Page 11 of Grave Throbbing
"It can cause paralysis," Harley clarified, "like the first time you bit me."
Key nodded. "I'm sorry. I had to. I could have driven you to overwhelming fear and made you forget me, as well, but I chose not to." He sighed. "I wanted you to remember me."
"I looked for you." Harley stared at the cup in his hands. The store walls seemed to close in around him. "I know we still have a few hours, but I need more time to process … " He didn't have the right words. He needed to process the blowjob, the bite, all the information Key had just shared. "… Everything."
"How much time?" Key sounded resigned, but the hope in his one-eyed gaze was unmistakable.
"A day, at least."
"One day." Key placed his hands over Harley's, still in a death grip around his cooling cardboard cup. "I've never forgotten the night we spent together. We talked for hours. I learned so much about the world, and about you. Oh, and how we danced!" The joy on Key's face mirrored Harley's own fond recollection. "The memory of that night has kept me alive on more than one occasion, and no, not because you taught me to enthrall humans."
No wonder Key was holding out hope. "If you're having thoughts of meeting the dawn, I can give you the number for the vampire suicide hotline."
Key pulled his hands back to his own cup and Harley watched as he swallowed down the contents, his Adam's apple bobbing. Damn. Harley wanted to kiss him there, to drag his fangs across his flesh before claiming his lips.
Where had that thought come from? Harley had never wanted to kiss anyone this much in all his life.
Key licked his bottom lip as he set his empty cup on the table. "I don't plan to meet the dawn any time soon, not when I've found you." He leaned forward and ran his index finger down Harley's knuckles, still gripping his cup.
"I've missed you." Key sounded sincere. "I know, it was one night, but I still want to get to know you better. I work in a bar that closes at two-thirty, which leaves too much time to think. You could do me a favor and keep me company."
Favor. The hair at Harley's nape stood on end. He worried his greatest dream was about to turn into his worst nightmare, where Key only needed him to resolve some vampire council bullshit.
"I'm listening," Harley said, unable to shake the uncanny feeling he was being set up.
"Tomorrow," Key said. "I'll be here after closing. Care to meet me again?"
Harley had to work, too, but he could bring his laptop to Blood Drive. "I'll be here."
"I'd like that very much."
"Will you be in costume again?" Harley asked.
"I thought you liked it." Key smoothed his hands down the thin fabric of his black tunic, drawing attention to the gaps between the laces across his sternum and the smooth white skin beneath them. Harley remembered wearing that style the first time around.
"I'd rather see you," he mumbled when he caught himself staring.
"I guess Greed doesn't owe me any money, then." Key chuckled. "She said as much." He rose from the table and tossed his cup in the recycle bin near the door. "Unfortunately, the costume is part of my work uniform. I'll be wearing a different one when I see you again."
Key was gone in a flash, faster than the video cameras on the street could capture.
Alone, Harley sipped his tasteless cold blood. It was still hours before dawn. He usually didn't worry about time on his days off, but he felt Empress Marcella's looming presence like an icy wind. He wanted his reacquaintance with Key to be a happy accident, but in Harley's life, nothing had ever been a coincidence.
Chapter 5
Harley
The next night, Harley waited until his lunch break to return his washed and folded Halloween costume to Ithande's mail slot. Then, he packed up his laptop essentials, checked himself in the mirror a few hundred times, and even changed his clothes twice. He still managed to arrive at Blood Drive early. It was five minutes to two, the tail end of his lunch hour. Outside the storefront windows, the night sky was black with storm clouds. They lit up from below with the occasional flash of lightning. Tiny droplets of condensation had formed on the windows, but the awning above kept off most of the rain.
For the second night in a row, the tables were empty. Harley chose the one nearest the door and waited. He had just enough time to boot up his computer, log on, and check his emails before Key arrived.
Instead of an umbrella, Key had worn an oversized raincoat. He draped it over the chair opposite Harley with a dejected half-wave before heading for the counter. This time, his wig was attached to a grizzled beard instead of an eyepatch. With the raincoat, he looked like a salty seaman. Underneath, he was the same scared vampire Harley had met in New York, now sporting a pair of ripped designer jeans and a white t-shirt.
They were the only customers in the shop, but a line of cars streamed past the east windows. As far as Harley could tell from observing the last two nights, the drive-through provided most of their business, hence the name.
Key waited at the counter for his cup. When it was ready, he took it back to the table. Harley was surprised he'd tried a different blood concoction this time, werewolf with a hint of jasmine. He pulled off the grizzled wig/beard combo and slipped it into the raincoat's pocket before taking his first sip.
Harley drank him in. Even with the ripple at his hairline and the lines across his cheeks from the elastic, Key looked just as gorgeous as Harley remembered.
