Cronin's Key II (14 page)

And he did. He sunk his teeth into Cronin’s neck, and Cronin arched underneath him, flexing as he came. Fully clothed and his cock untouched, Cronin convulsed as his orgasm took hold. All Alec could do was hold on and watch, in rapt awe, as Cronin unraveled underneath him.

He eventually calmed, seemingly boneless and pliant. He looked drunk and smiley, his fangs peeking out under his pink, pink lips. His eyes half-opened and he smirked. “
A Chruthaidheir
,” he mumbled. “
Gràidhean
.”

Alec put his hands to Cronin’s face, kissing him soundly. “In English?”

Cronin laughed and his eyes rolled back. “Oh God, my love.”

Alec kissed him with smiling lips. “Teach me Gaelic words for you.”

Cronin gripped Alec’s face, staring deeply into his eyes. “
Mo ghaol bith-buan
,” he whispered, so reverently, the words sounded like a prayer.

Alec waited for him to translate.

“My eternal love.”

Alec repeated the words. “Mo ghaol bith-buan.”

Cronin swallowed hard and his eyes were molten onyx. He stared at Alec, taking in his whole face before bringing their mouths together. This time they made love, with slow breaths and tender thrusts, holding hands and kissing softly, they never, ever, closed their eyes.

Alec had never felt so full and content. Cronin was inside him, yes, but in more ways than one. He permeated every sense, every cell, and from the way Cronin held him, filled him, it was like he was trying to become one with him.

Alec had learned some words in Gaelic from his time with Cronin, but some things needed to be said in English. He took Cronin’s face in his hands, taking in his lust-black eyes, his kiss-swollen lips, and his vampire fangs. “I love you, too.”

* * * *

With only seconds to spare, an hour after they left, Cronin and Alec leapt back to the house in Japan. Still wrapped around each other, Alec was biting his bottom lip and Cronin was chuckling.

“Ugh, stop it!” Eiji cried with a groan. Cronin laughed, not because Eiji was begging, but because he said it in Japanese. It wasn’t often he spoke in his native tongue.

“I can’t help it,” Alec said, half laughing against Cronin’s head. He clearly didn’t need Cronin to interpret what Eiji had said. His groan and desperate tone must have said it all.

“You’re getting worse,” Jodis said.

“At least we’re dressed,” Alec said, making Cronin laugh. “Though the cleaning staff of that hotel will be little perplexed.”

Eiji snorted out a laugh, despite grumbling just before. “You two
are
getting worse,” he repeated what Jodis said. “The hormonal scents coming from you two are suffocating, and it’s worse now than what it’s ever been. Can you at least be in the same room without touching?”

Alec made a low growling noise and tightened his grip on Cronin, which was a very clear nonverbal no. “What did we have to be back for in an hour anyway?” he asked. “We could have stayed a lot longer.”

No sooner had he said it than Alec’s cell phone rang. “Because that’s why,” Eleanor said.

With one arm still around Cronin, Alec read the screen. “It’s Doctor Benavides,” he announced and then hit the answer button. “Hi Doc, you’re on speaker.”

“Alec, yes. I have your results,” the doctor said.

“Good. What did you find? Traces of Kryptonite?”

“Not quite,” the doctor said. It sounded like he was smiling. “White cell counts were normal, platelet count was great. Red cell counts were… unusual. Your corpuscular hemoglobin concentration was low, which at first glance I thought was wrong.”

“Why?”

“It’s a blood result typical of burn patients, which you’re clearly not,” the doctor said. “The hemoglobin is very concentrated within the red cell. With you, even more so. I thought it was a misreading, but then there were more results that didn’t add up.”

Alec frowned. “And?”

“Well, I ran a string of tests, just like you asked. And that included a serum protein electrophoresis test. Now, you’ve always had high iron,” Doctor Benavides said. “And you still do. But these readings are… well, very unusual.”

“Describe unusual.”

“Well, the proteins in your blood are all over the place, Alec. And the readings don’t make sense.” There was the sound of rustling papers. “Your adenosine triphosphate is elevated. As is your adrenocorticotropic hormone, and your transferrin levels are off the charts.”

Alec frowned and his eyebrows furrowed. “What does that mean, Doc? I’m gonna need that in English.”

“In a very simplified analogy, Alec, adenosine triphosphate is basically energy, and adrenocorticotropic hormones fire up the cerebral cortex. Transferrin is a blood protein that binds iron to blood cells. Too much of it can cause hemochromatosis in humans, but Alec, you’ve got no other readings to imply too much iron. And from your blood tests last year, these results are new. It doesn’t make sense.”

Cronin could feel Jodis and Eiji’s eyes upon him. The doctor was wrong: it was starting to make perfect sense.

“What do I have to do?” Alec asked.

“Well, I can run all the tests again,” Doctor Benavides said. “Though I’m not sure it’ll make any difference. Alec, I’m going to be frank with you. With these readings, I’d say you’d need hospitalization and further tests for liver function, cardiomyopathy, bone density, and brain function. It’s not good, Alec.”

Alec had become pale, and he looked at Cronin, then to Jodis and Eiji, and finally back to Cronin. His voice was quiet and distant. “’S’okay, Doc. I don’t think I’ll need to worry about that.”

“Alec, I don’t—”

“Doc, it’s fine,” Alec replied. He looked again at Jodis and Eiji. “Thank you for doing this. Something tells me these readings aren’t as big a surprise as you’d think.”

He clicked off the call and slid the phone across the table, away from him. He stared straight at Cronin. “Tell me what that means. I can tell from the look on your faces you know something.”

Cronin took Alec’s hand and led him to sit down on the sofa. “I don’t know anything scientific, Alec,” Cronin said. “Though what the doctor found makes perfect sense. These elevated blood compounds are a seamless explanation of the power in your blood.”

“How?” Alec asked. “Because all I heard was liver, heart, and brain complications.”

Cronin shook his head quickly. “No, Alec. It will never get to that. I swear it to you.”

Jodis sat on the other side of Alec. She took his other hand and shook her head. “Cronin’s right, Alec. The three elevated elements, or compounds, in your blood results are the three main fuel source for vampires,” she explained. “Pure proteins of energy, pure cerebral cortex power, and iron for oxygenation and brain function and muscle power.”

“It’s like high-octane fuel,” Eiji added. “One-hundred-percent battery power.”

Alec bit his bottom lip and seemed lost in his own thoughts for a while. “Is that what Jorge meant about the sun in my blood? Maybe he wasn’t talking about sunlight beaming out of the sun-disk thing in Egypt. Maybe he literally meant the power of the sun, as in energy.”

“Possibly,” Cronin answered. “It certainly explains how it healed Eiji so quickly.”

“And why Cronin’s experiencing high levels of… well, everything,” Jodis said. She looked straight at Cronin. “You can transfer talents, you can’t be apart from him, higher needs of dependency, you’re more in tune with each other than most fated couples of a thousand years. Everything is intensified.”

“And it all but confirms the theory of Alec’s blood being descendent from vampires,” Eiji furthered. “If the incubus who impregnated his great-grandmother had just fed, then it stands to reason those three elements would be high in his blood, and genetically transferred down through the generations.”

“And it’s killing me,” Alec said quietly. “Even Eleanor said my blood’s too powerful for a human to survive.” He gave Cronin a tight smile and shrugged. “If we don’t fight this war soon, or whatever it is we’re supposed to do, then I won’t be in any condition to fight at all. You guys are seemingly forgetting one thing: I’m human. Mortal. Unlike you, my system will shut down with a no-restart option. And if I can’t be changed into a vampire, then it really is game over.”

Cronin growled, a low rumbling sound, coming from deep in his belly. As though growling was all he was capable of—like he couldn’t fathom such an idea, he couldn’t even grasp the words to say. His vocabulary, his voice, failed him.

Alec understood that completely. He swallowed hard. “I’m just gonna grab some air,” he said, standing up and walking toward the front door. He didn’t wait for anyone to say anything. He simply walked down the steps into the entrance foyer and out to where no vampire could follow.

Into the sunlight.

Cronin paced. He hated feeling so helpless, so far away. Alec was barely a few feet from him, but standing in the sunlight—where Cronin simply could not go—it may as well have been miles between them.

He knew Alec needed some time to get his head around everything, and Cronin had no problem with that. He had a problem with not being able to get to him if he needed to. Cronin paced some more.

Kole, who must have woken at some point, clapped his hand on Cronin’s shoulder as he walked past, walking straight outside to his son. “You okay?” Kole asked him.

Alec acknowledged his dad with a small smile, but left his question unanswered. Which, to Cronin, was an answer in itself. No, he was not okay.

“The doctor called,” Alec said. And as Alec then proceeded to tell him what Doctor Benavides had said, Eiji put his hand on Cronin’s arm.

“He’ll be okay,” Eiji whispered so no human could hear him. “Cronin, my brother, I will vow my life upon it.”

“He’s getting stronger,” Cronin said just as quietly. “Physically. He was able to flip me over, something he certainly hasn’t been capable of before.”

Eiji’s eyes widened. “He was stronger than you?”

Cronin gave a slight nod. “Momentarily, yes. He’s changing, Eiji. Even his doctor said as much. Those blood results are new.”

“You think since he was fated to you, he changed physically as well?”

“It is a possibility I can’t ignore,” Cronin said. He watched Alec as he talked with his father in the sunshine. “Or, maybe my biting him did change him, just not as we would expect. Or maybe it is our… coupling.” Cronin cringed at discussing such personal matters.

Eiji almost smiled. “They could all be possibilities. Maybe it’s a combination of all three. We have no way of knowing. We can’t change anything from your being fated. That is done. You’ve stopped biting him, yes?”

Cronin nodded.

“Then your only other way to determine your theory is to stop taking him to bed,” Eiji said.

Alec spun around and watched them through the door.

“Did he just hear me?” Eiji spoke in a whisper again, something no human should be able to hear.

“Of course I can hear you,” Alec answered. “I may be a mere human, but I’m not deaf.”

Eiji and Cronin stared at Alec. “Alec,” Cronin said cautiously. “Can I ask that you please come inside?”

Alec rolled his eyes and smiled as he walked in. “Only because you asked so politely.” When he saw the looks on their faces, his smile died. “What’s wrong?”

Eiji spoke again, the gentlest of murmurs only vampires can hear. To the human ear, it was no more than a breeze. “Alec, only well-endowed men can hear me speaking right now.”

Alec blanched, his wide eyes darting between Eiji and Cronin. But then he barked out a laugh. “What the hell? What drugs are you on?”

“What?” Kole asked, clearly having no clue what was going on.

Jodis and Jacques appeared in the foyer, evidently having heard the whole conversation. “Ah, Alec,” Cronin said, using a normal voice so Kole could hear. “You shouldn’t have been able to hear us just now.”

“Well, if you wanna talk shit about me, it might help if you don’t do it four feet from me.”

Cronin smiled at him and spoke in a hushed breath, a vampire whisper. “You seem to have acquired the hearing capabilities of a vampire.”

Alec looked at all the faces looking at him, seeing how concerned they were. He turned to his father. “Did you hear what Cronin just said?”

Kole frowned back at him. “He didn’t speak, son. You feeling okay?”

“Yes, he did,” Alec mumbled, turning back to Cronin. “You did, right? I’m not losing my freakin’ mind?”

Cronin took Alec’s hand. “Yes, I did. Vampires have exceptional hearing. We can have conversations not privy to the human ear. But
you,
a human, heard us talking.”

Alec nodded. “I did.”

Jodis, standing some eight feet away, with her wide blue eyes swimming with concern, whispered, “Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” Alec said. “Of course I can hear you.”

Cronin gestured to outside. “The birds? Traffic?”

Alec turned toward the sunshine and tilted his head. He hadn’t noticed before, but now that he concentrated…. He looked back to Cronin and nodded.

“Okay, this changes things,” Eiji said, pulling Alec into the living room. Cronin was quick to be between them, growling and forcibly removing Eiji’s hand from Alec’s arm.

When he realized what he’d done, Cronin shook his head and put up both his hands. “Apologies. I do not mean what I do.”

Eiji nodded slowly, and he eyed them cautiously. Jodis was behind her mate, defensively, protectively, and the air in the room was tense. “Whatever it is that affects you both is getting worse,” Jodis said. “We need to put a stop to it.”

Cronin spoke quietly to Eiji, his head bowed. “I know you would never harm him. I am losing control over this.” He swallowed hard. His bond to Alec was so strong, Cronin knew Alec would feel his distress. Yet he seemed unable to stop it. “I fear this connection is so overwhelming it’s sending me mad.”

Alec put his arms around Cronin and pulled him against him, burying Cronin’s face into the crook of his neck. He kissed the side of his head and shook his head. “You’re not mad. This is new to everyone. There’s never been a vampire fated to a human before, let alone a human key. So this is unchartered territory, that’s all. You’re not going mad, my love.” Alec kissed Cronin’s temple again, before cupping his face so he could look into his eyes. He spoke fiercely. “You’re not going mad.”