Return to Me (Storm Lords) (6 page)

“Is she okay?” Torr asked.

“Fine. I think. Grabbed the dog and slammed the door in my face. So what’s happening?”

Torr waited until his brothers had taken their seats.

“Lilith has ‘lost’ my soul,” he said.

Cade sat up abruptly. “What?”

Torr sank down into the chair behind him, the full realization washing over him. What if he won Bella back and lost his soul? Without a soul, at best he’d be an empty shell, incapable of loving. But there were worse implications. What did the thief want? Would he try to coerce Torr into some sort of action? And just how far would he go to save his soul and have the chance at a life with Bella?

“Lilith claims it was stolen, which means she allowed it to happen. And she doesn’t know who took it, but then she mentioned Razul had been around.”

“Shit, that’s wicked luck, man,” Finn said.

“And bad timing,” Cade added. “Just when you need to concentrate on Bella.”

“I doubt whether either luck or bad timing has anything to do with it.”

“You think she knows you’ve found Bella?”

“She has to. Goddamn bitch!”

“Why? What does she hope to gain from it? What does she want?”

“She wants Torr back,” Cade said. “And she wants the rest of us under her command once more. But to let Razul have your soul—that’s bad.”

“Maybe she believes she can control Razul,” Finn said.

“Can she?”

“Probably, if she wants to.” Torr stared morosely out of the window, where darkness was falling. Red-hot rage built inside him. But that was no doubt also part of Lilith’s plan. She wanted to show him what he really was. Make him embrace his dark side once more. But he would not give in.

He would find Razul, get his soul back, win Bella.

“Roark and Devlin, I want you to go down to the Abyss. Find any information you can. Razul always had a big mouth. If he’s up to something then someone will have heard.”

“Okay,” Roark said. Devlin nodded.

“Finn and Kill, I want you two to search the city. Find out if there’s been any demon activity anywhere near here. I want to know if Razul is out there.”

“Will do.”

“What about me?” Cade asked.

Torr studied the other man. While Cade would want to help the others, his responsibilities were here now. Phoebe should come first. “You stay here. You have Phoebe to look after, and I’d prefer one of us stay in the building at all times.”

“What about you?”

“I need some air.”

He needed to get out, clear his mind. Then go see Bella. His cell phone rang. He listened.

“Shit. She’s left the building.”

***

Justin had finally returned her call. Bella arranged to meet him at a bar not far from the Stormlord Securities building. But worry nagged at her mind. Justin hadn’t sounded like himself at all, and he’d refused to tell her anything over the phone. Just asked her to come as quickly as she could.

Maybe she could be there and back before anyone even knew she was missing. She’d been going over things in her head during the long day, and she’d decided she didn’t want to cut all her options yet.

She’d almost expected to be stopped as she exited the building, but the security guard just gave her a curious glance as she walked out the main entrance. She glanced back up at the building as she hurried away. She hadn’t noticed it when they drove in, but it was an impressive structure, all stainless steel and smoky glass. Stormlord Securities was written in big black letters above the door, with what must be the company insignia—some sort of angel’s or demon’s wings, she couldn’t decide which.

Bella knew London well, had lived here all her life, but tonight something was creeping her out. As darkness fell, her sense of unease grew. She couldn’t shake the idea that someone was following her. The sensation started as soon as she stepped onto the street. A prickling at the small of her back. A trickle of darkness seeping into her mind. The feeling intensified as she walked, until finally, she stopped and swung around.

The streets were still busy, filled with normal people going about their normal lives, and she could see nothing unusual. This was merely Torr freaking her out with his talk of her ‘powers.’ Her imagination was going wild.

She hurried on. All around her, the streetlights cast strange shadows. She swallowed, wiping her clammy hands down the sides of her jeans.

Why didn’t I stay put?

She wanted desperately to be back within the safety of the building, and she had no clue why.

Inside the bar, the light was dim after the bright streetlights and she stood blinking until her vision cleared. The place was full of business people from the city, drinking instead of heading home. She searched for Justin’s bright blond head, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight. She so needed him to be here, and he’d never let her down before.

Now she stood, fidgeting, uncertain what to do.

“You Bella Dixon?”

She glanced up as the barman spoke to her. “Yeah,” she said. “Who wants to know?”

He raised an eyebrow at her belligerence but nodded toward the phone on the wall. The receiver lay on the bar. “There’s a call for you.”

Bella frowned but picked up the phone. She poked her finger in her other ear, trying to block out some of the noise of the bar.

“Bella?” His voice sounded odd, strained.

“Justin, where are you?”

“I’m with some guy. He came into the bar straight up to me, said he knew you, and you’d asked him to take me to you.”

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.” But her stomach was roiling and a heavy lump formed in her throat. Who would even know about her meeting with Justin? She hadn’t told anyone. Unless someone was monitoring her cell phone? But why would anyone do that? It didn’t make sense. “Where are you now?”

“Just down the road from you. Under the railway bridge….”

“Come back to the bar, Justin.”

“I really don’t think that’s going to be an option.”

Panic tinged his voice, and her stomach cramped.

“They said to get here fast and to come alone. They just want to talk,” he added.

“Do you believe them?”

He was silent for a moment. “I—”

He broke off and she heard a scuffle on the other end of the line. She gripped the phone tighter. “Justin?”

“Belladonna?” The voice was low, and an icy cold shiver trickled down her spine.

“Where’s Justin?”

“Justin can’t come to the phone right now, but he says hello.”

A low moan of pain came down the line. For a moment, her mind went blank, and then she pushed the panic down. “Who are you? What do you want?”

“Come and see. We just want to talk. We’re waiting for you. Don’t take too long.” Justin moaned again, followed by a muffled scream of agony, and the call ended abruptly. Bella stared at the phone in her hand. Fear held her immobile, her mind refusing to function.

An image of Torr filled her mind. Should she call him? She desperately wanted to, but what did she really know about him? And was it a coincidence that this had happened now, just as she got involved with Torr and Stormlord Securities.

Oh, God, Justin.

She replaced the receiver and turned to go, but then looked back at the bartender. “Did you see my friend?” she asked. “He was in here a few minutes ago, tall and thin with blond hair.”

“Yeah. He left with a couple of guys about ten minutes ago.”

Bella thanked him automatically, left the bar, and started walking. She’d always relied on herself, why should now be any different? Maybe they did just want to talk.

She’d be okay. It wasn’t as if she was some weak silly person, who didn’t know the streets. She’d survived for two years out there on her own. She knew how things worked.

Besides, what choice did she have? They had Justin. Justin was her friend. How many times had he watched her back?

She’d kill them if they hurt him.

Night had fallen completely by the time she got there. Under the bridge, all was darkness, but she caught a movement at the far side. She squinted into the shadows. Two figures were crouching over a third, who lay on the ground. Bella stared, mouth open, hands fisted at her sides. She took a step closer, then another, and one hand flew to her mouth.

She swallowed and took a slow step back.

Every cell in her body screamed at her to run. But that was Justin on the ground. She knew it with a certainty. She had to save him, whatever it took.

Overhead, an approaching train slowed as it neared the station, the headlights piercing the darkness beneath the bridge. One of the crouching figures glanced up, and she stared straight into glowing crimson eyes.

She forced her gaze down. Justin lay on his back, spread eagled. His face turned toward her, mouth open in a silent scream of horror, his wide eyes blank, lifeless. Beyond help. His shirt was open and his chest a mass of bloody flesh. Nausea roiled in her stomach, and she swallowed down the bitter tasting bile, forcing herself to look at Justin’s attacker.

The face staring back at her wasn’t human. She had no clue what it was, but human didn’t come into it. Evil peered at her out of slanted crimson eyes, blood dripping from its open mouth. It licked its lips then went back to feeding.

Bella whirled on her heels, ready to run, when the second attacker suddenly moved. Flying through the air, he landed lightly in front of her, blocking off her escape. She backed away, but came up against the stone wall of the railway arch. Claw-like hands reached out, clutched her shoulders, forcing her to look into its face.

The eyes whirled, red and black. Bella tried to focus, to calm her breathing, think of some way out, but she was being dragged under. Crimson lightning flashed across the sky.

At the last moment, she opened her mouth and screamed as the darkness swallowed her.

“Calm the fuck down,” Cade growled for the fiftieth time.

Torr didn’t want to calm down. Why the hell hadn’t he tied her up, or locked her in, or just not moved more than two inches away from her ever again?

When he found her, he was going to cuff her to him.

“We’ve got a fix on her cell phone, Torr. We’ll get there. She probably just wanted to meet this guy, see a friendly face.”

“Then why wasn’t she at the bar?” As soon as he’d realized that Bella was gone, he’d accessed her phone records and heard her talking to this Justin. He knew who he was of course; he’d read the file Cade had put together on her. The two of them were close, actually lived together, and his fury rose at the thought of anyone else touching her.

“Maybe they wanted a bit of privacy.”

Torr gritted his teeth. She had no right to even think about wanting to be in private with anybody but him. But he knew it was more than that. The bar had been thick with the stench of demon. They’d tracked the demons from there to this place.

“We’ll find her.” Cade said.

A scream pierced the night. Torr broke into a run, heading toward the sound. Something shifted in the darkness beneath a railway bridge. Bella. Releasing his demon form, he flew the last few feet. She lay on the concrete ground, her eyes closed. A minor demon crouched over her, claws extended. Torr reached out and snapped the demon’s neck, nearly tearing the head from its body; it crumpled and vanished into greasy ash. Torr spun around as Cade grabbed the second demon by the throat.

“Cade, keep him alive. We need to find out who sent them.”

Cade turned and lifted an eyebrow at the pile of ash at Torr’s feet.

“Just hold him,” Torr said. “I want to check on Bella.”

Crouching down beside her, he reached out a hand and stroked the bright hair from her forehead. She had no obvious injuries, but she didn’t stir.

He straightened, strode over to where Cade stood with the other demon clutched in his fist. Torr gripped one hand in the demon’s hair and slammed him back against the wall of the tunnel. Peeling back his lips, he flashed his fangs and the demon cringed back. “Who sent you here?”

Someone had to have brought them across. These creatures couldn’t have escaped the Abyss without help.

“Razul released us. Sent us here. Told us to take the woman.”

Fury roared through him, and he lunged forward, his fangs sinking into the hot flesh of the demon’s throat. He swallowed convulsively until the body went limp in his arms, and then tossed it to the ground.

Breathing heavily, he fought to control the darkness that raged inside him. It was a long time since he’d tasted demon blood; it was like a narcotic, burning through his entire body and mind.

A hand touched him lightly on his arm and he snarled and swung around.

Cade stood his ground. “We should get out of here. Someone might have heard and called the police.”

Torr nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Returning to where Bella lay unmoving, he gathered her in his arms, held her tight against him. The steady thud of her heart against his chest soothed him.

He glanced over to where her friend, Justin, lay, clearly dead, his ribs peeled open to reveal the cavity where his heart should be. Had Bella seen him die? Had she recognized his killers as something other than human? Until he knew, he couldn’t decide what to tell her.

“I’ll get rid of the body.” Cade spoke from beside him. “You get Bella back.”

He nodded, spread his black wings, and took off.

***

Bella came awake slowly. Her head throbbed, and when she opened her eyes, a shooting pain shot through her skull. She shut them tight and tried to work out where she was and how she had gotten there.

The last thing she remembered was…

Her mind shut off the thought before it could finish.

She couldn’t move, and it took her a minute to realize that she was held in somebody’s arms. Held tight against a rock solid chest, her cheek pressed against smooth silk so she could feel the rapid thud of a heart. Breathing in, she recognized Torr’s distinctive scent, musk and heat, smoky spices. She waited for panic to engulf her. Instead, a sense of comfort wrapped itself around her. As though he could stop the world from breaking through the protective barrier she had built to shut out the night’s events.

His hands tightened around her as though he sensed she was awake. “Bella?”

The word was whispered close to her ear, and she moved her head slightly in acknowledgment. His tight grip loosened and she almost protested as he lowered her gently onto a bed.

She tried opening her eyes again, this time the pain was manageable and she peered out through her lashes as Torr moved away from her.

The room was strange; she wasn’t in the apartment. At a guess, she must be in Torr’s room. It suited him, monochrome, white walls, and black furnishings. She was lying on a crushed black velvet cover on what had to be the biggest bed she had ever seen. And her cheek now rested against a black silk pillow.

Torr filled a glass from a jug on the small table and came back to her. He sank down on the bed beside her and held out the glass and a couple of tablets.

“They’re just Tylenol,” he said when she hesitated.

Ignoring the jolt of pain, she pulled herself up so she was leaning against the headboard. She held out a shaking hand and he dropped the pills into her palm. She put them in her mouth, then swallowed as he held the glass of water to her lips. He was being so kind, as though she was fragile, and that scared her.

After placing the glass on the bedside table, he turned to study her. “How do you feel?” he asked.

“Like I’ve been hit over the head with a baseball bat.” She ran her fingers over her skull but she could find no lumps or bumps to explain the pain. “What happened?”

“You fainted. I presume you hit your head on the ground, but there doesn’t appear to be any damage.”

She frowned. “I’ve never fainted in my life before.” Closing her eyes, she concentrated. She’d gone to meet Justin. The bar. Under the railway bridge. Then it came back to her.

Justin!

For a brief moment, she clung to the idea this was some nightmare. That Justin wasn’t dead. But she’d never been much good at self-delusion. Behind her closed lids, she saw his lifeless body, his face full of whatever final horror he’d been subjected to. When she opened her eyes, Torr’s face was filled with pity.

“Justin’s dead, isn’t he?” she said.

Torr nodded, and the last flicker of hope died away. “I’m sorry.”

Grief ripped through her mind, quickly overwhelmed by a tidal wave of guilt. “I called him. We were supposed to meet at a bar, but he wasn’t there. Somebody took him. But who?” She had a vision of blood-red eyes, a mouth dripping with crimson. Maybe the question she should be asking wasn’t
who
took him, but what? She glanced up at Torr; would he think she was crazy? Maybe she was. Her head hovered on the brink of exploding.

“I should have got there sooner,” Torr said, interrupting her thoughts.

“It’s not your fault. If I’d not called him…if I hadn’t asked him to meet me then he’d still be alive.”

However, something didn’t make sense. Her brows drew together as she tried to get it straight in her mind. “How did you even know where I’d gone?”

For a moment, she thought he wasn’t going to answer.

“When I realized you’d left the building, I accessed your phone records.”

She should have felt fury at the invasion to her privacy; instead, she was impressed. “You can do that?”

“Of course.”

“Why come after me? Why am I so important to you?”

“You are unique.”

“Yeah, right. My ‘powers’.” It was odd; Justin had referred to them that way as well. He’d thought she should learn to use them, but by that point, all she had wanted was to stop feeling other people’s pain, when she already had enough of her own. Justin had helped her do that as well. Grief washed over her again, and she blinked back a tear.

“Were you close?” Torr asked.

“If you mean did we sleep together, then no. Justin wasn’t like that; he preferred guys for sex. But he was my friend. We looked after each other.” She rubbed her eyes. “I just don’t understand. What were those things? Why did they take Justin?”

Torr shrugged. “We don’t know who they are yet, but possibly kids high on drugs. Justin was in the wrong place that’s all.”

“They had red eyes,” she said.

“You probably just saw a reflection from the street lights.”

It was more than that, but her brain felt fuzzy, unable to concentrate. “What happened to them?”

“They ran off when we got there. Cade chased them, but they got away.”

All very convenient. “And what happened to Justin?”

“Cade is dealing with it.”

“He’s not an ‘it’,” she snapped. “He was my friend.”

Torr sighed and sank down onto the bed beside her, running a hand through his hair. “Try to forget it for now. We’ll talk when you’re feeling better.”

She glanced away. No way could she forget. If someone had killed her, then Justin would have gone after them. The rules of the street. You looked after your friends. And if you failed to look after them, then you made sure that whoever hurt them paid. You couldn’t afford to appear weak.

For now, she would put aside her grief and concentrate on revenge. But first, she had to find those responsible.

Justin made more friends than enemies, but it was inevitable in their line of business that they were going to piss some people off. Mostly they relied on disappearing after a job was over. But maybe someone had caught up with them. Perhaps it was tied to her arrest the night before. Would they come after her? They’d obviously planned to kill her tonight as well.

There had been something wrong with the men who’d killed Justin. Maybe it had just been drugs, but she’d never seen drugs that could do that. She would ask around; somebody must have seen Justin leave the bar and who he’d been with. Somebody would know
something
.

But maybe there was a better way. She studied Torr through her lashes and found him staring straight ahead, his eyes alert beneath the heavy lids, a dull flush along his sharp cheekbones. He was seated on the bed beside her, so close she could reach out and touch his thigh. She balled her hands into fists at her side.

He ran a security company; he’d accessed her phone records with a speed which was impressive. He would have the resources to find Justin’s killers.

“Will you help me?” she said. “Find out who did this to Justin and why? I’ll repay you.”

“I promise, and I don’t expect anything in return.”

Unease jabbed her in the gut. Why had he come into her life? What did he really want from her? Common sense told her she should get out now. Just leave, but she knew Torr was her best way to find Justin’s killers. All the same, she wanted to make sure everything was upfront. She didn’t want to be any more in his debt, than absolutely necessary.

He’d made it clear there was one thing he wanted from her.

She couldn’t guarantee she could provide it, and the whole idea of opening up her mind to the feelings of others filled her with dread. But she always paid her way.

“Nobody does anything for nothing,” she said slowly. “You’ll want something from me, and I’d prefer we settle it now.”

He turned his head so he looked straight at her. “You know what I want.” His voice lowered and a frisson of awareness ran through her. She bit her lip to concentrate her mind.

“Not really. You want to use me to check whether people are telling the truth. And honestly, I don’t know whether I can do it. Even before I managed to control—”

“How did you learn?” he interrupted.

“Justin knew somebody. He said she was a real weirdo, but he also reckoned she could help. She told me she was a clairsentient, and she taught me how to build a wall around my mind, to keep others out.”

“Then we need you to learn how to take down that wall.”

A shiver ran through her. “I’m not sure I want to.”

“You just need to learn to control it. You can do it. I know you can.”

She frowned. “How can you? You talk as though you know me, but really, you know nothing about me.”

His features hardened. “I’ll help you. I won’t let any harm come to you.”

He stood up. Bella thought he meant to leave her and fear washed through her. A vision of that thing crouching over Justin flashed through her mind. She saw again, Justin’s wide staring eyes, stamped with a horror she didn’t even want to imagine.

She held out a hand to him, the movement instinctive. “Don’t leave me.”

He pulled up a chair close to the bed, sat down, and took her hand. “I won’t.”

Warmth and a sense of peace transmitted itself to her from his warm palm. It occurred to her then that she had never asked anyone for anything before, certainly not to hold her hand while she slept.

***

Torr experienced a faint flicker of guilt that he seemed to have achieved his goal through the death of her friend. However, he could do nothing about it now.