The Purity of Blood: Volume I (11 page)

A little slower
now, he again started in my direction, carefully eyeing me as his gait steadily
increased.
 
There was just something
about the way he walked, the way he shifted his weight from side to side that
was completely fluid.
 
He was almost cat
like in his movements, and I couldn’t help but stare.
 
It was mesmerizing.

My face began to
flush, my heart now beating faster, pounding away inside the confines of my
chest.
 
I hadn’t exactly rehearsed what I
was going to say and suddenly found myself wishing I’d given this a little bit
more thought.

As the distance
between us closed faster than I’d have liked, my palms began to sweat.
 
Then he stopped just short of me.

“Miss Donnelly?”
he said, part statement, part question.
 
“You seem to want something, or do I presume too much?”

He knew my name?

I opened my
mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
 

Cocking his head
to the side he stared at me, or was it through me.
 
Suddenly there was a commotion in the quad
behind him.
 
It was the Frisbee girls.
 
In an instant, Daniel’s head snapped around
faster than I would have thought humanly possible.
 
Whatever the trouble was, it had diverted all
his attentions that way.
 

At that same
moment I heard a faint cry from above and a snap.
 
When I quickly turned my head to see where
the sound had come from, I was just in time to see a steel beam swinging wildly
on a cable tethered to the top of one of the cranes.
 
It was coming straight for us.
 

Without
thinking, I jumped on Daniel and tackled him to the ground, taking us both deep
into a thick stand of nearby shrubbery.
 
As I dove for cover taking him with me, I could feel the wind of the
beam as it passed behind me and the tangle of bushes that mercilessly pulled at
my hair and clothes.
 
We were both
completely buried in the bushes, my shove having been a lot stronger than I’d
have thought myself capable of.
 
Unsure
of what had just happened; I felt a sudden surge of adrenaline coursing through
every inch of my body.
 
It was a not
unpleasant sensation that made me tingle all over.
 
Well, everywhere except my leg.
 
My lower right leg felt like it was on
fire.
 
Momentarily stunned, I was still
lying on top of Daniel, but was too dazed to move for a few moments.
 

Then I felt gentle
hands reach in and touch my leg, appraising the injury.
 
What an odd sensation.
 
Moments later, the bushes above my head
parted and an arm reached in to grab my hand.
 
It was Ben, his eyes full of fear.

“What the hell
happened?” he asked.
 
“Are you alright?
You could have been killed.”
 

It almost
sounded like he was scolding me.

“Ben.
 
I – I think I hurt my leg,” was all I could
manage in response.
 

He leaned down
and gently pulled my hand to lift me up.
 
As he did I realized another pair of hands were guiding me from
behind.
 
They were Daniel’s hands.
 
His arm was
under mine
as if expecting to support all my weight.
 
Still fuzzy around the edges, I looked up to see the beam swinging
wildly from a thin cable with a smaller broken cable swinging below it.
 

 
“I think the cable hit my leg as it passed,” I
murmured weakly to no one in particular, still staring up at the wildly
gesticulating pendulum.
 
With the
assistance of the two men, I tentatively stepped out of the bushes.
 

Ben was staring
at me in horror, as if only moments ago he’d thought I was dead.
 
I looked away.
 
I didn’t want to see those brown eyes staring
back at me that way.
 
I turned only to be
confronted with Daniel’s face.
 
He wore a
bewildered expression like a lost little boy and was staring down at my leg as
if he was confused about something.
 

Realizing that
the pain in my leg had quickly begun to fade, I began to shift my weight to
test my strength on it

“No, be
careful,” Daniel said with a forceful whisper in my ear as he clutched my arm
tighter.

I looked
up.
 
His eyes were a mixture of fear and
confusion now.
 
I looked deep into their
strange shade of blue for a long moment not knowing what to make of their
expression.
 
I had come here to confront
him, but for some reason I felt the odd desire to console him now instead.
 

I gave him an
unwilling smile then looked down at my leg as I shifted my weight onto it.
 
Ben still had my other arm and I leaned on
him for support as I did.
 
The pain was
almost gone now and I stood firm on both legs.
 
I wasn’t sure how this could possibly be, but I wasn’t about to question
it.
 
Staring down at my leg, a long dirty
mark on the side of my jeans where the cable had made contact was plainly
visible.
 
How was it possible I had not
been injured when it hit me?
 
Glancing
over at Daniel, I could see he’d noticed the mark as well.
 

“Well, other
than being a little rough around the edges, you look no worse for wear,” Ben
said, smiling down at me now while picking leaves out of my hair.
  
“What on earth were you doing?
 
You could have been killed!”

Daniel looked as
if he would have liked an answer to that question as well, but as I looked from
one handsome face to the other, I was at a loss for an immediate answer.

Fortunately a
few nearby students had run over all too eager to tell us what they’d
witnessed.

“You should
totally be on the football team,” one guy said.
 
“You tackled him like an all-star.”

“I thought you
were both dead,” a small blonde girl gushed. “When I saw that beam coming right
at the both of you like that.
 
Well, I
just can’t believe you’re both alive.”

I’d saved
Daniel’s life.
 
It had just dawned on
me.
 
Daniel was in shock, probably for
the same reason.
 
He was just standing
there staring at me.
 
At me
this time, not through me.
 

Then for no
logical reason I could possibly explain, I was struck with the sudden intuition
that this moment – this small moment in my life was about to change
everything.
  

“I think I’d
better walk you back to your room,” Ben said.
 

Not trusting
that I seemed to be alright, he picked up my bag, slung it over his shoulder
and offered me his arm.
 
Taking it, we
turned to go.
 
But after a few steps, I
paused for a second and looked over my shoulder at Daniel.
 
He was still standing in the bushes, softly
staring after me.
 
Silently he mouthed “
Thank you.”

I gave him a
weak smile and continued away on Ben’s arm.
 
After a few paces, I glanced up to see Ben looking back over his
shoulder.
 
When I followed his gaze, I
found he was staring back at Daniel.
 
They were exchanging a look of what appeared to be pure, unadulterated
hatred, but for the life of me I couldn’t understand why.
 

SARA

It
seemed that over the course of the afternoon, news of the
accident had spread quickly around campus, though thankfully no one seemed to
know the names of those involved.
 
This
was a great relief to me.
 
If anything
made me uncomfortable, it was finding myself the center of attention in any
situation.
 

After Ben
dropped me off in my room and made sure I was comfortable, he quickly
left.
 
I was grateful to him for whisking
me away from the scene of the incident before anyone else arrived, and just as
thankful he hadn’t lingered in my room afterward.
  
It was kind that he was concerned for me,
but he also seemed confused about something.
 
I’d seen it in his eyes when he’d turned in the doorway of my room to go.
 
Would I ever understand men?
 
Somehow it seemed unlikely.
 
Why should I be any different from the rest
of my half of the human race?
 

Knowing there was no way I could concentrate anyway, I blew
off my afternoon classes.
 
It was unlike
me, but fortunately they were ones where attendance wasn’t mandatory.
 
I curled up in a ball on my bed and watched
mindless TV to drown out the persistent voices in my head.
 
I wished I’d been able to confront Daniel as
I’d intended.
 
With all that happened, my
original problem was still left unresolved for me to churn over and over in my
mind.
 
I considered a second attempt at
ambushing him, but after how well my first attempt had gone, I wasn’t sure how
wise a course of action that would be.
 
After all, maybe God was trying to tell me something.
 
Perhaps the swinging beam was his way of
saying leave it alone.

Later that afternoon Darcy
stopped in to do laundry and to make sure I hadn’t forgotten what she looked
like.
 
I hadn’t seen her all week except
when I’d passed her last Tuesday in van den Berg Hall coming out of Modern
American Lit.
 
She was an excellent
distraction from the whirlwind of my thoughts, and I listened to endless
stories of her strange pledging activities while she sorted clothes into piles
or folded them.
 
She was hoping to
convince me to pledge next year, but it seemed doubtful.
 
It wasn’t that I was a loner or anything, but
I guess I enjoyed my solitude too much for all that sisterhood to seem like a
good thing.

She spent the
entire afternoon with me before she left for dinner and whatnot with the rest
of her pledge class.
 
She seemed to be
enjoying her sorority experience so far, which made me happy for her.
 
At the very least, she seemed her usual
carefree self, so very unlike me.
 
I, on
the other hand, had many cares pressing down on me.

With some effort,
I managed to get off the bed and tidy myself up enough to go to dinner and not
embarrass myself too much.
 
Darcy was
right; I really should put more effort into my appearance.
 
Old tee-shirts and jeans punctuated with
sweats made up almost the entirety of my wardrobe.
 
But honestly, who did I have to impress?

Although I
hadn’t been injured in the incident, I still felt drained.
 
I had to guess it was the after effects of my
adrenaline rush.
 
As I pulled the covers
up to semi make my bed, I picked up the jeans I’d worn this morning to place
them in the dirty pile.
 
That’s when the
black mark on the old blue denim caught my eye.
 
I still didn’t quite understand how the force of it hadn’t snapped my
leg in two, let alone that I didn’t even have any kind of a welt.

Dismissing the thought, I closed the door behind me and
slowly made my way down the back stairs.
 
Even though my leg wasn’t bothering me, my first instinct was to favor
my other leg.
 
Strangely enough, I had
the odd feeling my body knew something I didn’t, if that made any sense at all.

Unlike my out of the ordinary
morning, my evening was blissfully uneventful.
 
As on any other night, I picked up a tray and got in line.
 
Out of sheer habit, I selected something
inoffensive for dinner, chose a drink, picked up my silverware and headed for
the usual tables we occupied.
 
I was the
first to arrive this evening, but that didn’t surprise me.
 
I was about fifteen minutes early.
 

I started to
slowly eat as I read the book I’d brought along to kill time with before
everyone arrived.
 
I’d just gotten up to
a really good part when I was suddenly startled by the clanging sound of trays
hitting the table.
 
With a jump, I looked
up to see Mike and Tabitha sitting down on the other side of the table followed
by Ryan, who took the seat next to me.
 

I wasn’t in a
very talkative mood so I listened to them for a while.
 
Their conversation centered mostly on classes
and that accident over by the construction site.
 
Each of them had heard a different version,
none of which bore much resemblance to the truth.
 
Preferring to remain anonymous, I made no
attempt to correct them or inform them of my involvement.

As our meal wore
on the events of the day slowly receded farther into the back of my mind, and I
began to contribute more and more to the conversation.
 
As they usually did, my friends distracted me
from my problems, allowing me to smile again and breathe without feeling as if
it was some chore.

The sun was just
about to dip below the horizon and the dining hall was flooded with amber light
through its large wall of windows.
 
The
effect made every blonde in the room look slightly red headed, making me feel
like their queen.
  

That’s when I
spotted him.
 
Daniel was sitting a little
closer than usual tonight.
 
He was only a
few tables away.
 
How had he slipped in
so close without my noticing?
 
As our
eyes met, he unexpectedly smiled for a moment and then just as unexpectedly he
returned to his usual emotionless expression.
 
I silently laughed to myself, I couldn’t help it.
 
He really was the strangest guy I’d ever
encountered in my short life.
 

He could tell
I’d laughed at him and wasn’t sure what to make of it.
 
He looked puzzled for a moment, then looked
down at his tray, smiling to himself as he shook his head back and forth.
      

I think we were
having our first conversation.
 
A silent
one, but still …

Tabitha saw my
distracted face and watched me for a moment, long enough to follow my gaze as
it fell back on Daniel.
 
At that moment
he looked back up and smiled my way again.
 
Not a big full face smile, but more with his eyes.
 
They wore a soft expression that made him
look devastatingly handsome, momentarily causing him to lose his usual
thoroughly intimidating manner.
 

As I blushed a
deep crimson, I picked up my soda, taking a long drink as a distraction.

“Is Daniel
flirting with you?” Tabitha whispered to me in disbelief.

“Don’t be
ridiculous,” I muttered.
 

I was having a
hard time wiping the smile off my face so I purposefully hid behind my glass
again.

“Well, I don’t
know …”
 

Her voice
trailed off as she glanced back at Daniel who was now taking a bite of
something.
 
Then she shifted her gaze
back at me.
 
Shrugging my shoulders, I
turned to quickly reenter the conversation with the boys and hoped she’d drop her
bone.
 

A few minutes later I stole a look over my shoulder but
Daniel’s chair was now empty.
 
I guess it
was bound to happen sooner or later.
 
From my observations, it seemed to happen to every female he came across
eventually.
 
He’d finally succeeded,
whether trying to or not, in turning me into nothing but a big female.
 
It left me to wonder if he’d done it on
purpose, or did he even realize the power he held in those blue eyes of his.

After dinner, I headed back to
Capen Hall.
 
My plan was to settle into
bed with my books and read my homework chapters from Psych.
 
It was pretty dry stuff and I had a feeling
it was going to put me to sleep.
 
I
figured I might as well use it to good use and already be in bed with the alarm
set for the morning just in case.
 

As I was about
to climb into bed and curl up, the phone rang.
 
Polite as always, it was Darcy warning me that she would be home late
tonight.
 
She didn’t want to scare me
when the door opened after midnight.
 
Last time, I’d almost knocked her front teeth out.
 
I think she’d learned her lesson about
surprising me.
  
Although she could be
overwhelming at times, I was beginning to miss seeing her more often.
 
It did tend to get lonely in the room without
her.
  

Putting the
receiver back on the phone, I walked over to the window to close the
curtains.
 
Before I did, I peeked through
the blinds to see if there was a moon tonight.
 
As I did, I caught a glimpse of someone standing under the large elm
tree in front of our room.
 
I could see
legs and a torso clearly, but the head was hidden behind the leaves.
 
From the general build I guessed it was a
man.
 
He stood motionless leaning against
the trunk with his back to me.
 
He must
have been looking at something out in the quad.
 
A gust of wind blew the branches just enough to distinguish his partial
profile.
 
For a moment it almost looked
like Daniel.
 

“Daniel?” I said
to myself.
 
“What on earth?”
 

Just then the body attached to the obscured head moved an
inch as if reacting to something.
 
A
moment later I heard some giggling students as they approached on the walkway
that circled the quad below.
  
Daniel, or
whoever it was, saw them coming and quickly walked out of my line of sight into
the full cover of the trees.
 
I continued
to watch through my created peep hole in the blind for a while, but whoever it
had been didn’t come back that I could see.
 
Boy, I really was more paranoid than I thought.
 
Shaking my head to myself, I closed the
curtain, then making sure the window was locked, I curled up in bed with my
books.

I woke in the morning against
something hard.
 
My eyes still closed, I
reached over and felt the edge of the text book I was unsuccessfully snuggling
up with.
 
I wish I could say it was the
first time this had happened, but it wasn’t. Once again, my text book and I
made strange bedfellows.

After a quick
shower and a breakfast of fruit loops, I was out the door and off to Art
History.
 
I had to admit, I was more than
curious to see what would happen in class today.
 
How would Daniel react to me?
 
Would he give me the cold, hard looks he
usually did when scanning the class for victims, or would I see something
different today?
 

To be honest, I
wasn’t sure what I hoped for.
 
Daniel was
extremely attractive, no doubt about it, but something about him also scared
me.
 
Like any man of mystery, there was
an unknown element about him.
 
I couldn’t
help but wonder what had happened to make him the way he was, a completely
closed off person who seemed to avoid most social interaction.

Strangely enough, he seemed to draw out this long dormant nurturing
part of me that wanted to wrap my arms around him and protect him, which was
most unusual for someone like me.
 
I was
never one for nurturing instincts.
 
But I
think the larger part of me wanted to run from him.
 
In the end, evasion seemed like my best form
of self-defense.
 
It was confusing to say
the least and from what I’d managed to observe, I think he had this effect on
most women.
 
Confusion, that is.
 
Whatever the reason, I tended to think he was
completely unaware of it – or perhaps more likely he just didn’t care.

Tabitha and I filed into class
with the usual crowd of students, most of which were still yawning, wishing
they were still snuggled up in bed.
 
By
now the novelty of the new school year had worn off and the tedium was
beginning to set in for most of them.
 

Today was indeed
different.
 
Daniel didn’t look at me at
all.
 
Not a grimace, or a smile, or even
a stray glance.
 
Tabitha and I sat almost
directly dead center of the hall, so the only explanation I could conceive was
that he was purposely not looking at me.
 
My original assessment of him was proving more and more correct.
 
He was a very strange guy, much more of a
mystery than your average man and to me they all seemed pretty enigmatic.