First, the most immediate threat to the hive needs to be dealt with.

The Runner clung to the eaves of a suburban home in the foothills surrounding Bay Cove, deep shadows hiding her from sight. Head tilted, she listened for any sound coming from inside, but the inhabitants seemed all fast asleep. Slowly creeping down the wall, the latex alien took great care to be on the lookout for random passers-by. It would not do to be discovered, not with the mission that had been entrusted to her by the Queen.

She was the fastest of her sisters, easily able to keep up with the cars driving through the streets and suburbs of Bay Cove, so only the Runner was able to reach the target in time, before the sun rose. The Queen knew that she and her daughters existed on borrowed time, and come sunrise, they would face the single greatest threat the hive had to deal with: the day shift. The skeleton crew of the night shift had been easy to bring into the hive, bit by bit... But in any given day shift, there were twice as many police officers than there currently were sisters in the hive, and even the warrioress and the Iacolatrix weren't bullet proof. And if even one of the humans managed to flee and alert even greater threats to the hive...

Luckily, the Queen was as cunning as she was beautiful, and so she had sent her daughters out into the city under the cover of the night to pay a visit to everyone who was scheduled to work in the morning - which, of course, included Captain Larissa Price. So the Runner had done what she'd been born for and raced through the city, the map the firstborn sister had brought up on one of the bull pen computers clear in her mind. Every drone had been assigned a few members of the day shift to... visit, only the Runner received just one single assignment. The most important one, and the one furthest away from the hive.

Now, she inched closer to one of the windows of Captain Price's house, carefully throwing an eyeless glance inside - and realized she was looking into the living room. But it was just as well; if she entered here, the Runner would less likely wake up the Captain and her newest boytoy. At almost 45, Larissa Price was still fit and good-looking, but her frequent affairs with much younger men... She tried keeping them on the down-low, but the whole precinct knew and tried not to judge - openly, that is, or they risked getting chewed out.

Applying her considerable strength to the window frame, the Runner stopped rifling through Irvin's memories and focused. She was about to enter her prey's lair and had to be on top of her game.

Larissa Price woke with a start. Her instincts, honed by years as a beat cop and in the political quagmire of the police ****, screamed at her that something was wrong - someone was in the house. Sliding out of the bed silently, Larissa reached into the night stand for the gun she kept there, ignoring Cale's groan as he woke up. She'd been to one of her old haunts yesterday evening, a dive bar off the boardwalk, hoping to score a fresh new surfer boy for a fresh new affair - and the freelance underwear model had been completely defenseless in the face of her well-honed charm and body. His stamina had been a bit lacking despite his youth, sadly.

"'Rissa?" And he had an annyoing propensity for pet names. This particular fling seemed fated to remain a one night stand. "Wha's goin' o--"

"Shhh!" Creeping towards the door, hunched over and gun in both hands, Larissa shushed Cale, not even looking at him as she strained her ears. "Someone's in the house. Stay in bed, keep your head down, I'll take care of this."

Without waiting for Cale's response, Larissa pushed open the door and began to sneak down the hallway, keeping close to the wall. From the living room, she could hear the sounds of the night - crickets, wind rustling in the hedges, early birds - much more clearly than she should have. Whoever had broken in had done it via one of the windows there. And while Larissa couldn't hear the burglar or burglars, the atmosphere in the house seemed to have changed. It didn't quite feel like a home anymore. It felt... hostile, a faint smell of rubber and licorice wafting in from outside.

The Runner sat motionless, curled up behind the sofa, tail wrapped around her arms and legs. Of course the prey had woken from the splintering of wood as she had **** the window open! Feeling the excitement of the hunt rise within her, the Runner **** herself to remain still; the prey was armed without a doubt, and the Runner wasn't keen on making the same mistake the firstborn had made on her first hunt, not with the Queen so far away. She would wait for the perfect moment and then strike.

Something was wrong. Larissa felt it. A feeling she'd only had while on patrol in the worst 'hoods of Bay Cove coursed through her - genuine fear. There was something in the living room, and it didn't seem like a burglar. But she hadn't become Captain of her precinct at 42 because of her looks. A little fear wasn't a problem for her.

"BCPD! Get on the floor, hands behind your head!" Bursting into the living room, Larissa saw... exactly nothing out of the ordinary. Except of course the window to her left, the entire locking mechanism ripped out of the frame. "What...?"

It didn't look like a typical break-in. Particularly with the burglar nowhere in sight. There wasn't exactly much room in Larissa's living room for a person to hide. Only the two armchairs and the sofa were big enough. Slowly making her way over to the first armchair, Larissa took care not to get too close to any possible hiding spots. She didn't want to give whoever was in here any opportunity to jump her.

Two quick steps, and Larissa whipped the gun around to aim at empty air. No one behind the first armchair. And yet, the tiny hairs on the back of her neck rose; she could feel someone in the room with her. The second chair, then. Larissa barely dared to breathe, ears pricked for any sound at all that would give away the intruder, but there was nothing - no sound and no one hiding behind the second armchair.

Which left only the sofa. Carefully making her way over, Larissa felt her heart beat faster. This motherfucker had dared to break into her home! She'd make him pay; maybe he'd fall down the front stairs or something. And then she'd press charges, of course. But first...

"Gotcha, asshole! Hands behind..." There was no one behind the sofa, not even dirt on the floor. "...your head?"

The Runner had to suppress a chuckle. Stupid preyling, thinking itself the predator just because they were in its lair and there was a gun in its hand. Moving noiselessly, the latex alien circled through the living room and got ready to pounce.

"What the...?" Larissa didn't understand. He had to be here, or else she'd have heard him mo-- Behind her.

Instincts that had saved her hide more than once as a beat cop made Larissa whip around, gun already raised, but it was too late. She was too slow. A black blur slammed into her with impossible speed, its skin glistening black in the twilight of the room as it pushed Larissa down on the sofa. Before she could react, a strong, sinuous tail had ripped the gun from her hands, and a pitch-black, glossy face that was half blank dome, half disturbingly human shot towards Larissa's own - and then there were smooth, plump lips on her own and she felt viscous goop fill her mouth.

Feeling the preyling shudder lustfully under her, the Runner kept her lips pressed on the woman's until she was sure the prey had swallowed the black goop. Only then did she pull back and dart back out through the window; the prey's fate had been sealed. Soon, the hive would gain another sister. And maybe, if the Runner really had heard the preyling talk to another, even two.

"'R-Rissa? 'Rissa, are you alright?" The voice of her one night stand roused Larissa from the strange haze she found herself in. What was she doing on the sofa? And why was she tasting licorice...? "Where's the burglar? D-did you scare him off?"

"What? What burglar, Cale?" That damn wuss and his stupid pet name. It should have annoyed Larissa more - it had in the past. But now, a strange feeling washed over her as the... preyling tiptoed over to where she was getting up from her prone position. "I have no idea..."

There had to have been a burglar. The window had been **** open. Why couldn't she remember?!

"No, I... must have? I... I don't know..."

"Are you feeling alright, Larissa?" For all his faults, at least Cale was receptive and caring - once he was reasonably sure the danger was over. "Listen, I'll get you back to bed, alright? Then I'm gonna fix up the window a little and call the cops."

"No, let's... let's do that tomorrow." Anything but today's nightshift. They were the literal bottom of the barrel; sure, nearly everyone at the precinct had a little less-than-legal side-hustle, the Captain included, but most were at least trying to be subtle about it. And better cops to boot. "We're not going to catch up to... whoever broke in anyways. We'll get his ass sooner or later."

"Uh-huh, alright, 'Rissa." Cale didn't really seem convinced, but it was Larissa's house, and she was a police captain. "If you say so. Now, get your tight tush to bed, okay?"

Mumbling something non-committal, Larissa got up and padded back into the bedroom, flopping down on her side of the mattress without even bothering to pull the covers over her. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, the taste of licorice lingering in her mouth.