Dragging myself from the protection of my warm sleeping bag, I changed, ate an apple and took a bucket of water onto the back porch to wash up. After I finished I spent some time putting my sleeping bag, duffle and miscellaneous odds and ends into an upstairs closet, then put my food supplies away in an upper kitchen cabinet. Not that there was much chance of it happening but if someone did happen by, I didn’t want it immediately obvious that someone was squatting in the house. The only items I left out were my laptop, the newspaper and my backpack full of what I’d want to take with me if I needed to make a run for it in a hurry.
When I finished, I took a bottle of water and the paper and sat down on the front stoop to get some air. It was a still morning. Not even a breath of a breeze could be found to rustle the tall grasses that covered the front lawn. It was more than peaceful. It was as if this place had no memory of the horrific series of events that had brought me here. Which I suppose it didn’t.
After reading the front page, I looked out over the remains of what was probably once a nicely mowed field of green. The tall grass and weeds that had taken over hid crickets who seemed to have just woken up along with an owl in a tree on the other side of the rock wall.
The paper was full of depressing news. Like local news on television, it seemed more like a crime report than reporting anything that seemed really news worthy. I had just started on the crossword puzzle when the peacefulness of my morning was interrupted by a sound. It wasn’t an animal; it sounded more like a distant car. That seemed strange since I hadn’t heard the sound of even a single car since I’d arrived. I had to assume I was too far from any roads to hear them, so where was this sound coming from. Getting up, I went back into the house and pulled my handgun out of my backpack on the kitchen table. The Glock 32 had been a birthday present from my Dad on my eighteenth birthday. Only Dad would have it engraved Sara, Don’t shoot yourself in the foot – Love, Dad on the barrel.
Not taking any chances, I quietly went out the back door and crept along the back of the house to where I could easily peak around the corner. From this vantage point I could see anything that decided to come up the driveway. I held my breath as I took the safety off my Glock and listened for any signs of life in the vicinity. It was quiet, but in my gut I illogically could feel something approaching. I gripped the weapon with both hands and prepared myself for I wasn’t even sure what. All I knew was that I had to be careful not to shoot a stray hiker or real estate agent that might come up for a look. But I also was well aware that even a second’s hesitation with my hunter would most likely leave me dead in the tall grass without even the luxury of time to consider what mistakes I’d made.
Standing there with my back against the old wooden shingles, I prayed for help from above. It’s hard to live with yourself after you’ve shot someone even if you didn’t kill them, but most especially when you had. They were experiences that can haunt your dreams with dark images you’d just as soon forget as they often did mine.
Closing my eyes, I held my breath and tried to listen again. Again I heard nothing, but I felt the ominous approach of something strangely familiar. Was this the hunter whose movements I was unlikely to hear before it was too late? The silence said it probably wasn’t a human coming up the driveway and crossing onto the lawn.
I desperately wanted to peek around the corner to look with my eyes, but knew that if I was foolish enough to do so, that it would most likely be the last thing I did. I closed my eyes again and didn’t listen to the sounds in the air, but felt compelled to reach out with my mind. It was coming towards the house. Whatever my fate was, it was quickly approaching me here on this hilltop in this place with no memory. Perhaps it would make one today. I smiled an inappropriate smile when it occurred to me that its first may well be my last.
No matter what was coming, I wasn’t going down without a fight, that much was for certain. It was about to come around the corner now. I didn’t need my eyes to see that. Acting purely on instinct, I suddenly opened my eyes and flung myself around the corner, weapon held out in front of me aimed chest high at the oncoming attacker.
My finger was about to pull the trigger on the dark figure in front of me when his hand came up in a blur and wrenched the gun out of my grasp.
“What the hell are you doing?” he exclaimed in a mix of surprise and anger. “You’re going to hurt yourself with that thing.”
With Daniel staring down at me, eyes a blaze with some dark emotion, I found myself breathing a sigh of relief, although I wasn’t sure why.
The Professor walked around him in his usual casual way, took the gun out of Daniel’s hand and handed it back to me.
“She knows what she’s doing,” he said calmly as he walked past us looking around at the yard and barns beyond.
Taking the gun from him, I put the safety back on and tucked it into the back of my jeans.
“You know, that wouldn’t have stopped a blood hunter,” Daniel said angrily.
“I know, but I’d hoped it would slow him down long enough for me to get to the car.”
“Yeah, where’s my car by the way?” he shot back
He was pissed. I’d messed with his baby. The car, I knew he loved. Me, it seemed doubtful.
I nodded in the direction of the barn where I’d stashed it and watched as he stalked off in that direction.
“How did you find me?” I asked a beat later, trying to catch up with his quick step.
“Your laptop. We traced your IP address when you connected to the satellite internet. Your computer has a built in GPS.”
Damn, I thought to myself shaking my head, should have known better. Daniel pulled back the huge barn door with ease and lifted the tarp to inspect his car. I watched from just outside the door as he circled the car with an irate scowl on his face. He hadn’t asked me if I was alright yet. He didn’t even seem to care. So why was he here?
I looked over my shoulder to see the Professor walking around the backyard with a disapproving scowl on his face. He seemed to be inspecting the barns and the rest of the yard with a strangely critical eye. What was he up to, I wondered.
Daniel, satisfied that I hadn’t damaged his car, walked out of the barn to stand by my side. He followed my gaze over to the Professor, and we both watched as he seemed to inspect the property inch by inch.
“Why did you come?” I asked, without looking up at Daniel.
“Why do you think? I couldn’t let you run off to be slaughtered. We wouldn’t let you.” He still sounded mad as hell.
My eyes still on the Professor, I asked “Why does he seem to care about me so much?”
I looked up to see Daniel take a deep breath, but he didn’t answer. He didn’t look as angry as before, maybe more worried.
“This is why I wonder why you’re here. You say you care, but you don’t seem to care enough to tell me the truth. What could possibly be so horrible that you can’t tell me after telling me you’re vampires?”
Confused and angry at his silent response, I turned and stalked off towards the house leaving him standing in front of the old barn. Letting the back door slam shut behind me, I walked through the kitchen, into the living room and over to the fireplace. Raising my hand, I placed it against the cool stones and felt their solidity beneath my soft flesh. This was real, this love for my history, my family. It was one of the things that gave me strength, and in that moment I leaned on it for support.
Behind me I heard the hinges of the back door creak open, but I didn’t move. Why couldn’t they just go away and leave me in peace?
“Sara?” Daniel’s voice echoed softly in the rafters. He didn’t sound angry now. I didn’t turn, but I heard him walk over and come to a stop beside me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him raise his hand as if to place it on my shoulder, but he stopped himself before it made contact. I hated myself for what I was feeling. What I wanted to do more than anything was to whirl around and bury my head in his chest like I had so many times before. I wanted to find my safe
place inside his arms one last time. But I knew it was only an illusion now, and I needed to hold my ground against the overwhelming pull of my feelings for him. Again, I felt the pain in my heart ebb forward like a relentless tide that threatened to overtake me.
I guess unable to verbalize what it was he wanted to say, Daniel turned and started towards the back of the house. But before he got more than a few steps away, I heard the knob on the front door twist, and turned to see the Professor. Opening the door, he stopped in the doorway for a long moment and peered into the house with a wary eye. We watched as he hesitantly entered and looked around the room with a dubious almost disgusted expression on his face. I didn’t understand what was wrong with him, but I could feel a strange malevolent anger simmering just below his surface. He walked into the center of the room and, putting his hands on his hips, we watched as his expression turned suddenly sour. When he turned towards the newer addition onto the house his jaw dropped.
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.
Chapter Eighteen
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.
The Purity of Blood: Volume I Page 41