Battle Angel (Immortal City 3)

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.

CH

APTER SEVEN

The 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.