The Purity of Blood: Volume I (32 page)

“We are!”
Tabitha said sweetly.
 
“They just hide it
well.”

“Yeah,” Mike
agreed.
 
“I mean that’s odd, but nice I
guess.”

“Gee.
 
Thanks, Mike,” I said, forcing a smile on my
lips.
 
Tabitha was right though, he
was
trying.

“So where’s Mr.
Wonderful now?” Ryan asked, not looking up from his food.

“He had
something to do, but he’ll be by in a while.
 
We’re going to go out and do something this evening.”

Ryan was unusually quiet throughout the rest of the meal, but
Mike and Tab were their talkative selves, trying their best to distract me from
Ryan’s sulky behavior.
 
I really just
didn’t get his reaction.
 
Why did it matter
to Ryan who I went out with?

As soon as we finished eating, I
saw him across the room heading in our direction.
 
When our eyes met he smiled, causing my heart
to skip a beat or two.
 
How had I managed
being away from him for the past few hours?
 

Breathe, Donnelly.
 
Act cool.
 
Remember you’re only going to get hurt if you stay this invested.
 
Relax.

He came over to
our table as gorgeous as I’d ever seen him, dressed in a faded old pair of blue
jeans and a black v-neck sweater.
 
I
mean, he always looked hot in class, but that was professor hot.
 
This was male model, drop dead casual
hot.
 
As if completely unaware of the
stares he elicited from the women in the room, he strolled over and came to a
stop at my side.

“Hi,” he said
quietly, trying to control the smile that threatened to overtake his face.

I stood.
 
“Daniel.
 
I’d like you to meet my friends.
 
This is Tabitha, Mike and Ryan.
 
You remember Tabitha; she sits next to me in class.”

“Of course, it’s
nice to meet you,” he said as he flashed her one of his devastating
smiles.
 

Tabitha giggled
as she eagerly took the hand he offered.
 
I couldn’t blame her.
 
What girl
wouldn’t when he did that?
 

After shaking
Mike’s hand, he offered it next to Ryan.
 
Ryan looked at it for a long appraising second then begrudgingly took it
saying “Hey.”

“May I join
you?” Daniel asked, looking at the empty seat beside me.”

“Yes, please
do!” Tabitha answered excitedly.

“So, what was
for dinner tonight?” he asked, his gaze shifting from my empty dish up to my
eyes.
 
Why did I feel like the only woman
in the world when he looked in my eyes like that?

“Fried chicken,
corn on the cob and green beans.”

“Sounds good.
 
Too bad I already ate,” he smiled as he
winked my way.
 
I rolled my eyes as I
tried to hide my expression from the rest of the table.

Then there was a
momentary lull in the flow of conversation.
 
When I glanced over at Mike and Tabitha, I could tell they were trying
to think of something to say that wouldn’t make them sound idiotic in front of
the faculty member at the table.
 
And
Ryan?
 
Well, Ryan seemed determined not
to say anything at all.
  
‘Hey’ was about
as much as he was likely to volunteer on his own.

“So how was your
day?” I asked Daniel.

“Long, but
productive.
 
I almost finished grading
the quizzes.
 
I was in such a good mood
that I gave quizzes to all my classes yesterday.”

“Gee, I’d hate
to hear what you’d do if you were in a bad mood,” Mike said jokingly.

“Yes, well there
are some perks to being a teacher,” Daniel laughed back.

“I’m thinking
about going into teaching,” Mike replied enthusiastically.
 
“Music.
 
Maybe to high school kids.”

After that the
table fell into easy conversation, all except Ryan.
 
He was still sulking.
 
From his reaction, I could only deduce that
he really did like me more than I’d thought.
 
I felt a little bad about that, but I knew it wasn’t my fault.
 
Of course, that didn’t ease the guilt I felt
when I looked into his sad sap eyes.
  
He’d get over it; after all, it was only me.
 
I bet if I talked more about the really cool
cemeteries I was planning on visiting before the end of the semester, he’d lose
interest fast enough.
 
Or maybe I could
beat him up if worse came to worse.

After about
fifteen minutes when there was a lull in the conversation, Daniel looked my
way.
 
“So what would you like to do this
evening?”

“To be honest, I
really should study for a while.”

“Alright, how
about we go to the library.
 
You can study
while I finish grading.
 
Perhaps
afterwards we can take a stroll around campus or maybe into town if you like.”

We left them at the table to watch us leave together.
 
I didn’t have to turn around to know their
eyes were on me, I could physically feel them.
 
Again, how could I blame them?
 
How could they not wonder why Daniel would be with someone like me?
 
I certainly couldn’t figure it out.

When we walked out into the cold
evening air, I glanced over to see Daniel relax.
 
I hadn’t realized how tense he’d been
inside.
 

“Are you
alright?” I asked.

He smiled.
 
“Of course.
 
Why do you ask?”

“You just seemed
a little tense inside.”

“I’m not used to
having such long discussions with humans.
 
It’s – been a while.”

“But you talk to
students all day.”

“That’s different.
 
They’re quick question and answers, not
personal conversations.”

“You talk to
me.”

He smiled
again.
 

“Yes, I
do.”
 
I felt him gently take my
hand.
 
“But there’s something different
about you.”

“Yeah, I
know.
 
Apparently I stink,” I pouted.

He stopped then
reached over to place his hand on my chin, raising it gently so he could look me
in the eyes.

“Don’t ever say
anything like that ever again, Sara.
 
It’s the rest of them that stink.
 
You’re as fresh and lovely as a spring day.”

I blushed a deep
crimson from head to toe.

After I
recovered my composure, we went back to the dorm to gather my books and laptop
before walking over to the library.
 
Daniel already had his messenger bag over his shoulder with the rest of
his work, and as we walked across campus he reached over and took my hand
again.
 
At first, his touch had felt so
strange to me that day on the rocks.
 
Now
it was almost like some kind of euphoric drug I was beginning to become
addicted to.

“I have a
question for you,” I said as he opened the front door of the library for me.

“Shoot.”

“You shook hands
with my friends.
 
Why does it seem that
I’m the only one that’s noticed anything different about you, about how your
touch feels?”

A sad shadow
crossed his face.

“People only notice
what they choose and ignore the rest.
 
On
the rocks when I took your hand, you were open to anything and noticed.
 
Tabitha was to giddy to notice, Mike was too
curious about my intentions and Ryan, well, Ryan was too pissed off to
notice.”
 
After a pause, he added “What
do I feel like to you?”
 
He raised my
hand as he held it in his, then stared at it as if for the first time.

“You just feel
like Daniel to me.
 
Strong, comforting,
safe.”

“I guess that’s
good,” he said, not exactly satisfied with my answer as he continued to stare
at my hand.

“What’s the
matter?
 
Not what you wanted to hear?”

“No, that’s not
it.
 
It’s just not …”

I knew what he
was trying to say, but couldn’t seem to verbalize.

“That’s not
all
I feel.
 
Let’s just say I’m not the only one that’s alluring.”
 

When I squeezed
the hand he still held, the smile on his face said he’d heard what he was
hoping for.

Once inside, he
followed me up to my usual quiet corner in the genealogy section.

“I don’t think
I’ve ever been up here before,” he commented as we took seats across from one
another.
 
“Kind of deserted back here,
isn’t it?”

“It’s busier
during the weekdays, but outside of that I’m usually the only one who comes
back here except for the occasional librarian passing through.
 
I like it.
 
Nothing to distract me.”

While I set up
my laptop, he spread out his papers and went to work.
 
Every now and then I’d look up and watch him
making faces in response to answers given on the quizzes.
 
It was funny to watch.
 
A couple of times he glanced up to meet my
gaze. “Get back to work,” he’d say with a smile before returning to the papers
in front of him.

A couple of
hours later I finished what I’d set out to accomplish for the night.
 
He still looked like he’d be busy for a while
longer so I switched gears to keep myself occupied.
 
I opened my genealogy program and killed time
cleaning up some notes and citations for a few ancestors in my family
tree.
 

After a while he
said “You look deep in thought.”

“I was just
thinking that it would have been nice if you were from some town where my
family had lived, that way you might have been able to help me fill in some of
the gaps in my research.”

“That doesn’t
sound like homework,” he frowned.

“I finished a
little while ago.
 
I was just working on
some genealogy stuff while you finished up.”

He sighed and
said “I guess I might have been able to help, if I’d known them that is.
 
None of them lived in Ulster County I take
it?”

“No.
 
In New York, mostly Allegany County.
 
They emigrated there from Rhode Island back
before you were born,”

“Rhode
Island?
 
It’s nice there.
 
I’ve been a few times over the years.”

“I used to go
all the time when I was a kid.
 
My mother
grew up there.
 
Her family’s been living
in the same area of Washington County since the sixteen hundreds.”

He looked up
when I said that last part.

“Did you say
Washington County?”

“Yes, the area
around Hopkinton and Westerly mostly.”

“
Humm
…”

“You’re doing it
again.”

“What?” he
asked.

“
Humm-ing
.”

“Oh, sorry.
 
It’s probably nothing.
 
I’ll be done in a minute and then we can go
if you’re ready.”

“Sure, no
hurry.
 
I need to make a few copies so
I’ll just run down stairs for a few minutes and be right back.”
 
I picked up my papers and headed for the
stairs.
 

About fifteen
minutes later I came around the corner to find Daniel sitting in my chair while
looking at something on my laptop.

“I hope you
don’t mind,” he said at my approach.
 
“I
finished my work and was curious to see some of your research.”

I came around
the table to stand behind him and peered over his shoulder at the screen.

“I don’t mind,
but genealogy is kind of boring to most folks if it isn’t their own family.”

“Well, they
don’t have my – unique perspective on history, I guess you could say.
 
I find it very interesting.
 
You’ve got a lot of good information here,
especially on your mother’s side, the Wells family.”

“They left a lot to find.
 
They also made it easier by not moving around a lot.
 
Are you ready to go?”

We packed up our things and
walked out into the cool night air.
 
For
some reason, he didn’t say much of anything as we strolled along.
 
Once again he seemed deep in thought about
something.
 
I was beginning to notice he
had the tendency to be the brooding introspective kind of person.
 
Not that I minded.
 
I suppose I was kind of like that myself.
 
Whatever he was mulling over under that head
of his, from his facial expression I got the impression he probably didn’t want
to talk about it.
 
I’ll admit, I wanted
to know what occupied his mind so fully at times like this, but I let it be.

Needing to hear
the sound of his voice, I said “We’ve got some time now, how about telling me
what happened to the Professor.”

He walked me
over to a picnic table in the middle of the quad and sat down.