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Elijah didn't find himself in The Darkness this time. Instead, he dreamed of Haru; he dreamed that he found the lab they were keeping him in—a lab surrounded by snow and icy mountains. He dreamed that he carried the man he loved to safety, getting him as far from the doctors as he could.

He knew that it was a dream, but he didn't care. He didn't want to wake up. It had been over a year since he last saw Haru in the real world, a year since he'd been able to touch and feel him. Dreams and memories were the only way he got to see him now, and despite his determination, there was still that small part of him that wondered if he really would find him, if he really would get to see him again, feel him again, hold him again.

As the despair built up inside him, he gazed at Haru's face. He looked just like he did the last time Elijah saw him...before he was taken away. He tried to speak, he tried to tell him that he loved him—he never got to say it before—but no words left his mouth, and it wasn't like it mattered. It wasn't real. Haru had never heard him say those words, and saying them in a dream was pointless, wasn't it? He wished he'd told him while he still had the chance.

Elijah woke on his own. As he opened his eyes and stared at the roof of the truck, his heart ached and felt heavy in his chest. When he lost Haru, he lost a part of himself; he felt empty, and not just because he didn't know who or what he was. He'd lost the only thing that made sense to him, the only thing that made his cursed existence worth living, and the only thing that got him through all those years of pain and torture.

Knowing that Haru was still trapped, knowing that he was still being hurt by those doctors...it sickened Elijah, it made him hate himself, and the guilt weighed heavier than the dismay. But overwhelming himself with his emotions wasn't going to help Haru, and it wasn't going to help him. He was doing everything he could.

He just...had to try harder. Maybe he should have ignored everything that led him off his path. Haru was more important than his need to know who he was; he should have just left Zoe and Jake. He'd have time to work out his heritage once he saved Haru. But no. He chose to bring those two along, and it had only slowed him down. It had all only made him worse off. If he'd not dragged them along with him, he might already be in East Coast—he might have already found Haru.

The demon sighed quietly and dragged his hand over his face.

"You can't sleep, either?" Zoe asked.

He glanced at her; she lay there wide awake while her dog snored in her lap. Jake was snoring, too, and the sound made Elijah grimace. There wasn't much he could do about it, though. He'd rather Jake be snoring than yapping his big mouth.

"You should be sleeping," Elijah mumbled.

"Yeah, I know. But I can't," she said with a shrug. "Why can't you sleep?"

He didn't want to answer, so he dismissed her with a grunt and turned his head to glare out the window.

"Are you feeling sick?" she asked.

Elijah exhaled deeply. "No," he muttered. "Is there...a specific way I'm supposed to get into The Darkness again? Now that I actually want to be there, I'm just having normal dreams."

Zoe frowned. "Normal how?"

"Just...dreams, I don't know."

"Are you sure it was a dream?"

He sighed again and glared up at the roof. "I found Haru, and I got him out of the lab. So, yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a dream."

The girl adorned a sympathetic look as she turned her head away. After a few moments, though, she set her eyes back on him and asked, "What's Haru like?"

Elijah's aching heart hurt a little more. "Brave," he answered. "Maybe a little too brave, but he's not an idiot. And he's...creative, I guess is the best word for it. Ninety percent of the kids we were locked up with didn't know what the outside looked like; he'd draw pictures from my explanations—now that I've seen the outside again, some of his drawings are pretty appalling, but he made all the other kids happy, so I guess that's all that mattered."

He paused and scowled sullenly, trying to fight the agonising despair that came with reminiscing; he missed Haru so much, and the possibility of never seeing him again started creeping in.

"He's kind, too. Kinder than most. When we were all thrown into the mess hall together for the first time since arriving at the lab, a lot of the older kids formed groups and singled out the weaker ones, but Haru did his best to defend them."

"He sounds like a sweetheart," Zoe said with a smile. "What did the drawings look like?"

Elijah hesitated for a moment. But thinking about Haru's pictures made him want to gaze at them. So, he reached into the back, opened his bag, and took his ammo tin out. He pulled the lid off, and from his leatherbound book, he carefully eased out the folded piece of paper from between the pages. He gently unfolded it, revealing the only thing of Haru he had—one of his silly little drawings of a field with blue grass and multicoloured flowers. The mountains in the background were orange, and the sun was red. He kept hold of the paper but turned it so that Zoe could see.

Zoe's smile grew. "That's really cute. Maybe you can get it laminated somewhere so it doesn't get ripped."

He folded it up and put it back into his book. Then, he packed his things away and returned the ammo tin to his bag. While he was leaning back there, he grabbed Jake's wrist and checked his watch. "The train will be leaving in forty minutes. I saw a pay phone down by the ticket office if you want to go and call your dads," he mumbled.

A look of surprise struck her face. "Okay," she said excitedly. "Thank you. Do you think it's okay if I go alone?"

"No," he said as he sat up. "Let's go."

"What about Jake?" she asked as they both got out of the car.

Once Zoe shut her door, Elijah closed his and locked the truck. "He'll be fine."

She looked in at the pardus unsurely but walked away from the truck and followed Elijah along the narrow walkway between the parked cars and the carriage wall.

When they stepped out onto the sidewalk, Elijah led the way towards the ticket office. He found the payphone that he saw when driving past earlier, handed Zoe a few bronze coins, and waited a few feet away, leaning against the wall.

Zoe put the coins into the phone and then dialled the number. She anxiously tapped her thigh while she waited for someone to pick up.

"Da?" came the same accented voice that Elijah had heard before.

"Hi, Papa," she said sadly.

"Zoe?" he asked, sounding confused. "Why haven't you replaced your phone yet?"

Her green eyes widened. "Um...I don't know, I just keep forgetting. I'm trying not to post so much, you know? It's not so good for me...mentally...."

"Hmm..." the man responded. "Did you get to the Citadel yet?"

Zoe's eyes widened again. "Um..." she drawled. "We're taking a scenic route."

"Scenic route?"

"Yeah...I like looking at stuff sometimes," she said with a quiet laugh.

"Well, is everything okay?"

She frowned despondently. "I'm okay, I just miss you guys. I wanted to check in and see how you're doing."

"We're doing fine. We're a little busy, though; your dad is investigating a call we had come in the other day—which reminds me: if you're still on the road, I think I should send someone to be with you and Jake. There's been an increase in Lyca Corp. activity over there, and I want to make sure you're safe until you reach the Citadel."

Zoe adorned a wary expression and glanced at Elijah.

The demon shook his head; he didn't want to have to lug a third person around with him.

"Um..." she drawled again. "Actually, I talked to Lucian yesterday and he was kind enough to offer to do some weird Lucian thing to watch over us, so we should be good—I trust him," she said, laughing nervously.

"That doesn't sound very much like your cousin at all," the man said amusedly.

She laughed again but looked extremely nervous.

Elijah felt a little wary, too. It sounded like her father was on to her.

"I know he'll probably ask for my soul or something in return," Zoe said. "Anyway...what was the call you got? Was it something bad?"

"No, nothing bad—well...suspicious, maybe. Lucian was snooping again and found something about random children in the mountains. We sent a team to investigate and there was a hidden Lyca Corp. laboratory out there. We're trying to find all the children, but the Diabolus turned up, so we've been dealing with that—mostly your dad. I'm still tied up with this Lyca Corp. black site shit."

Elijah frowned. Black site?

"Wait, what site?" Zoe asked.

Her father hesitated. "It's probably better if you don't know."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want you to get upset, especially not while you're out of Dawnward."

"I won't get upset; I'm pretty brave," she assured him.

The man sighed deeply and sounded like he was moving around. "We found a Lyca Corp. black site six months ago on a small island off Idrock. It turns out that the Diabolus had been sending all the lycans and demons they captured over there for Lyca Corp. to experiment on. A lot of them were children, and just like the other labs we've found, they were using them for their research. We infiltrated and destroyed the lab, but they wiped their files before we could get anything helpful. I've been leading the teams who are hunting down the employees who got away on a ship."

Elijah's frown became a skeptical one. The lab where he'd spent his life was on an island not far from Idrock, and he escaped hiding on a ship that docked in that same state. Was the black site that Zoe's father was talking about the same place he'd escaped from? It would make sense, since it was six months ago that the place was attacked and he saw the Nosferatu there.

"How do we stop them from doing this?" Zoe asked despondently.

"Your father and I are trying to figure that out—and we will, don't worry. We've dealt with the Diabolus before; they just keep coming back every few hundred years."

Zoe adorned a worried expression. "Well, I hope Daddy stays safe out there; I don't want him to get hurt."

"Don't worry. He knows what he's doing. When will you have a new phone? I can get him to call you when he gets home."

"Uhh...I'm not sure, but I'll call you in a few days. Maybe I'll feel a little better about it then."

"Are you sure you don't want me to send someone?"

"I think I'll be fine for now, Papa, but thank you. I'll let you know right away if we start to feel unsafe."

Her father didn't relent, though. "You need to have a phone, Zoe. Promise me you'll pick one up as soon as you can—today if possible. If not, I can have an izuret or căutător bring you one."

Elijah frowned irritably but didn't know what to tell her. If she didn't get a phone, then her father was going to become a problem, but if she did get one, then it would risk their location again. He wasn't willing to take either risk...but he had to pick one.

Zoe gawped at him, clearly waiting for instruction.

If she didn't use the same number, then maybe the risk wouldn't be so severe; he was sure that she could make up some excuse for using a new SIM card. So, he nodded.

"Sorry," Zoe replied to her father. "I'll get one ASAP."

"Thank you. Call one of us as soon as you can, okay?"

"Okay," she said sadly.

"I love you. I'll let your father know you called."

"I love you, too," she said. "Bye." She then put the phone down and looked at Elijah.

"Will he be suspicious if you say you have a new phone and a new sim card?" the demon asked her.

"Maybe...but if I say the SIM card broke when I dropped it, maybe not," she answered.

Elijah started leading the way back towards their carriage. "We'll pick one up in East Coast. But whatever you do, don't let Jake get his hands on it," he grumbled.

"I won't, I promise," she said, following beside him. "Do you know about the black site?" she then asked. "Should I see if I can get more information for you?"

He shook his head. "No. That was the lab where I escaped from."

Zoe looked shocked. "Oh...."

"I escaped on the ship that your dad mentioned; I was in the cargo bay. It docked in Idrock, and I tracked one of the doctors to Dawnward—that's where most of them went."

"Did...any of the other kids get away?"

"I saw a lot of them swimming; they're Caeleste, they're likely fine. I'd assume that most of them are hiding or trying to track down their families."

"I hope they're okay," she said sullenly.

"Lyca Corp. is too busy trying to find me to waste resources on the other kids," he muttered, leading the way back into the carriage.

"We'll find a way to stop all of this," Zoe stated.

He wasn't sure if he believed that. From what he'd heard her dad saying, it didn't sound like the Nosferatu had it under control. But he wasn't about to get into a heated discussion about that. All he cared about right now was saving Haru and finding out who and what he was—two things he hoped to achieve once he found Ronan.

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