The Purity of Blood: Volume I (21 page)

There was an eerie
quiet in the evening air.
 
This section
of campus didn’t have any dorms so it was usually deserted this time of
night.
 
As I started up the hill, a cold
breeze pricked the back of my neck as it carried a sound to my ears.
 
Voices.
 
Two, maybe three men.
 
I didn’t
turn; they were probably in the parking lot behind me.
 
As I continued up the grassy hill towards the
corner of the theater building, they grew louder.

“Hey there,
girly.
 
Where are you going?” one of the
voices called.
 
It was much closer to me
now, but still down the hill a ways.
 
I
continued without looking back.
 
There
were footsteps behind me now.
 
I could
hear them faintly crunching in the leaves as their gait increased.

“So what’s your
name?
 
Don’t you want to stop and say
hello?”

 
I knew if I looked back I’d be committed to
the situation.
 
No, it was best to put it
off for as long as possible.
 
I was on
unsteady footing here in the grass.
 
Just
a little ways more and I’d be at the corner of the building and the
pavement.
  
From the sound of the leaves,
I knew they weren’t far behind.

“What’s the
matter?
 
You think you’re too good for
us?”
 

When I finally
gained the pavement, I knew they were only a dozen or so yards behind me.
 
As I rounded the corner of the building, I
heard the footsteps break into a run.
 
As
soon as they followed me around it, something or someone jumped out and pulled
them into the impenetrable blackness of the shadows beside the building.
 
Standing there alone on the sidewalk, I heard
muffled sounds coming from behind the veil of shadows.
 
Hard as I tried, standing where I was under
the street light, I couldn’t see through them well enough to discern what was
going on.
 
I should get the hell out of here
was all I could think.
 
Yet my feet seemed firmly planted to the
cement below them.

“So what
happened to your leg?” a raspy voice asked from behind.
 
I instinctively knew it was another one of
them and instantly swung around as fast and hard as I could.
 
Using my crutch, I hit him with enough force
to knock him off balance.
 
Before he
could regain his footing, I leaned on the crutch to support my weight and
kicked him hard with my good leg square in the chest.
 
As he doubled over, I swung the crutch down
on his back and watched as he fell to the ground unconscious.
 

Quickly
gathering up my wits, I decided it was time to get out of there as fast as
possible and pulled my backpack tightly around my shoulder as I repositioned my
crutch.
 
I’d hobbled about twenty paces
away from the body just outside the shaft of light from the street lamp when
the sounds in the shadows abruptly stopped.
 
Wondering what could possibly happen next, I spun around only to see
Daniel standing right behind me, his hair and shirt looking somewhat
disheveled.
 
His piercing blue eyes were
fixed on me as if his life depended on it.

“Are you
alright?” he asked, in an anxious, agitated voice.

“Yes, I’m
fine.
 
What are you doing here?” I
replied, forcing a fake calmness into my own tone.

“Well, obviously
someone
has to keep an eye on
you.
 
What on earth are you doing
wandering around in the middle of the night by yourself?”
 

It was a
question, but he was clearly scolding me.

“Don’t worry
about it,” I replied, unable to keep my sense of resentment out of my
voice.
 
“I can take care of myself.”
 

He crossed his
arms and looked down at me as if to insinuate otherwise.
 
With pursed lips, I peered around his
shoulder, causing him to follow my gaze to the unconscious figure on the
sidewalk behind him.
 

“What the hell!”
he muttered under his breath.
 
“What
happened to him?”
 

“If it’s all the
same with you, I’m hungry and would like to get something to eat.”

He was still looking
over his shoulder at the man when he roughly took me by the arm and started in
the direction of the dorm.
 
We walked, or
should I say he pulled me along for a minute in stony silence before he
continued.

“You didn’t
answer my question,” he finally said.
 
He
was trying to sound calm, but I could tell he was still upset about something.

“I’ll answer
yours if you answer one for me.”

“Fair enough,”
he answered reluctantly.

“Were you
following me?”

He paused as if
trying to come up with a good answer – or more likely an excuse.

“Yes.”

Despite how he
was practically dragging me along, I stopped and stared up at him wide
eyed.
 

What?

“Why?”

“That’s another
question.
 
First you answer mine.
 
What are you doing wandering around in the
middle of the night by yourself? … And what happened to that guy?”

As if suddenly
realizing I had a heavy backpack over my shoulder, he reached over and pulled
it off and slung it over his own.
 
As he
looked down at me, I saw the muscles in his face relax slightly, but he didn’t
smile.
 
Then without a word, he turned
and started to pull me along again, but this time more gently.
 
I think a bit mindful now that I was hobbling
along beside him on a crutch.
 

With his hand
firmly under my arm we walked along for a few moments while I took my time to
form a good response.
 
How on earth was I
going to explain this to him without really telling him anything?

“Do you remember
me telling you while we were hiking, that men aren’t interested in women who
like to hang out in cemeteries?”

“Yes.”

“Well, they
aren’t particularly interested in women who can beat them up either,” I added
dryly.

“I’m not
following you.”
 
His voice sounded oddly
– patient.
 
I wasn’t expecting that.

It was then that
it finally dawned on him.
 
“Are you
trying to tell me
you
were the one
that incapacitated him?”

I answered by
nodding my head.

“You can’t even
walk straight!
 
How on earth –”
 
He stopped mid-sentence.
 

“I told you I
was raised a little differently than my friends.”

“What’s that
supposed to mean?
 
I just figured your
parents were hippies or something.”

I laughed at the
idea only to glance over and see the dirty look he shot me.

“What are you
some kind of black belt?” he asked sounding incredulous.

“Something like
that.
 
Let’s just say you don’t have to
worry about me.
 
I can take care of
myself,” I shot back defensively.

As we continued
to walk along, a cold wind blew a chill into my bones.
 

Stop it, Sara!
 
You shouldn’t care what he thinks of
you.
 
Keep your mouth shut and your head
down.

I followed my own
advice, but I could tell my silence irritated him.
 
Without thinking about it, I instinctually
snuggled closer to his arm for protection from the cold wind that blew across
the quad.
 
He still held my arm in an
iron grip, but something about his hold on me felt comforting where I wished it
wouldn’t.
 
Looking for an answer as to
why this would be, I looked up into his eyes, but all I could see was his own
unspoken questions behind them.

“I’d rather not
talk about it,” was the last thing I mumbled as we walked along.
 

He unhooked from
my arm only to wrap his arm around my back to shelter me from the wind.
 
Why did I feel so safe here?
 
It was as if his presence chased away the
flood of unpleasant memories that had been stirred up by the men behind
us.
 
I wanted them gone and if I had to
be by Daniel’s side to chase them away, so be it.
 
It really didn’t make any sense.
 
How could someone who scared you, also make
you feel so safe?

If I was going
to ask him about the blood, now would have been as good a time as any, but
something held me back.
 
I wanted so
desperately to give him the benefit of the doubt, but his continued bizarre
behavior was making that increasingly difficult.
 
After all, he’d just admitted he’d been
following me, then all but refused to say why.

Over the course of the day I’d formed an idea, an experiment
that I could perform that would lay my strange doubts about him to rest once
and for all.
 
I just needed the right
time to do it.
 
I’d have to wait for that
moment to present itself and who knew when that might be.
 
I only hoped it would come soon.
 
I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could
take otherwise.
  
I needed to know the
truth behind those amazing sky blue eyes before it was too late.

The rest of the week passed
without incident.
 
I saw Daniel in class
but he took no special notice of me that I could detect.
  
Not that I’d expected him to.
 
No, his indifferent attitude seemed par for
the course with his bizarre string of behaviors around me.

Ever since that night, I’d found myself constantly looking
over my shoulder, wondering if he was following me, watching me from somewhere,
but I never spotted him.
 
Yet for some
reason, I continued to see him every night on the far side of the dining hall,
though he’d been too busy fending off female students for me to catch his eye
more than once or twice.
 
I just didn’t
get him.
 
He was a guy, wasn’t he?
 
There had to be at least one of these women
who appealed to him.
 
By weeks end, I had
to admit I was beginning to think Mike and Ryan might have been right all
along.

As Friday drew to a close, I
wondered if Daniel still wanted to go to the Harvest Festival.
 
I was pretty sure my honesty had scared him
off.
 
He wouldn’t be the first, and he
most assuredly wouldn’t be the last man I’d do that too.
 
Whatever,
I told myself.
 
But I knew what I felt
deep down inside was disappointment.
 
The
harder question was, disappointed about what?

When I came home
from dinner, my phone was ringing.
 
I
answered only to hear Daniel’s not so surprisingly sexy phone voice say “So are
we still on for tomorrow?”

It took me a
moment to recover enough to form a coherent answer.
 

“I – I wasn’t
sure you still wanted to go.”
 

To be honest,
I’d decided on my walk back from Hasbrouck that his backing out was probably
for the best.

“A gentleman
never breaks his word, Miss Donnelly,” he murmured softly.

“Well, you
needn’t feel under any special obligation.
 
I’d understand if you changed your mind,” I said with a calm tone that
spoke how much I’d expected his absence more than his presence.
 
There was a bit of resentment there too.
 
I couldn’t help but feel he was toying with
my emotions just a little.

“Far from
it.
 
I’m looking forward to it.
 
So when shall I pick you up?”
 

His tone sounded
like he meant it.
 
Either that or he was
just ignoring my attitude.

I hesitated for
a moment, realizing that our going together was going to mean coming out of the
closet that we were … what?
 
Friends, I
guess.
  
All my friends were planning on
going to the festival as well.
 
When
they’d asked me, I’d begged off joining them, fibbing that I wasn’t sure if I
was ready for that much activity on my ankle quite yet.
 
Another lie, as my ankle had been just about
completely healed for a couple of days now.
 
They were planning on arriving at the festival a little before noon and
eating lunch there.
 
I’d say to go later
so that we could do dinner and maybe avoid them altogether.
 
It was a long shot but worth a try if it
saved me from questions I didn’t want to answer

“I’d like to
sleep in for a change tomorrow and maybe get some studying done after lunch, so
how about five.
 
It runs until ten or
eleven I think.”

“Five it
is.”
 
Some of the pleasantness had left
his voice.
 
He sounded as if he was
confirming a dentist appointment now.