Cronin's Key III (15 page)

“
I’m sorry
nonetheless.”

Cronin
kissed him again. “Did you want to talk about your dream?” When
Alec didn’t answer, Cronin prompted him. “It was of Jorge,
yes?”

Alec nodded
. His
voice was quiet when he spoke, clearly still haunted by what he saw
in his dream. “The Zoan were there, the five cloaked ones. He was
in a world of pain—I’ve not felt anything like it. They held him in
a circle of stones or a round room. I don’t really know… it was
unclear. Like the Callanish or Stonehenge, but not. That doesn’t
make sense….”

Cronin thought about what that could
mean. “Do you think it was a prophecy?”

Alec stopped walking and waited for
Cronin to look at him. “I do.”

“
Then we need to go to
Jorge.”

“
Yes. If I use my talents and focus on Jorge, I can see that
he’s okay. He’s with Adelmo in the jungle, and he’s happy.” Then
Alec said, “But it felt very real. I know that vampires aren’t
supposed to dream at all, and given my mind is a universe of
unknowns, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. But it was different
than a vision of the future. I don’t know, Cronin. It was
strange.”

“
A Zoan trick of the mind,
perhaps?” Cronin offered. “Testing your resolve at a subconscious
level?”

Alec nodded
slowly. “Possibly.” He took a deep breath. “I can’t help but think
the shape is important. A circle. I don’t know why or how. But I
became a vampire with the power of the Callanish Standing Stones,
which is circular. The Zoan came through a portal in the Göbekli
Tepe, also a circle. It can’t be a coincidence.”

“
Circular altars, circular rooms, circular sigils have been
used throughout history for religions and
sorcery,” Cronin said. “If you believe that kind of
thing.”

“
Or for bringing back vampires,” Alec added. “I guess
religion, sorcery
, and the
supernatural is all subjective to your beliefs.”

Cronin offered him a small smile.
“Perspective changes when faced with a different kind of mortality,
does it not?”

“
It does.”

“
Neither one is wrong or
right.”

“
It’s a little
disconcerting, I have to admit.”

“
Agreed. That is why the discovery of the vampire afterworld
is such an incredible find for me,” Cronin told him. “My
perspective on mortality, and even immortality, changes yet again.
I still want forever with you. And I want
this
forever.
Not the next.”

Alec
smiled, even
though he’d not completely shaken off the horrible feeling from
before. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Not to
mention the whole concept of time. If I can actually stop it, what
does that make it? Time is an intangible concept, isn’t it?
Granted, it’s a man-made concept, so what mankind has told itself
to be an unbendable truth, is merely just a concept. No different
to religion, I guess.”

Cronin considered the reality of time not being a
const
ant thing. Alec was
right. Time was no more a gospel truth than any other thing humans
have told themselves throughout history. “You know that Jodis will
want you to practice your new ability to stop time,” Cronin said,
getting back to more recent events.

“
Yeah. She thinks if I can
stop time and keep you unfrozen, then we can beat the Zoan at their
own game,” Alec said. “Her thoughts are pretty clear.”

“
She only has your best interest
s at heart,” Cronin added.

Alec snorted out a laugh. “You don’t
need to defend her. I know she’s your best friend, but I can see
her intentions are honest.”

Cronin shook his head. “You’re
wrong.”

“
No, I’m pretty sure I’m
not. I can see her thoughts, her meanings, objectives, the things
she doesn’t say out loud. She keeps a lot to herself, which some
people should be thankful for, let me tell you, but she’s as
honorable as Eiji.”

Cronin chuckled. “No. You’re wrong
about her being my best friend. Close friend, oldest friend,
dearest maybe. But you are my best friend.”

“
Awww,” Alec crooned. He
kissed Cronin with smiling lips. “And you are mine.”

Cronin took his time, gently cupping Alec’s face and
kissing him properly. Not a kiss that was leading to anything more,
just a perfect kiss.
When
they pulled apart, he rested his forehead on Alec’s. “We should be
going back.”

Alec
closed his eyes
and smiled. “Thank you for bringing me here. I needed peace and
quiet, and you somehow knew that without me saying so.”

“
Anytime, m’cridhe,”
Cronin whispered.

* * * *

The apartment in New York City was buzzing. Research books
were still out, laptop screens with a dozen different
Internet tabs were open, and a few
more details had been added to the whiteboard. If it resembled a
special ops confab, then Jodis was clearly the commanding
officer.

How Alec could tune out not only the mental voices in the
room, but those of the closest few million people in the City,
Cronin would never know. He’d likened
the control of his many talents once to having a
hundred tabs open on an Internet browser and simply muting one. It
seemed incomprehensible to Cronin, yet Alec did it with
ease.

Well, normally he did. Today was a
little difficult.

“
Can you give me a minute?” he asked of Eiji, who had hit
him with a dozen quick-fired questions. Alec sat down on the sofa,
closed his eyes, and was eerily still. Before Cronin could ask what
he was doing, Alec opened his eyes and smiled. “Jorge and Adelmo,”
he said softly, and in the next second, Jorge and Adelmo appeared
in the living room.

“
Alec!” Jorge cried and ran over to him, smiling from ear to
ear. He jumped onto his lap. Adelmo seemed a little more
reserved.

“
Please, sit down and I’ll explain,” Alec told him. Alec
waited for Adelmo to sit on the sofa, then he explained, not just
for Adelmo but for everyone. “I sought the mind of Jorge here,”
Alec said, giving the boy a tickle and making him laugh, “and asked
if I could leap them here.”

“
Importante
,” Jorge
said.

“
Yes, it’s important,” Alec went on to say. He looked at
Adelmo when he spoke next. “I had a dream, or a vision came to me
while I slept—I’m not sure which it was—that Jorge was in danger.”
Alec explained his dream of the Zoan. “They threatened me before,
and now I believe they mean to include Jorge.”

Adelmo
hissed and his eyes narrowed.

Alec put
out a small
wave of calm to pacify him. “I know. This is why I asked you here.
We can protect him better here. All of us.”

Jorge looked
up to Alec, his brown eyes inquisitive but sad. “Why
Jorge?”

Alec shrugged. “I don’t know. But I’d
rather you stayed here with us until we know you’re safe,
okay?”

“
How does the key not
know?” Jorge asked.

“
Apparently I can’t see these creatures unless they show
themselves to me,” Alec answered. “I can’t see anything about
them.”

“
The same ones you ask
Jorge about before?”

Alec nodded
but it was Cronin who spoke. “Jorge, have you seen anything else,
from the people who talk to you? Alec’s mother or Willem? Have they
shown you anything else?”

Jorge shook his head. “
Nada más
.”

Nothing else.

“
Could you ask them?” Cronin pressed. “
Por favor
.”

“
Cronin is worried,” Jorge
said, looking up at Alec.

Alec smiled
at Cronin, then at Jorge. “He is. I am too. I don’t want anyone to
hurt you.”

It had been horrifying for Adelmo when
Jorge was taken, leapt from his home and held captive in the
underground pits of China. Alec had explained that he could see the
paternal bond Adelmo had with Jorge, and now Cronin wondered if
Alec somehow felt responsible.

Alec’s gaze shot to Cronin.
Of course I do. How could I not? He’s a child, albeit a
vampire, but still just a kid. We should protect him, all of
us.

Cronin fought a smile.
You’re a good man, Alec.

Vampire.

Same thing
.

“
Are you two done?” Eiji was smiling at them. He must have
thought something next because Alec laughed.

“
Jorge look for you, look for you, he will,” Jorge said in
the riddled way he spoke.

“
Muchas gracias,” Alec said. Then he looked up at Cronin and
was serious again. “Dad will be awake soon. We’d better get ready
for Paris.”

“
We have the
coven
meeting tonight,” Jodis reminded them.

“
We’ll be back by then,”
Alec said with a nod.

“
Jodis?” Eiji asked
.
“Are you not coming with us?”

“
I will stay here,” she
replied softly to him. “I will have as much information together
for the meeting tonight as I can, and I will stay to keep watch
over Jorge.”

“
If you are sure.” Eiji
looked torn, and it was not a sight Cronin liked to see.

Alec either, apparently. He walked over to Jodis and put
his hand on her shoulder. “I’m transferring the talent of leaping
to you.
It will only last
until I get back, but if you need to, you can hightail it outta
here, okay? Just think of somewhere safe and you’ll be
there.”

Jodis rolled her eyes, as though Alec lacked faith in her
ability to defend the vampires staying behind. But Eiji was happier
with this development, and the small smile she gave him told Cronin
that Jodi
s was
too.

“
Kennard
and Jacques
will be with us,” Cronin said. “And Kole, so that makes
six.”

Eleanor stepped forward. She’d been so quiet Cronin had
almost forgotten she was there. “For what it’s worth,” she said, “I
foresee no problems. I know we cannot see the Zoan creatures,
bu
t you will all be at the
coven meeting tonight, if that is of any consolation.”

Alec walked
over and gave her a quick hug, surprising her. “Thank you,
Eleanor.”

“
What for?” she mumbled.
“I’ve never felt so useless.”

“
You are far from
useless,” Alec said warmly. “You’ve helped us numerous times. Just
because I have the seer talent doesn’t mean you’re not needed. When
I am gone, you can see any imminent danger and Jodis can leap you
all out, okay?”

“
I cannot see the
Zoan.”

Alec
shrugged. “Neither can I. So we’re as useless as each
other.”

Eleanor gasped, looking somewhat horrif
ied. “You’re not useless, Alec.”

“
Some would argue,” Kole said, his voice still
rough from sleeping.

Alec smiled at him. “Morning, Dad.
Ready for our big day?”

“
Need a cup of tea first,” he grumbled without stopping and
walked straight into the kitchen.

Eiji
snorted out a
laugh. “Reminds me of you, Alec, when you were human. It was coffee
or someone would die.”

Alec scrunched up his nose. “Even the thought
of drinking coffee now makes my
stomach turn.”

“
What about steak?” Eiji
said with a grin.

“
Only if it’s rare,” Kole
chimed in from the kitchen. “If the blood runs out of
it.”

Everyone
laughed. Alec’s mouth fell open and he gawped toward the kitchen.
“Dad!”

Kole
appeared in the doorway, holding a steaming teacup in both hands.
Eleanor had already brewed his tea. He shrugged and sipped his
drink. “Just tellin’ it like it is, son.” Then he looked around the
room and realized Jorge and Adelmo were there. He turned back to
Alec. “So, what did I miss?”

“
Have your breakfast, Dad.
Get showered. I’ll tell you everything when we get to
Paris.”

Leaping into a dark and cold alley was nothing new to
vampires, but Kole wasn’t too familiar.
He hated leaping, and Cronin deduced the effect on the
older man’s body was worse. Alec kept him close and pulsed a wave
of pain relief through him.

“
You okay?” Alec asked
him.

“
Yeah, yeah,” Kole said, trying to downplay it. “Though I’d
take a ten hour plane trip over leaping any day.” He looked up at
the stone walls at their sides. “Are we really in
Paris?”

Cronin
looked up and down the deserted street. There were cars parked and
sounds of the city, but no one was in view. “This is Rue
Massillon,” he said with perfect French inflections. “If you look
to your left,” he nodded up the dark street, and at the end was a
well-lit huge stone building. “That is Notre Dame.”