Page 25 of Grave Throbbing
"If you don't come willingly, I'll start hurting her. I know how well you handle it when I hurt her."
"I have an idea," Key whispered. "Don't move."
Harley stood glued to the spot, unable to leave even if he'd wanted to. Perhaps Dobbins had some extra power of his own. He'd reduced Harley to a puddle of fear in his own skin. He was grateful he'd only had part of his twenty-ounce drink before they'd left for the club. If he'd had more, it might have run down his leg under such horrific circumstances.
"I'm coming to you, okay? Let Greed go."
"You know I can't do that. I can let the empress's scum run away if he wants." Dobbins pointed at Harley. "See him? He wants. I'm holding him glued to that spot right now. Do you see what's above him, my pet?"
Harley had just enough range of motion in his neck to look up. Fuck. He stood in the shadow of a shipping container suspended from the building's ceiling by chains. Even if it was empty, the container and gravity would be enough to flatten him like a pancake.
"One wrong move from you, and oops, Harley won't be participating in tonight's festivities. Or you can give me your blood like a good pet, and I'll let him go."
"Let him go." Key said the words through clenched teeth.
"I knew you would be reasonable." Key was close enough for Dobbins to touch him, so he did, caressing his cheek and pulling him in to his side. He bit into Key's neck, and his eyes slid closed, releasing Harley from his prison.
Harley ran as far and as fast as he could. Though he wanted to turn back toward Key, Dobbins's compulsion pushed him out into the night.
Chapter 10
Key
"Your blood is almost as intoxicating as your sister's," Dobbins said. "She's become a bothersome pain in my arse. It will be nice to be able to control her with your paralysis."
Key met Greed's gaze and gave a slight nod. He hoped she understood.
Dobbins bit into her neck, and she went limp in his arms. She did so well, Key almost thought Dobbins had paralyzed her, until she brought her hands up to his jaw and snapped his neck. The action ripped two long cuts in her jugular, but they would heal.
Key had to catch up with Harley. He gathered Greed in a fireman's carry and ran, skirting around the shipping container as it crashed to the ground. Now out of sight behind the crumpled container, Dobbins groaned. Usually, a vampire would be out for a few minutes after a neck break like that, but he had Greed's blood in his system. She healed everything in half the time it took Key. Even now, her jugular had completely healed over like she'd never been bitten.
They reached the outside door, but it was like hitting a physical wall. Key had felt that presence before, shutting down his internal thoughts as fingers seemed to rifle through file folders inside his head. The presence found and watched select memories from the past thirty days.
One moment, Key could have sworn he was standing at the door, staring at the empty concrete parking lot and the dark water beyond. The next moment, he was backed up against the crumpled shipping container in almost the same spot where he and Harley had first confronted Dobbins. Harley lay motionless on the ground beside him, and Greed stood with one hand resting on the container, the other rubbing the back of her neck.
"He'll be all right in a moment."Empress Marcella's voice seemed to fill his head and the entire room."I broke his neck to remove the fear gaze this one put on him. If I hadn't, he'd have run until he met the sun or the ocean. He'd been headed west, and Harley is not strong enough to outrun the dawn, even with a two-hour head start."
"Thank you," Key mumbled.
"Do not thank me yet."Empress Marcella's sharp tone made his ears ring, even though it had come from inside his head.
She wore the same tactical gear as the local council's guards. Key had never seen her in anything other than evening wear. This made her look scarier by far. She could already kill in a flash. Now, she could kill from a distance, with all the projectile silver strapped to her body.
Thankfully, she'd turned her withering gaze on Dobbins. "You dared to hurt my Harley."
"I didn't hurt him. I merely made a fear suggestion." Dobbins's excuses sounded like those from a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"Harley spent a year with me in Rome." She paused and stared at him with unblinking eyes until he flinched. "He is very special to me."
Key hadn't known Harley was "special" to the empress. He supposed he should have guessed, since he was her liaison to the eastern regions, but he'd assumed that was due to Harley's vampire gift. Harley didn't seem the type to be the empress's pet.
"Who I declare special is none of your business."Once again, her voice drowned out all other noise.
"We heard it was a punishment." Dobbins stumbled over the word, repeating consonants. Either from the way Dobbins spoke or the residual ringing in his head, Key found it hard to understand him.
Empress Marcella laughed, and there wasn't a hint of joy in it. She had the cruelest laugh Key had heard in his life. He was glad it wasn't directed at him this time. "If I'd wanted to punish him, he would still be there."
She moved faster than Key could see. One moment she stood in front of Dobbins, and the next she was behind him, her hands at his throat. She didn't snap his neck the way Greed had. She merely held him there, her nose to his jugular as though she could smell the affliction that made him torture his own kind.
