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The redwood forest was silent. Elijah stared out the window while Jake drove, cautiously searching for any movement beyond the treeline. They didn't pass a single town or village—there weren't even any houses. It was just a long, winding patch of massive forest.

He considered sleeping for the rest of the ride, but for some reason, he still felt hesitant. It was like his instincts were telling him not to take the risk of seeing that distorted man again. Why? Who was he? And why were his instincts convinced that he was a danger?

"Turn here," Zoe told Jake when they reached a split in the road.

Jake did as she told him.

"And then in there," she said, pointing to a narrow dirt road hidden between the ginormous trees.

With a nod, Jake turned and followed the passage deeper into the woods. "We're uh...not gonna run into the pack that lives out here, are we?" he asked, glancing at the girl.

"Probably not. If we did, though, they work for the Nosferatu; they wouldn't harm us," she told him.

"You, maybe. But me? I'm a rogue lycan in their territory."

"You'll be fine," Zoe muttered irritably.

"If you say so."

Zoe sighed quietly in response and stared out the window.

The narrow road went on for a while, and there was nothing but trees to be seen. When they eventually reached the airstrip, the towering forest didn't thin out, but the runway itself was a clear, flat piece of land hidden between the giant redwoods with just enough space between the treetops for the small, black private jet waiting ahead of them to land and take off through.

"Just park by the tree line," Zoe instructed.

Jake pulled over and parked by one of the trees.

Elijah grabbed both his bags, and Zoe and Jake picked up their things, too. Then, the three of them got out of the truck, and as the girl led the way, they headed towards the jet.

The demon pulled his hood over his head, hiding his white hair. He was certain that the pilot was going to ask who he was; he just hoped that Zoe could convince him that he was just another friend or something that wouldn't arouse suspicion.

When they got to the jet, the stewardess greeted them all with a pleasant smile. Zoe climbed inside first, and Elijah followed behind her.

The pilot, who was standing by the open door to the cockpit, greeted the girl with a tilt of his hat and said, "Afternoon, Miss Reiner."

"It's nice to see you, Jerry," Zoe replied as Elijah and Jake both squeezed past her into the aisle. "How are you doing?"

"Great," he replied. "I left your favourite snacks on the table. I also see you've brought Mr. Evencrest with you, too. And...someone new?" he asked as he pulled out a small notepad from his back pocket.

Elijah slumped down in one of the seats and placed his bags on the one beside him, and then he set his eyes on Zoe, waiting for her to answer the man.

"Oh, that's our new friend...Alex," she said, glancing at Elijah. "Alex White."

Jerry nodded as he scribbled into his notebook. He then stuffed it back into his pocket. "So, we're heading to the Citadel. ETA is around 3 p.m.," he said.

"Thank you," Zoe said, and then she took her seat on the other side of the plane opposite Elijah. She put her bag down, and her rat-dog scurried out and sat in her lap.

Jake sat across the table from her and took one of the chocolate bars. "At least we can chill out for a few hours," he said, unwrapping it.

The stewardess pulled the door shut and then walked towards them. "Could you all put your seatbelts on, please?" she asked, and as they did so, she went to the back of the plane.

Elijah stared out the window, watching the trees hurry past as the jet raced along the runway, and once the plane took off, the demon unclipped his seatbelt and slouched back, making himself comfortable. But he knew that sitting in silence would only encourage his mind to overwhelm him with what ifs and whys, so in an attempt to distract himself, he opened both his bags and started transferring the money from the one he took from the mechanics into his own. He then started transferring the ammunition, using his claws to pick up the silver bullets to avoid burning his skin. Once he was done, he moved the crossbow bolts and crossbow into his bag too.

"Where'd you get that?" Jake asked, staring at him from across the aisle.

Ignoring him, Elijah folded up the empty bag and tossed it onto one of the seats. He then browsed through his own bag, checking each of his weapons. The things he'd taken from the mechanics might come in handy once they got over The Ice Wall; he wasn't sure what to expect, so he wanted to be ready—and he was.

The demon leaned back in his seat and exhaled deeply, staring out the window. In every direction, the massive redwood forest stretched as far as he could see, even when the jet moved above the clouds. They'd be in the Citadel in just a few hours, and then he needed to find someone who would fly them to The Spear.

And finally...he'd find Haru.

He wondered, though...why would Lyca Corp. send him to a facility hidden behind an ice wall? A facility in a hidden, unknown part of the world. He knew that Lyca Corp. had to hide their labs underground and disguise them as other facilities, but why would they keep all their locations in this part of the world if they could set up beyond The Ice Wall? Wouldn't it be safer for them out there?

Elijah frowned as he pondered. Could whatever they were doing at The Spear require a place much further away from the Nosferatu's prying eyes? Could The Spear be their main base of operations? Or was it something more sinister? He didn't know, and he wanted to find out, but the only way he'd get answers was by getting there, finding Haru, and searching Lyca Corp.'s servers.

"How did you know that...you loved Haru?" Zoe suddenly asked.

The demon scowled as he turned his head to glare at her. "What?"

She shrugged and looked down at her lap. "Well, you're just...so dedicated. I mean you could've just taken your freedom and fled, found somewhere to start a life, but you're still tangled up in all this Lyca Corp. mess looking for him. You're risking your own life and freedom."

"Yeah, dude," Jake chimed in. "It's pretty obvious."

Elijah snarled quietly and glared out the window.

"I just...wondered how you knew," Zoe mumbled. "What it...felt like or whatever."

With a heavy sigh, Elijah lost his scowl and stared down at the treetops. "I don't know," he answered. Thinking about his life in the lab brought him pain and dismay, but his memories of Haru kept him from slipping into the dark. "When we were locked up in the same room, we didn't really talk much—for weeks, he'd just sit there, and I'd catch him staring at me; it annoyed the fuck out of me. It wasn't until I stuck up for some of the weaker kids; after that, he told me his name and his life story. He clung to me, and all the kids who were afraid of Daniel's little gang followed like sheep. I didn't want to get to know anyone because kids were disappearing every day, going with the doctors and never coming back. But something about Haru just...got to me, I guess."

"Like...an instinct sort of thing?" Jake questioned.

"I suppose," Elijah muttered. "Whenever any of the other kids tried talking to me, I brushed them off like fleas. But Haru was like some...tick that just wouldn't let go, and I didn't want it to let go," he explained, frowning a little. "We started getting to know each other, and it turned out that we have a lot in common—at least...what we can remember, anyway. And there was something about the way he stuck up for these other kids when I wasn't around that convinced me that I needed to get closer." He smiled discreetly to himself. "Haru's just this scrawny little thing; he doesn't fight, but he puts up a good defence. He knew he'd get trampled if I wasn't there, but he didn't care."

Zoe smiled and asked him, "What does he look like?"

"He's Samayōnese, and maybe a foot shorter than me. He has these big brown eyes and scruffy black hair that he's always messing with in front of the mirror. And he has this...mark, maybe a tattoo or a birthmark. I think it's Samayōnese writing."

"Do you know what it says?" she asked.

"No."

"Do you remember what it looks like? We might be able to get someone to translate it if you remember exactly."

Elijah felt conflicted. While he was curious, he wasn't sure whether it was something Haru regarded as private. Haru never told him what it meant or what it was—he never brought any attention to it whatsoever, and he wasn't sure if that meant Haru didn't really care about it or if it was something he wasn't ready to talk about.

"I don't remember," he lied. He'd let Haru tell him.

"I've always wanted a tattoo in Samayōnese," Jake said with a sigh.

"You don't even know how to speak that language," Zoe muttered.

"So? Neither does Brad but he still got one. And Marcus. Oh, and that guy you follow religiously on Blogger; he doesn't speak Samayōnese but he still got that huge tattoo on his chest," Jake sneered.

"Well, I don't follow him because of his tattoo," she said irritably. "He's a really good freelance journalist. And Brad and Marcus are both a little stupid, honestly."

Jake scoffed. It looked like he was going to snap back, but he held his tongue and tapped the table with his fingers for a few moments. He then set his eyes on Elijah. "So...Haru's an okami otoko, right?"

"Yes," the demon muttered.

"They're like...really badass Samayōnese wolf walkers." He looked at Zoe. "They're all stronger than Alpha wolf walkers, even their Omegas." The pardus shifted his sights back to Elijah. "Did you ever find out what his surname was?"

"Why?" the demon muttered skeptically.

"Because it could tell us what kind of okami otoko he is. It could be why Lyca Corp, took him, you know. I imagine they're hunting for the strongest of the strongest, right? Especially if they're so desperate to get you back, someone with a connection to an Ancient."

For once, the words coming out of Jake's mouth weren't total shit. "Okaminoou," he answered.

Jake pondered for a moment, and when a surprised frown struck his face, Elijah scowled at him.

"What?" the demon asked.

"Okaminoou sounds familiar," Jake said. "Like...huge, rich family familiar." He looked at Zoe. "Do you have bars? Can you look it up?"

She went a little wide-eyed. "Are we allowed to?"

"As long as you stay off the social media," Elijah grumbled.

Zoe nodded and pulled her phone out.

Elijah watched her type, tap, and read, waiting. He didn't know anything about Haru's family or where he came from—neither did Haru. He admittedly felt a little guilty that he was about to find out before Haru himself, but if it could help him understand why Lyca Corp. had transferred him to The Spear, then he wasn't going to pass it up.

"It says here that the Okaminoou's are a royal bloodline of okami otoko. They've been around for centuries and might even be one of the original wolf walker lines. Their current Alpha King is Mr Kaiichiro Okaminoou, and his Luna, Mrs Larentia Okaminoou; they own Samayō-Akuma's largest tech company." She paused and frowned, glancing at Elijah and Jake. "They own Lupine Technologies."

Elijah had no idea what that was.

A look of awe struck Jake's face. "What?" he scoffed, laughing a little as he stared at Elijah, wide-eyed. "Your boyfriend's parents own Lupine?"

"We don't even know that these are his...oh, never mind," Zoe mumbled.

"What?" Elijah asked her.

She looked hesitant, glancing up from her phone at him. "There's an article here...about how their five-year-old son was kidnapped when the nanny took him to the park," she said sadly. "And...is this...him?" She showed her phone screen to him.

The picture of the missing boy was Haru. Black hair, brown eyes, and that stupid little smile, even when he was just a kid. "It's him," he mumbled despondently, looking away. If people as rich as Haru's parents couldn't find their missing child...then what hope did his parents have? If they were even looking for him. If he even had parents. He scowled out of the window and glared down at the trees. The last thing he needed right now was to let his emotions get the better of him. He was so close to finding Haru; questions about his family could wait until he was actually able to get the answers.

With a quiet sigh, he relaxed and watched the world pass by below. But then something else hit him. Once he found and freed Haru...would he want to go back to Samayō-Akuma to be with his family? If he did...then Elijah would go with him. He didn't have anything keeping him in Nefastus, and if Haru was taken from someplace on the other side of the world, then he was sure that he must have been taken from elsewhere, too. But where? He wasn't Samayōnese...was he?

He scowled frustratedly. The answers to all those questions were at Lyca Corp., and he'd just have to try and be patient about getting them. Haru was more important, and figuring out how he was going to break into a facility that was probably just as high security as the one he'd been in was probably where he should be focusing all his energy right now. So he did his best to dismiss his thoughts and concentrated on what he knew about the black site's security—which wasn't much at all. But he'd figure out how to get in there...and how to get Haru out.

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