He grabs my face and kisses me so thoroughly I feel as if I’m floating. I swear my feet are hovering over the ground. When he pulls away, he places his forehead to mine for a moment before dropping a kiss there.
“Thank you,” he whispers. “No one has ever done anything like this for me before.”
I felt honored to be the first. I grab his hand and lead him to the table.
On the menu tonight is a Caesar salad to start. The main course is honey-glazed salmon, roasted vegetable medley andmushroom and spinach risotto. For dessert, a lemon cake with a lemon-zest glaze. I pulled out all the stops for this meal.
“Have a seat.” I direct him.
He pulls out the chair at the head of the table. I pour him a tumbler of his favorite brown liquor. When I turn to head to my seat at the other end of the table, he stops me by grabbing my arm.
“Where are you going?”
I laugh. “To my seat.”
He shakes his head. “No. You know I can’t have you that far away from me.”
He gets up and grabs my plate with the utensils and my glass and places them right beside him. I shake my head, but I don’t argue. Once he places my things down and pours me a glass of wine, he takes his seat. I join him.
We take our time and eat. We talk about random things. With every new thing he tastes, he praises my cooking skills. Before long, dinner is over, and we are in the living room sitting on the floor playing games.
When no one could tell me what Razzy enjoyed doing, I found something I knew he understood. Raziel owned a casino, so I knew he at least liked games. I bought a bunch of board games and cards.
Right now, we are playing crazy eights. My feet are in his lap as I sit beside him but facing him.
“You don’t get tired?”
I’d just found out that angels, demons, forsaken, and fallen don’t sleep. I don’t know why I’m just realizing this.
When I first arrived here, I noticed Razzy never came into my room, although his clothes were in the closet. I initially thought he was sleeping in one of the smaller guest rooms, but I never saw a crumpled bed or anything.
“We don’t get tired. Our bodies don’t require rest. We just keep going.” He tosses down the 2 of spades.
I place my 2 of hearts down. “I can’t imagine not sleeping. Sleeping is my favorite thing to do.” I joke.
“You look so damn good doing it too.”
I chuckle at his compliment.
“Can I ask you a serious question?”
“Always.”
Placing my cards down, I give him my undivided attention. “What made you make that bond with me? I know you said it was to save my life, but couldn’t you just have told my mother no?”
He sets his cards down and turns toward me. He places both his hands on my feet and massages as he seems to think over this question.
“I’ll be honest, my initial reason was to save my ass.”
“How so?”
He’s again quiet as if he’s thinking.
“When I was in the heavens, I was an orphan. Both parents’ soul lights extinguished not long after I was born. Because I had no parents, I was raised to be a servant. Helping the other high-ranking angels when they needed assistance. Since I held no real importance, others often overlooked me.
“One day, an archangel asked me to run an errand for him. The job was simple. I was to take a message to the angel Khalid, the general of the army. While I was there, a few of the soldiers thought it would be fun to use me as target practice. I was a lot smaller than a lot of them.”
He gets a faraway look on his face as if he’s reliving the moment.
