Pride x Familiar (54 page)

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 deactivated 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.

A giant sphere floated in the center.

At sight of it Simone and I both gasped.

The sphere consumed almost all the free space
the chamber and balcony had to offer it. It’s surface moved like
water covered in thick black oil, reflecting and absorbing the
light shining from the chamber’s inner wall.