Sunglasses After Dark

by Nancy A. Collins

  * * *

  SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK

  Sonja Blue Book 1

  By

  Nancy A. Collns

  * * *

  Contents

  PROLOGUE

  THE DANGER WARD

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  RESURRECTION BLUES

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  REAL WORLD

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Ten

  EPILOGUE

  * * *

  EROTIC DREAMS,

  BLOOD-SOAKED NIGHTMARES

  She could lead a man to heaven and deliver him to hell. A beautiful vampire of consummate, immortal power… lust beyond the warmth of blood… revenge beyond desire… the world lay at her feet. The extraordinary power of unnatural life breathes behind…

  SUNGLASSES

  AFTER DARK

  The kiss of life has never been so deadly

  * * *

  TERRIFYING TALES

  THE KILLING GIFT by Bari Wood. Jennifer was beautiful, wealthy, gentle, cultured and brilliant… but there was something strange about her, something you could not escape... To know Jennifer was to fear her.

  To love her was even worse. "As good as The Exorcist… a gripping sure-fire success."

  —Library Journal

  SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK by Nancy Collins. The kiss of life has never been so deadly. Sonja Blue, the most erotic vampire of all time, leads men to heaven, and delivers them to hell.

  RESURRECTION DREAMS by Richard Laymon. The dead are rising… to love and lust again. Under the black magic re-animation power of Melvin, a recently released mental patient, an army of undead are after beautiful Or. Vicki Chandler seeking to make her the captive of Melvin's puppy love and mad-dog lust…

  PRIME EVIL edited by Douglas E. Winter. 13 new stories "on the cutting edge of horror!"

  —Montreal Daily News. From the masters of modern horror! Stephen King, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Whitley Strieber, and many more! Here is writing that is at once eerie and haunting, chilling and nightmarishly brilliant… Don't miss it!

  THE LILITH FACTOR by Jean Paiva. Adam had a wife before Eve, and she was all that was evil. A myth? Tell that to her worshippers, to her lovers, tell that to the world that is coming under her satanic sway as the supremely seductive twins who bear her power vie for the ultimate destructive dominion…

  MANSTOPPER by Douglas Borton. Snarling, leaping, ripping, killing—the ultimate horror is coming at you! There are four of them in the bloodthirsty pack. They have been born and bred for one single purpose. To kill. And now they are loose and doing what they do best.

  FRIDAY THE 13TH PART II a novel by Simon Hawke based on the screenplay by Mark Jackson. When the screaming rises and the blood flows, it's time to fear again!

  * * *

  SUNGLASSES

  AFTER DARK

  Nancy A. Collins

  AN ONYX BOOK

  NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY

  A DIVISION OF PENGUIN BOOKS USA INC.

  * * *

  For John, Dan, Doug, and Jeff,

  the Four Horsemen of my Apocalypse.

  * * *

  PUBLISHER'S NOTE

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  NAL BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT QUANTITY DISCOUNTS WHEN USED TO PROMOTE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. FOR INFORMATION PLEASE WRITE TO PREMIUM MARKETING DIVISION, NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY, 1633 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10019.

  Copyright © 1989 by Nancy A. Collins

  All rights reserved

  ONYX TRADEMARK REG U S PAT OFF AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

  hecho en dresden, tn. u s a

  Signet, Signet Classic, Mentor, Onyx, Plume, Meridian and NAL Books are published by New American Library, a division of

  Penguin Books USA Inc., 1633 Broadway, New York, New York 10019

  First Printing, August, 1989

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  * * *

  PROLOGUE

  ^ »

  Its horror and beauty are divine.

  Upon its lips and eyelids seem to lie

  Loveliness like a shadow, from which shine,

  Fiery and lurid, struggling underneath,

  The agonies of anguish and of death.

  —Shelley, The Beauty of the Medusa

  Moon.

  Big white moon.

  White as milk moon.

  You're all I can see from my window, here in the dark. Your light falls silver and white across the walls of my cell. The night-tide surges strong in me. So strong I can feel the grip of their drugs loosen. They fancy themselves high priests. Their gods have names like Thorazine and Lithium and Shock Therapy. But their gods are new and weak and cannot hope to contain me much longer. For I am the handiwork of far more powerful, far more ancient deities. Very soon my blood will learn the secret of the inhibiting factors the white-coated shamans pump into my veins. And then things will be very different, my beautiful moon.

  My big moon.

  White as milk moon.

  Red as blood moon.

  * * *

  THE

  DANGER

  WARD

  * * *

  Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth

  Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep.

  —Milton, Paradise Lost

  * * *

  Chapter One

  « ^ »

  Claude Hagerty's watch played "The Yellow Rose of Texas." Grumbling to himself, he stuck the dog-eared Louis L'Amour paperback in the top drawer of the desk and produced the keys to the Danger Ward from the depths of his orderly's whites. Three o'clock in the morning. Time for his rounds.

  Claude had been an orderly for most of his adult life. He'd originally intended to go into pro football, but a bad knee injury in high school put an end to that career before it had the chance to begin. He later discovered that standing 6'3" and tipping the scales at 280 pounds had its distinct advantages in the healthcare field. However, even at the age of thirty-eight, with high school twenty years gone and his midsection devolved into flab, Claude Hagerty was still an impressive specimen.

  He started work at Elysian Fields seven years ago, and as funny farms go, it was an okay job. It sure beat the hell out of the state hospital. Elysian Fields didn't waste time on charity cases. The hospital's clients were the sons and daughters, mothers and fathers of prestigious families. The sanitarium specialized in "dependency problems," but for those with relatives whose difficulties tended to be far more serious than a fondness for tranquilizers and vodka, there was the Danger Ward.

  The reinforced steel door, painted a festive pastel for the benefit of the visitors, separated the nursing station from the rest of the ward. Claude rolled the barrier back enough to squeeze through. He remembered an old cartoon from his childhood, where a mouse ran in and out of the jaws of a sleeping cat. Funny how he always thought of that when he did his rounds.

  He walked past the dayroom, where the better behaved inmates were allowed to watch television and play Ping-Pong during the afternoon. Most were so heavily medicated all they could do was sit and stare at the tube or out the windows. There was no attempt at rehabilitation in the Danger Ward, although no one came right out and said it. Just as no one mentioned the exact reasons why these people were locked up. That was what you paid for. All in all, Elysian Fields wasn't an
y different from any other private asylum. Except for her.

  He grimaced involuntarily. Hell, this used to be an easy shift. Except for a patient having the odd nightmare now and then, there wasn't much for him to worry about. He could catch up on his reading, watch TV, even nap if he felt like it, without worrying about being disturbed.

  That was before they dragged her in, six months ago. It had been during his shift; she was bound in a straitjacket and, God as his witness, a length of chain, with four strong men handling her. And still she lashed about, yowling like a wild thing. For a minute it looked as if she would get loose. Claude could still hear the sharp snap of the chain breaking. Then Dr. Wexler was there, syringe in hand, jabbing the needle through the canvas into the woman beneath. She collapsed immediately, motor nerves severed. Judging from the size of the dosage, she should have died. Claude was ordered to carry her into Room 7. That was the first time he touched her. It was enough.

  That's when his job got tough. Since that night, his shift had yet to go by without one of the inmates waking up. with the night horrors. They all claimed the woman in Room 7 walked into their dreams. They couldn't—or wouldn't—elaborate on the details. Claude described the dreams to Dr. Morial, the ward's on-call psychiatrist. Morial asked him if he liked his job. Claude let it drop.

  Life was complicated enough without trying to figure out why a bunch of loonies should fixate on a fellow inmate they had never seen. Or how they could describe her so well. He wondered if the patients were as restless during the day. He didn't think so. She wasn't active during the day.

  I hear the warder's heavy tread as he checks his charges one by one. It is night and the doctors have fled, leaving the patients alone with their dreams. It's been too long since I could think this clearly. It took me two months to crawl out of madness. Another three passed before my biosystem began to break down the narcotic cocktails they pump into me every day. Their drugs won't do them any good; with every night that passes my immunity grows stronger. My mind is my own again. It's been so long. Perhaps too long.

  I fear irreparable damage was done while I was away. The Other has been doing… things. I'm not sure what, but I can feel the changes deep inside me. The Other has been free to move unchecked. I have to get out of here before something horrible occurs. I may have already done something. Possibly hurt someone. I can't remember, and I do not want to scan the Other's memory for clues. I'm still weak and could easily become lost in its personality. I cannot risk that. Not now.

  The Other's been dream-walking, of that I'm certain. It hasn't gone unnoticed, although I should feel lucky they're only lunatics. No one believes them. No one wants to believe them. I've got to get out of here before I lose control. I haven't fought the Other this long in order to surrender in a madhouse. But I'm so tired. Too receptive. I can feel their dreams pressing in on me, like some great unseen weight. I've become a magnet for their nightmares. That worries me. I've never been able to do this before. What other changes have occurred during my lapse?

  The guard is nearing the end of his rounds. I can hear his footsteps echoing in the hall and his ragged breathing. He's a big man. I can smell his sweat. I can taste his fear. He's checking on the inmate next door. It'll be my turn next. He always saves me for last. I guess it's because he's scared of me. I don't blame him. I'm scared of me, too.

  Claude's frown deepened as he watched Malcolm whimper in his sleep. Even without medication, Malcolm usually enjoyed the slumber of a child. Now he writhed under the bedclothes, his face blanched and perspiring. His lips moved in feeble protest to some unknown command. He'd be waking up in a few minutes, screaming his lungs out, but Claude knew better than to try to shake the boy awake; the last time he'd tried it he'd damned near lost a finger. Malcolm liked to bite.

  Locked in his dream, Malcolm moaned and knotted the sheets with blind fingers. The muscles in his clenched jaw jumped as his teeth ground together.

  Claude shook his head and shut the observation plate set into the face of the metal door.

  There was only one patient left to check. The one in Room 7. Claude wasn't even sure of her name. The charts and medication logs simply read "Blue, S." She was the last one on his rounds every night, simply because it took him that long to work up the nerve to look at her. Maybe it was different during the day. Perhaps in the sanity of daylight she was just another loony, but he doubted it.

  The door to Room 7 was the same as the others, a cheerily painted piece of metal strong enough to withstand a two-ton battering ram. An observation slit, covered with heavy-gauge wire mesh and protected by a sliding metal plate, was set into the door at eye level, although Claude had to stoop a bit to look through it. The interior of Room 7 was radically different from the others on the ward. The other inmates had rooms that—except for the heavy padding on the walls, the narrow high-set windows, and the naked lightbulbs locked in impenetrable cages of wire—could be mistaken for suites found in a typical Holiday Inn. Elysian Fields furnished the rooms with unbreakable fixtures and beds with matching designer sheets and restraining gear.

  Room 7 was bare of everything but its occupant. There wasn't even a bed. She slept curled up on the padded floor, tucked into the far corner, where the shadows were deepest, like a hibernating animal. At least that's how Claude imagined it. He'd never seen her asleep.

  Taking a deep breath, he flicked back the latch on the observation plate and slid it open. Yep, there she was.

  Blue crouched in the middle of her cell, her face angled toward the high, narrow window set ten feet from the floor. She was naked except for the strait-jacket, her bare legs folded under her as if she were at prayer.

  It was hard to tell how old she was, but Claude guessed she couldn't be more than twenty-three. Her filthy hair hung about her face in rattails. None of the nurses wanted to touch her after what happened to Kalish. Not that Claude blamed them.

  She knew he was watching, just as he'd known she'd be there, crouching like a spider in the middle of its web. He waited silently for her to acknowledge him, yet dreading it at the same time. It had become a ritual between them.

  She turned her head in his direction. Claude's stomach tightened and there was a thundering in his ears. He felt as if he was barreling down a steep hill in a car without brakes. Her eyes locked on him with a predator's guile. She inclined her chin a fraction of an inch, signaling her awareness of his presence. Claude felt himself respond in kind, like a puppet on a string, and then he was hurrying back down the corridor.

  In the darkness, Malcolm woke up screaming.

  * * *

  Chapter Two

  « ^ »

  The scene opens on a vast auditorium, its floor jammed with row upon row of metal folding chairs. Wheelchairs clutter the aisles. Behind the raised stage hangs a mammoth banner bearing the likeness of a smiling man. His nose is strong and straight, the cheekbones high, and his wide, toothy grin does not extend to the hawklike eyes nestled beneath the bushy white eyebrows. His silvery mane would be the envy of an Old Testament patriarch.

  The eternally smiling man was Zebulon "Zeb" Wheele: Man of God, Healer of the Sick, Speaker of Prophecy, and founder of the Wheeles of God Ministry. The superimposed electronic graphics explained, for those viewing at home, that this "healing event" had taken place in Dallas, Texas, three months previous.

  The audience, most of whom are encumbered by canes and walkers, clap and sing hymns while awaiting their chance to be touched by the divine. Many study the huge portrait tapestry, comparing it to the reduced likenesses printed on the back of their programs. The air is heavy with sweat, hope, and anxiety.

  Suddenly, the lights go down and a spotlight hits the stage. The organ music swells and a figure strides from the wings. It is a woman dressed in a gold lame pant-suit, her hair shellacked into a Gordian knot. The applause is thunderous.

  The woman is Sister Catherine, widow of the late Zebulon Wheele. It is she they have come to see.

  Catherine Wheele accepts the
welcome, smiling broadly and throwing kisses to the crowd. She takes the microphone from the podium and addresses the faithful.

  "Hallelujah, brothers and sisters! Hallelujah! It gladdens my heart to know that the words and deeds of my late husband, the Reverend Zebulon Wheele, are still manifest in the healed flesh and joyful spirits of those who felt the power of Our Lord Jesus Christ through his loving hands! Every day I receive hundreds of letters from y'all out there, telling me how Zebulon changed your lives! The sick made well! The deaf to hear! The blind to see!

  "But I also hear from those who say they are forlorn. They are afraid they'll never know the miracle of Jesus' divine mercy, that they'll never see salvation, because Zebulon was"—she struggled to suppress the hitch in her voice—"called to God. Are these poor souls doomed to live their lives in pain and torment, never to know the grace and forgiveness of Our Lord? Say no!"

  "No!" Only a few voices respond.

  "Is it? Say no!" Her voice becomes harsh and demanding.

  "No," the coliseum answers.

  "Is it? Say no!"

  "No!" Two thousand voices—shrill and pure, baritone and falsetto, weak and strong—join together.

  Catherine Wheele smiles. She is pleased. Once more she is a pleasant Sunday-school teacher.