Cronin's Key III (9 page)

“
My intentions are not completely pure,” Cronin said with a
smirk. “My
own needs were
also a contributing factor.”

Alec snorted out a laugh. “Well, your
contributing factors
were well received.”

Cronin chuckled and let his arms sprawl out over the bed,
quite content
, it seemed, to
let Alec do what he wanted with him. He had a sated, glazed look to
his eyes and a lazy smirk. “You are so fucking sexy,” Alec
murmured. He kissed the scar on Cronin’s chest one more time before
finding his mouth again, kissing him deeply.

Cronin
wrapped his arms around Alec’s shoulders and hooked his legs around
Alec’s thighs. Cronin’s kiss was hard and deep. His hips rose off
the bed, begging with his body to be had for the taking. Alec
obliged eagerly, slicking Cronin with lube and then his own cock,
and he pushed into Cronin in one long thrust.

This time when they made love, they held hands and kissed
softly. Quiet gasps and long moans filled the room as Alec radiated
the
love he felt so Cronin
could never doubt exactly how he felt. Cronin’s eyes closed tight,
his jaw slack, his head pushed back, and his neck corded as Alec
came inside him.

And for a
perfect moment, their minds, souls, and bodies became
one.

Cronin clung to Alec, tightening his hold.
“
I wish we could stay this
way forever. I wish I could keep you here, safe.”

“
I wish that too,” Alec
said, peppering kisses down Cronin’s jaw and sucking on his
earlobe.

A shiver ran through Cronin’s body,
and he chuckled. “Do you think the others would miss us for a few
centuries?”

Alec pulled
back so he could see Cronin’s face. He ran his hand through his
ginger hair. “We can’t expect others to fight for us.”

“
I know. I just wish it
weren’t so.”

“
Me too.” Alec slowly
pulled out of Cronin and rolled so they were on their sides,
completely wrapped in each other’s arms. “Though we could rest here
a short while before we go back, yes?”

Cronin
answered with a sleepy purr.

* * * *

Cronin was reluctant to return to New
York. He knew they must, and he knew they’d been gone too long as
it was, but he still would have rather taken Alec to some obscure,
secret place where no one could find him.

Though with
The Zoan—who, it seemed, tracked him in his mind—hiding was futile.
It didn’t matter where he was or what he was doing. If they wanted
him to see something, they simply did exactly that.

But Alec was
keen to get back and start piecing together the puzzle that he’d
been once again thrown into.

“
Nice of you to join us,” Eiji joked. “Though I’m grateful
you left t
o—” He sniffed Alec
and scrunched up his nose. “—do whatever it is you did.”

Alec laughed loudly. “We showered and
everything!”

Alec and
Eiji had become close friends, and this pleased Cronin greatly.
They were, as the saying went, like peas in a pod. They had similar
senses of humor and Cronin would often find them together, laughing
about something—usually something crude or childish.

“
Quit your whining,” Alec said with another laugh. “Or I’ll
give you a complete mental replay.”

Eiji paled and his hands dropped to
his sides. “Please don’t ever do that.”

Alec clapped him on the shoulder and turned to face
everyone in the living room.
They each sat with books or a laptop, making notes and
cross referencing. There had been great progress, and Jodis had put
most of them in chronological order.

“
The first, and perhaps the most alarming, is the
Epic of Gilgamesh
scripts. In approximately 2100 BC,
there was a creature known as Humbaba, which is described as a
wolf-like man with a body of thorny scales.” Jodis looked at Alec.
“It also breathed fire.”

“
Oh, crap,” Alec
mumbled.

“
That’s not all,” Jodis said. “The original stone tablet
these scripts were carved upon bore the words
Sha naqba īmuru
, which, from ancient Mesopotamian times, roughly
translates to ‘it begins with he who sees the unknown.’”

“
Sees the unknown?” Cronin repeated. “Like Alec sees
the
Zoan?”

Jodis gave a
nod. “I believe so. These scripts were either made by someone who
knew of the visions or by someone who saw them firsthand, like Alec
sees them.”

Alec leaned against the dining table
and folded his arms. He looked at Cronin for a moment, seemingly
not sure what to say. He swallowed hard, then turned back to Jodis.
“What else?”

“
The well-known story of Saint George bears some credence,”
she replied. “In the second century BC, it is said he slayed a fire
breathing dragon. Whether it is fact or fiction is still debated to
this day, but given
that the
story remains the same in many different cultures and religions,
I’d believe it to be closer to truth than not.”

Alec closed his eyes and rubbed his
temples. “And?”

“
There are recorded Ukrainian histories dated to the sixth
century that claim an entire race of people—the Neuri—to be
werewolves,” Jodis said. “Though I think we can forgive the term
werewolf. Locals of that time would have likened them to
wolves,
being the most feared
wild animal in those areas, not knowing the difference between
wolves and lycan.”

“
I think we can forgive much of the human
hist
ories for this
confusion,” Jacques added. “It wasn’t until the sixteenth century
that a scientific difference was clarified.”

“
There were a lot of witch hunts throughout Europe through
medieval times, as we know,” Jodis gave Cronin a dark look. “Though
many creatures are listed as werewolves, the true nature of these
creatures may not ever be known.”

“
The first instance of the word werewolf, be it an actual
werewolf or a lycan, was
in
the eleventh century,” Jacques said. “Though the first lycan story
was told in Greek mythology.” He read from an old text. “‘A doctor,
Marcellus of Sides, in the second century documented lycanthropy
was a form of depression and prescribed bloodletting.’”

“
Oh
, excellent,” Alec
said sarcastically. “That would have ended well for a blood
drinking animal.”

Jacques
continued.
“‘In the seventh century, an Alexandrian physician by the name of
Aegineta wrote of humans who became wolves and howled in the
cemeteries, killing people. Also prescribed
bloodletting.’”

“
Then with the introduction of Christianity throughout
Europe, these stories of lycans and other shape
-shifting creatures were put to an end with
witch hunts and religious persecution of demons and Satanists. No
one even dared write about them for fear of retribution.” Jodis
closed the book in front of her. “Though there was a doctor by the
name of Weyers who wrote about demonism, including lycanthropy, in
the sixteenth century. Needless to say, he wasn’t very
popular.”

Jodis
went on to add,
“So for a few hundred years, such creatures only survived in
folklore and pagan tales spoken around campfires instead of written
down. Then we find medical cases from the sixteenth century, most
citing madness and clinical lycanthropy.”

“
And outside of Europe?”
Alec asked.

“
Asian dragon myths stem from the beginning of time to this
very day,” Eiji said. “In most countries, religions, and
art.”

“
There’s a dragon in the Old Testament,” Kole said. “A
seraph serpent. A fiery reptile. Could it have been a
fire-breathing lizard with wings… a dragon… type
thing
?” He shook his head
like he couldn’t believe he was saying such things.

Alec snorted. “Weird, huh?”

Kole looked so much like his son when he
smile
d. “Just a
little.”

“
Ther
e is an African
people,” Eleanor said, “the Nyoro tribes, who believe in ancient
times that the first humans were chameleons.”

“
A l
izard that changes
color?” Cronin asked.

“
Or shape,” Alec
added.

“
Could it be that the Zoan present themselves in the form
most horrific to the human
culture it faces?” Eiji asked rhetorically. It was an
interesting notion, and quite possible, Cronin agreed. Eiji went
on. “Throughout Europe, the wolf was most feared, so that is what
they saw. Throughout Asia, it was the evil dragons.”

“
And what do I see?” Alec
asked.

“
Their truest form. You see under their human façade to the
beast underneath,” Jodis said. She looked around at everyone.
“We’ve all seen what Alec has seen. Wild teeth, scaly skin. Could
it not be a hybrid of lycan and dragon?”

Alec turned to Jacques. “Tell the
others what you just thought,” he said to him. “Sorry for hearing
that, but it’s a valid point.”

“
Oh,” J
acques said,
blushing a little. “I don’t know what made me think of it, but
getting back to the gargoyles… there was a remarkable case in
France in 1450 called the Paris Wolves. A pack of forty or more
‘wolf-men’ reportedly killed a hundred people. The pack was
eventually lured and cornered, and they were killed.”

“
Tell them where,” Alec
pressed.

“
At the doors of the Notre
Dame Cathedral.”

Cronin knew why Alec thought this was important. He stared
at Jacques. “Wh
en were the
gargoyles added to Notre Dame?”

“
There have been many
additions to the gargoyles that grace the exterior walls,” Jacques
explained.

“
When were the first ones added?”
Cronin pressed.

“
In 1450.”

Jodis smiled. “
It
cannot be a coincidence. They are one and the same.”

Cronin nodded. “It would appear
so.”

“
The original gargoyles were removed and replaced in the
nineteenth century,” Jacques said. “There’s a crypt beneath the
cathedral. From what we learned in history, statues and such things
are kept there.”

Cronin, Alec, Jodis
,
and Eiji all smiled at one another. Then Alec clapped Eiji on the
shoulder again and said, “Looks like we’re going to
France.”

Then Cronin watched as Alec froze, for just the blink of an
eye, his face neutral, his eyes glazed over. Alec sucked back a
gasping
breath and stumbled
forward. Cronin leapt to catch him, and when he held him and helped
him to his feet, he smelled it. The most delectable scent, an
essence Cronin would kill for.

Alec’s blood.

Vampires had impeccable balance, coupled with agility and
speed, and a perfect sense of space and distance.
Alec could balance on the edge of a
dime if he needed to. So losing that equilibrium was disconcerting,
to say the very least.

The sense of falling, of stumbling and
losing his sense of awareness was the most unnerving.

“
Alec!” Cronin’s arms were
around him, keeping him upright and safe.

Alec’s
reality came back to him like a vacuum, sucking back into current
time and space, and he had full control of his body and mind,
vampire talents included. He could hear and feel Cronin’s anguish
and the internal war to leap or stay.

“
Stay,” Alec whispered. He was breathless, which was
disturbing in itself. He noticed
everyone in the room was on their feet, watching on in
horror. Except Eiji and Jodis. They had assumed a protective stance
around him, crouched and ready to defend him. He felt their alarm,
their worry. “I’m okay,” he told them. “They’re gone.”

“
You’re bleeding!”
Cronin’s voice was strangled.

Alec looked down at his arm to see
that he was, in fact, as Cronin had said, bleeding. He’d not felt
it before Cronin had mentioned it. Then he remembered….

Cronin put his hands to Alec’s face, scanning every inch of
him for further injury.
“Alec, m’cridhe, tell me what happened!”

“
The Zoan,” he replied in a whisper.
He then whispered directly into Cronin’s
mind,
I need to sit
down
. He swayed on his feet,
then found himself on the sofa with Cronin kneeling in front of
him.

Cronin made a pained whining sound, his hands
touching Alec’s face, his neck, his
chest. “Please tell me you are well.”

Alec nodded and gave him a weak smile.
“I’m fine.”

Jodis ripped
Alec’s
bloodied shirtsleeve off at the shoulder. “The wound is deep but
you’re healing quickly enough.”

Focus turned to the cut on his arm.
Claw marks, each three-inches-long, were torn
into the outside of his bicep. Jagged and deep, the three gashes
had bled profusely, but were almost healed now, though Alec’s arm
was stained red down to his fingers.