Pride x Familiar (29 page)

I blinked hard, feeling jealousy pierce my
chest. “What—what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that quite a few girls, even some in
our class, have voiced an interest in him.”

“You’re lying,” I blurted out.

Alistair shook her head, but it was Siobhan that
replied in a disgusted tone. “No, she’s not. I’ve heard girls talk
about him in the toilets. I was really surprised. Actually, I was
damn well shocked. I mean, he’s only been here a week and a bit and
he’s already caught the eye of more than a few girls in our
year.”

I shook my head. “No, that’s not possible.”

Siobhan was scratching her left cheek. “Nope,
it’s definitely true. I think it’s because Familiars are like a
forbidden fruit to us Aventis girls, especially the pureblooded
girls.”

I gasped, “Huh?”

Alistair nodded with a faint, playful smile on
her lips. “What she’s saying, is that while we Aventis look down
upon Familiars, we can’t help the rush that comes from
conquering
them. Or maybe it’s something more—something
physiological.”

“Ah…I’m not following you.”

Alistair gave me pensive yet still annoyingly
playful look. “Then let me ask you this. Are you more attracted to
Caelum now or before he became a Familiar?”

“Now, definitely now. Oops.” I slapped both
hands over my mouth.

What the Hell did I just say?

Alistair giggled. “You see. It’s documented that
Regulars undergo changes when they become Aventis. Improvements
which make us stand out from the Regulars, and I’m not talking
about our physical abilities. I’m talking about our appearances and
the like.”

I lowered my hands.

Yes, I’d read that too in more than a handful of
teenage magazines. In fact, given the option Regular guys almost
always preferred Aventis girls to Regular girls.

Alistair carried on. “So our changes give us a
leg up on the competition. Stealing a Regular boy from his Regular
girlfriend is a piece of cake. Likewise for an Aventis guy.
Regulars just can’t resist us.”

I nodded weakly. It didn’t sound nice, but she
was right. Even walking down the street, I drew the eye of every
Regular guy around me. So too did Alistair and Siobhan when the
three of us went shopping.

Siobhan sidled a little closer. “You’re just
quoting that magazine you showed me.”

Alistair shrugged and pulled out her palm-slate
from a blazer inside pocket. She thumbed the screen a few times
then showed me the article displayed on the slate.

“According to this,” she said, “Aventis girls
admitted to feeling
something
attract them to a Familiar
male that they didn’t normally feel when around a Regular or
Aventis male. And it’s not just girls. Aventis guys see Familiar
girls as a guilty pleasure, but also can’t deny that they’re
attracted to them for reasons they just can’t explain.”

I read the article quickly.

It couldn’t be true. Were my feelings toward
Caelum being amplified or coerced simply because he was a Familiar?
Was there really something about him that would attract girls like
bees to honey? Or was that bears to honey?

Alistair pocketed her palm-slate before I could
finish reading the article. “In short, what you felt on the rooftop
with Caelum was simply some sort of unquantifiable reaction the
Symbiote induced in you because of your proximity to a
Familiar.”

I noticed the light begin to shine on Siobhan’s
eyes.

“I get it now,” Siobhan said. “Haruka fell
victim to Desanto’s pheromones or something. Something that makes
the Symbiote inside her trigger a strong attraction to him.”

Alistair nodded sagely. “Not just Haruka. Most
probably other girls in our class as well. But they’re doing a good
job hiding it, though I’ve noticed the looks he gets between
classes.” She faced me fully. “So before you go and dump Duncan,
maybe you should test out the waters a little better.”

I shook my head weakly. “That can’t be. That
can’t be right. I know what I felt and it was real.”

“Of course it was, you felt your body’s reaction
to him being a Familiar. It was real, but only when you’re around
him or near him. It’s all a proximity thing.”

“No, that’s not true,” I denied. “What I felt is
the love I’ve held for him for many years. I love Caelum. Maybe my
attraction to him was
enhanced
by being close to him, but it
had nothing to do with him being a Familiar.”

Alistair gently raised her hands and shrugged in
defeat. “Well, I tried getting you to see the light but I’ve
failed. Nonetheless, you really should think twice about dumping
Duncan.”

“I can’t dump him if we’re not going out.”

“True, but if you cut him high and dry, you
might regret it later. This place can be pretty harsh on girls that
do that.”

I felt a pang of fear stab my heart. “You mean,
I’m stuck? I can’t say no to him or the student body will turn
against me?”

“I’m saying that Duncan has a lot of girls
wishing they were in your place. And he’s a star on the basketball
team so there’s prestige with dating a star athlete. Melanie
Cardwell, the girls’ swim team ace of aces, has had her eyes on him
for a while—long before you showed up. Needless to say, she does
not
like
you.”

I waved my hands between us. “But I didn’t
pursue Duncan. He pursued me.”

“That makes no difference to a girl like her
because he really likes you, and now you’re going to break his
heart.”

I grimaced, feeling trapped on all sides.
Running my fingers through my hair I asked, “Then what the Hell am
I supposed to do?”

Siobhan sighed as she nodded. “That’s a really
good question….”

“Like I said,” Alistair pressed on, “you should
test out your feelings for Duncan. And you should test out Caelum’s
feelings for you. Find out just how serious he is about you.”

I swallowed and took a deep breath. “And what if
it’s true love between us?”

Alistair smiled sweetly and gave me a thumbs up.
“Then I’ll back you up all the way.”

I felt a chill run down my spine.

Siobhan gave Alistair a narrow look. “Why would
you do that?”

Alistair faced Siobhan and held up a finger.
“Because I have no love for Simone Alucard who’s after Caelum, and
who’s simply trying to hitch a ride to glory on my brother’s coat
tails.” She clenched her right hand into a fist and pumped it into
the air. “For that reason, I’ll gladly help Haruka on the road to
true love.”

I stared at Alistair for a long while.

I couldn’t help sounding sour.

“Thanks, you’re a true friend.”

#

(Caprice)

I sat across Caelum at a table in the
cafeteria.

He was staring at me with a funny look on his
face. The fork he held had stopped halfway to his lips.

“She reads…erotic…fiction…?”

I gave him a shallow nod. I had just finished
eating through a half dozen bagels. I didn’t normally eat such
food, but today I had a craving for them. I blamed it on my
recovery and on the Symbiote inside my body. Unlike Caelum, I
didn’t suffer from a lack of appetite when the Symbiote briefly
took residence within me. However, I was left craving food I
wouldn’t usually consume. Many months ago, he told me he envied
that about me.

I dabbed my lips clean with a paper napkin.
“Quite erotic. I had trouble reading it at first.”

“At first….”

“Yes. Then it grew on me.”

“I see…it grew on you….”

I gave him a flat look. “Once you ignore the
erotic content, you can immerse yourself in the story itself.”

He gave me a lopsided frown. “But isn’t that
beside the point?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, don’t you think the point of reading
erotic fiction is because it’s
erotic
?” His frown flipped to
the other side of this face. “It’s like buying a porn magazine for
the sake of the articles rather than the naked girls.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Uh…really?”

I nodded firmly but faintly. “But it’s not all
that interesting.”

“Ah—” He gaped then slowly closed his mouth for
a moment. “Didn’t you say it
grew
on you.”

“I meant the story grew on me. I apologize for
the misunderstanding.”

Caelum regarded me quietly for a moment. “So how
many did you read?”

“Three of them. The Countess recommended one
where the protagonist is the student council president of an elite
school.”

“Oh really….”

“Yes, and she finds herself involved in various,
sexual encounters.”

“Is that so? Give me an example.”

“Well, there’s one scene where she and a boy
from the student council engage in activities while inside a
storeroom. They make a mess of the place.”

Caelum dropped his utensils. “Wh—what did you
say?”

My palm-slate chimed a few times.

I read the message that had arrived..

Caelum glanced at my palm-slate, his utensils
and lunch forgotten. “A message?”

“Yes, I’ve been summoned to the Student Council
President’s office.”

“I see. Well, you’d better go. Don’t keep him
waiting.”

“Caelum—”

“Go Caprice.” He gave me a firm smile. “Don’t
waste time. I’ll be waiting for you here or I’ll see you back in
class.”

I didn’t feel like leaving him. I considered
ignoring the summons, but Caelum regarded me with a steady
look.

“Caprice, go for the both of us.”

He went back to eating his lunch, some sort of
pasta with an overabundance of shredded cheese.

For a few moments I watched him eat his meal
with glee. He also had a window seat so he could observe the girls
in the Track-and-Field club run around the sporting track. I sighed
inwardly as I watched him engrossed in the vision of the girls
wearing their skintight shorts and tank tops.

I spared a look around the cafeteria. To my
chagrin, he wasn’t the only one lecherously admiring the girls from
a distance.

Once more I sighed inwardly, then left him to
enjoy his lunch meal and the view.

He hadn’t fooled me though.

I could sense his bitterness at having been left
out of the summons. He might have agreed to reluctantly help the
Student Council, but I knew that he was also glad to have a reason
to use his Fragment and to put months of training into effect.

It was a reason to inflict trouble on Crimson
Crescent.

But now his Fragment had been taken from him by
the Lanfears who’d bestowed it on him.

How could he not feel bitter and betrayed?

At the exit to the cafeteria I glanced over my
shoulder at him.

Caelum was looking down at the pasta on his
plate with a despondent look on his face.

A dull ache spread across my chest. I turned
away and hurriedly exited the cafeteria.

I didn’t want to see him this way. It reminded
me of the first days of his training, where he struggled with the
simplest and easiest of moves; where he struggled for even a few
minutes on the exercise equipment.

But he’d persevered. He’d pushed on, and little
by little those months of training had paid off. I’d seen firsthand
how strong a Familiar he was, and I’d witnessed him manifesting
both shield-blades. His predecessor had taken a half year to
achieve that. Caelum had done it in three months.

I arrived at the Student Council room feeling
bitter and angry as well.

I was glad the door opened before I knocked on
it.

I might have punched a jagged hole in it.

I managed a deep breath before entering the
room.

I wasn’t the first to arrive, but most probably
the last.

Maya Khayman stood beside Rina Sayen. To the
right of them and beside a wall of shelves stood the last person I
ever expected to see in the room.

Constance Peligree.

I almost summoned my Valkyrie Armor on the spot,
but a sharp cry from Simone Alucard held me back at the last
heartbeat.

I couldn’t help throwing Simone a hard,
disbelieving look. “What the Hell is this?”

“It’s a compromise,” Severin Kell responded
indifferently while cutting off Simone.

Simone was left open mouthed. I didn’t miss the
glare she gave Severin, and realized all was not well between them.
It was clear to see that Simone resented Severin. That resentment
had been absent last week.

Saturday’s debacle must have driven a wedge
between them.

There was one more person in the room.

The golden haired, buxom beauty, Prissila
Ventiss Raynar. She was dressed in the white uniform of a senior
like Severin. Her skirt looked a little shorter than regulation
wise, and her school blouse was stretched around her chest much
like Simone’s. Both girls wore designer label high heels on their
feet.

In terms of looks, I noticed how evenly matched
the two girls were.

I snorted inwardly and crossed my arms, unable
to relax in the presence of the person who’d tried to kill me only
four days ago.

I swallowed down some of my apprehension, and
asked, “Why is she here?”

Severin replied in a cold manner, “As I stated,
it’s a compromise between the Raynar, Lanfear, Sora and Avenir
Prides.”

Maya Khayman placed a hand on her hip. “Care to
explain?”

Severin swept his gaze over us all and it ended
upon Simone. “The Student Council’s actions against Crimson
Crescent are now under the supervision of Special
Interventions.”

Maya and Rina looked confused.

Constance bit her lower lip with an expression
that said she was here under duress.

Prissila Ventiss had a veiled look of
unhappiness, while Simone Alucard grimaced ever so faintly.

As for Severin Kell, his appearance betrayed
nothing.

He looked like an unflappable butler.

As for me, I succeeded in slipping into my
disaffected persona, but I had a little trouble holding onto
it.