Daegelus | Volume One: Subject 0333

Chapter Twenty-Nine | Distortion

⊳⊱ ♕ ⊰⊲

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.