Daegelus | Volume One: Subject 0333

Chapter Thirty-One | Ronan

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The hours dragged on and on. Jake snored loudly behind Elijah, and Zoe was playing a game on her phone. Elijah, on the other hand, continued watching the streets. No officers had stepped foot on the sidewalk he was parked beside yet, but he still wouldn't let his guard down. He was so close, and he wasn't going to rest until he had Ronan in his grasp.

His heart beat a little faster while he plotted. He wasn't going to leave Zoe and Jake someplace while he chased down Ronan's ride, so he couldn't crash the truck into the doctor's car this time. No, he was going to have to rely on Jake or Zoe to either shoot Ronan's tyres or drive the truck so that he could shoot. The latter was probably the best option.

He tapped his fingers on her thigh and watched a man walking his dog cross the road up ahead. Then, he shifted his sights to the woman who came out of one of the houses not too far away; she swept the sidewalk and went back inside.

"Where did you learn about eating hearts?" Zoe suddenly asked, and she sounded nervous.

Elijah frowned and looked at her. He thought about it, recalling the moment he first tore someone's heart out, ate it, and gained their knowledge. "I don't know. When I escaped the lab, I killed a detainer, and I planned to keep running, but it was like some kind of instinct, I guess. I felt like I had to eat it, so I did, and I suddenly knew where he was heading and how to get off the island. I probably wouldn't have ever found that boat if I didn't learn what he knew," he explained slowly. "But the instinct wasn't like what I feel when I'm hungry; it came out of nowhere—like something inside me knew that I needed to know how to get off the island and eating that guy's heart would give me the answers."

Zoe's nervous frown thickened with confusion. "That's really unusual."

"Why?" the demon questioned.

She shrugged. "It's just not something you see every day."

He didn't reply. He set his sights back on the road ahead of him and rested one of his legs over the other.

Jake snorted and stopped snoring. He groaned, grunted, and sat up. "Ugh, it's still daytime?" he complained and checked his watch. "What time are we making a move? What's even the plan?"

Elijah crossed his arms. "Ronan leaves the El'Vorian Horizons building at eight on the dot. He reaches the town's northeast exit at eight-fifteen, where a police escort will be taking him to his home in the hills. We're going to follow him, take out the escort, and cripple Ronan's car. I grab him, find out what I need to know, and then we get the fuck out of here and find Haru."

"So...easy-peasy, huh?" Jake mumbled.

"You'll be driving," he told the pardus.

"Wait, you're shooting from the car?" Zoe questioned.

"I don't have my bike anymore, and I can't leave you two somewhere unsupervised, so yes," he answered.

Zoe frowned worriedly. "I don't like this."

"What if there's more than one police car?" Jake asked.

"There won't be," Elijah muttered.

Jake huffed irritably and leaned back in his seat, and Zoe went back to her phone.

Elijah considered sleeping; there were still fragments that he needed to understand, but he didn't want to risk it. He had to remain vigilant. So he stared out of the window, watching the street as the afternoon grew later. He tapped his claws against his thigh, jolted his leg up and down, and did everything he could to keep his mind from running and his body from falling asleep.