Pride X Familiar ReVamp (Pride X ReVamp Book 1) (2 page)

Prologue.

(Caelum)

Semester Two. Week One. Monday.

Morning Homeroom Period.

Today was the big day.

Today was the day our results were electronically mailed to us.

Today I would find out once again how dismally my compatibility rated with each of the eight strains of the Symbiote.

And like the six other occasions in the past when the results came in, today was one day I hardly cared for.

We had been tested at the end of the first semester of the school year, before being released into a well-deserved three week holiday period that delineated the first semester from the second.

During that time the results of the medical exams were compiled, collated, and categorized into those that made the cut, and those that didn’t.

I really wasn’t interested in being compatible with the Symbiote.

I had no love for the Prides, and I had no love for the Aventis.

I hated them, though lately my hatred has waxed and waned over the years, despite the most recent tragedy in my life.

Even so, perhaps hate is too strong a word.

Contempt was more fitting. A very cold and severe contempt.

I had contempt for the privileged Aventis that were
fortunate
enough to become hosts for the Symbiote and rake in the benefits of harboring the thread-like organism in their bodies.

Ah, who was I kidding…I hated them.

Ten minutes before the end of homeroom, before the whole school was expected to attend the opening assembly for start of second semester, the teacher told us it was time to open up our results. Our esteemed Regular teacher dutifully informed us that our parents and guardians had been informed of our results, but right now it was our turn to find out whether or not we joined the
privileged
echelons of our society.

Not caring, I accessed my results through the smart desk’s mail application.

I read it, and then closed the file.

No surprises there.

A complete whopping zero mark on the compatibility scale.

I looked around my classroom, smiling deceptively at my classroom friends, all the while wondering if anyone else had scored as poorly as I did.

Some of my classmates were sharing their results with others.

I saw a few smiles on the faces of the boys, and some of the girls were forming clusters as they revealed their successes to each other. However, the vast majority sat in disappointment and glared in envy at their more fortunate counterparts that numbered little more than two handfuls. But if you considered a just handful of
lucky
students in each class, spread across a number of school years, the total would amount to a sizeable catch for the Aventis. Take into account all nineteen schools for Regulars within the colony, and those numbers were clearly more than just a drop in the ocean.

From what I’d read in the news reports, every year an average of two thousand teenage students in Pharos joined the ruling Aventis class.

I turned in my chair and peeked at the back corner of the room that held special meaning to me.

I noticed a cluster of girls had congregated around one table.

Sitting at that table was a girl of slender, yet generous proportions especially for someone of her age.

She had long, auburn hair that fell in lustrous waves down her shoulders and back. True to her nature, she wore a polite, cheerful smile as she looked up at the female classmates congratulating her.

In that moment…my world sank.

I knew that I would no longer share in failure with the one most precious to me.

A heartbeat later and her eyes met mine.

For a heartbeat her smile wavered, and I saw regret flash across her face, before she turned away and resumed smiling happily up at her friends.

I turned back to my desk, and waited for the assembly bell to sound.

It was a struggle to hold myself back from punching a hole in the middle of the smart desk’s tactile responsive screen.

#

(Caprice)

Today was the big day.

Today was the day I would introduce him to our Pride.

That was the job entrusted to me by Arisa, my Lanfear Guardian.

Upon Arisa’s request, I was granted special dispensation by the Academy faculty, allowing me to leave class early, well before the afternoon lunch break was due to start.

The extra time would come in handy.

I was to depart Galatea Academy, situated in Island Three, and make my way over to a school for Regulars residing within Island Two.

That meant a trip in a pressurized vehicle through the vacuum of space between the two asteroid Islands.

Leaving the ‘H’ shaped building that accommodated the high-school students, I quickly walked over to the Academy’s parking lot near the west entrance.

A passenger van had been sent for me.

It was waiting for me with two very large, burly men dressed in black suits standing beside it. I found their proportions and appearance at odds with each other.

Like the men were dressed, the van was painted black, though its shiny wheel rims contrasted sharply with its dark metal skin.

I thought of it as conspicuous as a naked woman in a crowded train.

I did not want to ride something that was more or less a painted target.

With I sigh, I approached the vehicle and climbed inside. The men boarded shortly thereafter, and we were all quickly on our way.

We left Galatea Academy behind, and travelled from one asteroid Island to the next.

When the van fully pressurized for the trip through the intervening vacuum between the Islands, I had to endure the pressure on my ears.

I had to endure it again, when the vehicle depressurized once it was safely within Island Two.

A long tunnel connected the entrance to the asteroid to the nearest habitat within the Island.

I watched the tunnel lights run by at great speed.

From my seat in the passenger cabin, I glanced at the clock in the van’s center dashboard.

Twenty minutes had elapsed since we departed Galatea Academy.

I pressed down on my stomach, feeling it begin to rumble, reminding me that I’d skipped lunch.

The tunnel opened wide as it merged with the habitat, and I saw the ubiquitous pyramidal buildings that served multiple roles as office complexes, shopping malls, and communal housing, to name but a few.

We were travelling down a wide street when my Fragment tingled.

I wasn’t surprised to feel it tingle.

But I was surprised by how quickly events turned for the worst.

I didn’t even get the chance to warn the burly suited men in the driver’s cabin of the sudden danger.

In a matter of heartbeats, our assailant brought our journey to a dramatic end.

They hit the van I was travelling in with what I sensed to be a Fragment, partially crushing the driver’s cabin, forcing the vehicle to careen at speed off the street and onto the sidewalk.

It was a stroke of good fortune the sidewalk was empty of pedestrians at the time.

My Fragment reacted automatically, and what little I could summon of my Valkyrie Armor manifested in heartbeats, protecting me as I sat in the passenger cabin with an effect-field that wrapped around my body.

The crippled van crashed into the corner of a building and came to a stop.

As it did, I kicked out the cabin door with my armored legs, sending it flying into the wide alley between the building and its neighbor.

I leapt out expecting to be challenged and I wasn’t disappointed.

The wrecked van rocked as our assailant leapt onto the rooftop.

Even though she was wearing a helmet, I could tell I was facing a girl.

Then she leapt toward me.

And she was fast.

I realized in a heartbeat the lev-bike riding suit she wore was a skinsuit in disguise. It amplified her speed and strength beyond human limits.

In contrast, I only had the Valkyrie Armor and my school uniform.

Perhaps she expected to subdue me quickly, and I will admit that with her speed she certainly came close, but after a dozen or more seconds exchanging blows between her jousting lance and my bladed gauntlets, she ran away, and I was left standing in the alley wondering what the Hell had just happened.

I caught a glimpse of her fleeing on the lev-bike she’d used to chase down the van.

Again I wondered, what the Hell had just happened.

I spared the driver and guard in the van a look. They were injured but not mortally. They were Aventis after all, and I could hear an emergency siren in the distance drawing closer by the moment.

I looked down the alley and the buildings.

Yes, I could do it. The walls offered enough purchase for the Valkyrie Armor’s legs to kick off.

However if I faced the girl again I would be at a disadvantage.

I needed to even the odds a little.

Using the blades of my left gauntlet I cut the passenger door free of the van, then dragged out the man slumped over the dashboard.

He was an Aventis of the Lanfear Pride, and I needed his blood.

Ignoring the pain as my maxillary canines extended, I bit the soft flesh where the neck met the shoulder, and tasted his blood as it flowed into my mouth.

A mouthful, then a second. It was all I had time for.

The longer I remained by the van, the further away she travelled.

I lay the driver down against the van, then wiped my mouth clean as my canines painfully retracted.

Then I walked quickly into the alley.

I jumped up and then bounded off the nearest wall.

Ricocheting like a bullet between the two buildings, I climbed upwards, and then executed a backflip as I cleared the top of the shorter building.

Landing on the rooftop, I gained my bearings and looked in the direction of the school.

Damn, we were so close to it.

Why had the girl waited so long? Why not strike when we entered the habitat?

I had no doubt she was heading for the school. In other words, she was headed toward
him
.

There was no more time to waste.

And then the pain hit me.

The Symbiote elements rich in the Lanfear blood grew at an accelerated rate.

I collapsed onto my hands and knees in agony. I decided not fight against the pain and released a howl as the Symbiote replicated and spread throughout my body.

It might have been minutes before I was able to stand again though my whole body trembled and swayed. A feverish sweat soaked the inside of my uniform.

But I couldn’t afford to wait for the effects to completely subside.

I needed to move, and I needed to move now.

Gritting my teeth against the agonizing storm inside my body, I took off at a run, and leapt high over the alleyway and onto the rooftop of the building ahead of me.

While the artificial gravity within the buildings and at street level was the standard gee, the gravity high between the buildings was significantly lower. This made it easier to jump between buildings.

I ran across a rooftop, and leapt over to the next building.

All the while the Symbiote continued to grow and spread throughout my body.

Soon, very soon, I would start to feel my body
power up
.

Another rooftop. Another jump.

I felt well enough to make the call. I rang Arisa as I ran across a rooftop.

It wasn’t easy to run while holding the palm-slate to my ear.

Neither was it easy to jump from one rooftop to the next.

However, this was one call I needed to make.

I heard the call connect as my feet touched ground, and a heartbeat later I heard her voice.

“Caprice, you have news for me—”

“Arisa, you asked me to meet him as your representative. Correct?”

“…eh, yes….”

“You want me to bond him to the Lanfear Pride. Correct?”

“Yes. What’s going on Caprice? You sound like you’re running.”

“In that case…we have a problem.”

“What problem?”

“The van you sent for me was hit by a Familiar of unknown affiliation.”

There was a long moment of silence. “Are you sure?”

I didn’t nod as I ran. “Yes. She was using a Fragment—it resembled a jousting lance. She was also wearing a skinsuit. I didn’t get to see her face because she was wearing a helmet.”

“Then how do you know it was a girl?”

“Arisa, I know a girl when I see one. She had hips and curves, though her breasts were probably no bigger than mine. And she moved like a girl.”