With the exception of her constant disobedience, Seri was perfect in every way. Preston promised himself then that he’d train that out of her this time.
Seri clutched tightly to the handle of the baby car seat, gaze flicking around the airport. His nerves had become more and more threaded, the closer they’d gotten to Preston. They were back on Earth… Only a little more than an hour away now. It was just one giant waiting game. Morewhenhe’d be taken, rather thanif.
Everyone was staring, or trying not to stare. It would have made him extra paranoid if the stares hadn’t been a constant since leaving the ship they’d taken to the intermediate station above Earth. There had been no private rooms on the ship they’d taken back to Earth. There hadn’t been any on the shuttle to the station above Mars, but he hadn’t really been paying attention then.
Either way, it seemed everyone loved a good freak show. Seri did his best to ignore them. They didn’t matter. Them staring or not wouldn’t change anything. He did feel slight disgust towards them, because some were obviously entertained by the sight of him being dragged around as if he wasn’t being taken back to his abuser.
He flinched back, coming to a stop as an older human almost ran into him. The guy went around, as if he was a spot of grime, his mouth turning up in disgust.
“Jackass,” Severo muttered softly, before starting forward again. Seri’s eyes widened on spotting the large electric doors…the exit. His heart started to speed up, a fine tremble running through him as his panic grew.
He couldn’t go back… He couldn’t!
Seri’s gaze flicked back and forth from the doors that were drawing ever closer to the cuff around his wrist. That was when he realized it wasn’t flush to the skin…there was some wiggle room…
Without much thought, he tugged as hard as he could, uncaring as it dug into his skin and began to scrape some of the flesh off. The cuff lit up and he shouted out in pain when it tightened around his knuckles, pressing down on the abused skin. Skya started to cry at the sudden loud noise.
“SERI!” Severo yelled in horror. The man lunged after him, snagging his wrist, even as Seri defiantly kept trying. “Stop, you idiot! It’s just going to get tighter,” the Dweller cried, sounding slightly frantic.
Tears pooling in his eyes at the pain, he stopped, his shoulders sagging. Severo pulled Seri towards him and started fiddling with the cuff. Seconds later, the thing loosened and slid back down to his wrist, tightening up there.
“You did a hell of a good job,” Severo hissed with Seri’s hand still in his grasp.
Seri didn’t bother to look over or respond. He didn’t even move to comfort Skya. He just stood there…an overwhelming sense of defeat weighing down on him.
Severo sighedas he pressed a few buttons, collapsing the center console of the rental car, so he could easily cross to the driver’s side from the passenger’s door. Seri followed him quietly, setting the baby carrier into the center.
Once the seat was in place, Severo pressed the baby on board mode, the panel opened up and then hooked onto the car seat, a shield coming down in place in front of Skya. The little girl was sitting there wide-eyed, looking upset still from what happened in the airport.
Connecting his phone to the car, a flash of anger sliced through him as he caught sight of the clear semi-transparent bandage wrapped around Seri’s left hand. There was skin-colored packing gauze underneath it, so he couldn’t see the damage. But Severo didn’t need to see, because he’d already seen it plenty while he watched the nurse at the airport clean it up.
Seri had torn off the top layer of skin on the upper part of his hand. And for no reason, no matter how loose the cuff had been on his wrist, they’d tightened up when they came too close to the bone structure in the knuckles. It was an automatic function.
He didn’t know if his anger was placed on Seri for the pointless attempt, or…at himself for not letting him get away. It's not like he could control the functions of the cuffs. But…he could have let him go. He wanted to let him go. This was all wrong. All of it. He felt it, more and more, the closer they’d gotten to Earth. And now that they were actually here, the thoughts were screaming inside his head.
Severo sighed again. Reaching into this pocket, he took out the bottle necklace and held it out to Seri. The Nymph eyed it, brows raising.
“You can have this back. I doubt you’ll use it on me in the car, and you won’t be attached to me any longer once we reach the Bureau.”
Seri slowly took it, eyeing him as if he thought it was a trick of some kind. Still the man put it back on.
Nodding, Severo started the rental car, setting the coordinates to his work and letting it go on autopilot. His mind was way too chaotic to drive safely right now. At least, they weren’t far from headquarters. The airport he’d initially flown out of may have been an hour from that podunk police station, but the one they landed in was only twenty minutes from the North American CEB Headquarters. He would have to fetch his car, which still sat in that initial airport’s parking garage, at some point… Whatever, the Bureau was paying for the storage, so what did he care?
They drove in silence for about five minutes when Seri burst out, “You know this isn’t right! Just let me go!”
“I can’t do that, Seri.”
“You can! You just won't, because of what? Laws that do nothing to protect our kind?! Laws that let criminals like Preston run around with no questions asked?!”
“There are plenty of laws that protect us. The CEB does all that it can to protect us.”
Seri scoffed. “You really believe that garbage? Who have they protected? Who have they helped?! Me? Certainly not. The one time I went for help, it came with the demand of my body as compensation.”
Severo drew a sharp breath in, anger welling up. “Who?!”
“Does it matter who?! It won’t change the fact that eighteen-year-old me went homeless for more than a year, and hungry most of the time. NOW I’m being dragged back by you all. Not because I’ve actually done anything, but because I know things about a criminal that you all want. You are risking mine and my daughter’s safety, my very freedom, just to catch someone. So don’t act like nobodies like me matter at all to you people.”
Severo gripped the wheel tight enough that it creaked, his knuckles turning white. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm himself down. But what was he even to say to all that?
