Cronin's Key (22 page)

Cronin gave a nod. “Yes.”

Alec studied the ankh. It looked like a religious cross with a looped head or handle. It was all through Egyptian drawings and mythology, held by gods and pharaohs alike.

“What does it mean?” Alec asked. “I know the Egyptian historians say it’s a symbol of eternal life, but what do you make of it?”

Cronin leaned forward, scanning the three open books. “Ancient Egyptians, vampire and man, had symbols for most everything,” Cronin said. He turned his face to Alec. “What do you think it is?”

“I think it’s a key.”

Suddenly there were six vampires in the room, looking at him, waiting for him to explain further.

“It’s in hieroglyphs that span thousands of years. Many symbols changed and morphed over that amount of time or from one pharaoh or god to the next, but not this,” Alec said, tapping a picture of an ankh. “I mean, it
looks
like a key! Well, sort of, in an Ancient Egyptian–kinda way. I don’t know how, or what it symbolizes, whether it’s a warning symbol like all the cats, or if it’s trying to tell us what we need to do with the key… I don’t know.” Alec looked at Cronin. “I just think it’s significant. Too significant.”

Cronin picked up the first book and flipped through the pages, then the second and then the third. Alec had grossly underestimated the speed with which Cronin could read. “It could be,” he said quietly. “Nothing proves it otherwise. It does resemble what we now call a key. Is this where the term originated? I don’t know. But if it is, if it does relate to the key we are referring to, what does it mean?”

Bes picked up the first book, and not quite as quickly as Cronin had, he read through it. “This is a remarkable text,” he said. “A rarity indeed.” He read the second book, then the third, and each book got passed to the next vampire.

Jodis nodded grimly. “It doesn’t appear to be a warning. These images of pharaohs and gods show them happy to hold the ankh, they offer it to gods, they use it as a weapon…” She looked at Cronin first, then at Alec. “Alec, I think you’re right.”

“A symbol to show what, though?” Alec wondered out loud. “Do we have pictures of where Osiris is buried? It might give us some clue.”

“Osiris is buried in a shaft under the Sphinx,” Cronin said.

Alec blinked. “Of course he is,” he mumbled. “The largest statue of a cat in the world.”

“There are shafts along the tunnel that lead from the pyramid to the Sphinx,” Bes said, pointing to the map he’d helped Johan with, more specifically, to the deep shaft with a small tomb at the bottom. “There are no markings, no hieroglyphs, nothing to say who is buried there. But the sarcophagus is most definitely his.”

Alec considered that. “Well, I doubt his casket is still there. Those rooms would be too small, and there’s only one way in and out. I doubt Queen Keket would risk such a position. She would have moved him to a bigger area, where she can have a bigger audience.”

“The King’s Chamber,” Eiji said.

Alec sighed. “Well, I was hoping some hieroglyphs might have told us what to do, but obviously not.” Alec went back to the maps. He looked at both Bes and Johan. “What other shafts are there? Can we add as much as possible?”

He spent the next little while scouring Internet sites and using Bes’s knowledge to add a capillary of smaller shafts. Then Alec asked Johan to mark where Bes thought the other known vampire mummies were buried.

In no time at all, the map of the three main pyramids of Giza were littered with lines of shafts and tunnels and asterisks where the other burial tombs were or were rumored to be. It resembled an ant farm, a sectional picture of chambers, tunnels and, nests.

The map looked a little different now from when they’d started, and Alec was happier with it. He clapped Johan on the shoulder. He had dutifully done everything as instructed and even seemed pleased with the end result. Cronin was right; Johan was a skilled cartographer. “You’re very good at that,” Alec told him, nodding toward the map in front of them. Alec doubted Google Maps or Google Earth with satellite imagery could have done such a good job.

Johan nodded in gratitude. “Thank you.”

“Can I ask you something?” Alec said. He was still looking at the map and didn’t wait for Johan to reply. “As a cartographer, a maker of maps with an eye for architecture, if you were to add tunnels like we think Keket has, where would you put them?”

Johan was clearly surprised by Alec’s question, obviously not expecting him to value his opinion. Johan indicated on the map with his finger. “Given she hasn’t had much time, the quickest route from A to B is logical.”

Alec nodded. “Agreed.”

“But see here?” he said, running his finger along an imaginary line. “For me, it would make sense that there was large chambers in this space. Not just tunnels, but rooms to house her army. Barracks, if you will.” Johan gave another nod and Alec realized it was more submissive than of gratitude. “So if you need to get from here”—he pointed to the first pyramid, then to the second—“to here? I would not expect an easy road.”

Alec smiled. He hadn’t thought of that. “You think there are chambers of returned vampires in there?”

Johan nodded again, though it was more of a bow of his head. “She would need to house her army.”

“I think you’re right,” Alec said, clapping his hand on the vampire’s shoulder. “Can you draw them in?”

Johan’s eyes widened just a fraction. “Of course.”

Alec gave him a warm smile. “Thank you.”

Johan drew in an educated guess of possible new tunnels that Keket might have ordered to be dug and possible chambers, or barracks, as he called them. It was an apt description, Alec conceded. Barracks to house her army. It made perfect sense.

Cronin soon stood beside Alec and put his hand on the small of his back. He seemed pleased that Alec had made an effort to include Johan, making him feel equal instead of left out.

When the map was done, it looked more complex than Alec cared for. Their simple plan really wasn’t simple at all. Alec sighed deeply and ran his fingers over the drawn map, taking in every corridor, every turn, every chamber, angles and distances. “There are so many unknowns,” he said. “I don’t like dealing with unknowns.”

“So what do we know as truth?” Cronin asked.

“Not much,” Alec answered. He sighed again. “All the intel we have is secondhand, rumors, guesswork, and visions. If I were to take this to my division captain in the force, he’d laugh. For a week.”

“Do you not believe it to be true?” Cronin asked, his eyes more concerned than inquisitive.

“I do believe it,” Alec said quietly. “And I think that’s what scares me. Knowing about vampires and the way history has been modified so humans remain blissfully ignorant, I have no choice
but
to believe. I believe what Bes says—how the covens have fled—and I’ve read your books on the Ancient Egyptian vampires. And the fact two vampires tried to kill me the other day so Keket would have no key kinda pushed it home as well.”

Cronin frowned, but he didn’t say anything.

“What we
do
know so far,” Alec said, “is that the Egyptian covens have moved out, the self-appointed Queen Keket is building an army, and she wants to bring back the most evil of vampires, Osiris. And if Eleanor’s visions are correct, I am to be human to fight her. So if she does need my heart to bring back Osiris, it needs to be
beating
?”

Cronin growled. “She’ll not touch you. I swear my life upon it.”

The heat in Cronin’s voice surprised Alec, the fierceness was breathtaking. Alec felt lightheaded, drunk almost, and very turned-on. Eiji cleared his throat behind them.

Alec quickly shook his head and laughed it off. “Eleanor? What else have you seen?” he asked. “You said she needs me to be human, yes?”

The old woman vampire shook her head slowly. “No. I said
you
need to be human. She needs your heart, yes, but if it needs to be human, I do not know. I can’t see past her. And the reasons for you needing to be human?” she said, her voice small in the huge apartment. “What for, I cannot see. I believe it is not clear to me because it is not clear to you, Alec. I think you will know why when you see it, then so will I. But until then…”

Well, that was really un-fucking-helpful.

“Okay,” Alec relented. He sat back down on the sofa and Cronin sat beside him. “So we need to work with some assumptions, given what information we have to work with is limited. We need to turn up, with the element of surprise on our side, and somehow I need to be the one to take out the Queen before she… well, before she takes me out.”

Alec felt the rumble in Cronin’s chest before he heard it.

Alec sat up straighter and took Cronin’s hand. “It is a possibility,” Alec said quietly. “Despite what Eiji has seen.”

“How can you talk of such things?”

“Because I’m a cop—or at least, I was,” Alec said. “It’s how I operate. Strategic, informed, and prepared, Cronin. It’s the only way.”

Cronin frowned, his dark eyes piercing. “I cannot consider a reality in which you do not exist,” he said quietly.

Alec squeezed his hand. “But we need to discuss this rationally,” he countered. “We need to discuss options, and have plans A through to Z worked out. We need to have fallback plans. But first and foremost, we need to be clear on objectives.” Alec looked around the room at all the vampires. “Our only goal is to ensure this Queen Keket doesn’t get what she needs. And that’s me. Not just
me
me, but me alive.”

“What are you saying?” Cronin asked quietly.

“That if a choice has to be made,” Alec said simply, “between saving the world and saving me, then—”

“No!” Cronin barked.

“We need to be reasonable about this,” Alec pressed. “I’m not keen on the idea either, I have to say. I’d prefer I live a little longer than three days from now too. But if Keket needs me alive and we’re losing on every front, if she has me hostage and we’ve all but lost, Cronin, then take me out of the equation.”

“Do me a favor,” Cronin said, his mouth a flat line. His eyes were an angry black. “Leave nobility to fools and kings.”

Alec put his hand on Cronin’s arm. “Please try and understand why I’m saying this—”

Cronin flew off the sofa; his anger was abrupt and startling. “Don’t tell me that I should tolerate your death or, like I could even fathom the notion, be the one to kill you myself! Have you lost your mind? Are you aware of what fated means, Alec? Do you not know? The death of one fated partner is the death of the other.”

Alec blinked. “No,” he said softly. “I didn’t know.”

Cronin threw his hands up and, frustrated, ran them through his hair. His voice was quieter, his anger gone. “I guess you weren’t to know if you weren’t told.”

“I kind of haven’t been told anything,” Alec said. “Except for the fact that vampires are real, a whole legion of them wants me dead, vampires from all around the world want me dead too in some kind of attempt to put an end to this whole fucking mess, and oh, yes, there’s a crazy bitch in Egypt who wants to rip my heart from my chest to bring back a vampire whose special talent is death itself. And let’s not forget that my entire existence is now inextricably linked to someone I just met four days ago.”

Cronin walked at a slow human pace back to Alec, and knelt in front of him. He tentatively took Alec’s hands and brought them to his face, sighing and leaning into the palms. “I wish things were different. I wish you were not involved in this in any way. I wish only to keep you safe.”

“Do you wish you’d not met me?” Alec asked.

Cronin’s gaze shot to his, his black eyes wild and honest. “It burns in my heart to hear you say such a thing. Please, Alec, don’t ever doubt what you are to me.”

Alec’s heart tripped in his chest. “What am I to you?”

Cronin’s reply was short and immediate. “Everything.”

A slow smile spread across Alec’s face, matching the sweep of warmth that filled his chest. He leaned forward and kissed Cronin, and the spark of contact stole his breath.

“So, please,” Cronin said quietly. “No such talk of self-sacrifice. I cannot bear it.”

“Okay,” Alec agreed.

Cronin narrowed his eyes at him. “And not just talk of it. There can be no plans of it either. No errant thought, no resignation in the back of your mind. Please, Alec.”

Alec smiled at him. “Okay, okay.” He leaned back on the sofa and patted the seat beside him. “Sit with me again,” Alec said. He didn’t admit to not liking it when Cronin was mad at him, and when Cronin did sit back down, Alec swung his leg behind him and pulled the vampire against his chest. “Your turn to lean against me.”

Cronin was a bit stilted and tense, clearly unsure of being in such an intimate position. Alec put his arm around him and nuzzled his nose into his hair, doing what Cronin had done to him. Alec put his lips to Cronin’s ear. “I like having you between my legs,” he whispered. “Then again, I rather liked being between yours too.”

Cronin started to growl, soft but firm.

Alec chuckled and nudged his nose to Cronin’s ear. “I’m nothing if not versatile.”

In the blink of an eye, Cronin turned and pressed him into the sofa, bringing Alec’s legs up and himself between them. Their noses touching, Cronin’s fangs were showing and there was a feral black desire in his eyes. “It’s probably best not to talk of such things to me.”

Alec chuckled again. “You like the sound of it, though?”

“Aye.”

That made Alec laugh. “Aye? How very Scottish of you.”

Cronin grinned wickedly, his eyes glinted with mischief and his fangs looked even better with a smile. “Would you like to see how very Scottish I can be?”

Alec could barely breathe, every nerve was strung tight. “Very much.”

“Okay, lovebirds,” Eiji cried. He let a book fall flat onto the table with a loud smack. “Enough. Please. We could carve the testosterone and pheromones in here with a knife. You’re killing us!”

Alec turned his face to look at Eiji but kept his hands on Cronin’s ass, keeping him firmly between his thighs. “He was helping me read.”

Eiji snorted at him. “I can see that.”

There was a less than happy growl rattling from Cronin’s chest when he slowly peeled himself off Alec, but he was smiling salaciously. Missing the feel of Cronin against him, Alec slid his hand over his crotch and gave his own dick a squeeze.