The hairs on the back of his neck rose, and he glanced back to find some very unfriendly gazes being sent his way—great…
Did he…let the lie stand, or…tell the truth and possibly ruin this woman’s faith in others, and risk her never helping people in the future?
Fuck!
Severo pounded down the pavement, and without thought, vaulted himself over the safety railing and began to stumble his way down the embankment. Seri seemed to slide down perfectly, having no issues with the decline or wet grass. Grass he probably should be worried about, because wet meant water…
“Seri! Please. You are just stalling the inevitable!” Severo yelled as he followed him.
One would have thought finding the damn man again would have been the main problem. But no, the biggest pain in the ass was actually capturing him. Seri North had already slipped through his fingers ten times. And judging by the water mass they were approaching, this would be the eleventh.
Or was it twelve…? It would be twelve, if he counted that first time.
He had a bad feeling he was going to have to use some underhanded tactics to get ahold of the Nymph.
Half way down the embankment himself, on seeing Seri reach the bottom, Severo launched himself at the man, grabbing hold of him. He loosened his grip the second he came into contact with the baby strapped to Seri’s chest. How the hell was he supposed to capture him when he had a baby on him?!
Seri’s elbow slammed into his face. The surprised burst of pain in his nose made him see stars as he flinched away, his arms loosening enough for Seri to break free. More like his hold hadn’t been that tight to begin with because of the baby.
Severo lunged up this time, snagging one of Seri’s wrists. He moved to handcuff the Nymph, but was too slow, or rather Seri was moving too freely.
“Let go!” Seri raged.
The man twisted, grabbing hold of his arm, and he found his feet lifting up as the Nymph not only broke his hold but flipped him over his shoulder.
He landed with a grunt on the ground, and had a lovely view of Seri jumping into the river, ending all chances of catching him at that very moment. It was not really possible to catch a Water Cryptid in water. They were too fast.
“Fuck,” he groaned. Well, at least he hadn’t tried to choke him with water like before.That had been so much fun, he thought, sarcastically.
Severo was at too big of a disadvantage, to be honest. Not in strength, but in just knowing Seri was innocent… He could and should have done something to try to incapacitate Seri, thrown some punches and kicks…but he couldn’t bring himself to do that.
It was also hard to bring a beat down when…there was a damn baby strapped to the person he was chasing. Though, where else would she be? It wasn’t as if Seri was going to drop her off somewhere. Even if he thought the Nymph was guilty, there was no way in hell he’d risk hurting a child. But fuck, he knew Seri wasn’t, so… This assignment sucked ass…in a bad way.
And it really was that he ‘knew’ now. In the weeks since they’d found out about Preston Chanway’s involvement, Killian had assigned himself to the job of digging into the case, kicking all his peons off it. The Siren had easily found both a connection between Seri, Preston, and Leal.
Severo prodded his nose and winced in pain. Blood was on his hand when he pulled away. He poked a bit more, and on feeling a slight bulging where he shouldn’t, Severo cursed. Yep, it was probably broken. How fun, a trip to the hospital…
Severo sighed. He was afraid it was time to resort to underhanded tactics. There really wasn’t any other option, since he didn’t want to hurt Seri, and really couldn’t keep letting the Nymph kick his ass every time they met up. He could, but he wasn’t going to…
Severo pulled out his phone from his inside jacket. Running his hand over the small thin rectangle, when the screen slid out, he called Killian.
“Did you get him?” the man asked, instead of greeting him. No one ever said hello anymore…assholes.
Killian’s smooth voice, as it always did, sent a shiver down his spine—fucking Sirens. Even when they weren’t trying to trick you into the sea, there was this underlying hypnotic quality to their voices. Severo should have been used to it, with how long he’d been friends with the man, but he wasn’t. Personally, Killian sometimes scared the fuck out Severo. The man could be a hardass, and looked like he’d kill you with a smile on his face. Beautiful…and deadly, is how he’d describe him.
Now that he thought of it…Water Nymphs were distantly related to Sirens, weren’t they? Some of them even had the ability to blow out your eardrums with their voices, if he was remembering right. Not all, but some…
“No. I need you to track him down again. But this time…I have a secondary request.”
“You sound off.”
Severo huffed. “He broke my nose. You try sounding normal.”
Killian had the audacity to fucking chuckle. “Nice.”
“Nice?!”
“Now, don’t be a drama queen. You are here calling me, giving me more work to do, you know. Let me enjoy myself. I do so rarely.”
