"If claims have been set that I'm not aware of, please...speak up."
"You know the Doctrine, Cole. Why else would Kadence be with Giselle and Lindsey?"
He had a point. He also had to be wrong.
"I saw the way you looked at her." Jake righted himself.
"She jumped me in Crystalline. Threw me to the ground." Cole grinned wide at the memory. She was strong, too. "How should I have looked at her?" He half-laughed. "We have Filios Daemoneum and the Nefarius to worry about, Jake, the Ward to defend, not to mention all the gateways, Shadow grounds, and Hives to deal with. Danny and I have been tracking an Alveare for hours, doing our job, while you and your friends are partying at some random club, and you're trying to beat my ass because of how I looked at a girl?" What a dick.
"Just stay away from her."
"Just kiss my ass, Jake." It would have been easy to say, okay. Keep the peace like they were supposed to do, but Cole hadn't jumped Jake in the parking lot with his back turned like a coward—so the words fell out of his mouth without regret.
"You have Tiffany, Cole. It's not an option." Jake's words poured gas on the fire already churning.
"Take care of that pretty face, before I do it more damage. I'd hate for it to fester." Cole walked away, ignoring Jake’s last words.
***
Kade made her way up the stairs of her house and onto her front porch, the cabin's wide logs squeaking underneath her boots. Half a dozen dead plants slumped out of terra cotta pots, the early onset of winter having killed off everything within a hundred mile radius of the Rockies. The mountains stood around Boulder, Kade's house, the same way they had everywhere she'd lived, like ever-looming sentinels. Always staring—always watching.
Unlocking the front door, she walked inside the house.
"Kadey?"
Kade smiled at the normal tone of her dad's voice, just as something assaulted her nose and eyes. Her dad came around the corner, eyeglasses askew, hair disheveled, and bathed in a gray cloud. Two half-charred oven mitts were on his hands, a smoking casserole dish held between them. "It's lasagna."
"It's really late, Dad." Coughing, she ran past him for the exhaust fan. A thick plume of smoke poured from the open oven. Shoving the door closed, she clicked on the fan, just as the smoke detector went off, piercing the house with a deafening blare.
Her dad dropped the ruined dinner on the stove top, yanked the oven mitts off, and bolted to the utility closet. "I'll get it."
The sound of the broom whacking the fire alarm touched her ears. Another whack, and it must have fallen to the ground because it stuttered and made a weak, dying squeal. Kade was surprised the thing still worked at all with as many times as her dad had pummeled it in the past month.
"Think it's time for a new one." Her dad held the broom in one hand and the busted up smoke detector in the other.
"Why are you making lasagna at this hour?"
"I had to work late." He put the scorched casserole in the sink, turned the faucet on, and shoved the oven mitts in the drawer. Although her dad always tried, he couldn't cook.
"Drive thru?" He grinned.
"Sure. Just let me put on my coat. It's freezing." On the way upstairs, Kade checked the thermostat. Sixty-eight degrees. Who ever said sixty-eight degrees was warm was on drugs. She hit the little up arrow button to seventy-two.
Her bedroom was the same as she'd left it. U-Haul boxes everywhere. Clean clothes dumped on her unmade bed, notebooks and paper scattered across the desk, and her new Mac displaying nothing but a black screen. Kade searched the floor for the power cord and plugged it in. She'd need to learn to use it soon. It might be the only source of communication to the outside world when she took up residence in the common house.
Shoving her coat overtop the jacket she was already wearing, she stomped back down the stairs. Her dad stood by the front door twirling his car keys around his finger.
"You know, we could get you a new coat this year if you want? That one's last year’s and all that."
Kade ambled out to the front porch, into the freezing cold, down the front porch steps, slipped, and landed with a hard thump on her butt.
"Whoops." Her dad helped her to her feet. "Looks like ice is forming early this year, too. Need to buy some salt."
"Yeah." Kade tried to brush off the freezing water, but it had already seeped through the denim.
"So? The coat?" Her dad unlocked the truck.
"Sure. Thanks." Climbing into the SUV, Kade cranked the heat.
"Excited to start school?" They backed out of the driveway and onto the half-paved road, tires crunching over loose rocks. The high beam headlights caused the pine trees to light up like an eerie Christmas display.
Kade shrugged. "Not really."
"I got new snow tires put on your car today."
"Thanks. Giselle and Lindsey are picking me up, though. So I don't look completely out of place, or get lost the first day." Her focus remained on the trees.
"That's thoughtful, but you met all your teachers at the open house. I'm sure it will be fine. I think this move will be better."
Kade hoped that was true, but doubted it. How could making your kid move into a boarding house with strangers be better?
"I know that look," her dad said. "What's wrong?"
"Why do I have to move somewhere with a bunch of kids I don't know? You'll be all alone." She stared at the distant porch lights shining through the trees.
"You know why. My new position at the hospital is going to require a lot of traveling. I can't leave you at home alone."
"But I'm almost eighteen, Dad, a senior, and you barely let me have any friends anyway. What am I going to tell people at this common house when they start asking questions?" More lies. "I can manage a few nights a week alone."
"Kadence, you know that's not an option. Student housing will be fine. You have a few weeks of living here before you need to settle in, and it's no close friends. Just tell the kids at the common house the same thing you tell them at school."
Lies.
"You're quiet anyway." He patted her knee. "Just keep it that way."
Kade shifted her gaze back to the window. Only a faint sliver of moon was visible through the trees. When night descended over the mountains in the winter, it was as though a deathly blanket of shadows covered everything. There were no sounds, only stillness. It had to be one of the loneliest places on Earth.
"I heard talk," her dad said, "rumors at the hospital, that there have been some fights around town. Gang related. Near the abandoned coal mines."
"Yeah?" Kade pictured Jake and Cole arguing.
"Either of your new acquaintances know about it?"
"Not that they said. Why?"
"I just want you to be safe." He clicked on the radio. "You know the rules."
"The rules are stupid," Kade mumbled. "Why are we even talking about this? I'm not hanging out with anyone but Giselle and Lindsey, and they know nothing about me. I don’t even ask them any questions, and I seriously doubt they were involved in any fights." She pictured Giselle with her high heeled boots and short skirt throwing a punch. "And I wasn't near any mines. I'm not that stupid."
A flood of lights drenched the paved city streets in white, green, and red, as they turned onto the main road.
"No one said anything about you being stupid. And the rules are for your protection. For everyone's. Don't forget that." They rolled up to the drive thru window at the burger place. "The usual?"
"Yeah." Kade stared at the impending blackness in the distance. "The usual."
5
LINDSEY'S CAR WAS EASY TO TRACK from Crystalline up the mountain. Besides the fact she always drove so damn slow, her Jetta ran on diesel fuel. Cole could've followed that horrible smell from Montana if he'd wanted to.
"You haven't had enough for one day?" Danny's brow furrowed. "We've been to two states and a different country in just a few hours."
"Take my Jeep back to the common house if you're tired
." Cole turned up the mountain road and switched on his high beams.
"This isn't your problem."
"The Shadow said, 'her.' He said the Patriarchae would come for her. I have to check it out."
"I'm not deaf. I heard what it said. It could've meant anyone." Danny yawned. "It also said we were all dead." He turned his hands over like he was inspecting them. "I don't look dead. I don't trust a damn word that comes out of any Nefarius' mouth. They're scheming liars."
"The scheming liars were hunting Kadence. Why else did she tackle me? She thought she was protecting me." The thought put a stupid grin on Cole's face.
"We don't know that. She could just be a klutz and a terrible dancer."
Cole eyed him. "Really?"
"Anyway, as much as I hate to admit it, even if the thing did mean Kadence, which is so damn unlikely, Jake was right. The rules are set."
Cole shifted gears. "Until we know where Kadence is placed, I'm not breaking any rules. I'm just making sure Giselle took her home."
"You like her."
"Giselle?" Cole smirked.
"Shut up. I meant Kadence."
"I talked to her for three minutes. If that. And I'm following a lead. That's what we do. It's my job. Yours, too. Get your feet off the dash."
"You drive a Jeep—my feet aren't hurting the dashboard. Anyway...once we know who, what, where, and why, it's our job to keep an eye out, but until we do, Kadence isn't on the 'to do' list. Watching her isn't following the lead on the crystal we found. We don't even know this girl. And she was with Giselle. That's all the information we need on her.”
"I think she's a fledgling." Cole's gaze shifted toward Danny. "Kadence."
His brows hit his hairline. "Because?"
"She didn't know what I was—she freaking tackled me to the ground in a club full of people. Didn't you notice how out of place she seemed at Crystalline? Nervous? She doesn't know Jake well. Or Giselle. It was obvious."
Kadence could clearly see the Nefarius hunting her, possibly even know how to kill them, but Cole was pretty positive she didn't know much else. That alone was reason to break every rule the Ward had. The thought that Kadence had no idea what she was doing—or why, was disturbing.
"When Warden Caelius said a newcomer was coming, I assumed he meant a transfer from another state—someone who knew what they were. Kadence doesn't." Cole shoved Danny's feet off the dash.
"How can't she know? That goes against the Doctrine."
"Not if she's a fledgling."
"Seventeen-year-old girls aren't fledglings." Danny put his feet back up. "You have to be wrong."
"I'm not." Cole eyed Danny's feet. "It explains why the Nefarius were on her like glue. Easy target." He shook the thought from his head. It only pissed him off.
With any newcomer just awakening to their powers, the Primordial were told to keep their distance and not expose themselves until the fledgling was settled into their common house. But most newcomers were really young, so it was highly unlikely that a person would just run into one on the street—or in a club. Once in a while someone would move from another state or country, but when that happened, they were fully trained, and much older. Kadence should've fallen into the latter category, except she didn't.
"Well, go to the Warden and tell him." Danny crossed his ankles. "This is his problem, not ours—not yours. We need to focus on the crystal we found. The Mortal Coil symbol, and all that other crap the Shadow was rambling about. That's our job.” He yawned again, rubbing his eyes.
"I'm not telling the Warden anything yet. Not in regard to Kadence, anyway.” Cole pulled off the side of the road and knocked Danny's feet off the dashboard again. He grabbed a roll of gauze from the glove box.
"Because that would be too simple a solution?”
"When the Warden realizes there's an issue in regard to Kadence, I'll let him take it from there."
"This isn't your problem to fix."
"You don't know that yet." Cole wrapped the gauze around his bleeding bicep, covering the worst of the tear. He wanted to punch Jake in the face for ruining his jacket.
“Really? It's pretty damn obvious how this is going to go. We have a Doctrine, rules we live by, an oath we abide by, or did you forget all of that? No, you didn't because you taught it to me. Maybe we should ask Tiffany how it reads. I'm sure she's memorized the Doctrine word for word."
"This isn't about her." What could Cole say? Danny was right. Alliances were fixed in stone. Rules were set—had been set forever, as far as any of them knew, and Cole never had any intention of breaking even one of them.
Until now.
"Kadence was with Giselle,” Danny said. "Leave this alone."
Cole tossed him the keys. "No."
"Leave it alone."
"No." Cole hopped out of the Jeep. "Kade was wielding a crystal in the club."
"What?" Danny almost fell out of the passenger’s door. "Why didn't you say that before?"
"Because I thought...after I saw her with Giselle, that maybe I'd been seeing things...it was dark in Crystalline, lights flashing everywhere, and why would she have a crystal if she was with Jake's crew?"
"I'm completely confused." Danny shook his head.
"So am I."
"You're positive she had a crystal?"
Cole nodded. "I picked it up off the floor and handed it to her. A small telum. I should've said something, but I was—" Too busy staring at her. He'd wanted to say something, but Danny was yelling his name, and the second Shadow was stalking the club because Jake had let it go somehow, and Kadence was staring at Cole like he alone made the sun rise, and Cole just ...froze. The feeling that had come over him when he'd realized who Kadence was, was something he'd never felt before.
“Hello?"
Cole coughed. "Sorry, just thinking."
"Yeah...I see that." Danny smirked. "Listen, I had nothing to do with any of this when it comes up later."
"Your virtue is safe with me." Cole zipped his jacket.
Danny hesitated. "Maybe I should come. Four eyes instead of two."
"And put your virtue under fire? I'll be fine."
Danny glanced up at black sky. "Dammit, you piss me off sometimes. A crystal?"
“Yep.” With a grin, Cole took off, running up the mountain.
***
It took about eighteen seconds before Cole was standing in the woods across from Kadence's house. The two-story home was lit up like a museum. Having a house that resembled a comet in the night sky wasn't exactly operating under the radar, and Cole was fairly sure Kadence was as far under the radar as possible.
"You upped your running time again? I just mastered your last speed increase." Danny came up beside him, out of breath.
Cole smiled. "Told you, you didn't have to come." He tucked himself into the tree line as an SUV pulled into the driveway. Kadence stumbled out the passenger door and lost her balance on the slick driveway. Reaching for the side mirror, she stopped herself from falling, her dark blond hair billowing over her shoulders like a cloud. Cole took a step forward, an overwhelming need to make sure she was okay jolting through him, but Danny halted him with a hand on his arm.
The expression on Kadence's face, jaw set, hazel eyes narrowed, told Cole she probably wouldn't have appreciated his help, anyway—or anyone's. Her dad, or who Cole guessed was her dad, opened the front door, and Kadence stomped across the yard, her heart-shaped face all red. Cole wondered if she was mad that she almost fell. With a grin, he watched her stomp up the front steps and enter the house. She wasn't anything like he expected. Unable to stop smiling, he turned around.
"Really, dude?" Danny stared at him. "Did we come all the way up here so you could stare at some girl you don't know?"
"Shut up." Cole made his way across the road. For a mountain house, theirs really was over the top. Way too nice and way too bright. It stood out, and that was something the Primordial tried to avoid.
“So, we’re good now? There's nothing here.” Danny
tracked across the road after him. “Giselle did what you told her to, which further confirms that Kadence is one of them. Crystal or not. Can we go now? You can ease your weary mind and all that?"
Cole glanced toward the second-story windows and back at the forest. He'd come to make sure the house was all clear and nothing unwanted had tracked Kadence home, and everything seemed...fine, but, without her being under the protection of one of the common houses, it would've been all too easy to do, and— "You know only Primori can wield crystals."
"Yes, I know that." Danny yawned. "You had to have seen it wrong. It was dark in Crystalline."
Cole shrugged. "Maybe."
"She's fine. Nothing followed her."
With a halfhearted nod, Cole glanced at the upper windows again. He had an overwhelming urge to knock on the door, but of course that was completely insane. Kadence didn't even know him, not to mention it was probably near midnight.
"Her dad's here." Danny motioned toward the SUV in the driveway. “She's safe. The Nefarius didn't mean Kadence. Come on. We still need to let Plumb and Warden Caelius know what we found in the Hive, and I'm tired as hell."
Cole's feet seemed glued to the ground. He couldn't quite make them move. He didn't know that feeling—that odd sinking sensation. Kind of like falling, or driving over a bump in the road too fast. He couldn't catch his breath, either, and he didn't want to leave.
"At that kind of speed, I'll beat your time back down the mountain without even having to run." Danny edged forward.
Cole cracked a smile, and Danny, taking that as a sign of encouragement, apparently, took off. With a curse and a groan, Cole took one last glance at the house before racing after him.
***
The Brotherhood common house sat high in the mountains between a stretch of low lying valleys and sharp cliffs riddled with gorges. With brown logs, and a green metal roof, the large house had been built into the side of the mountain. At a distance it was hard to see from the rocky road, and that was the point: concealment.
The property stretched over twenty acres, and between the size of the compound itself, the high altitude of its location, and the rough terrain surrounding it, most visitors and curious eyes were kept to a minimum, just the way they liked it.
CRYSTALLUM (The Primordial Principles Book 1) Page 4