The Purity of Blood: Volume I (56 page)

SARA

Professor
Walker made me
breakfast.
 
It was as surreal an
experience as I’d ever had in my nineteen years.
 
Sitting at the old wooden kitchen table, I watched
him fumble around in the kitchen as he attempted to heat something up in the
microwave.
 
After putting it on a plate,
he placed it in front of me and took a seat across the table.
 
Waiting for me to try it, he looked at me
expectantly.
 
It reminded me of the few
times my father had been forced to cook for me as a child.

I took a bite
and glanced up at him as I chewed.
 

“Are you going
to watch me eat?”

“Do you mind?”

“I don’t
know.
 
I feel like I should sell tickets
or something.
 
I never realized I was so
interesting to watch until I met you guys.”

He laughed as he
got up to fetch me a glass of water.

“Yes, I suppose
it must seem odd to you, but you have to remember, I haven’t eaten food like
that in almost two hundred years.
 
I’ve
almost forgotten what it was like.
 
Watching you is like remembering it through your eyes – or your mouth, I
should say.”
 
When he looked over at me,
I raised an eyebrow.
 
“I guess you have
to be a vampire to get it.”

“I guess so,” I murmured,
taking another bite.

He sat back down
and tried not to watch me too much, but I don’t think he could help
himself.
 
After a few minutes of silence
he finally said “I know that was hard, but I think you made the right choice –
for both of you.”

I didn’t answer
him.
 
I was annoyed that he was able to
read me so easily.
 

“Love can be the
worst thing in the world sometimes.
 
Believe me, I know.
 
I love my
wife more than life itself, but she … well … she loves me too in her own way,
she just can’t be with me for too long before she feels the need to leave.
 
I haven’t seen her for some time now.
 
But I know she’ll be back.
 
She always comes back … eventually.”

“When was the
last time you saw her?”

“January 29th,
2005,” he sighed.

“Yeah, that was
a while ago. – Where is everybody?”

“Don’t take this
the wrong way, but you kind of drove them outside.
 
They’re not used to you yet.”

“Oh, sorry about
that.
 
If you don’t mind my asking, why
are you so used to me?
 
Why do I get the
feeling I’ve known you longer than I think I have?”

As Professor Walker
shifted uncomfortably in his chair, behind him I heard Daniel enter the living
room.
 
Following my gaze, the Professor
turned and looked over his shoulder to see Daniel.
 
He was standing in front of the windows with
his back to us, obviously deep in thought.

“I’m going to
head back to campus and have a look around to see if the hunter came back.
 
Daniel and the others will keep an eye on you
while I’m gone.”

He got up and
disappeared down the hallway only to reappear a moment later wearing a faded old
leather jacket.
 
After smiling my way, he
picked up his keys and headed into the garage without another word.
 
I think that was when I realized he’d never
answered my question.

Peering into the
living room, I saw Daniel drop down on the sofa.
 
I felt uncomfortable being alone with him now
but couldn’t stay in the kitchen all day.
 
Needing something to do, I got to my feet, filled my water glass then
took it out onto the balcony, picking a blanket up off a chair in the living
room along the way.
 
I could feel
Daniel’s eyes on me as I passed him by, but he remained silent and still to my
presence in the room.

Sitting down
with the blanket around my shoulders, I curled up in one of the chairs on the
deck and looked out over the lake.
 
A
hawk was soaring high above the water.
 
I
watched him ride the air currents with such grace that after a while it made me
forget that Daniel was probably watching me through the window.
  

I didn’t have to
turn around to picture the look on his face.
 
He was angry with me.
 
I wasn’t
really sure why except that he’d once told me vampires had extremely strong
emotions.
 
His behavior confused me.
 
For someone who had toyed with my emotions,
he seemed oddly upset.
 
I could only
assume, for some reason I couldn’t fathom, he wasn’t quite ready to give up his
play thing just yet.
 
Now it was my turn
to
humph
.
 

Go play with Lucy
was all I could think
to say in response.

I took a deep
breath of air and sighed.
 
I missed my
Daniel, the one I thought loved me and would always be there for me.
 
I desperately wished he actually
existed.
 
I tried to push my despair and
anger to the side in favor of the gracefulness of the hawk but failed.
 
Figuring hydration was always a good idea; I
picked up the glass and took a large drink of water.
 

Finally I could
take it no longer and turned around to see if Daniel was still watching
me.
 
But he was gone.
 
Where did he go?
 
Wasn’t he supposed to keep an eye on me?
 
Suddenly indignant, I got up to go find
him.
 
I walked through the house looking
behind doors and finally made my way back to the door after the infamous blood
closet.
 
I knocked and opened it.
 
Daniel was there.
 
He was sitting in a chair, his back to me, staring
out a window down on the lake.

“Daniel?”

When I got
closer I noticed he was hooked up to some sort of IV only to realize that the
bag hanging on the hook above his head was full of blood.

“Now you get to
see the real me,” he said in a defeated tone.
 
“I have to stay full to be around you.”

“Full?” I asked,
sliding down to sit on the floor with my back against the floor length window
he’d been looking out.

“The emptier we
get, the more the craving grows.
 
It’s
easier to control the animal if it’s kept fat and happy.
 
This is one reason a blood hunter is so
dangerous.
 
They fast on purpose when
they’re hunting a target.”

I watched in
fascination as he leaned over and adjusted the needle in his arm.

“How often do
you have to do that?”

“Every couple of
days or so.
 
Sometimes less depending on
how much I have to interact with humans.
 
I can go ten days if I have to, but it’s not pretty on day ten.
 
I won’t kill anyone, but I’ll be in a really
bad mood all day.”

“Okay, maybe
it’s a stupid myth, but can you really poke yourself with a needle? Wouldn’t it
just break if you tried?”

He chuckled.
 
“No, that one’s true.
 
We use special needles that Randall has
custom made.
 
They’re diamond
tipped.
 
It’s the only thing that will
penetrate our skin without breaking, at least the only thing like a
needle.”
    

“Sounds
expensive.”

“They are.
 
Which is a good reason to invest
wisely.”
 
He smiled at me in spite of
himself.

I hesitated for
a moment looking up at the bag of blood above his head, then curiously asked
“What does it feel like?”

“
Humm
… It’s hard to describe to a human.
 
There’s not much to use as a common frame of
reference.”
 
He leaned back in the chair
and looked as if he was searching for words.
 

“I remember when
I was human going out into the woods on a sunny afternoon sometimes.
 
I would go to this field on the edge of our
property that we used for hay.
 
I’d find
an especially sunny spot, take off my shirt and letting go of every care,
thought or worry, I’d lie down in the tall grass on my back.
 
Cutting a piece of grass, I’d stick it
between my teeth and close my eyes, breathing the earthy smell of the field in
deeply.
 
I remember feeling the sun on my
skin, pouring over me with its warm rays.
 
It would start out as just warm, but then ever so slowly it would grow
hotter and hotter until you felt like you were almost baking.
 
But it felt so good, as if you were floating
up to the sky, closer and closer to the sun,”

“Wow,” I
whispered in awe.

“Well, like I
said, it’s hard to describe. – How’s the shoulder feeling?”

“Better,” I said
lifting my arm a little.

“You really
should have it in a sling.”

“I didn’t hurt
it
that
bad.”

The bag above
his head now empty, he leaned over and disconnected the needle.
 

“You don’t have
to spare my feelings if that’s what you’re trying to do.
 
Thomas told me how badly I’d injured it.”

“Thomas
exaggerates.”

I heard voices
in the living room.
 
The other three had
returned.
 

“I’d better give
up my spot at the table.
 
I think one of
them may want a turn.”
 

Looking down at
me, he paused for a moment as our eyes met.
 
For a second I saw my Daniel there, but not wanting to cry, I turned and
looked out the window behind me.
 
He
stood up and headed over to the door and after opening it, waited for me to go
through first.
 
When I made to pass him,
he held up his arm and stopped me.

“Sara, I don’t understand
what’s wrong – what could have happened to … but you have to talk to me.
 
I can’t go on like this.”
 

He opened his
mouth to continue but abruptly stopped when Lucy swept past us in the doorway,
presumably to fill up on pig.
 

Seeing my chance to escape, I quickly started down the
hallway.
 
After I heard him sigh deeply,
I heard the sound of his footsteps following behind me on the wooden
floorboards.
 
Why couldn’t he have just
stayed back there with her?
 
I didn’t
want to hear him lie to me or say it was over.
 
I mean, I knew it was, but I wasn’t sure I could bear to hear the actual
words come out his mouth.
 
Let him think
I wanted a life with Ben.
 
If he believed
me, at least he wouldn’t think me the liar that I knew he was.

Thomas and Lily were sitting at
the kitchen table reading the paper.

“You look much
better,” he said, smiling as he put the paper down at my approach.

“I feel much
better.
 
You’re a good doctor.”

“Not for many
years, my dear,” Thomas laughed.

“Thomas was a
doctor when he was human,” Lily added.

“Well, I still
am, aren’t I?” he laughed back her way.

“Sure, as long
as no one bleeds you are,” Lily teased as she playfully swatted him on the arm.

“Ha-Ha-Ha,” Thomas
mockingly laughed back at her with a smile that said how much he loved
her.
 
Were they a romantic couple?

They were so
normal sounding in the way they talked that they instantly put me at ease, and
picking up part of the paper to look over, I took a seat at the table with
them.

Without a word,
Daniel walked over and handed me a glass of water and a few pills to take.
 
I took the glass and drank half of it down,
but left the pills on the table for later.
 
Taking the seat next to me, Daniel picked up the sports section and
together the four of us sat around the table in silence reading.
 

A few minutes
later I peered over the top of the paper to see Lucy walking around in the
backyard. Daniel glanced up when I did.
 
He looked back down at his paper only to get up and walk out the back
door a minute later.
 

I took a deep
breath and looked at the pills on the table.
 
No
I thought,
I need to stay clear headed
and quietly
put them in my pocket as I drank the rest of the water.
 
When I put the heavy glass back down on the
table I saw Thomas watching me closely.

“What?” I asked,
rousing Lily to put her paper down as well and look up.

“You picked up
the glass with your right hand.”

I looked
down.
 
“Yes.
 
I had the paper in the other.
 
So what?”

He got up and
walked over to take my right arm and started examining it.
 

While he did so,
I could see Daniel and Lucy talking in the backyard over Lily’s shoulder.
 
It was an animated discussion.
 
Suddenly she reached out and grabbed his hand
in hers.
 
He didn’t resist her.
 
I wished I could hear what they were
saying.