“Geh…damn…woman…what’s wrong…with you….”
He grew still for a heartbeat and I feared he’d passed out.
But a heartbeat later, he ever so slightly opened the eyes he’d squeezed shut.
I pulled him up by his shirt, and lowered my face into his. “Caelum—who am I? Who am I?”
“Eh—huh?”
“What’s my name?”
His eyes slowly widened. “Gah! My balls! What the Hell? What the Hell did you hit me for?”
He tried pulling back but couldn’t find the strength to push against me.
I lowered him gently back to the cold rock floor of the chamber, feeling my anxiety rise and fall with every breath I took.
Lisanna. Who was she? Who the Hell was she?
Under me and between my thighs, Caelum’s body began to relax.
I reached out and wiped his face with my fingertips and palms. He watched me anxiously for a few moments.
I gave him a warm smile, trying to reassure the both of us. “Caelum…do you know me?”
He breathed in and out a few times before squeezing out a reply. “Of course…I know you.”
“So who am I?”
He breathed in and out a few more times before replying, “Simone Alucard…Raynar.”
I swallowed, feeling relief flow through me. “And?”
He blinked a few times as he studied my face.
“And…you’re the girl who saved me.”
#
(Melanie)
When I regained consciousness, I had no grasp on my surroundings.
The sound of a voice nearby helped me focus my thoughts into order as I struggled to understand what was being spoken.
It was the sound of a woman in conversation.
“Yes, she’s regaining consciousness now. Very well…yes…yes…I’ll update you on the situation in a little while…would you like to speak with her?”
I swallowed and opened my eyes slowly, barely a crack.
White light greeted me, yet I was surprised to find it was less than glaring.
The woman’s voice came from beside me. “Very well, I’ll call you later. Goodbye, Mistress.”
Concentrating a little more, I stretched my Awareness out to my Valkyrie Armor.
There was no response.
It wasn’t there.
It was gone.
Now my eyes widened quickly, and I looked about the interior of what resembled an ambulance. Somehow, even without my Artifact, I could tell we were flying. As I turned my head slowly in order to discretely peer around me, my eyes met the gaze of a beautiful young woman with long, blonde hair almost as white as snow. Her eyes were a sparkling violet color.
Seated beside where I lay, she smiled warmly at me. “Hello, Melanie Cardwell afil Avenir.”
I swallowed, and spoke without the chance to test my voice. “Who…who are you?”
“Do you remember your time in the tunnel?”
I searched through my memory. “Yes….”
“Well, I’m the one who rescued you before you burned alive.”
“Burned…?”
She nodded quite faintly. I almost thought she was responding to the subtle rocking of the interior of the vehicle.
“Yes, it was quite an explosion. However, your Valkyrie Maiden protected you though the impact knocked you unconscious. And I was on hand to retrieve you.”
I blinked abruptly, and raised my head a little, ignoring the pang that ran through my brain.
“Are you my contact? Are you with Crescent? Are you going to take me off the colony—?”
The woman’s sudden laughter cut me short. When she recovered, she shook her head weakly and briefly covered her lips with her left hand.
I felt a cold sliver of fear run down my back.
It was then I realized I was lying on a gurney and my body was strapped down to it.
Without a Fragment or Artifact, I had no chance of getting free of my bonds.
I looked at the woman and couldn’t help sounding afraid. “Who…who are you?”
When she replied, she sounded greatly amused but I heard no malice in her voice. I realized she really had no intention of hurting me, but it did little to soothe my fear.
Seated beside the gurney I was strapped into, she leaned down a little. “My dear girl, I’m not with Crescent, and I’m not taking you to them. The members of Crimson Crescent that were supposed to ferry you off Pharos have been apprehended. No one is coming to save you.”
“Then—then who are you?”
For a moment I glimpsed a great regret run across her face. Then her expression cleared away and she gave me a reassuring smile that unfortunately did little to quell my fear.
“My name is Helena Morrigan afil Avenir.”
I swallowed hard. “Avenir? You’re a Familiar?”
“Yes, and I’ve been entrusted with your well-being.”
I felt my face contort in confusion. “You—you’re not going to hurt me?”
“Of course not,” she replied, looking a little hurt. “I’m going to be taking care of you.”
How could she feel wounded? Didn’t she know how hard my heart was beating right now? Didn’t she know that cold sweat was trickling down under my clothes?
The woman, Helena, turned slightly in her seat.
“Listen to me, Melanie. You’re extremely valuable to us. To find someone so gifted with the Valkyrie Armor is a rarity amongst rarities. We affiliated with the Avenir Pride couldn’t be more proud of the talent you’ve displayed.”
I realized what she was saying. “You’ve been watching me?”
“Yes. We’ve known about you for some time now. However, we didn’t know what part you were to play in the events that unfolded.”
Her words were a stake driving my fear deeper into my chest.
Helena crossed slender, shapely legs that emerged from a business skirt. “But first we have to undo some of the changes Crescent did to you.” She tapped her temple. “We have to sort out the mess inside your head.”
I listened to her, and her words drove the stake of fear all the way to my heart. “What do you mean by that?”
Her smile turned sad for a heartbeat, but then she reached out and touched my cheek. “We need to sort out the lies they put in there.”
I think my heart stopped beating for several seconds.
I clearly lost focus for at least that length of time.
When I regained my awareness, Helena was nodding slowly.
Her voice was tender, yet determined. “I promise you, we’ll get you sorted out.”
My lack of trust must have been clear for her to see.
But oddly she made no further attempt to reassure me.
Instead, she said something that temporarily derailed my thought processes.
Helena gazed over my body critically, one eyebrow raised high.
“I must say, while you have a splendid figure, it’s clearly lacking for one gifted with a Valkyrie Armor. Especially for someone as pretty as you, who can summon the Valkyrie Maiden.” She shook her head in clear disappointment. “No, this certainly won’t do.”
“Huh?” I realized my fear was making me breathe quickly, and I wondered if this was the reason Helena wasn’t making sense to me.
Helena pursed her lips for a short while. “Tell me Melanie, how large would you like them?”
I blinked slowly. “How large would I like what?”
Helena sighed softly and clicked her tongue. “You’re breasts, silly. How large would you like us to make them grow.”
I stared at the beautiful young woman, wondering how we ended up discussing my breasts.
But now that she’d made such an offer, I found it hard to think away from it. It was a struggle to keep myself from seriously considering her offer as a genuine one.
It was tempting beyond belief.
The thought of finally filling out a swimsuit, a bra, and a nice dress….
I lay my head back down
on the gurney’s pillow. “Do I have to give you an answer now?”
Helena shook her head as she brushed back loose strands of hair away from my face. “We’ll have plenty of time to discuss it later, once we’ve cleared out your head of any disloyal thoughts you might entertain.”
I shivered, and fear overwhelmed me. “Disloyal…?”
She leaned closer and whispered huskily. “Don’t worry. The new Melanie Cardwell will be a picture of loyalty and devotion to her Pride. She won’t ever, ever think of betraying them again.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried hard not to whimper.
I prayed for salvation into the darkness behind my eyelids, but received no answer.
Chapter 27 – Avienda.
(Celica)
Anton called me over the Fragment Link.
*If you can hold her still, we can take her down. We can fire the main reaction cannon at her!
*Anton, if you do that you’ll burn away half the air in the habitat. Don’t fire the main guns!
*Mistress, at this rate she’ll kill you.
*Anton, we didn’t come here to slaughter innocent people.
I clenched my teeth as I fought off the Avienda’s tremendously powerful swing. Surrounded by a piercer-field her lance cut into my barrier-field as though it offered no more resistance than cheese. But the two swords held, and I was able to divert the energy of her swing, and force her off balance.
That in itself was an odd thing to say, since the both of us were flying madly around each other. But the net effect was that she overshot and couldn’t swing at me again until she came round for another pass.
I breathed easy for a heartbeat, then charged at her before she could recover.
The Black Camellia warned me I was pushing the field emitters to the limit.
My barrier-fields had weakened steadily over the last few minutes.
My only defense was a strong offence, but the Avienda was getting better and better at cancelling out the piercer-fields around my swords. It was growing harder for me to breach her barriers and land solid strikes.
I swung at the Avienda with practiced strikes that knocked her spear aside, and gave me the opening I needed.
A direct slash at the pilot.
For one horrified moment, Fallon stared at me, completely defenseless.
Then she grinned as the Avienda fired a golden blast of light into the Black Camellia.
I thought she was only equipped with four quantum reaction cannons.
I was wrong.
I’d mistaken the two narrow wing-vanes that hung off the Avienda’s back for maneuvering effectors. They flexed around the Avienda’s body, reminding me of scorpion tails, and fired at the Camellia from point blank range.
In a hurry, the Black Camellia raised its quantum reaction barrier-field.
The air between me and the Avienda flared golden, nearly as bright as a solar flare.
Then my reaction fields shattered, and I felt the Black Camellia’s effectors shut down to avoid further damage.
I fell away from the Avienda, falling a thousand feet, dropping back down to the relatively empty ground of a grassy parkland.
Anton’s voice filled my head as I touched ground then bounced up on a levitator field.
*Celica, what are you doing? We can’t fire on her if you’re on the ground.
I watched the Avienda fly toward me.
Fallon’s Warlord didn’t fire it’s cannons, but she came at me swinging.
She was getting better at it, but again my superior sword play deflected her away.
*Anton, open the trans-space breach. Get out of here.
*No way, Celica. There is no way we’re leaving you behind.
Floating mere feet of the ground, I charged the Avienda again and again. With two handed swordsmanship, I had the edge on her despite the twin bladed spear she wielded. My sword skill was also well above hers.
But I was growing weary.
My concentration was failing me little by little, and there were times I felt myself on the edge of losing my over-clocked state.
*I can’t defeat her, Anton. I can’t get away from her. You need to leave without me.
*Celica—they will kill you! And Falken will kill me if I return without you.
I knocked Fallon’s spear aside, and while wary of her scorpion cannons, I succeeded in breaching her barrier field and stabbed my right sword at her. It was a desperate gamble, and a lucky break. The blade penetrated into the skeletal framework of the Avienda, narrowly missing Fallon’s flank by centimeters. But with the pierce-field around the blade at maximum, it grazed her, and Fallon screamed in sudden agony.
I ignored her cry and pushed the blade deeper, then I slashed diagonally downwards, cutting through the black alloy like a welding torch through snow.
The Avienda staggered, but generated an effect-field that was strong enough to boot me away from her as though I’d been kicked by a mythical titan.
The Black Camellia tumbled backwards into a row of trees, taking them down with its uncontrolled passage.
When it came to rest, I struggled to concentrate and mentally control its levitator fields. Somehow I managed to get the Warlord back on its feet. I looked about frantically for the Avienda and saw it standing some hundred feet away.
The black mist surrounded its flanks. The mist swirled and moved with a ghostly quality, as though countless spirits inhabited it. As I watched, the damage I’d inflicted upon the chevron chains connecting the left leg to the Avienda’s spine began to repair.
Feeling resentment at having my hard fought work undone by the mist, I gathered up the Black Camellia, and launched myself at the Avienda with all the speed and power I could muster.
This time I would damage that Warlord beyond repair.
I noticed that while the Avienda was quickly healing, the wound to Fallon which now dyed her flank red, was not.
The girl’s face was a mask of rigid pain.
And burning fury.
The black mist blossomed all around her, shrouding her completely from my view.
I slashed through it with my right blade, my arrival dispersing it, but the Avienda was gone.
What the Hell? Where did she—?
A cold chill surrounded me, and a blow from behind sent the Camellia and I tumbling forward along the ground.
Barrier-fields cushioned our jarring roll.
Structural-fields strengthened the Camellia so that it wouldn’t break.
But my vision swam and my head rang like a gong. My concentration faltered. A heartbeat later I fell out of my over-clocked state.
I must have bitten the inside of my mouth because I tasted blood.
I couldn’t get the Camellia to rise to its feet.
With the Warlord on its hands and knees, I looked up and saw the Avienda standing a few feet before me.
Fallon’s fury was undisguised now.
“They told me not to kill you,” she grated out through clenched teeth. “But I have trouble following orders.”
I saw the Avienda’s foot swing up. The kick connected with the barrier-field protecting my body. The field took the blow and shattered a heartbeat later.
The impact knocked me and the Camellia into the air, and over onto its back.
I couldn’t scream, and wondered if my chest had been crushed.
Air wheezed in and out of my lungs, and the lack of oxygen was making my vision grey out.
A clawed hand reached down and grabbed my torso, its fingers easily wrapping around me, and I felt myself lifted into the air.
My legs were still attached to the Black Camellia, so the rest of the Warlord was also hoisted upright.
I thought my legs would tear apart under the immense strain, but then I felt the cold chill of the black mist surround me, and in heartbeats the Black Camellia receded into the mist.
I was left dangling in the air, held aloft by the Avienda’s clawed hand around my torso.
“Let’s hear you scream,�
�� Fallon growled.
The claws around me tightened, digging into the Khan-skin I wore.
The material held, but my body was another matter.
I felt my ribs bend under the growing pressure.
“Scream,” Fallon yelled.
The first of my ribs broke.
I had no choice but to scream.
#
(Simone)
Caelum stared at the rock wall that was once a doorway.
I said, “It must have closed while you were inside and I was trying to reach you.”
He nodded absently, then shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, if the door closed it’s a good bet the security systems are back online. That means those cannons will fire on us the moment we walk out of here.” He shrugged easily. “No problem.”
“Eh?” I stared at him wondering if I’d heard him right. “Caelum, we’re trapped in here.”
He gave me a sideways look and smiled confidently. “Trust me. It’s not a problem.” Looking about the spherical interior of the chamber, his smile faded. He pointed over to a point on the balcony surrounding the Vault. “Simone, I want you to walk over there. Give me some room.”
I frowned at him.
Seeing my reaction he smiled at me once more. “Simone, do you trust me?”
“Yes, I do. But Caelum that’s a rock wall.”
“Do you trust me?”
I hesitated, then cleared my mind and my heart. “Yes, I trust you.”
“Then be a good girl and stand over there.”
A good girl? A good girl?
He kept looking at me with an amused, unconcerned expression.
“Ah, damn it,” I blurted out in a fluster, and walked over to where he indicated.
Damn him. When the Hell he did he become so cocky and self-assured?
When I turned round, I felt a chill spread across the chamber.
The wispy black mist that heralded a Fragment or Artifact manifestation surrounded Caelum’s body.
When it faded many seconds later, he stood within the armored, skeletal frame of a Warlord that was akin to the Black Camellia, yet unlike it in many respects. It was black with white wing-vanes and armor panels. It appeared larger than the Camellia. It was certainly broader across the shoulders, and its legs were structured differently.
It took a few moments for me to accept the incredible revelation.
Pride x Familiar Page 47