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When a voice announced through the train speakers that they were approaching East Coast, Elijah got out of the truck and headed over to one of the carriage windows. He stared outside, watching as they raced past the desolate desert; the train was travelling on tracks so high up that he could barely see the horse-riding posses and small dusty towns below.
Eventually, though, the dried-up, cracked land faded, and tufts of grass began showing up. The huge bridge that the train was travelling on came to an end, and it followed tracks attached to the grassy ground and past a dense treeline.
Elijah watched the forest pass by, and as the train slowed, he spotted a pack of wolf walkers watching deep within the trees. He heard them speaking, asking one another if the train was going to bring trouble for them this time.
And once the train left the forest, it passed half a mile of flat grassland before entering a town. Elijah didn't know which town it was, but he didn't see any El'Vorian Horizons buildings, so it was unlikely that it was Flinnwick.
He returned to the truck and straightened his seat.
"Are we there yet?" Jake asked eagerly as he ruffled his blonde hair with his hand. "I'm starving."
"Be patient," Zoe mumbled and then looked at Elijah. "Don't forget about the phone thing."
The demon responded with a grunt of acknowledgement.
"I don't want Slappy's again, though. Maybe we can find a Dog Shack or something," the pardus continued.
"Hot dogs are so bad for you," Zoe protested. "They're made of—"
"Yeah, yeah, made of all kinds of leftover shit in factories. But you know what? I don't care. Hell, I'd eat all that shit before it got turned into a hot dog."
"No, you wouldn't."
"Would too."
"So you'd eat pig ears and cow feet and stuff like that?" she questioned with a grimace.
"Well...maybe not feet...but ears are fine," he said with a shrug.
"I don't think I could," Zoe mumbled.
The train then jolted and slowed dramatically, and when it came to a complete halt, the workers emerged from the upper level and started unclamping each vehicle.
"Should we get the phone or food first?" Zoe asked Elijah.
"Whatever's closer," the demon muttered.
"Wait, phone?" Jake asked.
While Zoe told Jake why she needed a phone, Elijah watched in the rear-view mirror as the huge doors on the side of the train opened. Two men began escorting the first car out, and once it departed the carriage, they escorted the van behind the truck. As the van left, Elijah started the engine, and then he followed the workers' instructions as they guided him out of the train.
The moment he was out and on the road, Elijah rolled down his window and took a breath of fresh air. It was the early afternoon, and the sun was high in the sky, but the air felt cold. The smell of the sea was strong, and seagulls squawked loudly in the distance. He looked for a sign that might tell him where he was—
"Lor-weck-sed," Jake tried to pronounce the station name. "Lor...eckstead? Lorry...stread."
"It's Lor-eck-stead," Zoe said irritated. "Lorweckstead. The W is silent."
"Oh..." Jake drawled.
Elijah rolled his eyes as he followed the road to its end and turned right, heading into the town. He drove slowly—which was the speed limit anyway—and eyed each store on either side of the road. There were a lot of tourist shops, cafés, seafood bars, and the occasional small grocery store. He didn't spot anywhere that might sell phones, though.
"Is there literally only seafood?" Jake complained. "I don't like seafood."
"Well, tough shit," Elijah muttered. "Seafood looks like the only thing on offer."
"It's a seaside town," Zoe said as she pointed out the window at the beach, which was just visible through the gaps between each old building.
"I hate the beach," the pardus complained. "You get sand in your toes and ears and other places."
Zoe then pointed out the front window. "Oh, there," she said, waving her hand in the direction of a small tech store sitting between a bakery and a fresh fish bar. "We can get a phone there and lunch from the bakery."
"Ugh," Jake complained. "They're probably gonna sell fish cakes and crab rolls."
"Will you quit complaining?" Zoe exclaimed irritably.
Jake scoffed but didn't respond.
Elijah pulled over and parked outside the tech store. He reached into his bag and took out some money, and once Zoe got her dog to stop yapping and made it sit on her seat, the three of them got out of the truck.
When they went into the store, Zoe went over to the phone section, and Elijah dragged Jake with him to the counter.
"Can you tell me how to get to Flinnwick?" the demon asked the server.
"You want a sat nav?" the man asked.
"No, I want to know how to get to Flinnwick."
"A sat nav will get you there," he insisted.
Elijah scowled irritably—
"This one," Zoe said as she placed a pink cell phone on the counter.
"You want a sat nav, too?"
"Just the phone," Elijah snarled.
"Ten coronam," he said.
"Is the SIM card included?" Zoe asked.
The man nodded.
Elijah handed him ten coronam notes, and once Zoe took the phone from the counter, along with a new SIM card, the demon led the way out of the store.
"That dude really wanted you to buy a sat nav," Jake muttered.
Rolling his eyes, Elijah took them into the bakery. "Pick something," he muttered. He wanted to get back on the road and to Flinnwick without any further delays. "Can you tell me how to get to Flinnwick?" he asked the cashier.
"Oh...Flinnwick?" she asked with a frown. "You want to um...leave town through the east gate, and then you follow the highway to Melbourne, then uh...take a left and follow that highway, which'll take you all the way to Flinnwick. It's only two hours away from here."
"Thank you," Elijah muttered. He then watched Zoe and Jake place a bunch of pastries and sandwiches on the counter. Once the woman counted it all up, he paid her and headed back out to the truck. "Let's go," he said as he got in and started the engine. He was just two hours away from the man who could tell him where Haru was, and he wasn't going to waste a second.
"I'm gonna call my dad real fast," Zoe said as she switched on her new phone after putting the SIM card in.
Elijah pulled away from the sidewalk and started driving, searching for the east exit.
Zoe dialled the number, and then she held her phone to her ear.
"Hello?" came a different man's voice.
The girl looked startled and wide-eyed. "Hi...uh...." She abruptly hung up the phone.
Elijah frowned at her.
"Uh...wrong dad," she said. "He's gonna make me go home."
Her phone started ringing.
Zoe tensed up and looked mortified. She didn't answer, and once it stopped ringing, she opened up the text screen and sent a voice note, "Hi, Daddy. Sorry, I had to get on...the train, but I just wanted to let you and Papa know that I replaced my phone, and this is my new number."
Moments later, her father sent a reply. "Why are you on a train?"
"Oh...it's a train that they turned into a restaurant; it's really nice," she replied.
Jake shook his head. "They're gonna figure out you're lying pretty soon, Zoe."
She shrugged and said, "If they do, I want to at least make it worth it."
Zoe's father replied. "Okay, have fun. I'll text you tomorrow. I love you."
Zoe replied, "I love you, too." But then she looked at Elijah. "I have a feeling he's gonna tell me to come home."
"Then you're going to have to convince him otherwise," Elijah muttered as he drove towards the east exit.
"I know. He's just very stubborn," she mumbled. "I might have to lie about where we are, but hopefully they don't try to track me down or anything."
Elijah drove out of Lorweckstead and onto the highway. He let Zoe turn the radio on when the silence between them thickened, and although the music was irritating him, the demon didn't turn it off. He didn't need total silence to ponder, he just preferred it.
As he drove, the only thing he could think about was Haru. He was getting so close—all he had to do was find Ronan, and he was less than two hours away from doing that. But...would Haru be angry with him because it'd taken him this long to find him? Would Haru resent him for having gained his own freedom first? The thought of Haru greeting him with dismal dismayed Elijah; he couldn't let his racing mind get the better of him, though. He needed to concentrate.
Ronan was likely going to be hard to get to, just like Doctor Harris was, but it was nothing that Elijah couldn't handle. If he had to stake him out, he would.... How was he going to do that with his two hapless companions, though? Zoe he felt was a little more competent now that he'd got to know her, but Jake? That kid was a liability no matter the situation.
He glanced at the pardus, whose eyes shimmered a light honey brown in the sunlight. What was he going to do with him? Knocking him out and leaving him in the back of the truck seemed like a good idea, but he was sure that Zoe wouldn't agree, and he didn't have the energy to argue with either of them.
As he followed the highway, he tried to think of a way to remove Jake from the equation. He thought about asking Zoe to stay in the truck or a hotel with him, but he was certain that the pardus would find a way to inconvenience him. Bringing him along...no, that was a stupid idea. He'd give Elijah away or fuck up some other way.
But there weren't really any other options.
When he reached Melbourne, he turned left, just as the server in the bakery told him, and drove onto another highway.
"Hey, Zoe," Jake said, breaking the silence.
She sighed in response.
"Do you remember when we were in the car on that highway, and we saw a pack of coyotes—actual coyotes—and one of them was carrying that dear skull around and kept hitting the others with it by accident?" he asked amusedly.
The orange-haired girl replied, "Yeah."
"That was so funny."
Zoe didn't respond.
"Or that time we were on our way to Zac's birthday party, and we saw those two drunks fighting, and one of them shifted into a huge roach?"
Elijah grimaced at the thought.
Zoe looked disgusted, too. "How could I forget?" she muttered.
Jake sighed nostalgically. "Good times."
"Seeing a giant roach was not a good time," the girl mumbled under her breath.
"Okay...well what about when—"
"Can you just...be quiet, please?" Zoe interjected, glancing over her shoulder at him. "I'm trying to listen to the radio."
"Uh...wow...okay," Jake scoffed and sat back with his arms crossed. "Just tryna start a conversation; it's dead up in here."
Neither of them replied to him, but Zoe's dog growled at Jake.
"What?" Jake muttered to it.
The dog yapped and then turned its back on him.
Clearly, Elijah and Zoe weren't the only ones furious at him.
Silence ensnared them once again.
The closer they got to Flinnwick, the more anxious Elijah began to feel. What if he didn't like what Ronan had to tell him? What if...Haru wasn't even alive anymore? No...he couldn't think like that again. If something had happened to Haru, he'd feel it, right?
He frowned, staring at the car in front of him. What if Haru had been moved to another black site? Some maximum-security laboratory out in the middle of nowhere? Elijah scowled determinedly. Nothing was going to keep him from freeing Haru; no amount of guards or guns or hellhounds would keep him from the man he loved.
"There," Zoe said in what sounded like relief.
Elijah looked to where she was pointing—the sign that said they should exit down the road for Flinnwick. So, he turned right, exiting the highway, and not far up ahead, he saw the town. There were tall glass buildings that would usually be found in a city—he knew that they were El'Vorian already.
"So, uh...what's the plan once we get there?" Jake asked.
"Recon," Elijah muttered, approaching the town entrance.
Once he drove into Flinnwick, Elijah turned down an empty road and parked. He leaned back and rummaged around in his bag until he found the papers that Quinn gave him. As he looked through them, he read every place that Ronan had been seen at, where he worked, and where he lived. The papers told him how many guards the doctor had with him from the moment he left his home to the second he got back every night.
Ronan's home—a small estate just outside Flinnwick—was heavily guarded, and there were cameras everywhere, so it was probably best to grab him on the road the same way Elijah grabbed Doctor Harris. But he didn't have his bike anymore, so it was going to be a lot harder to get the drop on him.
He sighed as he quickly re-read the papers, and then he stuffed them into his bag and pondered for a few moments. Ronan worked at an El'Vorian pharmacy on St. James' Street, which was close to the centre of town. There'd be a lot of people about, so he could blend in and observe the place. It took him weeks to observe Harris, though; he didn't have weeks anymore. Haru needed him. He wanted to grab Ronan tonight...but was it possible?
Elijah unzipped his leather jacket and checked his holstered pistols, and then he made sure that his knives were in place. "Come on," he said as he unlocked the car. "I need to check out the streets."
Zoe and Jake got out of the car, and once he locked it, Elijah led the way up the street and turned right onto a busy sidewalk. He pulled up his hood, hiding his white hair, and examined the faces of every passing person. But when he reached the end of the street, he stopped, his eyes fixed on a trio of police officers patrolling the street. He hastily pulled Zoe and Jake out of their line of sight and behind the cover of an alley fence.
"What?" Jake questioned.
"I saw them, too," Zoe panicked.
Elijah peered out from behind the fence; the trio weren't the only officers on patrol. A group of four were walking up the street on the other side of the road, and he spotted two more sitting on a bench by a crossroad. "Shit," he snarled quietly.
"What?" the girl asked worriedly.
"Lyca Corp. must've told all their doctors to up the security after we attacked that lab," the demon muttered. "There's cops everywhere."
Zoe started panicking. "What do we do?"
"Do we like...sneak past or go underground again or something?" Jake suggested.
Elijah shook his head. "There's no subway here." How was he going to get to the centre of town with police crawling all over the place? If he knew where all the police units were set up, then maybe he'd be able to come up with a safe route. But to get that information...he needed one of the officers.
He looked up and down the alley. There were stacks of crates and barrels at the end, and another fence that they could all easily jump over if they needed to make a quick getaway—but he hoped that it wouldn't come to that.
"Go and wait behind those creates," he told Zoe and Jake.
"Why?" the girl asked.
"Because I said so."
Zoe sighed but ushered Jake to the end of the alley with her. They both hid behind the crates and stared at Elijah through a small gap between a box and a barrel.
Elijah concentrated on the sidewalks. Every passing police patrol had at least two officers; if he had to grab a pair, then he would. He didn't want to waste more time than he needed to. So, he waited, watching the reflection of two officers in the window of a store on the other side of the street. He watched as they got closer to the fence that he was hiding behind, and the second they stepped past it, he grabbed them both, one with each hand, and pulled them into the alley.
They reached for their weapons, but Elijah swiftly slammed one against the wall so hard that, when his head hit the brick, he passed out. The demon pinned the second against the wall, and before the man could pull his pistol from its holster, Elijah mercilessly plunged his hand into the officer's chest, gripped his racing heart, and yanked it out.
The officer fell still and silent, dropping to the ground beside his unconscious comrade with a thump.
"He just killed two police officers," Jake whispered, sounding shocked and maybe even a little frightened.
Elijah stared at the heart in his hand; his demonic hunger urged him to quench his thirst, but he needed it for more than just sustenance. Without hesitation, he took a bite of the bloody organ, and the moment it touched his tongue, he let himself groan quietly in relief. He chewed and swallowed, and then he took another bite. The more he devoured, the more answers he received. Everything that the officer knew was now Elijah's knowledge; he knew their patrol paths, times, and dates. He knew exactly when and where each officer would be. And he also knew that the police were on high alert for a white-haired, orange-eyed demon, an orange-haired, green-eyed girl, and a blonde lycan all travelling together.
"Why...did you do that?" came Zoe's confused voice.
Once he swallowed the last of the heart, Elijah dragged his tongue over his bloody palm before turning to face the girl.
"The heart," she said, standing in front of him almost as if she was confronting him. "Why did you eat it?"
He wiped his bloody hand on his trousers and his mouth with his sleeve. "It's how I get information out of people who aren't likely to talk. I eat their heart...their knowledge becomes mine," he explained as he glanced at Jake, who tapped the unconscious officer with his foot.
Zoe didn't say anything else. She looked like she was pondering, and to Elijah's surprise, she didn't scold him about either officer.
The officer's knowledge told him that patrols were thinner at night, especially after Ronan left work, so it seemed like waiting for dark and hunting Ronan on the road was the best option. Elijah could handle his security detail, who he'd rather kill than uninvolved police officers—but there were always a few non-Lyca Corp. casualties. It was unavoidable.
"We're going back to the truck," the demon said. "We need to wait until dark."
"More waiting around?" Jake complained.
"Move it," Elijah snarled at him.
"Okay, okay," he muttered.
Zoe remained quiet, following in silence.
When Elijah glanced at the girl, she still had that pondering look on her face...like she was deep in thought. Why? Was she really that bothered by his methods? He wasn't going to apologize.
Once they got back to the truck, they climbed inside, and Elijah locked the doors. He leaned back in his seat, crossed his arms, and vigilantly watched the streets. He now knew that the officers didn't patrol the outskirts of town, but he wasn't taking any chances. If he so much as saw the shimmer of an officer's high-vis vest, he'd start the engine and drive someplace else.
All he could do for now, though...was wait. The moment night fell, he'd head for the road that Ronan took to get home; he'd grab him, and he'd finally find out where Haru had been sent.
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