Page 1 of Grave Throbbing
Chapter 1
Ciarán
November 2, 1901, New York City
Ciarán supposed he should feel honored. Every vampire in the tri-state area had gathered in the Hotel Chelsea's ballroom for a party in his honor. By morning, he would be dead, his sire would be slapped on the wrist by Queen Marcella, and the rest would drink their fill of the humans corralled in the lobby for their pleasure and probably never think of him again.
Queen Marcella stood behind a podium, facing him and the vampires-only crowd behind him. She addressed them with the occasional hand gesture in his direction, but he didn't hear her. He struggled to concentrate on anything beyond the pounding of his own heart. She'd given him just enough fresh blood to make him bleed but not enough to make him a threat to the centuries-old vampires in the room.
She was the oldest vampire he'd ever met, and a powerful psychic. He was unable to focus on her physical appearance beyond her fangs and the silver sword in her hand. As she spoke, she twirled the sword around her gloved finger on its rounded guard. Every so often, she would jerk it into her grip and press the tip to the front of Key's double-breasted jacket, right over his heart. He did his best to hold still, but he couldn't control the pounding muscle about to be skewered.
He thought of his sister, only eight. Who would take care of her now? He'd tucked her away in the little broom cupboard just off the coal shoot in the basement he rented for pennies a week. He stayed there with her on the nights he could escape his sire, which wasn't often enough for either of their liking.
Now, he hated leaving her alone. He'd kept her a secret from his sire, at least. She would be spared the horror of becoming a child vampire. He hoped she would grow up, and eventually grow old, without him. He'd left all his coin for the washer woman who would find her in the morning, and a note begging her to take Margaret somewhere safe.
"What is your gift, little one?"Queen Marcella's voice in his head was the most terrifying sound he'd ever heard. She called them gifts, but his had been nothing but a hindrance so far. Ciarán, or Key as his little sister called him, had only been immortal for the last six months, and already he'd started a worldwide commotion in the vampire community with his unusual bite.
"You are the reason I am here in this disgusting New York hotel instead of enjoying the culture, history, and scrumptious tourists of Rome."She accentuated each grievance as though it were his fault.
She glanced behind him, and he heard the rustle of fabric before his sire was jostled against his arm and forced to her knees beside him.
"What have we here?" Queen Marcella had studied Key like he was the most interesting bug pinned to the board, but she frowned at his sire as though she were a cockroach smashed beneath her stiletto heel. "You have not been honest with me. Not only did you sire a vampire without permission, but you also didn't have his consent to do so."
He felt the queen flipping through his memories, trailing a claw across them the way his uncle used to scan the row of library books on a shelf. She watched his memory of the night he became a vampire, forcing him to relive it. Her frown turned to a moue of disgust. "I apologize. We need to delay the party a few minutes. Everyone out. Guards, stay."
The room cleared in seconds, thanks to the vampires' extraordinary speed.
"Stand," she said once they were alone with her guards.
They stood. Key tried his best to remain still even though his very nerves trembled at the queen's proximity.
"Hold her." Queen Marcella pointed to his sire. "If anything happens to me, kill her."
His sire's silk skirts hissed across the floor as she was dragged away. She didn't make a sound, which disturbed Key even more. He'd expected her to plead for her life.
Queen Marcella released the silver cuffs binding Key's hands behind his back. She gave him another sip of blood from the chalice she'd nestled inside the boxy speaker's podium. Most of it ran down his chin.
"Defend yourself." She bared her teeth at him in what might have passed for a smile under different circumstances. "I'll do my best to be slow about it, but you're young, so—"
He sprang, not trusting her to give him a head start. He grabbed onto her sword hand and pulled it toward him, yanking her off balance and pulling the weapon up and over his shoulder. He angled her wrist and shoved her glove out of the way with his nose. He bit down, letting his saliva and the venom coating his fangs do its job, inflicting a full dose of paralysis.
Her guards were on him before the venom truly set. He heard his sire's heart beat as another guard ripped it from her chest. Then she screamed, a wet sound in her throat that faded as the muscle weakened and died, along with her hold over him, when one of the guards slashed a silver blade into it.
Queen Marcella stood motionless. Even her eyes seemed frozen in her face, but he still couldn’t focus on any detail. He risked a glance at his sire, instead, as the other guard grabbed him and pulled him backward. He couldn't help the way his lips twisted upward as he observed the cascade of red marring the blue silk of her dress. She deserved her end after everything she'd stolen from him.
Queen Marcella blinked and dropped her sword arm to her side. She swallowed hard and met his gaze. Then, the side of his face blossomed with pain before he heard the crack of his orbital and jaw bones. He thought the initial pain would be the worst of it, but it only hurt more as the bones began to knit themselves back together. He hadn't drunk enough blood to heal fast, and the slow ache was agony.
"That's what your sire wanted to hide from me," Queen Marcella said. "It almost worked. She had someone erase the memory of your bite from her own head, but she didn't remove it from yours."
"I did what you asked," Key said.
She snorted in agreement. "Your gift is rare. I would hate to eliminate it from the world." She leaned in, and her words whispered through his mind."You have a sister who could be just as powerful. I would love to know what gifts she would bring us."
Key had hoped to keep his sister out of it, to prevent her from becoming a vampire, but if it would keep them both alive long enough for her to grow up, Key would do whatever it took.
"Yes. You'll turn her when she's ready."She motioned with a hand, and the guard released him.
"What about his inability to hunt, Your Majesty?"
