The Purity of Blood: Volume I (74 page)

“I liked my
welcome home present,” Randall said as he walked past our embrace to join us in
the living room.

“You mean your
sample?”
 
I asked when Daniel’s lips
finally released me.

“I know I’m hard
to shop for.”
 

He smiled and
disappeared into the back of the house, I think to give Daniel and I some
privacy or perhaps not wanting to see what we’d do with it.

“Did Lois come
back with him?”

“No.
 
She decided to stay in Hopkinton for a while
and finish getting the house back in working order.
 
I think Randall and Lois are going to tear
down the addition.”

“I
kinda
liked it,” I said following him into the
kitchen.
 
As we entered, I could see
signs of cooking.
 
To be honest, it was
kind of a mess.

“What’s all
this?” I asked hesitantly.

“I thought I’d
try my hand at cooking you spaghetti.
 
Don’t expect much.
 
I’ve never
really cooked before – even when I was human, and well, I can’t taste it to
know if it’s any good.”

He turned from
the pot he was stirring on the stove and looked up at me.

Oh, there was
that little boy smile again.
 
Lost for a
moment in his sky blue eyes, I faintly heard Randall call my name and excused
myself, leaving Daniel to continue stirring while carefully reading from a
cookbook.
 

Walking down the
back hallway, I found Randall in the room at the end of the hall where all the
equipment he had at the house in Hopkinton were now set up.

“Come.
 
Sit here,” he said, pointing towards a stool.

I did as he
asked.

“If you don’t
mind.”
 
He took my arm and rolled up my
sleeve to inspect my rash.
 
“Yes, it does
look better.
 
It’s almost gone.
 
If I might, I’d like to take another blood
sample for comparisons sake.”

I said I didn’t
mind.
 
I was beginning to get used to it
by now.

While he drew my
blood I looked out the window as the last of the fading light cast its pink
hues on the lake below.

“I wish Lois had
come back with you.
 
I didn’t really have
much time to get to know her.”

He glanced up
from my arm.
 
He looked sad for a moment
but then smiled for me.

“Don’t worry,
you’ll see her again.
 
Against her better
judgment, she took quite a shine to you.”

He finished up
and handed me a cotton ball to hold in the crux of my arm.
 

“She talks a big
game, but she knew who you were.
 
She’s
always kept tabs on the children … from a distance.
 
She would never see any of them in person,
but she always knew where they were and what they were doing.
 
Anyway, now that the cat’s out of the bag so
to speak, I think she’ll be around a bit more.”
 
Then he smiled a big smile as if to say thank you.

“Dinners ready,”
Daniel called from the kitchen.
 

“Go ahead, we’re done here,” Randall said forcing a reluctant
smile on his lips.
 
“Try to pretend you
like it even if it’s terrible.
 
He spent
a lot of time trying to figure out how to make it and I was no help at all.”

I sat down at the kitchen table
which I couldn’t help but notice was set for one.
 
Five large white candles that sat off to the
side were casting their flickering glow over the dimly lit room.
 
Daniel walked over and set a plate down in
front of me with what appeared to be spaghetti and meatballs in some kind of
red sauce.
 
I looked up to see his
sparkling blue eyes watching me intently, the excited anticipation dripping out
of them.

“Go ahead.
 
Try it,” he urged as he sat down across from
me.

It looked – not
bad, so trying to hide my hesitation, I picked up my fork, twirled some pasta
around it and took a bite.
 
It was okay,
but utterly bland.
 
I suppose if you
can’t taste what you cook, you can’t realize when it needs a little something.
 
Or in this case, a lot.
 
I smiled and chewed while he watched my every
reaction.

“Well?”

“It’s good,” I
said kindly. “Are you sure this is your first time?”

He smiled,
hopefully too happy to pick up on my kindly meant artifice.
 
I took a bite of meatball.
 
Just like the pasta, it lacked any real
flavor.
 
I smiled and pretended it was
better than it was, while trying to think good thoughts so he wouldn’t pick up
on the fact that I was faking it just a little bit.
  
It wasn’t hard.
 
I just remembered how it was cooked with the
most important ingredient of all, love.

Out of the
corner of my eye, I spied Randall as he walked into the living room and sat
down with a book as if we weren’t in the house.
 
A minute later, while I was chewing on more meatballs and smiling for
Daniel, I heard a chuckle emanate from his direction in the other room.
 
I picked up my glass and while taking a drink
of water, concentrated real hard and thought “
Keep quiet over there!”
 

Turning his head my way over the back of the couch, I saw him
look up with a ridiculous smile.
  
Pretending I hadn’t seen it, I took another fork full of pasta and
chewed for Daniel.
 

A few minutes
later when Daniel got up to refill my water, I heard Randall think “
Keep it going, he’s just eating this
up.
 
Boy’s got it bad.”
 

“
I heard that, Grandpa!
 
That’s enough out of you!”

From across the
room I saw him give me a face splitting smile.
 

Daniel walked
back from the fridge and glanced over to follow my gaze to Randall who was just
returning to his book.
 
Daniel ever so
slightly frowned as he turned back to me.
 
By the expression in his eyes I could tell he knew something was up, but
to his credit he didn’t seem to care.

I finally took
the last bite and pushed the plate back.
 

Thank God that’s over with!

“Want some
more?” he asked.

“No, not
now.
 
That was very filling and I have to
watch my figure,” I said patting my stomach.
 
“Maybe later.”

As Daniel got up
to do the dishes, I followed him to the sink to help, but he waved me out of
the kitchen saying I was company and to go into the living room and relax.
 

Company?
 

I shrugged my
shoulders and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before retreating out of the
kitchen.

Taking a seat
across from Randall in the living room, I watched the fire as it slowly consumed
its wood to ashes.
 
Behind me, I could
hear Daniel clanging around in the kitchen.
 
I was pretty sure that if he’d never cooked before, he’d probably never
done the dishes either.
 
Was it possible
to make even more of a mess when you were cleaning up?
 
He might be over a hundred years old, but I
think he probably had less experience in the kitchen than Ryan or Ben.
 
Smiling to myself, I made a mental note to
help him cook next time.
 
Maybe I could
give him some subtle pointers about adding things like salt and pepper.
 

My boyfriend
cooked for me.
 
Wow, I was still trying
to wrap my mind around that.
 
Not only
that Daniel was my boyfriend, but that he’d put thought into what I’d like and
actually cooked it for me with his own two hands.
 
Looking for a distraction from the emotions
brought up by his sweet gesture, I glanced over to see what Randall was
reading.

“What book is
that?” I asked eyeing the old leather bound volume in his hands.
 
He looked up with a smile and handed it to
me.
 
Taking it, I realized it was an old
Bible.
 
From the looks of it, one that
had been read and reread countless times.

“Unusual reading
for a vampire, no?”
 
I asked handing it
back to him.

“Not really,” he
answered.
 
“But as many times as I’ve
read it, I still can’t seem to find myself in here.”

“What do you
mean?”

“I’m not human,
at least not anymore.
 
What does that
make me now?
 
I’m not an angel, nor am I
a demon, yet I was created by God.
 
When
I was human, I thought I knew what he wanted from me, but now …”

I’d only known
the self-assured professor, but this was questioning Randall, a man, a fellow
creature of God, seemingly lost and searching for answers.

“Why would what
he wanted from you be any different now?” I asked.
 
“God made us all fallible; he gave us all
free will, humans and vampires alike.
 
We
all choose our own fate eventually.”

“I never chose
to become a vampire,” he said with a sadness born of regret in his eyes.
 
“I guess I’m just wondering – if I should die
someday – what will become of me?
 
Will I
join my children in Heaven, or am I cursed to Hell?”
 
I watched as he patted the old book in his
lap.
 
“I just can’t seem to find an
answer in here for people like me.”

“I think the
fact that you still consider yourself a
person
might be the answer to your question.
 
I
don’t think God expects any more or less of you now than he did when your heart
still beat. – Maybe he just thought you needed a little longer to figure things
out down here before he called you home.”

“Interesting
idea,” he said quietly as he now stared into the fire.
 
I could tell he was really thinking about
what I’d said.
 
A few minutes later he
picked the book up and started reading again.

“Any favorite
verses?”

He looked up with a smile.
 
“Well, I know Daniel’s.
 
It’s
Romans 12:21.
 
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
”

When the noises in the kitchen
finally subsided, Daniel walked in and slid down next to me on the sofa.
 
He wore a satisfied look on his face as if
he’d just gone out, killed something and drug it home to provide food for his
woman.
 
It seemed very primal at its
core, but appeared to make him happy so I refrained from teasing him about
it.
 
Although I was sorely tempted to do
so.

A moment later,
Randall put his book down and looked up at me.
 
There was something unsettled behind his eyes.

“Why do I get
the feeling you want to tell me something?” I asked him.

He paused for a
moment as if gathering his thoughts.
  

“I finished
analyzing the detergent sample and the blood I drew today.”

“What did you
find?” Daniel asked with more than a hint of concern at Randall’s serious
expression.

“It
was
the detergent that caused the rash.”

“That’s good
news” Daniel said with a sigh of relief.

“But your blood
chemistry has changed again.
 
When I
analyzed the samples you gave me back in Hopkinton, your body was in the
process of fighting against the detergent.
 
It caused your immune system to shift into overdrive and produce an
enormous amount of antibodies, which is what caused your blood to be toxic to
vampires.
 
To be honest, it probably
would have killed anything it was injected into.
 
But now that your immune system is winning
that battle, it’s no longer producing antibodies in mass quantities, so the
toxicity of your blood is only marginal now.”

“What does that
mean?” I asked.

“It means you’re
not poisonous anymore,” Daniel said in something of a sigh.

“That’s right,”
Randall agreed.

“So you’re
saying that if I was bitten now, I’d become a vampire and not kill the one that
bit me.”

“I’m saying I
think so.
 
You’re a hard science to
master, Sara.
 
You won’t kill a vampire
with your blood right now, not while you’re not fighting something off.
 
– But your immune system is still incredibly
strong.
 
Until I devise a test in the
laboratory to simulate what would happen if vampire venom was introduced into
your system, there’s no way to know for sure.
 
Vampire venom is unique.
 
It can’t
be extracted and used to turn someone.
 
Once it leaves us, it loses its potency.
 

“Daniel won’t
like me saying this, and I don’t have the scientific data to back it up, but
based on what I’ve seen so far, I think you’d become a vampire.”
 
Randall closed his book and got up.
 
“The only question is, what kind?” and not
wanting to continue the conversation, he quietly walked out of the room.