“I hear you.” She faced the Countess and gave Simone a hard look. “I don’t envy you, Simone Alucard Raynar. Yours is a path I would never wish to tread upon but that’s the problem with fate…you just can’t avoid it. One Seeress tried to change fate, while another tried to help it along.”
I looked at Simone in the corner of my eye.
Even in the weak light, I saw her grow pale.
Melanie continued. “But maybe this time there will be a happy ending. However, you have to be certain of one thing. Your feelings must be pure or you will fail at the beginning of the journey, and not the end.”
Simone bit her lower lip. I thought I caught the hint of a nod.
What did Melanie mean by pure feelings?
I didn’t get the chance to ask.
Melanie crouched, then entered the circular opening in the tunnel floor. She called out to us before she disappeared from sight.
“Hurry or we’ll really be late.”
#
(Caprice)
The burning sensation hit me a few meters down the hallway after exiting the Student Council President’s room.
It hit the others a short while later.
Maya urged Constance to continue and escort Severin and Prissila to the computer club’s base of operations. The trio set off at a run, with Constance leading the way though Severin did have to call out directions.
I staggered along with one hand on the wall, afraid I’d lose my grip on my Artifact, the Valkyrie Armor. Then I felt Jaxon’s arm around my waist. I instinctively wanted to pull away but he just tightened his grip and helped me along. In fact, he practically carried me.
“I can walk on my own,” I groused.
His voice was laced with the strain he was under. “At your pace it’ll take us a year to get to the other wing of the building. And besides, you know the way better than I do.”
Then I heard him whisper.
I’m not leaving your side.
Maya and Rina were helping each other along, but they collapsed when we reached the tee junction at the end of the hallway.
“Damn it,” Jaxon muttered. “Come on, Lady Maya, can’t hold your water?”
“Shut up,” she muttered, but she had collapsed against the wall, and was breathing heavily as sweat poured down her face. Rina was hugging her gun-blade and shivering like an addict suffering severe withdrawal symptoms. The girl’s eyes were glazed over and soft pained moans escaped her lips.
I shook my head, feeling the sweat run through my body and soak my underwear. “Jaxon…put…me down….”
I was burning up both inside and outside.
“Ah, what the Hell,” he grated out but set me down gently against the wall near Maya and Rina. Then he sat cross-legged a few feet away to watch all three of us.
My vision was hazy with pain and heat, but I watched him sit still as though in meditation, allowing the waves of agony to roll through him and ebb away.
We remained like this for what felt like many minutes, swaying and moaning in a feverish, anguished state.
I was barely aware of the students and teachers lying on the floor under the weight of extreme gravity. Thankfully they weren’t near us.
A while later I felt my body begin to cool down, and realized the worst was over.
The Symbiote in Severin’s blood was now taking root inside me. It would probably grow and survive for another day or so, but it would boost my body physical abilities by more than double. It would make me stronger than any Aventis, regardless of their gender.
Maya whispered, “Feeling better?”
I nodded weakly, and even that required a fair bit of effort. But my Valkyrie Armor hadn’t retreated back into Pocket Space, and the effect-fields surrounding the four of us had held steady against the gravity.
Maya squinted slightly. “We lost six minutes.”
Rina winced loudly. “Six minutes. Oh no. Oh no….”
“Calm down,” Maya said weakly, her voice still strained by the pain washing through her. “There’s nothing to be done about it.”
Jaxon struggled to his feet. Once he was up, he helped me rise to mine. I used the wall behind me as support while he assisted Maya and Rina in their weak efforts to stand.
“Thanks,” Maya muttered.
“No problem, leader,” he replied, sounding somewhat whimsical.
I narrowed my eyes at him and humphed under my breath.
He noticed and gave me a guilty smile. “Sorry, baby.”
I glared at him. “Call me that again, and I’ll feed you to Crimson Crescent.”
He waved his hands placatingly. “Chill baby, chill.”
I grit my teeth. “Jaxon….”
I heard a voice that didn’t belong to the group.
“Caprice…help…me….”
Almost in unison the four of us turned to see a teacher crawling toward us. I recognized Ms. Fauntine.
I started walking unsteadily toward her, but Maya caught my arm.
“Don’t. We’ve lost enough time.”
“Maya, she’s my homeroom teacher.”
“We can’t delay any longer.”
Jaxon placed a hand on Maya’s shoulder. “A half minute won’t hurt.”
Maya glared up at him, but I took the chance to pull free and walked on rubbery legs that still burned hotly. I dropped to my knees beside Clarisse Fauntine.
The young woman was under a lot strain, but her eyes widened as soon as my effect-field barrier surrounded her. “A barrier-field?”
I nodded a little woozily.
She straightened and ran her gaze over me. “I see. Caprice, you serve the Lanfears as a Special?”
I nodded. “Yes. This is the Fragment I received from my mother more than a year and a half ago. She was a Special too.”
Fauntine pushed herself up into a seated position. “Caprice, what’s happening to the school?”
“Crimson Crescent has attacked the academy. They flew a starship into the habitat by using a trans-space breach to tunnel between realms and emerge inside the island. We have a plan to help evacuate the school, but we need to keep moving.”
I watched her scoot over to the wall at her back, then rest against it.
Fauntine said, “When you walk away, the gravity will come back.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “I place my trust in you. Help our school, Caprice.” She smiled regretfully. “Show them how special you and your friends are. Do what only Familiars can do. Release the power of your Fragment.”
I blinked.
My friends? Do what only I can do? Use my Fragment?
I regarded Clarisse Fauntine for a long moment. Then I probed inside her using my Artifact’s senses. I stared at her in disbelief. “You’re a Familiar….”
She smiled weakly. “All this time, and you never noticed?”
I shook my head slowly. “I…I never used my Fragment to probe inside you. I’m sorry for doing that now.”
Fauntine’s gaze wandered over my face. “It’s alright. You were bound to find out sooner or later.”
“Why do you hide it? Is it because you’re a teacher?”
Fauntine shook her head gently. “There are lots of reasons. Too many for here and now.”
I saw a flicker of concern in her eyes.
I swallowed and said, “I won’t tell anyone. I promise. Your secret is safe with me.” I glanced over my shoulder at my fellow teammates. “Your secret is safe with all of us.”
Fauntine’s weak smile grew a little stronger. “Thank you.” She reached out and touched my arm. “If I had my Fragment, I’d join you. But I gave it up some eighteen months ago. So now it’s up to you and your friends to protect our school.”
Giving her a nod, I stood up. “I promise. We’ll protect this school and everyone inside it.”
Taking a deep breath I walked back to those waiting for me. I heard Fauntine cry out in pain as the gravity pressed upon her with a vengeance, and I hea
rd her body slide down as though lying supine on the floor.
I gave Maya a resolute look. “Let’s go.”
Maya didn’t move. “She’s not an Aventis.”
“I know.”
“The gravity may kill her.”
I clenched my hands. “I know that.”
Rina spoke up. “Maybe we should take her with us?”
I gave Maya a hard look. “We’re short on time, aren’t we?”
Maya looked as conflicted as I’d ever seen her.
I suddenly understood why.
Maya cared for us Familiars. It was the one thing that would make her hesitate and question herself.
She swallowed and trembled for a moment.
“Damn it.”
She turned on her heels and resumed leading the way.
Jaxon fell in behind me. “Are you—?”
“I’m fine,” I whispered back. Then I lowered my head a little. “Thank you.”
“Sure….”
I gave into the urge to clench my fists. “I’ll make Crescent pay for this. I promise!”
#
(Caelum)
The circular vertical shaft had rungs fitted to the rock wall, forming a ladder.
It was dark all the way down, so I gripped my palm-slate in my teeth, using it for a flashlight.
Below me, Melanie continued climbing down the rungs. She didn’t need a light because her Artifact was acting like night-vision, giving her complete spatial awareness of her immediate surroundings. She could have navigated down the rungs with her eyes closed because the Artifact was doing all the seeing for her.
However, Simone and I didn’t have a Fragment or Artifact, so we had to make do with our palm-slates acting like flashlights.
I could hear Simone climbing down slowly above me. She was barefoot, having removed her high heels in order to climb down the ladder. I didn’t know what she’d done with her shoes, because she didn’t appear to have them with her.
When I looked up, I didn’t get to see her underwear clearly.
I felt I was being denied a precious vision.
However, I wasn’t able to stop and continued to descend one rung at a time.
Small lights had flickered to life at the bottom of the shaft. A great many were dead, but the few that worked offered enough illumination to see the trapdoor in the middle of the circular floor. It seemed no one had come down here in years, and both floor and trapdoor were covered in a thick layer of dust.
I turned off the flashlight function on my palm-slate and pocketed the device.
Melanie opened the trapdoor with ease. She peeked down through the opening, then dropped through it heartbeats later.
Simone paused on the ladder rungs above me. “Caelum?”
“Hold on.” I carefully ducked my head down through the opening.
There was a tunnel below us. A very large and wide tunnel, with strip lighting breaking the darkness both ways. I guessed it was a good twenty foot drop to the ground.
Damn, that was going to hurt.
Thankfully, gravity around us was normal. I guessed it was because we were under the effect-field generators that provided artificial gravity for the academy above us. I had counted fifty five rungs on the way down, and since they were roughly a foot apart meant we’d descended roughly fifty five feet. This was in addition to the twelve or thirteen flights of stairs we’d walked down not long ago.
We were definitely well below the academy and its effect-field generators.
I looked down at the tunnel floor.
Melanie was looking up. “Caelum, hurry up. They’re coming.”
Despite the urgency in her voice, I hesitated. I could make the drop, but I’d have to catch Simone. Even if she was an Aventis, she was still a girl, and I felt it was only right that I help her down.
Simone climbed down the rest of the way. The base of the shaft was around five or six feet in diameter so there was room for the two of us, but it still felt a little cramped.
I looked at Simone. “I’ll go down first, then you jump down after me. I’ll catch you.”
Without waiting for her reply I lowered my body through the square opening, hung onto the edge of the trap door for a few heartbeats, then dropped to the tunnel floor below.
It really was a good twenty foot drop and I winced when I landed.
Gritting my teeth against the pain, I took a couple of breaths before looking around.
The tunnel had an oval shaped cross-section though the floor was flat. It was wide enough for three large trucks to drive down side-by-side. There was good lighting as well, with score upon score of strip lights casting pale white light down its length.
I realized the tunnel was slightly slanted. In one direction it led down, while in the other it led up. Melanie had walked off some fifty meters into the distance in the uphill direction. She was looking away from us.
“Caelum?”
I looked at the hole in the ceiling. I could see Simone’s bare foot wading in the air, looking for something to step onto.
It was clear we could get down, but not back up.
Melanie had said my sister was waiting for us. I didn’t think Celica had entered the tunnel the way we did. That meant there was clearly more than a couple of ways in.
Nonetheless, it was starting to feel like a one way trip, and that made me uneasy.
Turning my attention back on Simone, I watched her shapely body descend through the opening. Then she lost her grip on the edge of the trapdoor and I had to rush to catch her.
I thought my knees were going to break as my legs bent sharply under the weight of her landing. But I’d broken her awkward fall by catching her in my arms.
In fact, I now held her Princess style.
The terror on her face faded slowly. She swallowed and said, “Thank you.”
I tried to sound cool, but my voice came out strained. “Don’t—don’t mention it.”
“You…you really did catch me.”
I gave her a shallow nod. “I told you I would.” I put her down gently and spared her bare feet a look. “Your shoes?”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t carry them with me. Besides, I don’t think they’d do me much good here.” She looked around at the tunnel we were standing in. “Which way?”
I pointed in the direction where the tunnel slanted downward. “That way feels like it goes down. My guess is this Vault thing is buried deep, so I’d say we should try going deeper.”
The Countess gave me an odd look. “And how do we get out?”
I pointed the other way, in the direction Melanie was standing. “Uphill sounds as good as any.”
“You think we’ll get the chance to go that way?”
I inhaled slowly. I sounded more confident than I felt. “Yeah. I am.”
At sight of Melanie jogging back toward us, I took hold of Simone’s right hand in my left and gently pulled her along. “Let’s keep going.”
She pulled me to a stop with that Aventis strength of hers. “Caelum, wait.”
I faced her. “What is it—?”
Whap!
Her left hand delivered a slap that could only be described as brain jarring.
I almost landed on my backside, but the Countess grabbed my arm and kept me upright.
Clutching at my wounded face – I was certain I could taste blood – I gave her an incredulous look.
Then I noticed she was beet red.
She inhaled loudly and declared, “That’s—that’s for grabbing them without permission.”
She sounded angry and embarrassed.
My thoughts began to process with some degree of clarity. Then I squared my shoulders and growled, “What the Hell was I expected to do?”
“Huh?”
“I had to protect them. There was no other way for me to do that.”
“But you grabbed them!”
“Of course I grabbed them. And I was fully prepared to put my strength into keeping them on your chest and not your
knees.”
She looked caught between gratitude, shame, and feeling violated.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Why are you so angry? Weren’t you the one playing around with me in the storage room?”
“That was innocent fun.”
“Innocent? Do you have any idea the strain you put me under? I thought my heart was going to give out on me. Doing up the buttons of your blouse was like running through a mine field.”
I saw the hint of a grin on her lips. When I narrowed my eyes further, she quickly wiped it off her face.
She averted her eyes, and complained, “You—you looked like you enjoyed holding them.”
“Actually, I didn’t have the luxury to enjoy them.”
She inhaled a lungful of air. “Still, I can’t forgive you for grabbing them.”
“Nonetheless I’d do it again if it meant saving them.”
She gave me a distraught look. “You would go that far…for my breasts?”
I nodded resolutely. “Yes.”
Now she began to despair. “So that’s…that’s all I am to you? A pair of large breasts?”
“Don’t be stupid, Simone.”
My harsh tone made her blink and her eyes widen.
I pressed on firmly, but eased up on my tone. “Saving them is one thing. Saving you is another. Don’t ever confuse the two.”
Her eyes widened a little more. “Wh—what do you mean?”
I stared at her for a long moment. Then used the strength gained from months of training.
I pulled her close and before she could react, I softly kissed her lips.
After a moment she responded, and I kissed her for a few seconds more before drawing back.
I looked into her eyes and said, “That’s what I mean.”
Ah—what the Hell did I just do?
I must be losing my mind. This is so going to mess up my relationship with Caprice and Haruka.
Thinking of Haruka brought an ache to my chest.
To Hell with Haruka. She made her choice. Now I was making mine.
But now I was stuck between my feelings for Caprice and the realization that I liked Simone, and not just her enormous, perfectly shaped bosom.
I liked Simone Alucard Raynar, the beautiful, willful girl standing before me.
My heart was pounding so hard I was certain she could hear it as clearly as I could.
Pride x Familiar Page 38
