The Vampires' Last Lover (Dying of the Dark Vampires Book 1) by Aiden James, Patrick Burdine Page A

so
please
make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get to the airport on time. Okay?”
    “All right, I will,” I told her, making sure my tone was respectful. “I’m sorry for giving you a hard time.”
    “That’s okay. Just make sure you’re
on
the flight.”
    “Yes, I’ll make sure I’m at the airport by six tomorrow morning.”
    After we hung up, Peter closed the novel and came over to me. He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, as I stared absently out my window.
    “So, it looks like you won’t be going to Atlanta after all, huh?” he said, blowing softly on the back of my ear. “I should head home to Nashville until this all gets sorted out, but let me take you to the airport in the morning.”
    “Okay.”
    I felt numb. Yes, I knew I’d have to go somewhere soon. But, now that the decision and destination had been made, the peace of mind I expected to experience wasn’t there. Something felt weird… out of sync.
    Knowing that Tyreen and Johnny were planning to leave in the next hour or so, I went ahead and called her to tell her the news. Of course, she told me that it was okay with her, and she was glad I wouldn’t be staying on campus. Peter and I had already witnessed the growing exodus earlier that afternoon, and it seemed like a good seventy percent of the student body had already left. Massey Hall had probably lost closer to eighty percent. The mass departure really picked up right after we came back to the dorm after breakfast.
    At the current rate, by nightfall there would only be a handful of girls on the floor with me. At least Peter’s presence would raise fewer eyebrows from the security detail downstairs, and the fourth floor stragglers might appreciate a friendly male presence once night returned.
    The dwindling population escalated my roommate’s worry for my welfare, so she changed her departure plans to the next morning as well. I heard Johnny offer a hearty ‘Amen!’ in the background as I told Tyreen the plan and she echoed it to him. Tyreen told me that he was happy he could now watch the Vols’ football game that evening, instead of listening to the team’s final road game on the radio while they drove down to Georgia.
    So, our travel plans were all set. I looked out the window at the courtyard one more time.
    The
last
time, as it turned out.
    I watched the diminishing stream of students and a few parents who had driven to campus to collect their most prized possessions. Very few, it seemed, were willing to leave their kids’ journeys home to chance, in light of the worst college killing spree in recent memory.
    But, I knew it wouldn’t deter the killers. They would continue to hunt each night until they found their prize.
    Until they found me.



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