Battle Angel (6 page)

Then, as if cued by an invisible conductor, they screamed.

“They’re coming!” Maddy shouted at them. “Everyone, go! Get inside!”

Maddy’s pitch must have been sharp enough to break their collective trance, because it only took a second for them to scramble indoors as quickly as they could.

Maddy heard the distant rumble of fighter jet engines off toward Santa Monica and the ocean, then the boom of an explosion. Then chaos closed in around the entirety of Angel City. She could make out small specks in the distance, and, for just a moment, she saw a flash in the sky—a missile aimed at a demon? Or could it have been a jet exploding? Or, Maddy couldn’t help but think as a raw, hollow feeling dragged its nails across her stomach, could that have been . . . Tom?

She reeled under the sensation that passed as she thought that the flash and boom might have simply been
it
. Tom could be gone, ripped apart by the force of the explosion into pieces no one would never find. And to top everything off, try as she might, Maddy couldn’t focus her frequency on Tom. He was either too far away and caught in the frequency static caused by the panic spreading across Angel City, or that
had
been a jet she’d seen explode, and it’d been
his
jet. The reason she couldn’t track his frequency was because he was . . .

Maddy chased the word out of her head before it could enter. He couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t let him. He
had
to survive.

Kevin burst through the front door, breaking Maddy’s reverie.

“Thank God you’re still here!” he said. “It’s all over the news, Maddy. Some of the demons have already broken through at the coast. They’re headed straight toward Angel City, but, Maddy, get this—they’re following the freeways.”

Maddy didn’t turn to face her uncle, and instead just kept looking up at the sky. Kevin took a few steps farther, out from under the eaves of the house, and followed her gaze up toward the evil brewing in the sky.

“Are you . . . ?” Kevin trailed off, visibly overwhelmed by the scene.

Maddy finally turned to Kevin. From the look on his face, she could tell he understood.

Her inner Angel had come out.

“Stay inside until you hear from me,” Maddy said. “Or if we . . . can’t reach each other, try to get out, any way you can. Maybe they’ll reopen the evacuation routes. Just . . . stay safe, Uncle Kevin.”

She looked up and their eyes locked. All their years spent sharing each other’s lives passed between them in that moment.

“You be careful,” Kevin said.

She gave him a faint smile—the biggest she could muster in the moment—and nodded. Slowly, as if reluctant, Kevin headed for the front door and, with an attempt at a cheerful wave, went inside.

Maddy turned back to the darkening sky. Inky clouds ran from behind the demons’ tails, spreading blackness from the ocean, as fighter jets gave pursuit.

In the distance, a huge explosion of concrete and flame rocked the edge of downtown as a demon touched down on a freeway, pulverizing a large stretch into ash and fire instantly. As Maddy looked out across as much of Angel City as her front lawn perch would allow, it seemed to her that the demons weren’t flying straight. It was just as Kevin had said—it looked like they were following the freeways.

BOOM.

Before she had a chance to think for even a microsecond longer, an enormous explosion erupted just blocks away, rocking the very ground Maddy stood on. The shock waves from the blast rippled through her body.

Gasping and stunned, Maddy sprinted into the middle of the street. Out toward the Walk of Angels, a snarled cloud of flame and smoke crept toward the skies above rooftops and palm trees. Car alarms blared all across the city, and emergency sirens began to wail.

Overhead, a sudden streak of black fire and flame passed, followed by the deafening roar of two F-16s, which appeared to be trying to get in position to fire on the Dark Angel. Something in Maddy’s subconscious told her to duck, even though the jets were hundreds of feet in the air. They launched missiles as the beast passed over the hill, and soon the whole group disappeared over the ridge toward the Valley.

Still more demons appeared in the far-off sky, and the air raid siren began singing its howling song again. There was already a smattering of fires all across the city.

Chaos. Pure, hellish chaos.

Maddy dizzied under waves of panicked frequencies running through the city all at once. Using her every ounce of effort, she tried to isolate them, just like Susan had taught her in class. But it was too much. And there were too many. How would she be able to—

Suddenly, a vision. Maddy braced herself under the impact of grisly imagery and human misery.
It was close. The young woman was close. There was still time before she was lost.

With a holler, Maddy leaned forward. Her wings rocketed out of her back faster than they ever had, creating a huge
whoosh
and ripping two surprisingly clean holes in the back of her shirt. Before they’d even reached their full span, Maddy took two big pumps and began rocketing west, soaring over buildings and swaying palms. In only a handful of seconds, Maddy shot north, skimming over the 101 freeway in the Cahuenga Pass up into the Angel City Hills, which was lined with lush trees on both sides. The freeway was almost empty, except for a few cars that had used the chaos to evade the checkpoints and were frantically fleeing the city.

Clenching her jaw, Maddy streamlined herself as much as she could and tried to put on speed. She had only seconds. Any miscalculation would be fatal.

In her peripheral vision she saw it: the Dark Angel. Careening toward the exact spot she was zeroed in on, streams of dark smoke pouring off its back as it flew at top speed.

Maddy dropped toward the freeway with a final burst of energy. Below, the concrete and painted white lines blurred with the speed.

Then, in one horrible, single instant, the demon tucked itself into a ball with nonchalant flexibility and violently smashed down to the freeway, just to the left of Maddy, who had almost reached the road. She had nearly gotten to her target—a young woman on a Vespa riding on the access road right next to the freeway who would never have known what hit her if it hadn’t been for Maddy. At the exact moment the demon touched down, the middle of the freeway exploded in a fury of concrete and flame, and Maddy used everything she had to concentrate on one point and one point only.

And she screamed.

Suddenly everything—the flames and concrete and demon and girl and Vespa and smoke—
froze
. The demon was still wreaking havoc on the freeway, halfway into making a gigantic crater, but it was frozen there, in all its evilness, its limbs curled up against its body like a cannonball, flames leaping off its back in one cold, solid fan. The lethal slabs of concrete and countless particles of dust that had just shot up from the freeway were now suspended in midair.

Maddy had frozen time. Though it had been infinitely more difficult than the first time, when she’d made a save with the jet and Jeffrey Rosenberg over the Pacific. But now, to her astonishment, she could feel that the Dark Angel was somehow
battling her effort
. She tried to ignore it and zeroed in on the save.

Hurtling right toward Vespa Girl was a huge Volkswagen-sized chunk of concrete. The tendrils of the girl’s brunette hair were flying back from under her helmet and frozen in position. A strange look of unknown fear was frozen on her face, but experience told Maddy that the girl’s inner survival instincts were telling her something was wrong. Still, she had no clue she was about to be crushed to death.

Maddy calculated. She would have a second, maybe one and a half, to make the save before the time freeze spun out of her control.

With every milligram of concentration she had, Maddy shot down as the time freeze began to collapse in on itself. The Dark Angel fought strongly against her power, but with a final push, just as time was about to tick back on and the concrete mass was starting to budge from its hold, Maddy violently scooped the girl off the back of the Vespa.

She put everything she had into pulling the girl up, but she wasn’t quite fast enough to totally get away.

The concrete hurled itself sideways, catching the back of Maddy’s left Converse sneaker as she flew up with the girl in her arms, and smashed the Vespa into a thousand pieces of Italian metal and plastic. The slight impact to her foot sent Maddy spinning as she flew, and she tried to shield the girl as they whirled in the air and tumbled to the ground in a heap.

Maddy tried to cover both herself and the girl with her wings as a shower of dust and fine bits of concrete from the impact cascaded down upon them. Flames shot above the crater, sending a car veering across the freeway to avoid debris until it hit the median, tipped to its side, and slid about a hundred feet.

Vespa Girl started hyperventilating and struggling in Maddy’s grasp; she still had no idea what just happened.

“Shh. Calm down! Calm down!” Maddy gasped, trying to catch her breath as well amid the cloud of dust. “It’s okay. I’m an Angel. I just saved you. You’re going to be fine.”

As she said it, Maddy had to wonder:
Are they actually going to be fine?

With a sinking feeling, she heard the demon’s raspy, ragged breathing. Maddy looked out from under her wing and saw the thing climb out of the pit it had just made. It had been a while since she’d seen one of
them
this up close and personal, and it was more soul-shattering than she remembered. The Dark Angel’s very shape seemed to be shifting and changing, and Maddy realized that its skin was nearly on fire. It was a black fire, shimmering and roiling along its body. This one seemed to have only one head, but enormous horns speared out of it, and a series of jagged spikes exploded out of its shoulders and back.

Emerging from the crater like a messenger from hell, the demon turned to Maddy and the girl. Its dark red eyes glinted, dead-like, with recognition. One could almost say it looked excited. The demon took a step forward and flicked a blackened tongue out of its mouth.

Still in Maddy’s arms, Vespa Girl screamed.

Maddy felt stunned from the grazing blow of the concrete and the crash, but she still attempted to stand up to defend them—with what? Her bare hands? Or . . . ? She found herself a bit dizzy. But she had to do something. There was no way she could outfly the demon with the girl in her arms, so Maddy steeled herself for the Dark Angel’s approach while the girl fell back into her embrace, weeping in fear.

Suddenly, the demon stopped, as if it had heard something. It cocked its head toward the distance, then turned its unthinkable face back to Maddy and the girl. In impotent rage, it roared.

It unfurled its scaly wings and launched into the air, leaving a trail of acrid smoke in its wake. Maddy watched as it bore a course back toward the south, toward the ocean whence it came. It had departed so suddenly, and without attacking Maddy and the girl, that it was almost as if someone—or some
thing
—had been controlling it.

“It’s gone. It’s gone,” Maddy said, trying to calm the young woman in her arms. She stroked the girl’s hair as if she were a child, although she was probably Maddy’s age. “Shhh, shhhh. It’s gone. I don’t know why, but it’s gone.

T
he numbers in the gleaming elevator steadily climbed up and up. Instead of projecting an underwater scene, the TV wall on the back of the car was now set to an African savanna. Giraffes and lions ran around, silhouetted against a setting orange sun, and beautiful herons skimmed the surface of grassy wetlands. Jacks was impatient. Finally, the car hit level G with a ding.

He’d felt the earthquakes announcing the beginning of the demon attacks. All the Angels had—the quakes’ echoes had been so strong they even permeated their luxurious underground shelter.

A security guard came running up to Jacks. Above, through a skylight, Jacks could see the sky was turning black-red.

“Mr. Godspeed, you’re not supposed to be up here. I’m under strict orders that you’re to be downstairs with the rest of the Angels,” the guard pleaded.

Without a word, Jacks pushed past the guard.

Most of the glass cube of the sanctuary was sheltered by leafy trees to make it nearly invisible, tucked far into a massive estate in the Angel City Hills. But a few gaps in the foliage gave a slight view onto Angel City.

Down the hill, outside the giant gleaming glass walls and ceiling, bedlam reigned.

Spires of black smoke rose up across the city, which was enveloped in dwindling red light. Visible on the horizon were Dark Angels, spectacles of fire born from hell, laughing off the fighter jets that desperately crisscrossed the sky. Jacks looked out across the bleak expanse and saw that most of the freeways were on fire.

Jackson was surprised there weren’t more demons, actually. He had thought the assault would have started as an immediate curtain of fire and destruction, but right now he only saw a couple dozen or so demons. An explosion rang out in the distance, sounding like it might have come from the Walk of Angels, but Jackson couldn’t be sure without seeing it.

Although he tried his best to keep up a stern facade, Jackson Godspeed’s face fell as he saw the city he knew and loved struggling to defend itself from these dark emissaries from hell.

He tried to detach. Make it seem like he was watching an action movie set in some far-off unknown, with a cast of characters he’d never met. People he had never cared about. His jaw stiffened.

Behind Jackson the elevator dinged, and the gleaming doors opened with a whir. Emily emerged.

“Jacks, I thought I might find you here,” she said. The hapless security guard ran up to her, but the Aussie bombshell brushed him off easily. “What are you doing? Checking out the action?”

She crept up to Jackson’s side, eyeing the sky. “Mark would freak out if he knew you’re up here.” Her eyes danced with danger. “You’re such a rebel.”

“Emily, please go back downstairs. Nobody asked you to come up here, did they?” Jacks said, his tone flat as he watched the destruction unfold.

“Why are
you
up here, Jackson? Do you feel bad for them or something?” Emily said, her eyes darting about to take in the threatening scene above.

“It looks like they’re going back,” Jacks said, his tone curious, as if he were commenting on a baseball game on TV instead of a full-scale attack raging just outside the window. But it was true—all the demons seemed to have turned, and were now flying back out toward the ocean. But it didn’t look like they were being driven away. It looked as if somehow they were being
called
back.

“They’re retreating?” Emily said, eyeing the dark shapes heading back to the ocean. A look of excitement crossed her eyes. “We’ve been down in the bloody sanctuary too long. Let’s go out! We’re good-enough flyers. It’ll be fine.”

Jackson thought back again to Emily pitching a fit when they first went down to the sanctuary, when a demon had seared across the sky before them, smashing into the Hills.

“I don’t think you’d want that, Emily,” he said.

“They’re leaving! They’re gone. You said so yourself,” she said. “C’mon. It’ll be fun. Don’t you like to break the rules?” She winked at him.

“It’s not about the rules, it’s—”

“Fine. Suit yourself.” Before Jacks knew it, Emily’s wings had extended with a whoosh and she had flown past the guard in a flash. She was a streak across the sky. She was always the fastest in her class at agility training—not only a sexy model but also a kickass Angel who had some serious moves.

“Emily!” Jacks called. He shook his head. With a quick tilt down, his wings ripped out of his back, fully sprung. In moments he was soaring out over the Angel City basin, ripping across the sky, trying to catch up with Emily.

The wind whipping in his ears, Jackson neared Emily—or perhaps she just
let
him get near—and she giggled as she darted out of his grasp, her red hair streaming behind her. “Can’t you keep up with me?” She laughed.

Then Jackson looked below. The Angel City basin was burning. As far as he could see, hundreds of fires had sprung up, and the freeways looked all but destroyed. The city he had known his whole life had received its first blow.

And it was devastating.

His throat plummeted into his stomach as he soared over the destruction. Looking out, he could see the demons were barely visible as they retreated to their ocean sinkhole.

“I’m going back,” Jacks shouted at Emily, turning back.

“Why?” Emily shouted, oblivious to what was going on below them. “Don’t you like stretching your wings?”

Jackson didn’t answer, just turned and soared back to the hidden glass box on the hill. Biting her lip in disappointment that he had so quickly ended their game, Emily followed closely behind. By the time she landed, Jacks was standing at the sanctuary entrance, staring with faraway eyes at the Immortal City. Somehow, his mind was blank. His emotions were inaccessible. He didn’t know what he felt. In this hollow space, his mind turned to his discussion with Gabriel. This was the tragic, inevitable fate of the humans.

During their talks, Jackson had been struck by how hard all this was for the True Immortal: Gabriel had spent his entire life—lifetime upon lifetime in human years—guarding mankind. And then they had turned on the Angels. Jackson could relate to Gabriel’s sadness, more than Gabriel might even know.

“They should’ve known a good thing when they had it and just let us alone,” Emily said as she walked up to Jacks. “Now, without their Angels, who’s going to save them? It’s their own fault, Jackson. Not ours.”

As if suddenly broken from a spell, Jacks turned away from the carnage outside the window.

“I know it’s not our fault,” he said. “I’m just curious about what’s going on. And you’re right. They brought it on themselves. We gave them a chance. We gave them multiple chances. But they disappointed us.” His face twisted bitterly into a grimace, and he turned back toward the elevator, Emily still following close behind.

She wound her arm in his as they entered the elevator. He didn’t take it away.