The Purity of Blood: Volume I (62 page)

Pointing to it,
he exclaimed “What the hell did they do to my house!”

I looked over
just in time to see Daniel uncomfortably glance from me to the Professor and
then back again.
 
Seeming not to notice
Daniel’s strange behavior, the Professor looked like he still wanted an answer
to his question.
 
I had no idea what was
going on with either of them and was suddenly seized with the urge to run out
the front door and keep running until I hit Alaska.
 
Realizing this, though attractive, wasn’t a
viable option, I turned back to Daniel.
 

“What’s he
talking about?” I asked.

The Professor
walked over to where the addition began and inspected it.
 
He kicked the wall as if doubting its
structural integrity then
humped
in
disgust.
 
As if he didn’t want to see
anymore, he turned back to us.
 

“Look at
this.
 
Why on earth would they add this
monstrosity on?”

With a critical
eye, he began to walk around the room only to disappear around the corner
towards the back of the house.
 
I glanced
over at Daniel for answers.
 
His eyes
shifting about nervously, he was looking everywhere but at me.
 

“What’s going
on?
 
What’s he talking about?” I asked
again, more insistently this time.

He hesitated at
first, then took a deep breath and looked down to meet my stare.
 

“There’s a reason
why he can hear your thoughts and I can’t.”
 
He stopped as if hoping he’d somehow explained enough, causing me to
shoot him a look in response that immediately told him he hadn’t.
 
I watched as he cringed under my stony gaze.

“A vampire can
only read the mind of a human who shares the same blood they themselves had as
humans.”
 
He stopped again for what
looked like the same reason and again my eyes demanded more.

“Their blood
descendants,” he reluctantly added.

“So?”

“I never had
children as a human, so I have no blood descendants.
 
The Professor did and …”
 

“And?”
 
I was growing more and more impatient by the
second.

“You’re one of
them,” he answered in such a hushed tone I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.

“What are you
trying to say?”

As I asked, the Professor
came around the corner behind Daniel.

“I’m saying he’s
your grandfather, Sara.”

My mouth hanging
open, I stared up at Daniel in disbelief.

“Your great,
great, great, great, grandfather to be exact.”

“What?” I looked
from Daniel’s sympathetic face over his shoulder to the Professor’s.
 
He was looking into my eyes with a mixture of
sadness and affection that I didn’t understand.
 

“How –?”
 
The power of speech having deserted me, I
suddenly found myself incapable of completing a full sentence.

“The name I was
born with was Randall Wells,” he said softly as he took a step towards me.
 
“And you are my great, great, great, great
granddaughter.”

I looked back at
Daniel in disbelief.

“It’s true.
 
I found out that night in the library when I
was looking at your genealogy information.
 
Randall never had to tell me, everything you had in your notes was what
I already knew of his life – as a human anyway.”

I turned to the
Professor.

“I still don’t
understand.
 
You died.
 
You’re buried out there on the other side of
the highway.”

“I was, but only
after I’d already died and became what you see before you.”

“So who did they
think they were burying?” I asked almost accusingly, not believing that any of
it could possibly be true.

“They thought
they were burying me.
 
I let them believe
I was dead so that they would move on with their lives and not have to live
with the anguish of thinking I’d just up and disappeared.
 
They needed closure, and I loved my children
too much to put them through that kind of pain.”

“You loved
them?” I uttered in disbelief.

“Yes, I loved
them; they were part of me. – Just like you’re a part of me, the best part, –
the part I left behind as a human.”

Things started
to click in my mind as I began to get a glimpse of a bigger picture I hadn’t
been privy to before.

“Is this why
Daniel was watching me?
 
Why I thought
you were watching me before that?”

He nodded.

“How long has
this been going on?”

I was suddenly
feeling violated as the walls started to press in on me.

He took a step
towards me and without thinking about it, I found myself taking a step away
from him.
 
With a sad look in his eyes,
he stopped his forward momentum.

“A long
time.
 
Ever since you were born.”

My eyes were
wide now as I stared at my stalker.

“For – for what
reason?”

“For many
reasons.
 
One being that our blood line
is a pure line.
 
We were always going to
be targets to vampires who happened upon us.
 
I was dead to my family, but I still watched over my children – at least
the children who stayed close to home.”

I looked at him
feeling there was more to his story than he was letting on.
 

“Why should I
believe you?” I shot back angrily.
 
“The
only thing I believe that has ever come out of your mouth, is that no good can
come when humans and vampires get mixed up together.”
 
Then I looked up at Daniel with as much hate
in my eyes as I could muster to my side for the one I loved.

“It’s true,” the
Professor said.
 
“Good usually doesn’t
come from it, which is why I warned you.
 
I’d hoped you would decide to move on with your life and not pursue
things that in the end would only hurt the ones I loved.”

“I’m not sure I
believe you’re capable of love.
 
Any of
you!”
 
I looked at both of them now.
 
It applied to them equally.

The Professor
sighed.
 
“We are.
 
Our emotions are so much stronger than they
were when we were humans.
 
We are capable
of deeper love than we were before and stronger hate as well.
 
One is a blessing, the other a curse.
 
I would not have wished this knowledge on you
for the world, Sara.
 
You deserve so much
more.”

I walked over to
the chair and dropped down into it before my legs could give out.
  

Could this possibly be true
I wondered.

“It is,” he said
softly as he knelt down in front of me.

I looked into
his eyes and examined their shape for the first time.
 
In my mind I traced a resemblance to a
picture I had of my great, great grandfather Jonathan Wells.
 

Could it be true?

“I know.
 
He did look like me.
 
I was a proud grandfather.
 
He was a good man.”

I looked up at
Daniel who hadn’t moved.
 
If this were true,
then what about Daniel was truth and what was the illusion?
 
Could I ever separate one from the other with
them?

The Professor’s
head dropped in sad resignation as he leaned over and sat down on the floor
beside the chair.
 
Silently, I stared at
him as if searching for answers he didn’t seem willing to give.
 
I slumped back in the old wingback
chair.
 
It was too much to take in all at
once.

“I didn’t want
this for you,” he finally said with a sadness in his voice.
 
“I wanted you to have so much more. – But I
also wanted you to be happy and I can see now that you may never be – without
him.”
  
He looked over his shoulder
towards Daniel who was listening intently to us.

“Blame me if you
need to blame someone.
 
It was my fault
anyway.”

Daniel now took
a step toward us, staring at the Professor with his own level of astonishment.

Turning back to
me, he continued. “I wanted what was best for both of you.
 
I allowed you to believe that he didn’t love
you, that you weren’t good enough for him.
 
As if you weren’t the best any man could possibly ever hope for.”

Then he turned
to Daniel.
 
“And you.
 
I was the one who told Lucy to have a
‘crisis’ to get you out of town.
 
I was
the one who gently pushed Sara towards Ben.
 
I hoped you’d see that she couldn’t possibly love a monster like
you.
 
I hoped you’d be happy that she’d
found someone who could love and protect her as well as you could.
 
You, who are the least a monster and the most
capable of selfless love of anyone I’ve ever known.”

Daniel’s gaze
shifted from the Professor to me.
 
I
returned his gaze, but didn’t move.
 
I
wasn’t ready to let him back into my life.
 
Too much had happened and he’d lost my trust.
 
If any of this were true, he’d have to earn
it back again.
 

Leaving mine,
his eyes moved about the room, as if taking in the Professor’s words and
pondering them deeply.
 
When he found the
courage to look at me again, his eyes were full of emotion as a faint glimmer
of
my
Daniel
appeared at their edges.
 
He made no move to come to me.
 
I
wasn’t sure how to feel about that, but perhaps it was for the same reasons I
remained rooted to my chair.

The Professor
slowly stood and looking over at the addition, frowned.

“So what
did
they do to my house?” he asked
again, a small smile now playing at the corner of his mouth.

SARA

I
walked out the front door and came to a stop in the middle of the
lawn.
 
Looking over the rock wall and into
the field beyond, my mind felt completely overwhelmed.
 
It was all just too much to process – too
much to believe.
 
Randall Wells? –
Alive?
 
Well, sort of alive, I suppose.

Without turning
around, I could feel their eyes watching me from the window and wondered how I
could possibly know this.
 
It wasn’t like
the kind of feeling you get when you have a hunch.
 
I knew it for fact.
 
It was obvious that Randall could read my
thoughts, but was it also possible that I had some sort of weak connection to
him as well?
  
When I thought about our
brief history together, I realized this wasn’t the first time I’d had a feeling
like this.
 

If what he said
about being my grandfather was the truth, then what about all the things he’d
said about Daniel?
 
Had he tried to break
us up for our own good?
 
If so, I’d sure
made it easy for him.
 
An image of Ben
flashed through my mind, the heartbreakingly beautiful smile he’d worn after
he’d backed away on the bench.

Without meaning
to, I found myself wandering around the yard.
 
Hands deep in the pockets of my jeans, I kicked at stones and pondered
not only the events of the morning, but how they fit into the empty pieces of
the puzzle that made up the last few months of my life.
 
I was trying these new pieces of information
into the empty spots to see how they fit.
 
I felt the Professor’s hand affectionately brush my hair as I half slept
on his sofa.
 
Saw his eyes flash to
Daniel in the lecture hall when I’d looked at him questioningly.
 
How many other empty holes were there that I
didn’t even know existed?
 

As I circled
around the house for the fourth time, Daniel cautiously sauntered out the back
door and fell into step beside me.
 
He
didn’t say anything as we walked along.
 
I guess he had a lot to think about as well.
 
After a while I worked up the courage to look
over at him.
 
His brow slightly furrowed,
he appeared as deep in thought as I had been.
 

Two laps later,
he finally spoke.

“I knew Randall
was against our relationship, but I had no idea he’d go that far.”

“Why was he
against it to begin with?” I asked in a surprisingly civil tone.

“I’m not a
hundred percent sure, but if I had to guess it was partly because he wants you
to live, and being with us will always endanger you.
 
But I think it’s also because he wants you to
eventually marry and have children someday, so his family will continue.”
 
He stopped walking.
 
“And if we should marry, I wouldn’t be able
to give you a child.”
 

His words
stopped me in my tracks.
 
I think my
mouth might have fallen open as I stared up into his sky blue eyes.
 
Shaking it off, I closed my mouth and began
to walk again.
 
As we walked along in
silence, I pondered the meaning behind his words.

Suddenly Daniel
stopped again.
 

“Look, I don’t
know what you’re thinking, but Lucy and I were never involved.
 
Yes, she’d wanted to be, but I turned her
down decades ago and well, she’s still a little touchy about it.
 
I do love her, but that’s because she’s like
family, like a cousin.
 
I care about her,
but she is definitely
not
my type.”

I stared up at
him blankly for a long uncomfortable moment then resumed my walking.
 
He caught up a second later and we continued
to circle, the Professor still watching from somewhere inside the house.

We slowly
circled in silence for another hour or so before the Professor finally came out
the back door.

“I’m going to
take a run and see if I can pick up any sign of him.
 
You two stay near the house.”
 

Then he
disappeared in a blur.
 
I’d never get
used to seeing them run so fast that they just blurred out in front of me.
 
Especially the Professor, or Randall, or
whatever his name really was.

Shaking my head
in silent resignation, I walked over to the back porch and sat down on the edge
as I looked at the big barn across the wide expanse of the backyard.
 
Daniel slowly followed behind and took a seat
a few feet away from me.

“Do you think he
tracked me here?
 
The hunter?”

“I don’t know,
it’s possible.
 
Randall will pick up on
him if he did.
 
When you get to be as old
as he is – well, he’s the best.”

When I leaned
back, I felt the butt of my gun uncomfortably digging into the small of my
back.
 
Reaching around, I pulled it out
and felt the reassuring weight of it in my hand.
 
Taking a moment to examine it, I pulled the
magazine out to check that it was fully loaded.
 
I hadn’t checked it since I’d brought it with me to school, and had been
in too much of a hurry when I’d pulled it out of its hiding place in my room to
check it as I should have.
 
The day I’d
first arrived at NPU, I’d quickly squirreled it away under my bed knowing I’d
get expelled if anyone ever found it.
 
Guns on college campuses aren’t generally considered a good idea.
 
That said, my father had insisted I take
it.
 
We’d actually had a fight about it
when I first refused.
 
I shoved the
magazine back in with the butt of my hand like I’d done a thousand times before
thend
laid it down beside me on the porch.

“You never cease
to amaze me,” Daniel said as he stared at the gun on the gray slate of the
porch.

“Why, because I
know about firearms?”

“Yes.
 
And because you ran all the way here only to
try and pull a gun on your hunter.
 
Sometimes your motivations baffle me.”
 
I think he was smiling despite himself.

“Well, I like to
maintain a certain air of mystery.
 
It’s
a human thing.”
 
It had sounded less
sarcastic in my head than coming out my mouth.

“You succeed
admirably,” he replied with a smirk.

Wanting a change
of subject, I asked “Tell me more about hunters.”

He sighed as if
he’d rather have talked about anything else.

“Like I said
before, some vampires, not many but a small handful of us, will become blood
hunters.
 
It usually starts when they
come across their first pure and taste the power they have.
 
Once they go back to regular human blood,
they realize what a downgrade it is.
 
In
the end, hunters choose not to go back to their old ways of feeding.
 
They choose to wait until they find another
pure to fully satisfy themselves.
 

“Of course they
have to feed at some point.
 
In between
pures, a hunter will survive on as little as possible, animal blood
mostly.
 
Let me tell you, if they thought
regular human blood was bad, animal is almost repulsive to them.”

“Then why do
they do it?”

He shrugged his
shoulders.
 
“I’m not really a hundred
percent sure.
 
But I do know they’ll fast
as much as they can, keeping their bodies as pure as possible.”

“Pure?”
 
I raised my eyebrow.

“Untainted by
anything but the blood of someone like you.”
 
He half smiled as if to try to comfort me from the thought that had
crossed my mind.
 

“I mentioned
before that we
age
slower on animal blood than on
human.
 
Not only that, but the less blood
we consume, regardless of what kind it is, will also slow down our aging
process.
 
So a blood hunter will live
longer than your average vampire.
 
But
fasting like they do pushes them to their physical and psychological
limits.
 
They seek clarity to search out
pures and forgo our natural way of life.
 
I think they also prefer animal blood over average human because it
probably offers a certain level of mental clarity they wouldn’t get
otherwise.
 
But in the end, the longer
they go without feeding, the worse the thirst becomes and the harder it becomes
to keep the animal instinct to feed at bay.
 
When they’re like this, they become even more dangerous and
unpredictable.
 

“As vampires, we
all share the same instincts to a certain extent.
 
If you are one and know what our instincts
are, we’re pretty predictable creatures most of the time.
 
A hunter is different.
 
His amazingly low intake of blood gives him a
mental clarity, but his need for blood gives him a nearly uncontrollable drive
even we have a hard time comprehending.
 
Right before a kill when they’re at their emptiest blood wise, they are
completely unpredictable.
 
That’s what
makes them the most dangerous of my kind.
 

“Hunters love
the hunt almost as much as the kill.
 
They love to see fear in their victim’s eyes.”
 
He paused as if reluctant to continue.
 
“Vampires, for the most part – well, when
your human body dies, so does your – human sexual desires.”
 
He paused again as he uncomfortably shifted
his weight around.
 
“For a blood drinker,
they get their … gratification from blood, from quenching their thirst.
 
A hunter’s a little different.
 
They get off on the fear they can inflict as
well as the purity of your blood.
 
For
them, that gratification replaces any desire for intercourse.”

I was a little
stunned – well, more than a little really.
 
Daniel was staring at me as if waiting for his words to sink in.

“You mean you …
that when we were … that you never desired me the way – a man desires a
woman?”
 
It was humiliating in the
extreme to ask, but I had to know.
 

Unable to look
me in the eye, he suddenly looked away.

“No, I wanted
you.
 
You’ll never know how much.
 
It was very confusing.”

“Confusing how?”

“I’ve always
tried to suppress my human desires and I had for the most part.
 
I was afraid to unleash anything inside me
that could lead to my monster slipping the tight bonds I’d chained it up with.
 
You have to understand, before you, Sara; I
hadn’t wanted a woman for over a hundred years.”
 
His head turned in time to see the crimson
blush overspread my cheeks.
 
“So yes,
Sara, I wanted you very much.”

Wanted?
 
Was that in the past tense now?

“Why are you
different than a blood drinker who gets his jollies terrifying someone?”

“Because I take
my blood intravenously.”

“Oh.”

“We seem to have
gotten off topic,” he said as he looked out over the yard again.
 
“Your hunter has been stalking you for a long
time.
 
He’s been feeding on animals in
the mountains around campus to survive while he’s been waiting.”

“What is he
waiting for?”

“He wants to
wait for the moment when his attack will elicit the most fear.
 
The anticipation of the high he’ll get off
you is also – arousing to him.”
 
Again,
Daniel shifted uncomfortably.
 
“He’ll
prolong it as long as possible so as to be able to enjoy the moment he takes
you to the fullest extent.
 
He probably
also hopes you’d lead him to more pures he could move on to after he’s killed
you.
 
Not necessarily your family
though.
 
They respect blood lines and
don’t wipe out whole families.
 
They want
you to breed and create more pures to hunt.
 

“Normally you’re
a little young to be hunted.
 
Usually
women are about fifty, past child bearing age, when they start to hunt
them.
 
But your blood was probably too
strong, too tempting for him to just pick up and move on and hope you’d still
be here in thirty years’ time.
 
You are
more pure than anyone I’ve ever heard of.
 
It’s almost unnatural.”

After a moment I
asked “Is it just me or are you not as bothered by me as you used to be?”

“I feel – the
pull of you.
 
It used to be that just the
scent of your blood in the wind was almost overwhelming, but now –”

I looked at him
to finish his sentence but he seemed hesitant to continue.

“Now, I think
I’m too overwhelmed by the thought that I’ve already lost any chance to get you
back.
 
I think the human emotions you
reclaimed in me have won out over my vampire instincts.”