CRYSTALLUM (The Primordial Principles Book 1)

by McMann, Laney

  "Down here, too." Cole ran a finger across a dirty pew. "There's nothing here but this." He motioned toward the serpent symbol on the altar.

  Danny's eyes narrowed. "Et Mortali Spiram. The Mortal Coil. That makes the second one we've found in less than an hour."

  "The second one we've found in an abandoned church. Looks like the Devil's Children have adapted a new trademark."

  "Found this upstairs." Danny tossed something shiny in the air.

  Cole caught a small crystal. "How did this get here?"

  "That's the question of the night." Hands on his hips, Danny heaved a breath, eyeing the walls that years of decay had weathered.

  Cole turned the crystal over in his hand, inspecting the symmetrical faces. Untainted, perfectly translucent. The kind of crystal only the Ward could get its hands on. The kind of crystal that could either heal or harm depending on the owner. "Show me where you found this."

  ***

  "No one told you to leave your jacket in the car." Lindsey picked up speed. "Can't you move any faster?"

  "No." Giselle's high-heeled boots wouldn’t let her run without falling face first onto the freezing pavement. "If we would've left someone's house on time, we wouldn't be so late." She rubbed her hands down her pale arms with a shiver, and gave Kadence an annoyed glare.

  Kade kept silent behind them, shifting the collar of her jacket up against the biting wind. Even after a couple of weeks, she still wasn't sure what she thought of her new “friends.”

  The line outside the Crystalline Club stretched all the way around the side of the brick two-story building, clusters of kids huddled together, bracing themselves against the unseasonable cold. Kade claimed her spot behind Lindsey and a shuffle somewhere near the back caused a tide of bodies to lurch forward.

  "Will you stop pushing!” Giselle swung around, her tiny pink purse flying from her wrist, and turned on a guy behind her. Her green eyes darkened and a mutinous expression creased her brows.

  The guy, who could have been a wrestler with his thick arms and chest, lifted his hands, palms out. "Sorry."

  Giselle made a growling noise, yanking the front of her skirt down. "Stupid people. Can't even stand in a line without being felt up."

  Kadence gave a half-grin. Since moving to Boulder, she'd only met Giselle and Lindsey, and she'd been to Crystalline one other time with them. It was an okay club. All ages like the ones she went to back home in Utah.

  Not that Utah could be considered home.

  Another shove and people yelled from the back of the line. Lindsey stepped away from the crowd, clad in dark skinny jeans and high-top, red Converse. Her five-foot-ten height gave her a good vantage point of the commotion.

  "Oh, hell." She swept her long dark bangs off of her forehead, her red-brown complexion highlighted by the streetlights, and stepped back in line.

  "What?" Giselle rubbed her hands down her pale, thin, goose-pimpled arms.

  "Nothing."

  "What is it?" Giselle glanced over her shoulder. The guy behind her backed up like he was afraid she might try to hit him again and the line started moving. "Finally."

  Glowing drawings over the entrance shifted Kade's attention upward. Snakes with opened mouths leered over the crowd, their fangs dripping with venom. Silver ovals attached by serpent heads and tails lined the door frame, and at the highest point over the entry, a pristine, white oval, larger than the rest, was coiled by a black snake. Averting her gaze, she pushed inside Crystalline.

  Bass ricocheted off the dark walls inside the club, while strobes danced across the faces of the crowd and blinded Kade in scattered spots of white light.

  "What kind of music is this?" Giselle grabbed Kadence's hand, leading her through the swamp of people.

  Sweet, opaque fog engulfed their bodies and miniature green and purple stars flickered down Kadence's black skirt and over her boots. The lights pulsed across red walls, over green and yellow concrete floors, and on Lindsey's laughing face. Her teeth gleamed, her golden eyes eerie. Oscillating fans attached to the ceiling pushed the hair off Kade's shoulders, and more liquid fog descended like hundreds of pearly ghosts onto the crowd.

  "Can you guys breathe?" Giselle waved a hand. "God. They're trying to kill us by suffocation and shitty music."

  Gyrating bodies pressed in, hot and sweaty, as the volume increased. A familiar sensation roiled in Kade's stomach and her body shuddered with a quick, steady vibration. The sensation sang through her arms, over her shoulders, and the air moved. Like ripples traveling over the surface of a calm lake. Gray vortexes formed near the pulsating lights, and black holes grew in the ceiling, as if acid ate away the plaster. Spreading outward, Shadows formed like impending death over the unsuspecting crowd.

  Two of them.

  Two of them no one else would see.

  Kade froze, adrenaline streaming through her body as energy swelled in her core, cutting off her ability to breathe properly. Her shoulder blades strained as if her skin was pulled too tight, and a sharp pang radiated along her jawline, causing her mouth to clamp shut. The Shadows dropped from the ceiling onto the dance floor, their forms blurring around the edges, flickering between deep gray and silver. Narrow, milky eyes centered on Kade's face, lopsided mouths straining to smile, rows of pointed silver teeth gleaming.

  "Afraid?" a voice echoed inside Kadence's head. "Didn't think we'd find you?"

  She didn't answer. Had never answered any of their taunting threats over the years. It only made them more real—only made the fact that she was something other than human harder to accept.

  "We haven't seen Dracon in a while. Have you?"

  Panic infused her as the Shadow moved forward through the crowd, its dead, inhuman gaze remaining centered on her face. She took a step back, remembering the day so long ago that she'd jumped off the cliff to get away from the Shadows—away from Dracon.

  The Shadow continued to grin, a tower of indistinct gray shimmering as if made of vapor. Placing herself in front of Giselle and Lindsey, who were oblivious to the threat, Kade planted her feet, knowing she shouldn’t expose herself. It was against every rule she'd ever been taught.

  Stay calm.

  Stay hidden.

  Don't lose your temper.

  Push the vibrations away.

  Control your emotions.

  Don't let anyone know what you can do.

  And don't expose what you are. Ever.

  Her father's words had become her mantra—but if she didn't protect herself, crowd of people or not, more Shadows would come—and they might kill to get to her. Kade withdrew a small, sharp object from her pocket and checked around, but there was nowhere to run in the club, no empty spaces to lure the Shadows away from the crowd. Turning again, two guys moved swiftly across the dance floor, and someone pushed her into Giselle. Hard.

  "What the hell?" Giselle rounded, her little pink purse flying on her wrist again. "Kade? I thought you were that guy from the line back for another feel." She reached a hand out. "You fell?"

  "Lost my balance." Unable to say another word Kade scanned the crowd. One of the stalker-guys weaved through the horde, nothing but a blur. The Shadows loomed ahead of him, and Kade wanted to scream, to warn the guy to stop, knowing he couldn't see the threat, but he was moving so fast.

  Too fast.

  One of the Shadows rose up, doubling its height. A gray shroud encompassed stalker-guy's body. Electric shocks flitted down Kade's arms, heat radiated over her palms, into her fingertips, enveloped her like a second skin, and she took off, energy tearing through her limbs.

  The ground vibrated, and the Shadow levitated, hanging in the air like a billowing curtain. Stalker-guy's hand swiped through the air. Something red tracked its movement, and Kade crashed into him, her trajectory throwing him backward to the floor. Her body landed on top of him with a thud, and the sharp object in her hand rolled off to the side.

  The guy's breath rushed out. "Are you...are you insane?"

  "I'm so sorry." Ka
de scrambled to get up, eyeing the dark floor for the weapon she dropped. "I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going." Her gaze locked with his and all her air evaporated. His heart pounded against her chest. Energy swelled around them. Blue lights spotted his face, the bridge of his nose, his golden skin, and highlighted hints of blond in his brown hair.

  His gaze shifted upward, away from her. "Dammit." Wrapping an arm around her waist, he tucked her head against his chest and they rolled.

  A sweep of energy rushed over Kade, causing her entire body to vibrate. The club was doused in blinding red light as if all the strobe lights flashed on at once. The Shadow wavered overhead—stunned—and shattered like broken glass, disappearing into nothing.

  The guy's light eyes sparkled as he gazed at her, the weight of his body pinning Kade to the floor. "Are you trying to get us both killed?" His voice came out low, deadly. "Or is this how you usually meet people?" Glancing toward Kade's chest, flush against his, he smirked. "Because I'm not going to lie...it's effective."

  Shaking her head, Kade was unable to get any intelligible words out. "I...um—no." She wasn't sure which question she was answering. The “getting us killed” part, or the “meeting new people by means of tackling them” part. "Sorry... I—" Am an idiot who bum-rushes hot guys in clubs in an attempt to protect them from...the Shadows.

  "Did you need help with something? Or were you content to tackle me and then stay on top of me before?"

  "No...I—" Before she could say another word, in an impossible space of time, the club glowed red again, and they were both standing up against a dark wall. What the…?

  The guy leaned over her, hands against the wall on either side of her head. "I'm not sure anyone has ever wanted my attention badly enough to tackle me before." He glanced toward the ceiling as if he was trying to remember when that might have occurred. "You could've just asked for my number." The edge of his slightly upturned lips lifted.

  “Um…” Bass pounded through the wall at Kade's back. Kids continued dancing, as if no one noticed they had not only crashed into each other, but had instantly moved from the floor to the wall. That couldn't have been right. Kade was breathing too fast to comprehend any of it, though. Especially with the guy's arms caging her against the wall. "Um...what are you doing?"

  "What am I doing?" He grinned. "I believe I was the one who got jumped."

  "Yeah, I...sorry—" She tried to see around him, scan the dance floor for the second Shadow, or the other guy she saw stalking the crowd before. He’d had blond hair, she thought, but stalker-guy was too close, and he smelled so good. Sweet and a little bit spicy. It did funny things to her focusing abilities.

  "The question is—" He leaned close to her ear, and the motion sent a shiver along her neck, the scent of fresh laundry and wildfire flooding her senses. "Who are you? And what were you doing exactly? Because it looked like—"

  “Cole—" a voice chimed from somewhere.

  Stalker-guy sighed. "Finally make it out of the bathroom?" He glanced over his shoulder.

  A guy with short, dark brown hair and deep green eyes leaned against the wall a few feet away from them, grinning. "Something like that."

  So, stalker-guy had a name. Cole. Kade remembered reading about that name in one of her textbooks. It meant triumphant. Victorious.

  With a tilt of his head, Cole faced her, waves of brown hair falling across his eyes. "I'm not sure I should let you go."

  Her lips parted, and his gaze tracked to her mouth.

  "Cole—"

  "What?" he snapped to his friend.

  "The problem?"

  He let out a breath. "Well, this has been...a very interesting night. Until we meet again.” Cole pressed something small and hard into the palm of Kade's hand. "I think you lost something."

  Unable to say anything in response, she nodded, staring at him, and slipped her hand into her pocket.

  Cole's mouth lifted into a sideways grin. "Are you going to tell me who you are before I go, or do I have to figure it out for myself?"

  His friend shouted his name.

  The club was doused in red light.

  Kade covered her eyes.

  Someone brushed her hand.

  “Kadence!"

  She glanced up and Cole was staring at her, but he wasn't the one who had shouted her name.

  "What are you doing over here alone in the dark?" Lindsey leaned into Kade's sightline.

  "No... I—" Looking to her right, there was nothing but darkness.

  Cole was gone.

  Lindsey said something else, but Kadence couldn't understand her, wasn't trying to understand her, as she scanned the dance floor.

  "This is Jake," Lindsey shouted. "He goes to school with us."

  The other guy, the one with blond hair Kade had seen stalking the crowd with Cole, stood beside Lindsey.

  "Hey." Jake smiled, a disarming grin that lit up his entire face. Purple lights danced overhead, accentuating his short blond hair. It spiked up a little by a cowlick in the front, causing it to fan out over one side and frame deep blue eyes. He had to be around her age, she thought, seventeen, eighteen tops.

  Kade lost her train of thought. "Uh...hi."

  "It's Kadence?" Jake leaned in, talking close.

  "Kade." She moved away, glancing over her shoulder toward the mass of dancing bodies.

  "Pretty."

  Her focus swung back.

  "Your name," he said, a little louder. "It's pretty."

  "Thanks."

  "You moved here from Utah?"

  "Yeah." The tide of bodies tightened, people knocking into them.

  "We have to go." Lindsey pointed toward her wrist with no watch, and motioned for Kade to follow her. "I can't be late."

  Jake touched Kadence's elbow. "I'll see you at school on Monday?"

  "Uh, sure. Yeah."

  He winked. "Looking forward to that."

  Kade hustled behind Lindsey and she caught an oblivious Giselle by the arm and pulled her along.

  "We're leaving?" she screeched. "Already?"

  Kade ignored her as a familiar drain leached through her veins. A weighted ache. A weak emptiness she knew well. It was only Shadows, she reminded herself. He hadn't come for her—he wasn't back, she knew that. Everything was okay. She could handle the Shadows. Knew they would come. They always did.

  With a roll of her neck, Kade withdrew her hand from her pocket. The small misshapen object Cole had given her rested in her palm. Clear, solid, and smooth, the crystal fit snugly in her fist. The effect was immediate, slowing her racing heart, steadying the dizziness that always accompanied a quick rush of energy. Quelled the hollowness in the pit of her stomach.

  Black lights darted across her sight-line as she pushed through the crowd, and Kade wished her racing breath had simply been due to the music, the dancing—the high of the club. But with her crystal held tight, the onslaught of panic and fear easing, she knew it wasn't.

  The Shadows had attacked in a crowd.

  Something they'd never done before. Worse, Kade hadn't been the one who shattered them. Which could only mean one completely impossible thing...

  Cole had.

  3

  "WHO SENT YOU?" Cole growled. The Shadow shifted back and forth between its wispy and solid form, enabling Cole to clasp its neck and hold it off the ground in the alley behind Crystalline.

  "Let go of me, Primordial," the creature spat through rows of silver teeth.

  "So you can break apart and disappear like you did in Venice?"

  "You killed my brother," it croaked.

  Cole squeezed its neck. "I did."

  Narrow, milky-white eyes traced Cole's face. "The other Primori, your fighting partner, could not destroy me."

  Cole gave an evil smile. "I am extremely capable, I assure you. And that guy wasn't a Primori, or my partner." Danny stepped forward, a crystal telum in each hand. “But he's both. Care to try him? Now, who sent you here?"

  No answer.

&
nbsp; Withdrawing the crystal Danny found in the Daemoneum hive in Utah from his pocket, Cole held it up. "Seen this before?"

  No answer.

  "What about this?" Cole dropped the crystal back into his pocket and put up his hand with the drawing of the Mortal Coil.

  The creature cast its gaze away.

  "Who are you tracking?" Cole edged his dagger into its throat.

  "He will come for her," the Shadow said, eyeing Cole. "And she will come for all the Primordial. Even the Primeva are not safe. Everyone will go under."

  "Give me a name," Cole seethed.

  "Just kill it." Danny twirled his weapons in his hands.

  "Give me a name." Cole's telum bit deeper into the Nefarius' neck. "It's been a long night."

  "The Patriarchae," it choked.

  "There is no Patriarchae of the Nocturnal Plane. You're lawless."

  The Nefarius laughed. "So stupid, you Primordial are. You think you know all. That you are better than everyone. The days, they change; the fields, they shift; the moon and stars align. The Nexus is transforming." The creature tilted its head, white eyes the only discernible feature. "You do not feel it."

  Cole's gaze flitted to Danny and back. "Why are the Nefarius working with the Filios Daemoneum?"

  "The Devil's Children needed the Black Guard’s help. We obliged. It is in our best interest."

  "Why?" Cole gritted his teeth.

  The Shadow laughed again. "The Patriarchae has found the Araneum."

  "Liar."

  "You are already dead." It smiled. "The Anamolia will destroy you all."

  "There are no Anamolia." Cole embedded the crystal telum into the Shadow's throat. The creature convulsed and shredded into nothing. Cole slipped his weapon back under the sleeve of his jacket. "We need to find Jake."

  ***

  The wind picked up outside Crystalline. Keeping her head down, Kade followed Lindsey through the people standing on the sidewalk waiting to go inside.

  "Crap, I forgot my jacket. I’ll be right back.” Lindsey disappeared in the tide.