Smartly, the human looked up without him having to ask again.
“My eyes right now are blue, are they not?”
The detective frowned, obviously confused by his question as he slowly said, “Yes.”
His smile widened. “I surmise that the next time you come to my office, with nothing to show for it, the blue will be the last color you’ll ever see before everything becomes pitch black.”
The man paled.
Preston grabbed him by the throat. The detective yelped, pleading words falling from his lips. “FIND HER!” he roared. “I don’t care what you do, what resources you pull, what laws you break. FIND WHAT IS MINE!”
Seri took a shaky breath,feeling relieved at the strong cries coming from the baby in his arms. Staring down at her, even though she was covered in gunk and screaming her little lungs out, he couldn’t help but tear up. She was beautiful.
His daughter had a tuff of cyan hair, and she looked like him in every way—though she was a bit red at the moment. But then, who wouldn’t be after such an experience?
Seri laughed—he was exhausted both mentally and physically, but he felt more at peace than he had in so many years.
“Hi there, precious,” Seri sobbed.
With a shaky hand, he gently washed the gunk off the baby girl. The water and his hands must have been soothing as she quieted down and began to let out little baby grunts, which soon became soft snores.
“I’m sorry for the world I’m bringing you into, but I’ll do everything in my power to make sure no harm comes to you. Despite how you got here, no matter what happens, please know that I love you, Skya.” He gently kissed the top of her head.
“Severo,” a very familiar voice called.
Severo Ambrose stared blankly ahead, trying to pretend he was not there—at his desk at work. He was not even bothering to try to fake that he was working.
“Severo!” that familiar voice snapped again.
Severo jerked out of his trance when papers smacked him in the face.
He glared at his boss, Cyrus Grimm, who glared right back. “What?! What do you want?! I did all the paperwork for my last case! Can’t a man zone out and stare into the void that is life without being interrupted?”
He eyed his boss, who also happened to be his childhood friend. The man stood taller than Severo’s six foot four by two inches. He knew because they measured every year growing up. The audacity of Cyrus growing those extra two inches had led to a few fights in their youth.
The Fate had tawny bronze skin, startling reddish purple eyes, short curly brown hair, pointed ears, and a curved square jaw with a closely shaved beard and mustache. They both looked thirty, even if neither of them had been thirty for almost two hundred years.
Cyrus rolled his eyes. “That is not paperwork from your last case. That is information on your newest.”
“But I just got back!” Severo groaned.
When he decided to become a bounty hunter, who would have thought it meant so much paperwork. And constant sleepless nights as he hopped on planes and shuttles, flying and driving everywhere and anywhere.
Okay, he wasn’t a bounty hunter per se. Severo was technically an agent at the Cryptid Enforcement Bureau. Or CEB for short. But it was basically bounty hunting, with more perks—kind of. And he would know, because he had been a human bounty hunter before joining.
But nooo, where’s the challenge in sticking with humans? At least, that’s what he had convinced himself of after becoming successful as a human bounty hunter. Then again, when one was a Baboulas—or as the human’s had permanently named his species, Shadow Dweller—one does not really have an issue capturing fleeing humans. Frankly, he had gotten bored quickly, and decided Cryptid hunting was where it was at.
Severo failed to take into consideration that the CEB was an independent universal governing body who worked with governments all over earth and out to bring down dangerous Cryptid criminals. Mostly ones that the police and other enforcing bodies were not equipped to handle. Which meant a hundred times more traveling and even more paperwork—government red tape and bullshit forms.
Red tape pretty much described all governments in Severo’s mind. A constant fight of paperwork and bullshit. He supposed it was better than the actual fight it had been over five hundred years ago when Cryptids had been exposed to the world for the first time.
It had happened before he was born, back when each country had its own currency, before they all switched to the Universal Dollar. When cars couldn’t fly, and the other planets and moons in their solar system were uninhabitable.
Humans had, of course, tried the elimination route, before attempting to act as if they had the upper hand. On realizing their numbers were near equal, not to mention the collective powers they were up against, compromise came. Governments split into two. One governing body for humans, and another for Cryptids. Both had to work together to make fair rules for all. So, of course, it had been a complete and utter disaster, as politicians agreeing… Pft!
There were many issues that popped up. The first one being, humans wanted to experiment—something that had been shut down quickly and violently. Not that illegal cells didn’t still pop up every now and then.
Though, a big issue, even to this day, was humans wanting to find a way to tie their life to a Cryptid's, due to their ageless lifelines.
