The Purity of Blood: Volume I

by Jennifer Geoghan

  “Alright. You’re not allowed to drive anymore,” he said with a decided note of irritation in his voice.

  “Why?” I asked calmly as I braked hard and spun the car one hundred and eighty degrees and started to race back towards town.

  “Because I don’t want you to die in a fireball on the side of the road, that’s why!” his voice now raised.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. You always drive like this.”

  “That’s different. I have much better senses and depth perception than you do.”

  I looked over at him considering this. Could be, but I think he might just be jealous that I was just as good a driver as he was and I was – only human.

  “Eyes on the road please!” he shouted.

  I turned to look out the windshield at the dark road ahead of me. I should probably tone it down. No need to show off more than I already had. I wasn’t sure how he’d react if he knew I’d been subjected to extensive driving instruction well before I was old enough for a permit.

  “The heck with it. Pull over!”

  I did as he said with no comment, but only because it was his car. He got out, came around to my door and yanked it open. I sat there staring out the front window just to give him a hard time, a smile playing at the edge of my mouth. Suddenly his hand appeared in front of my face. Reluctantly, I took it and allowed him to help me out of the car. I think this was part of who Daniel was as a person. He might be mad as hell at me, but he’d still treat me like a lady. Wow, I couldn’t begin to describe how very much I found that attractive. I looked up at his face. Yes, he was pissed, but he’d always remain a gentleman whatever his emotional state. Even I could sense that.

  I started to walk around to the other side of the car, but he didn’t let go of my hand, and pulling me back he wrapped his arms around me.

  “Next time, we take your car,” he said quietly into my hair as he held me in his arms.

  “See, I knew you liked my car better,” I whispered, my arms wrapped around his waist.

  I breathed deeply and wondered if this was bothering him. When I tried to pull back, he didn’t let go. Looking up into his eyes I could see he was worried about me. I think it was more than just my driving though.

  “Promise me you won’t drive like a maniac again. I couldn’t handle it if something happened to you. I can’t lose you,” and he pulled me closer.

  Was I his to lose? I hoped so.

  I nodded in agreement as I snuggled inside his jacket. Oh, I liked it here snuggled against his chest.

  Finally, he let go and drove back into town at what must have seemed like a snail’s pace for him. I actually hadn’t driven like that in years, but then again I hadn’t been behind the wheel of a high performance sports car in as many years either. It was fun, I’d almost forgotten how much. No, my hatchback didn’t handle like that. But on the bright side, she did get better gas mileage. Since I had the feeling he wasn’t going to be giving me the keys to his car again any time in the near future, I guess he had nothing to worry about.

  As he pulled up behind Capen Hall, I looked at my watch.

  “Good. It’s still kind of early. I need to call my mother tonight.” I hadn’t called her in a while and the daily messages she was leaving on my voicemail were getting more and more insistent.

  Daniel walked me to the front door. He hadn’t said much since we’d gotten back into the car. I was sure it was my fault. I’d probably pushed him too far. There were so many parts of my life that I preferred people not know about. This was why I’d never let people get too close. Because of how I’d been raised, I always had to remember to curb my natural reactions to things. If I didn’t, they’d get suspicious and form questions about those parts of my life best left a mystery. I’d been foolish tonight, but only time would tell how much.

  As we stood under the light above the door, I knew. I knew I was in love with him. That whatever happened from this moment on in my life, that this would never change. I looked up and saw those blue eyes piercing me. With all my soul I wanted to tell him what I’d just realized, but I couldn’t. As much as I needed to know if he loved me, I didn’t want the first time he said those words to me to be in response to my saying them first. I think he was scared to, and I needed to know if he loved me enough to find the courage to tell me on his own. Unfortunately, there was only one way to find out how he really felt about me.

  How could I be so completely in love with someone I didn’t even know existed a month ago? Was it even possible to love someone with a love strong enough to last a lifetime in such a short space of time? All I knew was that if I didn’t see him tomorrow, if I didn’t breathe in the scent of him, or feel those sky blue eyes on me, or hear his laugh, I didn’t know what I’d do. Suddenly, I found myself reaching out and wrapping my arms around his waist, pulling him tightly to me.

  “I know,” he whispered as he kissed the top of my head.

  As I clung to him, I remembered that he could pick up on the emotional states of humans and wondered what I was giving off in that moment. Not that I cared. What did it really matter?

  “So … tomorrow. How about I pick you up in the morning and we find something fun to do.”

  I took a step back.

  “Okay,” was all I could think to say as I reached in for my keys and opened the door.

  “I’ll be here at ten.”

  And we said goodnight.

  I shouldn’t feel like this, I thought as I trudged up the stairs. It shouldn’t feel like someone was ripping the heart out of my chest when we said goodnight. Part of it was knowing that I wouldn’t see him for twelve hours, and part of it was knowing that he might never kiss me the way I so desperately wanted him to. Slowly, deeply and passionately, the way I’d never been kissed before by anyone.

  Could he?

  He seemed to want to, but I think he was too scared to try. As if I would be too much temptation for him to resist. I had a hard time believing I could be too much temptation for anyone. What was I? I wasn’t beautiful, but for some unfathomable reason he seemed to find me so. But still, I longed to hear him whisper my name in my ear as he softly caressed my neck with his fingertips then gently kissed it. I longed to feel the touch of his hands on me. But I knew, as much as I wanted it, it wouldn’t happen. He wouldn’t allow it. Two things stood in his way, his nature as a vampire and his nature as a gentleman.

  I changed and curled up in bed. Pulling the covers around me, I picked up the phone and dialed home.

  “Finally!” I heard on the other end of the line.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “Hi to you, too. You need to return your messages, young lady. If you can’t seem to manage that simple task, you can just pack up your things, come home and go back to community college next semester.”

  “Tell her I said hi,” I heard my Dad say in the background.

  “Your father is very upset with you as well,” Mom snapped. “Tell me you’ve at least been going to church.”

  She went on for a while. In truth, I was letting her talk herself out before summoning the courage to say anything. I told her how my classes were going, and about what my friends and I had been doing and spending time in the library. Everything but the most important thing in my life. She asked me to come home next weekend. I tried to beg off, but she insisted and I could hear my Dad in the background agreeing that he’d like to see me as well.

  “Tell her not to worry about the money, I’ll give her gas money for the trip,” he added as enticement.

  I couldn’t resist my Dad, so I agreed to come home Saturday morning and return on Sunday night. She made a counter offer, insisting I come home Friday night, but I managed to talk her out of it when I reminded her of the horrors of driving through the city during Friday rush hour. Thank God for my parents’ bad driving experiences in New York City.

  “So, I hope you’re having a little fun while you’re up there studying,” she said almost reluctantly. “Have you done any work o
n your genealogy?”

  Finally, a subject I could comfortably talk about. “Yes, I actually found a great book in the library with tons of great info on your family. Ironic as it’s actually a history book of another family. But the author goes off on a tangent of the ancestry and descendants of a Wells woman who married into his family. Gives great details on how the family moved out to Ohio and all the descendants out there.”

  “Let me guess, you want to go to Ohio over your summer vacation now,” she teased.

  I smiled. “Perhaps. We’ll see.” But of course I did.

  I hung up a half hour later and turned off the light.

  When I woke in the morning, I again had that same nagging feeling that something within the confines of my room had changed overnight, but this time it was worse. I got up and checked the door. It was locked. I walked over and checked the windows. They were locked as well. Yet, part of me knew without a doubt, that someone had been in the room last night. I could feel it, sense it somehow. I wished Darcy had been here. On the nights she’d spent in her bed I’d never woken up with this feeling.

  I lazily took a shower, dressed and ate my fruit loops while watching some old cartoons on one of the channels I got with the antenna. When I looked at the clock it was almost ten so I quickly got dressed and headed downstairs.

  When I opened the back door, Daniel’s car was already there. Looking around, I spotted him standing on the footbridge across the road. It was a graceful wooden structure spanning the thin waterway that ran parallel to the road behind Capen. The campus’ only water feature, it started in the pond behind the Student Union Building and terminated in the large lake we’d walked around the night before. Hearing my approach, he looked up as he started my way, a smile spreading across his handsome face.

  “I was just watching the fish,” he said as we started towards his car.

  “So what are we doing today?” I asked while he slid into his seat beside me.

  I watched his eyes light up.

  “I thought of a good place to take you,” was all he’d say as we drove out of the parking lot and headed up the mountain.

  It meant that I trusted him that I didn’t ask any more questions and even though I loved him, this bothered me. It was so contrary to the nature that had been beaten into me my whole life. When he glanced my way and saw me biting my lip to hold back my curiosity, he seemed pleased. In turn, I was rewarded with his boyish smile. Instantly melting like a ridiculous school girl, I forgot what I wanted to ask him.

  We talked as we drove, about school and other things. It all seemed so trivial compared with what I really wanted to say, I love you.

  We pulled down the gravel road leading to his house and parked in the garage. After we got out, he led me around the back of the house and up a well-worn trail into the woods.

  “So can you tell me where we’re going yet?” Lord, I was happy. I was actually giggling.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll like it,” was all he’d say. Yes, he was playfully enjoying my suspense.

  About ten minutes later we came out of the woods into the wreck of an old orchard that hugged this slope of the mountain. Shining in the sunlight, the ripe red apples covered the trees like Christmas ornaments, dragging the branches down with their weight.

  “It’s an old orchard. I happened upon it some time back on one of my rambles through the woods. We don’t eat, so they always go to spoil. But I figured you’d eat some this year so they won’t all go to waste.”

  Then he pulled a couple of bags out of his pocket and handed me one. When I took it, I didn’t look into his eyes. I couldn’t believe how incredibly thoughtful and sweet this was. If I looked up, he’d see the tremble in my lip, so instead as I took the bag I clasped his hand and gave it a squeeze before I dropped it and started off towards the trees.

  While we picked the apples, their sweet, fragrant aroma filled my nostrils like my favorite perfume. I paused to inhale deeply, drinking in as much of it as I could. I think I was subconsciously trying to make a memory. I must have closed my eyes because when I opened them, I looked up to see Daniel watching me. From a few trees away he smiled and looked away, obviously embarrassed that I’d caught him.

  After a few minutes, I picked what I thought looked like the perfect apple. Perfectly round and ruby red, it was without even the smallest hint of a blemish. Instead of putting it in my bag, I polished it on my shirt sleeve and sunk my teeth into it. It was delicious and forced me to pause and savor the taste on my lips and tongue. Turning around, I sat down in the tall grass that covered the floor of the old orchard and looked down the hillside into the valley below. The view was beautiful, breathtaking really. From here I could see for miles, ridge after ridge of leaves in every imaginable shade of green, gold and red.

  I took another bite, chewing it slowly, savoring the sharp flavor. Setting my bag to the side, I crossed my legs in front of me and relaxed, inhaling deeply and listening to the gentle breeze in the trees behind me.

  Daniel came up from behind and sat down beside me in the grass. He looked out at the view for a moment then turned to watch as I took another big bite out of the fruit. A large drip of juice began to roll down my chin, and reaching up he brushed it away with his sleeve.

  “So what do you think?” he finally asked after watching me with a look of utter fascination on his handsome face.

  He had to wait a moment for a reply as my mouth was still full of apple.

  “I love it, Daniel,” I murmured.

  I love you, too.

  “I thought you would.”

  Leaning back to lie down on my back in the grass, I looked up at the afternoon clouds as they slowly rolled by overhead. As I took another bite, I wondered what it would have been like to have been courted by Daniel back in 1905 here in this valley. Would I have felt the same way about him as I did now? I imagined a chaperone standing at the side of the orchard carefully watching us as we sat together here in the tall grass.

  Taking the last bite, I tossed the core into some nearby bushes for the mice to eat.

  Beside me, Daniel leaned back to lie down flat in the grass. He too stared upwards lazily at the fluffy white clouds against the pale blue sky. Then I felt his hand as it slowly enfolded mine. This was the first perfect moment in my life. Could the time we spend on this earth get any better than this? I was blissfully happy, so happy that inside that moment I didn’t realize there was even another way to be.

  I looked over at him in an attempt to gage how he was feeling, and saw in his expression a reflection of my own. Turning from the clouds, he looked over meeting my gaze with his incredible eyes. We stared into each other’s eyes for some time in comfortable silence. His eyes were so blue, so beautiful, perfectly shaped. And looking at me of all people.

  I could hear the buzz of insects in the grass, the whisper of the breeze through the trees above my head, and the sound of my heart steadily beating out its constant rhythm inside my chest. Here inside my perfect moment, it felt as if time had somehow slowed down.

  “I think I’ve fallen in love with you, Sara” he finally whispered, taking me completely by surprise.

  My heart suddenly stopped, skipping a beat as I took in his words. But before I could find the words to respond, his face darkened. “I shouldn’t be. It’s not fair to you,” he added. “I don’t even know how it happened. It shouldn’t have.”

  He sat up and looked down at me. I was still lying on my back in the grass, too in shock to move.

  “But when I’m with you, I’m selfish and don’t care what the consequences might be.”

  I sat up next to him.

  “Consequences?”

  With a look of desperation in his eyes, he grabbed my hand and held it up to his chest.

  “Promise me, Sara! Promise me that no matter what happens you’ll believe I love you, that you won’t lose faith in that.”

  He was begging me; I could see it in his eyes. But why?

  I didn’t know what he was tal
king about, but his eyes pleaded with me so urgently that I nodded my head in agreement. How could I not?

  He smiled and reached up to smooth my hair.

  “Why do you love me?” I asked innocently.

  Looking at me his face softened again.

  “Because I was born to love you, Sara. I don’t have a choice, and even if I did, I’d have loved you anyway.”

  I felt weak all over, as if every cell in my body was about to fall apart. With a sigh, I looked deep into his blue eyes and whispered “I love you too.”

  His eyes closed as he absorbed my words, then he leaned towards me and gently caressed the side of my face with the back of his hand. I needed to feel his touch and leaned into it with my eyes closed for a moment. Savoring his touch, the familiar tingling sensation began to bubble up inside, causing my heart to race faster inside my chest. As I felt him move closer, my breathing became shallow, speeding to catch up with my runaway heart. He wanted to kiss me, it was in his eyes. He must know I wanted it too. Slowly, he moved until he was only inches from me, then I watched as he paused as if reconsidering. I could feel his breath on my face, smell its sweet scent and I inhaled deeply, drinking it in while I still could. Maybe this was as close as we’d ever get.

  Why was he breathing? He didn’t need to breathe, did he? I’d noticed most times he didn’t, at least when we were alone. What did it mean that he was now?

  I didn’t move. I knew this was up to him. If he felt he was strong enough he would, and sitting there among the tall grasses with him, I fervently prayed with all my might that he was.

  Then I felt his lips meet mine, soft and strong just as I’d imagined they’d be a hundred times before. I leaned into them, returning his kiss, as weeks’ worth of frustration began to pour out of me, making the kiss stronger and deeper with each passing moment. I could feel his hand as it slowly trailed down my back pulling me closer to him. This was it, my first real kiss.

  With his hand at my back, he gently laid me down in the tall grass as his lips began to travel down my neck soft as butterfly wings.