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Elijah stood with his back against the wall and focused. Three of Lamar's men were circling the block in their car, and four more were scouring the rooftops. If he didn't deliver the man's head quickly, he might have another fight on his hands.

"Is that the place?" Zoe asked, pointing to a building with barred windows and steel doors.

The demon nodded and said, "Move when I move."

She sighed quietly in response.

Elijah waited...and when he saw the car full of Lamar's goons pass by, he set his eyes on the building on the other side of the road. "Let's go," he muttered, pulling her with him as he left the alley and hurried across.

When he reached the door, he pushed it open and let get of Zoe's wrist. The place looked like a sheriff's station; a steel wall with a barred window stood ten feet from the door, bounties were pinned all over the place, and through the window, Elijah could see several barred cells at the back of the office-like area.

Someone appeared on the other side of the window. "Can I help?" the man mumbled tiredly, tapping his fingers as he eyed Elijah and Zoe.

The demon slammed Lamar's head on the counter. Then, he took the folded bounty paper from his pocket and showed it to him. "Twenty coronam. I'll take notes," he demanded.

With a disgruntled sigh, the man lifted a hatch and took the head. Then, he disappeared after calling, "I'll be back in a minute."

"So, what now?" Zoe asked, crossing her arms. "Those guys are still out there."

Elijah looked down at his bloody hands and then glanced at her. "We wash off Lamar's scent and that's it."

"And the money? What do you need it so bad for?"

"I told you; to get back what I lost."

"So...guns and ammo? And then what?"

He sighed irritably and turned to face her. "And then whatever I decide," he answered. "Stop asking questions."

"I just want to be in the loop," she complained.

"Here," came the man's voice.

Elijah took his eyes off her and returned to the window. He watched the man place down twenty coronam notes one by one, and once they were all there, the demon took them and stuffed them into the inside pocket of his leather jacket.

"That's one less scumbag off the streets, huh?" the man behind the window said. "How'd you get him?"

"Surprise," Elijah grumbled.

"If you wanna clean up, there's a washroom to your right," the guy said.

Elijah headed into the washroom and washed the blood from his hands. To his relief, Zoe remained silent, and once he was done, he led the way back onto the sidewalk. She didn't ask where he was going; she followed with a scowl on her face.

The demon navigated the streets, and when he reached Quinn's apartment complex, he led the way inside.

"What are we doing here?" Zoe questioned.

"Trading," he muttered as they climbed to the second floor.

He headed down the hall and knocked on apartment twenty-seven.

"Who is it?" came Quinn's aggravated voice.

"Elijah," he grumbled.

Quinn started unlocking his door, pulling every bolt and chain. When he opened it, the tall, skinny man pushed his glasses closer to his silvery eyes and grinned at Elijah. "How'd you get on with that doctor, huh?"

"I need information on someone else," he answered.

The greasy-haired man nodded and invited them in. "Who's this?" he asked, looking at Zoe.

"Zoe," the girl said cautiously.

Quinn closed his door and headed over to his messy desk. His apartment was almost as dark as his hair, lit only by the five computer screens he was working on. Soda cans and take-out boxes lay everywhere, and the place smelt like rotting food.

It was exactly the same as it had been when Elijah first visited.

"What can I help you with this time?" Quinn asked.

Elijah stood in front of his desk. "Another Lyca Corp. employee. Ronan Palmer."

The man exhaled deeply as he swivelled in his seat. "It's gonna be steep. I ain't gonna lie, things are getting a little riskier than I like. It's not just Lyca Corp., you know. The Nosferatu know someone's digging through their files, too."

Zoe then adorned a confused frown and shifted her sights from Quinn to Elijah and back to Quinn.

Elijah rolled his eyes and sighed. Of course he wanted more money. "How much?"

Quinn turned his head and stared at one of his screens for a moment. "Fifty," he mumbled.

"Fifty?!" he exclaimed angrily, clenching his fists.

"Hey, it's my head on the line, man!" Quinn argued. "I could end up in one of those testing facilities—or worse, I could get thrown in a Venaticus prison."

"Then maybe you should get better at your job," Elijah growled, leaning his hands on the desk so that he could glare down at the man. "You said fifteen per person."

Quinn kicked himself back, and as his chair rolled towards the wall and away from Elijah, the man held up his hands. "That was before the alarms started sounding."

The demon snarled in frustration and moved away from the desk. If he knew how to do Quinn's job, he'd take the information by force—threatening to kill him was also an option, but he didn't want to destroy any chance he had of getting more information if he ended up needing it. Quinn was the only man he knew who could hack into government files.

"Thirty," Elijah said firmly.

Quinn tapped his chin. "Forty."

"Thirty," Elijah growled.

With a quiet sigh, the man nodded. "Fine. Thirty." He held out his hand.

Elijah slammed the twenty coronam notes on the desk and said, "I'll be back with the rest, and you better have the information ready."

Quinn shuffled forward and took the money. "You got it," he said with a grin.

"Come on," Elijah grumbled, glancing at Zoe as he headed for the door.

Zoe followed him out, and once they got downstairs, she walked beside him. "So, that guy hacks into the government?"

"He's an information broker," Elijah muttered, leading the way back to the bounty drop-off office.

"Is that how you found Doctor Harris? He hacked into Lyca Corp.'s files?"

He nodded.

"Then...couldn't he just hack into their information and find out where Haru is?"

Elijah stopped walking and glared at her.

"Sorry...I heard you say the name when I was in the trunk," she said with a conflicted frown.

He huffed irritably and kept walking. "He's tried. There's no online record of their facilities, logistics, or operations. All he can find are people the Nosferatu have on their watch lists."

"So what does the Nosferatu have to do with it, then?"

"I don't know," he grumbled, turning onto another street.

"Really? Because you didn't seem surprised to hear that they had a hand in this."

He stopped again but refrained from yelling. Did she know about the Nosferatu? It seemed like she did, and he wouldn't have to pay her for information...he just had to keep his anger at bay. "I saw them," he mumbled, crossing the road.

"What? Saw them when?" she questioned, staring up at him.

"When I escaped," he uttered, trying to fight off the memory of that night and the dismay it made him feel. "I woke up to find the place on fire. All the doors unlocked when the power shut down, so I ran for it." The sound of all the screaming people filled his head, and as he grimaced, he continued. "The Nosferatu were torching the place. If anyone else got out, I'm sure the detainers have caught them by now."

She frowned in confusion and stared ahead. "Why would they do that?"

"To burn evidence, I don't know. But it looks like Lyca Corp. has people inside the Caeleste government." He pushed open the door to the bounty delivery office.

Zoe followed him in and waited while he glanced at each bounty. He needed to make ten more coronam to get the information, and to get the gear he lost in the fire, he'd need at least five. But he couldn't find any bounty offering fifteen—in fact, not one of them offered more than two. So, he moved over to the window.

"You," he called to the guy sitting behind a desk beside an empty cell.

"You again?" the man called as he made his way over.

"Are there any bounties like Lamar?"

The man rested his arms on the counter. "You're a big game only kinda guy, huh?"

Elijah waited, glaring at him.

With a sigh, the man walked over to one of the desks, flicked through some papers, and then made his way back over. He handed a file to Elijah and said, "Calls himself God Slayer, but his real name is Darius Ridgeforth, also known as Ridge. Baphom demon, high threat. A hundred coronam alive, fifty dead."

The demon opened the file and glanced at the information. "Why alive?" he asked. All bounties down in the underground city were wanted dead.

"Darius pissed off the Nosferatu, and when that happens, the Venaticus come looking," he answered.

Elijah frowned at him. "Venaticus?"

"Demon police, essentially. They're a branch within the Caeleste government who specialize in hunting down and imprisoning dangerous demons."

"And what did Ridge do to piss the Nosferatu off?"

"Unknown," the guy said, tapping a section on the file.

Elijah looked at it, and just as the man said, there was no information about what Ridge did to the Caeleste government. But he didn't care. A hundred coronam was better than fifty.

He took the file and led the way out of the office. But before he could say or do anything—

"Can I see that?" Zoe requested.

Elijah frowned skeptically and slowly handed her the file. He watched her read through it; she lingered on the photo page for a moment, and once she was done, she handed it back to him.

"I know someone who works at the Venaticus, and I know that this guy is wanted because he stole hybrid blood," she revealed.

His frown thickened. Evidently, she was in possession of information that he could find useful. "Hybrid blood?"

She nodded and walked beside him as he started heading towards the place Ridge was last seen. "This Ridge guy was hiding in a town out in the middle of nowhere in Ascela—"

"Ascela?" he questioned as his heart beat a little faster.

"Yeah...it's a really cold country. Snows all the time."

Elijah asked himself if this might be connected...but what would some random demon who stole hybrid blood have to do with Haru's relocation? He didn't even know if Haru was sent to Ascela. So he couldn't get his hopes up. Not yet.

He kept walking. "Continue."

"Uh...yeah," she said, looking a little flustered. "He was out there hiding from the Venaticus because he was turning people into demons, which is illegal. He kidnapped a demon-wolf walker hybrid and extracted his blood. He got away with it, and no one could find him. But...I guess he's been down here all this time."

Elijah's skepticism returned. Could she really have gotten all of that from 'someone she knew at the Venaticus', or was there something she wasn't telling him? He knew that she knew things about Lyca Corp. and El'Vorian, but now the Nosferatu and Venaticus, too?

Now wasn't the time to try and pry answers from her. He stopped by a parked truck and took cover behind it. He set his eyes on the casino at the end of the road and concentrated. "This guy has a pack," he mumbled. "There are at least a hundred demons in there and there's no way to tell which ones are his—if he's even in there." He looked at Zoe, who was standing beside him with her back against the truck. "This time, do as I say and stay here," he said sternly.

She huffed and said, "Fine."

Elijah moved away from the truck and stuck to the shadows. He didn't manage to make up for the energy he lost thanks to Zoe's interruption, and he'd need to do it before facing a pack of demons. So, he made his way to the casino and hid behind one of the flashing signs. There were three armed guards: two on either side of the doors and one smoking by a side entrance.

That was his target.

The demon prowled closer, but just when Elijah was about to strike, the man flicked his cigarette into the road and turned around—

Elijah snarled quietly and lunged forward, grabbing the guy before he could make a sound. He held one hand over the guy's mouth and used the other to drag him into the alley. Then, when Elijah's back hit the wall, he gripped the man's face, pulled his head to the side, and harshly sunk his fangs into his neck.

The moment the man's blood touched his tongue, Elijah groaned in relief and started gulping it down like a starved animal. With every mouthful, he felt his energy returning. But even when he was back at full strength, he kept drinking. He couldn't resist it. Demon blood tasted so sweet, and he felt like he hadn't fed in days.

Once he drained every drop of blood from the man's body, he dropped it on the ground and used his foot to push it under a dumpster. The last thing he needed was someone to see it and raise the alarm.

He wiped his mouth, exhaled deeply, and then headed for the side entrance. When he slipped inside, he followed the red-carpeted hallway and went through a door on his right, which took him to the casino floor.

There were hundreds of people inside, and there was so much noise that it made him feel disorientated. Slot machines were ringing, people were yelling and laughing, and the music pounded against his ears.

Elijah had no choice but to stop focusing on his heightened hearing and was left with only his sense of smell and his sensory ethos. He sensed the auras of not only demons but also lycans, vampires, elves, and even a few witches and mages. If he was going to find Ridge, he had to make sure he asked the right person.

He made his way through the crowds and to a table where two lycans, a witch, and two elves were playing blackjack.

"You looking to play?" the dealer asked him.

"No," the demon replied. "I'm looking for someone. He owes someone I work for money."

Everyone at the table glanced at one another.

The dealer dealt the cards. "Oh?"

"Darius Ridgeforth. Goes by God Slayer."

Everyone at the table tensed up and adorned anxious expressions. Evidently, they knew who Ridge was.

"Can't help you," the dealer said.

Elijah didn't have time for this. He made sure no security guards were around and then grabbed the dealer's collar. As he pulled him out of his seat, the man struggled, and the people sitting at the table gasped. But they didn't call for help. They remained where they were while Elijah dragged the dealer behind a thick golden pillar.

The demon pinned him against it and glared into his terrified eyes. "Either tell me where Ridge is, or your insides will become outsides."

With a petrified whimper, the man shook his head. "I-I can't!" he insisted. "He'll kill me and my family!"

"I'll kill you and your family if you don't," Elijah warned.

He winced and trembled. The guy was reluctant, but as tears trickled down his face, he lifted his shaky hand and pointed to the grand staircase. "H-he's usually in t-the private lounges."

Elijah leaned his face closer and bared his fangs. "Tell anyone about this, and I'll be back—" he prodded the man's stomach— "for these."

When Elijah let go, the man fell to the floor and sobbed like a baby.

He turned around and headed for the gold-painted stairs. As he climbed them, he focused on only the demon auras. On the casino floor, there were seventy-two demons, and upstairs, he could sense forty-three. One demon aura in particular was a lot more intense than the others, and Elijah suspected that it was Ridge.

Following the strong aura, he walked across the landing, and when he reached the end, he turned left and approached the only door on the back wall. He stood against the wall and tried to focus on the voices inside, but it was still hard to hear over the noise of the casino.

But then he heard something. Laughter...the clicking of casino chips, and muffled chattering voices.

Elijah extended his claws and prepared himself. It wasn't going to be as simple as his fight with Lamar's goons, but he'd faced worse before. He just had to be careful.

After one final exhale, Elijah grabbed the door handle, broke the lock with a single pull, and then burst through the door. But the moment his eyes locked with Ridge's something hit the back of his head, and he dropped to the floor.

He couldn't fight his decaying senses, and the last thing he saw were several pairs of boots standing in front of him.

And then everything went black.

⊳⊱ ♕ ⊰⊲

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

♛ What was your favourite part? ♛

✟ How do you think Zoe knows so much? ✟

✙ What do you think is going to happen to Elijah? ✙

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