Announcing
by Jessica L. Jackson
“I’m telling you straight out
now, honey, that I’m the most selfish bastard you will ever know.”
Gabriella
is returning to Earth with a new assignment. She’s to help Julian Gath learn
how to love. She’ll be reborn as a mortal and only come into the knowledge of
who she is—an angel—on her twenty-fifth birthday. When she completes her
mission, she will return to Heaven. That is the way of things for angels for
she proved her worthiness many lifetimes before. This is Julian’s chance to
prove his.
But, the
moment her eyes are open, she knows that this mission is different for her. The
love she feels for this powerful, compelling man goes far beyond the charitable
love she usually has for her charges. He makes her yearn for life…
Julian
Gath wants Gabriella. To him, she radiates something pure and good. He has to
have her—to feel as if all that goodness is working in his favor. Something in
his life has to be right and good. No matter what it takes, he will win her for
his own. He will not love her, however, because love is a weak, useless emotion
that does not last. She will be the one bright star shining in his shadowy
world…
Excerpt
Prologue
Most have just one opportunity to don mortal bodies, to
determine what this strange new life could teach them. Some noble and valiant
spirits return again and again, living only until some important point has
adjusted in the favor of the Father, stealing away an advantage from the lost
spirits whose sole goal is to destroy every mortal’s chance at eternal joy.
A soft cough
sounded and Gabriella looked up from her studies of the intricate DNA
combinations necessary to create an earthworm. Her supervisor smiled and
bustled into her chamber.
“How are the
studies going, hmm?”
Gabriella
leaned back to allow Marta to look at her work. A soft sigh escaped her lips
before she could contain it. With Marta here, clearly another assignment
awaited. Not that she minded, precisely, but she felt herself to be at the
brink of a true understanding of DNA. The knowledge hovered just out of her
reach, teasing her. Perhaps, after this assignment, she would be able to easily
take hold of the figurative brass ring, for with each rebirth, life, and death,
came greater clarity of understanding.
“Almost
there, almost there.” Marta patted Gabriella’s slender arm and settled her
plump self into a nearby chair. Her brown eyes, usually so merry, contained the
serious light that confirmed Gabriella’s suspicions. “His name is Julian Gath
and he will need to learn how to love. On the dawn of your twenty-fifth
birthday, you will come to a remembrance of your mission…”
