Sitting there in the dark room illuminated only by the fire, their stories horrified me. Blood hunters didn’t give up – ever. The thrill of the hunt, the terrifying of their victims in their last moments of life was almost as important as the kill itself. From what I was able to overhear if they were to keep me safe, they believed their only option was to eliminate the hunter. It seemed there was no way to peacefully convince a blood drinker to leave someone as pure as me unmolested.
Gee, what a great thing to hear …
There was also some debate as to whether to bother to go after him at all. Daniel stood his ground, explaining that this part of Ulster County was their territory, and that my hunter had no business hunting here to begin with. If they allowed this incursion, they might as well abandon the territory all together. He also mentioned as a side note that because Professor Walker had left him to watch over me, he felt personally responsible for my safety.
Obligation. That’s what it must have been.
In the back of my mind, I’d always known his feelings must have stemmed from something like that.
Thomas and Lily seemed to go along with him, but surprise-surprise, Lucy was harder to convince. In the end, Daniel flatly stated that the Professor would never allow anything to happen to me. She could either get on board or get out of the way, because neither he nor the Professor would let her stand in their way if she tried. The serious tone in Daniel’s voice must have convinced her of the futility of arguing, because she finally backed down. After that there was a pervading silence in the kitchen.
In the living room the pain was getting worse, but I wasn’t about to say anything to them about it. Why point out how human I was any more than was necessary? As a distraction from my shoulder I’d tried to understand the inner dynamics of this family but failed. Other than the fact that the Professor was clearly the one in charge, none of the rest of them made any sense to me. I closed my eyes and started to breathe deeply and relax. As I did, I felt a tear roll down my cheek. It wasn’t from the pain in my shoulder though. I closed my eyes tighter; hopefully I’d drift off and escape them in slumber if I was lucky.
Sometime later I heard Professor Walker come in the garage door. He walked past their greetings and inquiries, and coming into the main room, his footsteps stopped in front of me. My eyes were closed, but even though I was almost half in and half out of sleep I could still sense his movements in the room. I felt his hand gently fall on my head and smooth out my hair. Before he left, I heard him sigh and murmur “Rest, little one. Rest,” and then his footsteps retreated into the kitchen.
From what I’d managed to overhear after that, he’d chased the hunter for about thirty or forty miles then lost him when he jumped off a cliff into the Hudson River.
“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.
Chapter Seventeen
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,” h
e 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.
The Purity of Blood: Volume I Page 37
