Cronin's Key (33 page)

“You did!” Alec said. “Though it came with instructions. Making sandwiches doesn’t.”

Cronin picked up the butter knife, and Alec couldn’t waste the opportunity. He stood behind him, slid his arms around him, and put his hand over Cronin’s hand that held the knife. “I’ll show you how it’s done,” Alec said, dipping the knife into the mayo first, then spreading it across the bread. “Just like that.”

Alec pressed himself against Cronin’s back and ass, and Cronin started to purr. Or growl. It was kind of loud.

“Then we take this,” Alec said, picking up the meat.

Jodis cleared her throat. She was standing at the edge of the hall. “I do apologize,” she said. “I’m not interrupting deliberately this time. Eiji needs to feed again. He’s feeling pain, and quite frankly, I can’t stand it.”

Alec stood back just a little and turned Cronin around to face him. He held his face and kissed him. “Go get him something to eat while I get me something to eat.” He pressed his hips into Cronin’s, feeling how turned-on he was.

Cronin gave a growly-sigh. “Then it’ll be just us for a few hours, yes?”

Alec nodded. “Yes. A few hours. Forever. Same thing.”

Cronin smiled, and he was gone.

“I hate to take him away from you,” Jodis said. She looked sad and shaken.

Alec piled on his sandwich ingredients. “Think nothing of it,” he said, trying to act blasé about it all. “I just want Eiji to get better. I’m really sorry he got hurt, and I’m sorry he’s in pain.” Alec shrugged. “I mean, he
has
to get better. I still have to give him and Cronin driving lessons yet, and there’s about a thousand years of funny stories he has to tell me.”

Jodis smiled then. “Alec, fate couldn’t have chosen better for Cronin. I am thankful for you. So very thankful.”

Alec grinned back at her. “Me too.”

When Cronin came back from disposing of Eiji’s supper, he found Alec packing a bag. He was alarmed. “What are you doing?”

Alec spun around to face him and grinned. “What time is it in Scotland?”

Cronin didn’t even have to look at the time. “It’s 4:00 a.m.”

“Perfect.”

“Why?”

Alec put on the heaviest coat he could find, picked up the bag, and took a blanket from the linen closet. “Okay, that’s everything, I think.”

“Alec?”

He gave Cronin a smile that set fire to his blood. Alec walked up to him and kissed him. “Take me to the moor.”

Cronin didn’t argue, he just thought of the moor at Dún Ad, the very battlefield where he’d died, and with his arm firmly around Alec, he took him there.

As soon as their feet hit the ground, Alec kissed him. It was a sweet kiss, but it held a promise of what was to come. The night sky was impeded by mist, the air was cool, though Alec didn’t seem bothered. “Do you notice how you don’t even flinch at leaping now?” Cronin whispered, then kissed him again.

“I don’t feel it anymore,” Alec said with a shrug. “Well, that’s not entirely true. I feel it. I just concentrate on the energy of it instead. And being pressed against you helps.”

Cronin chuckled. “You’re remarkable, you know that?”

Alec handed him the blanket. “Here, help me spread this out.” When the long grass was pushed down and the blanket spread out, Alec sat himself down and patted the blanket next to him. “Sit with me.”

Cronin did, but he couldn’t help the feeling that Alec was planning something. “Alec, why here?”

“Privacy,” Alec answered. “Jodis and Eiji can’t hear us here.”

“No, why
here
?”

Alec swallowed hard. “Your human life ended here. I thought if we have sex and you bite me, then maybe it should be where mine ends too.”

Cronin blinked. “You what?”

Alec shrugged, suddenly nervous. “It’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“Of course it is, but, Alec, it has to be what you want. Not me.”

Alec swung his leg over Cronin’s and straddled him. He tried to push him back to lay down, but it was like pushing a concrete wall. “Can you at least pretend I have the strength to push you backward?”

Cronin laughed and fell back, taking Alec with him.

Alec put his hand to Cronin’s face, and stared into his eyes. “I want to make love with you.”

Cronin’s black eyes caught fire. “Alec.”

“I want you inside me,” Alec whispered. “I want your cock in my ass and your teeth in my neck.”

Cronin flipped Alec so fast it took a second for him to realize what had happened. Cronin was over him now, between his legs and his face just an inch from Alec’s. Cronin’s fangs were glistening in the moonlight. “You shouldn’t say such things to me.”

Alec smiled. “I want you to fuck me. And I want you to bite me.”

Cronin snapped out a growl and pressed himself harder against Alec, pinning him to the blanket completely. He whisper-purred, “You said I needed your permission.”

“You have it. You have all of me.” Alec writhed underneath him, still fully dressed and wanting. “Please.”

Cronin seemed to hesitate, so Alec reached between them and started to undo his own jeans. Then in less time it took to blink, Alec was bare-chested, his shirt torn right down the middle. Cronin growled again as he leaned down and licked a stripe from Alec’s sternum to his chin.

“Jesus,” Alec whispered, fumbling with his jeans fly. Then with a loud ripping sound, his jeans were gone. He yelped in surprise and shivered.

“Are you cold?” Cronin asked, starting to pull away.

Alec quickly held Cronin to him, and shook his head. “No.”

Cronin held his stare for a long moment. “Are you sure of this?”

Alec held Cronin’s face in both hands. “I’ve never been more sure of anything.” Alec reached over and grabbed the bag he’d brought with them and took out the bottle of lubrication. “I’m also very sure we’ll need this.”

Cronin ducked his head and chuckled, but he soon ripped his own jeans off like he was tearing tissue paper, then reached over and flicked the edge of the blanket over them both, wrapping them like a sleeping bag. When he settled back on top of Alec, their hard cocks aligned.

Even in the darkness, Alec could see Cronin’s eyes roll. But when he opened his eyes and looked at Alec again, he knew there was no going back.

He pulled Cronin in for a kiss, and Cronin rolled them onto their sides with Alec’s leg hitched over Cronin’s thigh, leaving his legs opened, his hole exposed. Alec smeared his fingers with lube and started to prep himself, sliding a slickened finger inside himself. But Cronin soon took over, growling into Alec’s mouth as he kissed him.

And Alec was lost. Lost in every touch, every sound, every taste of tongues, every slide of fingers, everything. He was moaning without shame, bucking onto Cronin’s fingers, precome dripping freely from his cock. Alec had never been this close, this fast.

“Cronin, please,” Alec begged. “I need you inside me.”

Then at a human pace, Cronin rolled them over again so Alec was pinned underneath him. Alec wrapped his legs around Cronin the best he could, his knees up near their chests.

Cronin pressed his cock against Alec’s ready hole, and he paused. “
M’cridhe
.
M’gràdh
.”

Alec whispered his words back to him, “My heart. My love.”

Cronin closed his eyes at the words, his chest heaving. Alec held Cronin’s face once more, making him look at him. Alec wanted to see every flicker of emotion, every ounce of love that sparked in Cronin’s eyes.

“Cronin,” Alec murmured. “Give yourself to me.”

And with that, Cronin pushed inside him.

It took Alec’s breath away. Not in pain, no, this was something different. As the blunt head of Cronin’s cock breached him, every nerve in Alec’s body burst with pleasure. It was instantaneous. It was like a bomb detonated without warning, exploding ecstasy through every cell in his body.

And he came.

Wave after wave of orgasm rolled through him, emptying his cock between them. Cronin snapped a growl in Alec’s ear, sending another roll of pleasure through him.

Alec’s eyes widened, his still-hard cock pulsed again and again, and he came again. He screamed, a hoarse sound, his whole body wracked with a pleasure too huge to contain. He was unable to move his body, a bliss so intense, so pure, that Alec was spent, completely pliable like a ragdoll in Cronin’s arms. All he could do was crane his neck, exposing the pale skin. He wanted it. He wanted to belong to Cronin in every way. “Make me yours.”

Cronin thrust up into him once more, hard and deep, and his release, half-physical, half-emotional, poured into Alec.

Cronin bared his fangs, and he growled a sound Alec had never heard. It was a primal sound, a growl that said
mine
.

* * * *

Cronin ran his nose along the thrumming pulse in Alec’s neck, he tasted the salt on his skin, and he sunk his teeth into his flesh.

Mouthfuls of the sweetest blood he’d ever tasted filled his mouth. It was Alec’s scent, his taste, his very essence that he drank, and in all his years, Cronin had never tasted anything like it.

Alec writhed and moaned underneath him, and when his hands found Cronin’s hair, he thought Alec was about to push him away. But he didn’t. He gripped his face and lifted it from his neck, then brought their mouths together.

Cronin’s cock was still buried in him, and this renewed vigor from Alec sent a surge of passion through Cronin. Being inside him, coupling with him, making love with him, combined with deep and bloodied kisses was more than Cronin could take.

It was frantic and primal, savage almost, and Alec dug his fingers in deeper and moaned louder. The sounds, the blood, the sex, sent Cronin’s second orgasm into a tailspin, and he came again, deep inside Alec.

Their kisses slowed somewhat, and Cronin tore his mouth from Alec’s, expecting him to start feeling the effects of change. He should be feeling discomfort, pain even. There should be heat and fire in his blood, and the fear of the unknown in his eyes.

But Alec looked intoxicated, and instead of screaming in pain, he laughed. His face was smeared with blood, his lips swollen from kissing, and his eyes were hazy and unfocused.

“Wow,” he said with a laugh. “Jesus. If I had of known it was gonna be that good, I wouldn’t have held out all week.”

Cronin didn’t laugh. “Alec, how do you feel?”

He bucked his hips and gripped Cronin’s ass. “I feel so good right now.”

Cronin slowly slid out of Alec. “Are you sure?”

Alec looked a little hurt by the question. “Why? Was that not good for you?”

“Alec we need to get dressed and go home.”

“Well, you kinda tore our jeans to shreds—”

* * * *

Alec suddenly found himself lying on Cronin’s bed, still wrapped in the blanket, still with Cronin on top of him. But that’s not what shocked him. It was the look on his face. “Cronin, what is it? You’re starting to scare me.”

“Are you sure you feel okay?”

“Yes, great actually. And I thought you said you’d end up biting me.”

Cronin dragged Alec to the bathroom, walking instead of leaping, and stood in front of the mirror. It was then Alec saw himself. There was dried blood, smeared over his face and lips, and two very distinct puncture marks in his neck.

“You did bite me,” Alec whispered, lightly touching the bite mark.

“I did.” Cronin looked at Alec in the reflection of the mirror. “You should be…”

“Changing?” Alec finished for him.

Cronin nodded. “And you’re not.”

“What does that mean?” Alec asked him.

“I don’t know.” Cronin swallowed hard. “Take a shower, get cleaned up. I’ll consult with the others.”

Alec nodded woodenly. “Okay.”

Before Cronin walked out, he stopped and put his hand to Alec’s face. “For what it’s worth, what we did, was everything to me.”

He kissed him softly before he walked out, meeting Jodis in the hall. She’d obviously heard their conversation. “Cronin?”

“I bit him,” Cronin said quickly. “He wanted it. He asked me to, but it didn’t work. He’s not feeling any ill effects.”

When Alec got out of the shower he put on new jeans and a simple shirt that showed off his bite marks clearly. The more he’d stared at the two puncture wounds in the mirror, the more he’d liked them. He was proud of them. When he walked out into the living room, he found Cronin was sitting with Jodis, a bundled-up Eiji, and most surprising of all, Eleanor. Cronin stood up and quickly took Alec’s hand. He could feel all eyes on his neck, but instead he looked at Eiji. “Hey. How’re you feeling?”

Eiji gave a nod. “I will be okay.”

“Shouldn’t you be resting?”

“I think something else is more important, no?”

Alec looked at Cronin his eyes wide and searching. “What is it?”

Cronin looked at Eleanor. The blind woman swayed her head a little. “You are a surprising one, Alec.”

Alec squeezed Cronin’s hand. “What does that mean?” Alec asked her. He turned to Cronin. “What does that mean?”

“It would seem your birthright is not yet fulfilled,” Eleanor said.

“What?” Alec shook his head. “We defeated the Egyptian psycho-woman. We went back. There was no one left.”

Eleanor shook her head again, this time as a no. “You’re still the Key, Alec. You are Cronin’s Key. Now you have mated, I can see that much more clearly.”

“I don’t understand,” Alec said, looking at each of the vampires in the room. “What does that mean?”

“I saw your being linked to Cronin,” Eleanor explained. “As we all did. You are fated, that cannot change. But this is different. You are linked in ways I cannot explain, nor can I see. Not yet.”

“So, something else has to happen, something no one can tell us about, before I can be turned into a vampire?” Alec asked incredulously.

Eleanor smiled. “It means you will stay human for a greater purpose, yes. Your blood is something special, isn’t it?”

Alec shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“It healed Eiji when he should have died,” Eleanor said. “And Cronin said it was not like anything he’s ever tasted. There is a strength in it. A power.”

Alec looked at Cronin. “A power?”