“No, no, no. I’ve got it. She’s on Mars, supposedly in Oden. Killian will likely narrow it down once I’m there, because he is awesome. So, I will find her. Simple,” Severo replied quickly, a bit more awake this time.
“Mhmm.” Cyrus grunted. “Whatever remains unanswered will be answered in due time, Severo. We can question the why's and what's once she is in custody.”
Severo sighed. “Sure.” He hung up, really not understanding why they couldn’t question the case first. Then again, what did he know? He was the person who fetched, and sometimes examined the bodies. It was the other departments’ job to get involved with the validity of the cases. Not that he didn’t hold certain privileges as an agent, to make decisions on the guilt of others in the spur of the moment, if they interfered with his work.
Arms loaded with a baby bag, and too many reusable grocery sacks to count, Seri somehow managed to bend over without dropping everything, so he could scan his eye to unlock and open the door of his apartment. Well, of Chay Woden’s apartment—his new and very fake name.
But hey, the ID passbook was forged well enough that it might as well have been real. From what he gathered, all the codes inside had an encrypted program attached that temporarily overhauled the Universal Citizen database, so that his picture would show up instead of whoever Chay Woden was.Thank you, Chay, he thought.
Walking inside, Seri kicked the door closed with his foot, bent over, and let all the bags drop. He moved to straighten, not as easy as it should have been due to the baby strapped to his back, when something caught his eye.
The tablet on the coffee table had been moved… More noticeably, the lamp in the corner had been turned off, casting part of his living room into darkness.
His heart instantly began to pick up its pace. Blood rushed to his head as fear began to overwhelm him. But he choked it off, and instead of panicking and fleeing, he slowly straightened up. That’s when Seri saw it. His shadow flickered and moved as no shadow should.
He swiped the large jar on the small hallway table to the floor without a second thought. It shattered on impact, and what looked like blue sand spilled out—it was dysea, which was a combination of sea salt, chemically mixed with a blue mineral called dyrite. Dyrite was the only thing in this world that would counteract a Shadow Dwellers’ shadow manipulation. Seri kicked at the grainy substance with his foot. The minute it came into contact with his boot, his shadow returned to normal.
“That won’t work on me, Preston,” he growled.
Seri jerked back in shock when a man that was certainly not Preston slid from a shadow in the right corner of his living room, walking towards him until he was standing only a few feet away.
This Dweller was nowhere close to looking like the pale, blond haired demon that was Preston. This stranger was as tall as the other—which put him around six foot four. However, unlike Preston, this guy’s hair was as dark as the shadow he had come out of, and long enough to be pulled into a thick, messy bun. And while Preston’s features were prince-like and preppy, this man had a strong nose that came to a point, pronounced brow, pointed ears, hazel eyes, facial hair that was a step after a five o’clock shadow, and deep olive skin. He certainly didn’t dress like the other Dweller either. Preston wouldn’t be caught dead in a leather jacket, a plain white T-shirt, blue jeans, and steel-toed boots.
The stranger clapped. “Well done, Nymph, well done. Though I am not Preston, whoever that is.”
“Don’t try to deny knowing him. He sent you, didn’t he? And if he didn’t, who the heck are you, and what do you want?” Seri held his hand up when the stranger tried to respond. “Actually, I don’t care. If you want me to go with you, I’m afraid you’re out of luck.”
“Now, Seri. I really don’t want to fight you. Always a little leery about fighting against women, to be honest. Mostly due to the usual size difference. So, why don’t you hear me out, and we can get things settled? Huh? I’m sure whatever is going on is a misunderstanding anyway. You’d be making my job easier, and this a lot less painful for yourself.”
Seri stiffened up at the man calling him a woman. Glaring, he flipped him off. “Screw off.”
The Dweller cracked his neck. “Okay, the hard way it is.”
Oh, shit—no, keep calm… You’ve been training months for this,he told himself. Seri hadn’t exactly anticipated having Skya on his back for his first encounter, but… Well, when had things ever gone exactly how he intended, right?
Skya, who had been sleeping, appeared to be awake now, as he felt her playing with the chain of his necklace.
The other man stood, hands loose and prepared… It looked like he was waiting for Seri to attack. Eyeing him, a plan quickly formed in his head.
This was fine. He needed to get past the man anyway. Bouncing from foot to foot for a moment, without warning, he surged forward, taking a swing at the Dweller with his right fist. The other easily sidestepped out of the way, as Seri figured he would. There was a gasp, but he ignored it, determined to get to what he needed.
Fucking intel!How the hell was this missed?! It’s not like Killian had stopped looking into the woman’s location in the three weeks it had taken him to track her down.
Though he supposed he should have probably noticed something when he had been scouting out the last few days. And…just maybe…when he’d looked through the apartment.
Fist hesitating in the air, Severo stared into the gaze of a wide-eyed infant. Said infant had just enough room in whatever the hell kind of baby contraption they were locked into to swivel their tiny little noggin and stare at him, blinking in all their adorableness.
The staring contest did not last for more than a few seconds, because Seri used his distraction to lunge towards a side table near the couch and rip a drawer out. That was when Severo found himself staring down the barrel of a twenty-two.
He eyed it, feeling slightly concerned, but not really. The funny thing with bullets and Shadow Dwellers was that his shadow would react to the danger and shield him. It was the main reason he didn’t care to carry a gun himself. With his powers, it always seemed like overkill. Not that he couldn’t carry one, but…Severo had just stubbornly refused.
Still, he straightened and held his hands up. “Now, now. No need for that.”
“Back up,” Seri commanded. “And before you go thinking this is full of normal bullets, it’s not.”
His eyes widened at that, as nowhe was concerned. While normal bullets wouldn’t do shit, bullets made with dysea sure as hell would.
Severo took a few steps back. “I really wouldn’t recommend you shooting me… You have already killed a civilian, but killing?—”
