Remember Me (Storm Lords Book 1)
Read Remember Me (Storm Lords Book 1) Online
Authors: Nina Croft
Remember Me
By
Nina Croft
Remember Me
Copyright © 2015 by Nina Croft
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
***
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any
resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
***
For anyone who has loved and lost—I hope you get a second chance.
110 BC…
Cade offered the golden goblet to Eleni.
“Drink.”
She wrapped her hands around his and raised the cup to her lips. Cade held his breath—his hopes and dreams within his grasp. But at the last moment, she glanced up at him, and uncertainty flickered in her dark eyes. “If I drink, will we be togeth
er for always?”
“For eternity.”
Her sweet mouth curved into a smile as she leaned toward him and sipped the liquid. Cade watched the movement of her throat as she swallowed, and the tension drained from him, his silver wings spreading in triumph.
There was
no going back now. Right or wrong, the deed was done.
He had betrayed his own people in stealing the Elixir, but he had no regrets. He would gladly forsake Heaven if that was the price he had to pay to be with Eleni. He’d found his own heaven here on
Earth, and he knew his brothers felt the same.
He dropped the goblet to the ground, cupped her beloved face in his hand, and lowered his head to kiss her.
The sharp, bittersweet tang of the Elixir lingered on her lips, and a shudder of unease ran through h
im. He shook off the feeling. There had been no other way. “Come, we need to leave. The others will be waiting.”
A small frown formed between her brows. She nodded at the goblet, where it lay in the sand at their feet. “Will you be in trouble for this?”
He
forced a smile. “Not if they don’t find us.”
He had arranged to meet his brothers at a clearing close to Eleni’s village. Clasping her small hand in his, he pulled her against his side, and fought the urge to take to the air—but they couldn’t draw attenti
on to themselves. The theft would be discovered soon enough; they had to be away from this place before that occurred.
The sun blazed high above them. An unnatural silence hung in the air. Cade couldn’t dismiss the nagging sense of disquiet, and he increas
ed his pace.
They were almost there—he could see his brothers and their wives gathered, waiting—when a clap of thunder sounded overhead. The sky opened, and a host of angels appeared, blocking out the sun. The beating of a thousand wings filled the air. In
seconds, they were surrounded.
Cade cursed. How could they have discovered the theft so soon? “Cade!” Eleni’s high-pitched scream tore into him.
Hands were reaching for her. Cade tried to wrap her in his arms, but they wrenched her from his grasp. He foug
ht, then. Furiously. But there were too many, and too strong, and he could only scream his rage as they dragged her from him.
All around, his brothers were fighting. Cade drew the sword from the scabbard at his back, whirling and countering the blows that
came from all directions, desperate to reach Eleni. But for each one he cut down another took his place. Finally, his strength failed, and the sword dropped from his fingers. He hung exhausted in the grip of two of his captors, his breath coming hard and f
ast, as despair swamped him.
He lifted his head. Gabriel stood before him, golden wings spread. “You broke the rules, Caden. This time you’ve gone too far. You stole the Elixir of Life.” The words were softly spoken, but beneath that, Cade could hear the o
utrage.
“How did you know?” he asked.
“You should have remembered that humans are fickle, jealous creatures.”
Cade’s mind frantically searched for a way out. “My wife? Where is she?”
“The human?” Gabriel shrugged. “Her own kind will deal with her as they s
ee fit.”
The fighting had died to nothing, but Cade couldn’t see Eleni, and panic clawed at his guts.
“Cade!”
Through the confusion, she cried out his name, her voice hoarse with terror and panic. The host parted, and he caught sight of her. They had tied
her to a stake—people from her own village, people she had cared for—and piled brush wood around her. She was struggling wildly against the restraints, but to no avail, and fear stopped his heart. It couldn’t end like this. He tore at the hands that held h
im, screaming her name.
For a brief moment, their eyes met and some of the panic faded from her face. “I love you.” She mouthed the words.
“For eternity,” he whispered.
Then the flames licked at her bare legs, and she screamed in agony.
He lost sight of he
r as they closed in around him. The acrid scent of smoke, burning pitch, and roasting flesh clogged his nostrils. He fell to his knees and gagged as Eleni’s shrill screams filled his mind.
Finally, she fell silent.
Cade’s heart shattered. He threw back his
head and howled.
Long minutes, he knelt there, unsure whether he could even move. His mind reeled in disbelief. She couldn’t be gone, but there was a huge gaping hole inside him, where she had been for so long.
He pushed down the pain and allowed ice-cold
fury to envelop his heart as he struggled to his feet. They had gathered his six brothers together, their faces reflecting his own despair.
“For violating the laws of Heaven, you are banished.”
Gabriel waved his hand and a portal opened, a break in realit
y. Cade sensed the shadows reaching up to him, and he embraced them.
He stood immobile, barely feeling the pain as they ripped his wings from his back, and then he was plummeting through darkness. He fell for an age, until finally, he crashed to the
ground.
His mind was numb as he stumbled to his knees. He’d wanted Eleni to live forever, be at his side for eternity. Instead, he had brought about her death, and he would be alone until the end of time. A scream welled up inside him. He knelt in Hell, bu
t it was nothing compared to the darkness in his soul.
An icy wind blew across his skin, and he looked up from his torment. In the half-light, a woman stood before him. “I’m Lilith, Queen of the Damned. Welcome to the Abyss.”
Present day
“T
ell me why I’m here again?” Cade had to shout over the whir of the helicopter blades.
“Here” was about twenty miles south of Kabul, the environment an inhospitable mix of low rocky outcrops and scrubby bushes beneath a washed out blue sky and a pale yellow
sun.
“Press conference,” Finn replied. “You’re talking; I’m your bodyguard.”
Cade examined him—Finn certainly looked the part in his camouflage gear and more weaponry than could ever be needed. But then Finn did love his toys. “I don’t need a bodyguard.”
“Maybe not.” Finn grinned. “Okay, definitely not, but it wouldn’t look right for the big boss not to have a bodyguard around here. You might not have noticed, but we’re in the middle of a war zone.”
The helicopter was slowing now. Below them, Cade could ma
ke out the vague outline of manmade structures, the same pale ochre as the landscape, so the buildings merged with the rocky terrain. They circled the compound once, hovering above the small crowd of people in the wide open central area, before coming to l
and on an open rooftop off to the side.
A faint hum of excitement vibrated deep in his gut. He’d been missing this. As CEO of Stormlord Securities, he spent way too long in the office. What he needed was something to take his mind off the fact that time wa
s running out for all of them.
Cade slipped on his dark glasses and jumped down.
The sun prickled his skin, but he ignored the sensation; sunlight no longer had the power to harm him—he’d grown beyond that. Thick red dust permeated the air, and he grimaced
as he ducked under the still-turning blades and ran for the edge of the roof, Finn at his back.
Despite the sun, the day was bitterly cold, but Cade hardly noticed as he smoothed his suit and breathed in the icy air. The cool breeze hinted at snow and som
ething else—a lingering scent almost forgotten, but still familiar.
He came to an abrupt standstill.
The hum of excitement grew to a buzz that spread through his being, filling him with a wild sense of anticipation. His whole mind focused on the elusive sc
ent that teased his nostrils, sweet, spicy with a hint of lemons.
A wave of longing swept over him, so strong he almost stumbled. Bracing himself against the low stone wall in front of him, he tried to clear the fog from his brain, as excitement warred wit
h terror.
Eleni.
Could she really be here? He fought for control, but a fierce exhilaration was building inside him.
“What is it?” Finn asked, but the words scarcely registered.
After all the years of searching, was he finally going to find his Eleni again
? Would she know him? He fought down the need to leap over the edge of the building, to find her, confront her. But he couldn’t do that.
She had to come to him of her own free will, or this time he would lose her forever.
“Cade?” Finn’s low voice came from
behind him, and a hand pressed down on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Cade shook it off and headed down the open staircase that ran alongside the building.
The scent was stronger here, but mixed with the stench of too many people crowded together. Cade sea
rched the sea of faces. A few wore western clothes, but the majority dressed in dark robes with traditional scarves wrapped around their heads.
Panic clawed at his insides. He couldn’t find her.
A man stepped up toward him, blocking his view, and he gritte
d his teeth in frustration. “Mr. Wolfe, can you tell me what you think about the current situation in Afghanistan?”
“Mr. Wolfe…”
Cade stood, letting the questions flow around him, while the adrenalin surged through his system.
“Mr. Wolfe, would you like to
comment on the allegations that Stormlord Security uses illegal means to gain government contracts?”
A woman’s voice. Clipped and assured. The words hardly registered. For a brief moment, his brain ceased to function. He looked down. A long way down. The
woman in front of him was small, but then his Eleni had been tiny—it had always made him feel protective. When he’d told her that, she’d laughed at him, told
him
she didn’t need protecting.
A scarf wrapped around her head, leaving only a narrow band of her
face showing between the folds. Dark brown eyes, flecked with gold, stared up into his. They were all he could see. But they were enough. Eyes he’d dreamed about for over two thousand years. He couldn’t believe it; after all the centuries of searching, sh
e finally stood before him.
“Eleni?”
Her dark brows drew together in a frown. “The allegations of corruption, Mr. Wolfe—could you comment?”
The scarf muffled her voice, and he wanted to reach out and drag the dusty cloth from her, reveal her to him.
“Cade,
we have incoming.” Finn’s voice shouted in his ear, the urgency of the tone finally getting through to him.
He tore his gaze away from the woman.
“What?”
“Goddamn it, Cade. This place is going to explode.”
He forced himself to look upward and shock punche
d him hard in the gut. Like a comet, a trail of fire streaked across the sky. A rocket heading straight for the compound.
Straight for Eleni.
***
The guy was definitely acting weird.
Phoebe had studied him as he came down the steps.
Unlike his companion wh
o was dressed in full combat gear, Caden Wolfe wore an elegant silver-grey business suit, white shirt—no doubt silk—and a dark red tie which matched his immaculately cut dark red hair.
Prior to the press conference, she’d found out everything she could abo
ut him, but even so, nothing had prepared her for Caden Wolfe in the flesh. He was stunning. Which didn’t mean he wasn’t also corrupt.
Patrick, her boss—and one of the best editors in the business—had always told her that the most important quality for a s
uccessful investigative journalist was gut instinct. And her gut was screaming that there was something very off with regards to Stormlord Securities.
But she also needed to be fair. Phoebe was the first to admit that she loathed and despised the big multi
national corporations. Hated the way they believed themselves above the law, and the way they used and discarded the “little” people as though they didn’t matter.
People like her father.
Because of that, she always went the extra length to make sure her facts were right, always did her research meticulously. She’d looked at Stormlord Securities from every angle, examined the statistics, and the numbers didn’t add up. No company managed to
get that many government contracts without making payouts somewhere along the line.
And Phoebe Little, ace reporter, was going to find out where. Expose his sleazy company, and his shady dealings.
This story was going to right some wrongs
and
put her name
into the top ranks of investigative journalism.
But she wished he’d stop staring at her. It was making her feel distinctly odd, sort of hot and fluttery. He wore dark glasses, but still she sensed his eyes fixed on her as though he were starving. She tight
ened the scarf around herself and glanced down. She was covered from head to foot—what was there to gawk at? His bodyguard spoke to him, and at last he broke eye-contact with her. As he stared upward, horror flashed across his lean handsome face. Phoebe fo
llowed his gaze to the sky, and her mind locked in terror. A rocket was heading straight for them. No way could it miss.
A moment later, something slammed into her, and the world went black.