“Under my clothes.Hurry, hurry,” Jin crooned.
His spawn scuttled and winged their way across the room to delve under any piece of clothing they could reach.The bottom of his pants.The collar of his shirt.Up his sleeves even.
Jin held as still as he could, a tiny giggle slipping free every time one of them brushed up against a ticklish spot.
When they were finally settled and Jin finished arranging his clothes so no one looking at him would be able to easily spot them, he looked up to find Dylan watching him.His smile faded.“Something wrong?”
“You told your friend your control extended only to a few at a time.”
“I didn’t lie.”
He only did that when absolutely necessary.The first time had been because Kira’s psyche had been too fragile to handle the full extent of the truth.The second was due to the very real fear that she’d go on a self-destructive spiral.
He hadn’t done it since.Nor would he unless things turned dire and he felt it was the only way to protect everyone.
“That was hours ago,” Dylan pointed out.
“A lot can happen in a few hours.”
Look at Kira—the daft woman had managed to get herself attacked, leaving her current status unknown.Their silly siblings were in a similar boat.Jin was pretty sure their last communication ended because someone had set off a comms disrupter as a precursor to an attack.
Things were officially fucked.
As usual it was Jin’s job to un-fuck them or die trying.
With that thought in mind, Jin considered Dylan with a critical eye.The oshota had officially become an impediment to his plans.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”Dylan asked.
He demonstrated the depth of his perceptive capabilities as his expression grew increasingly wary the longer Jin stared.
“I like you, Dylan.”
Or more accurately, Jin didn’t find him as annoying as he did most biologicals.
The caution on Dylan’s face grew.“Roake’s heir said something similar.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.”He and Kira had similar tastes.“Please try not to take this too personally.”
Jin sent a mental command to the spawn currently clinging to the back of Dylan’s cloak.The scorpion stabbed its stinger through the fabric, latching onto the plates of the synth armor protecting the oshota’s body.
Normally, the material of the synth armor wouldn’t have been affected by something as small as a scorpion’s stinger.Let alone the electrical charge attached to said stinger.The properties of synth armor made it impervious to such petty tricks.
But this was Jin.A Jin who’d spent the last few hours modifying a weapon for exactly this purpose.
Dylan’s eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped like a sack of potatoes.
Jin winced slightly at thethunkof his head against the floor.“I promise—you’ll thank me later.”
Well—maybe not immediately.
More likely, Dylan would wake angry and full of betrayal.Eventually, though, he’d come around to Jin’s way of thinking.
Or he wouldn’t and he’d ask Torvald for a transfer.
Several of Jin’s spawn lifted Dylan, ferrying him over to one of the smuggler’s caches that were hidden all over the hotel.
“Stay and protect him.Kill anyone who gets close.Except Kira.Don’t kill her.”Jin paused.“Or Raider.Maybe not Finn either.”
