Forgiven

by Fall, Carly

  Forgiven

  An Angels of Affection Novel

  Book 2

  By Carly Fall

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2014

  By

  Westward Publishing

  All Rights Reserved

  Smashwords Edition

  Cover Design: IDrewDesign

  Edited by: MAI Editing

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to Elise Marion.

  Thank you for your encouragement to “get it done,” your unwavering support, and your time and effort. This book never would have been completed without your ability to make me laugh just when I needed it most.

  Chapter 1

  “You almost failed.”

  The deep voice reverberated around the black marble room and a fresh burst of anger ignited within Liam, but he kept his trap shut. Who was he to tell off Michael the Archangel, the head of all the angels in Heaven?

  Michael stood at the other end of the black onyx table. At seven feet tall, his golden hair hung in soft waves to his chin, matching his robe and the sandals on his feet. His eyes were golden as well and his skin glowed porcelain white. He cut an impressive figure, especially when anger radiated off of him in light golden waves. It should have been a really beautiful sight, but instead it made Liam’s gut clench in fear.

  Liam didn’t have much experience with Michael. The first and last time Liam had seen him, Michael had been addressing a group of Angels of Death about the dire condition of the people of Earth. Those damn humans were on the verge of self-destruction, and Michael had been forced to take some Angels of Death and put them in the role of Angels of Affection—angels who helped people fall in love.

  Both Liam and his partner, Adela, had been given the task, even though both were certain they were far more effective as Angels of Death. Both were jaded and emotionally detached, which didn’t bode well for helping people fall in love. They had brought up their own shortcomings, but no one seemed to be listening.

  Liam sighed and bit his tongue. It just wasn’t fair to put two people into a job they were not equipped to handle, but it had been done. As he stared down at the table in front of him, he gave consideration to Michael’s words. Yes, he and Adela almost failed their last assignment, but when it came right down to it, they hadn’t. In fact, they had succeeded. Missy and Jeff were together and she was going to help him heal through the love she felt for him. Liam had no doubt in his mind that they were going to go the “happily ever after” route.

  However, the assignment hadn’t been without its complications.

  They had been so certain that Jeff was supposed to get back together with his wife, Sara. Then Sara got into an accident and died, leaving Liam and Adela confused and irritated. How were they to get two people back together when one of them was dead?

  Finally, it had occurred to him that Jeff was supposed to be with Missy. As hindsight was always twenty-twenty, looking back, it all seemed so obvious to him now.

  “What do you have to say for yourselves?” Michael’s voice boomed through the big hall.

  “But we didn’t fail, Michael,” Adela retorted.

  Liam glanced over at her, surprised at her bravery of talking back to Michael. Liam hadn’t had much interaction with the Archangel, but from what he had seen, Michael usually did all the talking and others simply listened.

  “We completed our assignment. There are now two people on Earth who are going to love each other deeply,” Adela declared. “That was our assignment and we succeeded.”

  Adela sat next to him with her back straight, her long, blonde hair cascading around her. She wore identical clothing to his— typical clothing for an Angel of Death, consisting of black leather pants, vest, and combat boots. Her pretty face showed no emotion, her large brown eyes gazing up at Michael.

  Liam hoped Michael didn’t send Adela up in flames, if the guy could even do that. He took a deep breath, also hoping that neither Adela nor Michael could tell he was just about shaking in his boots during this little meeting.

  “It may not have gone as smoothly as it should have,” Adela continued. “It may have taken us longer than you would have preferred, but we did get the job done.”

  Glancing across the table at Michael, Liam expected to see fire and brimstone. Michael sat down and his golden eyes turned black for a moment. Dark storm clouds formed above him, churning and rotating as if they were going to unleash a raging tempest. Loud cracks of thunder reverberated through the room, making Adela jump in her seat. A bolt of lightening flashed to Liam’s left. Staring down at the tabletop, he hoped the next one didn’t strike Adela or him. He wanted to put his arm around Adela, figuring that if they were going to go down, they’d do it together, but he refrained. If he touched her, he may never want to let go.

  One more bolt of lightning appeared to the right, and he winced. Liam closed his eyes, certain that this would be the end of them. He didn’t know if Michael could kill two people who were already dead, but he could definitely send them to suffer for eternity in Hell. Liam had already experienced hell on Earth while alive. As firefighter born and bred in Australia, he had died while battling a raging brushfire five years ago. He clearly remembered the agonizing pain and stench of his skin melting off his bones, and he certainly didn’t want a repeat experience.

  A moment later, a fresh, clean breeze blew through the room, and the turmoil ended almost as suddenly as it had begun. Liam breathed a sigh of relief and glanced up at Michael who was now smiling, his eyes back to their golden color.

  He stood and walked toward them across the black, marble floor, his sandals making a soft clicking sound with each step. “I apologize for my outburst. You are correct, Adela. You did succeed, but not as quickly as you should have. We almost lost Jeff to the darkness. I feel as though we are losing too many humans to the darkness, and I am afraid for their fate.” He took a deep breath and continued. “But with every assignment, there is a lesson. What’s the lesson you learned?”

  Adela threw Liam a sideways glance, and he took it to mean that he should answer for them. He knew the lesson he had learned during the confusing, almost-botched assignment. “Sometimes, what you’re looking for is right in front of your face,” Liam answered, meeting Michael’s powerful stare.

  The angel of all angels smiled, his eyes crinkling. “Very good, Liam. Very good. Don’t let it happen again.”

  Michael walked back to the other side of the table and sat down. “Your next assignment is of paramount importance, and possibly a bit more difficult, given your natures. It must be resolved quickly, so move with haste, and find those that should be in love. Make it happen.”

  With that, Michael disappeared in a wisp of golden smoke. Liam let out a long, slow breath. “I’m glad that’s over,” he whispered.

  He glanced over at Adela. She twisted her hands in her lap, her brow creased in worry. She gave him a weak smile.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Liam said, standing, and Adela followed.

  Hell. Find two people who should be in love, make it happen and make it fast.

  Might as well be asked to turn the world upside down and inside out.

  Outside Michael’s quarters, Evangeline, their overseer, waited for them. Her long, white robe glittered with crystals, as did her wings. “Are you ready?” she asked.

  Liam nodded, stretching his wings.

  “Yes,” Adela sighed. The three took off together, soaring through the air.

  Chapter 2

  The snow fell silently among the majestic trees, blanketing them and the
earth below them in puffs of white. The air was as still as death, and Liam knew once he could breathe it in, his lungs would fill with iciness only a winter storm could bring. His breathing would hitch as he sucked in the frigid air, and his lips would feel like two small blocks of ice. His nose would become numb, his cheeks would burn while his body shook, and his skin crawled with goose bumps.

  Fantastic.

  “I hate being cold,” Liam mumbled as he touched down on the deck of a house on the shores of Lake Tahoe, California. His boots were immediately swallowed up by snow up to his mid-calf.

  The redwood structure sat tucked among the looming pine trees; its floor-to-ceiling windows covered in blinds, and there had to be at least a foot of God-forsaken snow.

  “I don’t really remember the sensation of being cold,” Adela replied, tossing her long, golden hair over her shoulder.

  Adela had been put to death during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 and had been an Angel of Death ever since. Their last assignment was in a town called Litchfield Park, just outside of Phoenix, Arizona. It had been a balmy eighty degrees there.

  As Angels of Death, neither of them were unable to feel the weather elements. It was like being enclosed in bubble wrap, or cocooned from the outside world. They were observers on Earth, not participants. As Angels of Affection, they became human again and felt everything a human would: the weather, hunger, the need for sleep, and the hundreds upon hundreds of mundane things humans took for granted. For instance, the sun against his skin while in Arizona had been as sweet as a lover’s caress. However, he noted that humans didn’t think twice about it.

  “Let’s hurry inside. Your transformation will take place quickly,” Evangeline said, ghosting through the sliding glass door. Adela followed, and Liam brought up the rear.

  They ended up in a living room with red cloth couches in front of a large, stone fireplace and a thick, white rug covering the hardwood floor. A stack of wood was piled next to the fireplace, waiting to be lit and warm the room.

  Liam began to feel the changes of turning from an angel to a human. The crisp cool nighttime air brushed against his skin, the smell of pine channeled into his nose. Little aches and pains in his knees and shoulder whispered hello, and his stomach rumbled with hunger.

  There was a burning sensation as his wings disappeared, and as he stretched his back, he felt the pull of the six crystals where his wings had been, three on each side of his spine right between his shoulder blades.

  He glanced over at Adela, who was shivering. “We should get some warmer clothes on,” Liam said, glancing down at his leather pants and vest.

  “It is just like your last assignment,” Evangeline said, ignoring him and going in to full overseer mode. “This house was for rent, and it is close to your next target. The Creator made sure that all of your needs are provided for. Please, go find your rooms and get dressed so that you are comfortable.”

  Liam followed Adela down the hall, their combat boots thumping against the wooden floor with each step.

  Adela stepped into the first bedroom. Liam leaned against the doorjamb as she went through the dresser drawers. A double bed with a green and yellow quilt looked cozy, and Liam yawned. Clothes, food, and bed were the order things were going to be accomplished in tonight.

  “This is my room,” Adela said with a grin, shutting the top drawer. “Unless you suddenly prefer pink, silky undergarments.”

  Liam smiled. He and Adela tended to trade a lot of insults and barbs. One of his favorite things had been seeing if he could get a rise out of her, and every now and then he thought he had succeeded. Now they were partners in this whole Angels of Affection business—the business of helping people fall in love—and their relationship had changed a little. Adela had been dead for over three centuries, and she needed his help to survive as a human in this world. When they had first started with their mission, she didn’t know how to work any of the appliances in a house. Sure, she had seen these things as she delivered souls to their final resting place, but it was one thing to observe something and another to actually utilize it. As he had only been dead five years, he knew his way around a kitchen She relied on him, and he really liked that.

  “I’ll keep my kinky fetishes to myself,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows. “Besides, I bet pink, silky undergarments look much better on you than they do on me.”

  A slow blush crossed her cheeks, and that brought him a great deal of satisfaction. With a wink, he walked down the hall, smiling. He used to love getting her riled up, and now he enjoyed making her blush. As Adela was born in the 1600’s, he was certain that she was a virgin as she had never mentioned being married before her death, and pre-martial sex had certainly been a taboo in that time period. As far as he knew, she didn’t know the first thing about sexual relations, and little comments like the one he had just dropped made her cheeks rosy. He had grown to feel protective of her as if she were a child. Not a child—that was the wrong word. She was innocent. No child had a body like Adela.

  There were four bedrooms down the hallway, and he checked the first two. Both had empty dressers. The last one contained men’s clothes, and he pulled out a pair of blue flannel pajama bottoms and a white turtleneck. He found some wool socks and slipped those on, noting how everything fit him to a tee, and began making a mental list of where he would look in the cabin for matches to start the fire.

  He went back to the living room and saw Evangeline standing in front of the dancing flames, her long, white gown flowing around her. Apparently she had taken care of lighting the fire, and Liam doubted she had searched for any matches. Most likely, she had simply waved her hand and the fire had been born.

  She tucked a lock of blonde hair behind her ear as she stared at the swaying flames. Shadows danced across her face, and he decided that she was everything an angel from the Inner Circle of Heaven should be: delicate, yet strong, beautiful, and she practically oozed holiness.

  “Are you going to stand there staring at me?” she asked quietly.

  And she also knew what was going on around her at all times, making it difficult to remain unnoticed. “Sorry. You just look very heavenly and holy,” he said, sitting down on the red couch.

  She turned to him and smiled. “I am, Liam. I am from the Inner Circle. We are the holiest of all the angels in Heaven.”

  He nodded. Not like his ilk—thoe angels from the Fringe of Heaven, where those whose behavior on Earth wasn’t quite bad enough to get a ticket to Hell. “I know. But for someone who’s pretty low on the totem pole of angel holiness—like me—sometimes you’re quite a sight.”

  There was the patter of feet in the hallway, and he turned to see Adela enter the room. Evangeline may be the holiest angel he’d ever seen, but Adela was by far the most beautiful woman, and angel, he’d every laid eyes on. Period. And he’d laid eyes on a lot of women.

  Her thick hair had been pulled up into a bun on top of her head, and she wore a dark chocolate-brown turtleneck sweater that matched her eyes. She had also opted for flannel pajama bottoms; hers were a deep forest green. Her feet were stuffed into fluffy brown slippers.

  She smiled at him shyly as she sat down on the same couch as him, but on the opposite end. “I’m hungry,” she complained.

  “Me too,” Liam said, nodding. “We’ll pull something together after we hear about our next assignment.”

  Evangeline turned to them. “This task will be the same as your last one. The rules are the same: your target will present themselves to you. Because of the debacle of the last assignment, the Creator has agreed to give you another easy one.”

  Liam scoffed. Easy? Don’t think so. “The last one wasn’t easy, Evangeline, and Michael actually said this one would be a little more difficult.”

  Being Angels of Affection was new to Adela and him. They had always been Angels of Death, but because humans were screwing things up so badly with their hate, wars, and disregard for their fellow man, the Archangel Michael had decided that in order to co
mbat the hate, there needed to be more love. The Angels of Affection couldn’t keep up with their duties and Michael had pulled Angels of Death to help with the job. If the Angels of Affection failed in their mission and the humans self-destructed, then all the angels of Heaven would burn for eternity in Hell. Being that Liam had been burned alive, he was pretty familiar with what he assumed Hell would be like, and he had no intention of going back. He was going to make people love each other again, even if he had to beat them senseless to do it.

  He certainly wouldn’t categorize his first assignment as “easy.” It had only been completed when they had been allowed to bend a few rules.

  It had been an eye-opening experience for Liam, and the biggest lesson he had taken from the task was that things weren’t always what they seemed, and sometimes, the answers to questions were right in front of you.

  He was going into this assignment with his eyes and mind wide open.

  “You are close to your target, as I have mentioned,” Evangeline said, ignoring his comment. The crease between her eyebrows intensified. “You will live as humans, so please remember that you must take care of yourselves as humans do. You must eat and drink. Humans will be able to see you, and your angel abilities have been stripped.”

  That was one of many things that sucked about being an Angel of Affection. No more walking through doors and walls, no more flying among the night stars. They would have to sleep and watch what they said when among the human population. After being an angel, going back to being human had its challenges, but it also had its benefits.

  When Liam was alive, he hadn’t fully appreciated the things he enjoyed in his life, like the taste of a good steak, the feeling of an ice-cold beer slipping down his throat on a warm day, or the camaraderie of being with good friends. While accomplishing this mission, he fully intended to appreciate those, and other things, much more.