Cronin's Key II (7 page)

Alec’s voice was muffled by Cronin’s shirt. “How am I supposed to fight this one?”

“We will figure this out together, Alec,” Cronin whispered, kissing the side of his head. “You are not some weak human who has to shoulder this alone. Is that not what you said?” He kissed Alec softly. “I am forever by your side.”

“As are we,” Jodis said.

Finally, Alec smiled. “Just like the musketeers, huh? All for one and one for all.”

Cronin pulled back a little so he could see Alec’s face. “They weren’t vampires.”

“What about King Arthur?” Alec asked. Joking about it seemed to help with the overwhelming feeling. “Elvis?”

Eiji laughed. “No, and the rumors of Robin Hood are not true.”

Jodis joined in. “No, he never wore that ridiculous hat.”

Alec chuckled. “Let me guess, Santa Claus was a vampire who could leap. It would explain the ability to visit every child in the world in one night.”

“I’m not sure a vampire would be inclined to give children gifts,” Eiji said.

“No,” Cronin agreed. “There’s more truth in the legend of the Pied Piper than Santa Claus.”

“The Pied Piper from the Nursery Rhyme?” Alec asked.

Jodis made a thoughtful face. “Yes. Don’t discredit rhymes for children. There is often warning within each one.”

“Oh, Jesus.”

Cronin twisted his lips into a smile. He shook his head. “No. He wasn’t one.”

Jodis laughed. “The Pied Piper lived in Hamelin, Germany. This particular vampire preferred the blood of children. One hundred and thirty children, to be exact.”

Alec’s mouth fell open. “Children?”

“Yes,” Cronin said quietly. “It is not an ethical practice, even for vampires, and he was brought to trial and executed in 1284.”

“There was also Whitechapel,” Eiji said. This time Cronin and Jodis both sighed.

“Whitechapel?” Alec clarified. “The Whitechapel murders? As in Jack the Ripper?”

Cronin nodded. “He was a particularly troubled vampire. He thought himself uncatchable.”

“They never did catch him,” Alec said. “Did they?”

“Not the police, no,” Jodis said with an amused smile. “Kennard had the pleasure of putting an end to that little show.”

Alec shook his head and puffed out a breath. “Jack the freakin’ Ripper was a vampire?”

“Oh, yes,” Cronin said. “Think about it, all crimes took place at night, the throats were cut to obscure bite marks. Though he liked to splash around in the blood. He really was rather peculiar.”

Splash around in the blood?
Cronin, Eiji, and Jodis all seemed to find that amusing, but Alec didn’t. He put his hand up in a stop motion. “Yeah, okay that’s enough. I don’t think I need to know anymore.” He sighed and looked out across the view of the city. It was now well and truly daytime. “I need to go to bed.”

Alec only felt Cronin’s arms slide around him before they were leaping. He landed on his back on Cronin’s bed, with Cronin on top of him. “I could have walked from the living room,” Alec said, unable to stop the smile.

“I know,” Cronin replied. A soft purr became a low growl as he ran his nose along Alec’s neck.

Then Jodis called out, “No feeding from Alec.”

Cronin huffed out a frustrated growl, and Eiji laughed from three rooms away. Alec chuckled as well. “Shall we test your self-control?” he asked, biting his bottom lip. “Because I’m pretty sure you can fuck me and not bite me.”

Cronin tore Alec’s shirt from his body, making Alec laugh again. “I take it that’s a yes.”

* * * *

Cronin stayed beside Alec in bed, both of them still naked, and watched Alec as he slept. He’d never imagined in all of his years that he’d have this. Not just a bedfellow, but his fated lover. Someone who was half of him, who filled his very heart and soul, who encompassed every thought.

Alec was everything he could have dared dream for. Perfectly designed just for him, he felt the fated bond in his bones. It was not something he could describe, when words were so inadequate. Not even the most distinguished of poets had words for this.

He took in Alec’s human form, all defined muscles and strong lines, pale skin, smattering of hair in all the perfect places. His green eyes reminded Cronin of the moors of Scotland. His pink lips parted just so in breath. He also had trails of fang puncture marks on his neck and his inner thighs, markings Cronin should feel guilt for, yet only pride and possession filled him.

Alec was his, and he loved being bitten. He wore the bite marks with gratification, and he wanted other vampires to see, to know. And that pleased Cronin greatly.

Alec had been a little disappointed that Cronin had shown enough restraint not to bite him. It had taken a great deal of willpower not to sink his teeth into Alec’s flesh, but he’d done it.

Cronin wondered whether this was also a first in vampire history, and if this now made him an incubus. He snorted to himself, causing Alec to stir in his sleep. Alec slid an arm around Cronin and nestled into him, encouraging Cronin’s cock to fill. It didn’t take much—a look, a touch, just being close—and Cronin’s desire to have him flooded his body.

Despite only a few hours sleep, and only a few hours since their last joining, Alec seemed to sense Cronin’s want. He stirred from his sleep again and moaned. It was a sound that made Cronin flex his hips. Without opening his eyes, Alec smiled and rolled onto his stomach. He spread his thighs and lifted his ass, moaning again.

Alec was still slick from their last time, filled with lube and come. Alec never wanted to be cleaned up. He loved that Cronin could release inside him, telling him time and again how good it made him feel. And Cronin loved it too. He loved that Alec would smell of him afterwards, that he’d laid claim to what was his, and made it his own, every time.

“Please,” Alec murmured into the pillow. He arched his back and lifted his ass one more time.

Cronin never could say no to him.

He slid over Alec’s back, lying between his spread thighs. Cronin’s erection pressed against Alec’s slick crack, and Alec whined underneath him until Cronin pressed his cock into him.

He slid in easily, and in one slow thrust he was fully seated inside him. Alec groaned louder this time, pushing his forehead into the pillow, and Cronin growled in his ear. Alec convulsed at the sound and cried out, lifting his ass the best he could, wanting everything Cronin would give him.

Cronin took Alec’s hands and held them to the mattress above his head. He loved watching Alec’s shoulder muscles bunch and slide under his skin, how the back of his neck would stretch as Alec pushed his forehead into the pillow. He braced himself against Cronin’s thrusts, giving himself so completely.

And Cronin took him.

He pushed in as deep as he could, being buried so far inside before pulling out and sliding back in as hard and deep as Alec’s human body would allow. Pleasure soon took over and Cronin’s thrusts became a little sharper, harder, and all he wanted to do was bite.

He wanted to sink his teeth through Alec’s flesh as his cock sunk into his ass, he wanted to fuck and bite, to claim and to own. It was in his nature, it was a primal instinct, but his instinct to protect Alec was greater.

Cronin threw his head back, thrust once more, and came. Alec’s body convulsed around him, gripping his cock and taking in every drop Cronin gave him. Cronin collapsed on top of Alec, sated and spent. Alec threaded his fingers with Cronin’s to keep him right where he was, and before Cronin could even pull out of him, Alec was already fast asleep. Smiling and sated and, Cronin hoped, dreaming of pleasant things, he slept soundly.

A while later, when Alec’s breaths had become soft snores, Cronin showered and went to speak with Jodis and Eiji who were in the office. They had books spread over the desk. Jodis sat in the chair, Eiji leaned against the desk. They both smiled at him when he walked in. “Have you found anything?” Cronin asked.

Eiji’s smile became a grin and he went to say something, but Jodis stopped him. “I told him he’s not to comment on your bedroom habits.”

Cronin smiled, despite the personal subject matter. “I didn’t bite him.”

“We heard,” Eiji said, and Jodis hissed at him, though she fought a smile. “Everything.”

“Yes, I feel the need to apologize for the decades you endured with us in the early days,” Jodis added, a faint blush tainting her alabaster cheeks. “I have no doubt you’ve suffered more than your share.”

“Decades?” Cronin questioned. “What happened to centuries?”

“Yes, well,” she amended with an embarrassed smirk. “Those too. I’m only now realizing how uncomfortable you must have felt.”

“If you’re uncomfortable—” Cronin started to say.

“Oh no, that’s not what I meant,” Jodis interjected quickly.

“Relax Jodis, my dear,” Cronin said, now smiling. “I know what you meant.”

Eiji laughed loudly. “I’m not apologizing for anything.” He still wore a ridiculous grin. “Not for how loud we were, and not for the joking I’ll do with Alec when he wakes up.”

Cronin chuckled. “It’s pleasing to see your good spirits keep company with good health, Eiji. I’m happy you’re here and I know Alec is too. He’s missed you both, despite Eiji’s jokes at his expense.”

“It’s good to be back here with you too,” Jodis said. “And to see you so happy, Cronin. I never realized you were so unhappy before you met Alec.”

“I wasn’t
un
happy,” Cronin mused. “I don’t think I knew what real happiness was. I was content with my life, as I knew it to be.”

“And now?”

“And now I know why you would put up with Eiji all these centuries.”

Eiji barked out a laugh and threw whatever it was he was holding at Cronin’s head. He caught it easily and, still smiling, inspected it. It was a small metal filigree sphere Cronin had collected from Italy a long time ago. Alec had been looking at it the other day and left it sitting on the desk when their conversations about the keepsakes he’d collected ended with them naked, as usual.

Cronin put it back on the shelf from where Alec had got it, and turned to face his friends. “I’m hoping you’re going to tell me there’s been a few human and vampire relations that ended favorably.”

Jodis shook her head. “Nothing.”

Cronin frowned. “I had an errant thought before, and I’m now wondering if there may be a vein of truth to the madness.”

“What is it?” Jodis asked, concerned.

“Should we possibly look into the incubi?”

Eiji’s eyebrows almost met. “What?”

“The ability to copulate without biting,” Cronin said casually. “I just thought—”

“Cronin, no,” Jodis said, standing up. She walked over to him and put her hand on his arm. “That’s not what this is. This is not a manipulation, it’s not coercion, it’s fate.”

“I know that,” Cronin replied kindly. “But if we’re looking at all possibilities. If we are to be objective, is it not in our best interest to examine such things?”

Jodis shook her head adamantly. Her eyes were a steely blue. “I can appreciate your logic, Cronin. It’s generous of you to suggest the possibility, but I refuse to believe such a thing.”

“As do I,” Eiji said. “The incubi are deceitful, cruel even, and you are no such thing. What you and Alec have is real. You will share a bed and you will not feed from him because of the slightest chance of long-term effects on him, and you simply cannot cause him pain.”

“I won’t feed from him because of the effects it seems to be having on me,” Cronin said weakly.

“Oh, give me some credit, brother,” Eiji said with a laugh. “Do you not think after all these years I cannot read your face? As soon as Jodis mentioned effects on you, you looked at Alec, and I could see your mind tick over, Cronin. You thought if it could affect you, then it could affect Alec.” Eiji gave a smug smile. “And you can’t bear the thought of it, because you’re
fated
to him. Not some incubus who would risk Alec’s death for your own pleasure. Cronin, the notion is ludicrous.”

Cronin sighed. “It was merely an errant thought.”

Jodis gave him a sad smile. “Please disregard it.” She looked at him for a long moment. “Cronin, we will find out what this all means. I promise.”

“Which part?” he asked with a sigh. “The part where I’ve suddenly acquired the ability to transfer talents from other vampires? Or the part where I believe Alec has to go into combat against the greatest, most horrific conqueror the world has ever seen?”

Jodis’ eyes softened. “My dearest friend, we will get through this. Though I will say, you are my immediate concern. Genghis Khan, if that is even who we are to face, can wait. This blue moon or the next, Cronin, it doesn’t matter. Your well-being is my priority.”

“And Alec’s purpose in all this mess is mine,” Cronin countered.

“Alec will have no purpose if you are compromised, Cronin,” Jodis said. “If this change in you is not reversible, if there is no improvement now that you’ve stopped drinking his blood, then I don’t know what that will mean. For either of you. Your fate is his as well. If you were to die, then he will follow….” Cronin growled softly and Jodis rephrased her point. “If you are compromised Cronin, then Alec won’t be fighting anyone. We need to get you well first.”

Cronin’s brow furrowed at the thought. He hated putting Alec in jeopardy. He hated the mystery of it all. There were far too many questions and not enough answers. He looked over to Eiji. “Have you found anything in the medical books?”

“For various ways different human blood may affect a vampire?” Eiji clarified. “There’s nothing which relates, in part, to you and Alec’s relationship, and even if there was anything remotely close, there would still be too many variables. Cronin, you’re the only vampire to ever feed repeatedly from the same source for any length of time. And there’s never been a human key before, so it’s a whole new level of unchartered territory. We simply have nothing to gauge this by.”

“Maybe Alec’s doctor appointment will uncover something,” Jodis said.

Cronin nodded distractedly. “Yes. Speaking of which, Alec will be awake soon. I’d best start the coffee machine.”

* * * *

Cronin liked Alec’s father. Kole MacAidan was a good man, so like his son albeit some twenty-odd years older. For the first thirty minutes of their visit, Alec sat with Kole on the sofa, talking of what had happened since their last conversation just a few days ago.