Page 7 of The Bell’s Toll (Wanderlust Emporium Presents, Season One)

chapter Three

Nasiah

T he chapel doors close behind my little ring-bearing cousin, leaving only me and my father in the vestibule. That feeling in my stomach intensifies. I take a calming breath to fight off the feeling of wrongness.

“Are you nervous?” Daddy asks, stepping up beside me.

People always talk about how much I look like my mother. I was almost her twin. However, there was still a lot of Romeo in me. My full lips, dark brown eyes, and dimples were all his.

“Is it that obvious?” I ask, shaking out my hands.

He chuckles. “Only a little.”

We are silent for a moment as we watch Jamieson’s niece walk through the doors of the church. The same doors close, and father and I take our places.

“Oh, by the way,” he says, tugging at his tie. “Vanessa’s going to sit up front with me and your mama.”

I turn to glare at him.

“I told you I didn’t want that.”

He doesn’t even look at me as he replies. “I talked to Jamieson, and he said it was fine.”

Before I could say anything, the doors to the church opened, and the pianist plays the tune of the bridal march.

Despite being pissed that once again my desires were ignored by everyone, I suck it up. My father turns to me with a smile, offering his arm. I slip my arm in his.

“Let’s get you down that aisle.”

I nod as we make our way to J. I keep my gaze on my fiancé. This should be the happiest day of my life. I’m marrying the man of my dreams. Yet, my hands shake as I get closer to that altar. The urge to run the other way is almost causing me to have a panic attack.

Jamieson’s eyes narrow as he stares at me. I’m sure he can read the anxiety on my face. I try to force a smile, but I’m pretty sure it looks more like a grimace.

Sooner than I’d like, we are standing in front of Pastor Thomas.

J mouths the words, ‘Are you okay’?

I nod my head even though I feel everything but okay.

He smiles at me, the one that usually causes me to feel at ease and loved. Not today though. Shawn, J’s best friend and best man, pats him on the back proudly.

“Who gives this woman away?” Pastor Thomas asks causing a hush to fall over the church.

My father turns to me with a smile. “Her mother and—”

“Nobody,” a deep sultry voice says loudly. “Not without my permission, at least.”

I turn to face the back of the church to find a tall white man I’ve never seen before. The moment my eyes land on him, my belly flutters and heat pools in my veins. The urge to go to him immediately almost has me taking a step toward him.

It isn’t just how attractive he is. His dark brown eyes are intense as he stares at me.

Those straight brows slash across his face, giving him a menacing glare.

His face is square with sharp cheekbones.

Dark brown curly hair falls to his neck.

His lips are full and stand out amongst the dusting of his facial hair.

He’s wearing a white button-up shirt and tailored black slacks.

Although he’s attractive, it isn’t his looks that had my heart pounding and the butterflies in my stomach going crazy. There was something about his presence that pulled me toward him like a vacuum.

“Who are you?” my daddy asks beside me.

When the stranger finally takes his eyes away from me to look at my father, it feels as if I can finally breathe.

“I am Raziel,” he says with a slight bow.

I have no idea who this is. It seems as if everyone is stunned into silence. No one even makes a move to escort the stranger out of here.

“This is all really nice,” the stranger says as he makes his way down the aisle. “The colors, the decorations, and the flowers.”

Jamieson steps up behind me as the guy continues to make his way toward us.

“Even your dress is stunning,” Raziel stops right in front of me. When his gaze rakes up and down my body, my breath catches. It feels as if his hands have caressed me, and all he’s done is look.

For years I thought something was wrong with me. No matter how much I thought I liked a guy, my body has never really heated. Even when Jamieson and I were intimate, I would only get a little wet. However, the way my core is dripping at the sight of this man is unreal.

“Baby,” Jamieson calls out to me. I don’t turn to him, because the moment the endearment slipped out of his mouth, the stranger’s eyes cut to him and darkened.

“Do you know this man?” Jamieson asks.

“No,” I reply. “I’ve never met him before.” Even though those words are true, there is something that feels wrong about them.

The stranger turns back to me with a smirk. “We’ve met before, Beauty. You were just too young to remember.”

He didn’t look that much older than me. If I didn’t remember, how could he?

“And as for you,” he says, turning his attention to Jamieson. Once again, the dark brown in his eyes turns darker. “I’d cut that baby shit out.” The threat in his tone has me scared for J.

“Sir,” my father says, stepping in front of me. “I don’t know who you are, but….”

“She knows me.” He turns to look at my mother, who has tears falling down her face. “Isn’t that right, Angelica?”

“Don’t do this,” my mother pleads. “Not now.”

He shrugs. “A debt is owed.”

“Angie,” my father shouts. “What the fuck is this about? What debt?”

Mother takes a step closer, but stops as sobs shake her shoulders. “I did it for us. You were going to leave. I had to save my baby.”

I am even more confused.

“What baby, Mama? What are you talking about?”

Her sad gaze lands on me. “I had you too soon. No matter what the doctors did, they couldn’t save you. You were going to die.” I knew a little about this. I’d seen the pictures of me in the incubator. My mother often referred to me as her miracle baby. Hell, even my name means miracle.

“I knew that if you died,” mother explains. “Your father would leave me. I couldn’t let him go. There was no other option. I had to ring the bell.”

She still wasn’t making sense. What the hell did a bell have to do with anything?

“What bell?” I ask.

“She made a deal with me.” The handsome stranger waves his hand through the air, and a single piece of paper appears out of the blue. A few gasps go up around the room. The man takes the paper out of the air and hands it to my father.

“The agreement,” he goes on to say. “Was, if I saved your life and kept your father in hers, she would give me whatever I wanted. And now, I’m finally here to collect my debt.”

“Is this legit?” Jamieson asks my father.

Daddy doesn’t respond, instead, he hands the paper over to Jamieson with a frown on his face.

Daddy looks over at my mother. “How could you?”

Mumbles fill the air. Words like shady and manipulative float around the room. I felt sick to my stomach.

“You trifling, bitch,” Vanessa shouts. “You sold your soul to the devil to keep a man that was never yours.”

The stranger chuckles. “Don’t call me the devil. That pussy could never be me.”

My mother sobs as she reaches for my father. He takes a step back out of her reach. The devastation in her gaze almost makes me feel bad for her.

“I did it for us,” she tries to explain to him again.

Jamieson balls the paper up and tosses it at the stranger’s feet.

Father shakes his head as he gives the man his attention. “What do you want? What does she owe you? If it’s money, I’m here to tell you—”

The guy waves away my father’s words. “I don’t want your money.”

“Then what do you want?” Jamieson snarls.

Those dark brown, intense eyes turn to me. My heart races, and those stupid butterflies flutter.

“No,” my father shouts. “You’re not taking my baby.”

The man snarls, his once normal eyes turn pitch black. There is no longer any white. Plumes of black smoke rise from his head.

“You think you can deny me what is rightfully mine.”

I take a step back. Fear fills the room, making my heart rate increase. Whimpers and screams go up around the building. Pastor Thomas pushes past us; he tosses liquid on the stranger.

“I cast you out, demon,” the pastor shouts. “By the power of God, I rebuke you.”

The stranger screams as if he’s in pain. I cover my mouth at the agony in his cries. Slowly, the screams turn into laughter.

“I’m fucking with you,” he says, grinning. “That shit doesn’t work on me.”

Pastor Thomas takes a step back.

Those black eyes turn to me. “You can make this easy, beautiful. Come with me.” He holds out his hand toward me.

It goes without saying that I’m going with him. Not because I want to, but if this being with his black eyes and billows of smoke can be summoned and save a dying baby, then it can most likely harm me. I’m not na?ve enough to think he’s actually giving me an option.

I take a step toward him, but Jamieson stops me. He turns me around to face him.

“You can’t go with him,” he pleads.

“Just let her go, Jamieson,” my sister shouts.

I don’t even take offense to her statement. She’s just trying to stay alive. We have no idea what this thing is capable of.

Looking over my shoulder at the man, I turn back to Jamieson. “What do you think will happen if I don’t?”

“I can answer that,” the stranger says. “A life is owed, and I can take it from whomever I want.” He turns to face the pews.

“Eenie, meenie, miney,” he points around the room.

Every time his finger lands on someone, they cry or whimper.

He turns back to face us. “Moe,” he finally says, pointing directly at Jamieson.

J, drops to the floor. His body starts to convulse and shake. Jamieson’s mom screams. His father takes a step toward his son. One look from the stranger has him stopping in his tracks.

Raziel turns those black eyes to me. “Make your decision, Beauty. Come with me, or I remove branches from your family tree.”

As I said, it was never a question if I was going with this demon. There was never really an option.

I look down at my convulsing fiancé one last time. “I’ll go. Don’t hurt him.”

The demon’s nostrils flare as he watches me. I don’t think he likes the fact that I asked him not to hurt J.

He waves his hand through the air. J quiets on the floor beside me. Before I could check on him, the demon was standing in front of me. He wraps his arm around my waist. I gasp at how warm his body is and how penetrating those black eyes are this close.

“You should’ve let him die,” he snarls as the black smoke coming from him surrounds me. Suddenly, the room grows cold and the feeling of falling has a scream ripping from my lungs.