The one
that usually sits over there?” Ryan asked Mike, pointing towards Daniel’s empty
chair.
 
“Since when?”

Mike looked at
me for an answer.

“I don’t know, a
few days now I guess,” I said taking another bite of my dinner.
 

Act casual, Sara.
 
You can do this.

“So how did that
happen?” Ryan demanded in an incredulous tone.

“I don’t
know.
 
We kept running into each other
and then ended up going to the festival together.
 
We had a … nice time I guess and things just
kind of progressed after that.”

“
Humph
,” was all Ryan could manage in
response, obviously unsettled with my answer.
 
I think, not wanting to hear anymore, he dived into his food and ignored
us.

“I thought you’d
be happy I was having fun,” I said with a quiet disappointment that surprised
even me.
 

I guess I’d
expected too much from them.
 
I mean
after all, how well did we really know each other?
 
I’d only known them for about a month or so
now.