Cronin's Key II by N.R. Walker Page A

closed her eyes again and was quiet for a moment. She took a deep breath and her eyes flew open. “There is a stone. I see it. It’s a stone plate. There are inscriptions on it and a maze patterned into it. It is well-guarded.” She shook her head quickly. “It is where Alec will fall.”
    Cronin growled, a low rumbling sound, as though the mere mention of harm to Alec was a threat. “Then we won’t go. Let someone else kill him.”
    “Don’t I have to?” Alec asked him. “Isn’t that the point of being the key?”
    Cronin stared at him, his eyes a feral onyx. “I won’t risk you.”
    “If he doesn’t fulfill his purpose,” Eleanor said. Her eyes were closed again, her head swaying. “He will die a human.”
    “He needs to do this so he can be changed?” Jodis asked.
    Eleanor sighed deeply. Her eyes opened. “It appears so. I cannot see why, only that it is.”
    “Something must happen to him when he falls,” Eiji said. “Something must happen to his blood, to change whatever it is that makes it special.”
    Alec slumped against Cronin. The thoughts of this were weighing him down. “I survive though, right?” he asked.
    Cronin made a low whining sound that was almost like a cry. He tightened his hold on Alec and kissed the side of his head. “I hate that you must endure this.”
    Alec sat up straight and pulled back a little so he could look into Cronin’s eyes. “I know you do. But Cronin, it doesn’t matter what I have to go through. As long as I get you forever, then it’ll all be worth it.”
    “It seems every turn for answers only gives us more questions,” Cronin said quietly. “Jorge talked of questions. It seems even he could see everything we face is unanswered.”
    Eiji sat down next to Eleanor. “Can you see how we kill the Terracotta Army?”
    Eleanor gasped and shot up from the sofa. The look on her face was one of fear. “They’re coming. Now. Go! Get Alec somewhere safe!”
    Before Alec could even blink, two Chinese warrior vampires appeared in the living room, their faces etched in anger, their fangs bared. They spoke in Chinese, wielded wooden spears, and lunged toward him.
     

CHAPTER NINE
     
     
     
    Leapers. Chinese warrior vampires with the ability to leap from one place to the next, just like Cronin, whirled wooden spears above their heads. Dressed in red with black leather chest plates, they moved in unison, synchronized in violence as they swung their spears.
    Alec barely saw Eiji and Jodis react before Cronin had his arms around him and they were gone.
    Hit by a blast of winter air, Alec found himself in complete darkness, his back pressed against a stone wall and Cronin at his front. His heart hammered so damn fast he thought it might actually stop.
    Alec recognized this place immediately. It was the Hillfort at Dunadd, where Cronin had lived his human life. It was long abandoned and completely exposed to the Scottish elements, but it was remote and private, and obviously the first place Cronin thought of when he thought of the word safe .
    Alec sucked back a breath. His heart was pounding and his adrenaline was pumping. “Eiji! And Jodis! We need to go back!” he said. “We can’t leave them there!”
    “There are no two more adept fighters,” Cronin said. He put his hands to Alec’s face and scanned his features, and even in the dark, Alec could see how wide and black his eyes were. “Are you hurt?”
    Alec shook his head. “No. Cronin, we can’t leave them!”
    “I needed to get you out of there.”
    “They knew where we were!”
    Cronin nodded. “We will need to move.”
    “What the hell did they say?” Alec asked. “They yelled something in Chinese.”
    “It wasn’t Chinese. It was Mongolian. They said, ‘In the name of Genghis Khan!’”
    Alec shivered. The instant change, from a climate controlled New York apartment to a blustery Scottish night-filled field, was more than a shock. Not to mention the fright he’d just had. His whole body