Immortal City (43 page)

“So much for true love.”

He brought the knife swiftly down again. Maddy heard the whistle of the blade through the air.

Then the slap as Jacks caught Ethan’s arm midswing.

Ethan grunted. A surprised, painful sound. Jacks’s hollow eyes had filled with color. The blueness blazed. The Angel’s fist collided with Ethan’s jaw on the left side and shattered it. The knife dropped from Ethan’s hand and skittered harmlessly to the floor.

The black shimmer crossed Maddy’s vision almost instantly as the demon lunged at Jacks.

“Jacks, look out!” Maddy yelled.

Then it happened.

As the demon sprang forward, it was hit rapidly by something that came out of the sky, something moving so fast it was no more than a blur in the night. The demon tumbled back across the roof, growling and snarling. Ethan crumpled like a rag doll to the rooftop and Jacks was on top of him at once, his fists raining down.

The demon rose up but was hit again by a blur, this time from the other direction. The blur stopped on the roof only for a moment, and Maddy saw the Angel. He was dressed in matte black ADC battle armor. He unsheathed a primeval-looking sword.
A sword?
Maddy looked up.

They came streaming down through the night, seemingly from nowhere, a legion of Battle Angels in close formation. All wore the futuristic, black battle armor of the ADC. The Angels rolled one by one like fighter jets and dove toward the hell that awaited them on the rooftop. Turning, the demon launched itself away, disappearing into the black night without a trace. The legion rocketed over the rooftops of downtown in pursuit.

Maddy looked back to the Angel and the boy fighting in front of the full moon. Jacks roared with fury as his iron fists found their mark again and again. Maddy turned away as Ethan’s nose exploded.

In a movement so fast it was almost invisible, Jacks picked Ethan up and pushed him to the edge of the roof. Ethan let out a surprised cry as his heels balanced on the edge of the abyss. Then his expression hardened, and he smiled.

“Do it, Jacks,” Ethan’s bloody mouth mumbled. “Do it and prove me right. Prove that you’re no hero.”

For a terrifying moment Maddy fought her own urge to run forward and push Ethan off the edge.

“No, Jacks,” Maddy at last shrieked from where she stood. “No!”

Jacks looked at her. She could see the conflict in the Angel’s burning, murderous eyes. Then slowly, slowly, they softened. Relief rushed into her as Maddy looked at the old Jacks she knew. He pulled Ethan away from the edge and let go of him.

Ethan’s broken body crumpled to the ground. He coughed, then sucked in deep, rasping breaths wet with blood.

Jacks turned toward Maddy. His one remaining wing drooped behind him. “Maddy?” Jacks said, still in disbelief. “You came for me?”

“Of course,” she breathed. She took a step toward him, then found herself running toward him. She wanted to collapse into his arms. Like a silly Angelstruck girl, she thought. Like Gwen. She didn’t care. Maddy watched him smile as he took a step toward her. Then she saw a strange gleam move through the air behind him.

Jacks stopped. And stiffened. His eyes looked to her desperately.

“Jacks?” Maddy said.

Then she saw it. The knife tip protruding from his chest. Ethan stood up shakily behind Jacks, holding the hilt of the blade with both hands. He shoved the knife in again and then let go. Jacks began to fall.

Maddy dashed forward and made it to Jacks just in time to catch him.

She fell back as the weight of Jacks’s body hit her, collapsing on the concrete. She was barely aware of the roof access door flying open and the police streaming out, the two officers shoving Ethan to the ground. She struggled to sit up and took Jacks’s face in her hands.

“Jacks?” she panted, hysterical.

His eyes were already draining of their color again, turning that same unseeing gray. She could see him try to smile.

“You love me?” he asked, his voice raspy. “I thought you . . . never understood what the big deal was about Angels.” He coughed, and blood began dripping out the side of his mouth, faster and faster.

“You’re going to be fine, just hang on,” she said desperately. But as she watched, the light in his eyes dimmed and then finally went out, extinguished. His body became impossibly heavy, and still.

Maddy shouted his name again and again. He couldn’t be gone. He couldn’t. She shook him violently, but he only bobbed lifelessly like a doll. Somewhere nearby, a girl was sobbing uncontrollably. Maddy looked at the perfect, divine features that had become so familiar to her. They were still so beautiful, but cold and vacant now, like an abandoned house. She tried to hold on to the feeling of his presence, but it was fading too and, in another moment, would be gone forever.

Maddy listened to the sobbing girl again before choking and realizing it was
her
.

She had been too late after all. She closed her eyes and let the agony overwhelm her.

In the darkness, she heard a voice.

“Maddy?”

It was Jacks. She must be hallucinating. Her mind had taken her away with him as he died. She savored the sound of his voice.

Then he spoke again.
“You came for me?”

Maddy’s eyes flew open.

Her vision focused.

There was Jacks at the edge of the roof again. Ethan lay coughing blood where Jacks had just thrown him to the ground. Maddy stood where she had before.

“Y-yeah,” Maddy stammered. “Of course.”

Jacks was walking toward her again. Maddy’s mind crystallized around a single thought.

It was a final premonition.
A premonition of Jacks’s mortal death.

The moment became impossibly clear to her. Maddy had the sensation of near-perfect clairvoyance. She felt her body and soul unite. With perfect clarity, she could make out every speck of dust on the rooftop. Her hearing registered every breath, every rustle of clothes, every gasp of wind.

She could still save Jacks.

Maddy ran. She willed her feet faster and faster. It was the fastest she’d ever run in her life. The rest of the world blurred on all sides of her as she focused on this one thing.

Jacks’s face grew confused. Maddy flew right by him. She ran at Ethan, colliding full-force as he lunged at Jacks with the knife. Maddy fell on him, and the two tumbled toward the edge of the roof.

Ethan was on top of her, gasping in surprise. Maddy felt something tugging at her side, like her clothes had snagged on something. Then a warm sensation, not altogether unpleasant. She looked down. Both her and Ethan’s hands were wrapped around the knife handle. The blade was deep in her side.

She looked at Ethan. His eyes were blind with rage. If he could pull the knife out, she thought, he would go after Jacks again. She was sure of it. She had one instant to make a decision. She closed her hands tightly around his and pushed the knife as far inside of her as it would go. Then she let out a ragged, agonized breath. The blood began to flow.

The pain was startling at first, then unbearable, and finally it engulfed her, sucking her consciousness away and closing her eyes. She heard a metallic clang as the door smashed open. Willing her eyes open for a moment, she saw Detective Sylvester burst onto the rooftop with his gun drawn, followed by a fleet of cops. Her eyes fluttered closed again. Many voices, and the pounding footsteps over the rooftop. She heard Ethan shout something as the detective drove him to the ground and handcuffed him. Then everything went black.

In the darkness of her mind, she drifted. To that first night when Jacks came into the diner. Back to the night they went flying together, and how the city had looked reflected in his eyes. To the gym, and the way his lips had felt against hers. Looking down, she realized she was floating over the rooftop now. It was quiet up here. Peaceful.

She could see her body and the dark pool growing underneath her. The police were everywhere now. She watched with detached curiosity as they pulled Ethan up and took him away. Angels began landing on the roof. She saw Mitch, wearing the black armor of the ADC, an ancient broadsword flashing in his hands. Maddy also recognized a couple other Angels as they landed, sheathing their swords. The demon must have fled.

Then she saw Jacks. He was yelling something as he knelt over her body. On his back was a bleeding, bloody stump. She saw him take her in his arms and hold her. He was calling her name over and over.
I’m up here,
she tried to say, but he didn’t seem to hear her. He shook her body again and again. The drone of a helicopter filled her ears, and suddenly, she felt herself being pulled back. Steadily, painfully, pulled back down toward the roof.

Her eyes opened. Jacks was holding her. A spotlight shone down on them from a chopper hovering above. Maddy squinted up at Jacks in the glare of the spotlight.

“Just hang on, they’re coming for you right now,” he said. She watched his eyes dart helplessly over her body. “They’re going to fix you, Maddy!”

She moved her lips. “I’m sorry for what I said . . . at the station. I’m sorry for being so impossible all the time. Can you . . . forgive me?”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Jacks said urgently. “This is all my fault. If I had never convinced you to leave with me. If I had never kept bothering you. If I had never gone into your uncle’s diner.” He trailed off, his throat closing. Maddy shook her head. The pain drilled through her.

“I’m glad you did.”

The darkness took her again. She was dancing with him at the party now. Maddy couldn’t even feel her feet moving over the floor. She didn’t know how long she danced with him. It could have been minutes or only a few seconds. When she opened her eyes and found Jacks again, he was looking at her with terror-stricken eyes.

“Don’t do that,” he said. “Stay with me.”

“I’ll try,” she said. Her response was barely more than a whisper.

“Tell me how to help you, Maddy,” he said desperately. “What can I do?”

“Hold my hand.”

She felt his fingers lace into hers. Her hand was sticky against his. His hand was trembling. He leaned on one elbow. His strength was leaving him. Maddy felt the darkness coming for her again, and this time, she was sure, she would not be back. It was almost impossible to move her lips. When the words came out, they were slurred.

“Promise me something,” she said.

“Anything.”

“Be the best Guardian you can be. Save lots of people. And every time you save someone, think of me.”

“No, don’t you dare say that. We’re together now; everything is going to be okay.” He looked across the roof with agonized eyes. “I can see them coming. They’re coming for you right now, Maddy.”

Maddy realized there was no pain anymore. It was becoming peaceful again. “Jacks,” she said, “I think I have to go now.”

“Please. Don’t leave me, Maddy.” He was begging.

“It’s okay,” she said. “It really is. Do you remember my pretend memory?”

“The park,” Jacks said.

“I can see it. I’m looking at it now. I can see my parents; they’re beautiful, Jacks. I think I’m going there now. And if I’m lucky, they’ll let me stay with them. Forever.” Tears spilled over Jacks’s eyes. “I’ll wait for you, Jacks,” Maddy whispered. “I’ll be waiting for you there.”

Her eyes closed. She felt Jacks’s hands reach down and unclasp something from around her neck. Then she felt the cold, hard weight of a ring on her finger.

“You are
my
Guardian Angel, Maddy,” a voice said, but it was far away from her.

Everything was far away now. She tried to smile, but her body was no longer obeying her commands. It was all happening so fast. Then the darkness came and took her.

Jacks collapsed next to Maddy. They lay there, side by side on the cold rooftop. The paramedics descended on them. Maddy was no longer breathing, but Jacks thought she could still see him. A medic unclasped their hands.

He watched as they shocked her again and again. If he could’ve talked, he would have begged them to stop. But he couldn’t. The strength had gone out of him. He watched Maddy’s eyes empty of life, but she still lay there looking at him, somehow seeing him. She seemed happy to be with her Angel, finally at peace.

“Call it,” he heard one of the paramedics say. Then they stopped shocking her and, finally, let her be.

B
eep. Beep.
The sound at first was distant, then came closer. It grew clearer.
Beep.

Jacks faintly moaned. The sound of his own voice seemed strange. He tried to swallow, but his tongue felt numb and paralyzed. Struggling to open his eyes, he made out a gauzy shape to his left. He was lying on his side. Then his eyes closed shut, the effort too much. He groaned slightly again. Consciousness began slipping away.

“Jacks? Can you hear me?” a voice said.
Beep. Beep.
Jacks made another effort to open his eyes and was more successful this time. He saw a white curtain and gray, blinking machines. The blur took shape as he focused. It was his mother, Kris. She moved in and out of focus. He felt her take hold of his hand.