Pride x Familiar (12 page)

Severin and the Countess nodded guiltily.

“And then what?” she asked. “Will you instruct
us to move against Crimson Crescent’s operative?”

Severing answered her. “Yes. If the opportunity
presents itself, we’d like you to apprehend them—”

“—and steal their Fragment,” the Countess
declared.

Everyone looked at her, including the
President.

With a cunning smile, she admitted, “I know the
Powers-that-be will not allow us to keep it, but I’d like us to be
the ones to steal it from Crimson Crescent. It might gain us some
goodwill points with the Powers-that-be.”

I burst into laughter, which earned me a
kaleidoscope of looks ranging from confused to annoyed. “You want
us to steal the Fragment for you.”

The smile on the Countess’s lips widened.

Caprice muttered, “Assuming we can capture the
intruder….”

The Countess waved a hand lightly. “I have no
doubt you can do it.”

I gave the other two Familiars a flat look, and
turned down the corners of my mouth. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m completely serious,” Simone claimed.

“Are our Handlers aware of this?” Caprice
asked.

I grimaced inwardly when she used the term
‘Handler’.

The Aventis preferred to call them Guardians. In
fact, Severin and the Countess had been referring to them as
Guardians all along.

Our Guardian was Arisa since she was responsible
for us, and was ultimately accountable for our actions. That
included any successes and failures. But I felt referring to her as
our ‘Handler’ was somewhat demeaning to her and to us.

Arisa was one Aventis I felt I could trust…just
barely.

However, I realized Caprice was making our
relative social ranking clear by doing this.

Simone looked offended but recovered her
composure a heartbeat later. “Yes. Your Guardians have agreed to
the terms.”

Severin cut in smoothly. “Consider this a test.
A demonstration of how well you can work together. A demonstration
of
trust
.” He smiled thinly. “Of course, if you fail to
apprehend the intruder we’ll all be held responsible.”

I snorted. “We go down, you go down.”

“Unfortunately,” he agreed.

I exhaled loudly and looked up at the dimly lit
ceiling. “Well then, I guess it can’t be helped. We’ll just have to
nab the intruder and steal their Fragment.” I had a sudden thought,
and looked down at the Countess. “Assuming we capture this
individual and you get the Fragment, do we get a prize for our hard
work?”

The Countess looked puzzled. “A prize?”

I nodded. “Yep.”

I sensed Caprice tense sharply beside me.

“Dear gods,” she muttered. “You’re not serious
are you?”

I frowned at her. “But I haven’t asked for
anything yet.”

“You don’t have to. I know you well enough,” she
retorted despondently, dropping her emotionless persona in the
process.

“Ara ara, could it be?” Simone crossed her arms,
but then chose to tap her lips with a fingernail.

“But I haven’t asked for anything yet,” I
repeated.

Simone stopped tapping her lips. “Ara ara, are
you saying you don’t want a prize?”

“I haven’t said that either.”

She gave me a smile full of regret. “I’m sorry,
Caelum, but I can’t give you the prize you desire.”

I kept my eyes on her face. “You can’t?”

She shook her head. “I cannot.”

“Why not?”

“Because I make it a habit…not to wear any.”

My eyes widened as I realized what Simone
Alucard was implying.

There was stunned silence in the room as
everyone else realized what she meant.

I heard the air expel out of Caprice’s lungs in
a furious rush. When I glanced at her, Caprice had grown bright
red.

She turned to face me with an accusing look in
her eyes.

Oh no! She thinks I told Simone about her black
racy underwear in my drawer.

I opened my mouth to deny her accusing thought,
but couldn’t utter a single syllable in my defense.

Suddenly Simone laughed, and calmly folded her
arms under her breasts.

I glanced at the room’s other occupants.

Severin regarded me as though I’d just confirmed
his worst opinion of me.

Maya considered me akin to toxic waste.

Rina had tears of shame in her eyes.

But Caprice looked ready to knife me on the
spot, and her emotionless persona had been completed discarded.

I tried pleading for leniency. “But I didn’t…ask
for anything.”

Severin Kell cleared away the holovid and the
room’s lighting returned to normal. “I think we should end things
here for now,” he announced with a faint grimace.

The Countess smiled brightly as she said, “In
that case, Caelum. Would you be so kind as to help me out with an
errand?”

I gave her wary – no, make that a terrified
look. “An—an errand? Me?”

She nodded, and her smile changed. “Yes. It
won’t take long.”

I was reminded of the smile Prissila Ventiss had
thrown my way.

I found the two women smiled fearfully
alike.

It wasn’t the blood of an Aventis that made me
stronger.

It was the parts of the Symbiote swimming around
in it that gave me a ‘power up’.

Described simply, the Symbiote is like a thread
that winds itself through every nook and cranny in the human body.
Maybe it’s more accurate to describe it like a vine that has access
to almost ninety seven percent of the body’s internals. As result
it’s able to heal injuries quickly, and fight off disease, bacteria
and viruses well before the human body is even aware of the dangers
lurking within.

The Symbiote has an innate understanding of
what’s harmful to a human.

It’s almost like an immune system built upon our
immune systems. What the human body knows, it knows. On many
occasions it actually knows better, and prevents the body from
stupidly harming itself.

In short, without the Symbiote life is a lot
tougher.

Aventis, humans that are receptive to the
Symbiote, get its full benefits.

Regulars, those that aren’t receptive to the
entity, get to live life the hard way. It’s not to say modern
medical science doesn’t play a hand in helping Regulars out.
Injuries can be healed almost as quickly, but it requires
specialized equipment or specially cultivated healing agents.

The Symbiote handles all the repair work the
human body needs.

It also makes humans incredibly strong compared
to a Regular individual. As such, an Aventis can recover from
physical punishment that would land a Regular in hospital.

I’ve said all this before, but what I want to
clarify is that it’s the elements of the Symbiote swimming around
in an Aventis’s bloodstream that bring about a Familiar’s true
strength.

Even a small amount, like a mouthful, can give
me a boost that lasts a couple of hours.

Inside me, the Symbiote quickly takes root. I
spend those first few minutes just shy of agony, as it grows
throughout my body. But once it’s over, I find myself with the all
strengths of an Aventis and much more.

However, as the saying goes, a candle that burns
twice as brightly burns twice as fast.

The Symbiote burns out quickly inside my body,
and I return to being a normal Familiar.

In short, while the Symbiote is jacking up my
body, I stand at the top of the food chain.

(Caelum)

I followed the Countess as she walked down the
hallway and away from the Student Council room.

I had no idea where we were going.

Classes had already resumed.

The few teachers we encountered did not raise an
objection to my being in the hallway because I was in the company
of the Student Council Vice-President. The Countess greeted each
teacher with respect, as befitting her position and that of a lady
of reputable upbringing.

I glanced at her butt, wondering if what she
said was true.

I hoped it wasn’t. It would shatter my metal
image of her.

Not to mention the thought of that sumptuous
derriere being unsheathed was an insult to lingerie designers and
makers throughout the colonized star systems.

We arrived at a large storeroom on the fourth
floor. She led the way into the room after unlocking the door by
waving her palm-slate over the scanner on the wall beside it.

I followed her into the room. “You know that
wasn’t the sort of consolation prize I was after.”

She walked down the aisles, looking at the
labels on the shelves. “Yes, I thought as much.”

“So why did you say all that? Were you trying to
make trouble for me?”

“Now why would I do that?”

I cocked my head to one side. “What do you
really want, Countess?”

She sounded mystified. “I don’t follow.”

She rounded a corner between upright shelves,
and I followed a few steps behind. However, when I rounded the
corner she was gone.

Huh?

I picked up the pace and peeked down aisle after
aisle.

Did I mention this was a really big storeroom?
Well, it was.

Suddenly I felt a hand grab my blazer by the
collar and pull me into an aisle. I reacted immediately, slipping
out of their grasp and spinning them around before pressing them
against an upright shelf that almost reached the ceiling.

I froze when I realized I’d pinned the Countess
against it.

She gasped. “Ara ara, aren’t we starting off a
little rough?”

“Huh?” I backed away in a heartbeat. “Sorry. I
thought—actually I didn’t think, I just reacted. I’m truly
sorry.”

Simone darted forward, pushing me into the shelf
behind me. The shelf wobbled and some of the contents threatened to
fall but thankfully didn’t.

I stared at her in confusion and shock.
“Countess?”

She drew back, then reached up and grabbed my
blazer, holding me in place against the shelves.

I was starting to fear I’d made her angry, but
then she bowed her head a little and cast her eyes downward. When I
felt her arms tremble, I started thinking something else was the
matter.

“Countess?”

Her voice was barely above a whisper. “Caelum,
what are we doing?”

“What do you mean…?”

She took a long, heavy breath. “What do we think
we can achieve? We’re just the Student Council of Galatea Academy.
That’s all we are. We’re just students. I’m sixteen. I shouldn’t be
thinking about Crimson Crescent, or network breaches, or mysterious
data vaults, or skeletons in the Academy’s closet.”

Her voice grew stronger, and I sensed an
underlying current of despair.

She shook her head weakly. “I should be thinking
about classes, about studying, about clothes, pop idols, my friends
and most importantly the boys that catch my eye. I should be
thinking of how to make those boys mine.”

Yes, I could hear the despair in her voice.

She shook her head more freely and pressed
on.

“Going alone against Crimson Crescent could have
serious repercussions for us. I keep thinking Severin and I are
doing the wrong thing. But by the same token, by shutting us out,
the Powers-that-be are putting us in danger as well. How are we
supposed to react to this threat if they won’t tell us anything? If
we don’t try to prepare for it, we’ll be helpless. If Crimson
Crescent intends to do us harm, don’t we have the right to defend
ourselves?”

She drew closer, still holding onto my blazer.
Then she slowly bowed her head further and pressed her forehead
against my collar bone.

My breath caught. I could smell the shampoo in
her hair and it seduced my sense of smell.

Damn this girl smelt nice.

Each breath she took burnt through my shirt and
into my skin.

My heart was starting to grow undeniably
restless within my chest, like a horse held too long at the
starting gate.

Yet through it all, I could hear her
clearly.

“My sister…she won’t tell me anything. She’s
warned me not to interfere—not to ask too many questions. She’s
shut me out. But, I can’t allow Crescent into this school…I won’t
allow them into my academy. Galatea is home to my friends and to
me.”

Her hands tightened on my blazer, creasing it
sharply.

She spoke softly. “I am an Aventis of the Raynar
Pride. My Pride has been responsible for the safety of Pharos, and
of many worlds and colonies for more than a hundred years. I want
to protect my academy, my school, and its students. That is my duty
as a Raynar.”

I listened to her, and I didn’t stop her.

I didn’t think I could.

I felt she needed to express herself, to voice
her fears and doubts before they backed her into a corner.

But then I wondered, why tell me? What did I
care about her problems? I had agreed to help because I hated
Crimson Crescent, but that didn’t mean I cared about the
academy.

I despised Aventis. I hated the Prides.

By a twist of fate, I was stuck in a school
almost full of her kind. This wasn’t paradise for me, this was
something of a hell.

And to top it off I was subservient to an
Aventis – Arisa Imreh Lanfear.

The Countess was venting her repressed fears and
doubts to someone who shouldn’t care.

Was that the reason why? Was it because I didn’t
care that she was able to release her pent up emotions?

Over the top of her head, I stared at the
opposite shelf.

I thought of the last seven months since
awakening as a Familiar, including my week here at the academy. I
thought of how my life had changed, and I had a disconcerting
realization run through me.

Did I really hate the Aventis as much as I
thought I did?

Did I hate her kind as much as I claimed I
did?

I looked down at her as Simone continued to
press her forehead into me as though leaning on me for support
while hiding herself from view.