Black Sunshine (Dark Eyes 1)

Elaine shakes the images of vampire families out of her head. It does her no good to view them as anything but monsters. She was born to kill them and that’s what she’d do.

Suddenly, the door to the house opens and a woman steps out. They’re too far to see her clearly, but there’s no doubt that the vampire can see—and smell—them, like the apex predators they are.

This must be Alice.

The knife burns against Elaine’s leg, coming to life, and she knows they have seconds to act before Alice attacks them. Vampires move fast, faster than the human eye can see. Luckily, being a witch, and a slayer in particular, they can track her, even when Alice uses the Veil.

But she doesn’t move, not even when Elaine and Jim take their knives into their hands, the metal glinting with electric blue currents. The knives aren’t as big as one would think, but they can be thrown with startling accuracy. One shot to the heart is all it takes. Of course, Jim has a machete back at home, but decapitation is a messy ordeal.

The husband and wife look at each other and, in that moment, they know they’re committed.

They both run forward toward Alice, the element of surprise gone, and the risks of them dying at the hands of a vampire increasing with each and every step.

They cross the field quickly, moving soundlessly through the grass, but still Alice doesn’t move. Her arms are out to her sides, but she is unarmed.

She’s protecting something.

“Stop,” Alice calls out, her voice melodic, but the pitch is off. Like she’s uncertain, perhaps afraid.

Elaine and Jim stop. It is not by choice. The vampire is compelling them, even at this range. It won’t last, it rarely does with witches, but it’s enough to give Alice yet another advantage.

“Leave this place,” Alice says. “Now.”

Elaine breaks free from the bonds, feels them snap. “I can’t,” she says. “You know what you did, you know what you must pay for.”

Suddenly, Hakan appears behind Alice, a tall lanky creature built for precision, and puts his big hands on Alice’s shoulders. “I didn’t think revenge killings were allowed by your guild,” Hakan says in a light Finnish accent.

“I don’t have to do everything the guild tells me,” Elaine says.

“Turning against your own?” asks Hakan, his eyes deep gray and hypnotic. Elaine needs to keep watching them, but she’s finding it more difficult by the second. “You’ll be punished.”

“So long as you’re dead, I don’t care what they do to me,” Elaine says. “Besides, they won’t find out. We’ll make this quick and easy. Not a trace of you to be found.”

Her words are strong and clear and they don’t show the wildness in Elaine’s heart, the fear that this could go either way. Witches have magic and the blade that can kill vampires. Vampires are predators that would love nothing more than to kill a witch, and with their strength, speed, and penchant for violence and blood, they make an equal match.

But there’s something different here. Elaine knows it. There’s a vulnerability to this couple that shouldn’t be here. They asked them to leave. Vampires never ask to do anything. And even now, they still aren’t making a move.

Which means Elaine has to make hers before it’s too late.

In the back of her mind she conjures up the image of the blade leaving her fingers and going right through Alice’s heart. Her intention will set the fate, unless something else intervenes.

She throws the blade, quick as a wink, the power shooting out of her fingers, guiding the knife forward. Before it can hit Alice, she’s pushed aside at lightning speed as Hakan steps forward.

Taking the knife to the heart.

Saving his wife’s life, but ending his own.

Hakan immediately falls to the ground, his body seized by the blue currents as it spreads out from the knife, overtaking his limbs, making them shake.

Alice cries out in horror, dropping to her knees beside Hakan.

“Why?” she sobs to him, trying to take the blade out. “Why did you do that?”

Hakan stares at her, pain engulfing him as the last vestiges of life are leaving him. It must be quite the feeling of being almost immortal.

While Elaine stares at the scene, transfixed, Jim points to the house, closing his eyes, and draws the fire out of the fireplace inside. Flames spread immediately, as if the place was doused in gasoline.

Alice screams. “Lenore!”