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By the time they reached the city, it was getting dark. The highway was lit by huge lampposts, and the midnight-purple sky was dotted with silver stars. The moon was almost full, and the clouds grew thicker as each moment passed.

"Looks like it's gonna rain," Jake mumbled. "Good thing we're almost there, huh?"

"I just hope Hannah's at the centre," Zoe said, stroking Enid's hair while she slept with her head on the girl's lap.

"You know her home address if she ain't, right?" the pardus asked. "Or at least have her number or something."

Zoe nodded. "Yeah."

Elijah festered in a pit of despair and dismay. He knew better than to let his despondent feelings get to him, but he couldn't help it sometimes. He'd let himself hope that Enid might be a better lead, a lead that would get him to Haru faster than going through Ronan, but she wasn't, and he felt like an idiot for believing it, even if just for a moment.

Thunder cut through the quiet, and lightning lit up the sky. Rain started falling moments later, hitting the windshield, and quickly covering the road in a sheet of water, and it swiftly sped up and became a torrential downpour.

"Frickin heck," Jake muttered as he drove off the highway. "Glad I ain't gotta drive across no country in this."

Enid flinched awake with a gasp as another boom of thunder bellowed from above. "Where?!" she panicked. "Where we are?!"

Zoe patted her head. "It's okay," she told her softly. "It's just a storm. We're in the city now."

The girl sat up and looked around. "Safe?"

"Yeah, we're safe. Don't worry."

"Just gotta follow this tunnel under the river and we'll be close to the city centre," Jake said, glancing back at them.

"I'll see my family?" Enid asked.

"You will," Zoe confirmed, smiling.

Elijah sighed quietly and leaned back in his seat, trying to get comfortable. He hoped that once they dropped Enid off, there wouldn't be anything else to slow their journey to East Coast. He just wanted to find Ronan, get Haru's location out of him, and go and find him. He'd taken long enough already.

He watched the cars pass by as Jake drove deeper into the tunnel, but when his sights met the mirror, his eyes found something that made his heart race and his instincts scream. The men in the car four cars behind them were dressed in black with veils covering their faces; their auras were distorted, and the shimmer of silver reflected off the vehicles' surfaces.

Detainers.

"We're being fucking followed," Elijah growled, shoving his angst aside and focusing on his hatred.

"W-what?" Zoe panicked—

"Don't look," the demon snapped before the girl could turn and give them away.

"Followed?" Enid cried.

"By who? Guards from the lab?" Jake asked worriedly, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.

"Detainers," Elijah muttered as he slowly reached into his jacket and pulled out one of his Rovinares.

"Oh, shit," the pardus muttered shakily.

"H-how did they find us?!" Zoe panicked, holding Enid in her arms as the girl whimpered.

"I don't know," Elijah snarled, ensuring his pistol was loaded. Could they have kept the jeep too long? Had Lyca Corp.'s surveillance teams already pieced together that they'd replaced the jeep's original licence plate with that of the car they'd been driving before? Had they somehow been following them since the lab? Had they followed Enid? If that was the case, though, why not attack them while they were at the motel?

"What do we do?" Zoe whispered.

"Keep driving," Elijah told Jake.

"They won't attack with all these civilians, right?" the girl questioned.

"Attack?" Enid whimpered.

"They will," Elijah answered. "The fact that they haven't already can only mean that there's a blockade waiting for us once we get out of this tunnel." He wasn't going to give the detainers a chance. "Whatever happens, just keep driving," he instructed.

"W-why? What's gonna happen?" Jake asked worriedly, glancing at Elijah.

The demon rolled down the window, exhaled deeply, and then leaned out of it. He aimed his pistol and fired at the detainers' car, killing the driver with his first shot. The sound of scraping tyres, honking horns, and screaming people filled the tunnel, and as the detainers' car spun out of control and tumbled, the cars in front of and behind it skidded along the road; one of them collided with the back of the jeep, and the cars in front swerved in a panic.

"Holy fucking hell!" Jake screeched, trying to keep the car steady as Zoe and Enid screamed.

"Keep going!" Elijah growled, sitting back in his seat. "There'll be more."

Jake swerved and skidded, dodging the cars that came to a halt, avoiding those that almost crashed into the jeep in an attempt to escape the chaos behind them. Enid started bawling, and Zoe tried her best to calm her, but the kid wouldn't shut up, and it was starting to aggravate Elijah.

"Can you get her to calm the fuck down?!" he growled, but when he looked over his shoulder at the girls, he saw another car full of detainers catching up to them.

Ignoring Zoe's panicked answer, Elijah leaned out the window again, but before he could fire, two of the detainers aimed weapons out of their car and fired at him.

As the bullets burst through the back window, sending glass everywhere, Zoe, Enid, and Jake screeched.

"Get down!" Elijah yelled over the horrified screams and yells.

"What the fucking fuck?!" Jake shrieked, swerving the jeep between all the cars which stopped and reversed in response to the gunfire.

As Zoe ducked, holding Enid and her yapping dog, Elijah aimed his pistol out the back window. He fired several shots, managing to take out one of the detainers, but their driver was swerving to avoid his shots.

He wasn't going to waste ammo, and he didn't care how much damage he caused. He wasn't going to let them get him—not now.

The demon held out his hand, and when he jerked it, he sent the detainers' car up in white flames. The vehicle exploded seconds later, filling the tunnel behind them with ashen fire, which spread to other cars, causing them to explode, too.

"Are you insane?!" Zoe then exclaimed.

Ignoring her, Elijah stared out the back of the jeep as Jake kept driving; he waited to see if any other cars would come through, but the fiery pile-up would stop them. Just as he was about to sit and tell Jake to speed up, though, they passed a turning which led up to the surface, and several black, Lyca Corp. vans came racing down it.

"Uh, those are the bad guys, right?" Jake panicked.

"Just keep your eyes on the road," Elijah said with a snarl. He held out his hand towards the vans, but just as he sent one up in flames, another sped up and collided with the side of the jeep, crushing the demon's arm between both vehicles.

Elijah yelled in agony, and Jake lost control. The jeep turned on its side, and as it rolled across the road, all he could hear were the three of them screaming over screeching tyres, smashing glass, and scraping metal.

As the jeep came to a creaking halt, stuck on its right side, Elijah grunted painfully and held his crushed arm against his chest. Through the smashed glass roof, he watched the van he'd set on fire explode, and the one that collided with the jeep hit the tunnel wall and started smoking. The other two vans were closing in fast, and he could sense at least ten distorted auras coming from within.

"What...the fuck," came Jake's groaning voice.

Enid's panicked cries cut through the sound of distant traffic next, and then Zoe's confused, shaky mumbles followed.

"Your...arm," Zoe drawled as blood trickled down the side of her face.

"Dude..." Jake complained, sounding disorientated.

Elijah shook his head, trying to grasp what focus he could. The two vans pulled up, and as the doors slid open, the detainers rushed out and started taking cover.

The demon snarled and looked to the left and right. Through the smashed back window, he spotted a maintenance door—their only way out. He grunted as the pain from his arm shot through his body, but he did his best to ignore it while he searched for his pistol. He grabbed it from the ground beneath him, and then he looked up at Jake, who was still strapped to his seat.

"Jake," he said.

The confused pardus looked down at him, but then he spotted the assembling detainers, and a look of horror struck his bloody face.

"Don't look at them," Elijah insisted.

Jake blinked slowly and set his eyes on him again.

"I'm going to distract the detainers while you get them to that maintenance door," he said, nodding at the door and gesturing to Zoe and Enid. "Got it?"

Although he looked dazed, Jake nodded.

Elijah then set his eyes on the detainers. While the rest of them waited behind cover, two began moving towards the crashed jeep. He exhaled deeply, holding his pistol in his left hand while his right arm slowly healed. He looked up at Jake, who was staring at him, waiting, and then he shifted his sights back to the detainers. He had to be fast, and he had to be smart.

"Ready?" he asked the pardus.

He nodded again.

Elijah burst into action. He climbed out the roof, and as the detainers started firing, he swiftly shot the two approaching men and grabbed one with his arm. He held the guy's body against his own, and as it absorbed the bullets, he hurried over to the crashed smoking van and took cover behind it.

He watched as Jake climbed out of the jeep with Zoe and Enid, and when he saw some of the detainers divert their fire towards them, Elijah used as much force as he could muster and kicked the van forward. The smoking vehicle collided with one of the other vans, sending several detainers diving away, and he took his chance to kill them while they were out of cover. As he raced towards the van which was up in white flames, he fired a shot at each of the exposed detainers, hitting two in the head and one in the arm. The man who survived hit the ground, but no one ran to his aid. Elijah fired another shot, ending his life, and as he took cover behind the flaming vehicle, he shifted his focus to the ten remaining men.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Jake and the girls hurrying towards the maintenance door, and to his relief, he had the detainers' full attention. They began firing at the van, but their bullets didn't piece the metal; Elijah waited as his arm healed, and once he saw Jake, Zoe, and Enid disappear through the maintenance door, he began planning his own escape. His injury would heal faster if he drank blood, but he couldn't consume that of a detainer; it was laced with things deadly to him. He couldn't take on ten armed men with only one arm, either.

With an irritated grunt, he summoned his demon form. His horns appeared on his head, and his single black feathered wing formed on his back. He wrapped his wing around the side of his body, using it to shield himself, and then he kicked the flaming van towards the covering detainers. As the vehicle collided with them, he raced towards the jeep; several bullets hit his wing, but they didn't pierce his feathers; the bullets collided with his wing as if it were impenetrable metal and clinked as they hit the ground.

The moment he reached the jeep, he yanked the trunk open, took both his bags out, and then sprinted towards the maintenance door. He heard the detainers yelling at each other as they followed him, shouting orders not to lose him, but he didn't plan on letting them chase him a moment longer. As soon as he stepped into the maintenance passage, he slammed the door behind him, holstered his pistol, and gripped the handle. Using his fire ethos, he burned the metal, welding the door shut. The detainers tried pulling it open, banging their weapons against it and even shooting, but they weren't getting in—at least not anytime soon.

As his demon form crumbled, Elijah raced down the hallway, and when he reached the end, he turned left, following the smell of his companions' blood. The sound of the detainers trying to breach the door continued, each clang and crash urging him to move a little faster each time. His arm was still healing, and there was no telling how much backup they had on the way. All he did know was that they had to get out of the city.

"Elijah!" came Zoe's terrified voice, followed by the yapping of her rat-dog.

He set his eyes on the girl, who was clutching her bag to her chest, waiting up ahead with Jake and Enid by a service ladder.

"We didn't wanna go up or down without you," Jake said.

"Not safe!" Enid cried.

When Elijah reached the ladder, he glanced up and down. Up probably led to the streets, and down...well, it was probably safer. "Head down," he instructed.

"Not safe!" the kid insisted.

"Come on," Zoe said, tugging on her arm. "We have to go."

Jake went down first, and Zoe got Enid to follow. Once the girl headed down, Elijah hastily inspected his healing arm. It was still bleeding, but it was repairing itself. He flicked his mangled lip upwards, spraying the ladder and the wall with his blood; that should keep the detainers off their trail for long enough.

The demon then made his way down, grunting as the pain spread from his arm and through his body. He wasn't sure where the ladder would take them, but it reeked of death, so it was easy to assume that it was a sewer. Whatever it was, though, it was safer than being above ground. The detainers wouldn't be able to use heavy artillery, nor would they be able to rely on their vehicles. He just hoped that they didn't send hellhounds after them again.

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