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When he stepped into the bounty office, Elijah dropped Ridge onto a bench and headed to the window. The man who handed him Ridge's bounty left his desk and hurried over, and when he saw the unconscious man on the bench, his eyes widened in surprise.

"You actually caught the guy?"

"Evidently," Elijah said. "Where's the Venaticus representative?"

"Oh, we don't have one here. We just bag and tag the guys and let them know. It usually takes two or three days for someone to show up," he explained, reaching under the counter. Then, he started counting coronam notes. "You can just hand him in over there," he said, nodding to a door at the end of the wall.

Elijah looked at the door and watched it open. Another man stepped out and looked at Zoe expectantly.

She glanced down at Ridge and frowned nervously. "Oh...me? I can't—"

The demon sighed and left the counter. He grabbed Ridge's arm and dragged him off the bench and over to the door. He dropped him at the guy's feet and then returned to the window to wait for his payment.

"What about the knife?" Zoe asked quietly, standing beside Elijah.

Elijah took the black knife from his pocket and placed it on the counter. "Is this in your wanted records?"

The man stopped counting notes and eyed the knife. "Ridgeforth had this?"

"He did," Elijah confirmed.

"Hmm...one sec," the man said and headed to his desk. He flipped through some papers, looked at his computer, and then came back to the window. "Yep, they said this and maybe some blood vials would come with him. You find those?"

"They're in the safe in his casino...room..." Zoe said unsurely.

The man nodded. "All right, well—" he placed a stack of coronam papers on the counter— "a hundred for Ridge, and ten for the knife," he said, placing ten more notes one by one on top of the stack.

"And the blood?" Elijah questioned, taking the money.

"Well...you didn't actually bring us the blood, so—"

"But we told you where it is," Zoe argued. "I even saw him type in his pin code. The Venaticus are gonna need that to get into it."

The man sighed and flailed his hands around. "Fine. Five for the—"

"Five?" Zoe scoffed before Elijah could argue. "Fifteen."

"Are you crazy?" the man exclaimed.

"Fifteen," Elijah agreed firmly.

Shaking his head, the guy counted out ten notes. "Ten."

Zoe looked up at Elijah.

The demon sighed and snatched the notes from him. "Whatever." He tucked the money into his inside pocket and headed for the door.

"The pin was five, seven, nine, seven," she told the man.

"Thanks."

Elijah then grumbled, "Let's go."

When they got out onto the street, Zoe walked beside him. "We did the right thing," she said contently.

He frowned down at her. "What?"

"Handing over the knife, Elijah. I thought you were going to keep it, but that still would have been better than it ending up in the wrong hands."

Elijah scoffed as he crossed the road. "I don't need to keep a knife that does what I can do with my hands."

Zoe's content expression faded. "Oh."

He kept leading the way to Quinn's apartment, but something that one of Ridge's packmates said was bugging him. "Ridge's goons were asking each other if the Venaticus sent me, and one of them pointed out that my hair was an indicator of that. Why?" he questioned.

She looked up at him. "Oh...maybe because your hair's white."

Elijah frowned expectantly, waiting for her to elaborate.

The girl stared ahead. "Most of the Venaticus' top hunters have white hair; it's something that only really strong demons have."

He grunted in response and led the way inside the apartment building.

"Uh...like my cousin. But he has a bunch of other things going on with him, to be honest, so maybe he's not the best example," Zoe said. "But he is one of the best Venaticus hunters...and even has a corner office and everything," she added, pouting a little.

Elijah sighed as he climbed the stairs. "Why didn't you pursue a career in the Venaticus, then?" he muttered.

"Oh, well it's not really my thing, and my cousin can be a little unpleasant sometimes, so I wasn't too keen on working next to him," she answered, following him up. "But...truth be told, I think I might naturally shy away from working with my family in general. They're all super smart and talented and well...I'm not quite so much, so it's obviously a little comfier to just kind of do my own thing."

He grunted in response again.

But Zoe continued. "I do want to impress them, though, so maybe I should step out of my comfort zone and work for them? But I also don't want to bother them—especially my parents. I feel bad asking my siblings for things, too, because they're way older than I am, and they both have busy lives. It's weird being this much younger than they are; I'll probably be a baby in their eyes for the next few centuries," she laughed.

Elijah grunted again and knocked on Quinn's door.

Zoe still went on. "But I'm thinking if I can manage to pull off exposing Lyca Corp.'s illegal experiments, then maybe I'll feel a little bit better about everything and about myself?" she asked herself, pondering beside him. "I want to be more confident and find my place in the world.... I know I've lived a very privileged life, but it hasn't been without its downsides. I was very sheltered for my whole life and the more I'm on my own, the more I'm realizing that I haven't really experienced much of anything—h-hopefully it's not too obvious," she said, gawping up at him.

The demon sighed and knocked on the door again. "I didn't notice," he said sarcastically.

"Oh, good. That makes me feel a lot better," Zoe said with a smile.

Elijah rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!" came Quinn's voice. "Can't a man shower in peace—oh, Elijah," he said as he pulled the door open and set his eyes on them. "You, uh...back already?"

"You seem shocked," Elijah grumbled, walking past him into his apartment.

Zoe quickly followed.

"I mean...yeah. How'd you get the money so fast?" Quinn asked, locking his door.

"Do you really want to know?" the demon replied, stopping by the man's desk.

Quinn went a little pale-faced. "You know what? Never mind." He sat at his desk and swivelled in his seat to face them. "So? Thirty C, man."

Elijah took out the wad of coronam notes and counted thirty. "Ronan Palmer," he said, handing Quinn the money.

The man hastily counted and then stashed the notes in a lockbox. Then, he put on a pair of glasses and started typing and clicking frantically. "All right, all right...Ronan...Ronan...hmm."

"Hey, uh...is this really a good idea?" Zoe questioned. "Like...is it safe? Didn't you just say earlier that the Nosferatu knows someone is digging through their files? What if they...I don't know, track you or something?"

Quinn laughed and patted one of several large whirring machines under his desk. "Don't worry, kiddos. These babies keep me safe—"

"Then why did you up your fucking price?" Elijah growled.

"I-I mean...these babies only do so much," he said with a nervous laugh, glancing at Elijah.

Elijah snarled quietly. This guy was extremely lucky that he was the only hacker Elijah knew.

"What do we do if they show up?" Zoe asked worriedly.

"They won't. Calm down," Quinn said dismissively. Then, he opened a file on his screen, and what looked like a work profile showed up. "Okay, Ronan Palmer. This the guy?"

Elijah glanced at the screen. "Seems like it. Print it all off."

Quinn nodded and started clicking and typing again.

Zoe leaned closer to Elijah. "Are you sure this is safe? I don't wanna get caught."

"We're not going to get caught," Elijah grumbled.

"I hope not," she fretted.

Quinn finished printing and handed Elijah several pieces of paper. "That's everything the Nosferatu have on him. Contacts, places he's been seen, places his credit cards and whatever have been swiped, and a few snapshots of him and his car."

Elijah flipped through the information and saw that the last place Ronan was seen was in a small town called Flinnwick in East Coast. He had no idea where that was, but he'd find it.

He folded the paper up and stuffed it into his inside pocket. "I need item B, too."

The man's face lit up. "Well, well," he said, standing up.

"What's item B?" Zoe questioned.

Quinn enthusiastically pulled open several lockers and crates sitting in his kitchen. "This is item B," he said, gesturing to all the blades, guns, and ammunition.

"Which one?" she asked.

The man frowned. "All...all of it."

Elijah sighed and went over to him.

"Looking for anything specific?" Quinn asked him.

"More rounds for the Rovinare 92."

Quinn held up a finger and said, "I actually have some more of those." He opened a box with four pistols inside. "You want another? Can't go wrong with twins, huh? Eight coronam, just like your first one."

Zoe made an unsure noise to match the conflicted look on her face.

Elijah thought about it. Two were better than one, so he nodded. "Throw in a silencer for it, too."

With an excited nod, Quinn grabbed one of the pistols, took a silencer out of another box, and then glanced at Elijah. "How many boxes of rounds? Still half a coronam each."

"Four."

Quinn grabbed four boxes of 9mm rounds. "What about you?" he asked Zoe. "You want a little something something?"

"Um...no thank you," she said, embarrassed.

"How much is that?" Elijah asked, pointing to a large sniper rifle in one of the lockers.

Quinn glanced at it and smirked. "Oh, the Prăpădi M82 caught your eye, did she?" He carefully took the large black rifle out of the locker. "Dor-Sanguian made, packs a whole lotta punch. Recoil-operated, semi-automatic, and she can cut through armoured vehicles, body armour, walls, you fucking name it. Military-grade—like...big big military. Don't ask how I got my hands on her."

Elijah took the sniper from him and examined it. It was lighter than he expected, and it looked like it didn't hold many rounds at once.

"She folds up, too. Compact. I'll let you have her for eighty coronam. I'll even throw in a free box of rounds."

The demon glanced around and spotted a duffel bag. "And the bag, too."

Quinn shrugged. "Sure."

"How many rounds does it hold?"

"Usually ten, but I have a couple twelve mags—those are a coronam each."

Elijah sighed and added it all up in his head. Ninety-six coronam, leaving him fourteen. "I'll have four of those mags."

"You want me to put it all in the bag for you?"

The demon nodded and leaned against the wall. He counted his money, took out what he owed Quinn, and then handed it to the guy when he gave him the bag.

"Pleasure doing business once again," the man said with a grin.

Elijah placed the bag strap over his shoulder and glanced at Zoe. "Let's go."

She followed him out of Quinn's apartment and down the stairs. "Are you gonna carry all of that around all the time?"

He scoffed and replied, "It's not like I have a bike anymore, is it?"

"Maybe we can get a car or find a safe place to operate out of," she suggested.

"We're going back to get your little friend and then we're heading for the East Coast," he mumbled. "We'll find somewhere to set up when we get there."

"Wait, what? Right now?"

"Yes, right now. There's no sense in wasting time," he snapped, heading back to the hotel.

"It's so late, though. Can't we just rest and leave first thing in the morning?"

He didn't want to wait until morning. After months of searching, he might now actually have the lead he needed to find Haru. He wanted to get to Flinnwick as soon as he could.

"Plus we're not gonna be able to get a car or train or anything at this time," Zoe added.

Elijah snarled in frustration. As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. The place he planned to grab a cheap, shitty but untraceable car from wouldn't open until eight, so he had to kill five hours. "Whatever," he grumbled.

"Thank you."

They made their way through the dark, quiet streets back to the hotel. When they got up to their room, the moment Zoe opened the door, her weird little dog started yapping. Elijah groaned irritably and moved past her as she crouched down to pet the thing, and then made his way over to his bed.

Jake was nowhere to be seen, though.

Elijah frowned as he put his bag on his bed. He looked out on the balcony, but he wasn't out there. However, the toilet then flushed, and the kid came out of the bathroom with a flustered look on his face.

"Where the hell were you guys?" he asked, standing with his back against the bathroom door.

Zoe picked the dog up and looked at Jake. "Don't worry, we're safe. Did you take Antonio out to pee at all?"

Jake scoffed and said, "No, I was too busy worrying whether you'd been mugged or killed or captured by those guys." Then, he looked at Elijah. "What's in the bag?"

The demon ignored him and sat on his bed with his back to them.

"Did you feed him at least?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah. I got some room service and gave him some chicken."

"Was it spicy?" she exclaimed. "He can't have spice, Jake."

Elijah rolled his eyes as he took his jacket and shoes off. Then, he lay down. He wished he bought some earplugs so he didn't have to listen to them both. Zoe on her own was enough, but her and Jake? Elijah wasn't sure how much more he could put up with.

"No, it wasn't," Jake answered.

"Okay, good."

With a quiet sigh, Elijah tried to drown their voices out so that he could get a little more rest. He needed to think over everything he learned, but he wasn't going to be able to do that until they shut up, and he had no idea when that would happen. Tomorrow was also going to be just as long as today, so some extra sleep might help.

But he couldn't stop thinking about the fact that Ascela had come up a lot lately. Could the lab hidden out there be where Haru was? Should he be preparing to hear that news so that he had everything ready to head out there? Ascela was a long way from Dawnward; he'd need to take a plane or find someone that had another means of travel.

He closed his eyes and tried to settle. Maybe he was thinking too far ahead. He had to get to Flinnwick first and find Ronan. He'd also need more money, but that was something to worry about once he located his next target.

And hopefully, Ronan would be the last lead he needed to hunt down.

⊳⊱ ♕ ⊰⊲

✧ Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! ✧

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✟ Do you think Ascela is connected to all of this? ✟

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