Cronin's Key (3 page)

“You have questions,” Cronin said. It was a statement.

Alec laughed. “Ah, just a couple.”

Jodis smiled at Alec, Eiji smiled at Cronin, while Cronin looked like he was about to be executed.

“What happens now?” Alec asked. “What happens to me? I feel like I’ve stumbled into an episode of the
Twilight Zone
or something. How is that quantum leaping thing even possible? Not that I want to try it again, thank you very much. What the hell was the man who turned to dust? Or the one I chased through the backstreets? Not
who
.
What
. How does everyone know who I am? That guy said someone’s coming for me. What did he mean? And what the hell is the ‘key’?” Alec used quotation marks in the air. He looked at Eiji. “And where do I know you from? I’ve never seen you before, yet you’re familiar… somehow.”

Cronin’s gaze shot to Eiji’s, his dark eyes burning, and he was about to speak, but Alec put his hand up to stop him.

“I haven’t finished yet. And you,” Alec said, looking at Cronin. “How did I know your name? How did you know mine? Why did I say yes to leaving with you? Why do I get the feeling that I couldn’t have said no? What the actual fuck is going on? I’ve said twice that I don’t think you’re human, and yet no one’s corrected me. In fact, Jodis and Eiji here seem to think it’s funny.” Alec pointed his thumb to the two others next to him. “Why doesn’t that scare me? Because I’m thinking after everything I’ve seen tonight, I should be rocking it out in the fetal position somewhere, but I feel oddly fucking calm. So, please, tell me, what the hell is going on?”

Eiji and Jodis looked at Cronin, giving him time to speak, but he seemed unable to find the right words.

Jodis spoke instead. “I think we should start at the very beginning.” She smiled and her voice was soft and melodic. “You feel safe here?”

Alec shrugged. “Yes.”

“And you’re not afraid of us, are you?”

“No.” Alec couldn’t explain it, but no, he wasn’t.

Eiji smiled at him. “We cannot harm you, Alec.”

Well, that was odd. “Um, thanks?”

Cronin looked straight at Alec with a mix of fear and determination on his face. “What we are has been misconstrued over time. We’ve had many names in many cultures over many millennia:
vrykolakas
,
ubyr
,
strigoi
—” Cronin swallowed hard. “—vampyre.”

Vampire.

Alec looked at the three faces who were now studying him. He had to push the air out to make his voice work. “Vampire?”

Cronin looked him square in the eye. “Yes.”

A bubble of laughter escaped Alec. “Right. Sure. Yep, good one. I’ve seen this movie. Couldn’t you think of something a little more original? Because, you know, the whole vampire thing got old. It’s been done.”

“Cronin speaks the truth,” Jodis said softly. “It is no joke.”

Alec blinked, then blinked again. Vampires. The rational part of his brain told him this was nonsense; there were no such things except in myths and fiction. But there was a cold, fluid realization of truth, like quicksilver through his veins that told him otherwise. He knew what they were saying was true, and whether he wanted to or not, he believed it.

Alec scrubbed his hands over his face. He was beyond tired, stressed, and it had been one helluva crazy day. He stared out the glass wall, seeing the faintest hint of daylight on the horizon. No one spoke while his mind processed and pulled in a thousand different directions.

Finally, Alec looked at the three of them, then settled on Cronin. “Aren’t vampires supposed to have fangs or something?”

Cronin smiled, slowly exposing his teeth. His completely normal fangless teeth. Then, in what Alec thought was a silent snap, two perfectly pointed fangs popped down in the corners of Cronin’s mouth.

Alec’s whole body reacted. He recoiled, his heart hammered, his brain stopped working, frozen, and the hairs on his body stood on end. But most disturbing was how turned-on he was. Instant heat and desire flared in his belly and his groin. Alec shot to his feet and quickly put some much-needed space between them.

Fucking hell.

He’d never felt anything so intense, so pure.

Alec sucked in some deep breaths as he walked to the other side of the room. It was Jodis who followed him. She kept a few feet between them, but when he faced her, she smiled at him and spoke softly. “It is shocking when you first see it, yes?”

See what?
Oh, the teeth
. It wasn’t the teeth that he found confronting. It was how his body reacted.

“So, what?” Alec said, looking at the three of them in turn. “You can just make them appear when you want? How does that even work?”

“We can. Like flexing a muscle,” Jodis answered. “Though sometimes it is an involuntary reaction, such as when we are threatened, when we feed, or when we are sexually aroused.”

Cronin stood up. “Enough.”

Alec stared at him. “No. It’s not enough.” He looked back at Jodis. “This is good. Tell me everything now; get it all out in the open. No one’s answered any of my questions, so let’s have it, huh?”

Cronin lifted his chin. “You have just learned that humans are not the only people to walk this earth. You’ve leapt with me, you’ve seen vampiric teeth, you’re sitting in a room with three vampires, yet you are not afraid?”

Alec turned to Eiji. “Does he always answer questions with more questions?”

Eiji roared with laughter. “Oh, this is perfect,” he said, earning a cutting glare from Cronin.

Alec ignored whatever was going on between them and spoke to Cronin. “I’m not afraid. I told you already I can deal with weird. What I want is answers.”

“Fine,” Cronin said. His teeth were now back to normal, and Alec wasn’t sure if he was thankful or disappointed.

“So you’re all vampires?”

“Yes.”

“But that guy in the alley bled all over me. Vampires have blood?”

“Yes.”

“That means you have a heart and a circulation system,” Alec stated. “It also means you can die.”

“We heal quickly” was all Jodis said.

Alec shook his head, trying to take everything in. “You can all do that leaping thing?”

“No,” Cronin answered. “Different vampires have different skills. I have the ability to leap, as do some others.”

“What other different skills?”

“Eiji can read DNA, and Jodis can turn objects into ice.”

Alec blinked and stared, open-mouthed, at Jodis. “Of course you can.”

Cronin continued. “Other abilities vary from vampire to vampire. Usually it is something one takes with them from their human life.”

“You started out human?”

“Yes.”

“Who were you?” Alec asked him. “I mean, you said you were Scottish…”

“I was born of the
Dál Riata people in Dún Ad, what is now western Scotland.”

“When?”

Cronin looked at him for a long moment. He swallowed hard and lifted his chin. “I was born, human, in the year 744 and reborn vampire in 768. I was twenty-four.”

Alec blinked a few times. “744? As in the year seven hundred and forty-four?”

Cronin smiled. “Yes.”

Alec looked at Jodis then. “And you?”

“I am Nordic. The year of my human birth is unclear, but I would estimate the same or similar to Cronin.” The blonde woman smiled at Cronin. “It was I who changed Cronin.”

Alec stared at them. Both Cronin and Jodis were obviously okay with this development, and if there was any animosity between them, it was long forgotten. “You changed him?”

“Yes. It was not intentional,” she said, almost wistfully.

“Oh, good,” Alec deadpanned. “What’s a bit of unintentional homicide between friends?”

Jodis surprised Alec by laughing. Cronin on the other hand, looked at Alec as though he was worried for his mental well-being. Maybe he should be, Alec thought.

Eiji stood up and bowed his head. “I am Eiji. The year of my birth was not documented, but my human life was ended in the year 261. I had lived approximately twenty-seven summers.”

“Two hundred…” Alec was dumbfounded. “Are you shitting me?”

Eiji laughed. “No. No shitting involved.”

Alec stared at the three of them, then closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “You know, there’s a joke in there somewhere. A Highlander, a Viking, and a Samurai walk into a bar.”

“I was no Samurai,” Eiji said, still grinning.

Alec looked at him. “Sorry.” He sat back down on the sofa, or maybe collapsed was a better word. “Okay. So you’re all ancient, and I’m twenty-nine.”

“Well, that technically makes you the oldest here,” Jodis said with a smile. Alec snorted and let his head fall back onto the back of the sofa. The events of the night were weighing on him. Jodis walked over to the sofas again, but this time she sat down next to Eiji, putting her hand on top of his.

Cronin stood at the end of the room, leaning against the wall. “You are tired. Would you prefer to sleep or ask more questions?”

“Questions,” Alec said, trying to shake off his exhaustion. He picked up another coffee. It had gone cold, but he didn’t care. He drank it anyway. “I have stupid questions, just for curiosity’s sake. Mirrors? Can I see your reflection?”

Cronin smiled. “Yes.”

“Does holy water hurt you?”

“No.”

“Garlic?”

“No.”

“Sleep in a coffin?”

“No.”

“Sleep at all?”

“Yes.”

“Sunlight make you burst into flames?”

Silence.

“Holy shit!” Alec said. “Really?”

Cronin held eye contact with Alec for a long second. “We cannot tolerate sunlight.”

Alec looked at the wall of glass and the almost-risen sun. “Well, I hate to break it to you guys, but the sun’s almost up and these windows are great for the view—which is pretty spectacular, I will say—but you’re gonna get one helluva tan in a couple of minutes.”

Cronin laughed at that, a quiet sound that made Alec’s heart beat faster. “Specially made ultraviolet-resistant glass. Completely safe.”

“Well, that’s good,” Alec mumbled. The way Cronin was looking at him made Alec think he was enjoying this. “What about crosses or other religious symbols?”

Cronin shrugged. “Nothing.”

Alec was happy with how this was going. He was finally getting answers. “So, my questions earlier…” he started.

Cronin answered. “The two men you saw this evening were both vampires.”

“They weren’t together,” Alec stated. “I was chasing one. The other one, the one that… died… did he intervene to save me?”

Cronin shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Yes,” Eiji answered. Cronin and Alec both turned to him. “He was protecting you.”

Cronin’s jaw bulged. “And you know this, how?”

Eiji looked right at Cronin. “Because I told him to.”

“You
what
?” Cronin asked, his voice was quiet.

Fatigue started to drag Alec under, and the coffee and shaking his head weren’t fighting his exhaustion anymore. “Is there a bathroom here?”

The discussion—and tension—halted. “Sorry. Of course,” Cronin said. He pointed toward a hall off the main room. “Down the hall, first door on your right.”

Alec walked in the direction Cronin had pointed and found the bathroom. It was grand: dark marble floors and white tiled walls from the floor to the ceiling. Everything in this whole apartment, what he’d seen of it, spoke of opulence and an unfathomable amount of wealth.

Alec relieved himself and wondered whether vampires needed to piss, thinking he’d add it to the list of new questions he was formulating. The detective in him had to look through the cabinets. There was nothing except expensive hand soap, which had never been used. Even the towels looked brand new, and he wondered whether Cronin
lived
in this place at all. There was nothing personal to suggest he did. No products, no signs of life.

Alec washed his hands, the cold water making him feel better, then washed his face as well. It made him feel half-human, he thought, then snorted at himself, given the non-humans just a few yards away.

He stared at himself in the mirror, taking stock of all that he’d learned in the last twelve hours. He still looked the same; his shaggy brown hair was a mess, probably from running his hands through it a hundred times, and his hazel eyes were surprisingly clear despite the turmoil he expected to see. He didn’t know why he presumed to see a change in himself. He had just learned the world was not as it seemed, that creatures not-human walked amongst them. Life as he knew it was fundamentally over, changed so completely, yet he still looked the same.

They’d answered a lot of questions, yet one remained:
Why him?

What did any of this have to do with Alec MacAidan?

Despite how tired he was, Alec figured he’d find out how and why he was involved, and walked to the door. He cracked it open and stopped when he heard voices. They were talking about him.

“You knew!” Cronin whisper-shouted. “How could you not have told me?”

Eiji answered. “Because you wouldn’t have let him live.”

What?

“What?” Cronin hissed. “Of course I would have!”

“No, I mean
live
. A full human life. You would’ve risked everything following him, protecting him.”

“Of course I would have!”

“He needs a human life! You can’t spend a millennia with regrets, Cronin.”

Huh?

“He needed protection!”

“I looked out for him.”

“For almost thirty years without telling me! You are supposed to be my brother!”

“I am,” Eiji cried. “Jodis first, then you. And now him. I would lay my existence down for him. You know that!”

Cronin growled. “He chased down a Seeker, Eiji. A Seeker! He could have been killed. One of us
was
killed protecting him. He should have had training by now.”

Training for what?
And what the hell is a Seeker?

“Was this the first time his life was in danger?” Cronin asked.

There was a moment of silence; then Eiji answered, “No.”

An anguished growl ripped through the air. Alec should have run away, he should have been scared as hell. But he wasn’t. It was Cronin, and the sound pierced Alec like nothing he’d ever felt. The growl snapped into a snarl, and Alec was in motion. Without meaning to, without any conscious decision to do so, Alec now stood in front of Cronin with his gun drawn at Eiji’s head. “Back the fuck away from him.”