My Fallen Angel Read Online Free Page A

the ceiling. “He says it’s not a fair test.”
    Thunder rattled the little room, and the angel squinted back at him, a look of disgust on his face. “That excuse didn’t work for Adam, either.”
    “Then give me another person to guard.”
    “Sorry. This is the path you chose, Garrick. This here and this now. We can’t undo what we’ve already done because you’ve changed your mind.”
    When Garrick didn’t answer, he added, “Do you know what we went through to place that little boy in Lucy’s care?” Arlan didn’t wait for an answer, just raged on. “First the carriage accident. And then manipulating Lucy into offering to care for the child, not that that took much work. You simply cannot change your mind midway through the test. This is your one chance to go directly to heaven. If you don’t, you must take your chances with the Well of Souls.”
    Garrick stared at the angel for a long moment then ran his fingers through his hair, muttering, “God’s balls. I had no idea it would be this hard.”
    “God’s
what?”
Arlan snapped.
    Garrick stared at him in confusion.
    The lightning bolt came out of nowhere.
    It filled the room with its brightness, bounced off a nearby chair, ricocheted off the door, and found its mark on the left cheek of Garrick’s rear.
    “Bloody hell!” he yelled, looking over his shoulder to check the damage.
    “All clear?” asked a muffled voice from under a desk. Garrick turned back in time to see Arlan peek out, breathe a sigh of relief, and then slowly stand. “Whew. Thought you were going to get hit harder than that. The Chief must be in a good mood today. Guess you learned
that
lesson.” He dusted off his robe.
“Not
a good idea to say things like that around here. Now, where were we? You were asking for a different assignment and I had just told you no, but there was something else. Ah yes, I remember now.” Arlan reached into his desk and pulled out a scroll that, when unfurled, was easily two feet long. “I was going to tell you how many penalties you’d incurred for touching Miss Hartford.” He scanned the list. “Where is it, where is it? Kissing, kissing, kissing. Ah, here it is!” His brow furrowed as he read, “An automatic one-day deduction shall be incurred when a guardian kisses his client.”
    Arlan looked up.“See? You’ve already lost a day. And right below it says a deduction of two days shall be incurred should you touch a mortal’s, er … ahh, private parts. That means you’ve lost three days in all, leaving you a total of twenty-four days to prove the identity of the little boy Lucy has in her care. Need I remind you, Garrick, that if you break your vow of celibacy, you go directly to the Well of Souls. It’s simply not a good idea to waste your earthly energy on physical pleasures. Consider it a stroke of luck that you qualified for the Guardian Program the first time around. Granted, if you go back to the Well, you might, and I stress
might,
get another chance, but I doubt it. And if you don’t, well, you know where they’ll send you.”
    “Hell,” Garrick muttered.
    “Well, at least you’ve remembered
that
much.” Arlan’s eyes held a warning as they stared across at him. “You must be circumspect, Garrick. Prove the identity of that little boy within twenty-four days and you’ll earn your spot in heaven. Fail and it’s back to the Well of Souls to await a hearing. And do you have any idea how long it takes to get a hearing? An eternity.
    “My advice is to stay as far away from Lucy Hartford as possible since you seem to be so, er, attracted to her. ”
    “Garrick, please, please wake up.”
    If there was one thing Garrick had learned to hate it was the way he was zapped from one location to the other. The same thing had happened the first time he’d been tossed from heaven.
Kapow …
and he was on the ground watching Lucy Hartford’s behind hurtle toward him from above.
    A tentative hand touched his shoulder, bringing