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They dumped the van behind the cover of an abandoned factory and rigged a rusted jeep. Once they got it started, Jake followed the backstreets, using the cover of old buildings and subway bridges as he headed for the city's exit.

No one spoke a word. The only sounds came from Zoe's rat-dog and the storm outside. Thunder rumbled, the rain fell harder, and lightning lit up the darkness.

Elijah asked himself over and over what he missed. How did the detainers know where they'd resurface? How did they know to have an assassin set up right there? Had he missed some cameras? Was there something in the tunnel? Or could Lyca Corp. have started putting trackers on their subjects since the escapes from the lab where he was held?

He frowned guiltily, his heart aching. It was his fault. He should have checked Enid for a tracker, and he should have taken more precautions, but because he hadn't, a girl was dead, and her family would never see her again. They wouldn't even get to bury her.

As the burden of guilt grew heavier, he scowled out the window and tapped his clawed fingers on his leg. What did he miss? What did he miss?

"I promised her she'd be safe," Zoe said despondently. She sniffled and wiped her eyes. "What about her family?"

Elijah glanced at her. "I don't know," he mumbled.

The girl pouted as despair warped her face. She leaned closer to Elijah, resting her head against his bicep. "They won't even get to bury her."

His frown became a confused one. He felt a little strange knowing that Zoe was thinking exactly what he was, but he shouldn't be surprised, should he? They both had their reasons for caring about Enid, and he did care...even if he struggled to show it. He wanted to get her to her family so that she could start a new life or take back the life that she was supposed to have before Lyca Corp. stole her. But she'd never get that chance now, and it was his fault.

"How did they know where we were?" Zoe murmured, her tears sliding down Elijah's leather jacket.

"I don't know that either," he muttered. "Maybe they had a tracker on her or something."

"I didn't see anything on her while I was helping her clean all the blood away this morning."

"Maybe you missed something."

"Maybe," she cried.

Elijah huffed quietly. He was uncomfortable, and if it were anyone else, he would have thrown them off himself already, but for some reason, he didn't feel the urge to do that with Zoe. He let her cry, and while she bawled, his sights shifted to the rear-view mirror.

His eyes locked with Jake's.

The pardus' face adorned a concoction of jealousy, concern, and guilt.

"Oh, sorry, I'm getting your jacket wet," Zoe then said as she lifted her head from his arm and wiped her tears off his coat.

Jake cleared his throat and set his eyes back on the road.

"Where are we going?" the girl asked as she looked out her window.

"As far from the city as possible," Elijah said.

She glanced out the back window. "Are they following us?"

"Not as far as I can tell," the demon replied. He hadn't stopped concentrating on his senses since they left the park; he wasn't going to let the detainers surprise him...again. Their distorted auras were almost out of his sensory range, and they weren't getting any closer. But he wasn't going to let his guard down.

Jake cleared his throat again. "We're coming up on a tunnel."

"No more tunnels," Elijah muttered.

"There's a bridge two blocks down; it's beneath a train track, so there's cover," the pardus said.

The demon nodded in response.

As the storm grew worse, Jake followed the bridge closer to the edge of the city. But once the bridge ended, and they passed through a cramped neighbourhood, Elijah began to feel as though there were eyes on him. A strange feeling of dread crept up on his and spiralled down his spine, and he knew better than to ignore his instincts. So he focused on them, and they led him to set his sights on the top of a miniature skyscraper.

A flash of silver glistened through the rain.

He reacted as fast as he could; he lunged forward and grabbed the steering wheel, veering the jeep off the road and onto the sidewalk. A deafening boom echoed over Zoe and Jake's panicked voices, and when the assassin's bullet hit the pavement, missing their vehicle by just inches, Elijah pulled his pistol from his jacket and started firing in the direction that the bullet had come from.

"Holy shit!" Jake shrieked.

"Keep driving!" Elijah shouted over the commotion.

"How do they keep finding us?!" Zoe cried.

Elijah swiftly opened his bag, took out his Prăpădi M82, and aimed at the skyscraper. The assassin fired another shot, and he fired at the same time; his bullet hit the assassin, who fell from the window he was shooting from, and Jake managed to swerve the jeep and dodge the bullet.

But it wasn't over.

"E-Elijah!" Zoe panicked.

The demon turned his attention to the van tailing them. He snarled and aimed his rifle through the back window, and when he fired at the driver, the man quickly dodged and slammed his foot on the gas. The van rear-ended their jeep, and Zoe and Jake yelped in startle, but Elijah kept his concentration. He shot at the driver again, and at the same time, he pulled his pistol out and shot that, too—the driver dodged the rifle bullet, but the pistol round pierced his skull. He fell forward onto the wheel, and the van spun out of control before any of the other men inside could try to keep it on the road. The van hit a lamppost, and Elijah shot at the smoking engine, sending the vehicle up in flames.

He scoured the road behind them, checking for more detainers, but that seemed to be it—for now.

"We need to dump this car," the demon said, sitting back down.

"U-uh, right," Jake said, nodding frantically. "Where?"

"Find someplace out of the way of prying eyes," Elijah replied.

Jake turned left under a highway bridge and parked the jeep in a scrapyard. The three of them hastily climbed out, grabbing their bags, and as Elijah led the way, they headed across the yard in search of another car.

"I don't see anything working here," Jake said, looking around desperately. "D-do we go on foot? Back underground?"

They looked to Elijah for answers, stopping behind an abandoned garage. But he didn't know what to say. They weren't far from the city's exit, but the detainers kept finding them, and if he didn't find out how, then they weren't going to make it much further.

"M-maybe it's the files or something," Zoe suggested.

Elijah frowned confusedly. "What?"

"The files...that I copied to my laptop. What if there's some kind of like...virus or tracking thing?"

The demon thought about it. Could that be it?

"S-should I destroy it?" she asked as she reached into her bag, where her dog was yapping.

"Zoe, wait," Jake then said.

She looked at him, and so did Elijah.

"What?" the girl asked. "Should we make back-ups somewhere?"

The pardus looked hesitant as he shook his head. "It's...I don't think it's the files."

She frowned at him. "What?"

Elijah watched Jake reach into his backpack, and when he saw him pull out his phone, he snarled and tried to resist the urge to attack, but he couldn't. He lunged forward and grabbed Jake's throat, ignoring Zoe's scream; he pinned him against the wall and yelled furiously, "You fucking brainless moron!"

"Stop!" Zoe panicked.

"I-I'm sorry!" Jake insisted, holding his hands up. "I-I didn't think that it would—"

"That what?!" Elijah snapped angrily. "That they'd fucking use it to track us? Do you actually have a brain? You've had that fucking homing beacon this entire time and only just thought that oh, maybe that was why they kept finding us?!"

Jake closed his eyes and whimpered. "I'm sorry, I was stupid!"

"Stupid's a fucking understatement! Enid's dead because you don't think! We could all very well be dead or worse because of you!" the demon yelled fiercely, slamming his other hand against the wall inches from Jake's face.

Zoe took Jake's phone from him and started looking through it.

"I'm sorry," the pardus repeated, his voice a shaky whisper.

"Are you kidding me?" Zoe exclaimed disappointedly.

"I'm really sorry," Jake sobbed.

Elijah snatched the phone from Zoe and angrily scrolled through Jake's social media. He'd made a post yesterday in the town where Zoe had been kidnapped, and that made Elijah angrier. "Is this why Zoe was kidnapped? Were you too fucking busy taking pictures on your fucking phone?!"

"I'm sorry, okay?!" the pardus shouted insistently. "It was only one post! I didn't think that—"

"A girl is dead because of you! She was a fucking kid!" the demon yelled as he crushed the phone in his grip.

Jake started crying. "I didn't mean for this to happen—I didn't think it would!"

Elijah scoffed and snarled at him. "Exactly. You don't think." He tossed the shattered phone to the side and pulled Jake away from the wall; he shoved him and grumbled, "Let's just get the fuck out of this city."

The pardus stumbled forward and looked over his shoulder at Zoe with a sullen pout. "I'm sorry," he said to her, clearly looking for sympathy.

"Please don't talk to me right now, Jake," she said dismissively.

"I-I didn't—"

"Shut the fuck up," Elijah growled.

Jake hung his head in shame and walked in silence as they headed through the scrapyard in search of a vehicle.

Elijah clenched his fists and jaw. He was shaking with anger, so much that he felt like he needed to let it free; he wanted to kill...something, anything. He dug his claws into his palms, scowling furiously at the back of Jake's head. Everything was his fault; Jake was the reason the detainers kept finding them, and Jake almost caused Elijah to fall back into Lyca Corp.'s hands. He didn't want to keep the pardus around, but he knew that killing him wasn't an option—Zoe wouldn't allow it—and leaving him behind wasn't, either. Elijah had no choice but to keep dragging him along. But the longer he stared at him...the longer Jake remained in his line of sight, the heavier the urge to tear him apart became.

What about that?" Zoe asked, pointing to a car—which looked in fairly new condition—parked beside a trailer.

Before Elijah could answer, though, the trailer door burst open, and a hairy, grease-covered man stepped out wielding a shotgun.

"What the fuck are you kids doing in my yard?" he growled, cocking his gun. "Ya'll best get the hell out of here before—"

Elijah didn't have time for this. In the blink of an eye, he pulled his pistol from his jacket and shot the weapon out of the man's hands. While the guy was stricken with startlement, the demon dropped his bags and lunged forward, reaching the guy in half a moment. He wanted to kill him—he wanted to satiate his desire to rip and tear and devour—but he wouldn't sink his fangs into someone so filthy. Instead, he grabbed the side of the man's head and slammed it against the trailer, knocking him out.

"Elijah..." Zoe scolded him lightly.

Ignoring her, Elijah reached into the guy's pockets and found a set of keys. "Get in," he said as he tossed them at Jake.

Jake caught the keys and obediently got into the car. As he started the engine, Elijah put his bags onto the back seat and climbed in, sitting beside them. Zoe, although she looked reluctant, got into the passenger seat and glared out her window as Jake pulled away from the trailer.

Elijah scowled out his window, too. His anger didn't wither—in fact, it was getting worse. But there wasn't anything else that he could do about it. The detainers wouldn't be able to follow them anymore; they'd have to dump the car soon and find another one, though. When that guy woke up, he'd likely report what just happened.

With a quiet sigh, Elijah leaned back and tried to relax. He just wanted to get to East Coast and find Ronan. But he had a biting suspicion that something else would get in the way again.

There was always something getting in the way.

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