Cronin's Key II (18 page)

Cronin paused a moment. Alec knew Cronin was loath for him to experience any kind of pain, but at the end of the day, it was inevitable. Alec squeezed his hand, a silent reassurance, and urged him to continue.

“The days that follow your change will be difficult, but in the sense of hunger and being disoriented. Every sense you have now will be increased exponentially, and theoretically that sounds great, though in practice it’s something else altogether. Your speed and strength will take getting used to, as will your balance. You will essentially need to learn how to walk again.”

“From scratch?”

Cronin snorted. “No, not from scratch. But to walk in measured, slow, human steps takes a concerted effort, considering your body will want to expend energy in ways you cannot imagine. It’s best not be around humans for the first few weeks at least, not just because you’ll want to drain them dry, but because your movements will either look too fast, or too erratic as you attempt to pull your abilities back.”

Alec swallowed hard. “Will I,” he asked quietly, “want to drain everyone dry?”

Cronin held his stare for a long while. “Yes.”

Alec nodded slowly. His voice was a mumbled whisper, “Yeah, I figured as much.”

“Still not having regrets?” Cronin asked, as if daring him.

Alec met his gaze with nothing but sincerity and determination. “Never.”

Cronin smiled widely and kissed Alec’s knuckles again. “How are you feeling? Light headed? Dizzy? You’ve lost quite a lot of blood, more than should be allowed for a human. Your heart rate is good,” he noted. Then he put his fingers to Alec’s pulse and listened for a few seconds. “Your blood pressure is normal. Are you sure you don’t feel affected?”

Alec shook his head. “I told you, I feel great. Better than great. I think letting half my blood out helped or something. I don’t know. And anyway, you can tell my blood pressure by listening?”

Cronin snorted. “Anything to do with your health or your blood is like a beacon to me.”

Alec grinned at him. “So, you’re like my personal physician?”

“Not likely, no.”

“That’s a shame,” Alec teased. “Because there’s a lot of doctor/patient rules I’d love to break with you.”

Cronin laughed and shook his head. “I don’t think physical exercise would be wise for you right now. You’ve just lost two pints of blood, Alec. Not to mention what I took from your thigh before. That’s enough to kill a human, yet you say you feel great?”

“Much better. And really? No exercise?” Alec huffed and gave Cronin his best pout. Cronin just smiled at him and set about clamping off the last bag of blood. Only when he removed the cannula, blood pooled on Alec’s skin, making Cronin hiss.

He quickly covered the needle mark to stop the flow, but Alec pulled his hand away. “Alec,” he growled, low and warning.

Alec bit back a groan. He grabbed the bag of blood, including the still-attached IV line and let a thin trail of his blood drip across his chest.

Cronin bared his fangs, his eyes turned to molten onyx and he growled.

The sight and sound of Cronin without restraint made Alec moan. He let the bag of blood fall to the bed and slowly, purposefully, with his eyes locked on Cronin’s, he drew his finger through the blood and put it to his mouth.

A snarl ripped through the air. “You shouldn’t tempt me like that, Alec,” he growled.

Alec’s whole body thrummed, pleasure buzzed through his veins and pooled in his groin. He’d never seen Cronin so…
vampire
before. His eyes were sharp and focused, his teeth were bared and ready, he slinked low, like he was ready to pounce up Alec’s half-naked body. He looked feral with hunger for blood and sex, and Alec felt lightning in his veins.

He’d never been so aroused, every one of his senses were piqued. Thrill, arousal, fear, and desire. He wanted it.

He licked his bloodstained finger and Cronin growled more menacingly, and ripped the bed sheet from Alec’s body. The unbridled power felt like a jolt straight to his cock, and Cronin crawled up his naked form, licking the trail of blood from Alec’s skin and pushing his thighs apart with his own. His hard cock was at Alec’s hole, still slicked with come from before. “Your blood belongs to me,” he snarled.

Alec’s back arched and his cock pulsed, and precome spilled out freely into his navel. “If you want it,” Alec writhed, “then come get it.”

Cronin pushed his hips up into Alec, penetrating him, hard and fast, and sunk his teeth into Alec’s neck at the same time. He fucked as he drank, a closed circuit of pure ecstasy. Alec’s whole body convulsed, impaled at both ends, and unable to contain the pleasure, he came.

* * * *

Alec was still laughing when they leapt back to the house in Japan. They’d left the bedroom in a mess of a deconstructed bed and ripped clothes. And as soon as they’d arrived, Jodis and Eiji knew what they’d done.

Alec didn’t try to hide the puncture marks on his neck. He just grinned at them and put the backpack on the table.

“Cronin,” Jodis started, “I thought we agreed until we knew how it affected you—”

“It wasn’t Cronin’s decision,” Alec stated plainly. “It was mine.”

All the vampires turned to him and waited for him to explain.

“The effects drinking my blood has on Cronin could be beneficial when we go to take down the Terracotta Army. If he can predetermine what other talents are against us, then we hold the advantage. If he can transfer their talent and use it against them, even better.” Alec opened the backpack and took out the first of the blood bags. “And it appears bloodletting fixes me. Like it releases pressure or something. I don’t feel foggy anymore. I can actually think straight.”

Eiji snorted. “Well, not too straight.” He sniffed the air. “There wasn’t anything
straight
about what you two were doing.”

Alec laughed and put the other blood bags next to the first. “And we showered and everything.”

Cronin put a protective hand on Alec’s back. He was fighting a smile. “Alec feels much better.”

“I bet he does,” Jodis said. She rolled her eyes and grinned at Cronin. “And those are the blood pouches?”

“Yep. Little juice boxes for vampires,” Alec answered. “Four of them with half a pint each.”

Eiji laughed at his joke. No one else did. “Alec,” Jacques said. “That’s a lot of blood loss.”

“Not to mention what Cronin had,” Alec said with a laugh. “And I’ve never felt better.”

“This is all very concerning,” Jodis murmured. Alec wasn’t sure if he was supposed to hear it, but he could hear everything.

Cronin nodded. “It’s not typical human behavior, no.”

“It’s not even human anatomy,” Jodis replied. “He should be dead.”

“I feel great,” Alec repeated. “I feel amazing actually.”

No one spoke for a long time, so Alec studied the whiteboard. There’d been a few more points added, a few research details but nothing major. Eiji stood beside him and, trying not to be observing him too obviously, said, “So now you’re feeling so well, did you want to do some research?”

Alec shrugged non-committedly.

Eiji rocked back on his heels, going for nonchalance. “When we went to Egypt, you were all about researching hieroglyphs and background information, being prepared and learning everything you could.”

Alec hummed. “Yes, but this one feels different.”

Cronin was quick to question. “How so?”

“I don’t know exactly. Like something is not what it seems.”

This time Jodis asked, “Alec, what do you mean?”

“Something’s not right,” he said again, more adamant this time. “Like Genghis Khan and his Terracotta Army are a ruse.”

“You’ve seen Terracotta Soldiers move in front of you,” Eiji said. “Do you doubt their existence?”

“No, no,” Alec answered quickly. “They’re real alright. I just think there’s more to it than just Genghis Khan. I just feel that all along we’ve been asking the wrong questions. I want to know why Genghis Khan hasn’t called for me yet? If he needs me so badly, why is he waiting? How does he know I’ll even turn up? But more importantly, I want to know who’s behind it. Who brought Genghis Khan back from the dead? That’s who we need to find. I think we need to go back and see Jorge again.”

Eleanor came running into the room with Kole. “Something just changed!” she said. Then she spun around to the far wall. “Incoming!”

And then, as though right on cue, another Chinese warrior appeared in their living room. Though he was dressed for battle, this one bore no weapons. Only a smile. He held out his hand and disappeared, leaving whatever it was he was holding to fall to the floor.

Cronin had his arms around Alec, ready to leap, when Eiji went over and picked up what the uninvited leaper had dropped. He held out his hand and showed them.

Alec recognized it immediately. “It’s my old watch. I gave it to Jorge.”

“You wanted to know how Genghis will lure you there, and now you now,” Eleanor said. “They have the vampire child. And they know you will come for him.”

“We don’t know enough,” Cronin argued. “Alec, I can’t just leap you there without knowing what will be waiting for us.”

Alec put the backpack on and picked up the night vision goggles he’d used in Egypt and put them with one of the sledgehammers Eiji had bought. “What will welcome us is about five thousand terracotta vampires. I assume Genghis Khan will have guards with talents that more than likely include some kind of masonry skills, given this is all about clay and stone. I would also expect Genghis to have some kind of skill of influence. He wants me to complete some circle of power, for world domination or to control the elements or what-the-fuck-ever. It doesn’t matter.”

“How does it not matter?” Cronin cried. Everyone else stood in silence and watched them bicker.

“Because he’s not the one behind this,” Alec argued. “I don’t know how I know that, I just do. He’s just a pawn in this.”

Cronin shook his head. “Even so, a humble pawn can checkmate a king, Alec. Do not underestimate an ancient vampire with a thirst for revenge.”

“Who do you think is orchestrating this?” Jodis asked.

Alec shrugged. “The same person who turned Tahini Shafiq into the Egyptian vampire Queen Keket. The same person who used the dreams of my parents to give me my name. Maybe what Mikka said in the alley before he died had a double meaning. He said “it’s not one, it’s both”. Maybe he knew something we don’t. Maybe he’d clued in on something and died before he could tell any of you.”

Jacques shook his head. “I was with him that night. I didn’t see anything.”

“Maybe he did. I don’t know,” Alec countered. He put the heel of his hand against his sternum. “I just feel it, right here. There’s someone else, some
thing
else. And it ends tonight.” He held up the last remaining bulletproof vest to Cronin. He was the only one who hadn’t put one on yet. “Please put this on.”

Cronin took the vest. “And your protection is what?”

“You,” Alec answered. He held up the sledgehammer. “And this.”

“Alec,” Kole started. “Son, I….”

Alec put the hammer down and took four long strides over to his father, and hugged him. “I love you, Dad.”

“Love you too, Ailig.” Kole choked back tears and swallowed thickly. He pulled back and took a deep breath. “You’re not coming back, are you?”

Alec couldn’t lie to him. “Not human, no.”

Kole nodded quickly and tears brimmed in his eyes. “But I’ll see you again?”

“Maybe not right away, Dad,” Alec said. “But soon. I promise.”

Eiji, who had been on the phone to Kennard, clicked off the call. “They’ll meet us here,” he said, pointing at the map on the whiteboard, and more specifically he pointed to the largest hangar-like warehouse that housed the Terracotta Army. “At the top of the hour.”

Alec looked at his new watch. They had ten minutes. He pulled out his pistol and double-checked the magazine. He only had a handful of wooden bullets left from when they’d fought in Egypt. He hadn’t bothered ordering anymore, guessing they’d be useless against vampires made of terracotta. He also guessed he was about to discover a new way to kill a vampire tonight. Sure, a wooden stake or bullet to the heart worked just fine, but smashing a terracotta vampire into pulverized dust with a sledgehammer would be just as effective.

He did, however, still opt to carry wooden stakes and two pistols loaded with the last of his wooden-tipped bullets, because there was every chance non-terracotta vampires would also be there. Like Genghis Khan himself. Or the one who created him.

Alec made sure his thigh holster and quiver were securely fastened and that Cronin, Jodis, Eiji, and Jacques each had their pouch of his blood in their backpacks. That was his only contingency plan: if his blood was required to end Genghis Khan, then any one of them were armed to do it. That and the fact Cronin could transfer or at least sense the talents of other vampires, were the only two aces up their sleeves. Alec just hoped it was enough.

Alec fixed one of the fasteners on Cronin’s vest that didn’t really need fixing. He pulled the strap tight before patting it down, and when he was done, the two men stared at each other.

Alec could see a storm of emotions in Cronin’s eyes, and it hurt him to see it. Alec put his hand to Cronin’s face. “We’ll get through this.”

“Your complacency concerns me,” Cronin whispered.

“It’s not complacency,” Alec told him. “I don’t know how to describe how I feel. It’s a sense of calm. Like I know I’m about to get all the answers to every question we’ve asked.” Alec kissed his lips. “I am ready for this.”

Eiji, Jodis, and Jacques stood is a sort of circle in the middle of the living room, waiting for Cronin and Alec to join them in formation. But before they leapt anywhere, Alec felt the need to say a few words.

“Listen guys, I just wanted to say it’s been an honor and a privilege. While our main objective is to take out Genghis and get Jorge back, it’s not worth any of us dying. I’d like to look back in a thousand years and laugh about this with all of you.” Alec looked pointedly at Eiji. “No self-sacrificing bullshit this time, you hear? And, if Cronin’s not near me when I’m hit or injured, or whatever it is that Eleanor sees that reverses my inability to be changed into a vampire, I give permission for any of one of you to change me.” Alec turned to Cronin, ignoring his death stare and low growl. “I’d prefer to have you pissed off at me for the next few hundred years than not have any years with you at all, if you know what I mean. If I need to be bitten to be saved, then let them.”