Pride x Familiar by Albert Ruckholdt Page A

this.
    Simone looked offended but recovered her
composure a heartbeat later. “Yes. Your Guardians have agreed to
the terms.”
    Severin cut in smoothly. “Consider this a test.
A demonstration of how well you can work together. A demonstration
of trust .” He smiled thinly. “Of course, if you fail to
apprehend the intruder we’ll all be held responsible.”
    I snorted. “We go down, you go down.”
    “Unfortunately,” he agreed.
    I exhaled loudly and looked up at the dimly lit
ceiling. “Well then, I guess it can’t be helped. We’ll just have to
nab the intruder and steal their Fragment.” I had a sudden thought,
and looked down at the Countess. “Assuming we capture this
individual and you get the Fragment, do we get a prize for our hard
work?”
    The Countess looked puzzled. “A prize?”
    I nodded. “Yep.”
    I sensed Caprice tense sharply beside me.
    “Dear gods,” she muttered. “You’re not serious
are you?”
    I frowned at her. “But I haven’t asked for
anything yet.”
    “You don’t have to. I know you well enough,” she
retorted despondently, dropping her emotionless persona in the
process.
    “Ara ara, could it be?” Simone crossed her arms,
but then chose to tap her lips with a fingernail.
    “But I haven’t asked for anything yet,” I
repeated.
    Simone stopped tapping her lips. “Ara ara, are
you saying you don’t want a prize?”
    “I haven’t said that either.”
    She gave me a smile full of regret. “I’m sorry,
Caelum, but I can’t give you the prize you desire.”
    I kept my eyes on her face. “You can’t?”
    She shook her head. “I cannot.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I make it a habit…not to wear any.”
    My eyes widened as I realized what Simone
Alucard was implying.
    There was stunned silence in the room as
everyone else realized what she meant.
    I heard the air expel out of Caprice’s lungs in
a furious rush. When I glanced at her, Caprice had grown bright
red.
    She turned to face me with an accusing look in
her eyes.
    Oh no! She thinks I told Simone about her black
racy underwear in my drawer.
    I opened my mouth to deny her accusing thought,
but couldn’t utter a single syllable in my defense.
    Suddenly Simone laughed, and calmly folded her
arms under her breasts.
    I glanced at the room’s other occupants.
    Severin regarded me as though I’d just confirmed
his worst opinion of me.
    Maya considered me akin to toxic waste.
    Rina had tears of shame in her eyes.
    But Caprice looked ready to knife me on the
spot, and her emotionless persona had been completed discarded.
    I tried pleading for leniency. “But I didn’t…ask
for anything.”
    Severin Kell cleared away the holovid and the
room’s lighting returned to normal. “I think we should end things
here for now,” he announced with a faint grimace.
    The Countess smiled brightly as she said, “In
that case, Caelum. Would you be so kind as to help me out with an
errand?”
    I gave her wary – no, make that a terrified
look. “An—an errand? Me?”
    She nodded, and her smile changed. “Yes. It
won’t take long.”
    I was reminded of the smile Prissila Ventiss had
thrown my way.
    I found the two women smiled fearfully
alike.

Reflections – 5.
    It wasn’t the blood of an Aventis that made me
stronger.
    It was the parts of the Symbiote swimming around
in it that gave me a ‘power up’.
    Described simply, the Symbiote is like a thread
that winds itself through every nook and cranny in the human body.
Maybe it’s more accurate to describe it like a vine that has access
to almost ninety seven percent of the body’s internals. As result
it’s able to heal injuries quickly, and fight off disease, bacteria
and viruses well before the human body is even aware of the dangers
lurking within.
    The Symbiote has an innate understanding of
what’s harmful to a human.
    It’s almost like an immune system built upon our
immune systems. What the human body knows, it knows. On many
occasions it actually knows