Read Online The Vampires' Last Lover (Dying of the Dark Vampires Book 1) by Aiden James, Patrick Burdine - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Aiden James, Patrick Burdine
Ads: Link
maybe the critters chasing him were buddies of his just trying to freak us out. Now he had to consider the screeching suckers were actually real.
I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to venture upstairs—even in the full light of day. He talked to whoever was on the other end of the line while he remained at the foot of the staircase. Meanwhile, my cell phone chirped from an incoming call.
“Txema!”
Tyreen was on the line, sounding both worried and annoyed.
“Hey,” I said, glancing outside through the hole in the wall. A police car drove by slowly, seemingly oblivious to the gaping wound in the once-handsome townhouse on Laurel Ave. I glanced over at Peter. My assumption that he was dialing 9-1-1 was apparently incorrect.
“Sorry I didn’t call last night… we had a situation here.” I tried to keep my voice steady; I didn’t want to make her any more upset.
“Sorry? Is that all you’ve got to say?” She sounded more irritated than concerned right then. “I’ve been worried
sick
about you, Txema! Another girl is dead, and
four more
have gone missing! It’s everywhere on the news, and I’ve literally been freaking out, thinking
you
were gone, too!”
She started weeping, and for a moment I didn’t know how to respond. I already knew about the third girl from the previous night’s news report, but I was hardly prepared for the news that three victims had escalated to seven.
“I’m really sorry I didn’t let you know sooner that I’m all right, Tyreen,” I told her, stunned by this news. I could fully understand her depth of worry. “I can’t believe this is happening! Four more girls are dead? Shit! Just give us a moment to get things cleaned up around here, and we’ll be heading back to campus.”
I hoped to take a shower first. However, Peter had just tiptoed down the staircase and announced to me that all of the rooms upstairs, including the main bathroom, were trashed. Showers and anything else hygiene-related would have to wait until we returned to the dorm.
“Get what cleaned up?” Tyreen’s anger faded quickly from her voice, as if she could somehow see the same damage I surveyed. “What do you mean?”
“We were attacked,” I said, after a moment’s hesitation.
“Are the police there? If they’re not, you and Peter need to get the hell away from that house! Whoever’s doing this stuff may be hiding somewhere inside Peter’s place—”
“No, they’re gone.” I kept my voice steady. But then I seriously considered her words. What if she was right? Could our assailants be hiding somewhere upstairs, or beneath the main floor’s rubble?
Armando’s allusion to
Nosferatu
suddenly appeared in my head, with the monster’s grotesque long talons casting eerie shadows on Peter’s bedroom wall upstairs, as the morning sun poured in through his window. Would the fiend’s body simply vanish in the bright sunlight, like in the movie? Or, would it be the more dramatic twenty-first-century version where a vamp slowly smokes before exploding into fiery cinders, consuming every physical vestige?
“
They’re
gone?” Tyreen’s tone was one of incredulity much more than scorn. “You’re telling me there’s more than one dude and that you saw him and his accomplices last night? You better have told the police
all
about this… you did, didn’t you?”
I heard her release a low sigh in disgust when I didn’t respond right away. I didn’t know how much to tell her. After all, she knew nothing about
any
of my previous nocturnal visitors, starting with Garvan and Armando. That would be off-the-charts craziness already. But, suppose I could get her to consider the reality of two vampires paying me a personal visit to protect my ass. How could I also tell her that the recent campus murders were perpetrated by a group of
other
vampires, hideously deformed, and with no apparent disposition for mercy?
Not to mention what those bastards possessed in terms of super-human
I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to venture upstairs—even in the full light of day. He talked to whoever was on the other end of the line while he remained at the foot of the staircase. Meanwhile, my cell phone chirped from an incoming call.
“Txema!”
Tyreen was on the line, sounding both worried and annoyed.
“Hey,” I said, glancing outside through the hole in the wall. A police car drove by slowly, seemingly oblivious to the gaping wound in the once-handsome townhouse on Laurel Ave. I glanced over at Peter. My assumption that he was dialing 9-1-1 was apparently incorrect.
“Sorry I didn’t call last night… we had a situation here.” I tried to keep my voice steady; I didn’t want to make her any more upset.
“Sorry? Is that all you’ve got to say?” She sounded more irritated than concerned right then. “I’ve been worried
sick
about you, Txema! Another girl is dead, and
four more
have gone missing! It’s everywhere on the news, and I’ve literally been freaking out, thinking
you
were gone, too!”
She started weeping, and for a moment I didn’t know how to respond. I already knew about the third girl from the previous night’s news report, but I was hardly prepared for the news that three victims had escalated to seven.
“I’m really sorry I didn’t let you know sooner that I’m all right, Tyreen,” I told her, stunned by this news. I could fully understand her depth of worry. “I can’t believe this is happening! Four more girls are dead? Shit! Just give us a moment to get things cleaned up around here, and we’ll be heading back to campus.”
I hoped to take a shower first. However, Peter had just tiptoed down the staircase and announced to me that all of the rooms upstairs, including the main bathroom, were trashed. Showers and anything else hygiene-related would have to wait until we returned to the dorm.
“Get what cleaned up?” Tyreen’s anger faded quickly from her voice, as if she could somehow see the same damage I surveyed. “What do you mean?”
“We were attacked,” I said, after a moment’s hesitation.
“Are the police there? If they’re not, you and Peter need to get the hell away from that house! Whoever’s doing this stuff may be hiding somewhere inside Peter’s place—”
“No, they’re gone.” I kept my voice steady. But then I seriously considered her words. What if she was right? Could our assailants be hiding somewhere upstairs, or beneath the main floor’s rubble?
Armando’s allusion to
Nosferatu
suddenly appeared in my head, with the monster’s grotesque long talons casting eerie shadows on Peter’s bedroom wall upstairs, as the morning sun poured in through his window. Would the fiend’s body simply vanish in the bright sunlight, like in the movie? Or, would it be the more dramatic twenty-first-century version where a vamp slowly smokes before exploding into fiery cinders, consuming every physical vestige?
“
They’re
gone?” Tyreen’s tone was one of incredulity much more than scorn. “You’re telling me there’s more than one dude and that you saw him and his accomplices last night? You better have told the police
all
about this… you did, didn’t you?”
I heard her release a low sigh in disgust when I didn’t respond right away. I didn’t know how much to tell her. After all, she knew nothing about
any
of my previous nocturnal visitors, starting with Garvan and Armando. That would be off-the-charts craziness already. But, suppose I could get her to consider the reality of two vampires paying me a personal visit to protect my ass. How could I also tell her that the recent campus murders were perpetrated by a group of
other
vampires, hideously deformed, and with no apparent disposition for mercy?
Not to mention what those bastards possessed in terms of super-human
Similar Books
