CRYSTALLUM (The Primordial Principles Book 1)

by McMann, Laney

  "Why are we leaving already?" Giselle bounced up and down in her high heeled boots, her cheeks and nose red from the cold.

  "Lindsey doesn't want to break curfew." Kade leaned against the wall, trying to block the worst of the wind. "Why didn't you bring a jacket?"

  "There's nowhere to put it in the club, and it's like an oven in there."

  Kade shoved her hands in her pockets, shivering. "Why's it so cold in August?"

  "August in the mountains." Giselle lifted a perfectly tweezed brow. "Around here, you never know what the peaks might stir up." She gave a cryptic grin.

  Kade tried to grin back, but wasn't successful. She gripped the crystal in her pocket, calming her ricocheting nerves, relaxing the prickling sensation along her jaw and near her temples. The night sky loomed, stars twinkling, the Rockies white caps in the distance, and movement from the corner of her eye caused her head to turn.

  Leaning against the wall, Cole stood with his hands in his jeans pockets, the crisp, night air sweeping his hair off his face. Ankles crossed, his head tipped back toward the heavens.

  "Where the hell is he?" The guy who'd been with Cole in the club stood on the curb, his green-eyed gaze dancing.

  "Who knows?" Cole didn't shift his position.

  "You know the Nefarius was full of shit, right?" The guy paced. "The Patriarchae has found the Araneum?"

  Cole didn't respond.

  Kade wasn't sure what his friend was talking about. She thought some of the words were Latin, but with all the people walking up and down the sidewalk, it was hard to hear.

  "Cole," his friend continued. "Don't give it any thought. Seriously. Don't. The thing was just trying to get to you."

  "Shut up, Danny." Cole peeled himself off the wall, and his gaze shifted along the sidewalk and locked with Kade's. He grinned.

  A quick thrum of energy pounded inside her chest and Kade released a breath.

  "What's your deal tonight?" Giselle griped. "Are you having seizures or something? Breathing weird, falling down..." She fiddled with the zipper on her purse.

  "It's just cold.” Kade didn't take her eyes off Cole.

  His brows cinched and he glanced at Giselle. "Is she with you?"

  "Yeah." Giselle piped up, surprising Kade.

  Cole's jaw clenched, sharp angles marking the lines of his beautiful face. He inhaled a deep breath and stared at Kade. "Seriously?"

  "I..." She frowned, having no idea what to say. Cole seemed so nice inside, sweet even, besides the conceited thing.

  "You need to get her out of here." He eyed Giselle.

  Kade's mouth dropped open.

  "Don't tell me what I need to do, Cole." Giselle slung her purse over her shoulder. "She's fine."

  With a glance at Kade, he pulled Giselle to the side by her arm. "Were you completely blind to what happened inside a few minutes ago? I'm assuming you lost sight of her at some point?"

  Giselle seemed momentarily bewildered. "We were dancing."

  "Maybe you were dancing, but she wasn't. Take her and go."

  Kade glanced between them, unsure what was going on, and surprised Cole knew Giselle well enough to be arguing with her.

  Cole's friend, Danny, grinned at Kade in a polite, apologetic way. "Just take her home, Giselle. Please."

  "You can't always tell me what to do, Dan. Just—"

  "Giselle's right. You guys need to take off." Jake came up beside Kade, shoulders squared.

  Cole's gaze swung toward him and something darkened behind his eyes. As if the light that made them shine fizzled out.

  Jake chuckled. "Surprise, surprise."

  "Something I should know?" Cole’s voice was suspicious.

  "Seems obvious, I think." Jake shrugged.

  Cole smirked and his eyes turned black. He stood at six foot two probably, and his stance was broad, proud, and predatory, as if he wanted—welcomed—Jake to say something else, anything else, to provoke him. Kade couldn't stop staring at him. "We have a problem."

  "There's no we." Jake made a guttural noise. "I don't know why you're still here."

  "If I didn't have to clean up your mess, I wouldn't be." Cole's glare sparked under the street lights.

  "You didn't have to clean up anything for me."

  "Keep trying to convince yourself of that. I know it's hard. Being second."

  "Is there a problem?" Two other guys took up position beside Jake.

  "Oh, look, it’s Alex and Kyle.” Giselle chimed. "Dumb and Dumber."

  Kade wasn't sure if she was supposed to say hi, or...what? One of them eyed her with clear dislike. Super. Cole's friend, Danny, laughed and nudged Cole. "Come on, let's go."

  "That blood on your shirt, Dan?" Jake asked.

  "Paint."

  "Right. Well, we have the situation under control. You guys need to take off."

  "I handled your situation," Cole said. "And there are a lot of things we need to do." Arrogance radiated off of him like heat. "Heeding your advice isn't on our list. Sorry."

  "Always the smart ass."

  "It's a gift." Cole grinned.

  What the hell is everyone's deal? Kade hoped a fight wasn't going to break out with her standing in the middle of it. She took a step back, away from Jake.

  "Vestris narrate pueri circiter Umbrarum," Cole said, and turned, before stopping short, and glancing at Giselle. "Tollite Kadence domum. Nunc." He and Danny headed down the sidewalk, into the night.

  Kade stared. She had to have misunderstood what he said. Very few people spoke Latin anymore, and even if—

  "Ready." Lindsey came up beside them, jacket in hand.

  "Was that really necessary, Jake?" Giselle piped up, ignoring Lindsey. "Do you always need to say something to him? And you two assholes..." She pointed at the guys beside him.

  "I had to say something," Jake laughed.

  "Let's go. I'm freezing to death." Giselle started down the sidewalk.

  "What'd I miss?" Lindsey shuffled after them, shrugging into her jacket.

  Giselle tugged the front of her skirt down. "Jake and his dipshit friends. Nothing new."

  "It was them causing hell in the line earlier. Douches."

  "Not like Cole and Danny give them a reason not to be." Giselle picked up speed. "Not that I'm defending any of them."

  "See you Monday, Kadence," Jake shouted.

  Kade gave a noncommittal nod and noticed Alex and Kyle take off in the direction Cole had gone.

  "So...what do you think of Jake?" Lindsey pushed her dark hair off her shoulders, and Kadence noticed a small tattoo of wings on the side of her neck.

  "Like she even cares." Giselle's teeth chattered. "Cole's been staring at her."

  "Huh?" Kade eyed her.

  "Why didn't you bring your jacket, like I told you?" Lindsey interrupted, eyeing Giselle's bare arms.

  "What did you want me to do with it while we were in Crystalline? Tie it around my waist?"

  Lindsey withdrew her keys from her pocket. "I said I'd hold it for you."

  "So, you have two jackets to worry about? That makes no sense."

  "It makes sense when it's thirty degrees and you're wearing a short skirt." Her gaze roamed Giselle's legs. "Even Kadence was smart enough to bring a jacket."

  "Don't go there," Giselle snapped.

  Lindsey hit the keyless remote, her headlights flashing in the distance.

  "Anyway... like I was saying, Kade.” Giselle shivered. "Cole isn't someone you want to get involved with. He's hot as hell. But he's trouble."

  "You think he's hot?" Lindsey asked.

  Giselle rolled her eyes.

  Hot was an understatement, Kade thought. Way under, and with the way he'd had her pressed against the wall...

  "Besides the fact that he's hot," Giselle said. "Every girl in school wants him."

  "Leave Kade alone, G." Lindsey flipped her keys around her finger.

  "I'm not doing anything. Where'd you park anyway? Canada? I can't believe we're leaving already. We spent ha
lf the time standing in that stupid line waiting to get in. This is our last free Saturday night. School starts Monday." Giselle took up the rear as they rounded a row of cars. Headlights flashed and all the doors of Lindsey's Jetta unlocked.

  Giselle climbed into the front seat. "So, Kade—no boyfriend, then?"

  "Nope." Kade had told her that about twenty times already.

  "Any exes?" Giselle messed with the heater, fiddling with all the vents before yanking her boots off and rubbing her pink-socked feet.

  "Not really." Kade shifted in her seat, unsure if it was the topic of conversation, the cold leather, or the fact that someone else not only saw the Shadows inside Crystalline, but shattered them, that was making her uncomfortable. The last thing was impossible, though. It had to have been something else.

  "Starting your senior year and you haven't had a serious boyfriend yet?" Giselle yanked a tube of Chapstick out of her purse.

  "Nobody's really kept my attention for very long." Not to mention she'd moved about a hundred times. For reasons she wouldn't be telling anyone.

  "There are some hot guys at Fairfield. Hot, hot. Jake for instance." She winked, and Kade tried to smile, which likely came out as a grimace. It didn't matter how hot the guys were, Kade wouldn't be dating any of them. It was one of the rules per her dad.

  No boyfriends.

  No close friends.

  With as many times as Kade had moved, it'd been easy to stick to the rules. Directing her attention toward the blur of traffic lights, she wondered how she was going to get through another new school. New city. New living arrangements. New life.

  Giselle continued fumbling with the heat, switching it back and forth between too hot and too cold. She yanked the overhead visor down, opened the mirror, closed it, and pushed the visor up again, thrummed her pink nails on the dashboard, opened the glove box, shut it, and opened it again. Kade wondered if maybe she had ADHD. She never seemed to sit still or stop talking. Lindsey turned onto Kade's neighborhood road and darkness descended over the car like it'd been doused with matte black paint.

  "Do you like living up here?" Giselle searched around the floorboard for god only knew what. "This high up, I mean?"

  "I don't know. We've always been in higher elevations." Even in Arizona, Wyoming, and Utah twice. Not that they needed to know everywhere Kade had lived.

  "It's just so damn dark up here." Giselle shivered. "I bet I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face if we turned the headlights off." She grabbed one of her boots off the floorboard and picked at the heel. "Granted, if I had a house that looked like yours, Kadence, I'd probably deal with the spooky feel."

  A lump rose in Kade's throat and she fought the sting in her eyes. Soon enough she'd be living in a common house, as her dad called it, with a bunch of other kids. Strangers.

  The front porch light and all the landscaping lights were in full flood mode as Lindsey stopped in front of Kade's house. From the ground floor to the second floor, the windows glittered like an art museum. It resembled Fort Knox rather than a home someone would actually live in.

  "I mean, look at it." Giselle gestured toward the house.

  Kade unclipped her seat belt, relieved to see her dad's truck in the driveway.

  "We'll be here Monday morning," Lindsey said.

  "'Thank you guys, you know, for hanging out."

  Lindsey waved her hand like it was nothing to hang out with the new girl.

  "Wear something cute for your first day," Giselle said.

  With a nod, Kade made her way up the steep driveway, trying not to lose her footing on the thousands of loose rocks, Cole's last words rattling in her head.

  Tollite Kadence domum. Nunc.

  Take Kadence home. Now.

  Cole wanted Kade away from the club, and that alone concerned her. It meant he knew more than he was letting on. His last words to Jake confirmed it.

  Vestris narrate pueri circiter Umbrarum.

  Tell your boys about the Shadows.

  4

  FROM THE SECOND Cole and Danny rounded the corner from Main Street onto Pearl and headed away from Crystalline, they were being tracked by Alex and Kyle. Idiots.

  With jaw locked and eyes narrowed, Cole shook his head. He didn't have to say a word to Danny, he knew he heard them, too. Since the day they'd met, he and Danny had an almost symbiotic link. It drove Cole crazy sometimes, especially when a girl was involved, but at times like these, when they were being followed—Cole wouldn't have traded the connection to save his life.

  Following the Nefarius' trail for the past twelve hours had wiped them both out, though, so thank god for Leygates. The trip from Utah back to Boulder, and into Crystalline, took all of three minutes, and once Cole realized the Nefarius were converging overtop the dancing tide of bodies inside the club, his energy had spiked again. A few minutes later, he realized why they were hunting in a crowd. Something they almost never did.

  The girl they wanted was the one who'd tackled him.

  Kadence.

  The one the Ward had been waiting for.

  He grinned. She hadn't even seemed afraid for herself. She also clearly had no idea that he was like her—that he didn't need to be protected. Cole still wasn't sure what to make of that. Kadence should've sensed what he was. She should've known. He wasn't sure he should've let her walk away either.

  Danny's footfall quickened, and without a word, he veered toward the opposite side of the street, splitting away from Cole. Kyle was half a block behind them. His cumbersome weight gave him away. Heavy footfall, labored breathing, and stealth mode did not go hand in hand. Kyle was probably too stupid to know that.

  Cole spotted Alex cutting through the parking lot behind the old donut shop. His head weaved through the cars in the dark. Cole chuckled under his breath. Dumb ass. Zipping his jacket up to his throat, the high collar resting under his chin, he shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and deviated off course, heading into the parking lot. Straight toward Alex. He wanted to play tonight? Fine.

  Glass shattered somewhere in the distance. A yell came after it, followed a meaty thwack against metal.

  One down.

  Danny's footfall fell in step beside Cole's within seconds.

  "That was quick. You time it?" Cole didn't slow his pace, keeping Alex on his radar. The street lights cast a glimpse of his dark hair before he disappeared behind another car.

  "Twenty seconds." Danny didn't even sound winded.

  "Losing your touch?" Cole grinned and took a hard left behind a truck before Danny could retaliate. Twenty seconds. Another time he'd have to beat. Danny veered right, away from Cole again, and the scuffing of feet caught Cole's attention. Alex's head bobbed up and down a few spaces over. Cole slipped between two parked cars.

  "Don't hide," Alex taunted.

  "You mean the way you were before?" Cole stepped into the center of the parking lot, in full view, and swiped his hand through the air. A surge of red energy blasted Alex off his feet, throwing him into an SUV. "Or does you stalking me not count?" Cole sauntered toward him. "You've got to explain the rules of the game if you expect me to play."

  Alex popped to his feet and green light slid a row of cars across the parking lot, crashing into each other and careening toward Cole. Halting them with a flick of his wrist, Cole sent them back in Alex's direction.

  "Remind me what we're playing again?" he shouted over the screeching metal against metal, heading at Alex. "Because I forget." Another swipe of his arm, and red light streaked in a hundred directions. Windows exploded, one after another, like gun shots. Something warm trickled from Cole's eye. "I don't hear you, Alex. You still with me? Or did you decide you don't like this game anymore? We could play Checkers if you want? Monopoly? I'm wicked good at cards." He touched his eyebrow. Blood. Dammit. So tricky to control where the glass flew when he made things explode.

  A streetlight shattered overhead raining down shards of glass. Cole sidestepped the falling debris just as Jake came from nowhere, wra
pped Cole's body up, and slammed him on the concrete. Air rushed from Cole's lungs. His head snapped back. Flesh scraped away from his arm, and a surge of red hot anger welled. He hurled Jake into the side of a truck. Jake’s head made contact with a sickening crack, and he slid down the door, landing on his knees on the pavement.

  “Really, Jake?" Cole paced, so pissed off it took all the control he could summon not to launch Jake into the side of the brick building. "I fought alongside you in Crystalline; well, fought is a very broad term in this situation, but this—this," he pointed at his bleeding bicep, the shredded sleeve of his jacket. “Is my thanks? Having your boys track me? It looks like Freddie Krueger got me. I have to buy a new jacket now. This one was my favorite, too."

  "I didn't ask for your help in the club." Jake glared, attempting to stand. "I could've handled both Nefarius."

  "Don't," Cole warned. "Do not stand up." Blood oozed down his sleeve, his arm searing. "You didn't handle anything. I killed both of them. I tracked them here."

  "You need to stick to your own." Jake's voice strained.

  "My own?" Cole's blood pressure hit full speed. The last thing he needed was hearing Jake regurgitate warnings from the Ward. "Meaning? Enlighten me."

  Danny strode through the parking lot, cuts on his cheeks and jaw, knuckles bleeding. His gaze landed on Jake's slumped body. "We done?"

  "We're done," Cole answered.

  "Nice face, Jake." Danny chuckled. "You think you can track the location of your boys? You guys are so stealth apparently." He wiped the blood off his hand onto his jeans. "We can make another game out of it. Here's a hint. One of them is over there." Danny pointed toward the parking lot he'd taken Kyle down in. "And the other one is back there somewhere." His finger redirected toward the donut place. "Good luck."

  Jake didn't answer, and his face was bleeding badly. Part of Cole felt bad about it, until the stab in his arm wiped that guilt right off the map.

  "Let's go." Danny gave a last glance toward Jake. "Maybe you should teach Kyle and Alex how to fight before letting them loose."

  "Stay away from Kadence."

  Cole stopped. "That's what this is about? A girl?"

  "She's not just a girl." Jake stood, resting his hands on his knees, most of his weight leaning against the truck. "You know that."