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Immortal City ic-1

Page 32

by Scott Speer


  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 chok-ing 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.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Beep. 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.

  “Hi, darling,” she said.

  As if from an electric shock, Jacks jolted up, reaching for his back in an attempt to push away Ethan’s plunging knife. His mind swirled in panic. It took Kris and three nurses to restrain him, ultimately getting him to lie down on his side again. Jacks reached back and touched the place where the knife had severed the wing. Instead of an Immortal Mark, he now felt only a mass of destroyed flesh and bandages. He lay there trembling as the awful memories returned to him. The demon. That boy Ethan. And Maddy’s glassy, lifeless eyes.

  “Maddy,” Jacks whispered.

  “Rest, Jacks,” Kris said and squeezed his hand. Moving his head as best he could, he realized he was in a hospital bed. The room was clean and impossibly white.

  “You were. . hurt,” Kris said. “The doctors were worried. But everything’s going to be okay. You’re going to be fine. They’ve performed emergency surgery on your wing.”

  Jacks looked at his body. He was covered in bandages.

  He forced air in and out of his nostrils, trying to keep consciousness, trying to keep the one thing at the top of his mind from overwhelming him. The girl who had died in his arms.

  “That boy,” Kris said.

  “I know,” Jacks rasped.

  “He was troubled. It seems his father died in an accident in which a Protection was saved. He used the father’s life insurance money to travel the world in search of. .

  revenge.”

  “The Dark Angel,” Jacks said.

  Kris nodded.

  “It appears his mother didn’t even live with him. She had been institutionalized ever since her son’s return. When she saw what he became.”

  Jacks heard the hallway door open, and a familiar voice spoke.

  “The demon should have known it would take more than that to mortalize a Godspeed.”

  Jacks turned his head stiffly.

  It was Mark.

  Jacks tried to sit up again, the cords of the monitors tangling around him.

  “Get out,” Jacks croaked. “I know what you did. All of it. Get out.”

  His stepfather didn’t move, although something unreadable flickered in his eyes.

  “I will. Just as soon as I tell you something.”

  He took a step into the room.

  “The NAS and the Council have dropped their case against you. I made a personal plea that, based on special circumstances, you had done nothing wrong.”

  “Nothing wrong?” Jacks said incredulously, rage edging his weakened voice. “She’s dead.”

  Kris put a hand on Jacks to calm him.

  “Maddy is dead because of me,” Jacks said again, his voice cracked with misery.

  Mark just smiled. For an instant Jacks hated him.

  “Only an Angel can kill another Angel, Jackson.”

  Tears welled in Kris’s eyes as she looked at her son.

  Mark stepped forward and pulled the curtains aside.

  Maddy lay in the next bed. Her breaths were long and deliberate, her vitals steady. Kevin sat asleep in the chair next to her. A magazine was open on his lap, facedown. The sound of the curtain woke him. His eyes were red and bleary from keeping watch over his niece, but he smiled when he saw Jacks awake.

  “It’s good to see you up,” Kevin said. He gently rubbed Maddy’s arm.

  Maddy’s eyes fluttered open. She lay there blinking at her uncle for a moment, then turned her head and saw Jacks.

  “Hey,” she breathed.

  Jacks attempted to get up, cables and tubes tangling up as he went. His foot touched the ground and he almost crumpled. He was much weaker than he had thought. Kris helped him back into bed.

  “I thought I had lost you,” Jacks said, his voice saturated with relief.

  Maddy just looked at him, tired but radiant, her eyes never leaving Jacks’s. He felt like he could live in those eyes forever.

  “I’ve taken care of all Maddy’s recovery costs,” Mark said. “The doctors assure me she’s going to be just fine. Apparently there’s more Angel in her tha
n we first thought. .

  More than anyone thought. Because she’s half human, though, her Angel traits have only begun to develop in the past few years. So that’s what I argued to the other Archangels. Technically it wasn’t an illegal save, Angel saving Angel. There’s a lot to talk about, but it can all wait for later.”

  Jacks took his gaze off Maddy long enough to see Kevin eye Mark coolly.

  There was a light knock at the door. It opened, and Mitch stuck his head in.

  “Are we interrupting?”

  Jacks smiled.

  “Come in, Mitch.”

  “You’re awake, man!” Mitch beamed. He stepped into the room. Just behind him followed Gwen. They both carried cups of coffee from the hospital cafeteria.

  “This is Maddy’s friend Gwen,” Mitch said.

  Gwen came in, utterly Angelstruck. For a moment Jacks was worried she might actually faint.

  “Hey, I’m Jacks,” Jacks said.

  “I know,” Gwen said, blushing impossibly red.

  “I’m. . Gwen.”

  “Nice to meet you, Gwen.”

  “I’ve heard so much about you,” Gwen said, then caught herself. “Er. . from Maddy, I mean. I like your car, by the way.”

  Mitch laughed and Gwen punched him playfully.

  Then the door flew open again. This visitor, apparently, didn’t see the need to knock.

  “Once I get done spinning this, they’re going to give you the Medal of Honor, Jackson,” Darcy said as she came in. As usual she had her head buried in her BlackBerry and was furiously typing something on the keypad. In her other hand she held a heavy-looking black garment bag. She glanced over at Maddy’s bed.

  “Oh, good, you’re up too. I’ve got Teen Vogue and Angels Weekly in a bidding war over your fall fashion spread.

  We’re going with Teen Vogue, of course, but let’s let them sweat it out. And ANN wants your first televised interview, but we’re holding out for the Today Show, which, trust me, we’re going to get.”

  She threw the garment bag over a chair in the corner.

  “And Free People was hoping you’d wear this when you leave the hospital. They didn’t know your style or sizes, so there are four options in the bag. Keep them all if you want.”

 

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