“You did not ask me. Someone else did,” Arthur said with a wry smile. He turned to Bliss. “I owe your mother a favor. Yes, I saw the resemblance. You have her eyes.” He held up the wand, making an arc in the air. “I failed her once, long ago. In Florence, when she needed a friend. I told her I would make up for it—I told her to ask me anything, and I would do it. This was my promise. That I would keep you boys safe, and I will.”
“Goodbye, Arthur,” Bliss said. “Lawson—we should go.”
Lawson revved the engine. Malcolm waved. Edon and Rafe nodded their goodbyes.
Arthur waved his white handkerchief. “With luck, we shall cross paths again one day. Lawson, don’t forget what I told you about the passages. Now leave me to it.”
The hospital wasn’t far. Lawson couldn’t believe Tala had been so close. He should never have left her. Was it truly this easy? Were his dreams to be fulfilled that night?
“This is it,” Bliss said when they arrived at the four-story building at the top of the hill. Lawson let the van idle in the parking lot as he staked out the place. The hospital was dark, the lobby closed for the night, curtains drawn. There was a sleepy guard at the front entrance who didn’t seem to notice the van parked at the far end of the lot.
Lawson turned off the engine. “Rafe
, Mac, you guys stay here. Edon, come with me.” It would be safer if it was just a small team, and he and Edon could handle whatever came up. He was leading Edon and Bliss toward the back entrance when he stopped.
“What is it?” Edon whispered.
Lawson pointed to the bronze cross emblazoned on the hospital doors, and the name of the clinic: St. Bernadette’s Psychiatric Clinic. His heart began to beat wildly in his chest, bursting with hope. If Tala was alive and unharmed, if she’d managed to escape the hounds, she would have sought refuge in a place like this—a holy place that the hounds could never enter. A place she would be safe.
“Crap,” Edon swore.
“What’s with him?” asked Bliss.
“Oh nothing, he’s just a little irked he can’t go inside,” Lawson explained.
“St. Bernadette’s?” Bliss asked.
“Hallowed ground,” Lawson explained. “Off-limits to underworld scum.”
“I’ll wait outside,” Edon said. “Take it easy in there. We’ve had enough fireworks for the day.”
“How come you can come in?” Bliss asked as Lawson jiggered the back door open.
“Dunno. I just can. Discovered it by accident one day at a church soup kitchen. Rest of the boys couldn’t cross the threshold, but I snuck in smooth as butter. Maybe someone likes me up there,” he said as he pushed the door open, and then they were inside. “I cut the alarm, don’t worry.” He stopped at the foot of the stairs. “You remember where she was?”
“Room fifteen. I think it was on the third floor.”
It wasn’t. The hospital was a maze of identical hallways and rooms, and to make matters more confusing, there were several room fifteens. None of them held Tala. There was a nurses’ station at each landing, but they managed to move around without being noticed.
“I’m sorry—everything looks the same. This is the hospital, though. Maybe they moved her,” Bliss said as she looked around nervously.
He followed her down a corridor that led away from the main part of the hospital. “This is it!” she said excitedly as they came upon a room with a guard’s stool in front of it, but there was no guard. And when Lawson opened the door, the room was empty. But he sensed a presence that felt strange and familiar at the same time. Tala?
“This was the room, right?” he asked.
“I think so,” Bliss replied.
This isn’t right. It isn’t the right scent. But maybe it has been too long…maybe being with the hounds has changed her.…He couldn’t breathe. There was too much to hope for, too much at stake.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure….” He paced the room one more time and then turned to Bliss. “Follow me.”
He banged the door open and darted down the hallway, brushing past a nurse so quickly that she dropped her tray. “Sorry!”
“Hey! You can’t be in here!” the nurse yelled, but he was already at the stairs. He turned back to make sure Bliss was following him. Down. She’s down the stairs. To the right.
He caught the scent again from a ventilation duct and tracked it down a long hallway, then stopped at the farthest door. “In here,” he said. He put his hand on the doorknob. It wasn’t locked. He walked inside.