Black Sunshine (Dark Eyes 1)

Skulls.

Lots and lots of skulls.

Human skulls, completely surrounding us. There must be hundreds in here.

“What is this place?” I whisper, afraid to breathe in. “Catacombs?”

“It’s where I keep those I’ve killed,” he says simply.

I can’t help but gasp, staring around me. “You…killed all these people? Why?”

He makes a sucking sound at his teeth. “I’m a vampire, Lenore. It’s what we do. It’s what we had to do until we found another way. This isn’t even the half of it.”

“No,” I tell him, putting my hand on his arm. “I mean, why keep them?”

He gives me a ghost of a smile. “Because I too am looking for humanity.” He gestures to the skulls with his keys. “This lets me remember what I am, what I’ve done. It reminds me to never do it again. Ball and chain. I kill, I take their skull because I deserve to remember what I did. We all have to pay a penance here.”

I let his words sink over me. He keeps their skulls to remind him of his sins.

“I didn’t think vampires were religious,” I say, thinking of how priests use crosses and holy water to keep them at bay.

“We can be,” he says. “I was one of God’s creatures once, but not anymore. He looks the other way when it comes to me.” He exhales, looking around. “Sometimes I think maybe I was a clergyman when I was a human. I have flashes of being in a church, praying, being at peace. I remember the Nordic runes tattooed on my skin. But it never lingers long enough to capture.”

I close my eyes for a moment, wondering if I can bring up that memory too. It seems that when he talks about his past is when I see it. But I only see skulls, even behind my eyes. Better to keep them open.

He turns to face me, studying me in the dark. “And so now, am I still the one you’re meant for?”

“You’re trying to scare me.” I fold my arms across my chest. “It’s not going to work. I know you have darkness in you, but guess what? I have darkness in me too.” I think back to what Atlas said, how I have black magic in my veins.

A wary look comes across his brow. “I know you do.”

Then he coughs. “We should go. I love my cigars, but inhaling bone dust is where I draw the line.”

He takes me by the elbow and leads me out of the skull room, a storage area for the things he’s accumulated in his very long and complicated life.

“I thought you should know, I’m having a party tomorrow,” he says as we climb the stairs.

“Again?”

“I always have parties,” he says smoothly. “Do you need another dress?”

I freeze mid-step. “Please tell me this isn’t an auction.”

He gives me a sharp look. “Really? Is that what you think I’d do?”

Well, I did just see the room where you keep the skulls of the hundreds of people you’ve killed.

His eyes narrow even more, glinting like ice. “Don’t even think like that. If you want to be with me, despite all the horrors I just told you, showed you, then you have to trust me. Fully. Can you do that?”

I swallow, nodding. “Yes.”

“Good,” he says, hand slipping down to hold mine as he pulls me up the steps. “And don’t worry about the party. You won’t leave my side. I just want to show you off. It’s important that they see who you are again, and that you’re with me. It’s a display of power, you understand that?”

“Not really,” I tell him. “What’s so powerful about me?”

He laughs. “Oh, my earthquake-causing witch. You don’t even know.”

Chapter Nineteen