My Vampire Bromance

Chapter 29: Let Me Take You Out

"Oh my god! Like what?!" Samantha leaned over the lunch table in the student union towards me. Her hair brushed the side of my face, sending shivers through me. She'd been insistent about going to lunch after our anthropology final, waiting for me outside the classroom door for over a half-hour after she was done testing. "Brinley is dead?! Oh my god! Like how?!"

I swallowed hard, looking into her bright green eyes. I found it difficult to break the news to her. "I think Thomas Langerty is the one who killed her?"

Her eyes opened wide, "Oh my god! NO!" She put both hands over her mouth in surprise, "Oh, thank god you told me! I was just about to ask him out on a date!" Samantha looked around the cafeteria for a sign of him. "You really think he's the campus killer?" she whispered.

I worried my mouth, "Yeah. It all adds up."

"But he was like, right outside with us the night that Brinley got attacked!"

I narrowed my gaze at her, "Exactly. What a coincidence, right? That he should be outside mere moments after she gets attacked? It's too easy, Samantha. That way, he had an alibi. No one would ever suspect him." Except that I had. Immediately after I came out from saving Brinley, I'd noticed the steam burn that marred his face. Slight traces of it remained on the left side of his face, near the base of his jawline. I'd made sure to keep my eyes on his when I'd spoken to him Monday night as he followed me around the library.

"Well, thanks for letting me know." Samantha worked a stray strand of hair behind her right ear, "To think, if you hadn't, I could have ended up like Brinley!" She looked behind her, now overly paranoid. "He doesn't even know who I am, right?"

"I mean, he did see you with me, and Jenna did say he wanted to ask you out."

"Jesus Christ!" Samantha yelled. "Sorry," she whispered, "I didn't mean to yell. Oh god, Phillip, this is so scary! What do we do? Do we call the police?"

I winced, "Not exactly. But, um, I have a plan. He seems to be interested in me."

Samantha glared at me, making my stomach churn, "No way in hell, Phillip! You cannot tell me that Jenna and your boyfriend, if that's what he really is, agreed to this plan!"

"They have," I shook my head, "But it doesn't involve you, Samantha. Just, don't go seeking him out, okay, and whatever you do, don't walk alone at night."

She huffed, "Well, that's easy enough. Today was my last final. I'm not on campus anymore until next semester." I took a deep breath, thankful that at least one person might be off Thomas's radar for the time being. "What else?"

"If he comes to your place, don't invite him in, and call me immediately...okay?" I wasn't even sure if that rule applied to him. Victor said it was absolute rubbish, but how else was I supposed to relay to Samantha what Thomas actually was?

Samantha laughed, "What? Is he like, a vampire or something?"

I stared long and hard at her. "Oh my god! Is he?" Samantha's gaze went from one side of the student union to the other.

"Will you keep your voice down!" I shushed her. "How did you come to that conclusion anyway."

Samantha looked at me incredulously, "Uh, people have been showing up dead all over campus, like duh! It doesn't take a genius to figure out that either it's a human that's completely batshit out of their mind or something supernatural is to blame. After what you said about Brinley's death, I'm thinking supernatural. I mean, c'mon! She was completely drained of her blood, and then her head was ripped off?!" She looked at me in a way that I could only describe as being completely over it, "It's a vampire, Phillip! And not the cute sparkly kind that makes girls swoon at the theatres. It's more like the pale and pasty kind that killed the whores in that one movie. You know...the one with all the super famous actors." I looked off to the side. "I mean, they were hot, but c'mon! Super serial killers." Samantha clicked her tongue.