⊳⊱ ♕ ⊰⊲

When his back hit the wall of a dark, piss-pungent alley, Elijah grunted and grimaced.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" the orange-haired journalist exclaimed as she hurried to him while the rift closed behind her.

But the demon pulled his arm away from her before she could grab it. "Where the hell are we?" he snarled, looking up and down the alley. He couldn't see anything he recognized at either end, only deserted streets.

"We're just off Sycamore Boulevard," she told him. "The Central Dawnward Hospital is nearby. They can help y—"

Elijah tensed up at the very mention of a hospital. "No hospitals," he snapped, silencing her.

"But you've been shot! If you don't get that looked—"

"I'll be fine," he grumbled, watching a car drive by the left end of the alley. He had no idea where Sycamore Boulevard was; he hadn't been anywhere in the city other than the street the El'Vorian Horizons sat on and the garage he had a few blocks away from it.

That was where he needed to go. He had to get to his garage, grab his things, and get the hell out of Dawnward.

"But what if those people find us and you can't get away?" she asked.

"Those people are precisely why I'm not going to a hospital," Elijah uttered, looking at his leg. "They'll have people in every hospital and clinic by now looking for us." He carefully used his index finger's claw to cut the hole in his trousers where the bullet had cut through, and when he saw the silverish smoke steaming from his congealed wound, he scowled irritably. If he didn't get the bullet out soon, the silver would poison his blood to a point his body wouldn't be able to recover from.

"What do we do, then?" she asked worriedly.

Keeping his leg straight, Elijah slowly sunk to the ground and reached into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and pulled out a butterfly knife.

The girl stepped back with an anxious look on her face.

But Elijah didn't have time to convince her that he wasn't going to kill her. He sliced his wound wider, grimacing as he did. Then, he reached into his leg with his thumb and index finger and desperately fished around for the bullet.

"Uh...you should wash your hands," the girl said.

He found the bullet and gripped it with his claws. "Aren't you a demon?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow as he glanced at her disgusted face. Then, he pulled the bullet from his leg and dropped it on the ground.

She frowned at him. "Yeah...but germs."

Elijah tore the bottom of his trouser leg off and tied it around his wound. Then, he used the wall to help him climb to his feet.

"Don't you need to clean it or something until your body heals it?" she asked,

"I'll need Evolovir. I've got some back at my place," he said as he started heading towards the street.

"Oh...okay."

He stopped limping and looked over his shoulder. She wasn't following him. "Let's go," he grunted.

The nervous expression on her face was growing. "I, uh...I don't know if I should go with you to your home...."

"You don't have a choice," he grumbled, continuing forward. "They saw your face, and as much as I'd rather not drag your sorry ass with me, I've got no choice, either. The last thing I need is them using you to find out everything I just got from Harris. On top of that, I killed him, and if anyone else knew that he took you, then they're going to be blaming his murder on you."

"But you were the one who killed him!" she exclaimed worriedly.

The demon stopped and turned to face her. "I'm also the one they're trying to deny the existence of to all those reporters. You said it yourself, right?"

She frowned at him. "So...you are one of their illegal experiments."

"Now, let's move," he insisted. "The longer we stand around here, the less time we have to get my shit."

The girl huffed stubbornly and pouted. "Fine." She caught up to him. "Where's your place?"

"I've got a garage a few blocks from the El'Vorian building," he answered, leaning against the wall when they reached the alley's exit. "I'll get what I need and then we'll head for the subway."

"The subway?" she questioned, confused. "Where are we going?"

Was she really that clueless? If he didn't think that what she might know about El'Vorian and Lyca. Corp could be useful to him, then he'd save himself the burden and kill her before the lackeys could get to her. But he was going to have to put up with her...and her stupidity. "We're leaving the city," he answered, checking up and down the street.

"Wait, what?"

"What do you mean, what? They saw your face," he reiterated irritably. "It's going to take them no time at all to find out where you live, where you work, where you get your fucking coffee. Getting the hell out of Dawnward is the only way you live through the rest of tonight."

As her worried expression returned, she looked away and went silent.

Elijah rolled his eyes and checked the streets again. There was no sign of anyone, so he said, "Come on," and left the alley.

"Wait," she fretted. "I-I need to get my things first and tell my roommate."

He dragged his hand over his face and backed into the alley. "What things could possibly be more important than getting the hell out of here before someone sees us?!"

"Money and my toothbrush and my phone charger and Jake—my roommate," she listed, still with her panicked tone.

The demon groaned and glanced at his leg—

"And something for your leg," she added.

As much as he hated all of this, grabbing someone who lived with this girl was probably a good idea. Lyca Corp. was good at using people to get what they wanted, and if this girl was close with Jake, then they'd use him. And Elijah had evaded Lyca Corp. for long enough to know how to hide from and avoid them. They didn't know where his garage was, and since this girl was a demon, they could just use another rift to get there once they'd grabbed her friend.

"Fine," he snarled. "Where do you live?"

"The Belmont in Penrose Square."

"And how far is that from here?"

"Far," she said. "But we can get a taxi or—"

"No," Elijah denied, shaking his head. "You can phase; just take us to a wall closer."

She hesitated for a moment...but then she sighed and said, "Fine, just...are you gonna hurt me or anything? Because if you are, I'd rather it happen in public—but I'd also prefer for it to not happen at all."

"If I was going to hurt you, kid, it would have already happened. Just because there's a hole in my leg doesn't mean it'd be any less easy to tear your throat out," he told her, smirking as best he could through the pain in his leg. "Now can we get the hell out of this alley before something smells all this blood and comes looking for food?"

Once again, the girl hesitated and looked down the alley. But then a distant police siren bellowed through the silence, and she quickly tensed up and turned to face the wall. "Okay, fine. Just hold on," she said as she started creating a rift.

The moment the dark, sizzling slit cut through the bricks, Elijah grabbed the girl's arm and hurried through the portal.

When he stepped out on the other side, though, the demon let go of her and took a moment to look around. The cold wind was blowing in his face, and he could see the tops of every building Dawnward City had to offer. Sirens and car horns echoed from below, and the smell of rain lingered in the air.

"Over here," the girl said.

Elijah took his eyes off the building tops and followed her through the glass terrace doors and into the penthouse, but with every limp, he grunted and tried his best not to fall. There was a pink couch not far from the door, so he made his way over to it and slumped down.

A small, hairless dog which looked like it was wearing a black wig came running out of the room beside the stairs and started barking excitedly. But instead of rushing to the girl in the kitchen, it came right to Elijah and barked at his feet.

"Oh, sorry. That's Antonio," she said as she pulled a medical kit from under the sink. Then, she hurried over to him.

Elijah grunted at the animal. It was wearing a powder blue collar with gold spikes on it, and the black hair on its head wasn't a wig...it was its hair.

"Here," she said, handing him the medical kit. "And...you're bleeding all over my couch," she said with a grimace. "But don't worry, I can call someone to clean it...."

"Go and get your things," he grumbled, opening the kit.

"Okay, yeah...uh..." she replied and started looking around. "Do you want anything to drink?"

He sighed angrily and looked up at her. "We don't have time for drinks and small talk. Get your shit." Then, he started cleaning his wound with antiseptic wipes.

Before she could say anything else, a room opened upstairs.

A curious voice echoed from the second floor, "Yo, Zoe. Where the hell have you been? It's like—"

Elijah looked up at the glass landing and set his eyes on a blonde, shirtless man. A confused look struck his clean-shaven face, and his brown eyes quickly shifted from Elijah to Zoe and back again.

"Uh...there's a guy bleeding all over your couch," the guy said, pointing at Elijah.

"Oh, yeah...that's just...my cousin, very distant," she said, looking at Elijah expectantly.

The demon sighed and tossed the bloody wipes all the way into the trashcan in the kitchen from where he was sitting. "Elijah."

Zoe laughed nervously. "He got ran into by one of those scooter carts, you know? It had a jagged edge on it or something though, I guess. Don't worry about the blood. I'll get it cleaned."

The guy nodded slowly and started making his way downstairs as he drawled, "Right.... You never told me you had another cousin."

She laughed again. "Oh, yeah, well...maybe that's for the best." She glanced at Elijah. "Anyway...."

Elijah threaded a needle and moved it towards his wound—

"This is Jake," Zoe said.

"Sup?" the guy said.

With a quiet sigh, Elijah started sewing his wound shut.

"Dude, shouldn't you be getting that done at a hospital?" Jake exclaimed.

"Oh, he's fine. He likes doing that kinda stuff," Zoe said, waving her hand. "Pre-med."

Elijah was getting tired of her. Why was she dragging this out? There wasn't time for this; she should be telling this guy that they had to pack up their shit and go. If she wasn't going to do it, then he would.

He finished sewing his wound, dropped the needle into the kit, and looked at them both. "Why are you still standing here?"

Zoe was starting to look flustered. "S-sorry, uh...." She looked at Jake. "So...some stuff has come up and it's like...really important that we leave the penthouse for a while—probably a day or two—and we have to go right now."

Jake scoffed and looked at them both. "Wait, hold on. Slow down a sec. What happened? Why do we have to leave? Where are we going?"

She opened her mouth to speak—

"Zoe was kidnapped by a doctor working for El'Vorian Horizons and I so happened to be in the area and saved her life," Elijah said. But he wasn't going to tell either of them the whole truth. "The doctor and all of his security guards are dead, and they're going to pin it all on Zoe to cover up the fact that they were taking her somewhere to kill her."

"Oh, my fucking God, Zoe," Jake exclaimed dramatically. "I told you to stop digging into all that crap! I said you'd piss people off." He blinked several times and shook his head. "Wait, you were kidnapped?!"

Zoe saddened. "Yeah...and put in the back of a trunk, and the car flipped a bunch of times; I think it knocked me out for a little bit."

"But you're okay, right? I mean...you demons heal faster than we do," Jake said, scratching the side of his face.

Before Zoe could speak, Elijah stood up. "Everyone's fine, okay? Get your shit. We're running out of time!" he growled as the dog started barking at him again.

"Antonio, shush!" she complained to the dog. Then, she looked at Jake and said, "Just pack the essentials, okay? We'll be back soon."

Jake nodded with an unsure look on his face and headed upstairs.

"Do you need towels or anything?" Zoe then asked Elijah as she grabbed her purse from the kitchen counter.

"No. Just hurry up," the demon grumbled.

"Okay, sorry."

He watched her hurry upstairs and then sat back down. A moment's rest should help him recover enough strength to make it to his garage, and once he had what he needed, he'd have to get out of Dawnward without being seen. On his own it wouldn't be so hard but with two other people—two annoying, clueless rich kids? He was going to need a lot more strength for that, and not just physically.

Elijah looked at his sewn wound and huffed. The silver had been in his body for a good fifteen minutes, so it was going to take at least an hour or two for the poison to leave his bloodstream. He needed to make sure he took a few Evolovir before that happened, though. The last thing he needed was for a simple infection to turn into atrophy.

Just then, footsteps echoed from upstairs. He looked up there and watched as Jake came running down with a pair of black trousers in one hand and a rucksack in the other.

"I got you these," the kid said as he reached Elijah and held the trousers out to him. "Since...you know." He nodded at Elijah's wound.

He took the trousers from him, but the guy didn't back off. Elijah frowned and looked up at him to see that he had a curious look on his face.

"Sorry, uh..." he laughed and leaned to the side a little like he was trying to get a better look at Elijah's face. "Your eyes. Super orange."

Elijah looked him up and down. Although the guy wasn't as muscular as most muto, he smelt just as bad as they all did. It was like wet fur mixed with vanilla, but Elijah didn't know which muto he was.

Jake still didn't leave. "Your uh...white hair." He chuckled and shuffled around as though he needed a piss. "Just tryna figure out which one of them you're a cousin through."

"One of who?" Elijah questioned.

"Zoe's dads."

"Hey, where did you get those?" came Zoe's voice.

They both turned their heads and watched her hurry downstairs with her backpack.

"Sorry, he needs new ones," Jake said, shrugging.

She huffed and headed into the kitchen. "It's fine, just please don't go in their room again. I don't want to get in trouble."

"No probs," Jake said, walking to her.

Elijah frowned again. While Zoe was clearly freaking out, Jake seemed fine with going on the run because Zoe would be blamed for several murders. Either that or he was good at hiding his fear. Either way, though, all Elijah cared about was getting the fuck out of there.

He hastily pulled his trousers off—

"Um, okay," Zoe exclaimed as her face went red. She quickly turned her back to him.

Jake didn't turn away, though. "Nice," he drawled. "Somebody didn't skip leg day."

"Will you shut up and look away?!" Zoe exclaimed, slapping his arm.

Elijah rolled his eyes and pulled the trousers on.

"Did you pack everything?" she asked Jake.

He patted his rucksack. "Yep."

"I only have twelve coronam," she said, counting the notes in her purse. "Do you think that'll be enough?"

Elijah stood up. "I have more at my place," he said, stepping over the barking dog. "We've wasted enough time. Let's go."

"I can get one of the building's drivers to take us to the garage if you want," Zoe offered as she pulled her backpack on.

"No," the demon denied. "No chauffeurs. No one can see us."

"I could drive," Jake said, holding up his car keys.

Zoe scowled at Jake. "What if someone reports my abandoned car and they come looking for me?"

"They're already looking for you," Elijah grumbled. "We can't phase with him because he's a muto, so this looks like it's our only option," he said, heading for the elevator. "You'll drive us to my garage, and then we'll take the subway from there, as planned."

They both started following him.

"Come on, Antonio," Zoe called.

The little rat-of-a-dog scurried after them.

Elijah looked back at it as Jake pressed the elevator button. "That thing isn't coming with us."

"Of course he is!" she exclaimed, picking the dog up as the elevator arrived with a ding.

He wasn't going to stand there and argue. Elijah got into the elevator and leaned against the wall, taking the weight off his injured leg. The elevator started descending, and to his relief, both Zoe and Jake were silent.

But it didn't last long.

Zoe reached into her purse. "I should call my dad—"

Elijah snatched her phone before she could unlock it. "Do you still not understand a single fucking thing I've said?" he snarled angrily. "Lyca Corp. are looking for you and they have people everywhere. Your phone is literally a beacon to your exact location."

"I know, but what if we go to a police station or something and then call them in there so it's safe?"

Before Elijah could say it, Jake said, "I mean, he says Lyca Corp. have people everywhere, and that means the police and stuff, right?"

"Exactly," Elijah grumbled.

"I left my phone behind," Jake said with a smug smirk.

Zoe frowned at him. "Can I have it back? I won't call anyone."

Elijah used his claw to pull the SIM card out and snapped it. Then, he handed it back to her. "No, you won't."

"Hey!" she snapped. "I was going to offer to take the SIM card out anyways. You don't have to be rude."

Then, the elevator arrived, and the doors opened.

"The car's just over here," Jake said, hurrying through the parking lot.

"We're not taking your car," Elijah said, eyeing the cars in the lot. "We can't risk it being tagged." He headed over to a black convertible and gripped the door handle. He pulled, forcing the door open, and when the alarm started blaring, he crawled under the wheel and quickly fiddled with the wires.

Zoe murmured unsurely.

"Your cousin is awesome, man," Jake responded.

Elijah disabled the alarm and started the car. Then, he climbed out and ushered Jake into the driver's seat.

"Is it really wise for us to be stealing a car?" Zoe asked as she got in the back. "It's gonna get the same amount of attention if the guy reports it missing."

As he climbed into the front passenger seat, Elijah mumbled, "It's the middle of the night. We'll be far away from Dawnward by the time the owner wakes up and realizes it's gone." He pulled the door shut and looked at Jake. "Go. Temple Avenue."

Jake nodded and started driving through the parking lot.

Elijah then sunk into his seat and tried to relax. He'd already wasted too much time getting these two idiots, and he still had to get to his garage. But the fact that there weren't screaming sirens within earshot meant that Lyca Corp. hadn't found Zoe's address yet. They wouldn't take much longer, though, and he wanted to make sure he was miles from Dawnward before they began their hunt for this girl.

He stared through the window when Jake drove out of the parking lot. His heart beat a little faster as he searched for signs of detainers, but he had to keep his composure. He had to focus on grabbing his things and getting himself and his new annoying companions out of the city.

And he had to make sure that he was ready for anything. Just as they did on the forest highway, detainers could show up at any moment, and he couldn't risk another injury. One silver bullet in his leg was enough.

⊳⊱ ♕ ⊰⊲

✧ Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! ✧

♛ What was your favourite part? ♛

✟ Do you think Zoe and Jake are going to get Elijah caught? ✟

✙ What do you think will happen once they reach his garage? ✙

❖ Got any questions? ❖

◈ Let me know! ◈