Pride x Familiar

by Albert Ruckholdt

  Melanie hadn’t been lying.

  The half dome chamber was a killing field.

  In order to cross the chamber floor, Crimson Crescent needed to shut down the security protecting it. For this reason they broke into the black box section of the network. With whatever lay inside, Crescent had gained control of the school and deactivated the cannons inside the chamber. They probably deactivated the security measures built into the tunnel as well, allowing us to arrive here unchallenged.

  Stepping cautiously into the half-domed chamber, I turned my attention on the far wall.

  A doorway stood there. It was open, and shaped like an isosceles trapezoid. Whatever lay beyond it was bathed in darkness, despite the tunnel and chamber lighting. But my attention was drawn to the silhouette of a person standing at the edge of the open doorway. They were dwarfed by its scale. A heartbeat later that person turned around to face us.

  Although she stood at a distance, my improved eyesight allowed me to see her face clearly.

  Beside me, Simone stiffened and then drew away a little, but I held her right hand firmly in my left.

  I wasn’t going to let her go because I needed her probably as much as she needed me.

  Her presence provided the stable foundation for my state of mind.

  The sensation of her warm hand in mine reassured me this was not a dream or nightmare, but horrid reality.

  We walked closer and closer to the young woman standing by the enormous doorway.

  We came to a stop when she raised a hand to us. By then, perhaps a dozen feet separated us from her.

  She looked as I remembered her, on the day I saw her lying on the cold metal table in a freezing mortuary.

  Except she wasn’t dead.

  She was alive, and standing before me.

  I had often thought of what I’d say to her, if we ever met again in the afterlife.

  But now I was at a loss.

  I had no opening words for the woman that looked every bit like my sister.

  To my relief, she was first to break the silence between us.

  “You’ve grown, and filled out too,” she said, looking me up and down with a satisfied smile on her face.

  I swallowed and gave her a pained smile.

  These were her first words to me?

  I shook my head inwardly.

  I studied her from head to toe, just as she had studied me.

  She was dressed in black – no surprises there – but her skinsuit was extremely skintight. I mean, it looked painted onto her body. I remembered the times I’d thought my sister was hot, but seeing her dressed like some modern day ninja scattered my thoughts a little. She wore nothing else, clad in the skinsuit that came complete with the heeled boots on her feet.

  I had to swallow to clear my throat and my thoughts. “Are you…are you Celica?”

  “Of course I am.” She smiled warmly. “Don’t you recognize your own sister?”

  “I thought you were dead.”

  Celica winced and glanced down for a heartbeat. “I was. I was as good as dead. If not for Crescent I would be dead.”

  I frowned at her. “What do you mean by that? I was told your death was faked. I was told you were working for Special Interventions—”

  “Told by whom?” she asked bluntly, though her face betrayed amusement.

  Simone spoke up, her voice surprisingly steady. “He was told by me.”

  “You?” Celica definitely looked amused. “Simone Alucard Raynar. I see you’re every bit as impressive as Silia. You finally managed to catch Caelum’s attention.”

  Simone’s hand trembled in mine. “Well, not entirely….”

  “Oh? Facing some stiff competition, are we?”

  Simone gasped loudly. “No, no! I’ll definitely win. I’ll beat those girls. They’re no match for me!”

  Celica was quiet for a moment before bursting into short laughter. “That’s a good answer.”

  I stared at the both of them in turn.

  How could Celica be so relaxed?

  Had Simone forgotten the destruction we’d left behind?

  I took a half step forward. “Celica, tell me the truth. Are you working for Special Interventions? Did you infiltrate Crimson Crescent on their orders?”

  I watched my sister grow from amused to angry in a heartbeat.

  The dark look she gave me was one I’d never seen on her before.

  Celica’s eyes were like sharp razors cutting into me. “Is that what you truly think? Is that what you were told?”

  She turned her gaze on Simone, and I felt the Countess’s hand tremble in mine.

  Celica’s voice was like frost in the air – cold and biting. “Is that what you told him?”

  Simone swallowed audibly. “Yes….”

  Celica’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

  Simone hesitated for a long moment. “Because my mother said your betrayal was faked to trick Crimson Crescent. She said it was part of a plan to get you into their ranks.”

  Abruptly, Celica began to laugh, the anger dispelling in a moment. But it was still a dark, bitter laugh that escaped her lips. When she recovered, Celica stood with hands on shapely hips and stared down pensively at the ground for a long while.

  I watched her shake her head slowly.

  Her voice was low yet it carried easily enough.

  “Your mother wanted me dead, Simone. That’s the truth. After Crescent saved me, I took the Artifact, the Khan-skin, and your mother ordered the Artemis teams to hunt me down with extreme prejudice. But she couldn’t stop Crescent from spiriting me away.”

  I stared at her in disbelief. “You stole an Artifact? You mean it wasn’t a cover story? You really did betray the Raynar Pride?”

  Celica nodded. “Of course.”

  Simone shivered. “You betrayed the Pride? You betrayed my mother? You did it for real?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  I blurted out, “Why? Why Celica?”

  She looked at me with a hard look in her eyes. “I did it for my baby.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  Celica looked wistful. “I met him on a mission that went south. A mission to recover an Artifact from Crimson Crescent, one that was stolen during the super-freighter explosion six years ago. My team and I were captured, but they chose not to kill us. He chose me—no, he asked me to join Crescent. I could tell he liked me, and I found it hard to accept at first. But I decided to use his feelings for me to my advantage. I would use them to gain our freedom. I just didn’t think I’d have to go to the lengths I did.” She swallowed and said, “I didn’t expect to fall for him.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

  My sister who never dated anyone during school, or afterwards, had fallen for the enemy?

  Simone whispered loudly, “You fell in love?”

  Celica nodded faintly. “Yes. I told him I would stay with him if he let my team go. He agreed, but my team had other ideas. A battle broke out, and I ended up using the Artifact we were sent to recover. I used it to fight our way out of the ship, and to escape back to Pharos.”

  I watched her run her fingers over her midriff.

  “When I returned, I learnt I was pregnant. I had to admit everything to Special Interventions after they confronted me with the evidence of my pregnancy.” She looked at Simone. “Your mother was infuriated. She said I’d been tainted by the enemy. She described me as soiled and corrupted. A fallen Artemis. She wouldn’t listen to me, and there was truth in what she said. After all, I did fall in love with him. I fell in love with the enemy.

  “She wanted to abort my baby, but then decided that I should give birth to it. She wanted me to watch them take my baby from me. She wanted me to live with the knowledge that I would never see my child again.”

  In the dim light, I saw Celica tremble in anguish at the memory she recounted.

  “My pleas fell on deaf ears. I was placed in a detainment facility where I would be cared for until my pregnancy came to term.” />
  I took a step closer to her. “But you escaped, right? I mean, you’re here now.”

  “Crimson Crescent came for me. He came for me. Somehow he learnt I was pregnant with our child, and he came for me. He mobilized his people and effected a rescue mission.”

  I saw tears in her eyes.

  Celica pressed a hand over her chest. “I betrayed him, Caelum. I betrayed his love for me. I stole the Artifact and fled back to Pharos with my team. Yet he didn’t give up on me. He came for me because he truly loved me.”

  I watched her tears fall.

  “How could I ever leave his side again? How could I ever betray him again?”

  I swallowed, and glanced away for a heartbeat. “So you chose him over your family. You left me behind.”

  “I couldn’t get to you!”

  Her loud cry echoed in the chamber. It shocked me, and Simone shied back.

  Celica trembled again. “I couldn’t reach you. You were under constant security. They knew I would try to come for you, so they made it impossible for me to reach you without a huge firefight erupting inside the habitat.” She pressed down on her chest. “Do you know how hard it was for me to make the choice—my new family, or my little brother? Do you know how agonizing it was to not even have the chance to say goodbye, let alone explain any of it to you?”

  I found it hard to talk under the weight of her emotions.

  She had tried to take me with her.

  I knew none of this.

  I’d been living oblivious to the truth.

  My existence, my life, had been carefully sheltered by the Raynars – by Simone’s mother, Selena Alucard Raynar.

  I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat. “Your baby…what happened to it?”

  “My daughter…your niece…was born almost a year ago. In fact, her birthday is in two weeks’ time.”

  I had a niece? I was an uncle? I was too young to be an uncle.

  The Countess cleared her throat. “What is your daughter’s name?”

  Celica blinked a couple of times before replying. “We named her after my mother. Chantal Desanto Crescent.”

  I felt my stomach tighten. “Crescent?”

  “Yes. My husband is Falken Crescent. His family—his father—founded Crimson Crescent some seventeen years ago.”

  Now I understood where the name came from.

  But to learn she had married the man whose organization was responsible for the death of our parents felt like a knife wound to my stomach.

  Simone winced loudly as I clenched my hands. “Caelum—”

  “Celica—Crimson Crescent killed our parents. They killed hundreds on that dock. They even made a public declaration afterwards.”

  “The declaration was not made by Crescent. It was made by the Prides. It was a fraud.”

  “Wh—what? What did you say?”

  “Crescent did not kill our family, Caelum.” She shook her head slowly. “It was ignorance. It was recklessness. It was greed that led to the explosion that destroyed the super-freighter. But the explosion served Crescent’s purpose and they were able to acquire the vast majority of the shipment.”

  “Our parents are dead, Celica!”

  “I know that!” she yelled back.

  “And now you’re the wife of the man who leads those murderers.”

  “I told you, Crescent didn’t kill our parents.”

  “They were responsible,” I snapped back. “They can’t wash away the blood of the hundreds that died because they played a part in their deaths.” I took another step toward her. “You know that! You know that but you can’t admit it because you fell in love with the enemy.”

  She shook her head once more. “They are not my enemy. Crimson Crescent is my home. They are my family now.”

  I stared at her with widening eyes. “Your family now…so that’s how it is.”

  I heard Simone’s voice cut clearly between us.

  “What is your name?” she asked.

  Celica glanced at her, slightly befuddled.

  “What is your name?” Simone repeated.

  I watched understanding spread across my sister’s face.

  Simone was drawing a line between us.

  I watched my sister swallow with effort. “My name is…Celica Marisol Desanto Crescent.”

  Simone asked, “Caelum, what is your name?”

  I swallowed, pushing hard against the tightness in my throat, against the painful void in my chest.

  I took a deep breath, straightened and looked my sister in the eyes. “My name…my name is Caelum Rafael Desanto afil Lanfear.”

  Celica studied me quietly, and I studied her too.

  “Afil Lanfear,” she whispered. “Not afil Raynar.”

  The Countess said, “It should have been Raynar. But my Primatriarch decided he should serve the Lanfears.” I felt her fingers squeeze my hand. “My blood should have been the one to Awaken him as a Familiar. It should have been me standing by his side.”

  Celica eyed the Countess. “Yes, it should have been you. In fact, your mother had plans for the two of you.”

  Simone tensed, and I inhaled sharply. “Plans for us?” I asked.

  Celica nodded. “Selena Alucard was considering having you brought into the Alucard Family.”

  “Why?”

  “Because of our bloodline, one that stretches back to the original twelve bloodlines that commanded the Warlords, the most destructive Artifacts a single Familiar can operate.”

  I frowned at her. Warlord? What was that?

  Celica continued talking. “Our ancestors changed the outcome of the War of Supremacy. But they made one crucial mistake. They trusted the Aventis. They trusted the eight Prides. And they lost their place as the rightful rulers of our civilization.” She shrugged slightly. “At least, that is what Crescent believes, and after seeing things with my own eyes, I’m inclined to believe them too.”

  She gave the two of us a long, forlorn look and it made me distinctly uneasy.

  Sighing softly, my sister said, “I guess the Seeress was right. The river of fate can be hard to swim against.”

  I gave her a confused look. The Seeress?

  However, Celica merely smiled wistfully again. “Caelum and Simone, the hands of fate have come round again full circle. I pray the outcome is favorable this time.”

  It sounded similar to what Melanie had said to Simone.

  I narrowed my eyes at Celica, but my sister ignored the look.

  She pointed into the dark chamber. “Caelum,” she said. “I came here to retrieve what I was forced to leave behind. The Warlord, the Black Camellia.”

  I felt Simone shiver and glanced at her. By the light of the chamber, I could see the Countess had grown pale. Her lips moved and I heard her whisper, “Black Camellia….”

  Celica nodded as though she’d heard the Countess. “When I returned from Crimson Crescent some twenty months ago, after my last mission as an Artemis, I was ordered to place the Warlord inside the Vault. However once you put something inside, you have to leave a part of it outside in order to retrieve it. Think of it like leaving a rope attached to it. One tug, and you can pull it out of the Vault.”

  She tapped her chest.

  “This skinsuit is a Khan-skin. It’s interfaced or linked to the Camellia. Special Interventions were unable to clear the bonding it had established with me. As a result, no one else could use this Artifact to retrieve the Black Camellia. I’m the only one that can.” She shook her head quickly. “Before you ask why, I don’t know why the bonding became permanent, but this Artifact has decided it won’t work with any other Familiar. The specialists of the Raynar Pride were unable to wipe the bonding for fear they would irrevocably damage it after it strongly resisted their attempts to do so.”

  She waved us closer.

  I hesitated for a few moments and stepped to within a few feet of my sister.

  Celica said, “My team inside Galatea Academy were able to secure the command codes that deac
tivated the security, and opened up the doors to the Vault’s chamber. I have what I wanted, my Warlord. But now it’s time to complete my mission.”

  “What mission? You came here for something else?”

  “Yes. I came for you.”

  I felt a shiver run through me.

  Suddenly Simone stepped forward, placing herself in front of me. “No—you can’t take him.”

  Celica was quiet for a heartbeat.

  Simone clenched her free hand. “You can’t take him from me.”

  I watched my sister smile ever so faintly.

  “I’m not here to take him from you. I’m here to ensure that both of you are back on the proper path.”

  The Countess leaned back. “The proper path?”

  “Yes, after all, you were meant to be with him. You were meant to be his fated one, and this wasn’t something the Prides decided. It’s simply the way things were meant to be. Unfortunately, someone had other ideas.”

  Simone shook her head. “I…I don’t understand.”

  “You will. I didn’t understand either, but now I have faith in the words of the Seeress because what she told me wasn’t wrong.”

  “The Seeress?” I asked.

  “Yes. Before I escaped from Crimson Crescent with the Camellia, their Seeress told me that I would have a difficult choice to make, but that ultimately I would make the right one. She said that while I would betray my heart once, I would never betray it again. And she told me that I was going to give birth to a very special girl. I was frightened by her words, and I fled from her. But she was right. My daughter is very special, and I have sworn never to betray Falken or my heart again.” She gave me a meaningful look that made my breath catch. “The difficult choice was leaving you behind.”

  Simone remained where she was, as though shielding me from Celica. “So what do you want from him?”

  “Come with me, and I’ll show you.” Celica walked through the trapezoidal doorway, and into the chamber.

  If we wanted an answer, Simone and I had no choice but to follow her.

  Beyond the doorway lay a spherical chamber with a narrow stone balcony that ran the circumference of the massive room. A hundred light strips were mounted at regular intervals on the interior wall.