Cronin's Key III (16 page)

Kole pulled his coat collar up around
his ears. He huffed. “Well, then I guess leaping isn’t all
bad.”

Jacques laughed quietly. “Paris is my
old stomping ground. Though I like New York as well.” His French
accent seemed stronger here. “Come, Kole. I will show you some
sights.”

They walked down the
street to where the Notre Dame Cathedral hulked over them
in all its Gothic architectural glory. The stone building was dark
and wet, adding to the eeriness as they walked up Rue de Cloître
Notre Dame, rounding the corner to the front of the building. The
five of them stood back, looking up at the towers, taking in the
magnificent sight before them.

“
The gargoyles,” Kennard
said softly. “Look at them.”

“
Yeah,” Eiji agreed. “They
look very familiar.”

“
Look at the stained glass window,” Alec said. “In the third
segment.”

Cronin recognized them immediately. They were the same
devilish creatures depicted in the stained glass windows in London.
Black winged creatures, somewhat resembling a
dragon
-type wolf being
speared by a knight. They were the same creatures that now stood as
stone statues on the very walls they were looking at.
“Zoan.”

“
You can see that?” Kole whispered. “I mean, seriously? I
can barely make out the window. I can see the window is
round.”

Eiji
snorted. “Kole, you are so much like Alec.”

Alec smiled, then nodded toward the
tower
, to where the infamous
gargoyles were perched. “I think we should check out the crypt
first. That is why we’re here, but I also want to go up there
afterwards. Something’s telling me to get a closer look at the
gargoyles.” Then he looked around and saw just how visible they all
were, even at three in the morning, so leaping directly wasn’t an
option. “There are too many eyes. Let’s go back to the
alley.”

Alec stopped in a small alcove, Cronin presumed, when he
was sure they were out of view
from any humans. “Ready?” And the next minute the six of
them were four stories below the streets of Paris, even under the
belly of Notre Dame.

* * * *

The space they were in was completely black, and Alec felt
the immediate fear run through his father of being buried alive.
Alec
immediately sent out
some balls of light, or lumen, so that Kole could see. Kole wasn’t
wrong though. It was like an underground cave with a low dirt
ceiling. There seemed to be tunnels leading off into obscured
darkness, but in the center of the space were hollowed out circular
pits with stone pillars erected at the circumference of the center
circle.

“
Jesus,” Alec said. “Nine circles.
“

“
Ah Alec, this is not the vault of Notre Dame,” Eiji said,
taking in the view before him.

“
No, we’re underneath even that,” he said. “Humans haven’t
found these yet.”

Cronin took a deep breath.
“It looks like another portal.”

Eiji
agreed. He
jumped into the center pit and scooped up a handful of dirt from
the ground. He let it fall through his hand and shook his head.
“Nothing has been here in a long time.”

“
I don’t like it,” Alec said. Then he said, low enough so
only the vampires could hear, “And neither does my father.” Kole
was a white shade of pale, so Alec sent him a quick dose of calm.
At least it got his heart
rate down a little.

“
Let’s go,” Cronin said,
giving Kole a smile. “I’ve seen enough. Let’s go check out some
stone statues.”

Alec didn’t
hesitate, and a moment later, they stood in the left tower of Notre
Dame.

“
Whoa,” Kole mumbled,
putting his hands out to balance himself.

Alec was quick to put his arm around
him. “You’re fine, Dad. It’s safe here. And look at that,” Alec
said, stepping aside so Kole could see the view.

The Eiffel
Tower stood proud and illuminated over the city of Paris. “Oh,
wow,” Kole mumbled. “Yes, this is much better.”

Kennard moaned.
“Lord, I detest the French.” He looked at Jacques. “No
offense.”

Jacques rolled his eyes, and ignoring
him, pointed out some visible landmarks to Kole.

Eiji barked out a laugh. “
Kennard, you don’t like anyone that’s not
English.”

Kennard straightened and sniffed
indignantly. “True.”

Cronin couldn’t help but laugh
. Kennard was oddly still a monarchist, even as a
vampire. It wasn’t that he was prejudiced toward others—he loved
his friends from all over the world fiercely—he was just staunchly
all for Queen and country and heckled everyone else like he was
supporting a football team.

“
Detest them more than the Scottish?” Alec asked with a
smile.

Kennard made a face as though he couldn’t decide and
shrugged.
“Not including
their Irish counterparts.”

Eiji laughed. “Never did get over the Irish
rebellion
, did
you?”

Kennard glowered
, and
Cronin clapped him on the arm. “Ah, the French helping the Irish.
The good old days.”

Then in a flash, a protective shield
went up around them and Alec had moved from Cronin’s side to be in
front of them. His hands were out as if holding some different
force only he could see, his fangs bared, before any of the others
had blinked.

Everyone was immediately on the
defensive, with Kole in the protected center. “What is it?” Cronin
hissed.

But then he saw it.

The infamous
gargoyles that graced the walls of Notre Dame had moved. These
stone creatures had turned their heads and were now staring at
them, or more specifically, they were staring at Alec.

The closest one, the one that resembled a winged wolf,
opened its mouth. No sound came out, just a scraping of stone on
stone. Then it moved its wings, stretching them, but it was
sl
ow and grating. The noise
was unnatural, the movements seemed protracted and painful, and
then the creature finally let out a scratchy yowl. It set the other
gargoyles into motion.

Another one, more dragon-like
, with a muzzle full of eroded teeth, a long neck, and
claws came scratching up and over the wall. It made a scraping,
screeching scream as it came at them.

“
Alec?” Jacques hissed. He was now standing in front of
Kole, shielding him.

Alec threw out his hands, turn
ing both stone creatures into a mist of dust. Then
another one, and one more, until one by one, Alec rendered them to
dust. Some were misshapen, some half eroded; time and rain had left
its mark, but yet they still moved.

“
Wait,” Alec whispered. Two more gargoyles crept
closer.
Teeth bared, claws
out, closer and closer….

“
Alec,” Kennard said, his voice sharp with
warning.

“
Wait,” Alec repeated.
Then all the gargoyles popped, exploding into dust where they
stood. All of them. Even the ones still mounted on the
walls.

“
What did you just do?”
Eiji asked. He ran to the edge of the tower and looked up and down
the exterior walls. “They’re all gone.”

“
I needed to get a sense of them,” Alec explained, following
Eiji to the edge. “Once I could grasp them all in my mind, I could
take them all out at once.” He could see the once very famous
gargoyles that sat for two centuries were now gone. “The uh, the
media is going to be all over this come sunup.”

Then, across the city, a shrill
scream cried out, then one more, and then another.
Human screams, and at the early hour, the sound was chilling. It
was panicked, hysterical cries from both men and women. The five
vampires all turned to the direction the cries carried from, though
Kole clearly couldn’t hear it. Before anyone could ask what would
cause such a thing, a shrill squawk cut through the night
air.

It was a screeching,
stone scraping on stone sound, and there was no doubt then
what could have made it.

Alec wrapped
his arms around his father and leapt them all to the source of the
noise. They appeared outside the Musée d'Orsay. Peppered with dim
external wall lighting and the ambient streetlights which lined the
Seine River, the view would’ve caused Cronin to pause at its beauty
on any other night. But that was not what caught his
attention.

A large wolf-looking stone creature spun on its heel and
hissed at them. It narrowed its eyes at Alec and gnashed its teeth,
hulking down like it was stalking prey.
Some people, mostly homeless people and sex-workers,
ran screaming from them as the creature opened its huge mouth. Its
chest glowed yellow and orange, and Cronin knew it was about to
breathe fire.

Alec must
have
thought the same thing, or perhaps he could see into the creature’s
mind. Cronin didn’t know. But as the creature sucked back a breath,
its chest glowed orange to red, and as it was about to exhale
flames, Alec put both his hands out and yelled, “Stop!”

And everything froze.

The world around them stopped except
for the vampires. The creature stood like the stone it was made
from, frozen in time. Kole too and the other humans running, caught
mid-stride, like they were in a photograph.

“
Holy shit,” Kennard whispered, looking around. His eyes
were like saucers, his mouth open. “Alec?”

“
You stopped time,” Eiji
said, with just as much wonder as Kennard.

Cronin
looked at the
stone creature. “If this one came to life with the others, then
it’s safe to assume it’s not the only one.”

Eiji nodded.
“Yes. Though the question is, was it just gargoyles in this
vicinity? Maybe all of Paris? Or all of the world?” Eiji walked
over to the stone lycan-looking animal and hesitatingly put his
hand to its still-red chest. “It’s very hot.”

Kennard’s
eyebrows shot up. “Jesus.” He turned to Alec, as if to ask him
something, but Alec wasn’t paying them any mind.

For Alec
couldn’t
take his eyes off his father. Kole stood shocked and pale with his
hand up, frozen in time; his eyes were unseeing, no breath came
from his lips. Alec raised his hand slowly and put it to Kole’s
face. Jacques stood to the side, never far from Kole. He was his
sworn protector, and he did his job well. But even he could see
Alec needed a moment with his father.

“
Alec?” Cronin
slid
his hand along Alec’s back. He looked again at Kole, and he could
feel Alec’s anguish as though it were his own emotion. “He’s alive,
just stopped with time. That’s all. He’s fine.”

Alec nodded. “But for how
long?”

Cronin put his forehead on Alec’s shoulder, knowing there
was no answer that would appease him. Not for this. His father was
human and therefore mortal. His life, on a timeline such as
Cronin’s, was brief
, and
Cronin knew the scar Alec would bear at the loss of his father
would last an eternity. So no, there were no words to soothe a
looming grief, but he wanted Alec to know he was not
alone.

Kennard and
Eiji studied the stone creature, lightly touching it.

“
Don’t get too close,”
Cronin warned. “I don’t know how long the time lapse will
last.”

Alec looked
around then, and with no more than a slight nod of his head, the
huge stone statue fell to dust. It smoldered on the cobblestone,
the heat still resonating within the ashes, though they quickly
died away.

Eiji looked between Alec and Kole
, and gave Alec a sad smile. “Alec, I hate to ask this
of you right now, but can you get a sense of any other gargoyles
that may have come to life?”

Alec closed
his eyes. “I can’t see the whole city. It’s too big an area. But
there are some others….” His eyelids flickered. “Well, there were.
They’re now dust.”

“
We should notify
Gautier,” Cronin said. The elder of the Parisian coven
should be made aware, if he was not already.

Alec closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Cronin assumed
he was using his mental tracking ability to seek the elder
out
, but then his eyes shot
open. “Gautier’s stopped with time as well. They all
have.”

Eiji raised
an eyebrow. “It seems those not affected are with you when you stop
time.”

Alec shrugged. “Or I haven’t got a
handle on it yet. I don’t know. It’s very strange, even to
me.”

“
How do you restart it?” Kennard asked. He turned around and
looked around the stock-still street. “As much as I’d like to
explore this reality we are seeing, I’d like to know if it’s
permanent or just fleeting? Though if you plan on doing it again,
maybe next time I could bring a British flag to grace the Eiffel
Tower?” His eyes lit up with the possibilities. “Oh yes, that would
be fabulous.”

Eiji snorted out a laugh but it was short lived. “As
mildly entertaining as watching
World War III break out between England and France would be,
Kennard, I’d like to get home to my Jodis, and see she is unharmed,
if that’s okay.”