Gwyn spent some of her night picking pieces of brain matter out of her hair, she didn’t know when they got there but she could guess how. The maids had been rather professional about it, she guessed they were used to it.
As soon as she had entered the halls she had been commandeered by the army of maids and hauled off to the sprawling bathrooms. She was stripped, scrubbed and lotioned up before she even knew what was happening, the shock of a surprise full body waxing did wake her up something fierce.
Gwyn lay relaxing in the vast tub after her manhandling just thinking about her new life.
A week ago she was a shy, nervous wreck of a girl who’d run away from the mean looks and snarky comments of the school bullies.
Now?
Now she’d blow out a man’s brains without flinching.
She could do without the gore in her hair but that was the price one had to pay to make a point, plus if the thief and princess had a happily ever after she could have her own maids clean it off.
Gwyn raised her now clean hand out of the endless bubbles, the very same hand that the orb had burned and entered.
Was it the reason that she was so cavalier about killing or was she always like this, just hidden away?
Unlike Cécilia, Gwyn didn’t have the excuse of a specific lack of empathy, just the opposite really. She didn’t know why she could do the things she did, perhaps she liked killing?
She shivered despite the warmth of the bubble bath, letting her hand splash down into the waters sending the bubbles flying into her face, much to the amusement of the maid behind her.
That maid was currently washing her hair with an assortment of hair-care products, from various floral shampoos to creamy conditioners. Now that her green hair was free of matted blood it shone and bounced like never before, she suspected the maids had been gossiping about Tatiana and her relationship as they seemed to be taking more care of her than before.
Not that it mattered in the end, Tatiana appeared to like her with or without blood in her hair for some inane reason.
Once she was clean the maids excitedly dried her off with fluffy towels, rubbing her body all over, then dressed up like a doll in a considerably comfortable outfit in her favorite shade of green.
Knowing her lack of direction in the estate they led her back to Tatiana’s dining hall where the smells of cooked food were already making her ravenous stomach ache. Her use of her abilities had already drained her something fierce.
All her friends were already in the hall awaiting her, themselves fresh and clean too.
“There you are Gwyn! Come sit, food will be ready shortly”
Tatiana patted a chair beside herself.
She, as the princess of this castle, sat at the head of the table with Cécilia to her right while Marion had left a gap for Gwyn on the left. It seemed selfless but Gwyn saw through her ploy, she’d be trapped between all three.
Alas the trap was too tempting to resist, or maybe that was the food.
As soon as she sat down, the efficient maids started bringing out a vast quantity of food to the table; seared meats that still ran with clear juices, steaming vegetables that unleashed an aroma that had her salivating and wines of the best vintages, or so she was told.
Gwyn’s own plate received two to three times as much as the others, her body seemed to never be full or suffer from overindulgence. It was one of her favorite aspects of the system.
The conversation was as light as the food was heavy, only the clinking of cutlery was heard as they devoured the heavenly meal.
Eventually she had to sit back in a food coma, sipping on the last of her wine with rosy cheeks.
“Should I send your compliments to the chef?”
Tatiana teased her but to Gwyn’s surprise did just that when she absentmindedly nodded, not that she was wrong of course as Gwyn did love the food.
Now that she was properly stuffed full of good food, she wanted to know how much they had learned from Samatha the corpo.
“What did we find out from our corpo-rat?”
Tatiana smirked at her before letting her know about the information retracted from the captured woman, Gwyn didn’t know what had happened to their rat. She suspected that having blackmail on a corpo-lackey was too tempting to waste for Tatiana and she was let go, just now with a hook in her.
“According to dear Samantha, the prototype that you have inside yourself was stolen from the Tawaga Corporation’s RnD division. They were ordered to get it back by upper management and so they hired that mercenary company to retrieve it by any means necessary.”
“So they weren’t the ones that were after it at the school?” Cécilia asked from her spot across the table.
Gwyn playfully glared at her as was lightly kicked under the table, this did however escalate into a silent foot war under the table between the pair, unknown to the rest.
“It would seem that way, so we are back to square one on that account,” Tatiana took a sip of wine before continuing, “it’s not all bad news however as we now know where you get your abilities from. According to Samantha, it was an experimental nano-machine device that was meant to allow the user to rapidly tap into stored information. Essentially what they wanted was a device capable of giving skills to others.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Skills? Like Gwyn’s charm?” Marion asked as she too ended up in the foot war, she had been accidentally kicked thus drawing her from her neutrality.
“But how? It seems so much more than, I don’t know, making someone good at math.”
Gwyn was having a hard time both understanding the device and fending off a two pronged assault on her slim legs.
“Samatha didn’t know the hows only the whys.” Tatiana looked just as annoyed as Gwyn felt.
The table jumped as Gwyn’s knee was accidentally bumped into the underside, Tatiana looked at her quizzically and suspiciously so the trio silently declared peace, ushering in a new cold war between them.
Ultimately the tiredness of the day hit them hard in their post-meal bliss, they’d been up most of the night in high adrenaline situations. So they retired to Tatiana’s bedroom, collapsing upon her massive bed in a pile with only the dutiful help of her maids allowing them to tiredly get dressed in their nightwear beforehand.
As she began to drift off she thought about the school, about who could have wanted the prototype and what for.
----------------------------------------
Gwyn did theoretically have a week off school as she had been allocated that time off to help her mother, however with that same mother being brutally gunned down she doubted that she’d be allowed that leave.
Logically she should be able to take time off to deal with the funeral and her mother’s will.
Tatiana had put in a call to her father’s lawyers to take a look into her parents wills, her father was declared missing and presumed dead after he couldn’t be reached by either the police or Tatiana’s contacts.
In the end she was awarded all her parents' assets, she did suspect there was some funny business involved as she doubted that her parents left her anything.
It didn’t matter to Gwyn anyway, Tatiana vastly outstripped her in terms of wealth and wasn’t shy about throwing money at Gwyn.
In fact she greatly enjoyed doing so.
Case in point the group was currently lounging at an ice-cream parlor that the rich girl had just bought, simply because Gwyn wanted ice-cream, although that could have been another conversational judo move on the others’ part.
Gwyn didn’t recall wanting ice-cream before the conversation had started but once again it was somehow her idea.
“So I guess we should return to the school and look for whoever is after this prototype?”
Gwyn broke the relaxing atmosphere of the group date, the massive fishbowl of an ice-cream milkshake lay empty before them, four straws lay discarded within.
“I suppose we should.” Tatiana pouted as she held Gwyn’s hand.
On the other side of the table Cécilia and Marion were secretly whispering to each other, their own hands intimately entwined. Gwyn was mistrustful of their peaceful silence as the cold foot war between the group looked to be on the path of an outbreak.
Lines had been drawn and Gwyn looked to be starkly alone in the upcoming clash.
“I was hoping we could see some movies together.” Tatiana sighed as she rested her head on Gwyn’s shoulder, unaware of the brewing conflict.
“Wait? I have the week off but aren't you three skipping school?”
Tatiana just waved her off “what are they going to do about it?”
Gwyn just huffed.
“Who do we think is involved at the school?” Marion broke into their conversation as she had ceased collaborating with Cécilia for the moment.
“Well we know there’s a groundskeeper and someone in the security” Cécilia stated the small amount they actually knew.
It was kind of sad that was all they knew for all the killing they had done, not even Tawaga Corp knew who had stolen their prototype.
“Do you think that Principal Godheart is involved?” Marion ventured as she gently kicked Gwyn under the table.
“Personally? No. I think that my mother manipulated her into sending me out but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t involved with this other part, but it doesn’t quite make sense to me.”
Her own retaliatory strike was expertly defended by Cécilia, she was both outclassed and outgunned.
“How so?”
“I don’t know, she felt rather possessive about her school and students. I don’t think she’d put either in danger. We could always test her to find out, I bet she’d want to talk to me about my mother’s death.”
Gwyn was feeling pressured by the others in their secret war as she’d been pushed back from her borders and into her heartlands, her upper thighs. She was tempted to escalate by calling in the higher powers, namely Tatiana’s long legs.
“Sure but could you three stop that! You’ll spill my latte!” Tatiana snapped at them, she wasn’t as oblivious as they had thought.
“Join me Tatiana, come to my side we must resist these invaders!” Gwyn wanted to win this war and Tatiana was a good bet as she was massively competitive.
“Why should I?”
Tatiana raised an imperious eyebrow at Gwyn, she didn’t look that interested in their childish games. Gwyn smirked before leaning over to seductively whisper in the dark haired girl's ear. As she murmured her price, Tatiana grew redder and redder before rapidly nodding.
Gwyn had been wanting to find out if the Kiss of the Succubus worked in other places.
In the annals of the bloody battle of the ice-cream parlor it was said that Tatiana won the battle with a fierce and desperate viciousness that left many wounded. The other girls scowled at her as they hobbled to the car, Gwyn was dragged along by an excited and flushing Tatiana.
They had decided to delay their return to school till the next day as Gwyn had rewards to distribute.
----------------------------------------
The next morning was embarrassingly awkward, Tatiana was a loud girl it turned out. In addition the other girls had heard and seen everything, in her passion Tatiana had been rather bossy and made them stay, much to her mortification later.
Nobody could maintain eye contact for even a second without blushing heavily.
The Kiss of the Succubus had been rather potent as she had to practically carry the quaking girl all morning, the other two look both envious of Tatiana and apprehensive of Gwyn’s new usage of her power
Tatiana hung off Gwyn’s arm with a dreamy smile and a glow about her cheeks.
Due to the heavy security at either side of the station they had to leave all their weapons at home, not even a boot knife or letter opener was allowed through. They didn’t bother disguising themselves as whoever was after them would already know that they were around.
As soon as the hover-train arrived at the school station all four of them received a notice that they needed to report to the principal's office immediately.
That sobered up the group fast.
Gwyn was confident in the fact that Principal Godheart was innocent, like 90%.
80%?