Return to Me (Storm Lords) (21 page)

Cade put the tip of his sword against its throat. “The Destroyer? Where is he?”

Bella started at the name; she’d heard it before, in the bar in Mexico City.

“Well,” Cade urged, pressing the sword blade a little harder.

“Razul has him.” The voice was low and thready, and Bella had to strain to understand.

“Where?”

“In the old dungeons beneath the Keep.”

“Thank you.” Cade shoved the blade hard and a bright plume of blood gushed from the wound. The thing choked for a moment and then lay still.

Bella scrambled to her feet and gazed at the bodies littering the ground all around them, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. They weren’t human, though they had a vaguely human form. Two arms, two legs, but they were stretched out thin, their skin leathery, and their skulls hairless.

Cade cleaned his sword on one of the dead guard’s clothes, straightened, and came over to where she stood. “Are you okay?”

“I think so.” She rubbed at the small cuts on her wrist. They stung, but they were the only damage. “What are they?”

“Lesser demons. No real problem.”

What are you?

The question hovered on the tip of her tongue, but she bit it back, not sure she was ready for the answer.

“So if these guys were guards, I take it you’re not welcome here.”

Cade looked around them. “Would you believe this was home once?” He shook his head. “Not anymore. Come on, they’ll know we’re here soon and chances are they’ll send something much less easy to deal with.”

“Where are we going?”

He looked surprised. “To the old keep. According to our friend there, Torr is in the dungeons.”

Bella put the facts together and didn’t like the answer she came up with. “Torr is the Destroyer?”

“That’s how he’s known here.”

“And in Mexico City.”

He must have heard the doubt in her voice because he frowned down at her. “Look Bella, whatever Torr has done in his life, he had his reasons.” He considered her as though he could see into her mind. “Are you having second thoughts?”

She shook her head slowly. It wasn’t the entire truth. Dread filled her. What were they? What had Torr done to earn the name Destroyer? Would she ever be strong enough to look into his mind and not flinch away from what she saw?

“Then let’s go,” Cade said.

“Are we walking?” she asked hopefully.

“Hell, no, you’re running out of time. We’re flying.”

Crap.

Torr came awake suddenly to thick, stygian darkness.

He was slumped on his knees on the hard rock floor, one arm shackled above his head. After rolling his shoulder to ease the ache, he pushed himself to his feet. The air was cool, but with no hint of movement. He was deep underground. Probably in the dungeons below the ancient keep.

He’d lost track of time, but knew it must now be Samhain. Tonight, they would release him. He’d have one chance to destroy them and he couldn’t fail. He’d already failed enough. As far as he knew, the five days had expired and Bella was truly lost to him. But then, she’d been lost anyway; from the moment she’d seen into his mind.

He hoped Cade would look after her, give her what she needed, and Gabriel would watch over her, her own personal guardian angel. At least, perhaps, she could have one good life before she finally died. This time for good and her soul would move on.

A sound broke the silence. He lifted his head, concentrating. In the distance, some sort of fight was going on. Demons often squabbled among themselves, it was their nature, and he dismissed it from his mind. Finally, the sound died away.

Torr leaned his back against the rough rock and closed his eyes. Red orange fire flickered against his lids. He blinked. Someone had come to a halt in front of the door, was peering through the bars.

He didn’t move, shock holding him rigid.

Bella.

Against all reasoning, she was here.

The door shuddered and a moment later, it was flung open from outside. He screwed up his eyes against the bright light as Cade stepped into the cell. Torr strained to see behind him, searching for her.

She stepped out from behind Cade and stood staring at him.

Emotion rose up inside him, choking him, blurring his vision.

Why was she here?

She stood shifting from one foot to the other, and he forced his gaze away to Cade. “Why the hell is she here? Which part of ‘keep her safe’ don’t you fucking understand?”

“Christ, you look a mess,” Cade murmured, his eyes running over Torr’s body.

Torr glanced down and in the flickering light from the burning torches he could see the damage Razul had inflicted. No fucking way did he want Bella to see him like this. He didn’t want her pity. What the hell was Cade playing at?

He’d been strong enough to stay away from her, not hurt her any more than he already had. He’d come to the one place he was sure she couldn’t follow. So why the fuck was she here?

She hadn’t spoken and she hadn’t moved since she entered the room. Now she made a small sound of distress. Her eyes were wide, filled with pain. He didn’t want to see her pain.

“Get her out of here, Cade,” he growled.

Cade moved into the room, settled his torch in the sconce fixed to the wall so it lit the dark corners of the cell. Then he came to stand in front of Torr. He rested a hand on his shoulder. “Good luck.”

Torr watched as he turned and left the room. “Cade, get the fuck back here.”

Cade ignored him, though he paused in the open doorway. “I’m going to go keep guard, give you a little privacy. Shout if you need me.” He walked out closing the door behind him.

Torr stared at the stained wood, the iron bars, studying it in detail, unwilling to look at Bella, see the pity in her face.

“Don’t be angry with Cade. I made him bring me.”

At her soft voice, he couldn’t resist looking at her, and pain welled up inside him. He’d resigned himself to never seeing her again, now he thought if he moved, his heart might shatter. She was so beautiful, slender and pure, all he had ever desired.

“Why did you have to come?”

She shuffled toward him, her gaze never leaving his face, until she came to a halt only inches away. Reaching out a trembling hand, she touched her finger to his lips. At her soft caress, the strength inside him unraveled.

“They hurt you.”

He shook his head, trying desperately to pull himself together. “I’m okay. Why are you here, Bella?”

She lifted one slender shoulder. “I had no choice. I needed to say I’m sorry.”

At her words, despair flooded him once more. He had been right—she pitied him. He didn’t want her pity. “You have nothing to be sorry for.” He forced the words out through clenched lips.

“I hurt you. I didn’t mean to. What I saw…” She shook her head. “But it was only shock. I wanted to see you afterwards, but you’d already gone, and Cade told me…” She gnawed on her lip then reached up and touched the heavy iron shackle. “Is there a key? Can I get them off?”

“No. They’re impregnated with magic. Only Razul can open them.”

“Why did you let him take you?” She gave a slight smile. “No, don’t tell me, you’re not allowed to explain.”

“Bella, I accept your apology. Now you must go. I need to see this through. I can take anything they do to me, but if they capture you…I don’t think I could take that. I would do anything they asked, and believe me that would not be good.” The thought of Razul touching her, defiling her, filled him with a black helpless rage.

“Cade will warn us if anyone comes. And I don’t want to go. I haven’t said what I need to say.”

His gaze flicked to her face. Her brows were furrowed. She was such a caring creature. She knew she had hurt him and now wanted to ease his pain.

“Then say it and go.”

“You don’t understand. I can’t go. For whatever reasons, I’m bound to you. When you went, I felt so lost, so alone. I don’t understand what’s happened to me, but it’s almost as though I’ve waited for you. And something inside me keeps telling me I have to do something. I have to tell you something. And it’s so strange, but…”

She reached up both hands and cupped his face, stared into his eyes, her own so blue like the summer sky he would never see again. He waited for the terror to show in her face, but she smiled in wonder.

A faint flicker of hope rose inside him, warming the ice around his heart.

“What? What is it you need to say?”

She leaned up on tiptoes and kissed his lips. “I need to tell you I love you.”

***

As she spoke the words, pure wonder blossomed on his face. Then the world shifted beneath her feet and everything went black. She collapsed to her knees, heard Torr call her name as though from a distance.

She was back in her nightmare, and he was still calling to her, screaming her name. But she knew now that it was no dream. She had lived this.

She had loved Torr more than life, and he had offered her a chance to be with him for all eternity. It was wrong, but the fear of being taken from him was stronger. She’d looked at him, filled with wonder that such a beautiful, perfect being could love her, want to spend eternity with her. His golden wings had spread wide to encompass them both. His face, free from scars, filled with an inhuman beauty as he stared down at her. “Drink,” he murmured.

And she’d drunk of the Elixir of Life and believed they would be together forever.

Then the angels came. They’d torn her from his arms, made her watch as they had ripped the golden wings from his body, slashed his beautiful face with their swords, and flung him into a gaping maw, which had opened up in the ground at their feet.

After that she hadn’t cared, hadn’t fought as they had handed her over to her own people. People she had cared for and loved and they had walled her up to die alone in the darkness.

“Bella?”

She opened her eyes, blinked, and a tear rolled down her cheek. She was kneeling on the floor of a cell, hewn out of bare black rock. She shook her head, trying to clear the memories. Torr was in front of her. She’d thought him lost to her forever and here he was. The past mingled with the present, and for a second she couldn’t grasp where she was, how she’d gotten here.

Torr was chained to the wall, his wings were gone, and a scar ran down his cheek, lifting the corner of his sensual mouth. His golden eyes were the same though. They were watching her, a hungry, hopeful expression. “You remember?”

“You love me.”

“Always.”

“And you’re an angel,” she whispered.

“I was long ago.”

“They tore away your beautiful wings.”

He slanted her a wry smile. “They grew back—sort of.”

They appeared to her then. Midnight black wings, curved against his back, the tips showing above his broad shoulders, and she gasped.

She scrambled to her feet, stepped closer, reached out a trembling hand and touched his face, stroked her finger down the scar, to his lips. He kissed her fingertip and heat sizzled along her nerve endings.

Then she stepped back and took in the rest of him. He was naked to the waist, and in the flickering orange light from the torch, his chest was a mass of cuts and bruises. At the sight, the present came flooding back. Where was she? How had she gotten here?

“Who did this to you?” she asked.

“It doesn’t matter. Bella, say the words again.”

She knew what he wanted. “I love you. It seems like I’ve always loved you.”

“I love you.”

Warmth flooded her at his words. “Torr, what happened to you, to me? I remember dying.”

“You were reborn because of the Elixir. You’ve been reborn many times.”

“I don’t remember. Just the first time. It was long ago, wasn’t it?”

“Two thousand years.”

She couldn’t take it in. It was too much. “What happened to your soul?”

“I gave it away.” His voice was laced with bitterness. “When I thought you were lost to me forever, I made a deal. I handed over my soul in exchange for powers that would allow me and my brothers our revenge.”

She remembered his brothers then, Cade, Finn, Bryce, and the others. They were angels as well. She wanted to know everything, understand everything. But more than that, she wanted Torr out of this evil place. She looked him over. The shackles were made up of a black metal cuff attached to his wrist, then a short chain, about a foot in length, slotted though metal loops on the wall at the height of his shoulder.

Torr reached for her but the shackle held him back. He swore softly.

She stepped up close to him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and lay her head against his broad chest. Breathing in the scent of sweat, blood, and warm male, she listened to the beat of his heart thundering in her ears. His free hand curved around her, holding her close.

“I can’t leave you,” she murmured the words against his chest.

“You can’t stay.” But he held her tighter against him.

After a few minutes, she pulled free. “What can I do? There must be some way I can help.”

“You’ve helped already. I was in despair, and now you have restored my faith. Whatever happens, I’ll have your love.

“But what is happening?”

“A demon has my soul. He’ll return it to me if I open a portal and allow his army to escape the Abyss and enter Earth.”

“And if you don’t?”

“My soul will be destroyed.”

“And you will go on as you are.”

He shook his head. “I’ll vanish as though I never existed.”

Shock ripped through her. “We have to get you out.”

“There is no out. But I will destroy Razul and his army first. Now I have your love. I’m happy. But you must go. I was resigned to my fate. Now I would give anything if I could somehow stop this and spend my life with you. But it can’t be stopped. Would you have the destruction of mankind on my conscience? I’ve done enough evil.”

Bella couldn’t take it in. She had found him and now he was to be taken from her. It seemed impossible. Unfair. She searched her mind for something, anything. Finally, she flung herself back in his arms and clung to him. She kissed his chest, his throat, his mouth, nipped at his lips until they opened under hers and she pushed her tongue inside, tasting him, wanting to devour him, to never let him go.

A deep longing filled her. She pulled back and looked into his face. “Make love to me. Now. Here.”

Heat flared in his eyes. Pressing herself against him, she felt him already hard against her belly. She slid her palm down between their bodies, over the hot skin of his chest, the ridges of his lean stomach, stroked him through the material of his pants, hot and hard as steel, and a warm wetness flooded between her thighs.

He hadn’t answered her and she peered up at him. His eyes were closed as she traced the shape of him. Oh God, she wanted him. Just this once, if they were to have no more. Surely he wouldn’t deny her.

She dropped to her knees in front of him, flicked open the button and lowered the zip so his hard shaft sprang free. She glanced up the long line of his body; his eyes gleaming at her through half closed lashes. He was breathing heavily now.

Her tongue flicked out to lick the swollen head of his erection and he groaned low in his throat.

She took him in her mouth, tasted the salty sweet tang of his desire, breathed in the musky scent of him.

***

Torr was in heaven, or as close as he’d ever wanted to be. Her mouth wrapped around his cock, hot and wet, as the pleasure tugged at his balls, shot up his spine.