Return to Me (Storm Lords) (11 page)

The thought of them discussing her, made her squirm. “Did he?”

Cade opened his mouth to say something else, when she heard footsteps outside. The ‘others’ whoever they were—and she had to admit to a certain curiosity—must have been close by, waiting for the call.

Four men entered the room. She recognized Finn and Killian, but the other two were strangers.

Finn brought up the rear, carrying a tray of coffee, with one cup and a large pot. He put it down on the coffee table in front of Bella, but she was too busy inspecting the newcomers.

They all had a look of Torr about them, despite their varying coloring. All tall with broad shoulders and lean rangy builds. Finn was blond, Killian dark. The two others were both black haired and looked the most similar of all the men, with olive skin and eyes like the summer sky.

Perhaps she should have felt intimidated, but she didn’t, just curious and her gaze flickered from one man to the next.

When she didn’t move to pour the coffee, Torr came across the room and sank down beside her. He leaned forward and poured her a cup, wrapping her fingers around it.

She took a sip and sighed, then looked at him. “Are you going to introduce me?”

“Cade, Finn, and Kill, you know.” They all nodded and took up places around the room, with Finn and Kill lounging on the sofa opposite hers, and Cade leaning on the desk, arms folded across his chest. “The others are Roark and Devlin.” He nodded toward the other two and they came forward.

Roark stretched out a hand to her, and Bella put down her coffee and shook it. Next Devlin took her hand, but instead of shaking, he brought it to his lips and kissed the back. Beside her, Torr stiffened and then shifted closer. A smile flickered across Devlin’s face. He dropped her hand and stepped back, moving away to lean against the wall beside Roark.

She waited for someone to speak, but they all appeared to be waiting for something and watching her. What was that about? She sipped her coffee and tried to curb her impatience. Was she finally going to learn something? Excitement fizzed in her veins.

There was a sound from the door. It was pushed open without a knock and Phoebe stood there. She smiled at Bella as she passed and went to stand by Cade, who wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him.

They were so intensely in love. Bella had never really considered the emotion before. It wasn’t something that impinged on her life. But Cade and Phoebe appeared wrapped in a golden haze.

She was getting fanciful.

And the golden haze was getting thicker. She put her hand up and rubbed her forehead. Phoebe spoke, but the words were jumbled and refused to make sense. Bella stared down at her coffee, her hands were shaking, and Torr reached out and took the cup gently from her.

Something was wrong here.

Her gaze flew to Torr. His expression was rueful. She glanced at the coffeepot on the tray, the single cup. Yeah, there was definitely something wrong. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t seem to get her brain in gear.

Darkness was closing in on her, framing Torr’s face. His arms came around her and he lowered her so she lay on the sofa. The world narrowed to a pinprick of light.

It came to her then in a moment of clarity.  The sneaky, rotten bastard had drugged her coffee. What sort of…

Then the last light vanished and she was swallowed by darkness.

***

“She’s not going to forgive you for this,” Phoebe said.

Torr reached down, tugged off Bella’s boots, and lifted her feet so she lay full length on the couch. Rolling away from him, she curled onto her side. She was under deep, and he stroked a finger down her soft cheek before glancing across at Phoebe. He bit down the urge to growl. Phoebe was telling the truth, but what choice did he have.

“Probably not, but I needed you all here, and I’m not leaving her on her own.”

Phoebe shrugged. “Just saying.”

“She’ll understand.”

Phoebe snorted. “If Cade had ever drugged me, he wouldn’t be around to be understood.”

Cade grinned and tightened his arms around her. Then the smile faded. He put her from him and came to stand in front of Torr. Torr could see from his expression that something was badly wrong.

“We have problems.”

“What sort of problems?”

“Big ones.”

“For fucks sake, just tell me.” Torr got to his feet, unable to stand the inactivity any longer. He paced the room, staring out of the window, down to the city of London below. He’d always believed the hardest part would be finding her. It had taken nearly a thousand years. But it had finally happened.

He’d seen Bryce fail, but it had never occurred to him that Soraya would not know him. Now fear clawed at his guts.

What if he failed? The darkness was closing in on him.

He didn’t need these distractions right now. And he knew there was no coincidence here. This was a carefully thought out strategy.

A thousand years ago, he’d planned to help Lilith escape the confines of the Abyss. Those created as demons did not have the power to open the portals between the worlds. And while the portals remained closed, the physical manifestation of a demon was limited to the Abyss.

They could visit earth in two ways, either by possessing the human’s body, as Razul had done the previous night. There were always humans open to the sweet persuasions of the demon. Humans who thought they could benefit from the possession, only realizing too late that their souls were damned to Hell for eternity. But there were limitations to such possessions, the host’s body and mind started deteriorating.

The alternative was an astral projection, such as the demons who had killed Bella’s friend. They had great strength for a limited period of time, but the projection took an enormous amount of power, which could not be maintained for long. However, they did have the advantage that if they were killed here on earth, then their physical form re-manifested itself in the Abyss. If he wanted to get Bella’s revenge on the ones who had slaughtered her friend, as he had promised, then he would have to hunt them down and slay them on their home ground.

Torr and his brothers were not creatures of the Abyss, and as such, they had the ability to open the portals and move freely between the realms.

They could also open a portal to Heaven, but they would not be welcomed there. Once they had all called it home, but he hadn’t entered Heaven in over two thousand years.

Torr glanced across the room at Bella.

Had it been worth it?

Watching her sleep, warmth stole over his heart. She looked young, innocent. The cynicism, so much part of her current life, was smoothed away. He would never regret what he had done, all he had given up. Before her, love had been an abstract concept; it was only in Soraya’s arms that he had learned its true meaning.

He did regret what he had become after she was taken from him, the dark deeds he had performed. Sometimes he believed he would never be able to atone for all the evil he had committed.

He could only try.

He had spent the years since fighting evil where he found it. Even though demons were confined to the Abyss, there were plenty of other creatures to battle. There had been times through history where the portals had opened, demons had escaped, and many had bred with humans. The same was true of angels. He couldn’t believe he was the first angel ever to have fallen in love. Though he was certain, he’d been the first one to steal the Elixir.

Most humans with some sort of powers, the witches, warlocks, shape-shifters, had demon or angel blood. He’d even met beings he was sure had both.

He’d always believed that Soraya had angel’s blood, and that it was the reason she called to him. He remembered their first meeting. He’d been speechless, overcome by her innate goodness.

He moved to the center of the room, and turned to Cade. “Okay, tell me what’s going on.”

“I’ll let the others tell you,” Cade said. He turned to Roark. “Go ahead.”

Roark pushed himself off the wall and came forward. “We just got back from the Abyss. The whole place is on the move. An army is being mobilized.”

Torr heaved a huge sigh. All he wanted was to be left alone with Bella. “Could it be internal?” he asked the question, but knew what the answer was going to be before Roark spoke.

“Not likely.”

“Damn.” There was always internal squabbling going on somewhere in the Abyss. Lilith encouraged it, though she would never admit that.

Roark shrugged. “It seems that this time everyone is on the same side, and your friend, Razul, is right in the thick of it. There’s a total buzz going on down there. No one knows what’s going down, or at least no one’s talking even if they do know. But everyone knows something big is happening, and it’s happening soon. They all want to be part of it.”

“Did you find out when?”

“Not for certain, but in three days’ time it’s Samhain. And I don’t believe in coincidences.”

Neither did Torr.

At Samhain, the veils between the worlds were thinnest, the merest gossamer threads dividing the realms. If the portals opened on Samhain, Razul’s army would swarm through. Nothing would stop them.

What he needed to know was, was he their only plan for opening the portals, or did they have back-up? Were they so sure he would comply?

He hoped so. He would never open the portal. Even if it meant losing his soul forever.

He ran a hand through his hair and pressed his fingers to his eyes, trying to ease the tension knotting his forehead. When he opened his eyes, they were all watching him.

“What do you want us to do?” Roark asked.

He crossed the room and stared down at the city below. He didn’t want his brothers to see how rattled he was. Though he suspected they already knew, Cade at least. But then, Cade had been through this with Phoebe. He had experienced the terror and excitement of living in a time bomb.

Only five days, and he was already half-way through.

He turned to Roark. “Go back down there. See if you can find out for sure when it’s happening, and whether they have any plans other than me for opening the portal. And if you happen to see Razul, rip his throat out and bring me my soul.”

“No problem.”

Torr sighed. “What’s next?” He was sure there was more.

Finn stepped forward. “We’ve been checking out the city. Razul has people everywhere. Any humans he controls have been told to make as much trouble as they can in the run up to Samhain. We’ve heard of at least ten murders in the last day and it’s escalating. Not only humans; there are demons about, both possessions and projections. The place is swarming. And there’s something else. I found this on one of the bodies.”

He handed a card to Torr. He glanced down and frowned. It was one of their company’s business cards. “This was on one of the murder victims?”

Finn nodded. “As far as we can tell, they’re placing those things on all the victims, as well as some other stuff—graffiti and the like. So we can expect to have the human cops around here any moment, asking questions.”

That was the last thing he needed right now. “Cade, you have contacts. Make sure they don’t bother us.” He turned back to Finn. “Sort this out. Put out the word that whatever Razul is paying them it’s not enough. Make a few examples if you have to. I don’t want anything sneaking out of their hole for the next few nights.”

“Right, Boss.”

“Wait,” Cade said. “We might need them with us.”

Torr was pretty sure he didn’t want to hear this. “What for? What are we going to be doing?”

“Well, you’ve had the bad news. Are you ready for the
really
bad news?”

At times, Torr felt the need to rip out Cade’s jugular and watch him drown in his own blood. This was one of them. “Get to the fucking point.”

Cade raised an eyebrow, but reached into his pocket and pulled out a paper. He handed it to Torr. He scanned it quickly and gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to believe this, and the timing was definitely suspicious. On the other hand, he couldn’t afford to ignore the information. Bryce was his responsibility. Could they risk opening a portal? But he needed Bella with him and unless he planned to keep her unconscious for the foreseeable future a portal wasn’t an option.

“Get the plane ready,” he said, “We’re flying to Mexico City. You and me, Cade. The others need to sort the mess out here.”

Cade glanced to where Bella lay sleeping. “Are you sure you can’t send someone else to Mexico?”

Torr shook his head. “I made a promise to Bryce, and I won’t go back on that. If this needs doing, then I need to be there to take care of him.”

“I’ll go get the plane ready. I take it Bella is coming along?”

“Yes.” What choice did he have? Five goddamn days.

“And me,” Phoebe said. “You’re not leaving me here alone.”

Torr nodded. Phoebe might as well come; she might provide some distraction for Bella, presuming she ever talked to any of them again. Anyway, the trip would not involve danger. If they found Bryce, and he was responsible, then Torr had no choice.

Bryce would have to die.