Pride X Familiar ReVamp (Pride X ReVamp Book 1)

by Albert Ruckholdt

  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.”

  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 dangero
us, 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?”