Pride x Familiar (63 page)

I warned him, “Don’t you dare drop me.”

His smile faltered for a heartbeat as he frowned
down at me in his arms. “Did you always complain this much? I
remember you being such a quiet shy thing.”

His gaze wandered over my face and down to my
chest.

“Impressive. Most impressive.”

I blushed hotly and unwound an arm from around
his neck, fully intending to smack him. But he tested my weight in
his arms and I thought I was going to fall so I hastily grabbed
onto his shoulders.

“Hey—”

“Here we go,” he announced.

I felt the Warlord crouch, then the air hardened
around me. “Caelum—?”

“We’re going to fly,” he declared
confidently.

“Wait—what about the security cannons?”

“Don’t worry. We’re perfectly safe. I know what
I’m doing.”

He certainly did. First that trick where he used
resonance to shatter the rock wall, and now I felt power surging
through the Warlord, emanating into the air around us in the form
of levitator-fields.

How had he learnt to control a Warlord?

Just what had happened to him inside the
Vault?

The Warlord gathered itself into a forward
leaning crouch, then leapt through the shattered doorway. It sped
through the antechamber, moving too quickly for the security
systems to react to. Even when the cannons did fire, they missed by
a wide margin.

The Warlord flew into the tunnel a heartbeat
later.

The air thrummed as the unbelievably powerful
machine soared down the middle of the tunnel.

In the blink of an eye we flew by the remains of
the Special Interventions squad and their vehicles. The tunnel
walls and ceiling were ruined for hundreds of square meters. The
explosion had torn a huge chunk out of the ground and wall nearest
to its epicenter.

I thought Caelum would stop and search for
Melanie.

My thoughts must have been clearly written on my
face, because he replied with a hasty shake of his head.

“She’s not here. I can’t sense any Fragment or
Artifact nearby. Not even pieces of it.”

My eyes narrowed in disbelief. “You can sense
Artifacts?”

He grimaced guiltily. “It’s a long story. No
time to explain.”

Caelum shifted my weight in his arms. “We’re
almost at the exit. There’s a small army camped just beyond the
tunnel’s opening. Ravana can feel them out there. I’ll drop you off
with the soldiers—you’ll be safe with them.”

I stared at him, my confusion spreading across
my face. “What? Why? Caelum, what are you going to do?”

He glanced down at me. “I’m going after my
sister.”

I couldn’t hide my unease. I didn’t agree with
what he was planning and he saw it written on my face.

“Why?” I asked him.

He smiled regretfully at me. “Because she’s my
sister…and I think she’s in trouble.”

“What? How do you know?”

“Ravana can feel another Warlord out there, and
it’s not the Black Camellia.”

I felt my body shiver at his words.

Another Warlord? Did that mean there were now
three Warlords inside Habitat One?

He swallowed noticeably as he looked ahead down
the length of the tunnel quickly coming to an end.

“Caelum?”

“Ravana knows that Warlord,” he said, his jaw
muscles flexing angrily. “And I remember it quite well.”

I had the impression we’d accelerated
tremendously, but something was dampening the sudden surge in
speed.

Then we were out of the tunnel, and I felt
slightly nauseous as though my body was suddenly weightless.

The Warlord that Caelum called Ravana had come
to an unbelievably quick stop. I looked about and saw us hovering a
few feet of the ground, faced by a company of armored vehicles and
armor-skin clad soldiers that formed a crescent around the opening
of the tunnel. We were inside a military base, with a wide open
square atrium and a half dozen levels bordering it. I looked up and
saw rectangular openings in the distant ceiling, then realized that
these openings were intended for the elevator platforms that ran up
and down the perimeter of the atrium, ferrying men and machines
between levels. A section of the base was apparently constructed
above ground.

I could see the facility had suffered recent
damage, and I wondered if Celica was responsible for that.

Within moments of our entry, dozens of
floodlights bathed us in white light.

I squinted sharply.

Caelum’s voice boomed out. “Hold your fire. I
repeat, hold your fire.”

Then someone from the soldier’s ranks yelled out
through a loudspeaker. “Drop to the ground and disengage from
your—from your—from whatever that thing is!”

Caelum boomed back, “I have a civilian with me.
Do not fire on us. We’re not here to fight you.”

“Drop to the ground now, or we will engage
you.”

“You stupid idiots—I’m not here to fight you.
But the first man that fires on us dies.”

I stiffened in Caelum’s arms.

He sounded deadly serious, but so too did the
soldiers.

The soldier with the loudspeaker shouted, “This
is your final warning.”

“Yours too,” Caelum shouted back, his voice
amplified tenfold by some means provided by the Warlord.

“All Enforcers prepare to fire on my mark.”

Without preamble, I heard a roaring wind break
out around us. It gathered strength in heartbeats and formed a
tornado around Caelum and I. Within moments the heavy personnel
carriers and armored soldiers were tossed about like plastic toys.
Those men still on their feet fell into a panic and retreated. A
few of the vehicles managed to back away before the wind could
knock them over, but the ground floor of the base was once again
thrown into disarray.

The soldier booming out orders was drowned out
by the wind.

I heard him cry out a few moments later.

He and his vehicle must have been thrown aside
by the raging tornado that roared around Ravana.

The storm lasted almost a minute before quickly
dissipating.

When it was over, I saw the formation of men and
machinery had been ruined. They lay scattered about the open ground
floor of the base. Very few soldiers were picking themselves up off
the ground. Whatever Celica had started, Caelum had almost
finished.

Ravana moved toward a cluster of men on their
hands and knees. It touched ground, and the Warlord’s hands took me
from Caelum’s arms. Gently, it set me down on my feet on the hard,
permacrete ground.

Then it reached out and grabbed one of the
soldiers struggling to rise.

Caelum’s voice was loud and clear in the quiet
that followed, though the sounds of soldiers moving about and
calling to each other could be heard all around me. Somewhere deep
in the levels above an alarm was blaring but it was silenced
shortly.

Caelum’s words carried far. “This woman is
Simone Alucard Raynar, daughter of Special Interventions Commander
Selena Alucard Raynar.”

Ravana’s hand shook the soldier in its grip.

Caelum’s voice sounded as hard as metal. “If any
harm comes to her, you will have to answer to Commander Alucard…and
to me.”

He released the soldier and the man stumbled
back a few steps.

But the other men on their feet held their
ground and made no effort to raise their weapons.

Caelum faced me. “Simone, I have to go.” He
hesitated before adding, “I’ll see you soon.”

I cleared my throat quickly. “Caelum,
wait—ah.”

Ravana jumped back and I was caught up in the
wind it roused.

Hastily throwing an arm before my face, I felt
the air harden again, and the nauseous weightless sensation
returned. My sense of up and down vanished. I peeked under my arm
in time to see Ravana leap skyward. As it did, my sense of
orientation returned and I felt a tremor race along the ground,
making me stagger.

I looked up to see Ravana arc smoothly toward
one of the rectangular openings in the ceiling. It sailed through
the opening, and then disappeared from view.

I had no idea where in Habitat One we had
emerged.

Regarding my surroundings with a nervously
beating heart, I approached a soldier that I suspected was an
officer.

Bowing to him politely, I made my voice
respectful as I requested his help.

“Sir, my name is Simone Alucard Raynar. Please,
allow me to contact my mother.”

The man studied me quickly from head to bare
feet.

I didn’t miss the look he gave my chest, nor the
way he hurriedly averted his eyes while blushing all the way to his
ears.

“Miss Alucard. Please, do something about
your—your—your clothes.”

I looked down, and saw that most of the buttons
on my blouse were gone, and I was giving the soldiers a competition
winning view of my prized bosom snug in its sheer and lacy white
bra.

Blast that Caelum for not telling me!

This probably happened when he manhandled my
breasts after emerging from the Vault.

Hastily I buttoned up my white blazer across my
chest.

Then I fixed an unforgiving stare on the officer
standing before me.

“As I was saying, would you
please
allow
me to contact my
mother
!”

#

(Celica)

I was vaguely aware I was tossed through the air
like a rag doll.

I think I may have struck something hard –
perhaps yet another tree – and then fallen limply to the
ground.

My broken ribs complained when I landed on my
chest.

The uneven nature of the ground made me think
I’d landed on thick tree roots.

I didn’t have the strength to move.

I could barely breathe and that was only out of
necessity.

Fire burned in my chest every time my lungs
expanded and contracted.

I could feel my ribs moving about.

The Symbiote inside me was hurrying to patch me
up and set my broken bones together.

Fallon undoubtedly knew this, which was why she
kept breaking them anew by crushing my torso with Avienda’s clawed
hands.

Then she would fling me about against the
trees.

I passed out a number of times, only to be woken
up as my body healed and Fallon exacted more torture upon me.

I wanted to scream.

I’d read somewhere that screaming out in pain
helped alleviate it.

But that would have consumed what little
strength I had left.

The torture Fallon put me through didn’t allow
me even that small measure of compassion.

I felt my body rolled over onto its back,
probably by an effect-field used as a manipulator.

My vision was bordered in shades of grey.
Objects appeared indistinct yet I could discern Avienda standing
before me.

I saw a blurry visage looking down at me.

Then I was picked up by the manipulator-field,
and held before a grinning face that was malice personified.

“You did well,” Fallon hissed through crescent
lips, “for a cheap imitation.”

I lost the strength to keep my eyes open but
when the field tightened around my body, my natural response took
over and my eyes widened in response to the pain. Yet despite being
open, I could barely see my surroundings, including the Avienda and
its pilot.

Her voice sounded far away on the other side of
what was possibly the last scream I would ever unleash.

“I want to hear you burst!”

My body compressed, and I felt my bones
break.

For a long while, nothing but intense pain
accompanied me.

However…I didn’t burst apart.

My organs didn’t rupture, my joints didn’t pop,
and my bones stopped breaking.

I was still alive, and the pressure surrounding
me was gone.

I was feeling the after effects of having been
squeezed tightly, and the Symbiote was trying its damnedest to keep
me alive.

But I had been released from the
manipulator-field, and couldn’t understand why Fallon hadn’t killed
me.

As pain raced in unending waves through my body,
and my bones and torn musculature slowly repaired itself through
the Symbiote’s efforts, I managed to look up from where I lay on
the ground. Grass shoots grazed my face as I moved my head a couple
of inches off the soil.

In front of me, some distance away, the Avienda
lay ‘face down’ on the ground.

Standing over it was a Warlord clad in black and
white.

The air between them shimmered as the newcomer
forced the Avienda down, barrier-field against barrier-field.

I shifted my gaze, and counted seven wing-vanes
fanning out from its back.

I raised my head a little higher, and sought a
better look.

Ever so gradually my vision was clearing up, and
I was able to see the newcomer with greater clarity.

While holding the Avienda down – crushing it
into the ground – Caelum turned his head and looked at me.

“Can you get up?” he asked.

His voice sounded muted, but I heard it well
enough.

He’d found it – the Warlord that belonged to our
bloodline’s ancestors. Because I was bonded to the Black Camellia,
I was unable to claim the Ravana.

But Caelum could, especially since he no longer
had a Fragment or Artifact of his own.

I felt a surge of pride for my brother flow
through me, and gratitude toward Simone Alucard for doing her
part.

Finally, events were on the right path, just as
the Seeress had envisioned.

“Caelum….”

“Can you get up? Can you walk? Aggh—”

The Avienda was renewing its struggle to
rise.

He applied more pressure to it, cancelling out
its attempts to break free.

The air didn’t just shimmer anymore. It vibrated
and thrummed audibly.

The ground shook intermittently but regularly as
the two Warlords struggled against each other.

Enormous energies were being expended.