Cronin's Key III (24 page)

Feliks
smiled fondly as he looked over the high vaulted ceilings, tiled
and painted walls, and the woodwork. “They do a good job,
yes?”

“
Promise me a tour when we
have more time,” Alec said. “I’d love to come back here one day and
have a proper look, if that’s okay?”

Asya gave a nod. “Of course. Any
time.”

Everyone
took a moment to look up at the circular, pinnacled ceiling and the
religious artwork that adorned the walls. Kennard let out a low
breath. “Why are all paintings of religious persuasions so
foreboding?” he asked. “It’s… creepy. The way they hold those
crosses looks like they’re about to stake us.”

Alec stood
beside him, taking in the dozens of paintings of priests, saints,
and those of Mary and Jesus. “Not us,” he said to the Russian
vampires. “Zoan. I saw it in Gautier’s mind. When Cronin asked how
we kill them, I saw in his memory how he staked one in the chest
with a cross.”

The three Russian vampires
stared at Alec, then back at a painting of baby Jesus
holding a cross. Kennard scoffed. “Told you they were
creepy.”

Cronin frowned, his brow creased with
worry. “There are no gargoyles on the outside of this
building.”

“
Hmm.” That was something
Alec hadn’t even given thought to. He looked at Viviana. “When was
the last time the planets aligned to mimic the design of this
cathedral?”

“
1812.”

“
When Napoleon burned it down,” Eiji
said, his jaw clenched. “That can’t be a
coincidence.”

Kennard hissed. His scathing opinion of Napoleon was no
secret.
“Nothing Napoleon did
was a coincidence.”

“
He was trying to stop the
portal?” Asya asked.

Alec shrugged and nodded at the same
time. “It’s possible. It’s likely, even. Maybe he realized what a
mistake Paris had been, or maybe he wanted to resume complete
control. I don’t know.”

“
Come. Priests will be here if we don’t
hurry,
” Feliks’ voice boomed
in the quiet. The huge Russian led them through the intricately
bricked halls and stopped at an old wooden door. He opened it and
had to bend to fit through it. “This way.”

They went
through more domed brick halls not open to the public, and Feliks
waved his hand at the door of one locked room. Easily crushing the
padlock between his two fingers, he opened the door and going
inside, pulled up a wooden trapdoor in the floor. Grateful he
didn’t suffer claustrophobia, they proceeded down the narrow stone
steps, which opened out to a vaulted-ceiling crypt. The archways
were low, intricate tiles made art of the walls, and given there
were now twelve vampires down there, there wasn’t exactly a great
deal of space. It was completely empty and before Alec could
question him, Feliks led them to a crevice hidden in the
corner.

“
These are not known to
the humans,” Feliks said. “This tunnel goes to the church behind
Kremlin walls.”

Alec closed his eyes
,
and with a deep breath, he expanded his mind to gauge the space
around him. “There is another level beneath us,” he
said.

The Russian
vampires shook their heads, confused. “No,” Yevgeny said. Alec
could see in their minds that they truly believed this. They
weren’t being deliberately deceptive. They honestly didn’t
know.

“
Yes,” Alec said. “Like there was under the church in
London. A hidden crypt.”

Eiji took
out his two wooden crosses from his thigh quiver. “I won’t get
caught off guard this time,” he said.

Jodis took
out two for herself as well, and Kennard held his hand out, taking
the cross that Jodis offered him. “Me either. Creepy bastards,”
Kennard said. Eiji laughed and handed one to Benito as
well.

“
I can’t sense anything,”
Alec explained. He held out his hand and pictured the smaller
wooden crosses he saw in the center church above and leapt four of
them into his hands.

The Russians
startled at seeing the objects magically appear before them. Alec
handed one to Cronin, then handed one each to Yevgeny, Feliks, and
Asya. “Just in case.”

“
Just in case what?” Asya
questioned.

“
Just in case any Zoan are waiting for us, stab them with
the cross,” Alec said. The three of them nodded stoically. “And be
careful,” Alec added. “They can breathe fire.”

Feliks swallowed hard and spat the words,
“Eto piz’dets.”

Alec
smiled. The
Russian wasn’t far wrong. It
was
fucked up. He
took a final look at the faces of those with him, each vampire
armed and ready, alert and a little afraid. And lastly, he looked
at Cronin.
My heart is yours,
always.

His reply was short and fervent.
As mine is yours.

And with a deep breath and a silent
prayer to whatever God was listening, Alec leapt.

Flames came at them from the closest Zoan creature
as it roared hell and heat. Almost
six feet of winged wolf, sharp teeth and claws, it screeched and
thundered, and the sulfur-stench was rank.

The army of vampires scattered on
reflex and the flames hit nothing but the dirt wall behind
them.

The room was
cavernous, huge and deep, and the nine circular pits were laid out
just as the cathedral above it. The walls, floor, and ceiling were
dirt, and the center pit was lined with nine pillars of stone. But
that wasn’t the most horrific thing. Because the center pit was
also spewing out Zoan creatures, one after the other. Like they
bubbled up from Hell, reborn and overflowing into the pit. Some
were wolf-looking, some looked more reptilian. Some had wings, some
had tails. They snapped and bellowed, screeched and
howled.

Cronin had never seen anything like
it.

Alec kept
Jorge and Adelmo behind him and threw out his hands as he yelled,
“Stop!”

But time didn’t stop.

The creatures kept coming.

Eiji staked
one with a cross and it screamed before turning into dust. Another
set upon him, its belly and throat burning orange as if it were
about to roar flames at him, and Jodis flew at it. She tried to
freeze the creature’s chest with her ability to turn things to ice,
to extinguish its fire. It screamed at her, unharmed. She held a
cross in each hand like a sword, and with such grace and beauty,
she spun like a ballerina. Her hair twirled around her face like
ribbons, and she stabbed the creature in the heart.

Kennard held his own, as did Benito and Viviana. The
creatures seemed drawn to the furthest tunnel, the one
Cronin assumed that led to the
Kremlin, and some turned to attack the vampires.

Cronin kept
close to Alec, to help defend Jorge and Adelmo, but also to be as
close to Alec as he could. He knew Alec’s powers and abilities
outnumbered his a thousand to one, yet it would kill him to be
anywhere else.

Alec used an array of weapons at the
creatures
: fire, ice, he
stunned them, he tried to make them explode. Nothing
worked.

“
They’re controlling time here,” Alec said. “My powers are
useless against them.” Then he waved his hand, sending up a shield
over the vampires. Cronin hoped it would
at least deflect flames if a Zoan got close enough to
fire upon them.

But the Zoan kept coming. The pit kept spewing out new
creatures, each one more hideous and grotesque than the
last.
“We must shut down the
portal,” Yevgeny said as he took out a Zoan. “The pillars in the
middle pit. Can we knock them down?”

Without waiting for an answer, Feliks jumped at the Zoan’s
very doorway and using a strength Cronin didn’t think was possible,
he pushed over one of the pillars.
He smashed his cross into one Zoan and quickly jumped out
of the pit. But they never stopped coming. They just kept crawling
out of a nonexistent hole.

And then it happened.

Jodis had
turned to protect Eiji, as she often did, and a Zoan creature came
at her. It swiped its huge claws at her, and she recoiled just in
time. The razor-like talons missed her by millimeters. Seeing she
was off-balance, the Zoan used its huge weight to slam into
her.

“
NO!” Eiji cried, flying through the air at the same time
Kennard did, and both vampires staked the creature together,
turning it to dust. Jodis was on the ground, and for a moment
Cronin’s world stopped. Jodis was his dearest friend, his maker.
He’d never known this life without her….

“
Jodis!” Cronin and Alec
yelled together.

After the longest second, f
inally she coughed. Zoan dust plumed out from her mouth,
and Eiji pulled her up to her feet. “I’m okay,” she said softly,
weakly.

Eiji looked
as wild as Cronin had ever seen him. “Alec! There are too many,”
Eiji yelled. “And that was far too close.”

“
I agree,” Alec said.
“Everyone gather in. I’m gonna try something else.”

Everyone did as Alec asked, forming a kind of circle around
Jorge and Adelm
o. “We’re a
smaller target here!” Asya said, not liking the huddled
formation.

Alec put his hands down and closed his
eyes. Cronin stood in front of him, putting himself between Alec
and the Zoan, and the creatures circled in on them.

Then with a
rush of air from Alec, exact replicas of themselves, eleven cloned
vampire doubles—Jorge wasn’t replicated—appeared to their right.
Then another eleven to their left. And another eleven across the
pits, each armed and ready to fight. They started attacking the
Zoan creatures, sending mass confusion amongst the
creatures.

Alec swayed and fell backwards, and
Benito caught him easily. “Alec!”

Cronin was
quick to take him, holding him up, cradling him in his arms. “He’s
too weak from replicating. It exhausts him!”

Alec’s eyes took a moment to focus on Cronin. “Get us out.
But stay close. I need to be close
to keep the replicas going.”

“
Everyone hold on,” Cronin ordered.
Adelmo picked up Jorge in his arms, and as soon as the
twelve of them were touching, Cronin leapt them the hell out of
there.

* * * *

The main
church of St. Basil’s cathedral was a welcome reprieve to the
buried hole directly below them that they’d just come from. Cronin
knelt down and gently placed Alec on the tiled floor, resting his
head and back on Cronin’s lap.

“
What’s wrong with him?” Kennard asked
. Concern etched his fine features.

“
Replicating drains him,” Cronin said. “And replicating that
many people….”

“
I’m okay,” Alec said
softly.

“
You were tired before we
came here,” Cronin said, putting his hand to Alec’s face. “You
haven’t fed in too long.”

“
I’m fine,” he said
again.

“
You don’t look fine,
Alec,” Kennard said.

Alec sat up a little. “I’m feeling
better. When those replicates expire, I’ll be as good as new. I
think,” he added. “I’ve never done this many people
before.”

“
How do we know what’s
going on down there?” Asya asked.

“
I can see them,” Alec
told her. “I can show you all if you like.”

“
Alec, you should rest,”
Cronin said sternly. “Don’t expend energy
unnecessarily.”

“
We need to see what’s going on,” Alec reasoned. He closed
his eyes and a second later an image played through Cronin’s mind.
More like a film than a memory, a vivid play
-by-play of what was happening beneath their
very feet.

The replicated vampires fought well.
Three Eiji’s, three Jodis’, three Cronin’s, three of everybody, all
fought as though they were real. The Zoan certainly couldn’t tell
the difference, and many of them were speared through the
chest.

“
Look at me go,” Eiji
said. “I am good at this.”

“
I don’t look half bad
either,” Kennard added. “Oh, good shot, Benito!”

Benito
chuckled. “I’ve been practicing. Can’t you tell?”

“
It is like watching a video game,” Yevgeny said. “Can I
control what one of me does?”

Alec let out
a shaky breath. “No. Your replicated selves would behave as you
would. At least I think…. I’ve never done this before. Surprised it
works, to be honest.”

Even the replicated Cronin’s never
left Alec’s side, concerned that he was too fragmented, spread too
thin, to be his competent self.

“
I’m okay,” Alec
whispered, just for Cronin. “I can feel your worry.”

“
Apologies,” Cronin
murmured. “I don’t wish to impede you further.”

Just then a
wolf-like Zoan with claws and teeth like razors reared on its hind
legs and lunged at a replicated Alec. A huge paw came down hard,
piercing his chest, his heart, and Cronin could only watch as his
world stopped turning, and Alec fell to dust.