The Vampires' Last Lover (Dying of the Dark Vampires Book 1) (14 page)

ithin each of us is a voice, and not always one that speaks with reason.

I’m not talking about conscience, the thing that nags at us if we’ve done something we know is wrong. Rather, I’m referring to the thing in us that rarely eggs us on to do something against conscience, and it almost always supersedes reason.

Gut instinct.

It’s a wonderful thing when we listen to it and when we ignore it tragedy often follows. The very worst folly is when we rationalize ourselves out of following our instincts.

Welcome to my night of erroneous judgment.

“What do you mean you have to go to the library? Are you insane?” Tyreen was pissed.

I motioned at the detritus on the desk in front of her. Packets of aspirin. Some spare change. An empty Snicker’s wrapper. A romance novel.

“I have to go there! My license isn’t here. My school ID isn’t here!” My grandmother’s bracelet, I added to myself. That was the one that really hurt. “They must have fallen out when I grabbed my bag.”

“So get new ones when you get back!” She hissed at me.

“I can’t get back, if I can’t go!” I snapped right back at her.

She stopped.

“Yeah,” I continued, “I can’t fly without my license. They won’t let me through security.”

She blew out a large breath of air with a raspberry sound.

“You’ll just have to leave it, Txema. They’ll figure something out. TSA’ll
have
to let you on.”

I raised my eyebrow in response.

“Fine. Better yet, tell the security guards in the lobby downstairs that you left them there, and they can arrange to pick them up for you.”

Reasonable. She was right. It made sense to do just that. She and I, along with Johnny and Peter, could finish watching the Vols pummel Vandy. But, then the stubbornness I’m known for suddenly kicked in.

“It will be a lot easier just to do it myself!” I whispered harshly. Somehow our men didn’t hear our little argument outside the dorm room. I peered into the room, and both Peter and Johnny’s eyes were glued to the TV. The Vols were driving for another touchdown. Yay football.

“I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Oh, yeah? You must have a serious death wish, Txema!” she seethed, though thankfully she kept her voice to an irate hiss. “If you’re going, then I’m coming with you!”

I paused. Why should I endanger anyone else but myself? But then, would she be in any danger anyway? I was the prey.

It was one of those false assumptions based on reason, or at least reasonable facts as I understood them to be. The monsters responsible for all the death and mayhem going on were supposed to be after just me—not anyone else, and certainly not someone of heritage other than Basque. Besides, these primitive vampires seemed a bit skittish when other people were around me… or so I thought.

That was the first crack in my fragile theory. I assumed Peter had protected me in the Hodge Library parking lot on Thursday night, as my pursuers disappeared without a trace into the frigid night. I completely ignored the fact they likely were the same ones trying to attack us at Peter’s townhouse.

“Okay. Then grab your coat and let’s go,” I told Tyreen, hoping she’d hesitate and give me the few seconds I needed for a major head start to the elevator.

She quickly retrieved her coat and a scarf, stating very calmly to our engrossed boyfriends that we’d be right back. I heard a grunted ‘okay’ from Johnny that was echoed by Peter, confirming that neither one had any clue we were about to step outside, where the evening’s darkness had fully engulfed our campus for the past two hours.

All campus buildings would close by 7:00 p.m., and it was already pushing 6:30. Police patrols and campus security were still wandering the grounds and monitoring the dorms, all set to enforce an eight o’clock curfew.

“You owe me,” said Tyreen, once we stepped into the elevator and headed downstairs. “I’m betting we don’t even make it past the cops guarding the entrance.”

Despite some loud student opinions to the contrary, we weren’t under martial law at that point so they really couldn’t stop us. I didn’t say this to Tyreen. There was a little bit of a hiccup on the way out since policy was requiring student IDs to get in and out of the dorms after dusk. But I explained it was the reason I was in such a hurry to get to the library.

Tyreen hesitated in the doorway and I set off briskly toward the library. I was walking so quickly that she had to run to catch up.

I was struck with an eerie sense of déjà vu, as we followed the same route to the library I’d taken two nights before.

I expected to see more security personnel on hand patrolling the grounds, but, there was hardly anyone out. The sensation of being tracked and studied as we moved toward the library was much more unsettling than the past Thursday evening. The lone patrol we came across was three Knoxville cops with a pair of large German Shepherds. They had little effect on the spine-tingling uneasiness we both experienced. It was as if a thousand eyes scrutinized our every move.

“Damn, it seems like it’s taking forever to get there!” Tyreen remarked, just as we came up on the Alumni Center.

She pulled her parka’s zipper all the way up to her chin to try and stay warm. The night was cold enough to see our iced breaths linger in the air in front of us; a deeper chill seemed to emanate from the shadowed archway that marked the center’s side entrance.

“We’ll see the lights any second,” I reassured her and hoped she didn’t notice the tremor in my voice.

I slowed down just enough to peer at the thick bushes near the Alumni Center’s entrance, trying to appear nonchalant though my heart raced. I pictured the hairless creature from the other night, glowering at me with yellow eyes, and shuddered.

“This is really stupid!” said Tyreen, shaking her head while she picked up her pace.

She didn’t wait for me to catch up to her. This amused me somewhat, given her stated worries about my welfare. Fear had definitely triggered her personal survival instincts.

“Hey, wait for me!”

I picked up my pace to match hers, but she didn’t slow down. Not until she was across the street and walking up the library steps.

“I assume you remember where you left your shit?”

Tyreen said this as she stepped through the entrance, again not waiting for me to catch up.

There were two campus security guards sitting at a table that had been set up just inside the library. One was much older, his thinning hair silver and cropped close. The other was young enough to be a student himself.

“The library’s closing soon,” Junior said as soon as we entered. “Y’all ladies really shouldn’t be out after dark anyway.” He turned a clipboard toward us as we walked in.

“I know, I was here earlier today and my ID fell out of my bag,” I said as I walked by the desk, ignoring the sign-in sheet.

Tyreen stopped and showed her own ID and started signing us both in.

“I’ll be right back!” I called over my shoulder, and I jogged over to the table where I sat earlier. It was completely quiet in the library aside from the thudding of my feet. There were no softly whispered conversations, nor the gentle shushing sounds of pages being turned by readers. The hum from the dozens of running laptops that could normally be heard was absent. To say it was unnerving would fail to adequately describe just how creepy that much silence can be.

As I approached the table, I caught a flash of silver coming from under the chair I had been sitting at. It was still pulled out like I left it. I seriously doubt anyone other than the guards and the single staff librarian had even been in the building since the time I left earlier.

I dropped to my knees and grabbed the bracelet, stuffing it into my pocket after giving it a quick kiss of gratitude. I would be seeing my grandmother tomorrow and didn’t want to have to fess up that I had lost it. My driver’s license and school ID were there as well, and I slipped them inside my back pocket. Then I checked to make sure I hadn’t left anything else and got back to my feet.

Screw jogging, I practically sprinted back to the entrance.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Tyreen said as she pulled the hood of her parka over her head.

Standing outside, she fastened the buttons of her hood around her face, above where the zipper stopped. The temperature felt like it had fallen five more degrees.

“First of all, I didn’t talk you into this. You invited yourself. Second of all, you look like a damned Eskimo, and a totally scared Eskimo at that.”

My joke fell flat. I was just as scared as she. It
had
been a really bad idea.

She moved swiftly through the parking lot, her pace much quicker than before. I should’ve known she’d try to hurry back to the dorm once her feet found level pavement, since her tone sounded irritated. Aside from the combination of the wintry chill and my forcing this unwanted excursion upon her, the eerie feeling of being watched had returned, only worse. As if whoever or
whatever
studied us had moved closer. I looked around, but couldn’t see anything near us—not even the canine unit patrolling the campus grounds on foot. Tyreen pulled away from me while I searched the shadows for… something.

“Hey, wait up, Tyreen!” I called after her. “Do you have to be in such a frigging hurry?”

“
Hell
, yeah!” she replied, pausing to shoot me a perturbed and worried glance over her shoulder. “The sooner we get back into Massey Hall, the better off we’ll—”

A low menacing growl interrupted her, resounding from across the street, as it emanated toward us from the deeper shadows in front of the Alumni Center. Tyreen froze, as did I.

“What the hell was
that
?” she asked in a wavering voice.

Several hulking shapes bobbed above the shadow line, moving down the sloping frost-covered lawn toward the street. A shrill shriek echoed eerily in the air from near the Alumni Center’s entrance.

“It doesn’t matter—just
run
!”

I feared we only had a sliver of a chance to outrun whatever lurked in the darkness. Yes, we could’ve turned back and headed for whatever protection the library offered. However, assuming the two campus guards were the only ones in the building, we’d soon be in a much worse predicament. At least there were a dozen Knoxville police officers hanging around the lobby at the dorm. With the mental images of what these creatures had wrought upon Peter’s townhouse the other night still fresh in my head, the choice was an easy one.

Easy other than having to run past the bastards.

“What the hell are those things?” Tyreen murmured fearfully,
not
moving.

“The last mo-fos you’ll ever see if you don’t get your ass in gear!”

One of them reached the sidewalk, its yellow eyes glowing like a pair of candles burning inside a Halloween pumpkin. I grabbed Tyreen’s arm and yanked her behind me, sprinting down the street toward the dorm’s long driveway.

Every time I heard the scrapes and clicks of sharp talons, claws, or whatever else they dragged across the pavement running toward us, I hunched my shoulders and prepared for the worst. Through my peripheral vision I could tell there were seven or eight of these things closing in from the lawn. Another handful emerged from the dense brush on the other side of the road.

If it had just been me, I might’ve considered giving in and letting them take me, praying my life would end quickly and that I wouldn’t be an ongoing living meal for them. But, Tyreen’s presence and the fact her endangerment was entirely my fault negated that option completely. Somehow, I had to get her to safety.

They say in the direst circumstances people can surprise themselves with superhuman feats. It certainly was the case for me. A powerful surge of adrenalin flowed through my entire body, enabling me to increase my strides while keeping a secure grip on Tyreen. It was like I suddenly floated toward our dorm, and where up until then nary a damned cop was in sight, I felt immense gratitude for the handful mulling around the entrance.

“Hey, help us! HELP!” I shrieked, when within fifty feet of the cops.

Unlike law officers in the B-horror movies my brothers and I devoted our spare time to watching back in high school, the police didn’t act like a bunch of donut-munching buffoons. Once they heard me scream, they quickly mobilized themselves and aimed their pistols and rifles in our direction. Obviously, they saw something following close behind us, coming up fast, like greyhounds chasing a pair of scared rabbits.

“Get over here, NOW!” one of them shouted, motioning for us to make a beeline to where they huddled in front of the entrance. Three other cops bearing shotguns stepped outside to join them, wearing slack-jawed expressions of stark disbelief.

“Ow-w-w!” Tyreen cried out as I yanked her arm even harder, sprinting with all my might to the entrance. Suddenly, multiple fire flashes erupted from in front, causing both of us to flinch and duck instinctively. The shots were intentionally wide and high, as the volley of gunfire flew above our heads and toward either side. Warning shots.

A bloodcurdling shriek, inhuman in its timbre and hair-raising in its enraged anguish, filled the air just behind us. This time I did cast a glance over my shoulder. In the soft glow afforded by the security lights, I saw the orange eyes of the thing gleaming, and its mouth full of razor-sharp, jagged teeth pulled back from deformed lips. They were covered in blood. Whose blood was that?