CRYSTALLUM (The Primordial Principles Book 1) (10 page)

Kade nodded, unable to say what she needed to say.
You don't understand. You can't help me, no one can.
"It was you," she said. "You killed the Shadow Saturday night at Crystalline."

He grinned. "I did. They're the Nefarius. Guardians of the Nocturnal Gates. But you were holding your own pretty well for someone who doesn't know what she’s doing." He waved a hand
through the air, like she'd seen him do a few seconds before, and the wind increased.

What the? How in the hell...

A quick, playful smile graced his lips, as if this was fun, and Kade noticed his eyes were almost black. Just like they’d been on the sidewalk in front of Crystalline. As if something lurked behind them. "You're staring at me again." He smirked. "I'll be right back."

“Wait!" Kade grabbed his arm.

"You're kind of demanding, aren't you?” She let go.

“What are you?" The forbidden words spilled out, words she was never supposed to breathe, but she couldn't stop them. She'd never met anyone like him. Someone who could see the things she could see. Someone who maybe would
understand
, know what she
was going through. The kind of life she'd been living. Hiding from everything all the time, lying, pretending, having no real friends, no real life.

Cole gazed at her, and there was such a strong intimacy behind it her cheeks warmed. "I'm a Primori. Like you. We guard the Planes from Daemoneum threats." He found her hand and squeezed. "You can trust me."

She gazed at him in star-struck awe. He was one of the Celestial Children. Born of the ancient gods. Not of this world, but another Plane entirely. Dracon had told her the truth. That alone shocked her into complete silence.

Cole squeezed her hand again and raced from the bushes, nothing more than a red blur through the trees.

No, wait. Wait!
She wanted to scream it.
No...that's...that's not what I am. You just...can't see it.

Another reverberation of energy rushed through the trees forcing her to grip the bush at her back. Fingers clawed freezing branches, but the wind was too strong. It picked her up, and slammed her on the ground. Her head hit rock. Snow and pine
needles blew over her, burying her in frigid powder. Tree tops merged overhead, only a slice of the dark, star speckled sky shining through the slits in her eyelids, and everything silenced to a dim, faint hum.

In a daze, she remembered her dad standing in front of her when she was five years old. Kade had knocked Scott Nelson off his bike without even touching him after he'd tried to run over her cat. An odd current had flowed through her body that day, as though she'd
stuck her finger into an electrical socket, and the next thing she knew, Scott had been blown backward through the air, and his bike
was on top of him when he landed in the driveway. She'd had no idea how it happened.

Her dad had run out the front door and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her inside the house. "You can't ever do that again. You're very special, Kadey. You have a gift. But no one can know. Just you and me. It's very important. Can you do that?"

"Okay, I won't do it again. I'm sorry."

"That's my big girl." He'd smiled but it hadn’t reach his eyes. "Now, go help Scott up and tell him you're sorry, too."

"I'm not telling him sorry." Kade had run out of the house. Scott stood, glaring at her from the sidewalk, but she didn't care. "Don't
you dare get near my cat again, or next time, I'll send you and your bike up into a tree." She'd stomped back inside and slammed the
door.

Two days later, Kade's face morphed into the monster. She remembered screaming as her dad tried to calm her down.

The Draconis made his first appearance soon afterward.

“My name is Dracon,"
he'd told her, but he hadn't spoken out loud. His voice had been inside her head.
"You mustn't be afraid. I am one of the Devil's Children."

Kade had thought she was having a nightmare. Until he came back.

They'd moved days later and had barely stopped since.

Kade's eyelids opened in a haze of white and green. A wash of
pure, vibrant red followed. It was an angry color, she thought. On another groggy blink, she was unsure why she was lying in the snow. It felt nice underneath her body, though. The cold was peaceful. Calming. A slight throb thudded at the base of her skull, and Kade thought she should touch it, but her arm didn't want to
move. A soft swoosh touched her ears. Footsteps crunched through ice. Probably Dracon coming to finish her off, she thought with a deranged chuckle.

She knew she should try to move, to get up, fight, or see clearly, but it didn't seem too important. She liked the snow. The cold blanket snuggling around her body, holding her tight.

“Kadence?" someone yelled. “What the hell..." A face blurred
above her, but she couldn't make out the details, and words wouldn't reach her lips. "Are you hurt?" A warm hand touched her
cheek, her forehead. “Danny!"

The crunch of feet running through snow touched her ears, and snow being scooped and thrown.

"What the—I knew this was a bad idea."

"I didn't ask you to follow me."

More shoveling.

"Like I wouldn't have followed you?"

"Will you shut up and help me dig!”

Kade's body shifted to the side. "I've got you." Warmth rushed down her back, through her frozen limbs, and she was lifted off the ground. "I've got you.” The scent of sweet, clean cotton enveloped her senses. “It's okay, you're okay."

"Calm down, Cole. I'm sure she's fine."

Cole.
It was his voice she'd heard. A brisk wind swept her cheeks, and she was flying. She knew she was. Nothing else could move so fast.

***

"I can't believe this is happening." Danny paced. "We're breaking so many rules being here."

"Will you shut up and help me find it? She's freezing." Cole touched Kadence's face and placed a hot cloth over her forehead.

"We couldn't find an elephant in this mess. Look at it." Danny thrust his hand toward Kade's bedroom floor, covered in boxes.

"I can't tell if she has a fever or what. She keeps shivering. And there's a huge bump at the base of her skull." Cole withdrew his crystal and placed it into Kade's palm. Warmth trailed up his arm,
piercing pain shot through his hand, and Kade's back arched as she cried out. Cole yelped and yanked his hand away from hers, stumbling backward into the wall, as the crystal dropped to the
floor.

"Turn on the lamp. The small one.”

"What are you
doing?
" Danny hissed.

"Oh, my god.”
Cole got to his feet. "Look at her hand."

Danny lifted Kade's arm, glancing at her palm. "You said she was carrying a crystal at the club!”

"She was." Cole stared, his tone flat.

"You must have been seeing things."

"I wasn't. I picked it up off the floor and handed it to her. I told you that."

"I told
you
we should've minded our own damn business. Gone back to the common house and went to bed." Danny paced again. "Now what?"

"Go put out any fires with Plumb. I'll meet you there later."

"Hell, no, Cole. Are you insane?"

"You want me to leave her like this, Dan?" He thrust his hand out.

"Like what, exactly? This could be perfectly normal for...for someone like her for all we know."

"Comatose? Really, Dan? Comatose is normal? Are you freaking kidding?"

"Cole—" Danny started.

"Alert the Ward."

"Alert the Ward?" Danny's eyes went wild. "You're out of your damn mind."

"Tell them where I am. Send the doctor for Kadence."

"Tell them where you
are
? Could this night get any
worse?
" His hands flew up.

"Just do it, Danny."

"No way. No freaking way. I can't just leave—this is—"

"Go."

"Is that an order?"

"Does it need to be?" Cole's tone had a sharp bite in it.

Danny let out a harsh sigh. "No, sir."

"Don't call me sir.”

Danny stomped out of the bedroom, and Cole sat on the bed next to Kade, staring at her open palm.

***

Warmth wrapped around Kade's shivering body like a fleece blanket, secure and safe, and the steady sound of deep breathing filled her ears. Her body felt heavy, exhausted, and her hand
pulsated as if all the blood had flooded to one spot on her palm. Electric shocks filtered into her fingertips. She tried to curl her hand into a fist, stop the sensation, but sleep held her hostage.

Something heavy and warm molded against the side of her body, and the sweet scent of fresh laundry and fire overcame her senses. Breathing it in, her body began to heat up.

"You're safe now," someone whispered. "Sleep."

***

Cole had never been more awake. He'd tried adjusting his weight, shifting himself further up on the bed so he wasn't lying down, but it was no use. His head remained propped against the wooden headboard, but the rest of him had slid downward. The backs of his eyelids were akin to sandpaper from keeping his eyes open, but he couldn't have slept if he'd wanted to.

After Danny left and Cole settled Kadence into her bed, he'd gotten himself into the most comfortable sitting position he could manage, but she'd scooted closer and closer to him. First her hand, then her arm, then her leg entangled between his. For the past couple of hours, he'd attempted to focus on
anything
besides the fact that Kade had wiggled out from under the bulk of blankets Cole had tucked her under and
on to him.

Her arm nestled around his waist, her head against his chest instead of her pillow. Leaving her coat on seemed like a good idea when she'd been shivering uncontrollably, but now Cole wasn't sure if it was her coat, all the blankets, or something else that had his entire body on fire. It was all he could do to breathe normally, so he focused on that. In and out, he repeated.
Just breathe in and out.

The crick in his neck had become unbearable, though, not to
mention his throbbing bicep, so he had to risk moving. Slowly, he nudged his weight up and back. Kadence made a whimpering noise, and he froze. Her hand trailed over his bare stomach where his T-shirt had pulled up, and his heart rose into his throat. She moved her hand higher, gripped his shirt in her fist, and her steady breathing resumed.

Cole exhaled and tried to shift again, this time rolling to the side. He eased over, and Kade rolled with him, not letting go of his shirt. Her legs molded against the back of his, her face nuzzled between his shoulder blades.

Cole grinned. He couldn't stop himself. She was like a leech. The best smelling, softest, warmest...he stopped that train of thought. He needed to get up. Sit at her desk, on the floor, in the bathroom,
anywhere else,
and wait until he heard the doctor pull in so he could leave. He needed to check the time, but the alarm clock was on the opposite side of the bed, and there was no way he was going to turn around and be face to face with Kade. He also realized that he was lying down completely, in bed, with a girl he barely knew; a girl who was all over him. He had to get up. Now. Right now.

Kade whispered something, and the shock of her voice sent Cole into a panic. Would she remember what happened? Know why he was there? He'd thought she had a concussion or worse, and she spoke again. His thoughts ended.

"Thank you for finding me," she mumbled.

Cole stopped breathing.

Kade draped her leg over his hip from behind, snuggling even
closer. Heat surged up his back. She was way too close. She mumbled again—talking in her sleep, he realized. Cole smiled at
that. She was talking
to him
in her sleep. Dreaming about him.

"I'm not good, though...like you," she whispered, and the hairs
on the back of his neck stood up. "I want to be...but you should've...left me in the snow," she breathed. "Dracon will come back. He...always does. And eventually...I'll have to go." Her steady
breathing resumed, brushing against Cole's neck, but his smile had vanished.

Dracon will come back? And eventually I'll have to go? Go?

Cole's phone vibrated in his pocket.

The text said,
The doctor should be there any minute. Meet him at the front door.

Hurriedly, Cole carefully untangled his shirt from Kade's small fist and slid out from under her leg and onto the floor. She made a grumbling noise, and he bolted out of the bedroom.

PLUMB STOOD
in the driveway, hands on her hips, a piece of
bright yellow paper in her hand. Cole groaned, exhausted, as he
made his way toward her. The only light was a dim one above the front door on the Brotherhood's front porch.

Plumb waved the paper in the air. "It's four fifteen in the
morning, and I'm afraid to even venture why I received a notice for you to appear in front of the Warden later today. And Danny has nothing to say, which could only mean one thing—" Plumb looked him up and down. "With the condition you're in, I'm not sure I want to know where you've been."

"You probably don't." Cole held his hand out for the summons.

Plumb handed the paper over, scowling, and Cole slipped it, unopened, into his pocket.

"Are you going to tell me where you've been?"

"Thought you didn't want to know." He walked toward the porch. There was a time, when Cole was much younger, that he never would have spoken so bluntly to his Lead, but those days, buried by all of his new responsibilities within the Ward, had faded. They were close to equals now, even though Plumb was about
fifteen years older.

“Cole."

"I'm tired as hell. I've been up all night." He turned to face her. "Okay? I need to get some sleep."