Page 12 of The Bell’s Toll (Wanderlust Emporium Presents, Season One)

chapter seven

Raziel

R unning a hand down my face, a shudder runs through my body. I pull my hand away and stare down at it. Her scent is imbedded in my fucking skin. I’ve showered and washed my hands and face twice, and I can still smell her aroma.

My mouth waters, and my cock lengthens.

“Fuck!” I shout as I shove my papers off my desk.

What the hell is wrong with me? Why can I not get this human out of my system?

After tasting her two hours ago, I had to make myself walk out of that room.

I wanted to fuck Nasiah so bad; I almost convinced myself that taking it from her was a good idea.

However, I meant what I said. The day she gets this dick will be the day she begs me for it.

I have to chuckle at myself. I’m a got damn forsaken, why should I care about her wanting me.

The memory of her sobs runs through my mind.

I stood outside the bedroom for an hour after I left, listening to her cry.

I have never felt so damn disgusted with my actions before.

Hell, I almost thought maybe I did still have some light left in me.

But that’s not possible. I lost my soul light the day I fell from heaven.

No, this is all about Nasiah and this stupid mate-bond.

Clearly, I did something wrong when I formed the bond between us. Nowhere did it mention this dire need to be with her, or how easily her moods and concerns would affect me. Hearing her tell me yesterday how miserable she was in that room almost made me want to let her go. Almost.

My office door opens and Unina walks in. She stops when she notices all the papers on the floor.

Without saying a word, she comes over and picks up the papers.

“Leave it,” I say, slumping back in my seat.

She ignores me as she places the stuff neatly back on my desk. Once she’s done, she sits down in the chair in front of me.

“What happened?”

Letting out a deep sigh, I fill Unina in on everything that happened once I stormed out of here earlier today with Erazel. I felt weak as shit explaining this to her. I’m forsaken, a dominus at that, and I’m bitching to my assistant about woman problems.

“She had to be punished for trying to leave. But do you think I handled it wrong?” I find myself asking.

Unina rolls her eyes as she pushes her long hair over her shoulder. “I swear, all men are the same. What did you think she was going to do? You thought you would kidnap her from her wedding without an actual explanation other than ‘your mom owes me a debt’ and she was going to stay?”

I shrug. “Yeah. I told her I’d kill someone if she left.” I mean, that should have been enough of a reason for her to stay put.

Unina shakes her head. “How about you tell her how much she means to you? Explain what a mate-bond is and how you two are meant for each other.”

I scrunch up my face at the bullshit Unina just said. “Hell no. She doesn’t need to know all of that. Plus, it’s just a mate-bond. It’s not that serious.” I quickly tell the lie.

Unina lifts a brow at me as she folds her hands over her chest. “I’m not a druid or anything, but I know a little about bonds and magic. You can tell yourself all you want that this is a simple bond, but the way you’re in here throwing a tantrum tells me otherwise.”

“No one is throwing a fucking tantrum.”

She points to the pile of papers she picked up off the floor.

Glaring at her, I wave away her comment. “If you know so much about this bond shit, tell me how to fix it.”

She grins as she leans back in her chair. “From my understanding, there is no fixing a bond. The only thing you can do is fix your relationship with the human.”

I didn’t believe her about not fixing the mate-bond. If a mate-bond can be broken, it can be fixed. I just needed to find someone to fix this one. Of course, I couldn’t go to the one I used to fix the last one.

Just thinking of the old mate-bond has a shiver running up my spine.

“Raziel.” Once again, my name is called through the void. This time, there is a bit of annoyance that coats it. I toss up a block, ignoring the summons. A temporary fix to a major problem.

Tuning back in to Unina, I rub my chin. “So, if you were a girl—"

She raises her brow at me.

I shake my head. “I meant, if you were my girl, how would you want me to fix this?”

I can’t believe I was asking this bullshit question.

Unina grins, sliding to the edge of her seat. “Gifts. Most women are simple creatures. You need to do something nice for her.”

“I bought her a penthouse and an entire wardrobe of designer clothes and shoes.”

She rolls her eyes. “You need a special gift. Something that requires thought. Something that says, I hear you, I see you, and I appreciate you.”

Her words sit with me. I was absent for most of Nasiah’s childhood.

I checked in with her through the void maybe two or three times until she turned ten.

It wasn’t until her twentieth birthday that I came back into her life.

I did not know what an adult Nasiah looked like until that day.

Imagine my surprise when I laid eyes on the most beautiful being I’d ever fucking seen.

Still, I came around only sparingly. I know she owns and operates a beauty bar, she loves to cook and try new food, she enjoys dancing, wine and…. A smile spread over my face as that last thought came to mind. There is one thing Nasiah loves more than anything else.

“I know exactly what to—”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence before I’m pulled out of my office and through the void. There is no question of who summoned me. I knew it was only a matter of time before she would tire of me ignoring her call.

I land on the hard ground after falling through the void. Rolling onto my back, I sit up. I immediately have to shield my eyes from the blinding bright light. She does this shit just to be a bitch.

Standing to my feet, I continue to protect my eyes. Eventually, the bright light fades. Standing before me is the angel Uriah. Her tan skin and blue eyes glare at me. Her chestnut hair hangs damn near to her ass. She’s wearing a red shimmery dress with a high split.

“Well hello, Uriah. Long time no see,” I say with a smirk.

She turns her lip up at me. We were at her high-rise apartment. Out the window, I can see the perfect view of the Eiffel Tower. She saunters over to her white Vimercati style couch, her heels clicking against the marble tile floor, and takes a seat.

“You’ve been ignoring my summons, Raziel.”

Turning to face the angel, I fold my arms over my chest.

“Yet you still pulled me here. What the fuck do you want?”

She glares at me, her perfectly arched eyebrow lifting to her hairline.

People thought there was a clear notion of who was good and bad. Angels are considered good while demons are bad. In reality, I’d trust a demon before I ever trusted one of these muthafuckers. At least with a demon, you know what to expect. Not all angels are grimy, but this one wasn’t worth shit.

“You’ve grown mighty bold as the years have passed. Need I remind you, you still owe me a blood debt.”

I flinch when she mentions that fucking debt.

Yeah, as I said, I knew all about blood debts.

Walking over to one of the fancy white chairs, I take a seat but not before grabbing an apple out of her fruit dish on the coffee table.

Sinking back in the seat, I widened my legs before taking a bite out of the apple.

She watches me with pure hate in her eyes as I chew and swallow my bite of fruit.

I lean forward and place the half-eaten apple back into the fruit bowl before retaking my position. “Those apples are shit. And I don’t owe you a blood debt.”

She snarls. “Have you forgotten our contract?”

With a grin that damn near reaches from ear to ear, I smile at her. “Oh, I know the contract. Until the debt is paid, I must do as you ask. I must come when the bell tolls. When the last favor is done, the bell will crack, freeing me from our blood debt.”

She smirks. The day that fucking bell was created was the worst day of my life.

“I have a task for you,” she says with a grin. “I need you to go to the underworld and kill….”

A laugh bubbles up out of me. She frowns.

“What the fuck is so funny?”

“You. Tell me, Uriah, where is the bell?”

She looks uncomfortable for a moment. Her back stiffens, and her hands lock in her lap. “We don’t need the bell. You know you owe me.”

I wave my hand through the air, opening a gap into the void. Reaching through the rippling air in front of me, I pull out the broken bronze bell. Closing up the void, I place the bell down on the arm of the chair. Uriah gasps as she looks at it.

“Where did you get that?”

I chuckle. “Twenty-seven years ago, a human summoned me for a favor.”

She swallows before looking up at me. “It doesn’t matter. You still owe me the last favor.”

“Actually, I don’t. The contract doesn’t specify who gets the favors, just that I have to fulfill them until the bell breaks.” I pick the bell up and try to ring it, but it makes no sound. “I think we can both agree the bell is broken.”

She leaps to her feet, her wings springing from her back. They stretch from one side of the living room to the other, the white feathers gleaming as bright as her halo light.

“How dare you? You tricked me,” she snarls.

“There was no trick. You lost the bell, and someone else found it. Not my problem.”

She leaps over the coffee table to stand in front of my chair. “You will do as I ask, or I will undo my favor. You remember why the bell was formed in the first place, don’t you?” her smirk pisses me off.

For a second, the image of Abrigia comes into my mind.

Her golden skin and deep dimples take my breath away.

The vision of her golden blonde hair blowing in the wind nearly sends me to my knees.

The forsaken princess was everything I could have dreamed of.

However, as quickly as the image came, it fades as the memory of her betrayal pops in my mind.

I lift my shoulders and smile at Uriah. “Hard to reform a mate-bond when there is already one in place.”

Her eyes widen. She waves her hand through the air. Suddenly, a golden cord appears. It’s connected to my heart. It moves out about a foot away from me before it disappears into thin air. If you were to follow that gold cord, it would without a doubt lead you to Nasiah.

Uriah screams. “How dare you?”

This is the reason I made the mate-bond with Nasiah.

I knew the moment that bell broke, and it wasn’t Uriah holding it, that she would be pissed.

The only card she had to get her way was to reform the bond I had with Abrigia.

Only she could do it since she is the one that broke it.

My only option to keep that fate from happening was to forge a bond with someone else.

I laugh as she stands in front of me fuming. I can see the wheels in her head turning, trying to figure out how to get her way.

“You owe me,” she finally says.

Standing to my feet, causing her to take a step back, I tug at the sleeves of my button up. “As per our contract, no the fuck I don’t. Now, if you don’t mind, I have somewhere to be.”

Turning my back to her, I cut an opening into the void.

“You place a lot of trust in a fragile human.”

Her comment has me stopping in my tracks.

“It would be a shame if something were to happen to her. Your mate-bond isn’t yet solidified, which means if she dies now you can’t save her.”

I move so quickly, the human eye wouldn’t have been able to catch me.

One moment I’m standing with my back to her, and the next I’m in front of her, my hands wrapped around her neck, lifting her off the ground.

My wings are out. However, they are nothing like hers.

Mine are large and leathery with no feathers.

She smiles at me. “You don’t have the balls, forsaken. If you kill me, not even your precious king can save you.”

I snarl out my frustration. With one last squeeze, I release her. She drops to her knees.

“You touch my human, and there will be hell to pay.”

I turn away from her and head back to my exit.

“You will regret this, Raziel,” she sneers.

Looking over my shoulder, I leave her with one last remark. “Don’t fucking summon me again.”

Slipping through the void, I put Uriah out of my mind. Before she called me into this bullshit, I had something else in mind. I have some work to do.