CRYSTALLUM (The Primordial Principles Book 1) (25 page)

"Why is it that every single time we're investigating a new Hive, I go first? Every damn time I'm either getting splashed with water, coated with coal dust, or inundated with reptile funk first." Cole wiped his mouth with the collar of his shirt.

"It's not like I'm asking you to go first." Danny wiped his cheek with the sleeve of his jacket. "You just always do. If you would rather order me around and make me go first like Jake does Alex and Kyle, it's within your rights."

Cole shot him a scowl. "Shut up with the 'sir' and the 'rights' crap all the damn time. You have just as much right as I do."

Danny grinned, his white teeth shining in the dark. "You
brought it up."

"Next time, you're going first."

"Fine. I'll go first." They inched down the tunnel.

"Even if it's a sewer, you're leading," Cole clarified.

"Fine. Even a sewer."

"Abandoned railroads, too. I hate those."

"Do you hear that?" Danny whispered.

Cole placed his hand against the underground wall. It had a distinct thump under his palm. Like bass. "I hear it."

Danny mimicked him. "If we got sent down into a mine that's about to collapse, I'm going to be really pissed."

"It's something else." Cole took off, the faint glow of his telum illuminating the way. The shaft dead-ended and dozens of Leygates shimmered in a semicircular pattern of silver light.

"Whoa." Danny took a step forward, and Cole grabbed his arm, holding him in place.

"Not any closer.” Cole took a step back, nudging Danny behind him with his arm. "Recognize anything?"

"Eeny, meeny, miney, moe, catch a devil by his toe." Danny gave a sarcastic grin.

The defense system was awesome, Cole had to admit. Sheol gates, chasm gates, and Leygates. Pick the wrong one and they could end up dead, or worse. Pick another wrong one, and they would be lead straight into a Hive. A Hive that it took no amount of brain power to realize had to be massive with this many gates guarding it. Cole realized how the Ward had gotten a lead this big. Lay out the bait, have the young Primori follow it, and let them get killed due to inexperience. Unfortunately for the Hive that created the mass of gates, the Ward hadn't sent anyone inexperienced. They'd sent Cole.

"So? Master of the Gates,” Danny said. "Which one?"

"Don't move any closer than you are."

"How am I supposed to help if I don't move any closer?"

"You're not." Cole waved a hand through the air, and a trail of faint red light followed in its wake and fluttered over one of the shimmering waves spitting from the ground. With a loud sucking sound, like water being drawn into a drain, the field came down and popped closed, disappearing. “One down.”

Danny shook his head. "How come you can do that, and I can't?"

"Because your dad didn't make you learn about the power of energy by forcing you to electrocute yourself every time a lightning storm passed over your house."

Danny closed his open mouth. Cole knew Danny had heard enough stories about Cole's dad and all the terrible things that he forced him to do in the name of “training.” Cole had never gone in too much detail, and Danny never pushed, but Cole knew he'd seen the scars.

"But I'd happy to teach you if you want?” Cole raised a hand over another, much darker field. The silver had turned deep metallic gray. Blacked. Blacked gates were the sketchiest to deal with and the hardest to close and wield. Some had lost souls within the energy field itself. Trapped there. Faces, severed hands and heads, but that didn't bother Cole nearly as much as the screams. The deafening cries for help, but although the Primordial could see the dead, they couldn't help them. Once a soul passed onto the Infernal Plane, they were trapped there.

With another red emission of his corona, Cole brought the Sheol gate down and moved to the next, shimmering with a faint trace of gold. "Here we go."

"You're sure?" Danny asked.

"Positive." Both telums slipped from inside his sleeves, resting in his hands. "Ready?" He glanced back at Danny. "It'll be instant."

Danny nodded, weapons gripped in each hand.

"On three." Cole readied himself to jump into the gate that would take them straight into the Alvear
e
. "One." He rolled his neck. "Two." He glanced at Danny. “Three."

Cole stepped into the energy field, and a shooting sound, like a shotgun, blasted somewhere on his left. His right arm seized up, the red lines running through his hand, writhing like worms. A volt of electricity streaked into his shoulder. His body rocked where he stood in the center of the gate, holding him in place.

“Cole!" Danny reached out, his hand traveling through the wave of shimmering energy. His fingers grazed the sleeve of his jacket, but Cole was being sucked backward, into the gate. Danny couldn't stop the momentum. “Cole!"

Cole's body shuddered violently, eyes rolling upward into his head. Crackling energy surrounded him, and he realized with a sickening lurch, that he was being electrocuted from the inside out.

The Sheol gate closed with a deafening slam.

Danny screamed.

Cole was gone.

***

Lindsey honked the horn from the driveway.

Shoving the rest of her cold pizza in her mouth, Kade strode down the front steps and across her yard to the car.

"Hurry up." Giselle jumped in her seat.

Kade climbed in the back seat.

"We have plenty of time, G. Relax." Lindsey backed away from the house.

"All the good dresses will be gone," she complained, switching the radio station at least a dozen times.

"They have over a hundred dresses, you'll find one." Lindsey swatted Giselle's hand away from the radio.

"You don't know that. They could all be too short, or too long, or too ugly." She rolled her window down, freezing Kade and Lindsey with the influx of thirty degree wind, rolled it up again, and rolled it back down.

"Oh, my god, G." Lindsey locked the automatic window switch. "Stop fiddling."

Kade wondered if maybe Giselle really did have ADHD and if it was triggered by riding in cars. She didn't seem all over the place at school.

"I'm not fiddling."

"You're fiddling. Just sit still."

"I am sitting still."

"No, you're not."

Kade ignored their usual bickering, relieved when they pulled into a parking space at the Pearl Street Mall. The tuxedo place was joined to the dress store, so half of the display window showed tailored suits and ties, while the other half featured pink taffeta and
gold sequins. Most of the dresses reminded Kade of a nineteen eighties prom gone south. The door to the dress shop chimed as they entered and like lightning, Giselle bolted toward the racks as if Lindsey and Kade were planning to tackle her over one of the ugly
gowns. Kade
wondered if Giselle was one of those people who camped out in front of a Best Buy or a Target the night before Black Friday. Probably.

All of the dresses were hung according to color. From baby pink, to cobalt blue, to black. Kade fiddled with a few. Took them off the rack and hung them up again. It was hard to tell what they really looked like on the hangers.

"Can I help you find anything today?" An older woman asked, an expectant smile on her face.

"Um...I don't really know what I like."

The woman's gaze tracked up and down Kade's body. "Were you thinking short? Long? You're not very tall.” Nodding her head as if she'd made a decision, she said, "Definitely something short." She began taking dresses off the racks and handing them over. Kade wondered where her friends had taken off to, while she was being weighted down in a flurry of hangers and fabric.

"There." The sales woman put her hands on her hips. "That'll be enough for the first round."

First round?

"Dressing rooms are in the back." She pointed.

Kade nodded a thank you and ambled toward the back of the store, focused on not dropping the stack in her arms, or tripping and landing on her face.

"So, what then? You're saying Cole's making a move?"

At the mention of Cole's name, Kade's steps slowed.

"I'm just saying I don't trust him."

Jake?

Kade stopped behind one of the racks where the women's
dresses ended, and the men's tuxedos began.

"Who does?" The other voice scoffed. "But if he's moving in on your territory, we need to do something about it."

"Just keep an eye out. I don't want the whole Ward involved. Not to mention that I have no idea if Kade even likes him," Jake said.

Oh, god.

"I mean, she fell down the damn stairs," he went on. "Who does that? I'd have caught Tiffany if she was going headfirst toward concrete, too. Not that she would. I'm probably just overreacting."

"Let's hope. I don't want a repeat of Saturday night. Your face still looks like hell."

"Thanks, asshole."

Jake's friend, who Kade guessed was Alex, by the familiar sound of his voice, laughed. "Just saying. With Kyle out of commission, I'm not sure we could take Cole and Danny if it came down to it."

Kyle's out of commission? Still?
It explained why Kade hadn't seen him at school. She wondered if Cole had gotten a hold of him again.

"Really?" Jake snapped. "You're always underestimating me."

"Cole
had
you on Saturday night." Alex's tone was grave. "Lucky it was only your face. And your hand."

"Whatever." Jake's voice faded across the store. "Have you
looked at your neck lately?"

"Did you get lost, dear?" The sales lady was back. "Well, no wonder. You can't even see over all these dresses, can you?" She took a few off the stack clutched in Kade's arms. "Did I pile them this
high?" Kade gave a forced smile, too stunned to say anything. The clerk probably thought she was a mute. She hadn't said more than three words to her since she walked in the store.

"I believe your friends are already in the back."

"Thank you."

"Anytime, dear. This is what I do." Her high heels scuffed
against the carpet.

Giselle was modeling a floor length gown in pale blue as they approached the dressing rooms. Lindsey sat sulking in the corner, her head resting against her arm as if she was falling asleep.

"Where have you been?" Giselle put her hands on her hips.

"You ran off and ditched me." Kade countered. "So I got some help." She motioned toward the lady removing all the dresses from her crushed arms.

"Oooh. I like that one." Giselle pointed to the last dress hanging off Kade's thumb. "That's the one. You can hang all the other ones back up."

The dress was deep blue and shimmered slightly in the light.

"Go. Go. Try it on."

Kade stood inside the small dressing room. Whatever Jake and Alex were talking about, she didn't like the sound of. Not when her name was attached to it.

And what the hell is the Ward? She'd heard Cole use that word, too, the day he'd half strangled Kyle in the parking lot.

"Hurry up." Giselle's pale blue heels peeked underneath the dressing room door.

With a groan, Kade shoved the dress on and slumped out the door with side zipper undone. "I'm not good at this kind of stuff."

"That's why you have me." Giselle zipped her up. "That's the one."

Kade turned, facing the wall of full length mirrors.

The dress came halfway down her thighs, shorter than any dress
she'd ever worn, but not sleazy. It fit her shape, not tight, but comfortable, and had little cap sleeves that left her shoulders exposed, and a low neckline. She looked like someone she didn't
know. A good someone.

"Told you." Giselle grinned.

The sales woman handed Kade a pair of silver heels. "Try these."

She slipped them on, reluctantly, knowing she'd probably fall on her face with the first step.

Giselle squealed. "Perfect. Jake is going to fall to his knees when he sees you."

Kade let out a breath. She wasn't interested in having Jake fall to his knees. She wanted to know what he meant by territory, and more importantly, what she had to do with it.

***

With their dresses locked in Lindsey's car, the three of them roamed
the outdoor mall, and ended up at The Brew. Yelling what she
wanted over her shoulder, Giselle made a beeline toward an empty table near the window.

"We need to figure out who's driving to the dance." Lindsey
stirred sugar into her coffee at the counter.

"Are we all riding together?" Kade asked, unsure they'd made that plan since Lindsey and Giselle were going together rather than with a date.

"We don't have to." She shrugged. "I just thought your dad
expected us to."

Kade followed her to their table, and Giselle snatched the Frappuccino away from Lindsey's hand like it was the One Ring and she was Gollum. Lindsey flexed her fingers as if checking she had all five fingers on her right hand.

Kade's brow lifted. "Like coffee, G?"

"She looovvvesss coffee. It's her obsession." Lindsey opened the lid to her cup and poured more sugar in.

"Besides clothes." Giselle grinned.

"So, the car thing?" Lindsey added even more sugar.

"Whatever is fine with me." Kade shrugged. "My dad didn't specify rules on rides."

A light dusting of snow fluttered by the window, changing the afternoon gray skies to white. Kade hoped the odd influx of cold in August would fade, but winter seemed insistent on staying. She doubted her new dress would look as good under a head to toe wool coat and thigh-high boots.

A blue Mustang stopped at the red light in front of the coffee place.

Jake.

Prickles flitted across Kade's shoulders. The car rolled away, and she focused her attention on the cup in her hands, the uncomfortable shimmy skirting up her spine.

"Space Kadet?" Giselle snapped her fingers.

Kade batted them away. "What are you doing?"

"No, what are you doing? Were those just puppy dog eyes I saw?"