Chapter 5 #2
The men continued to laugh, and I pressed a hand to my face.
"I want to go on the record and say I don't particularly like this.
" I glanced at the men, who were still yukking it up, ready to do who knew what to Lily.
Sometimes the best option was just to give people a warning and let them make their own choice.
"You should listen to your man, lady." The praying mantis man chuckled.
"He was not attempting to counsel me. He was attempting to warn you. He was also worried about the local authorities." Lily tilted her head.
“There’s no authority as long as we don’t run afoul of Perez; there’s nothing we couldn’t do.” They all continued to laugh, not taking her words seriously. A few of the blasters powered up threateningly.
Lily turned to me and shrugged before hefting the heavy bag onto her shoulder. "Please lead the way to our lodging," she said.
Well, I suppose there were no rules, and these people weren’t exactly giving us an option. Hopefully, Lily could be quiet about it.
***
Lily understood that these men were simply no good. Through her genetic memory, there were more than a few examples of their kind and how to deal with them. In fact, the decision here was quite simple.
Her captain was in need of lodging. These men had lodging, and they lacked the requisite intelligence or strength to be of any concern to Lily despite their posturing otherwise.
The men ahead kept laughing as Lily walked with them. Her only concern was the few times they glanced sharply at Rayden. Every time they did that, she bristled with the desire to rip them apart, lest they harm him.
“It’s fine, Lily.” Rayden put a hand on her arm, and all the tension in her bled away at his touch.
“Be safe,” Lily said softly enough that the others wouldn’t hear.
“Do what you have to. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble if you don’t let it grow into a large commotion or any of them get away,” Rayden said.
“What are you two whispering about?” one of the group ahead of them shouted over his shoulder. “We’re almost there, just hold out a little longer, Miss. We have a lovely bed.”
Lily wondered sometimes how these species had survived as long as they had. They were so woefully ill-equipped to deal with situations beyond their personal abilities. At present, they didn’t understand who was the predator and who was the prey.
So she followed the ill-mannered men, bag in hand, going peacefully toward their lodging and hoping that none of them would cause any issue before she was ready. If they went to attack her captain, she was going to have to slaughter them all in the street.
“Here it is.” One gestured to a blocky building that was in poor condition.
“Wonderful, let’s enter,” she said. Rayden had asked her to contain the conflict, and to do so indoors would be best. She was hopeful that it would be easy until a kikai reached over and tried to put his hand on her.
Lily was far quicker. She grabbed him by the wrist, extricating his hand and holding it in a vise-like grip that he couldn't break, even as he threw his whole body weight against her.
"Am I not your guest for the evening, as some of your type say?" she asked. Their group had not moved far, but they were approaching the doorway of the run-down building large enough to house numerous guests. "Is this your hostel?" she asked the man whose wrist she held.
He pulled against her, but she wasn't letting go just yet.
"What are you doing?" One of the others chuckled, watching the exchange and clearly not understanding.
"Guys, maybe this is a bad idea." The kikai was still trying to act tough, though worry bled through his voice.
"Why stop now?" Lily said and then practically dragged him into the building.
The others were all chuckling as Lily threw the man inside. Even if she was stronger than the individual, they still believed in their numbers and the blasters in their hands. There were a couple of other seedy-looking guests, though the place didn't appear to be doing much business.
"Shabby, but it will have to do," Lily said, stepping inside and releasing the kikai who darted away from her.
"What the fuck is she?" a man from inside asked as he leered at her. The man, who appeared to be some sort of nekyra subspecies with a large mane around his head, chuckled, licking his lips as he stood up a head taller than Lily.
"’She’ is interested in securing the lodging," Lily answered, putting down her bag.
"I can think of somewhere you might be comfortable," the nekyra said.
"Right here is fine." Lily set the bag down, and they all began chuckling. She didn’t care about them and instead cast Rayden a glance to ensure he was behind her and would be distant from the ensuing scuffle.
One of them whispered that she was a freak, and one by one, they got up from their seats, prowling toward her.
Lily frowned. They hadn't appeared to be much in the way of predators, but it seemed she had been mistaken. They certainly moved with predatory intent now.
Lily gave them a smile. From everything the captain had told her, smiles were a wonderful social tool, but the more she considered them, the more she realized they were also a wonderful hunting tool.
They could help disarm prey by camouflaging herself into the social order as a lower, more prey individual.
And these men clearly saw themselves as predators. Allowing them to continue thinking in that direction would only benefit Lily's hunt.
The bag she’d set down began to squirm and writhe.
Most of the men didn't notice, having eyes only for her as she stood still.
The kikai was the only one whose eyes snapped to the bag.
He had returned with a blaster, most likely in an attempt to assert himself as a predator and not prey, and shot it, startling most of the others.
"What are you doing?" one of them shouted, only for them all to see the bag was still moving as it exploded with a black mycelial mass that immediately caught several of the men’s ankles. The sticky, tough substance locked them in place.
Lily stepped up, grabbed one by the head, and simply rotated their head clockwise until it popped off as if it had been designed to be disassembled and tossed his body towards the door to impede anyone’s exit.
"What the fuck is she?" one asked, his voice heavily alarmed behind his blaster.
Lily smiled. They were all now aware of their position in the hunt. This was quickly becoming Lily’s favorite part as she savored their realizations that they were prey and not predators. "As I said before, I came to secure lodging. Yours will do just fine."