Battle Angel (Immortal City 3)

She could hear the distant rumble of fighter jet engines miles off, toward Santa Monica and the ocean, and could make out small specks in the distance. Whether they were demons or fighter jets, or both, she could not say.

She immediately tried to key into Tom’s frequency, but in bitter disappointment she found she couldn’t. Straining again to find Tom’s frequency emanating from the carrier, she still felt blocked. She had just felt it minutes before. But now it was gone, and there was no way for her to know what was happening to him.

With so much confusion and fear bubbling up all at once in the city, her neural circuitry was getting overwhelmed, even though she was superb at frequencing, something Susan Archson, her favorite Angel professor at Guardian training, had taught her. Maddy had excelled in the course, and Susan had been really impressed with her talent. Maddy had had visions since she was just a little girl, but had never known what they were. When people in her proximity were going through extreme situations, Maddy had thought she was just different or weird, and she’d kept the disturbing premonitions to herself.

But now the entire city seemed to vibrate with terror and confusion, and she couldn’t do a damn thing. It was flooding her all at once, and trying to focus on one frequency was impossible. The overwhelming static from all the panic of the people in the city swamped her senses.

And yet she still would try to focus on Tom’s, if she could.

In the distance there were the flashes of explosions. The distant rumble of booms rolled through the air from the ocean, indicating the first line of defense against the demons. But it was all too far away for Maddy to see what was really going on.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. The reports of the far-off bombs continued to roll in.

With hope rising in her chest, Maddy realized that she hadn’t yet seen an actual demon. Maybe the humans could repel the Dark Angels after all. Maybe they could save themselves. If anyone could stop the demons, wouldn’t it be the biggest and most capable military in the world?

Then, with bitter disappointment, Maddy saw one, then two burning black shapes in the distance. They were growing closer, closer as they streaked across the sky toward Angel City. Dark Ones. All the hope that had just been glimmering inside her crumpled up in an instant. They had already broken through!

She could see that the defenses had slowed them down a bit, but clearly some demons had already made their way through the first line of defense along the coast. Maddy heard some terrified yells from the neighbors as they stumbled out of their homes and stared with wide eyes and gaping mouths at the reddening, darkening sky.

It was really happening.

Blood pounded in Maddy’s ears as she flashed back to the night she saw her first demon in the high school lab. How much damage just that one had caused. She felt half here and half there, somehow still trapped in that terrifying world of blood and fire that had struck her vision. She shuddered as she realized that the real world and the world from her premonition were soon to collide.

Suddenly, as she still stood on the front lawn, her senses returned to the present. She noticed the neighbors outside again, their jaws dropped open, their feet rooted to the ground as they watched the Dark Angels move in across the darkening sky: small spots of fire and smoke growing closer.

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.