Cronin's Key III (26 page)

The Zoan creatures spun around when
Cronin and a dozen vampires appeared. Some
turned to fight. Some fled. The replicated versions of themselves
had killed a great many, though their losses were great too. Only a
few remained. The stench was worse: fire and brimstone, acrid and
burning.

“
Too many have escaped,”
Feliks said. “They must be in the basements of the Kremlin
by now.”

Cronin
agreed. And once daylight spread over Moscow, the vampires would be
useless to fight them. The Zoan would run free through the city,
killing everyone they found.

Stas stood
stunned at the sight before him. He shook his head in disbelief and
whispered, “I cannot believe my eyes.”

A slinking wolf saw the opportunity to attack him
and rushed at Stas. Kennard flew at
the creature with two hands on his cross and stabbed it in the
chest. “Not him,” Kennard hissed as he turned the creature into
dust.

Eiji threw
him a spare cross, which Kennard then offered to Stas. He took it
and rewarded Kennard with a smile.

“
Into the pit,” Jorge said
. The circle of vampires that surrounded and protected him
moved the boy closer to the center pit. As they jumped down into
the hollowed out earth, another Zoan bubbled out of the center. It
squawked and screeched, and Eiji caught it by surprise with a cross
to the chest.

“
Good idea, Eiji! We can kill them as they come
through
the portal,” Benito
said. “Catch them off guard.”

“
Too many have escaped already,” Feliks repeated, this time
directly to Yevgeny. “Our city must be under attack. There must be
hundreds of them!”

Still holding Alec up, Cronin looked around the large
underground arena. The replicated vampires had taken out the last
few Zoans that stayed to fight. Only one replicated Eiji and Cronin
remained. Cronin looked at Feliks. “You and Yevgeny should go. Take
the two replicates with you
.
And you.” Cronin looked at the leaper who returned Stas to the
cathedral. “Leap them to the Kremlin. Kill what you can.” Then
Cronin turned to Stas. “The choice is yours, my friend. Go with
your compatriots or stay with us.”

Stas looked directly at Kennard. “I
stay.”

Kennard grinned and Alec took in a deep breath. Cronin
guessed he could feel the bond between Stas and Kennard
fortify.
He stood on his own
two feet now, though he still leaned against him. “Alec?” Cronin
questioned.

“
I feel better,” he said. “The replicated vampires are gone,
save two. The power drain on me has lessened.”

But another creature came through the earth, this one with
wings and horns. Cronin had seen gargoyles like this on a building
in Spain once
.

Feliks
roared back at the creature and killed it before it could even get
its tail through the portal. “We go to Kremlin!” Feliks barked.
With a nod from Yevgeny, the leaper put out his hand and along with
the two replicates, they were gone.

It left Eiji, Benito, Kennard
, and Stas with an unarmed Adelmo, a defenseless Jorge, a
too-weak-to-fight Alec, and Cronin, who could not fight because he
was holding up Alec. Not exactly the best team to take into battle,
but it would have to do.

Just then there was an almighty series of screeching and
bellow
s from down the tunnel
where the creatures had run. “We don’t have much time, they’re
coming back this way,” Eiji said.

Then Jorge’s head fell back. His eyes were a solid
black
. He rose up off the
ground so his toes barely touched and he floated with his arms
outstretched. A white light radiated from his black eyes and his
open mouth, splitting the cavernous pits into blinding
light.

Then like the gates of heaven opened against the pits of
hell, vampires appeared. Apparitions, ethereal,
unimaginable
, and beautiful.
The vampires once lost, returned.

Alec’s
mother was at the forefront, smiling serenely. Behind her stood
Willem and Johan, side-by-side. And Mikka, the vampire who died in
the alley the night Cronin finally found Alec. And behind them,
scores of ghostly vampires. Dozens, if not hundreds of
them.

“
We’ve come to help
.
It was Willem who discovered how to beat them,” Heather MacAidan
said with a smiling glance to the man behind her. Then she put her
hand to Alec’s cheek. “These creatures spawn from the depths of
evil, so only the good can stop them.”

“
They’ve escaped to the
city,” Alec said, nodding toward the tunnel that ran to the
Kremlin. “We can’t stop them.”

“
We
can stop them,”
she said. Her voice wisped in the air like bells. “You need to
close the portal, Alec. Once and for all. As the key, it is your
last and final quest.”

Alec shook his head. “I don’t know how
to close it.”

Heather smiled. “You’ll figure out a
way. You always do.”

Then Willem
walked to Cronin. He looked just as Cronin remembered, only now he
looked… peaceful. Truly soul-enlightened, and happy. “Cronin, my
old friend.”

“
Willem.” Cron
in
nodded with a smile at Johan. “A match made in heaven, I
see.”

Willem
laughed, a musical sound. “And yours is the key. There could only
be one man good enough for you.”

Alec bowed
his head to Willem. “Thank you for coming, for helping us. I was
rude to you before and I’m sorry. You’re saving us and I am forever
in your debt.”

“
Keep my friend here safe and I shall deem us even,” Willem
said with a smile. He turned to Cronin. “I always knew we’d meet on
the battlefield once more, my dear Scotsman.” Then he bowed his
head. “Until we meet again.”

They turned to go but before they were gone, Alec said,
“
Johan! Be careful down
there.”

Johan
laughed. “They
cannot harm what is already dead.” As if to prove a point, a Zoan
slithered from the portal. Mikka grabbed it and sunk his teeth into
its neck. The creature screamed before it turned to
dust.

Mikka dusted off his hands and gave a
nod to Willem. “It works.”

“
Mikka,” Cronin said. “I owe you eternal gratitude for
saving Alec that night.”

“
It was my honor,” he
replied with a humble smile. Then all the ghosts turned their heads
to a sound Cronin couldn’t even hear.

Johan gave
Cronin a smile and slid his hand into Willem’s before they glided
away down the tunnel with their army of ghosts behind them. Just a
moment later, Zoan screams were heard down the tunnel.

Everyone turned to the sound, their attention drawn to the
horrific howls of slaughter and mayhem that echoed back to them.
And in
that one split second,
that one tiny moment, they were caught off guard.

“
No!” Adelmo’s voice rang
clear.

Cronin
turned just in time to see a small half-wolf, half-dragon creature
rush at Jorge and Adelmo as he crashed into the beast. The Zoan’s
throat glowed orange and fire burst from its mouth. Flames engulfed
Adelmo, stunning him, and in that split second, the creature
speared Adelmo’s chest.

And before anyone could move, Adelmo
was gone.

As if in slow motion,
Jorge blinked, then he crumpled with a wail, a scream of
agony ripping from his lungs. Alec, with his empathic ability,
stumbled backwards. He had his hand to his heart and he gasped for
air. Cronin caught him, just as Heather picked up Jorge.

“
Take the boy,” she said.
“You must go.”

Alec couldn’t stand fully upright. His
breaths were ragged, his hands were shaking, feeling everything
that Jorge felt.

Jorge
finally sucked back a grated breath and sobbed. “Papa!”

“
Take him,” Heather
repeated. She passed Jorge into Alec’s arms and the little boy
fisted his shirt and thrashed in his hold. “Close the portal. We’ll
take care of the rest.”

Cronin hesitated. He didn’t know where
to go, where to leap them to.

Another creature slid out of the
portal and Heather looked over her shoulder at Cronin.
“Go!”

Eiji rounded up Kennard and Stas and
pushed Benito toward Cronin so they were all touching. “To Jodis
and Asya.”

Cronin pulled Alec and Jorge against
him, held out his free hand, and left Alec’s mother to kill the
beast.

* * * *

Jodis and Asya both recoiled from
their sudden appearance, stepping back at first but then crouching
in a defensive position.

Until they saw who it was.

And how Alec was cradling
Jorge.

“
Adelmo?” Jodis asked.
Eiji shook his head, and Jodis put her hand to her mouth. Then she
studied Alec, how he could barely stand, how he held onto the boy,
and her look of sorrow became concern. “And Alec?”

“
He feels what Jorge feels,” Cronin said. “We need to close
the portal. Now. There’s no saying how long Jorge’s connection to
the afterlife will last.”

“
My papa, my papa,” Jorge sobbed over and over until his
voice faded away to nothing. He lay still, his eyes open, his mouth
still repeating the words
my
papa
without the
sound.

Alec went to his knees, still cradling the boy. “Oh, God,”
he rasped out. “The pain…
.”

Cronin
kneeled before
Alec and cupped his face. “Alec, you must compartmentalize the
pain. You’ve done it before. Can you close it off?”

Alec shook his head. “It’s too much. Their bond, it’s
broken!” He groaned
through a
ragged breath. “Jesus.”

“
Just try for me, m’cridhe,” Cronin begged.
Being Alec’s mate, he could feel a
fraction of what Alec could feel, and it truly was a bewildering
pain. “Please.”

Alec closed his eyes
and took in a few deep breaths. Eventually he nodded. “I’m
trying to shield it from you. I’m sorry, but that’s the best I can
do. It’s so strong, Cronin. His heart, his soul… he’s
broken.”

Cronin’s eyes welled with tears. He could not even imagine
the pain Jorge
was feeling
right now. The thought alone of losing Alec was crippling. Alec
took another deep breath and exhaled slowly, but he clung to the
child and slowly, slowly got to his feet.

It was then Cronin noticed everyone
was standing, watching, and Jodis was crying. Eiji had his arm
around her, Benito stood by his sister Asya, and Stas was standing
protectively at Kennard’s side. There was an unwritten law amongst
vampires that no one should ever lose their mate. It was Alec who
had told them once that Adelmo and Jorge were fated. Not as lovers
of course, but as father and son. It had been wondered for a
century why the man would take on a perpetual child, especially one
with such a misunderstood talent.

Fate. That’s why.

No one questioned Jorge’s sorrow
. No one possibly could. The boy was, as Alec had
said, broken. He lay in Alec’s arms catatonic and lifeless. Utterly
destroyed.

Alec held him tighter.

“
Feliks? Yevgeny?” Asya
asked, she looked so worried. “They live?”

Eiji nodded. “Yes. They’re fine. They
went to the Kremlin to kill the Zoans that escaped, with the help
of Willem and Johan’s army.”

Cronin tried not to sound impatient
. “The portal?”

Asya held out a notepad. “We think we know where the gate
is.”
She showed the picture
she’d drawn. There were nine points in a circular formation with a
middle point, like the spokes of a wheel. “When Alec was changed in
Scotland, it opened the portal in Turkey. The planets aligned to
mimic the Göbekli Tepe and in a different location, the Callanish
Stones, you became vampire.”

“
So the gate we need to
close is not here?” Eiji asked.

“
I’ve seen that before,” Alec said, looking at the
picture.
“Jorge told us in
the beginning you know, he said it!
Stone circle, stone prison.
A circular design made from solid stone, and the missing
gargoyles…. Jesus, I should have seen this.” Alec shook his head.
“Pennsylvanian penitentiary.”

Cronin said,
“We need
floor plans, history, anything you can tell us about that
place.”

Jodis turned the laptop around so they could all see the
screen and answered
. “It’s a
wagon-wheel design with nine spokes. It was designed by a man
called John Haviland. He spent time in both Paris and Moscow,” she
said, pausing a moment to let that sink in. “According to legend,
he was commissioned to build the prison one night after long talks
of his travels with one Benjamin Franklin.”

“
The
Benjamin
Franklin?” Alec asked.

Asya nodded.
“The one
and the same.”