Pride X Familiar ReVamp (Pride X ReVamp Book 1) (16 page)

The chill in the air was still prevalent here. That alone was enough to make me shiver.

The sight of Alistair and Siobhan lying on the ground was enough to make my blood run cold.

They lay on opposite sides of the path, each slumped unconscious against the foot of a tree.

Standing between them and on the path was a slender girl.

For several heartbeats my grandmother’s ghost story galloped wildly inside my head.

I closed my eyes but when I opened them the girl was still standing there.

She had long black hair tied high into a single ponytail, and she was dressed in the midnight-blue jacket and white skirt of a second year high schooler.

She had what the boys would call ‘sexy legs’, but more importantly she was using those sexy legs to stand on the footpath, and not float above it.

The girl faced me, and my heart jumped into my mouth. Then I cried out, “You—what are you doing here?”

“Haruka Amiella,” Caprice said. “You are not yet permitted to pass.”

I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Wh—what did you do to them?”

“They didn’t listen to my warning,” the girl. “They would have interfered had I let them go by.”

My fear was starting to ease, slowly replaced by anger. “You hurt my friends. I’ll report you for this.”

Caprice shrugged. “If you feel the need to do so.” She started turning away, but stopped. “I didn’t injure them enough to leave any permanent marks. They’ll be fine in an hour or so.”

I rushed forward a few steps. “Wait.”

Caprice remained on the path, half turned in my direction. Her almond eyes betrayed no emotion. She was like a life-sized doll molded with exotic, beautiful features that held not a single trace of life in them.

I took a quick breath. “Why did you stop them? Why are you stopping me?”

“You’ve done enough, Haruka Amiella. Please, do not associate with Caelum Desanto anymore.”

“Caelum is my friend. You don’t have the right to tell me what to do.”

“Then you will get hurt,” she stated flatly.

“What? Are you threatening me?”

She shook her head faintly. “You will be hurt by the truth.”

“What?”

“Caelum is no longer the Caelum you knew.”

“I know that. He’s a Familiar. He drank my blood—I know he’s different.”

Caprice’s eyes focused on my wrist. “Ah…so you’re the reason why….”

I stepped closer. “You can’t stop me. If you hurt me, you hurt Caelum. Do you think he would allow you to hurt me? How do you think he’d treat you if you did?”

She remained quiet but her eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch.

I pressed on, and stepped a couple of feet closer. “You think I haven’t noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

“You play the doll quite well, but it’s not perfect. I’ve watched you around him. That mask of yours slips off when he’s around you. You have a rather shy smile don’t you.”

Her eyes narrowed a little more.

I straightened, feeling a little more confident as I did.

I had no idea how she knocked my friends unconscious, but I was willing to bet Caprice wouldn’t risk harming me for fear of what Caelum would do if he found out.

I gave her a nod. “I’m not the only that’s noticed. The other girls have too. There’s a lot of rumors about the two of you, and it’s only been a week since school started.”

“What rumors?”

“You figure them out. All you have to do is listen to the talk around you.”

“Are these rumors harmful to Caelum?”

I frowned inwardly. “I don’t think so.”

“Good. If they were, I would have to do something about them.”

Her voice wasn’t flat anymore. It was cold. So very, very cold.

I took another step closer, but this time she faced me fully.

“I won’t allow you to interfere,” she stated with absolute certainty.

“What is Caelum to you?” I asked.

“My friend. My comrade. My partner. He is important to me.” There wasn’t the slightest hint of hesitation in her voice.

Caprice turned away and resumed walking down the path in the direction of the garden.

For several heartbeats I fought against the urge not to follow. Fear held me back. I pictured Caprice like an unsheathed knife. Beautiful but deadly.

Would she really hurt me if I continued toward the garden?

Could I use Caelum as a threat against her?

I regarded my unconscious friends for a moment. When I looked down the path again, Caprice had disappeared.

What the Hell is that girl?

I thought Familiars were supposed to be weaker than Aventis. I might not have had any physical training, but Siobhan was a member of the kendo team, and Alistair trained at her parent’s aikido dojo. Both had competed at championship level during middle school and their first year of high school.

Yet, Caprice had taken them down in less than a minute.

“Who are you, Caprice Steiner.”

I closed my eyes and made a choice.

I opened them and then turned to rouse my friends from their slumber.

I made a promise to myself.

One way or another, I would learn the truth.

And if Caelum was in trouble, I would find a way to save him.

After all, I still owed him an answer.

Reflections – 6.

I believe without a doubt the Prides’ scientists will figure out the workings of the Fragments and Artifacts long before man understands woman.

I just had to say that. Now, on to the briefing.

I have a sister.

Actually, to keep things simple at this stage, let’s say I
had
a sister.

Past tense.

I was ten turning on eleven when my parents died in that freighter explosion.

My sister, Celica, was almost sixteen.

With the death of our parents, and the fact we had no living relatives remaining, we were placed into the care of the Pharos authorities. I had no idea what that meant, and was terrified we would be separated, but the people in charge saw fit to have us live together in an apartment provided by the colony.

I later learnt the Raynar Pride had taken responsibility for us, and seen fit to care for us after we lost our parents. It was the Raynars that arranged for my sister and I to live together. They also saw to our living expenses and other basic needs, as well as our compulsory education.

Despite this, I was angry at the Prides. I held them responsible for the loss of our parents, as much as I held Crimson Crescent responsible. I have to admit, this anger and hatred I felt was something that cultivated very quickly over time.

Strangely, my sister was oddly non-committal whenever I expressed my anger toward the Prides, Aventis and Crimson Crescent. It was as though she simply didn’t have an opinion on the matter. Her lack of one would make me even angrier at times.

I was angry, but I was also scared and confused.

You see, my sister had a lot of dealings with the Aventis.

Not long after our parents died, she was transferred to an Academy that catered almost exclusively to Aventis students. It was the kind of school that had no Regulars in their student body. This made no sense to me, since she was clearly not an Aventis.

When I confronted her about it, all she said was that it was something arranged by our parents with the Raynar Pride in the event of their deaths. She said it would ensure she received the best education possible. And it didn’t bother her to be surrounded by Aventis day in and day out.

I couldn’t accept her explanation, but then again, I was just a kid who knew
nothing
about the world I lived in.

However, the truth is my sister never told me
anything
. She never spoke about the school. She never spoke about the Aventis, nor the Prides. She never discussed the odd hours she had to keep.

She rarely answered any of my questions.

And she lied to me when she did.

Knowing what I know now, I can appreciate that in her own way she was trying to protect me.

She was trying to shield me from the truth until I was older, and ready to accept that truth.

My sister didn’t want me to hate her for something she had no control over.

Like me, Celica tested double negative against all the Symbiotic strains.

Like me she had scored highly as a pre-Awakened Familiar.

And like me, one day she was bonded to a Pride when her body reacted strongly to the Raynar Symbiote.

My sister was a Familiar, and not just any Familiar.

She was special, top her class, crème of the crop.

She joined the Artemis ranks, the elite female dark knights that belonged to the Sanctum, an organization that answered only to the Primogen Council.

She was that good, or should I say, she was that
bad ass
.

And then one day she died, and left me alone in this horrid reality.

A year later, Caprice stabbed me in the chest and injected me with Arisa’s blood, triggering my Awakening as a Familiar.

Unlike Celica, I attended the remaining six months of the school year at my school for Regulars, whereas she had transferred right away.

I had Arisa to thank for those six months, and for telling me the truth about my sister.

It was just a pity there was so much even Arisa didn’t know.

Chapter 6
.

(Caelum)

I was lying on the ground when Caprice found me.

I didn’t have the strength to get up, though I did succeed in reaching out to her.

“…help….”

Caprice stood close enough for me to peek under her skirt.

Staying true to my nature, I did my best to take another look at the Girlz Pride panties she wore.

“Are you done with them?” she asked. “Those seniors?”

“I’m done. I think they’re done too.”

She swept her gaze over the garden, then bent down to help me up.

In the end she had to support me or I would have fallen to the ground.

I looked about weakly. All five seniors were down. Two were unconscious. The other three were incapacitated due to broken joints in their legs and arms.

I sucked in air sharply as my ribs complained.

“Ah, that hurts.”

My right arm screamed in agony.

“I think I tore something in my shoulder.”

“Your ribs may be broken too,” Caprice declared softly. She could have been reading out the mag-lev timetable for all the effort she put into her announcement.

I noticed she had collected my shirt and jacket. I didn’t feel like getting dressed. My body ached with every breath I took.

I looked across at her. “Why are you here? I thought you were attending detention.”

“I was told to come here.”

“Told by whom?”

I heard a familiar ring tone. Caprice pulled out her palm-slate from her skirt’s pocket. “Yes? Yes. Yes. Yes, I understand. No, I didn’t harm them. They should be waking up soon. Yes. Yes. No, I won’t be filling out any reports for you. No, I will not be making a statement. Forget it. Not happening. Goodbye.”

She hung up and pocketed her palm-slate.

I stared at her blankly. My vision swam a little so I had trouble keeping her in focus. “Who…was that?”

Caprice shook her head. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

We started to walk through the garden, heading in the opposite direction Haruka had fled. Caprice’s palm-slate rang again. Whoever was on the other end provided instructions and we avoided coming across other students. It felt like we were walking about aimlessly, but I suddenly found myself standing in front of the student council room.

The doors opened as we approached them.

A young girl I’d never seen before reached out and helped us in. The door closed automatically behind us.

The Countess was sitting on the President’s desk. “Ara ara, they did a number on you, didn’t they?”

I asked, “You guided us here?”

She nodded. “Yep. And now for the final piece.” She hopped down from the desk.

My eyes nearly popped out as I recognized what she was wearing.

A pink nurse’s outfit complete with cap, ultra short skirt, white stockings and shoes.

I had a suspicion she had deliberately chosen a dress that was a size too small. It was unbuttoned partway to give her breasts some air. When she moved, they looked like two balloons locked in a struggle to be the first to break free of her clothes.

“That’s just too much,” I complained. “Can’t you see I’m hurt here.”

The Countess smiled sweetly. It was a brilliant smile guaranteed to earn a rise out of any man. “Well, that’s why I’m here. It’s my duty to nurse you back to health.” She planted her hands on her hourglass hips. “Call me Nurse Plenty.”

I almost choked.

In the meantime Caprice laid me out on the leather sofa running along one wall. “Don’t strain yourself,” she advised.

I grimaced at her. “You just had to say something like that.”

“I did.” She began gently pushing against my midriff and flanks, probing my ribs.

I sucked in air, and arched my back as the pain lanced like lightning through my body. “Gods that really hurts.”

“Broken. Two of them. You were careless,” Caprice berated, but her voice remained flat.

The other girl brought me a cushion for my head. I thanked her through clenched teeth.

Pain that comes and goes I can deal with.

Pain that doesn’t go away is another matter.

Caprice continued to press down. I knew she was being gentle but it still hurt like Hell.

Simone arrived and asked Caprice to move aside. The Countess had a scanning wand in one hand, and a med-slate in the other. She waved the wand slowly over my body.

“Actually, he was two broken ribs and four fractures. Not to mention bruised internal organs. Oh, what’s this?” She looked down at me. “Did you drink someone’s blood?”

“…yeah, I did….”

“Whose blood?”

I swallowed, stalling for time but there was no running away from Simone. “Haruka Amiella’s. She’s a classmate, and my childhood friend.”

Simone eyed me coldly. “She’s an Avenir. A very poor choice indeed.”

Shaking her head in disappointment, Simone handed the wand and slate to the girl who was yet to be introduced. Then the girl handed her a pen knife which Simone pressed against the flesh near her wrist.

My eyes widened as I realized what she was up to. “Countess—”

“It’s Nurse Plenty,” she corrected swiftly. “And I won’t tolerate complaints from my patients.”

She sliced deeply into the flesh behind her wrist, then very quickly leaned down and pressed her wounded arm over my mouth.

“This is Raynar blood,” she said, “which is the closest to Lanfear blood. As a result, it’s a much better choice than that weak Avenir strain.”

I felt her blood trickle steadily into my mouth. I almost forgot to swallow. Aided by gravity, more than a third of her breasts spilled profusely out of her uniform. I had a good view of them above me.

Simone said, “You can drink until the blood stops flowing out of my arm.”

In other words, I had until her wound healed adequately for the bleeding to stop.

I swallowed half a mouthful of the coppery liquid down my throat.

Simone sat down on the edge of the couch, and I heard something rip.

Her eyes widened. “Ara ara, I’m feeling a breeze.”

The unknown girl winced audibly. “Vice-President, you have to return that costume to the drama club. I told you it was two sizes too small.”

Two sizes? No wonder her breasts were being tortured in that confined space.

Simone laughed airily. “Ara ara, it’s alright. I’ll increase their club’s budget and cover the cost of the uniform.”

Something went pop and bounced off my forehead.

“Ara ara, I lost a button.”

“
Vice-President
, that’s just too much,” the girl complained.

“Relax Carmen, just relax. I still have five more.”

“Vice-President—!”

“Carmen, we have more pressing matters to worry over.”

I could just see the girl, Carmen, in my peripheral vision. She was bobbing in and out of view as though she were literally ‘hopping mad’.

Simone sounded business-like as she asked, “Carmen, did you make the call?”

“Yes, Vice-President. Academy security has taken the injured seniors to the infirmary via the concealed passageways.”

“Excellent. I plan to have a little talk to them later.”

I swallowed my second mouthful.

She sounded like she was going to do more than just talk to them.

I pictured the interrogation taking place in a dungeon with five seniors hanging off the walls, and Simone dressed in a dominatrix outfit. In my mind, their screams of pain would echo loudly as she whipped them to her satisfaction.

I noticed she was looking down at me. “Just what are you thinking, little boy?”

I swallowed half a mouthful and was about to respond when the pain hit me.

Raynar blood and Avenir blood were now in my body.

One Symbiote declared war on the other.

And my body was the battle field where their war would be played out.

I cried out in pain, and felt two pairs of arms hold me down.

“Damn it,” Simone growled. “Too soon. It’s reacting too soon.”

“It’s always this way for him,” Caprice snapped.

“What kind of response is this?” Carmen questioned, sounding scared.

“Hold him down,” Simone cried out. “Carmen, get me the gag guard.”

I was aware of their voices, and I could follow their conversation, but everything else was wrapped in pain.

Simone was right. This reaction was too strong, but then again I had two Symbiote strains inside my body.

Was I going to die?

Was my body going to crash from the strain of battle taking place within me?

Something was shoved into my mouth. It held my tongue down preventing me from choking on it.

Simone cried out, “I said hold him down!”

“Gods he’s strong.” That was Carmen.

“It’s like that movie I watched last month,” Caprice blurted out.

“Movie? What’s a movie?” Carmen queried.

Simone explained. “A recording. It’s two dimensional. Not a holovid.”

Caprice was sounding quite animated. “There’s a scene where a monster bursts out of an astronaut’s chest. He was writhing on a table just like Caelum is now.”

Carmen yelled, “What? Are you saying something’s going to burst out of his chest?”

Simone snapped angrily, “Nothing’s bursting out of his chest.”

I really hoped she was right.

It certainly felt like something was writhing around in there, but it was probably the Symbiotes duking it out.

Pain surged through my body, the strongest wave yet.

Mercifully, I passed out within heartbeats.

#

(Haruka)

Siobhan, Alistair and I were sitting in a cake shop not far from the Academy.

I had just managed to rouse the two girls back to consciousness when Galatea Academy security guards suddenly rushed into the garden. Luckily they entered from the opposite end and were unlikely to have seen us.

The three of us chose to escape quickly.

Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the cake shop. I decided to pay for our orders which consisted of three parfaits and three sodas.

After a few minutes eating in silence, I chose to break that silence.

“Can you tell me what happened?”

Siobhan and Alistair looked up in their own time. They’d been eating their parfaits like automatons.

Siobhan answered first. “She kicked us.”

“That’s all?”

Alistair’s eyes looked unfocused as though she were looking inward. “I remember the cold, and then that black oily smoke, and then she was standing taller than us.” She swallowed uncomfortably. “Then she kicked me, and it felt like all the energy in my body was blown away.”

Siobhan was nodding weakly in agreement. “All my strength blew out from my body. I remember hitting the tree and having no strength to even sit.”

Alistair added, “I passed out when my back hit something. That’s all I remember.”

“Same here,” Siobhan finished off.

I looked at them both in turn. “Caprice hit you just once?”

They nodded after a moment’s hesitation.

I sat back in the booth’s seat. “Do you remember if she said anything?”

“Something about ‘not allowing us to pass’.”

“She said this was something he needed to deal with on his own.”

A period of silence fell between us. They resumed eating but it was slowly at best.

Abruptly Siobhan put her long handled spoon down.

“What the Hell is that girl? If she’s just a Familiar, how can she be that strong?”

Alistair pondered. “It’s possible she drank someone’s blood. Familiars can power up like that.”

“Yeah, but…don’t you think she was too strong. And what’s with that black stuff that formed around her legs?”

“Fragment,” I muttered.

They looked at me startled, though I noticed Alistair quickly become pensive.

Siobhan whispered, “You mean one of those pieces from long ago that the Prides say only Familiars can use.”

I nodded cautiously.

Siobhan muttered, “Yeah, but didn’t they say that most of these pieces are broken?”

Alistair shrugged slightly. “That’s just the news reports. But it isn’t true at all. There are a lot of Fragments that are complete and unlocked. These are called Artifacts.”

“The Prides can tell us what they want about the Fragments,” I said softly. “They’re the ones in control.”

Siobhan was staring at Alistair as though seeing her for the first time. “How do you know so much about them?”

Alistair sighed softly. “The Prides use Familiars who are bonded to Fragments and Artifacts to protect them.”