Return to Me (Storm Lords)

by Nina Croft

  She was silent, not knowing what to say.

  “Cade can take the memories if you want,” he added. “You’ll forget.”

  It took her a moment to realize what he was suggesting, and fury rushed through her like a whirlwind. “Don’t you dare even think about it. I will not forget you a second time.”

  She bent over to pull on her boots to hide the tears she knew would show in her eyes. He didn’t need to see her cry. And she wasn’t giving up yet. There had to be something they could do. Some way to get Torr away from here.

  “You have to go.” His tone was harsh, but she could sense the pain behind his words.

  She came back to him and wrapped her arms around his chest. He stroked her hair with his free hand. “I don’t want to. Let me stay a while longer.”

  He sighed but tightened his hold, and she closed her eyes, pretending for a while they were back where they’d started so long ago. She remembered her first sight of him. He hadn’t revealed what he was, but she had known right away that he was more than human. He’d glowed with a goodness, and he’d had the face and body of an angel even without his wings. Then she’d looked into his mind and fallen instantly and forever in love.

  When he’d finally revealed what he was, it had been far too late. She was irrevocably in love, and would have done anything to stay with him. She’d told him the truth; she had known it was wrong and had done it anyway.

  But she had paid. They’d both paid, though she suspected Torr more than she. Her death had been slow, but it had not lasted for two thousand years.

  The sound of the door opening brought her out of her memories. Torr’s arm tightened around her, and she glanced over her shoulder; Cade stood in the doorway.

  “Razul is on his way.”

  Despair hit her with the force of a tornado. She wanted to cling to Torr, to scream, but she battled the emotions down. She swallowed hard, then pulled herself free and took a step back.

  “Go,” Torr said.

  She nodded. “But I won’t give up.”

  There must be some way. She would find it.

  Chapter 19

  They didn’t speak on the journey out of the Abyss. Not until the portal opened, and they were back in Torr’s office at the top of the Stormlord Securities building.

  Cade set her down and she paced the floor. “There has to be something we can do.”

  He flashed her an angry look. “If there was, don’t you think I’d be doing it?” The words were snarled, but his fear was clear beneath the harsh tone.

  They were waiting for the others to arrive. She knew they wouldn’t give up without a fight, but what could they do? Torr was right; no way could they risk opening the portal.

  Jesus, this whole thing was so surreal. In five days, she had gone from a total disbelief in anything ‘weird’, to contemplating how to save her angel-husband’s soul, and the whole of mankind from an army of demons.

  Bryce arrived first, looked her over, and nodded. Phoebe slipped into the room next, her eyes widening with relief when they settled on Cade. She looked around took in Bryce and Bella. “Didn’t you find him?”

  “We found him,” Cade said. “Razul has him though, and we couldn’t get him out.”

  “So you just left him?”

  “For fuck’s sake, Phoebe, you’re not helping.”

  Bella had never heard Cade raise his voice to his wife before. It was a measure of his distress. Beside her, Bryce sighed. “I’m going to go round up the others.”

  Phoebe waited until he’d left the room and then crossed to Cade and took his hand, tugging him down onto the sofa to sit beside her. “Tell me what happened?” She glanced across at Bella. “Did you…?”

  Bella nodded. “Yes, I remember.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Not really.” Bella forced a weak smile. “I would be if Torr was here.” She ran a hand through her hair, trying to ease some of the tension.

  “He’s not gone,” Phoebe said. “There’s still a chance.”

  Bella wanted to believe it, but she remembered that last look Torr had sent her as she left. The sadness and resignation in his eyes. “You never saw him. He won’t open the portal. He plans to attack Razul and his army instead.”

  “And Razul will destroy his soul,” Cade finished.

  “What happens then?” Phoebe asked.

  “No one really knows.”

  But Bella remembered what Torr had told her. “Torr says he will vanish, as though he has never been.”

  “You need to stop him,” Phoebe said.

  “We’re open to ideas.” Cade’s tone was full of weary defeat.

  Phoebe must have heard it, and she jumped to her feet. She crossed to where Bella stood, hugged her, and then stepped back. “I’m so sorry. I know what you must be going through. If anything happened to Cade…”

  “I’m not giving up,” Bella said.

  A wave of exhaustion washed over her and she sank onto the couch opposite Cade, hugging her knees to her chest. The past and the present were whirling in her head. Her first life was clear. She could remember it so well, each moment, each kiss, and each time they made love. She even remembered Phoebe and the others. They had all died that day.

  Now, seeping out of her subconscious, were vague memories of other lives. They had not been happy. The dream had followed her through each rebirth, scarring her mind, making her incapable of normal relationships. Her empathic powers had made her susceptible to others’ pain, as well as her own, sometimes driving her to the edge of insanity and beyond. She pressed her fingers to her skull, trying to ease the ache.

  “How did you cope?” she asked Phoebe. “With all the memories?”

  Phoebe had sat back down next to her husband. She looked at Bella, compassion clear in her eyes. “It was hard, but Cade helped me…”

  As Torr would have helped her, had he not been chained up in some stinking dungeon, deep in the Abyss. At that moment, Bella’s need was a physical pain, clawing at her insides. She bit her lip to keep from moaning aloud.

  Information. That’s what she needed. If nothing else, it would distract her from this pain, and she might find some way to help Torr.

  “What happened to his soul?”

  Cade looked away, then back, his expression wary. “Didn’t Torr tell you?”

  “Just that he’d given it away in exchange for powers. But who did he give it to? How did this Razul get hold of it?”

  “What does it matter?”

  She narrowed her eyes on him. What was he hiding? “Tell me.”

  “He gave his soul into Lilith’s keeping,” Phoebe said.

  “Lilith? Who’s that?” Though she remembered Torr mentioning her in Mexico City.

  “She’s a bitch,” Phoebe said. “But she rules down there. When they first arrived, she offered them a place and other things, but she wanted Torr’s soul as a sign of their allegiance.”

  “What other things?”

  “She gave us back our wings. Gave us power over the storms—”

  She remembered the name she had heard whispered in the bar in Mexico City. “You were Storm Lords?”

  He nodded. “And Torr was the Destroyer. We could gain strength from drinking blood, some of us can shape-shift, and other things. For a while, we reveled in those powers, slaked ourselves on the blood of our enemies until even Heaven feared us. But such things come at a price. We allowed the darkness inside us.”

  “So what happened? What stopped you?”

  “Torr and Lilith were about to invade the Earth. Together they were so strong, and Lilith had always wanted dominium over mankind.”

  “And Torr?” Bella asked.

  Cade shrugged. “By that point, I don’t think he cared. This was a thousand years after we were banished to the Abyss. The need for revenge had faded, but nothing replaced it. Torr was without his soul. He was like an empty shell.”

  “And…”

  “Gabriel discovered the imminent invasion. He came to
us. We’d always believed you were lost to us forever. Gabriel told us differently. He said your souls had been tied to the Earth by the Elixir you had taken; you were caught in a cycle of death and rebirth, and that one day we might find you.

  “Lilith didn’t want to let us go, certainly not Torr. But with Gabriel’s backing, she couldn’t hold us completely. So she made a deal and the Covenant was drawn up.”

  “The Covenant?”

  “A set of rules, agreed between us, Lilith, and Gabriel. We had a thousand years to find you. And after we found you, we had five days to make you remember your love, but we weren’t allowed to tell you what we were or what had happened in the past. If you hadn’t spoken the words by the end of those days, then we lost you, and this time it would be forever. You would die and not be reborn.”

  A shiver ran through her. Five days. Such a short time, but it seemed like forever since she’d looked up in that interrogation room at the police station and seen Torr standing there. “Five days and this is the fifth day.”

  “Yes. You cut things close.” He glanced at his wife. “Though not as close as Phoebe. The strange thing is we were all afraid of failing. All except Torr. He swore you would see into his mind and know him.”

  “Instead, I brought him to this.”

  “It’s not your fault. There would still be the problem with his soul.”

  “But he wouldn’t have made a deal with Gabriel.”

  “He made a deal with the archangel?” Phoebe asked.

  Bella nodded. “He promised to kill Razul and destroy his armies, if Gabriel would allow me my one life and watch over me.”

  “And Gabe agreed?” Cade sounded skeptical.

  “Yes. Tell me more about the Covenant, how you planned to find us.”

  “We knew you all looked the same, Gabe had told us as much. We wandered the world searching, but it was an impossible task, and we were running out of time. Then technology came along, computers, surveillance…facial recognition. We opened up Stormlord Securities, and set about searching in a more systematic manner.”

  “Is that how you found Phoebe?”

  He smiled for the first time since they’d returned. “No. I almost fell over Phoebe. But it is how we found you. You came up on the police files.” He considered her for a few minutes in silence. “You know, now I can’t help thinking that the timing is suspect. Maybe your arrest was arranged. Lilith knew we were hunting you. Maybe she told Razul and he found you first.”

  “But why would they want Torr to find me?”

  “Maybe because once he had set eyes on you, then the five days would begin. He needed to see you, and then lose you. Otherwise he’d most likely not give up on his love, even when the thousand years were up. And he would not go back to Lilith. I think she wants him back more than anything, even to the point of risking his soul.”

  Bella frowned. “She wants him back? You mean she actually had him at some point?”

  Cade shifted uncomfortably. “This is for Torr to tell you.”

  “Well, Torr isn’t here.”

  “He thought you gone forever. Lilith wanted him and he didn’t care enough one way or the other.”

  A black tide of jealousy rose up inside her. She gritted her teeth and tried to put it in perspective. This was over a thousand years ago. Still, she couldn’t completely banish the feeling. She’d have it out with Torr if they all survived this night. She jumped to her feet and paced the room, finally coming to a standstill, hands on her hips. “And Lilith kept his soul.”

  “It was to be returned if ever the Covenant was completed.”

  Frustration gnawed at her. “But it is complete. I told Torr I loved him. She’s lost. She has to give back his soul.”

  “Except she doesn’t have it.”

  “She’s the goddamn queen. Can’t she order this Razul to give it back?”

  “Maybe. Maybe she’d rather Torr be destroyed than for him to find happiness with another woman. Specifically with you. She hates you.”

  “I told you,” Phoebe said. “She’s a bitch.”

  “But unfortunately a powerful one. I suppose—” He broke off, as a light tap sounded on the door and the others trailed in. They appeared subdued and she presumed Bryce must have told them what was going on. Finn was at the rear and at his feet trotted Skip. The little dog caught sight of Bella and leaped forward, straight into her arms. She burrowed her nose in his soft fur, hugging him tight.

  “So, we’re getting him back?” Bryce asked.

  Finn stepped forward. “Torr was very clear when he left. Perhaps we should do as he asks.”

  Bella glared at him. “And perhaps we shouldn’t.”

  “Then we fight.”

  “We haven’t decided yet,” Cade replied.

  “What’s there to decide?”

  “Razul would still destroy his soul, and he would be lost.”

  It all came back to his soul. Bella tuned out the conversation as they argued back and forth. She needed to think this through. She was a con woman, the best there was. Well, until she’d been caught, though it sounded now as if that had been some sort of set up.

  This Razul had been responsible. Just as he’d been responsible for Justin’s death, the plane crash, and no doubt those murders, which had lured them to Mexico City in search of Bryce.

  But Lilith was also to blame. Probably more so. And she pretended to care for Torr, which made her actions all the more horrific.

  They both had to pay.

  So how to plan a good con?

  Start out with what you wanted to gain, and work your way backward from that. So what did she want?

  Torr alive and reunited with his soul. Her alive and preferably in one piece. She looked around the room, her eyes settling on Phoebe and Cade, Finn and the others. She wanted them alive as well, and she wanted Razul and Lilith dead.

  The easiest people to con were always the ones who believed themselves invincible. She was guessing that Razul and Lilith fell squarely into that group.

  You had to play on their greed. You had to understand what they wanted. Lilith wanted Torr, but she probably wanted him to come to her voluntarily. She might be an evil bitch, but Bella reckoned what she wanted most from Torr was his love.

  And who could blame her?

  What about Razul? What did he want? Power? But this whole plan smacked of more than that.

  The others seemed to have run out of arguments; the room was mostly silent. Cade was talking to Phoebe quietly on the sofa, but he glanced up as though he could feel her gaze on him.

  “Is this personal for Razul?” she asked.

  “He hates Torr, has done so for over two thousand years.”

  “But why?”

  Cade studied her, head cocked to one side. “You don’t know?”

  Irritation flickered at her nerve endings. “Why should I?”

  “Did Torr never tell you how the two of you came to meet? In that first life.”

  She frowned. “Just that he’d been sent to investigate some sort of anomaly. He told me you were part of a peace-keeping force.”

  “We were. Anything unusual on the earth, we looked into. We’d been told there had been a lot of demon activity, and we came to investigate. Do you remember anyone new just before you first met Torr?”

  “I remember a man, a stranger.” A shudder ran through her. “There was something not right about him. He came to my father. Offered him money for my hand, but I refused, and my father loved me enough to listen. But he was persistent, wouldn’t leave.”

  “Razul.”

  She shook her head. “He was a demon?”

  “My guess is he was drawn to your empathic powers, as Torr was.”

  “So all this was my fault?”

  “Maybe. But would you really rather not have met Torr? Can you honestly say that you would turn away from him if you had the chance to live your life again? Choose a normal life and a normal death.”

  Would she? The question wasn’t even worth
wasting time on. She remembered the heaven she felt in Torr’s arms. “No.” She thought furiously. How could she use this? “Do you think this Razul still wants me?”

  Cade shrugged. “Maybe, but I wouldn’t rely on it. Demons aren’t known for their faithfulness or devotion. Likely he wants a little revenge on Torr, and the best way to get that would be to take you from him.”

  Bella remembered the look Razul had given her that night at the club. Hatred tinged with lust. He’d wanted her, probably because she belonged to Torr, but all the same, perhaps she could use it somehow. “He wants Torr to suffer. That would be increased if Torr believed I’d gone to Razul of my own accord. If I could sell that to him…”

  “Torr will kill me if I let you anywhere near Razul,” Cade interrupted her. “And I don’t plan to hand that bastard an instrument to use against Torr.”

  She’d been thinking aloud. Ignoring Cade’s interruption, she moved so she couldn’t see him. Instead, she stared out of the window, her brain trying to sort out the separate strands.

  Lilith wanted Torr. She didn’t know about his deal with Gabriel, that he was planning to die rather than open the portal. And she didn’t like Bella, probably would be delirious to see her dead.

  Razul wanted the portal open, but he also wanted Torr to suffer. And maybe just a little bit, Razul wanted her.

  So how did she promise everyone what they wanted, and still get it all for herself?

  She swung around. “We need to go see this Lilith.”

  Cade frowned. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

  “You say she cares about Torr. Maybe we can persuade her to do the right thing.”

  “Yeah, and maybe pigs might fly,” Phoebe muttered.

  She rubbed her arms. “I’m betting she doesn’t know Torr plans to destroy Razul and his army.”

  “You tell her that and she might put Razul on his guard, and he’ll stop Torr,” Cade said.

  “Well, then, we leave it until the last moment, so she doesn’t have time to warn him. When is this going down?”