Return to Me (Storm Lords) (20 page)

Day 5

Bella had only agreed to get on the flight because Cade had told her that Torr was no longer in Mexico City. She needed to talk to him, and she hoped he would be waiting when they returned to London. Cade wouldn’t answer any questions about where he had gone. He still appeared in shock and that worried Bella more than anything else. Cade had always appeared so cool.

This time they flew commercial. She supposed that’s what happened when you crashed your private jet. She couldn’t even get up an ounce of worry about the plane crashing.

They were in first class, not that she was in any mood to appreciate it. Phoebe sat beside her, but she hadn’t said a word since they’d boarded. She’d had a private conversation with Cade back at the house; and since then, she’d been quiet and withdrawn.

Cade was next to Bryce across the aisle. She had a feeling he would have preferred to be sitting with his wife, but he was keeping a close eye on his friend. Bryce appeared relaxed if sad. He’d come to see her back at the house, and had offered her his deepest thanks and his ongoing protection should she need it. She got the distinct impression that he’d been suicidal, and that for the first time in an age, he was actually contemplating a life ahead.

Bella gave Phoebe a quick sideways glance. Her hands twisted in her lap, and she was chewing on her lower lip.

“Please tell me what’s going on?” Bella murmured.

Phoebe darted her a glance, then flicked a look at Cade who was watching her. She shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll find out when we get home. Hopefully, Torr will be back.”

Bella held the other woman’s gaze and peered into her mind. All she saw was confusion, concern, and beneath that, she could sense that she didn’t believe her own words. Phoebe didn’t believe that Torr was coming back.

“Don’t do that,” Phoebe snapped and looked away.

Where had Torr gone, and why would no one talk to her about him? Why did she get the impression that they blamed her in some way? That she had failed them.

She closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. It was going to be a long night.

As Cade drove them through the city heading back to their headquarters, the atmosphere in the car was still subdued.

Dawn was breaking and the roads were quiet. Bella stared out of the darkened window as the city streets flashed by. The area was familiar and she realized they were passing close to where she’d grown up. On an impulse, she leaned across and tapped Cade on the shoulder. He glanced back at her. “What is it?”

“Do you think we could stop for a while?”

“Where?”

What was she supposed to say? That she had an urge to visit her mother? The mother she hadn’t seen since she was fourteen. She’d thought about it once or twice. After she’d closed off her powers, she’d wondered if she’d be able to face her mother, talk to her as just two human beings. Perhaps understand, without the constant emotional bombardment, why she had hated her so much. In the end, she’d always backed out because she’d been too much of a coward.

Now she had a need for some sort of closure.

“Bella?”

“I want to see my mother.”

He glanced at her again. “I thought you weren’t in touch.”

She shook her head. It had been a stupid idea anyway. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does.”

He slowed the car and turned off the main road. He seemed to know exactly where he was going, and soon, the wide roads gave way to narrower ones and the smart buildings to rundown blocks of flats, separated by concreted areas, the walls smeared with graffiti.

He pulled up outside the block where Bella had spent the first fourteen years of her life. She stared at the ugly building and the old reluctance washed over her.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Phoebe asked from beside her.

“No, wait for me here. I won’t be long.” She scrambled out of the car before she could change her mind.

The hallway stank as she remembered, stale smells of decay and worse. She ignored them and headed up the narrow stairwell and out onto the second floor walkway. Her mother’s place was at the far end, but it was clear before she got there that she’d wasted a journey. The flat had been burnt out some time not too long ago. Smoke damage streaked the outside walls, and the windows and front door were boarded up.

Bella stared at it for a long time, unsure what to do, when the door next to her mother’s opened and a stranger peered out. “What do you want?”

“I was looking for the woman who used to live here.” Bella nodded at the burnt out apartment.

“Gone. Dead. Died in the fire a year ago now.” The woman’s face softened. “Did you know her?”

Bella’s mind went blank. She didn’t know how to respond. She shook her head at the woman’s question and turned away, leaned on the railings that ran along the walkway.

Her mother was dead.

She’d never been a happy woman, always looking for something or someone to blame for her unhappiness. Often that someone had been Bella. The woman, who should have comforted and helped her, had made her life a living hell.

Her mother had never loved her. But it had been more than that. Looking back, she realized her mother had never loved anyone, had probably never been capable of loving. Her mother had been an evil woman.

Bella recognized the face of evil. And in that moment she knew that whatever else Torr was, he was not evil. As she accepted that fact, the tight knots of tension inside her unraveled, and she knew what she had to do.

She’d find Torr, tell him she believed in him, that he was a good person. Suddenly, it became vitally important that she do it, and do it fast. She had cured Bryce, surely, she could help Torr. Then she remembered that hole where his soul should be. It wasn’t going to be so easy. But she had to try.

“Are you all right?” She whirled around. Cade stood on the walkway beside her. “We were worried,” he said.

“I’m fine. But I need to see Torr. I need to see him now.”

His face closed up. “You can’t see him. He’s gone.”

“Then take me to him.”

“I can’t do that. Look Bella, Torr told me to wait a day, make sure you’re safe and then let you go. He said to pay you the money he’d offered you for the job and also that he would see to it that your friend’s killer is brought to justice.”

Bella tried to take in all the information. From what Cade was telling her, it appeared as if Torr wasn’t coming back. Ever. Was she too late? She couldn’t be too late. “Please, Cade. It’s important. I have to see him. I have to tell him…”

He glanced at her sharply. “Tell him what?”

“I don’t know exactly. Something—something important—I’ll know when I see him. I have this feeling that it can’t wait.”

He studied her for a long moment, and finally nodded. “I have to take Phoebe back first. Then I’ll try to take you to him—but to be honest, I don’t know exactly where he is.”

“But you’ll try?”

He nodded. “Come on.”

He led the way almost at a run and Bella followed him. Phoebe was waiting by the car. “What’s happening? Did you see your mother?”

Bella shook her head. “We have to hurry.”

“Hurry where?” She turned to Cade. “Where are we going?”

Cade opened the back door and hustled them in. “You’re going home. Then I’m taking Bella to Torr.”

Phoebe paused halfway into the car. She looked at Cade and Bella could see the disbelief in her eyes. “Can you do that?”

“I can try,” Cade replied grimly.

Bella settled herself into the seat as the car pulled away.

Where exactly was Torr?

This wasn’t real.

Bella swallowed the icy lump of fear in her throat as she stared at Cade. She’d watched in puzzlement as he’d stripped off his shirt. Then her mind refused to react as he’d stood before her and grew wings. Blood-red wings. Phoebe stood beside her, one hand resting on Bella’s arm as if to hold her back. Bella darted her a quick glance. She didn’t appear surprised or shocked that her husband had just sprouted feathers.

“Bella.” Cade gestured to her to come closer. She found herself inching backwards without thought. Phoebe’s hand at the small of her back, brought her to a halt, and then nudged her forward.

Cade held out a hand. Bella looked at it, then at the crimson wing tips visible beyond his broad naked shoulders.

“Take it,” Phoebe urged.

Bella swallowed again, took a step forward and a deep breath, then slipped her palm into Cade’s. He pulled her toward him, took her other hand, and brought it up to his shoulders. His skin was hot and her fingers tightened. She sensed some shadow behind her and glanced over her shoulder. A huge gaping hole had opened in the floor, filled with nothing but blackness.

“Hold on,” Cade said against her ear.

He took a step forward, then another, until he stood poised on the edge of that opening into nothing. Bella closed her eyes. She had no clue what was or wasn’t real, anymore. All she knew was that Cade had promised to take her to Torr.

“Ready?”

Never!

But she gave a curt nod, and screwed her eyes up tight as the world fell away.

She forgot all thoughts of propriety as she wrapped her legs around Cade’s hips, her hands clinging to his shoulders, her face crushed against his bare chest as they fell.

Faster and faster, the air rushed past them. Then the descent slowed, and the
whoosh
of enormous wings filled her ears. Finally, they landed with a dull thud.

Cade held her for a moment, then plucked her fingers from his shoulders, put his hand to her waist, tugged her free, and put her down on her feet. Her legs gave way and she reached for him again. He steadied her, and this time her legs took her weight. She stood breathing deeply.

“You can look now,” Cade said.

“Do I want to?”

“It’s not so bad.” A faint thread of amusement laced his voice. She pried her eyes open and peered around her. The light was dim as though the sun had just set beyond a huge glittering black mountain range off to her left. The sky was violet shading to midnight blue. They stood on a black sandy beach, by a river. No buildings in sight and nothing moved; no sounds broke the eerie silence.

Bella swallowed, cleared her throat, trying to dislodge the solid lump of fear stuck somewhere in the middle. “Oh, crap. I’m in Hell aren’t I?”

Cade grinned. “Welcome to the Abyss.”

“The Abyss? Right. And isn’t that another name for Hell?”

He shrugged, opened his mouth to reply when a loud clatter shattered the silence. Cade whirled, pushing Bella behind him. She peeked around his broad form. Five figures stood facing them in the faded light. Vaguely human, but with red glowing eyes. Shock hit her in the gut. They were the same things that had killed Justin, and a ripple of terror ran through her. She stiffened her spine. “What are they?”

“Guardians of the Gate.”

“What gate?”

“The one we just came through. Keep behind me.”

A glowing, crimson sword appeared in his fist.

Where had that come from?

It was a stupid thought. Where had any of this come from? The world had gone crazy. Cade raised the sword and his dark red wings spread wide. Bella stepped back to give him room as he swung the blade at the advancing figures. He appeared like some sort of avenging angel. But what sort of angels had wings the color of blood? Bella closed her eyes tight as the first one reached him. There were five against one. What chance did he have? She peered through her lashes. One was down already with Cade’s first stroke. He decapitated the second on the backstroke, and then shoved the sword into the belly of the third. He moved like a dancer, graceful and lethal. The two remaining figures backed away, and Cade slowly advanced on them sword held in front of him.

Bella allowed herself to breathe again. It looked like they might live a little longer.

Something grabbed her from behind, and she stared down at the vicious claws digging into the skin on her wrists, blood welling at each point. She struggled, but whatever held her was immensely strong. Forcing her panic down, she clamped her lips closed to stop her scream. She couldn’t distract Cade. She relaxed her muscles, allowed herself to go limp, and the tight hold on her slackened.

Kicking back as hard as she could, she wrenched herself loose, and lunged for freedom. Her legs were knocked from under her and she slammed into the soft sand. She rolled onto her back, and tried to scoot away as the thing loomed over her, eyes glowing. She wanted to close her eyes, but she couldn’t look away. Its emotions washed over her, hunger, need, and a deep burning hatred for all things that lived above. It leaned in closer. Her lungs filled with the fetid stink of its breath, and she turned her head and gagged.

The certainty of her own death swamped her; and in those last moments, all she could think about was Torr. She would never see him again. Never tell him…

The thing was torn away from her and flung to the ground. Cade stood over her, a fierce grin on his face, bloody sword still clasped in his hand. He nodded at her once, before striding over to where the thing that had attacked her, lay huddled on the ground. It made to rise, but he stamped a booted foot on its chest and it crashed back down.