Battle Angel (Immortal City 3)

“No . . . no . . . no!” she yelled in frustration.

Her vision was as gut-wrenching as she’d feared.

The demons weren’t going to be attacking from the sky. They would completely bypass the Battle Angels and the navy’s defenses.

It would be a land invasion. The demons were marching up from the sea. The sight she conjured was beyond the most grotesque nightmare: a relentless demon army marching across the seabed, with only one bloody goal in mind.

The Angels had so little time.

• • •

Both the entire flight team and the Battle Angels were assembled in record time. They stood on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier in the predawn hour. Captain Blake had dusted off his old flight jacket for the occasion. He took in a lungful of the sea air before turning and speaking pointedly to the assembled troops.

“If Lieutenant Commander Montgomery is right, this takes away any kind of relative advantage we might get from our air-strike capability,” the captain said. “They’re going to fight this the old-fashioned way, on the ground. Our only hope is that Godspeed and his Battle Angels can get to Angel City and set up defenses as they arrive. Force them into the air, give us a chance to catch them off guard.”

Grim faces stared back at Blake on the aircraft carrier deck. After a quick recovery, Tom had managed to get out of the sick bay, and he now stood off to the side with a bandage on his head and his flight suit under his arm. In the distant east, they could see the earliest glimpses of dawn. But black clouds swirled in against the usual golds and purples, and no sunrise would be seen that day.

“It’s been an honor, Godspeed,” one of the pilots said, nodding to the Angels.

They were under no illusion about what lay ahead of them. Or the likelihood of any of them surviving the onslaught. The Angels and pilots began shaking hands, and then some even began embracing. They’d formed a kind of brotherhood in these dark hours.

“Let’s at least give ’em hell, boys,” the captain said.

Just then, an awe-conjuring noise spread across the flight deck, causing everyone to look up into the still-dark sky. Birds. Thousan

ds and thousands of them. They were all flying away. North, to safety.

No one dared say a word about the inauspicious sign.

As if to distract from the inevitable, Jacks lifted a hand and gathered his corps of Battle Angels near the edge of the flight deck. Angel City stood in the distance behind him, visible across the sea over the black outline of his shoulder in the battle armor. The sprawling Immortal City, gripped by fear and held under siege, lay in wait. There were only a few miles between the front line and a city that would be in flames.

Jackson began to speak.

“It is time to fight,” Jacks said, looking each of them in the eye. “This is a fight we knew we would have to face the moment we decided to leave the sanctuary. All of you know the odds, and you’ve known them since the moment we left our safe haven. And you still came. That says something.” The Angels nodded, moved by Jackson’s words. He went on, his voice filled to the brim with conviction. “We will fight for those we’ve already lost, those Angels who’ve already made the ultimate sacrifice. And we will fight for the humans, our sworn Protections. All of them, not just those who have the means to pay us. We will defend as we were supposed to defend. We are Guardian Angels.”

Jacks’s proud gaze passed over his brave fleet.

“This is much bigger than any one of us,” he said.

He looked out and met eyes with Maddy.

“For years, we were supposed to be heroes. They took our pictures, put us on TV, worshipped us.

“Well, today we get to be heroes. Not for the cameras. Not for the fans. Not for the money. Not for the NAS. But to carry out our solemn duty as Guardian Angels. This is the way it has always been. And it is the way it should have stayed up to this day.

“This is our duty. This is our fate,” Jackson said. “Some of us—all of us—may die, but if some of humanity survives, we will give them something to say about Angels for millennia to come. That we perished protecting mankind. There is no greater destiny for an Angel. And I will be proud to lead you all.”

Jacks didn’t even know where these words were coming from; they just flowed out like water. Looking at his audience, he saw determined faces, some with tears welling in their eyes, yet all of them with jaws still clenched in fortitude. When he saw Maddy wipe away a tear that had rolled down her cheek, he nodded solemnly and made his way to her through the crowd.

Each Angel put down his or her sword and bowed to Jackson in respect.

Maddy could tell that Jacks’s speech was more than just words. Something had happened to Jackson. He had become a real leader. He was no longer just the perfectly gorgeous visage on the cover of magazines and billboards, the most exemplary face of the glamorous Angels. He had become an actual leader. A figure of authority, power, and knowledge that the Angels could turn to. Whom they could follow. Whom they would follow, even if it meant their own deaths.

To Maddy it seemed as if entire lifetimes had passed. The boy who had picked her up in his Ferrari, who was a little vain and foolishly angry that he couldn’t make her forgive him by simply smiling at her, had now become something different. Something more. Maddy realized that the things she had loved best about Jackson had come to bloom fully. He had become a true Guardian of the Godspeed class, just as his ancestors had been, and their ancestors before them, all the way back to before the recorded time of the Book of Angels.

He was claiming his destiny, even if it would mean his death. He stood before her now, looking more serious than she’d ever seen him.

“If I don’t come back—” he started.