Pride x Familiar (47 page)

When the shaking began, I was eating in the
cafeteria with Duncan, Siobhan, and Alistair. Duncan had invited us
up to the third level where the high school seniors ate. So we had
a clear view of what was happening in the sky above the
academy.

The cafeteria is shaped like a donut, with the
open middle playing the part of an atrium. The atrium’s ceiling is
a trans-steel dome that is so clear it gives the impression it’s
not even there. That’s why we were able to witness the dark storm
forming quickly over the academy.

Everyone in the cafeteria quickly grew aware
that something unexpected was taking place in the sky above
Galatea. Amazement and confusion quickly turned to worry, then
terror and fear as the tremors shook the building with enough force
to knock plates, trays, and people to the ground. Then the gravity
began to surge and wane, so as to give the sensation of riding a
boat on a stormy sea. A few students couldn’t handle it and
wretched noisily.

Siobhan and Alistair grabbed onto the table that
was mounted to the floor. I followed suit, and Duncan held onto me
with an arm, while gripping the table with his other hand.

I followed his gaze, and looked up at the sky
overhead.

The thunderstorm filled the view through the
atrium’s ceiling, but the lightning flashes illuminated the
silhouette of a dark shape drifting over the building.

A ship? Was that a starship? But how could a
starship be inside the habitat? That just wasn’t possible.

It had a long wedge shaped beak or prow, almost
like a sword, and while the rest of the body was out of sight the
dark silhouette reminded me of those giant winged lizards that flew
the skies of mother Earth millions of years ago.

I didn’t have long to admire it.

A violent tremor knocked us to the floor whether
we were braced or not.

Duncan held onto me, wrapping his arms around me
and cushioning my fall. But there was no one to help Siobhan and
Alistair. They hit the floor hard, as did many of the students
inside the cafeteria. I imagined the same scene playing out through
the halls and rooms of the building – no, the entire academy.

I thought of Caelum, and guiltily prayed for his
safety.

The tremors eased, but suddenly the
effect-fields that provided artificial gravity powered up to
unprecedented levels and everyone around me was crushed to the
floor. My body felt as though it weighed five or six times as much.
It was an effort just to breathe. Duncan’s arms felt like steel
beams around me and I begged him to let me go. Somehow he managed
to comply, rolling me off his body, but afterwards all we could do
was lie close to each other, unable to do more than struggle
through each breath we took.

I was on my back, listening to the students
around me who were spread across the levels of the cafeteria. Some
sobbed. Others cried for help. Some struggled to crawl across the
floor.

Again I thought of Caelum and wondered how he
was holding up.

I pictured him somewhere in a dark corridor or
room within the Academy, struggling to breathe, let along move. He
was a Familiar, lacking in the strength the Symbiote provided an
Aventis. But he had a Fragment. Maybe he could use that to protect
himself. And Caprice should be with him. They were always together.
Perhaps they could link their Fragments somehow and support each
other.

As I thought this, I looked up at the storm
raging in the sky beyond the atrium.

The dark starship, surrounded by the swirling
black storm frequently lit by lightning, continued to drift gently
overhead.

Then I saw something fall away from it, and land
on the trans-steel ceiling heartbeats later.

Moments later, three other dark objects landed
on the atrium’s transparent ceiling.

The four objects stood up and I realized they
were people.

Duncan whispered hoarsely, “What the Hell? Who
are they?”

I remembered what the Student Council President
had told us that afternoon in the cake shop.

“It’s Crimson Crescent,” I whispered.

“Crimson Crescent…those people that blew up that
starship in Island One?”

I couldn’t nod, but I did manage a reply. “They
killed Caelum’s parents. They killed a lot of people.”

The four individuals stood on the ceiling,
dressed in black clothing, and completely unaffected by the storm
or the artificial gravity. For a short while, they looked down into
the cafeteria interior, then walked off the transparent ceiling
onto the hard permacrete roofing. I heard four successive
explosions and four holes appeared in the ceiling. They were
several meters apart, and powdered debris rained down into the
cafeteria. I heard students cry out in fear until the sound of the
storm outside drowned them out. I shivered as I heard it howl and
rage like a monstrous beast.

But I also heard something else, a sound even
deeper than thunder.

A sound that rumbled incessantly.

The starship’s engines.

Through each of the four large holes in the
ceiling, a single individual jumped down onto the top level of the
cafeteria.

One of them landed on a table a few meters away
from me, crushing it flat. I turned my head, and watched the
newcomer calmly step off the table’s remains while the students
nearby cried out in fear and pleaded for mercy.

The black clad person wore a long coat that
flowed around their body as they strode calmly through the students
littering the third level floor. To my surprise, they were careful
not to step on any of the students.

I watched the intruder come closer, and saw that
she was a woman.

A very pretty woman, in her late middle
years.

She had a heart shaped face, emerald eyes, and
features that chilled my strained heart for several beats.

I whispered the name before I could stop
myself.

“Caprice….”

The intruder stopped and slowly turned in my
direction.

The woman’s eyes met mine and then she walked
over to me.

She came to a stop beside me, and regarded me
from above. I didn’t understand how she was able to withstand the
effect of the gravity generators. Yet she stood easily enough, and
looked down at me.

“Haruka,” the woman said, then laughed softly
under her breath. “My how you’ve grown.”

I swallowed heavily, shocked to hear my name
spoken by someone I didn’t know – spoken by someone from Crimson
Crescent.

The woman sighed. She might have intended to say
something when a young man’s voice interrupted her from the near
distance.

“Damn, these Aventis girls are hot. Check out
the rack on this one.”

A girl’s voice chastised him lightly. “Rylan,
what are you doing? Hey, you’re not going to peek under her skirt?
You pervert.”

“Hot damn,” I heard the young man say. “Racy and
red.”

I heard a girl cry out painfully and
instinctively knew it was the female student being harassed.
“No—don’t touch me! Help—help me!”

The woman looked away from me. “Rylan, you can’t
play with them. And remember the field around you.”

“I know, but what about one bite? Just a
mouthful. You know we haven’t had a drink in ages, and this one
looks nice.”

I couldn’t see the Crimson Crescent girl, but I
could hear her sound annoyed. “You heard the Mistress. We didn’t
come here to play.”

Then another male voice gasped out. “Stay away
from her you bastard. You’re a freaking Familiar. Don’t touch her
you trash.”

The woman standing above me looked sharply in
the voice’s direction.

She was quiet and I saw the cold in her eyes.
Then she glanced down at me. “Is Caprice well?”

I still didn’t know who she was, yet I managed a
nod and a whisper. “Yes….”

The woman smiled and her expression softened.
“That’s…that’s good to hear.”

“Why?” I asked, realizing that question could
mean so many things. “Why…this…?”

The woman’s smile turned regretful. “Because
we’re correcting a mistake.”

The male student cried out again in anguish. “I
said stay away from her.”

His cry attracted the woman’s attention. Her
regretful look faded in a heartbeat. “You like that one,
Rylan?”

“Yeah, I do. She’s amazing. She’s really
beautiful, and her breasts are huge. I gotta have me this one.”

“Fine. We’ll take her.
Induran
, we got
fresh juice to pick up. Can you spare someone? You can?
Excellent.”

I assumed she had just spoken to the ship
drifting in the sky between the academy and the habitat’s rock
ceiling.

“No!” the girl cried out. “No, no, no.”

I heard Rylan’s voice again. “Hey, don’t sweat
it. Pretty soon it’ll be yes, yes, yes.” I heard the sound of a
heavy thump. “Hey, boyfriend. Say goodbye. From now on, this girl
is mine.”

The girl who’d earlier chastised Rylan sounded
despondent. “Just don’t break this one like the last one. And don’t
forget, you have to take care of her now. Keep her fed and
dressed.”

“Hey, stop telling me what to do.”

The male student struggled to yell out. “Help.
Someone help us. Stop them please—aggh.”

Again another loud thump.

I heard Rylan say, “That’s better now. Stay
unconscious. But don’t worry, I’ll take good care of her. A few
days with me and she won’t even care about you anymore.”

“Mistress,” the Crescent girl said, “if he gets
to take one, why can’t I? Can I pick out a boy?”

“Next trip,” the woman said. “Alright, we’ve
wasted enough time. Rylan, quickly mark the girl. Let’s go.” She
looked down at me. “Take care, Haruka.”

Then she walked out of my field of vision.

I heard the Crescent members walk away, talking
as they went.

“I can’t wait to sink my teeth into her.”

“Yeah, right. That’s not the only thing you want
to sink into her.”

“Let the good times roll,” the one named Rylan
sang out.

I turned my head and saw a fifth body land on
the transparent atrium.

A half minute later, I saw the Crimson Crescent
operative descend through one of the holes into the cafeteria.

I turned my head even more and was able to see
him step up to one female student.

The Crescent member was dressed like his
comrades, in black from head to toe. In fact, even his face was
hidden behind an odd looking mask that made him appear alien. But
from his poise and body build, I could tell he was a man.

He reached down and picked up the girl, tossing
her easily onto his shoulder.

Some of the girls near them cried out and
pleaded with him.

“Please, don’t take her.”

“Leave her alone. Leave Reina alone.”

“You can’t do this. Please, you can’t do
this.”

I heard a few girls cry, and I saw the Crescent
man shake his head as though regretful. But he walked away
nonetheless, and I heard a soft boom despite the noise from the
raging storm. He jumped straight up through one of the holes in the
roof, and disappeared for a few seconds until he walked across the
transparent atrium ceiling.

He flew up into the underbody of the ship’s
prow, as though hoisted airborne by an invisible force. Moments
later he vanished into the ship along with the girl called
Reina.

I heard her friends crying in despair.

I felt the fire of hatred flicker to life in my
heart.

I promised to find a way to make Crescent pay
for this.

I heard Duncan’s voice beside me. “I’ll hurt
them. I’ll hurt them. Somehow, someway, I’ll make them suffer for
this.”

I felt his hand squeeze mine almost
painfully.

“I’ll make those Familiars burn in Hell,” he
vowed with hatred coating every word.

#

(Alessandro)

Holovid bubble windows floated along an entire
wall of my office.

As watched the scene above Galatea Academy
unfold, I felt despair eating me away from the inside.

Finally, on the fifteenth attempt, my call went
through to the commander.

“Alessandro?”

“Commander, what do we do?”

I heard her laugh but there was no humor in it.
She sounded as though she had a front row seat to the end of the
universe, and had realized there was nothing to do now but watch it
come to an end.

In short, she sounded helpless.

“There’s nothing we can do. We can’t move in,
and we can’t get the students out.”

“What about our people?”

“The special units are within the grounds and
the buildings but I doubt they can do much in this situation. They
can’t risk a firefight or damaging that ship. Besides, we
instructed them to secure the underground tunnels so I’m certain
that’s where they’ll be stationed.”

I swallowed and asked, “What about the
Familiars?”

For a long while she was quiet on the line.
“Let’s hope they don’t get any bright ideas and make a bad
situation worse.”

I had to wonder if Selena Alucard was worrying
over her daughter, Simone.

“What the Hell,” Alucard muttered loudly.

“What is it?” I asked.

“They just took someone with them. Looks like a
student. Gods damn them. They’re taking students with them.” I
heard something crash in the background. “No—there is no way I will
allow this!”

I had a thought. The districts around Galatea
Academy were being evacuated. In ten, maybe fifteen minutes a
perimeter with a radius of two district blocks would be empty of
civilians.

If the ship went down then the damage would only
be collateral.

But that meant getting the ship away from the
academy.

Alucard must have had the same thought.
“Alessandro, I’m going to call in a favor.”

I grinned nervously. “You mean you’re going to
speak to Xanthia Augustine Avenir?”

“Yes, and I hope I can walk away with my soul
intact.”