A smell of old blood clung to the inside of the prep-room like barnacles to a bridge strut. Jin wrinkled his nose and put down his mop bucket.

There were no corpses lying around for the moment, but just the thought that the metal slabs usually held bodies made the vampire's skin crawl. He rubbed the ridged lines and circles of his sponsor code as if to scrub away the sensation, then unwrapped an extra-strength mint swiped from Avanay's desk. The smell of blood - even old, gross, dead blood - could trick a vampire into hunger. Drive them ravenous, even.

The mint lasted him until every surface had cleaner on it, and then any trace of blood was hidden under the harsh sting of bleach and artificial lemon. Jin scrubbed and rinsed and mopped, then hauled all his cleaning supplies to the next room to do it all again.

Upstairs, Aven was serving coffee and fancy-prance donuts to a room of suits and his dragonfolk overlordess. If Jin knew his brother, he'd probably leave that completely unrelated marketing meeting with a future-sponsor's contact information.

The second mint cracked under the pressure of his left fang.

The necromancy division was deserted, except for him and a few frozen corpses waiting for prep. And he had the janitor keys.

~

Aven caught him in the breakroom, just after he grabbed his dinner-rations and before he could reach the door. "Jin, we need to talk."

"Why?" Jin retorted. "I would like to drink my pre-packaged chemically-modified blood juice in peace for once."

"Don't be sarcastic, this is serious. You have to stop sneaking off during work hours."

"Sure thing can I go now?"

"Cut it out," Aven snapped, then took a deep breath and got that patronizing 'calm' look he was so very fond of deploying against Jin. "Your work isn't getting done, and Miss Avanay knows it."

"I just--"

"Not today, but in general. I don't know why she's covered for you so far, but you need to stop taking advantage of her generosity. It's bad enough that you leave after hours when you're supposed to be sleeping, but eventually someone is going to get sick of your complete lack of respect for the rules."

"You mean like you?"

"That's not--"

"Oh, don't pretend this isn't about you and your reputation," Jin interrupted with an aggressive step towards his brother. He jabbed the bottle of faux-blood at him like an angry finger. "I live my life for my sake - not yours. I didn't sign up for this - you signed me up for this. I didn't agree to play maid for a megacorp - you did."

"You signed the contract! You took the code and every advantage it gives you!"

"What else was I supposed to do? We were starving! But now I know what all those asterisks mean, and I'm done pretending I'm a good pet vamp. Deal. With. It."

"Jin--!"

But he refused to listen, refused to slow. He slammed the breakroom door behind him, cutting Aven off mid-protest.

~

The buyer was already waiting in the shadow of the overpass. Jin dumped his mop bucket of discarded Cyber parts on the concrete, watched the dealer's eyes widen, and stuck out his hand.

"Nice to not-officially meet you. Wanna make a deal?"