chapter Twenty-Three
The next morning the group convened at the van, sipping cups of lukewarm coffee and munching on free doughnuts from the hotel buffet. Bliss nodded to Lawson, who nodded back, tipping his cup toward her. She was determined to put it all behind them and to forget about what had happened the night before. They'd both been really drunk, right? That was all it was. From the way he was acting, it looked as if he felt the same way.
Part of her was annoyed at that, wanted some sort of sign from him that the previous night had mattered - even a little - that he hadn't just blocked it from his memory.
Then again, what did she really want from him, anyway? A relationship? It was too soon for both of them; she saw that now. Plus, what would happen if he found out who she really was? It was better just to forget about the whole thing. They'd made a mistake getting too close.
Earlier that morning she had bought them all a change of clothes at the gift shop, and of course Ahramin still looked good even in a silly tourist T-shirt and shorts. She was holding court in the middle of the group, the boys hanging on to her every word.
"What's going on?" Bliss whispered, sliding next to Malcolm. Ahramin and Lawson seemed to be in the middle of an argument.
"Ahramin has news," Malcolm said. "But Lawson's not sure if he believes her."
"What kind of news?"
"You said you knew about the Praetorian Guard?"
"A little, yeah," she said. "Timekeepers, the emperor's soldiers, something like that?"
"Something like that." Malcolm nodded. "It's what they called us in Rome, but the origin is much older. A long time ago, when the world was first made, the ancient wolves guarded the passages - the dark roads between time and space. We policed the borders between the worlds and guarded the boundaries of the abyss. But during the waning days of the empire, the Guard was corrupted by a Silver Blood emperor, Lucifer, who was called Caligula then. The Dark Prince used the wolves to find the paths of the dead so he could free the demons from the underworld and hold dominion over both earth and Hell. When we realized what he meant to do, we lent our power to Michael and his angels to build the Gates of Hell. But during the Crisis, we were betrayed by Romulus, our beloved general, who delivered us to Lucifer, who enslaved us and turned us into hounds as punishment for our insubordination. Before we were cursed, however, we were able to destroy the chronologs and the memories of the passages to keep them safe.
"Right before we escaped from Hell, Lawson heard that Romulus had found something important. We noticed that the general had taken to wearing an amulet around his neck, something silver and shiny. Rumor had it that it was a chronolog, that one of the packs had found one."
"What is it?" Bliss asked. "Is it like a watch?"
Malcolm nodded. "Sort of, it's a tool that the ancient wolves used to travel through time, a relic from the old empire. It guides you through the passages. All the guards used to have one, it was part of the arsenal." He sighed. "Anyway, there's been a lot of movement in the underworld - rumors that Lucifer is after more than just mid-world, that he's planning to storm the Gates of Paradise themselves. With the chronolog in hand, if Romulus ever found an entrance to the passages, the Dark Prince could control time itself, and become the master of all creation."
"That can't happen," Bliss said. Understatement of the century, she thought. Perhaps of all time. "So you guys didn't just escape because you were going to be turned into hounds; you wanted to stop Romulus from using the passages to help Lucifer."
"Yep," Malcolm said. "If Romulus and his armies could roam the passages, with the ability to alter time, we knew the world was no longer safe. We heard Lucifer had already given him orders - Romulus was to return to the beginning of Rome, to the founding of the empire, during the feast of Neptune."
"Why then?"
"We don't know. But we knew we had to do something. Lawson decided he had to act, find a way to break out of Hell, find the passages before Romulus did, and guard them from him. When we broke out of Hell, Lawson kept a portal open for the others to escape."
"But no one has," Rafe added. "No one but us."
"That's where you're wrong," Ahramin interrupted. She had been listening to their conversation all along, Bliss realized, even as she had been arguing with Lawson. "Like I keep telling your brother here, you guys aren't the only wolves who've escaped from Hell."
Lawson shook his head. "It cannot be, I returned to the rendezvous again and again. I never found any others. Not a single soul."
"Maybe your portal doesn't always let out at the same place ... ever think of that?" Ahramin asked. "Maybe when they crossed, they didn't end up at the same location that you did."
"It's possible," Lawson admitted. "I barely know how the portals work myself. Or why I'm the only wolf able to make them."
"Believe me, when I was a hound under Romulus's command, yours was not the only pack we were tracking. There were many others. Marrok - "
"Marrok! Why didn't you say so earlier? He escaped?" Lawson said. His eyes were bright - Bliss saw a ray of hope begin to return to his face. She was glad for him, glad that he had found something to live for, and glad that she hadn't made a scene that morning. It was irrelevant - what had happened between them the night before - to what was at stake here. But still, would it kill him to acknowledge it with a glance in her direction?
Ahramin gazed at him evenly. "Yes. Why are you so surprised? It was his plan all along, wasn't it? For you to lead us out of the underworld and for him to follow with the others?"
"Was he successful?" Lawson asked, standing from his seat and in his excitement almost knocking his chair to the ground.
"Are you asking me if he has the chronolog? If he was successful in stealing it from Romulus?"
Malcolm gasped. "That's a suicide mission," he whispered to Bliss.
"That was the plan - you knew it as well as I do." Lawson frowned.
"And I was the only part that failed, wasn't I?" Ahramin said. "The only one who got left behind, got caught, who got turned into this."
"Ahramin ..."
"I have no time for self-pity. What is done is done. But if you really want to know, yes, the white wolf has the timekeeper, and he is aboveground."