Black Sunshine (Dark Eyes 1)

The tower is nothing like I expected. It’s a smaller space than I thought, just a small square room, the wallpaper dark blue and peppered with stars. There’s a couple of black beanbag chairs in the corner, an overflowing stack of vinyl records and a record player.

“What is this place?” I ask.

“This is where I come to think,” he says, settling down on one of the beanbag chairs. The sight of his big, well-dressed frame in it tickles me. He pats the space next to him. “Come here.”

I go over to him and sit down. The bean bag chair moves under me, tipping me on my back, and I’m laughing, helpless, looking up at him and the top of the tower behind his head. The boards in the tower have been removed, so all you see are the rafters going up and up and up. Except on the left side, there looks to be a mummified animal staring at us from over the edge.

I squint my eyes. “Uh, is that a bat?” I ask. I look back at Solon and he’s grinning at me. “Well, is it?”

“I didn’t put it there,” he protests. “Let’s just say the people who used to live here with us were into a lot of acid.”

“I would say so,” I muse. But the mention of bat reminds me of something else. “Hey, not long ago you mentioned something about Dracula being Dramacula, which is a great pun by the way. But…Dracula isn’t real, is he?”

Solon’s smile turns secretive, his eyes gleaming. “I’m not sure I should tell you the truth. You’d probably go and fall in love with him.”

My eyes go wide. “You mean he’s real and he’s alive?”

Another sly smile. “Let’s just say that Bram Stoker got a lot of things wrong about Vlad. And, by chance, he got a lot of things right.”

I ponder that, thinking back to all the Dracula movies I’ve seen, wondering what parts were real and what weren’t.

Then I flip over on my side and look at Solon. “Okay. So on the subject of Dracula, who is your favorite vampire?”

His dark brows shoot up. “My favorite vampire?”

“Besides yourself,” I quickly add.

“Oh. Well, then I’d have to say The Count.”

“…Count Dracula?”

He grins at me. “No. Count Von Count,” he says. “From Sesame Street.” He twitches a finger at me. “One, ah-ha-ha,” he says in his best impression as he brings his hand to my neck, tickling me. “Two, ah-ha-ha.”

I yelp, trying to move, but the damn bean bag chair is sucking me in and then he’s kissing me.

We spend quite a bit of time up there in the tower room. Putting on music, getting naked, you know, the things you would do after a long drive back from the north coast.

Eventually, we come back down the ladder, to his bedroom, to my new room.

And that’s when it all hits me.

The changes my life has suddenly made in the last couple of months.

Being in Shelter Cove was sheltering. It made me forget what was really happening in my life, what had happened to me, my family, what had happened to Elle, to Matt, letting me push them to side in the incoming fog.

Now that I’m back in the city, it’s hitting me hard.

“What’s wrong?” Solon asks me, putting his hand on my arm, eyes peering at me inquisitively.

I swallow hard, trying to wrestle with the feelings.

“I still don’t know my place in this world,” I whisper to him.

“What do you mean?” he asks, coming closer.

I glance up at him. “I feel…like I don’t know what to expect from myself anymore. I saw what I did to Yanik back in that barn, I felt the fire, felt the power, but I don’t know what it means. I’m half a vampire. Half a witch. But I’m not a whole of anything.”

“But you are, Lenore,” he whispers fiercely. He grabs my hands, pressing my knuckles to his lips. “You are my whole heart.”