The Purity of Blood: Volume I (68 page)

Conversation in
the kitchen soon ceased, but I still thought I heard Randall’s voice, as if he
was softly talking to himself.
 
I wasn’t
really listening; I was trying to tune him out by concentrating on my
game.
 
Then in the white noise of his
musings something caught my attention.
 
As my head snapped up, I found myself staring at Randall in the glow of
the lantern on the kitchen table.
 
From
behind me, the paper fell to the floor as Lois suddenly leapt to her feet.

“Randall!” she
shouted.

Over the top of
my computer I saw him jump up and hastily rush into the room.
 

“What is it?” he
asked, his voice laced with concern for the urgency in her tone.

“What could you
possibly be thinking!
 
There is no way on
God’s green earth I’m letting you try any such thing with this girl!”

He stared at her
in disbelief.
 

“What? – How did
you know?
 
I never said a thing, I was
just working –”

“I know because
I heard her!”
 
Following the point of her
finger, they both looked down at me just as Daniel came in from the
kitchen.
 
Feeling ill prepared for what
was coming, I scampered to my feet.

“At first I
thought you were talking out loud, but now I realize you weren’t,” she said.

“You heard
her?
 
Well, how did she hear me?”

“What’s going
on?” Daniel asked walking between them.

Lois looked at
me closely.
 
“How long has this been
going on?”

“What?” I asked
confused by the conversation.

“Yes, what are
you talking about?” As Daniel came over to take my hand, he appeared even more
confused than I was.

Lois’ eyes
flashed back at Randall.
 
“I know what
you’re thinking because she’s hearing your thoughts, Randall.
 
Why is she hearing you?
 
What have you been doing to her?”

It was an angry
accusation and in unison their heads all turned back to me.
 

“I asked how
long, young lady, and I’m not going to ask again,” Lois demanded of me.

“I – I don’t
know,” I stammered.
 
“I guess I first
noticed it a while ago.
 
A week, maybe
more.
 
I wasn’t sure at first, but it
seems to be getting a little easier especially when you’re so close to me.
 
It comes and goes.”
 
I looked at Randall.
 
“Do you really think it would work?”

“I don’t know,
it’s only a theory at the moment.”

“One we’re
not
going to test!” Lois interjected
strongly.

“Will someone
tell me what the hell is going on?” Daniel pleaded as he placed his arm around
my waist protectively, pulling me to his side.

“Randall thinks
I may be poisonous.
 
That if Demetrius
bit me, it might kill him.”
   

Daniel’s eyes
flashed up to theirs. “Yeah, we’re definitely
not
testing that theory!”
 
Then he looked down at me and gently asked “You can hear his
thoughts?
 
Why didn’t you tell me?”

“At first I
wasn’t sure if that was what it was.
 
Things have been a little unclear, fuzzy up here.”
 
I tapped the side of my head.
 
“Especially since the whole heart thing.”

Lois rolled her
eyes.
  
“Tibet, Randall?
 
Really?
 
Shau Lang must have loved that.”

“Never
underestimate the power of a disciplined mind,” he answered back.
 
“She’ll thank me some day, mark my words.”

“In what way
unclear?” Daniel asked as he ignored them.

“I saw things
when I was in meditation.
 
I saw Randall,
and I saw you.
 
You were in my room at
school.
 
You were talking to me I think,
but I wasn’t answering you.
 
It was kind
of fuzzy.”

Daniel’s face
went stiff, as if I’d said something to upset him.
 

“What?” I
pleaded.
 
“What did I say?”

“I know what
you’re talking about.
 
It’s true, I was
there.
 
It’s the first night I watched
over you in your room.
 
You talked to me
in your sleep.”

“What did I
say?”
 

I was
shocked.
 
No one had ever told me I’d
talked in my sleep before.

“But it wasn’t
you, Sara.
 
At least not
the you
I’m talking to right now.
 
It was a part of you, like your subconscious
or something.
 
I’m not sure, but it knew
I was there and recognized that I wasn’t Randall.
 
It seemed to know him.”

We all looked at
Randall as a guilty sigh escaped his lips.

“Like I said,
I’ve been keeping watch over you and your mother your whole lives.
 
But when you were born, Sara, I knew you were
special.
 
I could sense your blood even
though I shouldn’t have been able to.
 
I’ve watched you closer than any of my other descendants.
 
Your mother, your grandfather Elliot, your
great grandfather Williams and so on.
 

“I’d visit you
all the time,” he said with an affectionate smile.
 
“I’d stay with you in your room at night, and
while I watched you sleep I’d see your thoughts and dreams.
 
As I probed your mind, I’d watch for signs
that you were in danger, making sure you hadn’t been approached by – well, by
the wrong sort.
 
In hindsight, I think
there may have been some unforeseen consequences.
 
So much psychic energy directed into that
small, developing mind,” he mused aloud as if still pondering the
possibilities.
 
“It may have triggered
something, awakened some normally unutilized part of your brain.
 
I think perhaps the part that deals with
things while we sleep, well it seems to have a voice.
 
I can’t understand it, – but I’d love to
study it when all this is over.”

“Randall!” Lois
scolded him.

“Do you think
this is why she’s able to hear you?
 
Because she’s developed the ability to hear what called to her so
often?”
 
Daniel asked, I think too
worried about me at this point to be angry.
 
Me?
 
I was in too much shock to
feel anything.
 

“Quite
possibly,” Randall replied considering Daniel’s idea.
 
“She’s an anomaly in the physical world even
without these abilities, so I can’t say anything for sure.”

All of a sudden
I needed some air and without a word, I walked outside leaving them to continue
their discussion about me.
 
I didn’t need
to hear it.
 
I’d always known I was something
of a freak.
 

It was almost
dark now.
 
Looking around the quiet
hilltop I found myself wondering where the others were.
 
Off in the woods somewhere I imagined.
 
I sat down in the tall grasses of the front
yard, pulled my knees up to my chest and tightly wrapped my arms around my
legs.
 

I thought back
to the moment I’d pulled up behind Capen Hall the first day I’d arrived at
NPU.
 
Now here I sat.
 

I sighed.
 

These two worlds
bore no resemblance to one another.
 
How
had my life changed so dramatically, so fast?
 

Sitting there
alone in the grass, I had the sudden urge to steal Daniel’s car for a second
time.
 
My sense of self-preservation said
I should just pick up and run away from everything.
 
I should leave all my problems behind as I
sped down some highway heading who knows where, feeling the wind in my hair.
 
But I knew that wasn’t the answer
anymore.
 
I didn’t know what was
happening to me, and was even less comforted by the fact that the people who
inhabited this new world I’d moved into had no more of an idea than I did.
  

And Daniel.
 
Would he accept me if he was ever to see the
real me?
 
The me underneath the mask I
showed the world?

Unable to block
him out of my head at the moment, I heard Randall’s voice say “
Don’t worry, she’s not going anywhere.”

I didn’t want to
hear him now and tried to concentrate on pushing the sound of his voice to the
farthest recess of my mind.
 
It seemed to
work for the most part.
 
But I knew he
was fascinated by this new turn of events.
 
What was this voice Daniel heard?
 
I was a little freaked out that there was something or someone inside me
I’d been completely ignorant of up until this moment.
 
Where was it now?
 
Maybe it was really just me talking in my
sleep.
 
That must be it.
 
It had to be.
 
Yet deep down, I think I knew it wasn’t.

Taking a deep breath, I concentrated on the sound of the
crickets nestled in the grass with me, and how the breeze wrapped around my
shoulders and gently pulled through my hair like cool fingers.
 
I tried to be still, as still as I possibly
could, but my heartbeat always pulled me back.
 
Would my heart always be my weakness?

I’d expected Daniel to follow
after me but when he didn’t, I was glad of it.
 
As much as I loved him, he was part of this confusing new world I so
desperately needed a break from.
 
I laid
my head down on my knees and tried to think about what it was I really
wanted.
 

Did I want a
life with Daniel and all that would entail?
 

Did I want to
leave him and try to have a normal human life with someone like Ben?
 

Was that even
possible now?
 
Somehow I didn’t think
so.
 
I’d seen the looking glass, and had
I not stepped through, perhaps I could have walked away.
 
But now I’d seen my wonderland and there was
no way to regain the innocence I’d had such a short time ago.

I heard voices
and looked up.
 
Thomas, Lily and Lucy
were standing a ways off in the field on the other side of the rock wall.
 
Their heads together, like they were talking
something over.
 
As I watched them, they
suddenly stopped and in unison turned to look in my direction for only a
moment.
 
Then they turned back to each
other to continue their discussion.
 
I
didn’t have to be a vampire to guess what they were talking about.

Getting up, I
started back towards the house.
 
Hearing
Randall, Lois and Daniel’s voices carrying from the kitchen, I purposefully
avoided them as I walked around to the back of the house and up the stairs to
the second floor.
 
I pulled my sleeping
bag out of the closet in the small
furnitureless
bedroom, spread it out on the floor and laid down.
 
I wasn’t sleepy, but closed my eyes and tried
to relax and ease away the knot I’d developed in my stomach.
 

I tried not to
think about how much I wished Ben was here with me.
 
About how he was the only one left of my old
world who I thought could somehow comfort me in this crazy situation I’d found
myself in.
 
About how he’d probably just
walk in and put his arms around me and not even ask what was wrong.
 
He was just like that, he didn’t need to ask
questions.

I tried not to
think about him for a few reasons.
 
One
was because I felt like it was somehow wrong, as if I were betraying my love
for Daniel by thinking about another man.
 
But it was also because I knew I was most likely broadcasting my
thoughts to Randall and Lois downstairs.
 
I was quickly learning that it was a lot harder to censor your thoughts
than your mouth.
 

I had to admit I
hated that any sense of privacy I’d felt before knowing about my grandparents
was quickly melting away.
 
How was I supposed
to go about my life if I didn’t even have the privacy of my own mind to retreat
to?
 
If Lois and Randall were going to be
part of my life, I guess I’d need to find an answer to that question.

Disturbing my
quiet contemplation of this depressing fact, I heard the sound of the front
door open and footsteps in the living room below.
 
Angry that my curiosity was getting the better
of me, I dragged myself up and started downstairs to see what was going
on.
 
Not that they’d let me do anything
useful if there was anything to be done, but I needed a distraction from my all
too consuming memories of Ben.
  
Even as
I tried to concentrate on the grandparent problem, I kept seeing his brown eyes
smiling at me from the other side of the bench.
 
My mind seemed to be seeking him out against my will, making me wonder
if my subconscious knew something I didn’t.
 
As I descended the rickety old stairs, I paused and wondered if it could
possibly have anything to do with the voice that talked in my sleep.