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The train jolted every so often as it moved along the tracks, keeping Elijah awake and vigilant. He skeptically eyed every civilian and worker he saw pass the truck, but none of them seemed suspicious—he wasn't taking any chances, though.

He couldn't stop thinking about the lab that he escaped from. After learning that it was a Lyca Corp. black site and that the Nosferatu really had attacked the place to help everyone who was trapped, he felt...conflicted. For a while, he'd suspected that the Nosferatu were burning evidence and helping the detainers, but he was wrong, and the more he learned about the Caeleste government through Zoe, the more he understood the conflict between them and Lyca Corp.

However, he wasn't going to trust them as much as Zoe did; for all he knew, there were spies within the government feeding Lyca Corp. what they needed to know to capture demons and lycans. After all, it was suspicious how they managed to find and kidnap so many children without interference from the people who were supposed to be protecting them. Lyca Corp. had ways to get into the systems of law enforcement, so it wouldn't surprise him if they'd gotten into the Nosferatu's, too.

But it didn't matter to him. He didn't plan on ever seeking the Nosferatu for anything; the closest he'd got to doing so was getting Zoe to tell her cousin about those escaped kids and ask her father about the Lyca Corp. black site. He now knew that the Nosferatu were hunting down not only the other labs but also the staff who worked at the one he was held at. He needed to make sure that he got to Ronan before they did.

He sighed quietly and crossed his arms as he tried to make himself comfortable.

Jake murmured something behind him.

Elijah rolled his eyes and glanced at Zoe, but she was still asleep.

"Yo, what time is it?" Jake asked.

"You've got a watch, don't you?" the demon muttered.

"Oh...right," he mumbled. "Ugh, we still got three hours until we get there. Is there a snack bar or something? I—"

"You're not getting out of this car until we're there," Elijah interjected.

Jake sat up and frowned at him in the rear-view mirror. "What?"

"You heard me."

"I'm not a child, you know. I just want something to eat."

Elijah turned his head and glared over his shoulder at him. "As far as I'm concerned, you are a child. You didn't listen to a single fucking word I said and brought your fucking phone, and thanks to you, a kid is dead, and we almost got caught. Until I'm satisfied that you can go one day without fucking up, maybe I'll let you off the leash." He glared out the window.

"Why are you still so worked up about that? I said I was sorry—"

"Sorry won't bring Enid back, nor does it erase everything you caused." He turned his head and scowled at him. "From day one, everything was because of you. The detainers kept finding us because of your sheer stupidity. If you weren't a liability, you'd be on your way back to Dawnward, but you are, so you're not to ever leave my sight. Got it?"

Jake scowled, too. "Seriously? I didn't do any of that on purpose!"

"No, but you purposely brought and kept your phone knowing full well that it could be traced, and surprise sur-fucking-prise, it was being used to track us," Elijah growled.

"I didn't think that—"

"Exactly, you didn't fucking think. This isn't some sort of game or social media story; these people are dangerous, and they will kill you without a second thought. All it took was for them to catch sight of you in a camera, and now they know everything about you and Zoe; your families, your addresses, your fucking social media, and your phone numbers. Did you think you were exempt? Did you think that they wouldn't bother looking into you?" he exclaimed.

"No, I just..." Jake mumbled and shrugged. "I couldn't help it, okay? I-I didn't think that they'd be watching my social pages or—"

Elijah scoffed and shook his head. "You're honestly a lot stupider than I thought."

Jake's scowl grew hostile. "Well, I'm sorry I'm not some outlaw demon who knows how to avoid these detainer people and some huge, evil company! You never explained exactly what they'd do, and—"

"I told you both to dump your fucking phones because they'd use them to track you!" he shouted angrily.

Instead of responding, Jake pouted and looked away. "I said I was sorry."

Elijah glared out the window at the carriage's steel wall. He didn't want to talk to him anymore; Jake was a selfish, careless idiot, and he wanted nothing more than to get rid of him, but he had no choice but to keep dragging him along.

"What's gonna happen once we find this Haru guy?" Jake mumbled.

The demon frowned. He didn't know. A part of him didn't care what happened to Jake, but for some reason, he felt concerned about what might happen to Zoe. Lyca Corp. would never stop looking for him, especially after he liberated Haru and whoever else from wherever the man he loved was being held, and they knew that Zoe and Jake were his companions—willing or not. He couldn't just send them home after he found Haru, could he? Lyca Corp. could be waiting for them, and if they couldn't use either of them to find him, they'd kill them.

"Hello?" Jake insisted.

Elijah snarled irritably and said, "I don't fucking know."

"We ain't gotta like...stick around until Lyca Corp. forgets about us, do we?"

He exhaled deeply and thought about everything he knew about them both. "I'm sure Zoe's dads can keep you both safe; they work for the Caeleste government, right?"

"Yeah," he mumbled.

"Then they can take care of you after I find Haru."

Jake didn't respond. He sat there with his arms crossed like a child who'd just been told no.

They sat in silence for a while. Elijah glared aimlessly, and Jake shuffled around every so often, grumbling and grunting. He clearly wanted attention, but Elijah wasn't going to give it to him.

The longer he had to remain awake supervising the pardus, though, the heavier the feeling of loneliness and desperation inside him grew. He still had a lot of answers to obtain, and he wanted to explore the fragments in The Darkness, but he wasn't going to leave Jake awake alone. He wasn't going to risk him getting out of the truck and drawing attention to himself uptrain.

"Why do they want you so bad?" Jake suddenly asked. "I mean they killed Enid. Why not like...tranq her and take her back?"

Elijah didn't really know the answer to that question.

"We know that they're using your DNA to make those chimaera things, but...why you? Why not some other demon?"

"I don't know," he snapped.

"Haven't you thought about it?"

He snarled irritably. It hadn't made much sense before—he'd thought they wanted him so bad because he was one of their strongest fighters—but now that he gave it some more thought...maybe it was because he was connected to an Ancient. Could that be why he was so valuable to them? Or was it because of whatever else he was other than sangdevoro? He didn't know, but the moment he had access to the Lyca Corp. servers, he'd find out.

Zoe then stirred.

Elijah set his eyes on her and watched her slowly wake up.

The girl frowned and glanced around for a moment. "Oh...we're moving?"

"Three hours until we get there," Elijah told her. "Now that you're up, you can supervise him while I get some rest."

Zoe glanced at Jake. "Okay...I can do that," she said hesitantly.

Elijah reclined his seat and tried to get comfortable. As he closed his eyes, he focused on what he wanted to see—he concentrated on finding his way back into The Darkness, and as he slowly drifted off, the world around him faded away.

When he opened his eyes, the dark stretched in every direction as far as he could see.

And there was a door. An old, crooked door.

Elijah moved towards it while checking his left and right for anything or anyone else, but there was nothing other than what was right in front of him. So when he reached the door, he grabbed the handle and pulled it open.

He saw her again. That small girl with the green eyes and two black feline claw-like horns protruding from her forehead beneath her hazel hair. Like before, she adorned silk beneath her fur-collared coat, gold, jewel-encrusted earrings, and a small golden diadem. But this time, she wasn't sitting outside.

"Elijah," she said sadly and turned her head to look at him—or at whoever's memory he was witnessing. "I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this."

The demon frowned, watching as the hand of whoever's memory he was witnessing reached out and took hold of hers. And then he spoke; his voice was distorted, and Elijah didn't understand a word he said, but the girl smiled in response.

He tried once again to search his memory, but he had no idea who she was despite feeling the opposite. Who was she? Who was she talking to? And how did she know his name?

"Eli..." came another voice.

Elijah looked over his shoulder as a cold chill ran down his spine. The voice unnerved him for some reason, and it made him feel like he should run. But he didn't want to. He turned around and walked back out the door, heading in the direction the voice had come from.

He walked and walked, traversing the pitch-black landscape until another door formed up ahead. It looked like the door to a room in an old house, and when he pushed it open, he emerged into a large bedroom lit by the flames in a fireplace and several gas lanterns dotted around the place.

In the centre of the room was a couch, and sitting on it was a woman with bone-straight black hair. She held a glass of something red in her left hand, which adorned long, sharp claws instead of nails.

Elijah slowly edged closer, and when he moved around the side of the couch, he saw the woman's face. Her eyes were as red as blood, and her mouth was full of sharp teeth. He'd seen her in the fragments he was shown when he made contact with the black-haired man.

Who was she? And why, once again, did he feel like he already knew her?

"They almost had him," came a man's aggravated voice.

Elijah turned his head and set his eyes on him. His face was distorted, and no matter how hard he focused, he couldn't make out any features.

"Almost?" the woman asked impatiently. "I don't pay them to almost catch him. Why is this taking so long?"

"Then send me," the man said as he stopped in front of her. "I could've had him by now. I don't know why you're using these useless human soldiers."

"Patience, little one," she told him calmly. "He's dangerous. I wouldn't want to lose my greatest asset." She put her glass down. "Go to them and tell them if they don't catch him the next time they track him down, I'll feed them all to the hounds."

"You should just do that already," he complained. "Let me find him for you."

She held out her hand, and with an irritated huff, the man took it and sat beside her.

The woman said something distorted and then followed with, "Listen to me. It's not time for you to leave yet. I can't have them knowing that you still exist—not yet. Be patient and wait. Your time will come."

With another huff and what looked like a roll of his blurred eyes, the man said, "Fine."

Elijah had no idea who either of them was or why he was seeing them but considering that they'd both been parts of the fragments he saw, they had to be important. But why? How?

"Someone's here..." the man said skeptically.

"What?" the woman questioned, letting go of his hand.

The man stood up, and when he stared in Elijah's direction, both confusion and fear struck the demon. He stepped back as the man prowled towards him, and when he reached out his hand as if to grab something, Elijah stumbled back to avoid it.

"What are you doing?" the woman asked as she stood up.

As he looked down at his hand, the man confusedly said, "I felt something."

"Felt what?" the woman questioned.

He didn't answer right away. He kept staring at his hand, which he flexed and twisted, and after a few moments, he reluctantly said, "I don't know."

Elijah's heart was racing, unsure whether he was in a dream or something else. Had the man sensed him? How? He didn't fully understand The Darkness, but now he wondered if it did more than show him dreams and memories.

"Let's go," the woman said. "We've been here long enough."

The man nodded, and they both hurriedly left the room through the door Elijah had entered through.

With a confused, concerned frown, Elijah stared at the door. He wanted to know what just happened, and the only way he'd get answers was if he asked someone who knew about The Darkness—someone who told him what it was in the first place.

So, he closed his eyes and focused on waking up.

And when he woke with a flinch, he looked behind him and saw that Jake was still in the truck.

"See, he's awake," the pardus said to Zoe. "So now we can all go."

Zoe sighed deeply. "Okay, let's go."

Elijah frowned as he sat up. "Go where?"

"I need to piss, man," Jake said.

"You can wait," Elijah snarled.

"I've been waiting over an hour. Do you want me to piss myself? 'Cause I'm about to."

"I can take him, Elijah. It's okay," Zoe said.

"It's literally at the end of the carriage," Jake complained. "Come on."

Elijah huffed irritably. He didn't trust Jake outside of the truck, not even to use the bathroom; he also wanted to ask Zoe questions, so he might as well go with them. "Just hurry up about it," he said as he unlocked the doors and got out.

Once Zoe and Jake got out, too, they headed to the end of the carriage. Jake went into the bathroom and slammed the door, and Zoe sighed as she leaned against the wall.

"Does The Darkness only help me explore dreams and memories?" Elijah asked. "Or could it show me visions or something?"

A look of pondering appeared on her face. "I think...sometimes, yeah. But the person who I know goes there the most just does it to relax more often than not."

"So...it could show me two people who I don't know in a place I've never been to?"

"Two is very specific, but yeah, probably." She frowned and asked, "Did you see something?"

He nodded. "A man and a woman, but the man's face was distorted for some reason. I think they were talking about me. They said something about human soldiers taking too long to find someone, and the man was trying to get the woman to agree to send him instead. And then he...I don't know, it was like he knew I was there. He sensed me or something," he explained slowly. Thinking about it sent dread spiralling down his spine, and it left him feeling uneasy. He didn't know what any of it meant, but if The Darkness showed him visions and real-time instead of just dreams and memories, then...was he actually in that room with those people?

Zoe's frown thickened. "Did the man have white hair?"

"No. I think it was black—it looked dark under the distortion."

She exhaled in relief. "Hopefully it was just a dream or something and no one's after you."

"It wasn't a dream," he said confidently. "I walked through a door just like I did with all the other fragments I've been trying to understand. They said soldiers, so I think they're connected to Lyca Corp. somehow—and it looked like they were hiding."

"Oh..." she replied, clearly concerned. "I know that...I've said this before, but if you're worried for your safety, my family can help. I'm hiding all of this from them for my own reasons, but I know if I told them about the situation, they'd do what they could."

He shook his head. "I don't trust the Nosferatu. I'll be fine."

"Well...worst-case scenario, then, maybe?"

Elijah grunted in response. He didn't want to think about a worst-case scenario. All he wanted to do was find Haru; after that, he'd decide where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do. "After this is over, you ought to lay low for a while," he said, looking down at her. "And I mean keep off the social media and wait it out. Lyca Corp. will eventually work out that you're not with me anymore."

"Oh," she mumbled,

The bathroom door then opened, and Jake stepped out.

"And you'll have to make sure someone keeps an eye on this idiot, too," the demon grumbled.

"What?" Jake questioned.

"Nothing," she muttered.

Elijah then started leading the way back to the truck.

"Do you think there's somewhere we can get food? Like a snack bar or something," Zoe asked.

"We can get food when we get to East Coast. I don't want to risk being seen by the wrong person," the demon replied.

Zoe nodded and quietly said, "Okay."

"It's literally just a snack bar," Jake said. "Who's gonna see us? A bunch of random commuters who won't even look twice?"

Elijah stopped and glared at him. "You don't get to talk about being seen because you clearly don't understand or care about the risks," he snarled. "Shut the fuck up and get back in the truck."

"It's fine, Jake. I can wait," Zoe mumbled.

They all got back into the truck, and Elijah locked the doors.

There were still a few hours until the train got to East Coast, but he felt a little unnerved about what happened before he woke up, so he didn't want to go back to The Darkness yet. Instead, he reclined his seat and relaxed. He didn't know who those people were, but if they had something to do with Lyca Corp., then he'd try to find out. Maybe Ronan knew them, or perhaps Elijah would be able to find out once he got into the Lyca Corp. servers. Either way, he wanted to know who they were, why he'd seen them, and why that man had been able to sense him.

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