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.”
“Very well. Go on.”
“The van’s a wreck and your men were injured. I survived because my Valkyrie Armor manifested an effect-field around me. I had to leave your men behind. I’m sorry….”
“Gods damn it.” It was easy to hear her anger.
I swallowed quickly. “Arisa, I don’t know if she’s working alone, but she may have followed me when I left Galatea. They may have been waiting for you to make a move on him.”
Arisa sounded both incredulous and angry. “To strike in daylight like this is crazy. It’s sheer lunacy. There’s no hiding this from the other Prides.”
“You said it yourself. Everyone’s been watching him for a year now. Maybe someone was waiting to see who would make a move on him.”
“It doesn’t change the fact that what she did is an act of aggression against the Lanfear Pride.”
“Arisa, tell me the truth. Do you think someone wants him dead?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore. Where are you now?”
“Island Two, Habitat One. Running on rooftops. I’m headed to the school. It’s about a kilometer away. I should be there in two minutes.”
“You’re using the Valkyrie Armor?”
“Yes.”
“Where is the other Familiar?”
“She’s on a lev-bike. I think she’s headed for the school. I lost sight of her a while back.”
“She’s heading for the school? Why would she head to the school…unless she’s the only one they dispatched…?” I heard a cry of frustration. “What the Hell is going on?”
I jumped onto the roof of a bridgeway connecting two buildings, then ran along its length before j
umping up high onto the next building.
“Caprice—take her out.”
Surprise almost caused me to miss my next jump. “Arisa confirm—”
“I said, take her out. Don’t kill her, incapacitate her. But stop her from getting to him.”
“Is that wise?”
“You let me worry about that. I’m going to have some of our people meet you at the school as soon as possible.”
I didn’t ask her what that entailed because I didn’t expect help to arrive in short order.
Arisa and the Lanfear Pride had been blindsided.
I’d been caught flat-footed too.
For now I would have to deal with this situation on my own.
I made the next jump and landed on a commercial building shaped like an Aztec pyramid. “Very well, I’m going to intercept her as soon as I see her.”
I ran the length of a balcony, then kicked off to the next building. When I landed, I heard Arisa ask, “Caprice, do you still have the vial?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Whatever you do, you must get that into his bloodstream. You must trigger his Awakening. If the Prides are maneuvering then it can mean only two things—they want him bonded to their Bloodline, or they want him dead.”
“Which Pride do you think it is?”
Arisa hesitated. “For now that doesn’t matter.”
“What if it’s the Raynars?”
“Then we’ll deal with them later.”
I swallowed hard as I ran. “Yes, I understand. I’ll make sure he bonds with your blood.”
“Go Caprice, fly like the wind. His life may depend on you.”
I grit my teeth for a heartbeat, breathing in hard through my nose as I ran across the building’s rooftop.
I spoke into the palm-slate in a hurry. “I’ll call you when I have news. Good or bad, I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”
I ended the call, then slowed down in order to pocket my palm-slate.
Afterwards, I ran with all the power and might my Fragment could afford me – all the power I could draw out of it.
The school was up ahead, one district block away.
I cursed myself for losing sight of the rider on that lev-bike, but I had no choice. In order to make good time I had to run as the crow flies, whereas she had to follow the streets and adhere to the traffic…or maybe not.
As I reached the end of the block, I was one jump away from the school. A six lane street lay between me and the ten foot high wall surrounding the school grounds.
Then I caught sight of her.
She parked the lev-bike on a side street adjacent to the school, then ran over to the institution. With the aid of her jousting lance she pole-vaulted over the school wall.
She seemed to know exactly where she was going.
That was when I noticed the small drone hovering over the school – watching it.
Was it guiding her?
If she knew where he was then I would use her to lead me to him.
I took a running leap, and focused the effect-field generated by the Valkyrie Armor into something resembling winged heels.
However, I chose not to fly too high.
Hell, the best I could hope for was a barely controlled glide.
No, make that a barely controlled fall.
I landed on the girl’s lev-bike, shattering it into a hundred pieces.
This time she wasn’t going to have her way.
#
(Caelum)
Lunchtime.
I looked out at the habitat sprawled before me and was once again reminded I was living inside a rock.
One rock out of five rocks, with the largest one surrounded by its four smaller kin.
A rock oasis within the edge of an immense cloud of dust and debris – the Hurakan Nebula.
A testament to the wholesale destruction committed by the trans-space shockwave that heralded the Cataclysm.
From the secluded area of the school’s rooftop, I could see the habitat and its buildings stretch out for two kilometers into the distance. The rock ceiling overhead was hidden behind an optical field that mimicked a partly sunny day. There was even a breeze blowing strongly, courtesy of the habitat’s life support systems.
The nine-foot tall wire fencing that surrounded the building’s rooftop was the only thing preventing me from taking a dive into the school’s central courtyard below.
I stared at the scene before me, closed my eyes for a moment, then paid attention to what she was saying.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I was not alone in this corner of the rooftop.
Haruka’s voice reached my ears.
“Caelum, won’t you say anything?”
I leaned my forehead against the fencing, then turned only my head in order to face her. The rest of my body continued to angle forward, braced against the fence on my raised arms.
“What do you want me to say?” I gave her a cheery smile. “Oh, sorry. I should say congratulations shouldn’t I?”
She gave me a trouble look.
Actually, she’d been looking troubled ever since she arrived at the rooftop.
If she was going to act this way around me, I would have preferred she hadn’t messaged me with a request to meet her on the rooftop’s courtyard at the break of lunch.
Haruka Amiella started to glance every which way but in the direction I was standing.
I was starting to grow annoyed with her behavior, which was quite different from the way she’d behaved in front of her congratulatory classmates.
No, I was already annoyed which was making it hard for me to keep up the act of the understanding childhood friend.
Somehow I forced a bit more cheer into my smile. “Bet your folks were happy to have their only daughter join a Pride.”
“Caelum…please…don’t be this way.”
“Huh?”
“Tell me the truth. We’ve been friends for so long—”
“I am telling you the truth. I’m happy for you. You finally get your wish. You’ll be joining an Aventis Pride. Isn’t that what you always wanted?”
“I wanted both of us to be chosen—”
“Well, it didn’t turn out that way.” I shrugged. “Who knows, maybe things will change in the future. I still have three years before I’m crossed off their list.”
True. Though it was rare for anyone beyond the age of nineteen to be accepted into a Pride, it did happen. However, if the Symbiote didn’t find you worthy afterwards, chances were it never would.
A sudden thought crossed my mind with a possibility I’d not considered though I must have been aware of it.
I gave the thought a voice, keeping my tone blithe, but somewhere deep within I felt a trickle of unease, as though I feared I was jinxing myself for even mentioning it.
“Well, even if I’m not chosen as an Aventis, I might end up being one of the other kind.”
Haruka’s eyes narrowed a fraction. “You don’t mean—”
I laughed and nodded. “Yeah, one of those Familiars.” I held down a shiver. “Wouldn’t that be a laugh? The Symbiote does seem to hate me, and my score is always zero. It’d be real funny if I turned out to be one of those.”
Familiars were anomalies. They existed everywhere, and Pharos was no exception.
Everyone knew about them.
The Aventis regarded them with disdain and contempt.
Regulars considered them aberrations that couldn’t decide whether they were Regular or not.
I’d seen them around, and while I’d never settled on how I truly felt about them, thinking of them brought back painful memories. That was because Familiars were present at the dock when my parents died. They were there guarding the Aventis waiting for the damned freighter to dock. And they were there protecting the Aventis conducting the investigation after the freighter exploded.
It was Familiars that escorted Celica and I to the dock so that we could see the devastation for ourselves.
It was Familiars that st
ood guard while the representatives of the Avenir Pride expressed their condolences to my sister and I.
I still remembered the way they looked, the way they were dressed in tight form fitting coats over black on black skinsuits.
Austere, menacing, even a little dangerous.
Neither Aventis, neither Regular.
Something caught in between the two extremes.
I swallowed hard, and glanced away.
I didn’t want to remember that day, or any of the days that followed.
A shut the memory away like I did time and time again.
Then I gave my true feelings the chance to be heard. “I’d rather I was never chosen. I’d rather stay Regular for the rest of my life. It’s the only way I won’t have anything to do with their kind.”
I turned my body and leaned my back against the fence.
Haruka sounded relieved. “Now you’re finally being honest.”
I wasn’t going to be baited. “We’re not here to talk about me. We’re here to talk about you. Isn’t that why you called me up here?”
Haruka released a heavy sigh.
She seemed disappointed in my response, so I pressed on.
“I am happy for you, Haruka. I really am. You’ve got a bright future ahead of you now. So many doors are going to open for you. They’ll push you to get the best out of you, but I’m sure you’ll be up to the task. You’ll make a great Aventis, and you’ll make the Avenir Pride proud.”
She gave me a pained look this time. “You make it sound like I’m going off to ‘magic’ school or something.”
“Sorry. But everyone knows that in this corner of the galaxy where the Aventis rule, if you’re a member of a Pride you get preferential treatment.”
“I didn’t make that rule.”
“I’m not saying you did. It’s just the way things work since they won, and Regulars like us lost—sorry, I meant the Regulars like me.”
She seemed at odds with what to say.
I struggled to keep the cheer in my voice and on my face. “What’s with the troubled look? You called me up here. Why do you look like you’re the one with the most to lose? After all, you’re going to be leaving me behind.”
There, I’d finally said it.
Haruka blanched, and she started to wring her hands.
Seeing her like this, something snapped inside me.
My heart felt like it was being crushed and my hearing was drowning in the sound of blood rushing past my ears.
Pride X Familiar ReVamp (Pride X ReVamp Book 1) Page 2
