Black Sunshine (Dark Eyes 1)

He gives my hand another strong, comforting squeeze.

Then he’s gone.

Sleep comes for me, pulls me into the black.

Chapter Fifteen

I dream of blood.

Rivers of it.

Elusive.

Endless red that I can’t reach, can’t touch, like I’m in my own personal desert, throat drying up, body aching for something I can’t have.

The more I want it, the more I need it.

And the more the rivers recede.

Telling me that if I get it, I’ll drown myself, that I won’t be able to stop myself. That I’ll destroy the whole damn world with my thirst.

When I finally wake up, I’m ravaged with a hunger I’ve never felt before.

It’s dark in the room and it takes me a moment to realize where I am.

In my bedroom.

In Solon’s house.

A room that was once my prison.

A place I willingly returned.

I remember Solon carrying me up the stairs, bringing me here, handling me with such gentleness that it’s hard to reconcile that version with the one of him who tied me to the bed however long ago that was. Not to mention, you know, the stalking, kidnapping. Vampire traits, I suppose.

But I don’t dwell on it too much.

I’m hungry.

Starving.

And if I don’t get what I need, I think I’m actually going to die.

I get out of bed and walk out of the bedroom, into the house, candles lit along the walls, dead roses gone stiff in vases. I’ll deal with them later.

I start going up the stairs, to the level I’ve never been before.

Come find me, he had said before I fell asleep, you’ll be hungry.

Absolon is up here.

The closer I get to the floor, the more my necklace burns against me, until I’m standing outside what has to be his door, painted black with gold edging.

I raise my hand to knock but I hear his voice in my head.

Come in.

I swallow, my palms itching, and turn the knob.