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Elijah stared out of the car window, watching for the slightest hint of danger as they drove past each quiet street and gloomy alley. He'd already been in the city too long and he was surprised that Lyca Corp.'s lackeys hadn't caught them at Zoe's apartment. He wasn't taking any more risks, though. The moment he grabbed his things, he was getting as far away from Dawnward as he could.
"So, uh..." Jake said, breaking the tense silence. "Do I get to know more about these guys we're running from?" he asked, glancing at Elijah and then back at Zoe. "El'Vorian security guards or something?"
"Detainers," the demon muttered.
"What's a detainer?" Jake asked.
"They're who Lyca Corp. send out to capture new subjects or recapture missing ones," Elijah revealed.
"So, I was right!" Zoe exclaimed excitedly. "I knew those shady, silver-wearing people were involved." She pulled out her phone and started typing.
Jake sighed. "So, what? Are you here to help Zoe on her hunt for evidence to prove Lyca Corp. is experimenting on Caeleste?"
"No," Elijah grumbled.
Zoe stopped typing. "Could you, though? I know you've already saved my life and stuff, but I'd really appreciate it."
"What does he know that you don't?" Jake questioned curiously.
"I don't know, that's why I'd like his help." She looked at Elijah in the rear-view mirror. "I can pay you in return, Elijah. Or I can...I don't know, promote you on my socials if you're into that. I have a lot of followers."
Elijah's impatience was growing faster with each word either of them said. "Do I look like I have socials?" he snarled irritably. "I've been running and hiding from these people for months."
She frowned as if she'd realized something. "How many months?"
The demon rolled his eyes and glared out the window.
"Because according to my research, the entire Dawnward police force was replaced overnight around seven months ago," Zoe said, typing on her phone again.
Jake nodded. "And since then, thirty-two lycans have gone missing and the police don't seem to care."
"That's what they do," Elijah uttered, clenching his fist. "They set up shop in cities, get access to the Caeleste records, and then pick the best candidates for their programs."
Zoe frowned sadly. "I can maybe offer you protection in return for your help?"
He scoffed at her and shook his head. What could a girl who got herself kidnapped by a bunch of humans possibly offer him in terms of protection?
"So, all those lycans," Jake said as he turned onto Temple Avenue. "What's gonna ha—"
Jake's voice drowned out when Elijah set his eyes on his garage at the end of the street. The whole building was up in flames, and the sight struck him with anger, dismay, and desperation.
"Oh, my God. Is that your place?" Jake questioned as he stopped the car.
Elijah pushed the door open and darted down the street, passing the nosey, spectating humans. He had no idea how long the place had been burning, but he had to go in. He couldn't lose what little he had left of Haru.
When he reached the building, the demon kicked the garage door in and raced inside. But everything was up in flames; his research board, his bikes, and his supplies. The entire place was filled with thick smoke, and it stunk of petrol. Anything could explode at any moment.
But he had to find it.
Elijah used his ethos to manipulate the fire out of his path. He coughed and snarled, making his way through to his bedroom at the back of the space where his bikes sat burning and melting. The door had already succumbed to the fire, and everything inside was suffering, too.
He hurried to his bed and smacked the burning pillows away, and to his relief, the small metal box he kept beneath them was still intact. He grabbed it and stuffed it in his pocket—
A metal beam fell through the ceiling, missing him by inches. He stumbled back and held his hand over his mouth, trying to avoid inhaling more smoke. But the beam was now blocking his path.
"Elijah!" came Zoe's voice.
With an irritated snarl, he sharply turned his head and looked at the melted door. The orange-haired girl stood in the doorway with a worried look on her face.
"The air's probably toxic. You shouldn't be in here, it's dangerous!"
He growled and vaulted over the flaming beam. Then, he hastily tore the doors off the burning weapons cabinet and snatched the old ammo tin from the top shelf.
"Come on!" Zoe insisted.
Elijah leapt over the beam again and then headed out of the room. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" he snapped at her.
"Trying to help," she said with a frown as she used her own ethos to move the flames aside just as he did while they raced towards the exit.
"I don't need your help," the demon snarled.
She tutted as she followed him out onto the street. "What was so important that you needed to run in there?!"
Elijah turned to face her and scowled—
But then he saw it. A silver flicker in the window of a building across the street.
He tensed up but reacted as quickly as his healing body would let him. Zoe screamed when he abruptly pulled her aside—
"What the fuck is your—"
The explosive round of a sniper burst through the air and cut into the sidewalk where they'd been standing, and when it combusted, it sent a flurry of rubble and flames in every direction.
Police sirens wailed, and red and blue flashing lights lit up the dark at the end of each street.
They were here.
"Come on," Elijah growled through gritted teeth, pulling her with him as he raced back towards the car.
"What the fuck was that?!" Jake hollered from inside the car as the humans who'd been watching screamed and ran past him.
"Get out, we're leaving," the demon told him as he and Zoe reached the vehicle.
"Get out of the car?" Jake questioned, confused.
Zoe hurriedly grabbed her bag and dog from the back seat and shouted, "Get out, Jake!"
Jake swiftly got out, and when Elijah started leading the way across the road, another shot was fired, and it hit the car, immediately sending it up in explosive flames.
"Holy fucking shit!" Jake screeched, scurrying beside Elijah like some kind of gremlin.
The sirens got closer and the flashing red and blue lights reflected off the glass of all the surrounding buildings. They were closing in, but Elijah could already see his escape.
"This way," the demon said, veering left.
Zoe and Jake followed him across the street and down into the subway. Elijah navigated his way past the few people waiting for the next train, heading for the end of the platform.
"Where are we going?!" Jake called.
"Do we even have tickets?" Zoe questioned anxiously.
"We're not getting on a fucking train," Elijah snarled, rushing down the steps and onto the tracks.
He located a maintenance door and forced it open. Once Zoe and Jake were inside the dark, narrow passage, he shut the door and pulled the nearby tool cabinet in front of it.
And then he stopped. He took a moment to breathe, listening to the noise on the other side. Sirens and yelling people; muffled voices, distorted ethos auras. The detainers were on his trail.
"What now?" Zoe asked as her dog whined.
"We keep going," Elijah said, squeezing past them as they pressed their backs against the pipe-lined concrete walls to make room for him.
"All these tunnels are connected, right?" Jake asked, following behind Elijah with Zoe.
"We can use them to get out of the city," Elijah muttered.
Jake laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, uh...I should probably warn you that a lot of lycans use some of these tunnels; some to wait out the full moon so they don't end up killing someone, and others come down here to just...beast out for the hell of it."
"Should we be worried?" Zoe asked him as they reached the end of the passage and turned right.
"Well...maybe," Jake replied.
Elijah rolled his eyes and growled at them, "Can you two shut up?"
But then they heard a loud bang. It echoed down the tunnel towards them.
They all stopped and looked behind them, and when another bang came from the way they'd come, several savage snarls followed. The smell of ash and rotting blood quickly filled the air, and Elijah knew what was coming for them.
"What the hell was that?" Jake stammered.
"Hellhounds," Elijah growled. "Move."
When he started running, Zoe and Jake hastily followed. One last bang and a crash came from behind them, and then a flurry of snarls and roars grew closer with every second.
Elijah followed the tunnels, turning left, and right, and once he found a flight of stairs leading up to a boiler room, he handed his old ammo tin to Zoe and said, "Put this in your bag and don't lose it."
The girl nodded and did as she was told.
When they got into the boiler room, the demon hastily looked for a place to hide Zoe and Jake. Large machines were whirring on both sides of the room; steam spewed from thick, red pipes, and the ceiling vibrated when a train raced through a nearby tunnel. The place reeked of damp and rusted metal, and the scent was so strong that Elijah hoped it would throw the hellhounds off.
He ushered Zoe and Jake behind a wall of pipes. "Stay here until I tell you to come out," he instructed firmly, and as they both nodded, he backed away from the wall and took cover behind the open door.
Elijah exhaled deeply and quietly, composing himself while he waited for the distant snarling creatures to arrive. But no matter how hard he tried to calm down, his heart was racing, and his hands were trembling. He hoped that he'd never have to see a hellhound again, and the fact that the detainers set them loose meant Lyca Corp. was getting desperate. Elijah had to be extremely careful.
A rumbling growl shook the walls. Squelching footsteps edged nearer, and the ashy, rotten bloody smell was so strong that it burned the insides of Elijah's nose. And then he saw the first beast prowl into the room. Its wolfish body had patches of matted, wet fur, and its exposed skin was a contorted mix of red, green, and black. The white collar around its neck had three flashing red lights, and as Elijah stared at them, his heart beat a little faster. He remembered those collars; he remembered the pain they induced. And although the hound was there to kill him, he couldn't help but feel sympathy for it.
But he couldn't get distracted. He dismissed his protruding angst and glowered at the beast. The footprints its paws left were dark and sludgy, and as its glowing red eyes frantically searched the darkness, it twitched its head and pricked its ears. Elijah couldn't afford to make the slightest sound; a hellhound's senses were almost as good as his.
The beast wasn't alone. Two more collared hounds followed behind it. While the first beast continued forward, the second turned left, and the other went right. Elijah hoped that Zoe and Jake would stay where he'd left them; the last thing he needed right now was for one of them to scream and alert the beasts. The only way he could kill these things without anyone getting hurt was by taking them out one at a time.
He watched the beast that turned left prowl past him. Using the darkness to his advantage, Elijah stuck to the shadows and trailed the beast until it turned behind a whirring generator. The demon swiftly grabbed the creature from behind, holding its jaw shut with one hand while he plunged the other into its throat. The beast writhed and struggled, and although it was strong, he was stronger.
Elijah tore every rotten muscle and piece of flesh from the hound's throat until he found the device the collar connected to. He yanked it from the creature's body, and when it fell still, he carefully lowered the hound to the floor and dropped the small, pill-shaped chip device onto its fur. One down, two to go.
The demon peered through a gap in the generator. The third beast was getting dangerously close to the wall of pipes, and the first was about to circle back. So, he silently moved to the other end of the room, and once the first beast turned around and started sniffing, he hurried across to the pipe wall.
But Zoe and Jake weren't there.
Elijah frowned angrily and looked around the room, and when he spotted a glimpse of Zoe's orange hair move behind a boiler, he relaxed a little and set his eyes on the remaining hellhounds.
One of them snarled.
He sharply turned his head in its direction and watched one of the creatures jump onto the generator he'd been hiding behind. Then, he looked down at his injured leg. Blood soaked through his new trousers; he must have torn the wound when running.
But then the beast roared and howled, calling the second one over. Elijah was sure they'd found their dead packmate, and when they started prowling in his direction, he knew that they had his scent.
He couldn't take on two of them at once like this. If he wasn't injured, he'd be fine, but not only was there a wound on his leg, but his ethos also still hadn't recovered from the silver. He didn't have a choice, though. He wasn't going to risk getting captured, nor would he let them take the two people who could ruin everything he'd worked for over the past months.
Elijah scowled and got ready to fight, but just when the beasts were a few feet away, something clanged on the other side of the room. He didn't know who or what it was, but the hounds turned their backs to face the noise, and he took his chance to strike.
He moved from behind the pipes and grabbed the first hound's collar, pulling it away from its packmate. It yelped and snarled, and the other beast quickly turned around and lunged at him. Elijah lifted the beast in his grip and swung it around, slamming it into its packmate. They both whined and growled when they collided, and as the first beast was flung aside and hit a pipe, the one in Elijah's grip flailed around and managed to catch his wrist with its teeth.
With an aggravated grunt, the demon snatched the creature's throat with his other hand, but it used the weight of its body to push him down onto the floor. It started snapping its jaws, trying to reach his face as he held it back by its neck. The other hound climbed to its feet and raced towards him, but he kicked it away before it could get close.
Elijah growled in frustration as he tried to snap the beast's neck, but it fought back, and when it dug its claws into his shoulder, he grunted painfully. He could see the other hound on its way over, and his strength was quickly fading the longer he tried fighting off the first beast.
And for a moment, panic struck him. After all he'd been through, was this really where he got caught? Was Lyca Corp. going to capture him before he had a chance to find Haru?
A strange, distorted yowl then cut through the sounds of the snarling, seething hounds. Elijah flinched in startle when something collided with and pulled the beast off him, and then the darkness lit up crimson when a ball of red flames hit the second hound.
"Elijah!" came Zoe's voice.
He wouldn't lay there in a stupor. Elijah hurried to his feet and grabbed the screeching hound which was trying to shake the red flames off. He dug his claws into its neck, found the device, and tore it out. He dropped the body, and when he set his eyes on what tore the other hound off him, he scoffed. It was a six-foot-tall leopard, and it was tearing into the hellhound's chest.
That wouldn't kill it, though. Elijah hurried over and snatched the beast from the leopard. Then, as it struggled and roared, he plunged his hand into its neck and ripped the pill-sized device out.
It was over.
Elijah dropped the beast and leaned his back against the closest pipe. "So, you're a muto pardus?" he asked Jake.
The leopard nodded and replied in a voice only other lycans and demons could hear. "Yeah. I thought Zoe told you."
"Are you okay?" Zoe asked as she rushed up to Elijah.
"I'm fine," the demon muttered.
"What are these things?" she exclaimed, looking at the mutilated hounds.
"They're what happens when you don't behead a dead lycan," Elijah explained, wiping his bloody hands on his trousers.
Zoe's eyes widened. "I've heard stories about that."
"We need to go," Elijah said, glancing at the flashing hound collars. "They'll send more."
She nodded and looked at Jake. "Are you okay?"
The leopard nodded again.
"This way," Elijah said, heading to a door at the back of the room.
They rushed out of the boiler room and back into more maintenance tunnels.
"I really gotta know your whole story, man," Jake said, racing behind them in his leopard form. "Hellhounds, snipers—what next?"
"I think we should just focus on getting out of here first," Zoe said, following Elijah towards a steel door.
Jake replied, "Yeah, right. Where are we trying to get to?"
"This tunnel leads to Mervae Street," Elijah said, glancing at the sign above the door as he pulled it open. "We'll get on a train from there and take it as far out of Dawnward as we can."
"What if more of those things come?" Zoe asked worriedly.
"Then we'll deal with them." But Elijah then frowned and glanced back at her. "If you can create hellfire, how did you get caught by Doctor Harris?" he asked, confused.
"I don't know," she replied, patting her dog's head as he whined quietly. "It was like he was waiting for me. When I got into his office, there were three guards there. They must have dosed me with something because I can't remember much past that."
Elijah had more questions; he wanted to know what she knew. He was also sure that she had a million things to ask him, too. But now wasn't the time to trade information. More hellhounds would soon be on their trail, and he wanted to make sure they were out of these tunnels before they could pick up his scent.
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✧ Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! ✧
♛ What was your favourite part? ♛
✟ Do you think more hellhounds will come for them? ✟
✙ What do you think will happen once they get out of the tunnels? ✙
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