“I had a pretty good view of them. The markings weren’t the Unaligned symbols. They were marked with a scorpion,” Jase says too casually, and my stomach hits the floor, nausea overcoming me as the faces of my family become ashen.
“What the hell did we miss?” Melania prompts, her face becoming very serious.
My uncle looks at me and back to the stupefied faces of Jase and his sister.
“Just a scorpion or a scorpion shredding a sparrow?” Unc asks.
“Just a scorpion, why?” Jase probes, apparently not pulling anything from our minds.
My uncle exhales as if in relief, and then he shakes his head.
“The new hybrid phenomenon organization represented themselves with a scorpion shredding a bird. Their changelings had sparrows emerging from a cocoon. It just worried us is all.”
More like it fucking terrified us, considering that psychotic organization kidnapped, tortured, and damn near killed my mother. There's no telling what they would do to get at my blood if they were still around.
Jase’s eyes grow a little wider, and then he walks over to push his lips against my forehead. His arms wrap around my waist as he pulls me into the comforting chill of his body.
“Sorry, I wasn’t ever versed on any symbols from that investigation.”
“It was kept quiet. We didn’t want too many people outside of our inner circle knowing about it,” my uncle answers in a near whisper.
A buzzing emerges from the annoying box on the wall, and my aunt goes to take care of it as Jase holds me to his body.
“Who else is coming?” I muse.
“Captain Fricks, and a few other ranked officials.”
I just nod, and then I walk off alone to start staring at another screen with different footage in an effort to distract myself. What if this new threat has adopted the scorpion for reasons tied to Ty Silvers - the sadist mastermind behind the old Scorpion affiliation?
They’re not a new form of hybrid this time though. They’re a more powerful breed of life all together that has evolved the way I have. Technically, I’m not the normal version of hybrid, though I have more in common with hybrids than any other breed… especially the lustful side.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Rex asks in a whisper.
“Don’t think anything at all right now. Keep your mind blank and devoid of all this,” I whisper too low for Jase to hear.
“Huh?” Rex asks in bemusement, and then suddenly the cool hands are on my waist, his touch letting me know my brother’s big mind has opened its mouth.
“You can trust me, baby. You know you can. Tell me about them,” he whispers in my ear.
Rex’s face changes, distorting to disbelief, and his eyes widen when he realizes just as I did, Jase’s unusual ability.
“Fuck,” he breathes, his hands gripping his hair. “Damn it, Aria. Why didn’t you warn me?” he angrily whispers.
I huff out, and my eyes fall on the new captains bringing in several different files and folders, but they don’t look to be staying.
“I tried, Rex,” I sigh out.
“Why are you trying to hide this from me when I already know about you?” Jase says in a nearly muted tone.
“He fucking knows?” Rex gushes. “Aria, have you lost your damn mind?”
“Not here, Rex. Wait on the others to leave,” I whisper, my eyes motioning to the captains shaking hands and starting to walk back out.
“Damn it,” he growls while walking away.
“Your brother really, really doesn’t like me being with you,” Jase grumbles.
“He’s protective.”
