The Purity of Blood: Volume I (55 page)

“He’s fast.
 
He won’t be easy to take down, but between
the five of us I think we should be able to devise a plan of attack.”
 

As I heard them throwing out ideas on how to proceed, I tried
to stay awake and listen, but the inescapable pull of sleep had too strong of a
hold on me.
 
Breathing deeply, I curled
up tighter on the sofa and drifted off, too emotionally drained to fight for my
consciousness any longer.
 
After all, I
was just human.

When I woke, the light was in my
eyes causing me to lift my hand to shade them.
 
Still in the same spot on the sofa, I was facing the wall of
windows.
 
The sun now flooding the room
with early morning light, I leaned up and stretched but instantly regretted
it.
 
My shoulder was no better, it was worse
if that was even possible.
 
I pulled my
arm to my chest and cradled it silently as I winced in pain.
 
Looking around the room, I suddenly noticed
Lucy lounging about in the chair farthest away from where I lied on the
sofa.
 
She was staring at me with an ugly
grimace on her all too lovely face.
 

“She’s up,” she
said loudly and with more than a hint of irritation in her musical voice.
 
Moments later I heard the sound of footsteps
approaching.

Daniel came in
and sat down close beside me.
 
He wore an
expression of deep concern, but I knew it was just a mask of lies.
 
When I inched away from him, he looked as if
I’d just slapped him in the face, his eyes reflecting some inner guilt or pain
I didn’t understand.
 
Reaching over, he
put his hand on my arm causing me to flinch away.

“Careful,” Lucy
said sarcastically.
 
“I think you broke
her last night.”
 
Then she got up and
walked out of the room.
 

“What?” he
said.
 
Then without my permission he
reached over and pulled up my sleeve to reveal my hideous arm covered in black
and blues.
 
They distinctly showed the
outline of his hands from where he’d yanked me across the parking lot and out
of the car.
  

“I’m so sorry,”
he apologized softly.
 
I could hear the
pain in his voice as well as see it in his eyes.
 
Yes, it was genuine, but it didn’t move
me.
 
When he gently lifted my arm and
tested my shoulder, I softly cried out in pain.
 

While this was
happening, Thomas had taken a seat across from us and said “I think it’s
dislocated,” ever so calmly as if he was an off duty emergency room doctor.

“I don’t think I
can –” Daniel started to say, but his voice trailed off.

“Don’t worry
about it.
 
I’ll take care of it.”
 

With a reassuring
smile Thomas put his hand under my good arm and gently guided me off the sofa,
leading me to one of the rooms in the back of the house.

“Why did we come
back here?” I asked when he sat me down on a bed and removed my jacket.

“Daniel’s
strong, but I don’t know how well he’d handle watching this.”
 

I didn’t like
the sound of that.
 
Yet there was
something in Thomas’ soulful eyes and soothing voice that made me trust
him.
 
Why was that?
 
He was a vampire like the rest of them, and
in my limited experience, vampires weren’t to be trusted.

“It would be
better if you took your shirt off,” he said rather clinically.
 

Looking up at
him, I saw no sinister motive in his eyes and since I had a thick jogging bra
on anyway, I nodded.
 
After trying to
lift my shirt, it became painfully obvious I couldn’t manage it by myself, so
he carefully helped me get it over my shoulders and head.

When he
finished, he extended my arm and examined my injury with what looked like an
experienced eye.
 
Then I watched as he
maneuvered himself into place at my side.
 

Looking me in
the eye, he said “I’m not going to lie.
 
This is going to hurt like hell,” and then without warning, he twisted
my arm until I heard a loud pop and he let go.
 

Almost like an
out of body experience, I heard myself cry out in agony.
 
I had braced myself for it, tried to swallow
the pain and the scream in my mouth but simply couldn’t.
 

He gently laid me back on the bed and told me to relax.
 
Then he patiently watched me as I took a few
pills he’d handed me with a glass of water.
  

I must have drifted back to sleep
because when I next opened my eyes, I was under the covers of the bed.
 
I was alone in the room, but I could hear
voices in the house.
 
They moved around.
 
Sometimes female, sometimes male.
 
Occasionally I’d recognize the tone of one,
but usually not.
 
The Professor’s voice
was the easiest to pick out.

Every time I
attempted to get up, my head would spin wildly.
 
Just this side of nauseous, it was worse than when I’d been out
drinking.
 
Back then, all I’d wanted to
do was curl up in bed and sleep it off.
 
Now all I wanted was to get up and try to escape this house.

I drifted in and
out of sleep, for how long, I don’t know.
 
The pain in my arm wasn’t terribly bad which I attributed to the
pills.
 
But I always heard the voices in
the distance, and always the Professor’s the clearest.
 
I think he was worried about me.

I was laying
there half asleep when I heard the door open.
 
Someone, I wasn’t sure who, walked in and sat down in the chair near the
bed.
 
Not wanting to talk to any of them,
I concentrated on keeping my breathing and heartbeat as steady as I could so
they wouldn’t realize I was aware of their presence.
  
I moved a little, re-shifting to a more comfortable
position like I would have if I were deeper in sleep.
  
A minute later, I heard another set of
footsteps enter the room and walk over to the chair.
 

“She looks so
peaceful when she sleeps,” I heard Daniel say in a low voice just above a
whisper.

“I know, she
always did.
 
There’s just something about
her that makes you remember what it was like to be human.
 
It’s a special gift.”
 

The Professor
was with him now.

I heard what
sounded like Daniel sighing.
 

“She gave me
back a piece of my humanity that I’d forgotten I’d ever possessed; that male
desire to protect.”

There were a few
moments of silence where they must have been watching me.

“I’m angry with
you, Randall.
 
When all this is over, I’m
not sure what I’m going to do.”

“I know that
too,” he said in a calm fatherly tone.
 
“But things may not work out as you anticipate.”

“What do you
mean?”
 

“I mean it may
be too late.
 
The scales have started to
tip out of your favor.”

“I don’t believe
that.”

“Believe it or
not, it is what it is.
 
Another time, ask
her yourself.
 
I’ve seen it in her mind
so I know.
 
Ask her how the night of her
drunken escapade ended.”
 
Then I heard
him walk out of the room.

Daniel sighed, but didn’t attempt to move.
 
Not wanting to hear any more, I surrendered
to sleep.

I awoke again, this time
fully.
 
The pills had worn off leaving me
with a dull but manageable ache in my arm to prove it.
 
I opened my eyes and leaned up on my arms.
 
Daniel was still sitting in the chair
watching me.
 
I’d almost thought that had
been a dream.

“Good morning,”
he said and smiled a half smile.

“What time is
it?” I asked sleepily.

“It’s about
seven in the morning.
 
You slept all day
yesterday.
 
Thomas gave you some pain
killers and sleeping pills.
 
Maybe a few
too many.”

“He didn’t have
too.
 
I’d have survived,” I mumbled,
slowly swinging my legs over the side of the bed.
 

“Yeah, about
that.
 
Thomas was wondering how you
managed as long as you did without them.
  
He can’t believe you slept on the couch all night with no meds.
 
You must have been in agony.”
 

There was a
curiosity in his voice that made me wonder if it was Thomas doing the wondering
or him.

“There’s a lot
you don’t know about me, Daniel.
 
Even
though you think you know me, you really don’t.”

“That’s a very
evasive answer.”

“What can I say,
I learned from the best,” I replied sarcastically as I looked up to roll my
eyes at him.

“I guess I had
that coming.
 
But I was only trying to
protect you.
 
Somehow I don’t think that
applies in this situation.
 
What could
you possibly be protecting me from?”

“I’m not trying
to protect you, I just don’t want to tell you,” I answered flatly.

“Fair enough, I
guess.”

I looked around
the room for my shirt.
 
Still in my bra,
I was holding the sheet up to my shoulders.
 

“Would you
mind?”
 
When I indicated to my shirt on a
nearby dresser, he got up and handed it to me.
 

As I put it on
under the sheet, he saw me wince as I eased it around my shoulder.
 

“I’m so sorry,”
he said faintly.
 
“Maybe now you can see
why I was always so worried about losing control around you.”

I threw the
sheet off and stood up.
 
The room didn’t
spin too much, but I reached over for the side of the dresser for support just
in case.
 

“You need to
take it easy for a while until the meds are fully out of your system.
 
Come into the kitchen and I’ll fix you
something to eat.
 
Food will do you
good.”
   

He walked over,
and taking my good arm helped me over to the door.
 
As he put his hand on the knob, he
unexpectedly stopped to pause for a long moment.

“What?” I finally
asked.

“I wanted to ask
you something.
 
– Randall told me to ask
you what happened at the end of your night, the night you saw the blood
hunter.”
 

When I looked
up, I could see he was avoiding looking me in the eyes.
 
Staring at the back of the door, he hesitated
then asked “Why would he tell me to ask you that?”

I didn’t answer
right away.
 
I knew why.
 
Although I wasn’t exactly sure how I knew it,
I knew the Professor wanted Daniel to forget about his newest plaything, to
move on to that more worthy ground.
 
At the
same time he wanted me to have a happy life free of vampires and all the
baggage that came along with them.
  
I
didn’t understand the Professor’s motivations, but I knew
this
was the price I had to pay for that choice, the price I had to
pay for both of us.
 
Because deep down I
knew the Professor was right, I willingly sacrificed out of my undying love for
the Daniel I’d once known.
 
If any part
of him had ever existed at all, I had to do this for him.

“Well, – that
night I went into town with Ben.”
 

I saw him flinch
at the sound of Ben’s name.
 

“We went dancing
and had some drinks, and when me brought be home at the end of the night, we …
kissed.”

I looked back up
into his face.
 
Still unable to look at me,
he continued to icily stare at the back of the solid wood door in front of
us.
 

“And?”
 
The controlled tone in his voice scared me.
 
It betrayed a hint of the rage below it.

I knew that was
the nail, but it needed to be driven deep in order to make the kill.

“I don’t think
that’s any of your business,” I said coldly as I pushed his hand off the knob,
turned it and somehow managed to wobble out of the room without his
assistance.
 
He was still standing in the
same spot I’d left him as I made my way down the hall.
 
As I rounded the corner, I reached out to the
living room wall for support.
 
A knife
twisting in my heart, I felt as if I’d just killed my best friend.
 
I knew I’d lost the love of my life, freed
him to live the life he was supposed to live, one without me.
 
At that moment whether he was a lie or not
was irrelevant.
 
I’d accepted that
whatever the truth really was, we simply weren’t meant to be together.

The only
question that remained was what was I supposed to do now.
  
Somehow going back to school and attending
class day after day didn’t seem like much of an option, but neither did driving
my car off a cliff.