Pride X Familiar ReVamp (Pride X ReVamp Book 1) (17 page)

Siobhan’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know that?”

I watched Alistair noticeably hesitate, before she licked her lips and said, “Because my family employs them.”

“Huh?” Siobhan muttered.

After another sigh, Alistair explained, “There are a number of executive protection companies that perform personal security services for important Aventis families. The Kell Family is quite
prominent
so my parents hired one security firm to watch over my brother and I.”

I blinked slowly and asked, “Then where were they when Caprice kicked you and Siobhan unconscious?”

A grimace crossed Alistair’s face, and she shrugged apologetically. “No idea….”

Siobhan asked, “Familiars get to use Fragments. Why? If they’re that dangerous, why allow Familiars to use them?”

Alistair folded her hands on the table. “The use of Fragments is carefully supervised. At least, that’s what I was told. Familiars can’t just use them in public for any reason. The reason has to be justified.”

“And kicking us is justified?”

Alistair glared at Siobhan. “How the heck should I know?”

Siobhan narrowed her eyes at Alistair. “Well you sure know a lot about them. Are you really Alistair?”

Alistair growled at Siobhan. “Of course I am, you twit. I know about Familiars and Fragments because I listen to my brother. He knows more about them than I do, and he’s always telling me to have nothing to do with either of them.”

Siobhan drew back a little and raised her hands placatingly. “Okay, okay. No need to bunch your panties. I was just asking. I’ve never heard about this from you before.”

Alistair turned away and huffed. “Well…there’s stuff I don’t like to talk about….”

Siobhan took a deep breath, and let it out in a sigh. “Then why does a Familiar like Caprice have a Fragment?”

“It was likely given to her by the Lanfears—by her Guardian.”

I leaned forward a little. “Given to her? Why?” I wondered if Caelum had one too.

Alistair nodded very faintly. “I’ve heard there’s a special training academy for Familiars bonded to Fragments, but I don’t know much about it. My brother mentioned it has ties to the enforcement divisions. He said there’s an organization that employs Familiars because only Familiars can fight other Familiars with Fragments, and that many of these Familiars attend that academy.”

“Like a school?” Siobhan asked.

Alistair gave her a noncommittal shrug. “More like something they can attend after school.” She quickly raised a hand. “But don’t take my word for it. I’m just telling you what my brother has told me.”

Leaning forward, Siobhan asked, “So do you think Steiner goes to this school? She and Desanto leave class together every day. Maybe that’s where they go?”

“How the heck should I know?” Alistair retorted. “Why don’t you ask them?”

Again Siobhan raised her hands. “Okay, okay. Maybe I will. Or maybe I won’t.”

I sat back and released a heavy sigh. “This is too much….”

Siobhan sat back too. “So what do we do now?”

I shrugged nervously. “I don’t know. But, I think we should be careful. I get the feeling we were being watched the whole time we were in the garden.”

I noticed Alistair grow very quiet and still as she looked somewhere behind us.

I turned, and saw a good-looking young man walk up to our booth. I recognized him a moment later.

Siobhan gasped, “Pres—President.”

The President of the Galatea Academy Student Council, Severin Kell Avenir, bowed to us in casual greeting.

“Ladies,” he said. He gave Siobhan and I a good look, then asked me, “May I sit down, please?”

I nodded furtively and scooted along the bench seat to afford him room to sit.

He sat down beside me, our shoulders a good foot apart.

He fixed Alistair in his sights. “Hello Alistair.”

I watched her swallow nervously. “Hello, brother.”

Siobhan and I sat deathly still. A dozen reasons for him to be here ran though my head.

Severin Kell folded his arms on the table and swept his gaze over all three of us, before turning his attention upon Alistair. “Do you know why I’m here?”

Alistair appeared to shrink a little. “No…no at all….”

Kell’s eyebrows rose slightly. “I received a call from some nice people concerned with our welfare.”

Alistair shrank a little more. “…oh….”

“They told me you had a little encounter, recently.”

“…oh….”

Severin Kell pursed his lips for a moment, then glanced at each of us in turn. “Are you hurt?”

I shook my head. Siobhan and Alistair did so a moment later, the latter somewhat nervously.

The Student Council President nodded gently, more to himself than to us.

Then he took a deep breath.

“Ladies, I believe we need to talk.”

#

(Caelum)

I woke thinking it was a pillow under my head.

But it was such an odd shaped pillow, with two noticeable bumps.

Then I noticed much of the pain in my body was gone.

I had aches, and lacked the strength to do little more than breathe, but the excruciating agony from before was gone.

Remembering what happened before made me wonder how much time had gone by since I passed out.

When the pillow under my head moved, my heart skipped a beat in fright.

What the Hell is my head resting on?

Cautiously, I opened my eyes.

I could confirm I was lying on my back because I recognized the white wall ahead of me for a ceiling. Plus, I did feel like I was lying supine.

But the next thing my sleep addled brain recognized was the upper torso of a girl.

She had sizeable mounds on her chest, and long, ash grey hair.

And she was looking down at me.

“Ara ara, you woke up. Did you sleep well?”

“Countess?” I made an effort to rise and sit up.

She pushed me back down. “Ara ara, trying to run away already.”

“No, I wasn’t. But surely I must be heavy.”

“Caelum Desanto, do you take me for a weak little girl?”

I shook my head a handful of times. “No, I don’t.”

“That’s good to hear. Now lie down and enjoy the rare experience of a lap pillow from yours truly.”

I raised my eyebrows quizzically. “Mine truly?”

“Hmm hmm,” she murmured with a nod. Her lips were pressed together into a crescent smile.

“Countess, why am I on your lap?”

“Because I’m nursing you back to health. How do you feel?”

“Sore. Tired. My body complains every time I take a breath.”

She reached down and covered my eyes, forcing me to close them. “In that case, lie still and rest.”

“Countess—”

“I’ll decide when you can leave.”

“What are you hoping to gain by doing this? I’ve already said I’ll co-operate in the operation.”

She lifted her hand and I looked up at her.

“Do you trust me?” she asked.

“Nope.”

“I see.”

“I don’t know you well enough,” I added by way of explanation. “That and the fact that I don’t trust beautiful women.”

“Why?”

“They can lie and get away with it. They can cheat and get away with it.”

She laughed gently and patted my head. “Oh you’re such a kidder.”

“I’m completely serious.”

“Then how can I earn your trust?” She was smiling once more but her eyes were twinkling with serious interest.

I studied her face for a moment, not sure what I was hoping to find.

Her smile remained steady the whole while.

I took a careful, deep breath. “You told Caprice where to find me.”

She nodded.

“You knew I was there, and that those seniors were vying for a piece of me.”

She nodded.

“That garden is under surveillance, but people probably think it isn’t.”

Another nod, slower than before.

I took another deep breath. “You watched Haruka and I in the garden. You already knew I’d drunk her blood before Caprice brought me here.”

This time there was no nod. “You’re a smart little boy.”

“You listened in on our private conversation,” I told her. “What are you, a voyeur?”

Simone looked away and sighed. “That’s rude.”

“I could say the same about you.”

She pursed her lips for a moment. “Haruka Amiella is a spanner in the works.”

I sat up, then shifted my body so that I was seated beside her on the couch. “She’s my friend.”

Simone didn’t look at me, keeping her eyes intent on the opposite wall.

I grew uneasy. “What are you going to do to her?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“On you.” She looked at me then. “Caelum, you are a Familiar in the service of the Prides, specifically the Lanfear Pride. To put it simply, they have loaned you to us—to Galatea Academy’s Student Council.”

“I know all that.”

“Haruka Amiella has no place in your world.”

“I…I know that as well.”

“Then let her go.”

I turned away. “I can’t do that. I tried that once and it hurt like Hell.”

“She’s not an addiction, Caelum. There are no withdrawal symptoms.”

“A lot of people, including girls, would disagree with you.”

“Then are you saying you love her?”

“I—” What was I saying? What was it I never managed to tell Haruka? Was it that I loved her?

I swallowed and said, “I don’t know. What I do know is that she’s precious to me. Really precious.”

“There’s no room in your heart for anyone else?”

“She’d have to be really special to move into my heart.”

“Very well.”

Simone stood up gracefully despite the weight on her chest. She spun on her heels and looked down at me with hands on hips.

“Sunday. Meet me in Habitat Three, Island Three. The mag-lev station in District Seven.”

I looked up at her blankly. “Huh?”

“I said—”

“I know what you said. I’m just wondering why you said it.”

“How many girls outside of Haruka Amiella are you familiar with?”

I blinked and searched the far recesses of my memory. “Depends on what you mean by familiar.”

“Outside of their choice of underwear.”

I mulled my answer over. “Two.”

Simone arched a delicate eyebrow. “Let me see—Caprice Steiner and Arisa. Am I correct?”

“What’s your point?”

“The point is, you wouldn’t recognize a special girl even if she stepped on both your feet with her Jimmy Chans.”

I felt a light dawn inside my head. “Is this your way of earning my trust?”

“You said you didn’t know me. This way, you’ll get to know me better.”

I half grimaced.

Simone glared at me. “What’s with that horrid smile?”

“It’s not a smile. It’s a pained grimace.”

“Why are you grimacing?”

“Because I just know Sunday’s going to be a disaster.”

“So you’re not going to be there?”

I looked down for a moment then released a sigh. “I don’t see the point, but if you insist then I’ll be there. What time?”

“Ten a.m.”

“Can you at least give me your palm-slate number so I can call you if something comes up?”

“I’ve already entered it into yours, and I have your number in mine.”

“You went into my palm-slate?”

“Yes, and I deleted your collection of underwear images.”

I scowled at her. “Why?”

“Because it’s time to curb your perversions.”

“Hey hey, aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself. You’re starting to sound like a possessive girlfriend.”

“Not at all.” She blinked and took a step toward me. “Really? You think so? You think of me as a girlfriend?”

She leaned down into me and I leaned back.

It was hard keeping my eyes on her face when her breasts noticeably straining her blouse. Then again she was beautiful so there was no reason for me to look away. But I still wondered what kind of strain her bra was under keeping her charms from swinging freely.

Because she was staring at me insistently, I felt like I was agreeing under duress.

I gave her a jerky nod.

She straightened smoothly. “In that case, let’s keep our relationship a secret for now.”

“Huh? What? What relationship?”

“Oh, here.” She walked over to a chair and picked up my shirt and jacket. “Better get dressed.”