The man’s hand shot out. Preston roughly grabbed onto his hair, and forced his mouth down onto Seri’s.
Good enough, he thought. Swinging his arm forward, he slammed the injector into the man’s upper back, right as he pressed the buttons hidden seamlessly on the sides, deploying the compound. He released his hold the minute it latched into the man’s skin. The item was designed to not only deploy the compound, but to hook into the skin until it fully emptied.
Preston roared out, jerking away. The man clawed at his back, trying to reach it. “What have youuu doneee?!” the Dweller screamed, his words slurring at the end.
Seri smiled at the sound of the injector disengaging and falling to the floor. Preston followed it down, landing hard on the rug-covered ground.
He spat and wiped at his mouth in disgust as he sat up. “What you are experiencing now is a concoction I made while I was blissfully free of this place. Dyrite mixed with a whole lot of fun things to increase the potency of the dyrite. I actually haven’t tested this one on anyone. Shouldn’t kill you though,” Seri said before slipping out of bed.
“You see, the version I tested also caused weakness that led to someone like you not being able to move, not to mention completely cutting them off from their shadow powers. But with that version you could still talk. I decided I didn’t want that for you. Because you see,” Seri drawled as he limped towards him. “You talk too much. You always have. And, Preston, it’s time for you to fucking listen.”
He kicked the man over with his good leg. Preston grunted, but besides glaring up at him murderously, he didn’t say a word. Not that he could with the type of sedative he’d added.
Slowly crouching down, wincing when his bad leg protested, he ignored it and reached into Preston’s suit jacket, retrieving his gun. Setting it aside, he grabbed onto the man’s wrists and dragged him towards the wheelchair in the corner of the room. Either Preston was much lighter than Severo…or him not giving a fuck if he hurt the man was an advantage.
Dropping Preston’s arms, he turned the chair and made sure the brakes were on. Leaning back down, Seri latched onto the man’s wrists again. After awkwardly maneuvering around the chair, so he was to the back of it, he jerked him as hard as he could into the seat. “Fuck am I glad you aren’t as heavy as Severo,” Seri huffed.
Preston let out a growl.
“What? Don’t like hearing about him? Too bad,” he chuckled as he fetched the gun he left on the floor.
Unlocking the wheels, he pushed the chair out of the room and into the hall. “I’m happy to tell you that Severo is more to me than you will ever be. He gives and gives. He has never taken anything from me. And bed wise, he is everything anyone could ever ask for. While you…are nothing anyone could ever want.”
“Y-you,” the man managed to grind out.
“Ahh, looks like I didn’t add enough of the sedative. Well, it has obviously still affected your central nervous system enough where I don’t have to listen to you too much.”
Seri felt oddly at ease, even if the tension should have been rising inside him. He knew the maids’ schedule. They wouldn’t be up here yet, and there were no guards past floor one. Because why guard someone who was injured?
At least, up until today, he’d been deemed too injured to escape. They’d discover them soon enough, but there was still time to enjoy himself a little first.
He grinned as he reached the first set of stairs. “In a brief second, you are going to wish you had added a damn elevator. Me, on the other hand, I'm going to be forever grateful that you didn’t, and that you chose a chair with wheels instead of those fancy hover ones,” Seri ground out viciously, before pushing the wheelchair forward and releasing his hold of the handles.
The chair, and Preston, clanked and thumped down the stairs, landing at the bottom with a crunch and a sickening thud. Preston let out a stunted cry of pain, his right arm twisting at an odd angle. “Oops,” he laughed.
Seri didn’t take time to admire the results, and instead rushed as fast as he could down the stairs. Because while this was fun, despite his normal dislike for violence, he didn’t have time to enjoy it. Someone likely heard that. Seri needed to get down two more flights of stairs before they caught him.
Rather than picking Preston back up in the chair, he just kicked him over and down the next flight, and the one beyond that. Seri dragged the wheelchair along with one hand, the gun in his other, as he followed him down, kicking him again and again each time he stopped. His leg ached more and more, the longer he spent on it, but it was easy to ignore.
When Seri had finally made it to the large landing of the third floor, he hurriedly pulled Preston back into the wheelchair. Pressing the muzzle of the gun to the back of his head, finger over the trigger, he waited, listening to the sounds of feet growing louder from the descending staircase nearby. Seri backed up with the man slowly, going towards the large doorway that led to an outside platform.
His hand shook as sweat dripped down his face. Not from fear though…he was tired. After being stuck in bed for most of the day for over a week, doing all this had been an effort. But it was fine. He was where he needed to be. The floor with a large platform, with a grand staircase that led to the ground. It was the exact spot where Seri had laid when Preston had lied to the world about their marriage.
Doors right behind him, people finally appeared. Guards with their guns drawn, and behind them, the maids. Everyone stared wide eyed at him.
“Try anything and I’ll shoot him,” Seri said with a laugh.
“Now…Seri, you know this isn’t going to end well for you,” one of the guards assured him.
He snorted. “You think being here is a good ending for me? Come closer and I’ll kill him. Likely, I’ll get off on self-defense. If I don’t, it would still be worth it.” They stared and he grinned, clicking the safety off. They flinched but didn’t make a move. Seri's smile only widened as he demanded, “Call the press, and…get me the key to this.” He held up his shackled wrist.
Severo tapped his communicator.“Teams in place?”
He heard ten clicks, all reporting yes without saying it. “You know your orders. Neutralize all threats, seek out both targets. Capture one, free the other.”
The tranquilizers in their guns would be… Well, it should be enough to take down anyone inside. Hopefully, without killing them. They were set to Cryptid strength. There shouldn’t have been any humans inside, beside perhaps some unarmed staff. If they were smart, which Severo wasn’t sure they were, since they worked for Preston, they’d stay the fuck out of the way.
“Go—”
