Cronin's Key III (3 page)

“
A vampire wolf?” Kole asked. Alec’s father looked like he’d
aged a year in the last five minutes.
“What the hell is a vampire wolf?”

“
Vargulf
. Or
ulfhéðinn
,” Jodis murmured. Cronin hadn’t seen her look this
worried in a very long time. “It’s the Norse word for ‘one who
wears a wolf’s skin.’”

“
The Japanese would call them
kitsune
or
tanuki
,” Eiji said. “Those who can transform to a fox or dog. The
Russians call them
bodark
, the
Bulgarians call them
vrkolak
. The
Mesoamericans called them
Nahual
. There are a
dozen names throughout history to depict such a
creature.”

Alec looked to his father and explained.
“
There are differences, Dad.
But the name you and I would call them is
lycan
.”

“
Werewolf?” Kole whispered
in return.

“
Similar, but
no. Like
Alec said, there are differences between the two,” Cronin allowed.
“They are lycan.”

Alec stared at Cronin. “You told me
once there was no such thing.”

Cronin shook his head. “Because I did
not know.”

“
If they’ve had names from different cultures throughout
history just like vampires, did anyone not stop and think it’s
because they might actually exist?” Alec was angry and Cronin
couldn’t blame him. “Did you not think it a possibility that they
would be just as real as vampires?”

“
In all my years I’ve never encountered one or heard of
anyone encountering one,” Cronin said defensively. “It would be no
more feasible for me to assume leprechauns or fairies
exist!”

Alec put his hand to the back of Cronin’s neck and pulled
him against him. “I’m sorry,”
Alec murmured with a kiss to his head. “I know. I can see
that. I didn’t mean to raise my voice to you.”

Cronin
tightened his arms around Alec. They rarely exchanged heated words
and it burned as though his heart were on fire in his chest. The
feel of Alec’s arms around him were a healing balm. “If I had
known, if I’d had any idea they existed, or were a threat to
you….”

“
Well,” Eiji interjected. “It’s safe to assume they do
exist. But the real question is, why did they announce themselves
to be Alec’s enemy?”

* * * *

Alec looked around the busy a
partment and suppressed a sigh. There were vampires
everywhere, reading what they could, researching what they could.
Except for Alec. He sat on the floor with his legs crossed and his
eyes closed. To the others he might have looked deep in meditation,
but he was actually using the strength of his mind to not only
fortify the protective barrier around the apartment but also to put
feelers out, reaching into minds all over the world to see if he
could taste the word Zoan or lycan anywhere. Even though extending
his powers to such levels exhausted him, he had to try. “Someone
somewhere must know something,” he said, more to himself than to
anyone in the room.

Alec had
queried
calling a council meeting of world elders, but Eiji and Cronin both
cautioned against it. “Not until we know more,” Eiji said. “If we
call a meeting now, it may cause a panic, and that is not something
we need to add to our list of worries right now.”

“
Agreed,” Cronin added.
“If things get worse, then yes, we make the call. But for now, let
us keep our cards close to our chest.”

Jodis had given Alec’s hand a squeeze.
We’ll figure this out, Alec. I promise
you.

Thank you
, Alec
replied.
And I need to
apologize for my outburst earlier. I was short tempered and I’m
sorry I took it out on you.

She smiled and her blue eyes glistened like ice.
No apologies needed, my
dear
. She looked around the
living room.
But we should
not waste time on this.

Jacques, the French vampire who had assumed the role
of
Alec’s father’s protector,
had been a constant since their time in the underground pits in
China. As had Eleanor, the seer who had proven herself an important
ally. She had also become rather close to Alec’s father, which
pleased Alec a great deal. But in the last twelve months, they’d
been intermittently joined by vampires from all over the world.
Things hadn’t seemed to stop for a second.

At that very moment, there were
six vampires in the apartment and one very human man.
Kole was safe; no one would even dare think of harming him. Even
with visiting vampires, Alec would hear the thought or even taste
their hunger for his blood and either stake them where they stood
or leap them to the sunbaked blazing Sahara desert. Either way,
wanting to harm Kole would be their last living thought.

They needed
an array
of reference books for their research, more than what they’d
already accrued. Alec could transfer anything, an object or person,
to wherever he wanted them leapt. So, with a mental scan, he now
searched libraries and the oldest books for words pertaining to
Zoan, lycan, or shape-shifter and simply plucked the book from its
shelf, making it appear on the table in the apartment.

Alec opened his eyes in time to see
Jodis smile brilliantly as the books appeared.
And with a small nod at Alec and a mental
thanks,
she
picked up the first and started reading.

Cronin, with a stack of books in his
arms, sat next to Alec.

Alec, are you well?
Cronin thought the question, knowing Alec would
hear.

Alec nodded and sent his reply to Cronin’s mind.
I am
.
A little drained
but otherwise fine.

Have you found
anything?

No. And I don’t think
strengthening the shield around us is of any use at all. They
waltzed into my mind like they owned it, and I’d already put blocks
on all external forces.

It was true. Alec learned very early
on that a wall around his own mind would safeguard his sanity. He
blocked out the voices, the sounds, the feelings, the powers of
those around him, only letting in what he wanted.

I also tried to
immobilize the Zoan when they first appeared, but it had no
effect. It seems my powers are useless against them. I can read
them, a little, or maybe they only show me what they want me to
see. Maybe they hold that power over me as well.

Cronin sighed.
When
you were enduring their encounter, it was as though no time passed
for us. Not even a blink of an eye. Then seeing what you showed us,
the meeting lasted for half a minute. It was as though—

Alec finished Cronin’s thought
. —
as though
time stood still.

Yes.

Like I was moving, living through it while you were stuck
on a moment. Frozen in time.
And when time started again, it floored me.
Literally.

Alec felt
Cronin
tense beside him.
We will
find out their intentions, Alec. And we will stop them.

Alec opened his eyes then, looked at
Cronin
, and gave him a sad
smile.
How? If I have an
untapped well of power but am helpless against them, how will we
beat them?

Like we always do.
Together.

Alec turned
his head a little and smiled. “Jacques,” he whispered with a nod to
the door.

Then Jacques walked into the living room, holding the
whiteboard they’d used to map and plan their battles with first the
Egyptian gods and then the Terracotta Army. He grinned as he placed
it upright on the table. “
Just like old times, yes?”

Alec rose fluidly to his feet and put his hand on Jacques’
arm
with a smile. “And I
thought I’d left my days on the force behind me.”

“
I thought it would help
you,” Jacques offered apologetically.

“
It does. More than you know,” Alec said. He picked up the
whiteboard marker and removed the cap and looked around the room.
Now, he could read the minds of everyone in the room easily enough,
but to form a team and to encourage free-thinking and group
discussions, he said, “So, tell me what we know so far, from the
beginning.”

Jodis
answered first.
“Well, as you said before, according to Westernized medicine,
Zoanthropy is the delusion where one believes he or she is an
animal and then acts like one.”

Eleanor
added, “And
we know throughout history, human medical diagnoses are quite often
linked to some truth in the… paranormal.”

“
These Zoan resemble a wolf. We have no records of them in
our vampire histories,” Jacques said, “though human histories have
noted folklores of wolf-like men since the beginning of
recordable
history. There has
to be some truth to that.”

Alec nodded. “Agreed. They wouldn’t have known what
they were a few thousand years ago.
But we know now.”

“
And they’re not werewolves?” Kole asked again. “What’s the
difference between a werewolf and a lycan?”

“
Werewolves are believed to change involuntarily with the
phases of the moon,” Jodis answered. “Lycan, on the other hand,
have the ability to decide when they will shift into wolf
form.”

“
So they’re shape
-shifters?” Kole clarified. His brow creased, clearly
confused by the whole thing. “They wore human skin?”

“
We don’t know anything about the Zoan as a race or breed.”
Cronin answered this time. “They are not known to us at all. But
from what we’ve seen from Alec’s memories, it appears they have a
human exterior, if you will, but are a lycan underneath. I would
assume they can shift to either form at will. It would explain how
they’ve remained undetected all this time.”

Eleanor spoke next.
“They called themselves vulkodlak as well. Meaning vampire
wolf. Which is what? A breed of lycan?”

“
If
a blood drinking
wolf can be defined as a lycan, then theoretically, yes,” Cronin
replied.

Alec
finished writing
down the points of interest. “But what I saw, what I showed you,
what do you make of that? They looked—”

“
Threatening,” Eiji replied. “I fear to see them again, and
fear is not something I have felt in a long, long time.”

“
Under their skin they looked like
wolves,” Cronin stated. “Misshapen, somewhat human,
grotesque. So many sharp teeth. But they looked like something
else. Scaly? Like a sharp-toothed lizard almost?”

“
They’re militarized,” Alec
said. “They stood in formation. They have a leader. That at
least tells us they have a hierarchy and a militia mindset. It’s
something, at least.”

“
And their clothes,” Eleanor said. “Cloaks. I can’t see what
they’re hiding underneath them.”

“
And what of their abilities?” Eiji asked. “They can
appear
in Alec’s mind
telepathically. Then they appear here physically but only to him?
What kind of talent is that?”

“
And if they have the
talent, why doesn’t Alec?” Jodis added her own unanswerable
question.

“
And of the lapse in time?” Cronin asked. “We all saw that.
Alec spoke with them while we stood still, frozen. It was as though
they stopped time for the world, except for them
selves and Alec.”

It was a human habit that made Alec
check his watch, only to find the hands were not moving. He tapped
it, and nothing. It was the expensive watch Cronin had bought him
from Tokyo just over a year ago, surely the battery wasn’t
dead….

“
Alec?” Cronin asked,
looking at Alec’s watch.

“
It’s stopped. Could be a
coincidence,” he said, though he knew it wasn’t.

“
When did it stop?” Eiji
asked.

He glanced at the clock on the wall,
though his sense of time was perfect. “Forty-seven minutes
ago.”

“
About the time the Zoan
appeared in the living room,” Jodis noted.

“
Not about,” Alec corrected her gently. “
Exactly
the time they appeared. They really did stop
time.”

They sat in silence for a while, as everyone took in what
that meant. It was hard to fathom. Kole shook his head. “But you
d
idn’t stop with the rest of
us,” he said. “And that worries me.”

Alec shivered, something he’d not done since his vampire
change. “Which means
when
they come for me, I’m on my own.”

Cronin started to growl. It was a low
menacing sound and he didn’t seem to even know he was doing
it.

“
I don’t like it either,” Alec confessed, looking directly
at Cronin. Then he glanced around at the others. “It appears that I
have no powers over them. I tried to immobilize them and to shield
the others, but nothing worked.”