[Lilly Vander/Silky Johnson]
- A Life and Death Decision -
A black lacquered cane tapped across polished marble, the short strides of its owner following with more subdued clicks from his dress shoes. Silky Johnson strutted through the main hall of one of his numerous casinos, an impromptu inspection of their operations, record books, etc. His assistant, Pillows, was already hard at work pouring over their financials, while he was taking a personal look at the training of the employees with his guard Lilly in tow.
Miss Vander was of mixed opinions on this particular assignment. On the one hand, she was allowed to dress in her casual garb, not stuffed into a uniform and dealing cards at one of the many tables she passed by. Counter to that, the werelioness was to keep the company an individual that repulsed her to her very core. With her height on the dwarf, her appraisal of the man's gaudy attire could hardly be seen as anything but dismissive. His outrageous purple suit and immaculately coiffed hair at least fit the theme of the casinos he built to a 't'. Coming to a halt, Silky's deep blue hues snapped up to stare daggers into her equally fierce emeralds as if he knew her current train of thought. Lilly didn't flinch, however, she had learned all too well to show no weakness to this demon who fed on secrets.
Whether the business tycoon had been impressed or disappointed in her lack of exploitable reaction, he didn't show with his features or words, merely motioning with a wave of his cane that the two change venue to check out a few of the VIP rooms. As they walked upstairs, Silky finally questioned her, his smooth baritone of a voice always betraying his stature. "I value your visual acuity and insight Miss Vander, give me your opinion of the staff working here that you've observed." Lilly glanced upwards briefly as she gathered her thoughts and hurriedly gave her response as she knew Silky was anything but a patient man. "It is as we should expect; I see no gross negligence on the part of the security, dealers, or servers. No one is without a drink, the dealers are perfect with their sight of hands, and they are allowing just enough wins to keep people at the tables. There is always room for improvement, but if from what I observed of the main floor is accurate, if there are issues with this place they lie elsewhere." Lilly put little energy into her report because honestly, it was something she expected Silky to already know. It wouldn't take the eyes of a shifter like her to pick out poor service or sloppy dealing, and if workers were stealing, the camera systems and security were more than capable of stamping that out right quick.
"Good," he said dryly, cocking his head back in her direction briefly to peer up at her from behind his spectacles with those devilish hues. Lilly nearly stumbled, surprised that the imp sized man had come to a stop and was now staring her down, so to speak. The shifter was not so slow on the uptake to glance at the crimson door they were now stationed in front of, and immediately the hair on the back of her neck rose. A cold sweat she understood would start to form even as she tried to suppress the innate fear welling within her.
She would not enter without a fight.
Tense knuckle joints popped quietly as she formed her digits into a clawing state, but suddenly she found herself nearly kissing the tiled floor. The sharp pain in her right knee brought out a loud hiss from the lioness, and as she made a move to regain her standing position, Lilly felt the magically reinforced wood of his walking stick press to the top of her head to keep her kneeling. The demon had been far faster than she anticipated, he'd taken her leg out from under her in the blink of an eye.
"So you know what fate would come to you beyond that door? Excellent!" He exclaimed with a quick, chiding laugh, removing the pressure directing her eyes to the ground. When she glared upwards, Lilly was keenly aware that he was directing her attention with a pointing of his cane down the hallway where they had come from. Rising to her feet, she cursed under her breath at the sight of two individuals, one a fair maiden of a girl with curly chocolate locks and a beaming smile, a wave of her hand as she acknowledged the huntress. The other a young man, skin pale like fresh snow and scalera solid black with glowing blue irises. Those defining characteristics alone were all most in Silky's organization needed to see to mark them as his private enforcers, Eris and Scion.
Okay, she'd likely be taken with a hell of a fight; Silky at her back and the Sword and Shield duo at her front were not the best of odds.
"I'll put it simply, Miss Vander," Silky started with a tap of the metal tip on his cane to the polish stone. "You're being offered a promotion of sorts." Lilly had a quizzical, scrunched look about her features, and she was ready to butt in, but Silky shot her a cold stare and continued. "Eris and Scion have decided against renewing their contract with me as my personal guard, as such, there is an opening that needs filling." He paused, and this time, Lilly assumed it was for her to finally inquire about the ludicrous nature of the matter.
"You don't let anyone, just leave, and you wouldn't bring me...here," she motioned to the door, refusing to put her gaze on it a second time. "Unless you were planning on retiring me." The last words were practically spat out with barely restrained fury, her muscles taut and ready for a fight she could feel coming with every fiber of her being.
"Scion is an insociable monster that only lives to fight, and Eris is one of the few people I can trust will be discrete upon leaving. You..." he paused again while his lips curled into a frown that only accentuated the waxed mustache he was so proud of. "Are a pill-popping drunk with a gambling addiction who spends her free moments scrapping in the few illicit fight clubs I don't operate to scrounge for extra cash to fund the aforementioned issues." He finished with a sigh and a shake of his golden mane, running his free hand through the coifed hair to reset it. "That said, you are an incredibly gifted fighter with impeccable instincts and senses that are far above the average rabble I could hire as a replacement for them. It's like this Miss Vander, either you impress me by facing off against them to earn their spot, or you can be let go from our ranks."
The unspoken price of the latter option gave her a single spine-shivering option.
Eris clapped her hands together and beamed the whites of her teeth towards Lilly as the lioness removed her leather jacket and tossed it aside. "I've never seen a werelion shift before, this will be so much fun!" The enthusiasm she spoke with faded as her smile turned into a thin smirk. She didn't waste time in reaching a hand out towards Scion, quietly murmuring incantations. Buffs, obviously, the girl was a talented support magi that served as the perfect partner to hone a blunt weapon like Scion.
"I am Lilly Vander, a Simba of the Bastet." Lilly roared as her back arched violently forward, sickening pops echoing from her joints in the process. "I won't let you forget that after tonight." Her vision had blurred over with fury as her flesh and bone structure altered to fit her Crinos form. Her attire fell off of her flesh in tatters, replaced by golden fur and rippling musculature. Towering before the pair was a ten-foot bipedal beast, a lion maw full of razor-sharp teeth and five-inch claws just as deadly. Lilly possessed a number of gifts, natural abilities she'd gained over the years. Only a handful were useful in combat scenarios, but they made all the difference when staring death in the face.
Tile shattered under her massive paws, the lioness kicking off the floor with a speed that garnered a look of shock even from Scion. Still, not fast enough to gain a free blow; the swipe of her arm, claws meant to eviscerate, had been caught with open hands. The man was knocked sideways into the wall smashing into it and creating a dusting of stone particulate, but Lilly had not made contact directly, and she knew why. In the same motion as her first attack, she got into a low crouch and extended a leg in a quick sweeping motion towards Eris. The brunette did not even flinch, the leg stopping inches away from her form with a magic crack. Visually, a golden wall materialized for a moment, until Lilly removed her limb off of the barrier so that she could jump back in time to dodge a flying kick from Scion who looked no worse for wear. Eris was called the shield for a reason, her magical barriers were second to none as far as Lilly knew.
Scion removed a pair of daggers from sheathes on his legs, and with another chant from Eris, they were enveloped in a silver glow. A silver enchantment, Lilly took a step backward instinctively and cursed internally. The magic that emulated the effects of silver was almost as bad as the metal itself, as silver proved to be one of the few methods that could quickly put down a shifter. One of her gifts would soak any major blow from such a strike that might prove fatal, but enough knicks and tears and she'd be worn down regardless.
Scion came at her first this time with a flurry of slashes, unfortunately, her massive size advantage made for easy targets. He was aiming to cripple, targeting tendons at the joints of her arms and legs. Lilly blocked and deflected with her claws, sidestepping when she was able. An opening presented itself and she felt the fire emanating from her chest, one of her gifts to significantly enhance her physical strength. She delivered a front kick at his chest and heard the magical crack as she hit the barrier, though this time her hind paw was not stopped and like glass shattering, she smashed through the shield to connect with a surprised Scion.
Lilly winced as she placed her leg back on the ground, crimson spilling from a gouge in her calf that he'd given her as she'd struck him. Thankfully, the huntress had delivered a good blow, he was on his rear near Eris, spitting up a mess of black ooze from his mouth and clutching his chest with a hand, dagger still gripped. Lilly needed to press her advantage. Biting through the discomfort she made to pounce, but Eris shot her a chilling glare, pointing with an index finger and tapping the golden band on it with her thumb. Immediately, a dozen bright blue bolts of magical energy materialized and shot at the hulking shifter. Lilly did what she could and made herself as small as possible to shield her vitals with her forearms. They weren't silver bolts, which would have torn straight through her, instant cast magic tended not to be so specific, but they hurt, all the same. The pain from her charred fur and flesh converted to rage as she lowered her arm back into a combat stance. Her strength buff also added to her rage, so the fight could only go on for so much longer before she reached the point where all reason would leave her, and the lioness would turn into a senseless ball of fury. While she had defended against the attack, Eris has already tended to the cracked ribcage, she'd delivered to Scion, as he was back to his feet with a vile grimace.
One blow, that's how Lilly would have to take down Scion, how she'd get to Eris after would require a lot of her feline luck. Lilly and Scion collided once more and began to trade strikes, though the lioness was trying to provoke the man into committing to a major strike to her midsection that he couldn't uncommit from, and sure enough when she reached out her arms for a double slash, he saw the opening. Stepping back, he twisted himself into a forward launch with both daggers to her solar plexus. Lilly knew how much this would hurt, even though her feat that would soak the worst of the attack, still, her vision went white with pain as the enhanced blades sunk into her chest. Scion looked befuddled at how easy that had been but noticed out of the corner of his strange oculars that those claws were now glowing like they were engulfed in fire. He made to retreat, now seeing the furious determination in the shifter's cat eyes.
A masculine grunt, another magical shattering of barriers, the spill of black bodily fluids and gore and then the slick thump of two hunks of meat to the ground. Lilly had sunk both sets of her claws into the smaller man and bisected him unceremoniously at the stomach. The twin daggers slipped out of her chest and clacked against the ground as well, her body having pushed them out to try and heal the wound as best as it could, though the pain remained.
Scion continued to writhe and gurgle on the cold tile in a growing pool of his filth, but he was harmless as he was now.
Eris went through a mix of facial features; shock, sadness, disgust, disappointment, before settling on a look of cool-tempered anger.
Lilly felt fire fill her muscles as her last feat kicked in, a final boost of speed to try and outpace any attempt that Eris had at casting a lethal spell. The lioness was a blur of messy fur and an outstretched claw in a mad dive to impale the much petite caster in one vicious blow. Unsurprisingly, Eris had placed a number of barriers between her and Lilly, and one after another they were broken through with the fierce change of the werelion. Several feet until contact, ethereal chains emanated from the floor beneath Lilly and shackled her at the torso and legs to try and halt her progress, and they did just that, but not before those long claws had reached the delicate throat of the mage.
"Enough," Silky hollered in a deep bellowing command that echoed across the battle-scarred hallway. "I don't see myself benefitting from all of you biting the dust here." Lilly almost scoffed, she had won this fight in the end, he was just protecting a valuable asset like Eris. That was until she glanced down from those oddly determined chocolate hues and noticed a spear made of silver light held in her hands aimed at her heart. She'd have been impaled if she had followed through. The chains binding her in place disappeared along with the spear Eris held, and the girl wasted no time in brushing past Lilly to tend to Scion. It took every ounce of willpower the huntress possessed to not cut down the little woman as she passed, but she managed to push down her rage and begin the shift back into her human form before losing herself to the emotional abyss.
"Is that all you need us for, Mr. Johnson?" Eris was in the middle of collecting the pieces of Scion into a translucent golden bubble, but it was more a question to if the battle had been a sufficient display of the shifter's abilities. Several raps of the cane to the floor, Silky rubbed thick digits through his beard while eyeing the scene, including a limping, bloody, and fully nude Lilly slowly making her way towards the dwarf entrepreneur.
"Yes, I think she will work out just fine," he chuckled giving the duo a dismissive wave. "I'll deposit a nice severance package to the usual account for your troubles." With that, Eris nodded and walked away with Scion still grunting and making awkward motions in his magical cage floating behind the woman. Not a glance was spared to Lilly, and the duo exited without pause, destination unknown.
"Clean yourself up, get changed, and meet me in the main office in an hour. We have a lot to discuss concerning your new position."
------
Lilly, grime, and blood washed off, wounds bandaged, and a fresh set of her casual garb donned stood stiffly before Silky who sat relaxed behind an appropriately sized desk. He was thumbing through a thick stack of papers, speed reading them with those golden hues behind a pair of small spectacles.
"This is your contract. You're done dealing cards at the casinos, you don't have to wear the suit any longer. your debt with us will be wiped clean and you'll be given a decent salary for your duties." Raising the stack he'd been reading he waved it for a moment before setting it down on the table closer to Lilly, then motioning for her to take hold and begin examining it herself if she wished. Lilly did just that, taking a cautious step forward and picking up the contract to diligently read through as he continued.
"Now I'll let you know what you'll be less than thrilled with. You will essentially be on call for me at all times unless I say otherwise. Your free time will be dependant on circumstances that can change by the hour. Whatever I tell you, will be done, no hesitation, no questions asked." She looked at him with a look that seemed to question how he could trust her to follow such commands considering who she was as a person, but Silky was far from finished, so she was left without a chance to get a word in edgewise.
"Also, you're going to be attending a rehab program before starting. I won't be trusting a pill-popping drunk with a gambling addiction who frequents fight clubs because she blows all of her money on the prior mentioned activities to watch my back."
This time, Lilly couldn't contain herself, audibly grinding her teeth, practically spitting out her response to what she found to be a ludicrous ultimatum from her boss. "I'll admit I've always had a gambling problem, but the pills are on you, the inescapable debt was unavoidable after that, and I drank to cope with the situation. Take all of that away, and I will have no fucking reason not to bolt the first chance I find." She stood defiant, her pride accepted many things, but she'd been working diligently to remove the binds that this organization had placed on her, and she'd be damned if she'd stick around when she freed herself.
Silky merely laughed in her face, and then gave her a grim look, his eyes became narrow slits filled with demonic malice. "I'm just replacing one set of shackles with another. The debt and pill addiction won't be shit once you see the things I'm going to involve you in. Just remember, Miss Vander, I can always find someone bigger and meaner than you to drag you back to that door." Like a cold bucket of water had been dumped on top of her, Lilly shuddered, setting the contract on the table and quickly signing on the appropriate lines.
Silky nodded and retrieved the papers once she had finished, promptly waving the lioness off with a dismissive gesture. "Now, off with you. I'll send you the details with where you'll be heading to for rehab soon enough." A quiet sigh, Lilly hobbled to the door, still in pain from her earlier bout, and less than gracefully exited the room. So began a new chapter in her life, though she found it hard to argue it was a better one.
The following 1 user Likes Ghostly's post: megs
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »
Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 12-05-2014, 08:38 PM
Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 12-06-2014, 07:12 PM
Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 12-06-2014, 07:39 PM
Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 02-27-2015, 04:56 AM
Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 03-29-2015, 01:14 AM
Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 03-29-2015, 01:14 AM
Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 07-08-2015, 12:34 PM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 10-28-2016, 06:56 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 10-31-2016, 06:11 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 11-13-2016, 04:19 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 11-13-2016, 04:26 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 11-14-2016, 03:52 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 11-28-2016, 03:35 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 01-10-2017, 06:09 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 05-23-2017, 02:04 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 09-19-2017, 03:52 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 09-19-2017, 05:38 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 09-24-2017, 04:19 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 09-26-2017, 02:53 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 10-19-2019, 04:01 AM
RE: Ghostly's Things and Stuff [Read-Only] - by Ghostly - 04-15-2020, 03:23 AM