Cronin's Key by N.R. Walker Read Free Book Online Page B

can’t.”
    “Why not?”
    “Alec, your police friends are looking for you. And not only that, but the city is not safe right now.”
    “You don’t have a problem with Eiji and Jodis going.”
    “They can look after themselves.”
    “I can look after myself,” Alec barked, offended. “I chased down a vampire, remember?”
    “I know,” Cronin replied, the fact obviously still a little raw. “You could have been killed.”
    “But I wasn’t.”
    “You can’t even walk out onto the street, Alec. The police are looking for you, and they are no doubt monitoring your place.”
    “And whose fault is that?”
    Cronin sighed. “I don’t wish to argue with you.”
    “And I don’t want to argue with you,” Alec conceded. And he didn’t. It was the last thing he wanted to do. “Look, I just want to go home. I wanna grab some clothes and some toiletries and then I can come back here. I miss my things.” Then Alec remembered something. “Oh, man. What about Sammy?”
    Cronin’s reaction was immediate and serious. “Who is Sammy?”
    Cronin was jealous, and Alec liked that more than he should. Alec smiled. “Someone I live with.”
    Cronin’s nostrils flared. “I can leap there and get whatever you need.”
    Yeah, right. More like go there and scare Sammy to death. “You’re not going through my stuff without me.”
    “And you can’t go there alone.” Cronin was quiet for a moment. “I could leap us there, though leaping was unpleasant for you.”
    “Unpleasant?” Alec asked. “Is that the medieval term for hurts like a bitch?”
    Cronin tried not to smile and failed. “Medieval?”
    “Is that not correct?” Alec asked. “Is ancient more appropriate?”
    Cronin laughed and gave a nod. “Possibly.” Then he compromised, something he didn’t do often. “How about we wait until a later hour, and we’ll both go. I’ll leap us, you get what you need, and I’ll leap us back. It’ll take a few minutes at most.”
    Alec weighed his options. He wasn’t too keen on experiencing leaping again anytime soon, but he wanted to go home even more. He nodded. “Deal.” Cronin was seemingly pleased with this plan, so Alec figured it was a good time. “Can I ask you something?”
    “Of course.”
    “Who are the Illyrians?” Alec licked his lips. “Well, I know from history class in high school who they are. Am I right to presume we’re talking of the same people?”
    Cronin gave him a small sigh and nodded. “I suppose I should explain from the beginning, and the Illyrians are a good place to start.” He waved his hand at the sofa. “Though you might want to sit down. It’s a long story.”
    Alec sat on the sofa and folded one leg under himself. He waited for Cronin to sit on the opposite sofa. “The Illyrians inhabited what is now Bosnia and Croatia. Is that correct?”
    Cronin nodded. “You remember well.”
    “I have a photographic memory,” Alec told him. “If I see something, read something, even once, I retain it.” He shrugged. “It’s why I made detective five years ahead of my academy peers.”
    Cronin smiled at him, but continued with his story. “The Illyrians to which you refer also inhabited Albania and Serbia, and into parts of Hungary. South of the Celts, North of the Greeks. They were large in numbers.”
    “Did you fight them?”
    “This will go a lot faster if you leave your questions until the end,” Cronin said with a smirk. “I have no doubt your inquisitive mind will have a few. Or a lot.”
    “Questions are highly likely, yes,” Alec replied. He liked Cronin’s formal phrasing and found himself replying in similar wording. He particularly liked how it made Cronin smile. He ignored the no-question rule. “Why did you say ‘the Illyrians to which I refer’? Were there others?”
    Taking a deep breath, Cronin continued. “Yes. These were the Illyrians that came before them. Ancient Illyrians, to be exact. Their precise age of origin is not known, but