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Bliss did not respond. There were things she couldn’t tell them about herself yet, and the identity of her immortal father was one of them. She didn’t know how they would react to hearing she was Lucifer’s spawn, and wasn’t sure she was ready to find out. “It’s not much better than Bliss, but what are you going to do?”
“Change it,” he replied. “Your name, I mean.”
“Is that what you did?”
Malcolm raised an eyebrow.
“Your real name is Maccon, right?”
“How’d you know?”
“Because Maccon means ‘wolf.’ Just like Rafe. And Edon. You all have wolf names. Except for Lawson,” she said, taking a seat as far away from his as possible.
Malcolm grinned. “I’d rather be called Lawson too if my real name was Ulf.”
Everyone laughed and Bliss found she could not suppress a smile. Maybe they were telling the truth; maybe they weren’t hounds after all. “So—what happens now? If you don’t have Jane, and you aren’t Hellhounds, then why am I here?” she said, looking at Lawson in a challenging manner. “Because of some girl named Tala? I told you, I’ve never heard of anyone…”
Lawson tossed her a piece of paper and she caught it in midair.
“What is this?” she asked, annoyed, looking at the picture in her hand. “The Abduction of the Sabine Women? What does that have to do with anything?” She glared at the postcard, which showed the famous painting by Nicolas Poussin that depicted a violent scene in history, of a group of women taken captive by Roman soldiers. They were throwing their arms into the air, calling for help or running in terror.
“Oh, sorry, wrong one,” Lawson said, taking it back and handing her another picture. Then she saw that it was a photograph of a girl.
She was small, with a simple, narrow face, bright blue eyes, and pink streaks in her hair. Bliss thought she looked familiar—she had seen this girl before, but the hair was different—and with a dawning horror she realized it was the broken girl she had seen at the mental institution. “Lawson—” she said softly. “Is this Tala?”
Lawson was about to answer when Malcolm suddenly bent forward, clutching his stomach, and vomited violently all over the floor.
In a moment, the boys were standing, Arthur was mumbling incantations, and Lawson was barking orders.
“What’s wrong? What’s happening?” Bliss asked, feeling their panic.
“The hounds,” Edon hissed. “They’re here!”
There was a sound like the crack of a whip and Lawson collapsed to the ground, bleeding from a gaping wound on his side, the blood gushing in dark red bursts, a thick, viscous river.
“They got him with a blood spell!” Edon yelled as Rafe pushed Malcolm away, enveloping him in a hug and shielding his eyes. “Don’t look!” Rafe told the younger boy.
Arthur worked frantically, whispering as he waved his hands over the hole in Lawson’s torso. Lawson’s face was gray and he wasn’t breathing, Bliss saw. She stood paralyzed until Rafe pulled at her hand. “Come on!” he yelled, leading her to the far end of the cavern. He was carrying Malcolm on his back.
She could hear muffled howls from far away and thought she saw shadows that weren’t theirs flickering on the walls as they ran down the long stone ramp that circled through the cave. “Where are they?” she asked, her heart thudding in her chest.
“If they sent a blood spell, it means they were able to break down the wards,” Rafe replied grimly. “They’ll be inside soon.”
“Damn Lawson to Hell,” Edon said. “Romulus saw him in the oculus—he must have. Led them right to us.”
“Lawson did?” Bliss asked. “But why?”
Edon ignored her question. “Or maybe it was you. Maybe you are a tracker after all.”
She wanted to slap him.
“Stop it, Edon! Lawson said she spoke Hroll. She can’t be one of them,” Malcolm huffed.
Edon shut up and they ran in earnest. They were running so hard and fast that Bliss hunched momentarily from a leg cramp. She shook it off, irritated by her human limitations once more. When they reached the end of the curve, Rafe said a few words and the rock face opened on a hinge. A secret door led to a small tight corridor. “Can you see in the dark?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Hold on, then,” he said, and Bliss grabbed the tail of his T-shirt.
