The Purity of Blood: Volume I

by Jennifer Geoghan

  A few minutes later, as I smoothed my hair back into place – well as back into place as my mess of red hair was ever in, I emerged from the shadows. When I took a step into the light, Daniel suddenly appeared in front of me.

  “Where did you come from?” I asked anxiously.

  He’d startled me. I didn’t like that.

  “You took too long.”

  When I didn’t reply, he looked me up and down appraisingly until he stopped where my right sleeve met my shoulder. Raising a finger, he pointed to a small tear in my sweater.

  “What happened to you?” he demanded. He went from friendly to pissed in a nanosecond.

  I looked at the tear.

  “I must be getting old,” I muttered to myself trying my best to blow him off.

  Suddenly there was a faint moan and a thud from the shadows behind me. Daniels ears instantly perked up as his head snapped up to look over my shoulder. Then without hesitation, he pushed me behind him, placing himself between me and the sound.

  “Stay right here,” he ordered with almost a snarl as he quickly stalked off into the shadows. He emerged a minute later only to look at me with horror in his eyes. If history held any precedent here, it was probably more revulsion than anything else.

  He pointed to the shadows. “I’m asking you again. What happened?” He was angry, really angry with me. So angry, his voice was deathly low. If our evening had started out as a date, I doubted it would end like one.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said as casually as possible, not wanting him to make a big deal out of what he most assuredly would. “Some people just don’t want to learn their lessons the easy way … I wonder if I get a dozen of those turnovers, how long they’ll keep?”

  Unable to look at the stunned look on his face, I turned and started back towards the carnival. I didn’t have to turn around to know he was standing motionless behind me, but I kept going. It wasn’t that far, I could always walk back to campus. Maybe that would be for the best anyway. No, I wouldn’t look back.

  A moment later he caught up with me and we walked for a minute, side by side in silence as we rejoined the crowded festival.

  “That was the same guy, wasn’t it?” he said quietly, not looking at me as we walked along.

  “Yes.”

  I stared straight ahead. I could barely hear him over the music and voices of the crowd around us.

  “Why do I get the feeling you’re not going to tell me what happened?”

  He was trying to sound calm, but underneath it was easy to see he was anything but.

  “Because you’re very perceptive.”

  He humphed in response.

  “He’s not dead is he?” I asked in a small voice.

  “No.”

  “I didn’t think so.”

  I stopped. We were standing in a quiet corner now. I was staring at a ride, at the happy faces of the kids whirling around inside it.

  He didn’t say anything for a moment, but then very quietly said “You have no idea what it took for me to not finish the job.”

  I stared up at him open mouthed. He was completely serious. He reached out again, offering me his arm, and for some unknown reason, my traitorous body took it.

  We walked around aimlessly for some time, mostly with a silence between us. All evening the festival had been filled with loud music emanating from a small stage at its center, but suddenly the music abruptly stopped making our silence seem awkward again. I looked at my watch.

  “It must be getting late,” Daniel said.

  “It’s a little after nine thirty,” I muttered. Where had the time gone?

  “I should probably be getting you back.”

  Then without further discussion, he began to steer me towards the car.

  When we got there, he opened the door for me. This time I actually waited for him to do so. I guess I was too modern to understand why, but I could see this made him more comfortable, and to be honest, I kind of liked it to. Sliding without a word into the driver’s seat beside me he closed his door. Then he put the key in the ignition, but paused before turning it.

  “What I can’t understand is … I don’t think that guy came after you tonight. I think you went after him.” He stopped, not exactly waiting for an answer, but just to gather his thoughts. “What I don’t understand is why. Why you would run after danger.”

  When I didn’t answer, he turned to look at me. I couldn’t read the exact expression in those blue eyes here in the shadows of our parking spot, but I could tell they were expecting a reply.

  “I don’t have a good answer for you. I tried to tell you before. I’m not … normal. I’m not like the other girls here on campus.”

  I stopped, I could tell he wanted more of an explanation, but I didn’t care who or what he was to me. I just didn’t feel comfortable talking about all that with anyone, let alone a stranger like Daniel. Whatever he was, he was still pretty much a stranger to me. I felt myself stiffen up beside him.

  “It’s not in my nature to let things pass, I wasn’t raised that way. After tonight, I think he’ll go out of his way to avoid me – and maybe think twice about bothering anyone else around here.”

  Why was I telling him any of this? It really wasn’t any of his business.

  He finally turned the key and the engine started to purr.

  “Trouble will find you often enough in life, Sara, without you searching it out. What really concerns me is that you think you can handle whatever comes your way, but in truth there are things far worse than our friend back there – dangers you couldn’t possibly hope to defend yourself against.”

  We drove the few minutes back to Capen Hall in silence. Even though I suppose tonight had given us both a lot to think about, I still wished we could have ended the evening in a lighter mood. Despite how it was drawing to a close, I’d had a good time, more so than I would have expected under the circumstances. He parked behind the dorm and quickly got out to open my door for me.

  “Why do I always feel uneasy when I drop you off back here?” he asked as if not really expecting an answer.

  “I don’t know. Didn’t you like living in the dorms wherever you went to school?”

  “Actually, I never did. We always rented a house instead.”

  “How come?”

  We started to walk up the path to the back entrance.

  “Why tempt fate I guess,” was all the answer he offered as he looked over and smiled at me.

  “I’d ask what you mean by that, but somehow I have the feeling you wouldn’t give me a good answer if I did,” I said as I smiled back.

  “You’re probably right. – Despite your little altercation, I had a good time tonight. I hope you did as well.”

  I had, but couldn’t bring myself to verbalize it to him. Instead I stared up into his eyes. I could never get used to them looking into mine. I just couldn’t understand why he’d want to spend time with someone like me. Somehow I couldn’t bring myself to say this was my low self-esteem talking. Better looking girls than me would have thought the same, of this I was sure.

  As we reached the base of the cement stairs that led up to the back door, he stopped.

  “I guess this is where I leave you.”

  He looked down and tentatively took my hand in his. His touch still felt odd, somehow unnatural, but at that moment I didn’t care. I looked down at my hand in his then allowed my eyes to travel up to his face. If I wasn’t mistaken, he looked like he wanted to kiss me, but something was holding him back. There was a strange tension in his body that seemed at odds with the tender look in his eyes. It made me think he was restraining himself from something.

  Was he shy?

  No possible way, I answered myself.

  Than why did he look so hesitant, so timid in his demeanor all of a sudden?

  I’d been fighting against any hint of allowing myself to have romantic feelings for Daniel ever since … well, ever since he first strolled up to the podium that day in class. Somet
hing deep down inside me screamed it wasn’t right, but had he kissed me at that moment, I’d have shoved every bad feeling to the back of my mind and embraced him gladly. A part of me longed for his touch, but for now that part was safely shoved in a box, the lid tightly shut. Yet my resolve seemed brittle, as if I could hear it loudly rattling around inside that box.

  He looked at my hand as he held it up. “I can feel your pulse,” he said softly. “The warmth of the blood in your veins.”

  He continued to softly hold my hand in his as he traced one of the veins in my wrist with his finger.

  As he held my hand, I could feel nothing in his except the strange sensations his touch brought out in me. But I was lost anyway. The pounding of my heart drown out every other sound on the earth. There was only him.

  “Can I call you tomorrow?” he asked softly, hesitantly, almost as if he expected me to say no.

  I nodded yes. There was no way I could utter an intelligent word, let alone string an entire sentence together while I was caught in his gaze.

  “Good night,” he whispered staring down into my eyes.

  He took a step away still holding my hand, then let go as he reluctantly turned and started back towards his car. As he slowly walked away, he looked over his shoulder at me a couple of times. I could tell because I met his glance each time as I walked up the stairs.

  I knew it was now or never. If I didn’t get these ridiculous ideas out of my head this instant, there was no way I could ever have a relationship with Daniel, friend or whatever else there might be between us.

  He was about half way to his car now and as I gained the top of the stairs, I quickly reached into my bag and pulled out my keys. Attached to them was a small pocket knife. Shoving all logic and reason aside, I opened it to expose the cutting blade and dropped my purse. Taking a deep, fortifying breath, I looked down at the knife in my right hand, and the open palm of my left.

  Could I really do this?

  Then I shifted my gaze up. Daniel was only a dozen feet from his car but easy to see under the street lights. While keeping my eye on him, I used the knife to make a deep gash in the palm of my left hand, then tightly squeezed my hand so that the blood began to drip onto the concrete below.

  Instantly, Daniel stopped mid footstep. Almost as if in slow motion, I watched as his head angled slightly up and off to the left as he raised his chin as if sniffing the air. Then he disappeared in a blur.

  Almost instantaneously, he appeared on the other side of the metal banister in front of me. Boring down into me with an almost inhuman intensity, his eyes were no longer blue, but black and darkly sunken into his head. The veins surrounding both eyes almost looked as if they were filled with black ink and spidered out from his black eyes like he was wearing some kind of mask. He wasn’t breathing, which given that every muscle in his body was tenser than I’d have thought humanly possible, seemed impossible. It was then that I realized it was my hand that he was staring at. Shaking ever so slightly, it seemed obvious he was fighting an overwhelming urge to grab at it.

  My back to the door, I stood there motionless, paralyzed. What was it that held me there? Was it fear, astonishment, surprise, shock, revulsion? Most likely a lopsided mixture of all of them. Deep down inside I could feel my heart pounding so loud I thought it would burst out of my chest. When I started to feel dizzy, I suddenly realized I wasn’t breathing and inhaled deeply, filling my lungs with precious and most necessary oxygen.

  This momentary waver of my attention from his eyes broke our spell and I watched his head as it snapped up to my face. Black eyes, like an animals, stared at me, almost unrecognizing the features of my face. He tilted his head ever so slightly to the right as if examining me for the first time. Indeed this was the first time I’d seen this thing. This was not the Daniel I knew. The soft blue eyes of that Daniel could never look at me like this.

  Then in a raspy, guttural voice, he spoke.

  “Get inside.”

  It was a command, not a request.

  Keeping my eyes locked on him, I slowly bent down and picked up my bag. I wasn’t entirely sure he, or it, wouldn’t pounce on me. What would happen if he did?

  I stood up, but didn’t move to open the door, I was caught in his eyes, just as surely as I was caught in a trap.

  “Now! Before it’s too late!”

  His voice was louder now, with an angry, urgent insistence behind it. He hadn’t moved a muscle, but I could see his hands as they tightly clasped the metal banister. It was acting as a barrier between us, as if it were the only thing preventing him from devouring me whole.

  A moment later, I was somehow able to break free of his stare. Somehow I found the strength to quickly fumble with my keys in the lock before quickly slamming the heavy metal door shut behind me. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could, and when I reached the second floor landing, I paused for a fraction of a second to listen for any sound that he had followed me. Hearing only silence, I sprinted down the hall to my room, slammed the door behind me and locked the deadbolt. Leaning against the solid wood door, I slowly slid down to the floor, hugging my knees to my chest I found myself staring into the darkness of the empty room.

  What had just happened? It couldn’t possibly be. These things just weren’t true. They were myths, stories told to scare children. They had to be.

  I couldn’t think the word let alone say it out loud. But part of me knew it was true, the part that always knew there was something different about him besides his good looks. It was the part I recognized the first time I’d seen him in the hallway outside the Professor’s office, when I saw the predator in his eyes. And yet, it was the same Daniel who’d wanted to take my hand. The same man who’d murmured ‘You have no idea what it took for me not to finish the job.”

  I sat there for a long time, just listening for some sign of him. How long exactly, I don’t know. Eventually, when I hadn’t heard a sound out of the ordinary for what seemed like an eternity, I crept across the floor and crawled into my bed. On the way, I’d grabbed an old scarf I didn’t like and wrapped it around my hand. It had stopped bleeding, but was still a nice gash I’d have to deal with in the morning. I kicked off my shoes and pulled the covers up over my head to hide from the overwhelming thoughts swirling around inside my mind.

  What would I do if he actually called me tomorrow? The thought occurred to me that I should just pack up my car tonight and run home to Wading River, but what would I say to my parents when they asked why. Mostly I just wanted to pretend tonight had never happened. But I knew that just wasn’t possible anymore.

  Against my will, I found myself imagining what it would have been like if Daniel had kissed me. How his lips would have felt against mine. What it would feel like in his embrace, his arms wrapped tightly around me. My traitorous imagination combined with my hormones wondered how it would feel if his hand started at the base of my neck and slowly trailed down my spine. I think I’d moan, but instead I shuddered under the covers seeing his lifeless black eyes staring back at me. I’d seen myself reflected in them. He wanted me, wanted me desperately, but in that dark moment at the top of the stairs, it was not in the way I wished he would.

  I closed my eyes tightly trying to will myself into unconscious sleep, but it didn’t work. Finally a few hours later, I drifted off, too exhausted to dwell on him any longer.

  “You’re still asleep?” a voice said. “Wake up, lazy bones. It’s almost lunch time.”

  I rolled over.

  “Oh. Hi, Darcy,” I mumbled as I pulled back the covers a little. I think I was still hiding under them.

  “You must have had quite a night! What have you been up to?” She smiled slyly at me as she upturned her laundry hamper on top of her bed.

  I popped out of bed. How could she tell?

  “What are you talking about?” I demanded sleepily.

  While she looked me up and down, giving me the once over, I realized I was still in the clothes I’d worn out last night.

 
“Oh – that.”

  “Yes, that. Come on, dish!”

  I walked over to my dresser and pulled out some clean clothes and my shower kit.

  “Nothing you want to hear about, I assure you,” was my honest answer. “I went to the festival and when I got home, I was so tired I fell asleep in my clothes.”

  It was obvious she could tell I was holding something back. Doing my best to ignore her incredulous stare, I gathered up my stuff.

  “I’ll be right back,” I said as I headed for the door. “I’m going to take a shower.”

  Cautiously opening the door, I peered out into the hallway. Stacy was walking down the corridor and disappeared into her room. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. What had I been expecting? When I looked over my shoulder, Darcy was eying me warily, suspiciously even. Needing to escape her disapproving gaze, I summoned the courage to walk through the doorway and gently shut the door behind me.

  I hastily walked down the hall to the girl’s bathroom and into an empty shower stall where I stripped off my clothes. I felt like I was stripping away that part of the memory of last night that I didn’t want to hold on to anymore. Maybe it had been a dream. Lord knew I had some crazy dreams from time to time.

  Reaching in, I turned on the water to give it time to warm up and hung my towels up on the hook. When I stepped in, I savored the sensation of the hot water as it began to run down my body. Closing my eyes, I circled around, allowing it to cover me entirely, enveloping me like a cocoon.

  I wanted to hide in here all day, where no one would bother me. I needed time to process what had happened last night. I just didn’t know how to react. In my short life, I’d seen many things, but even with all I’d witnessed I’d never seen what Daniel had become last night. And he had transformed into something.

  React? I felt I should be afraid, but I wasn’t. That in and of itself was confusing. I knew I shouldn’t ever want to see Daniel again, but I couldn’t even consider that option. Not just because I’d have to see him in class, but I almost felt as if he had something of mine now, something that without it, I wouldn’t be complete. I know it made no sense, but that was my problem. How do you resolve nonsense in your mind?