Battle Angel (Immortal City 3)

Sylvester quietly nodded.

“I promise, Susan,” he said. “But I have to do this myself. The phones are down and the radios are jammed. We can only send messengers and hope they can find Jacks and bring reinforcements. Get the others as soon as you can, then wait for my signal. If you don’t hear from me, you’ll know what to do.”

“I’ll be waiting for you,” Susan said.

Susan reached for him and placed her lips on his, and Sylvester felt a shock run through his body. The detective and the beautiful Archangel both closed their eyes, letting themselves get lost in this brief, heavenly moment. It was a moment that they had perhaps waited too long to seize.

Finally Sylvester woke from the spell and forced himself to pull back. Gazing at Susan, he placed a hand to her forehead and brushed her hair behind her left ear, something he hadn’t done to a woman for years. But with Susan, it still felt like second nature.

“I’ll see you soon,” Susan said, smiling.

“See you soon, Archangel Archson,” Sylvester said.

It was time to go.

Time to take down the head demon and honor Louis’s legacy.

Sylvester turned back to Susan to indulge in one last, long gaze before he opened the door to the outside. The roar of battle overtook any other words they might have said.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Only darkness remained. Darkness throbbing on and on, like an ache that will never end.

Maddy tried to figure out where she was, what had happened, but everything was jumbled and foggy. A silent stream of images flowed through her mind. Tom lying in a hospital bed. Jackson standing in a Battle Angel suit. The golden hilt of a sword. Kevin shouting at her from the porch as demons speared the darkening sky above. An aircraft carrier. She couldn’t open her eyes. And still, the darkness throbbed.

Slowly, one eye fluttered open. Then the other. The coal-black darkness bled into a slightly diluted hue, but she could still see nothing. Her eyes tried to focus on something, but it was an impossible task.

Maddy’s head was pounding. Every cell in her body screamed in agony as she tried to lift her head just one millimeter before setting it down again

. But all of this was nothing when compared with the excruciating pain in her right wing.

One by one, the memories began flitting back. Leaving the carrier to follow Jackson. Chasing and fighting with the Dark Angel. The relief at having survived. Then the vision of Jackson needing her, cut short by the awful claws of another demon she hadn’t even been aware of until it was too late. The overwhelming pain as it struck her. And then the darkness as she fell.

Still immobilized, Maddy tried again to adjust to the lack of light and get her bearings. She could tell that she had landed on top of a pile of rubble near a narrow street between two buildings. The rubble must have been a building just hours ago. No one seemed to be around; everyone else must have fled the destruction. Or suffered an even worse fate than Maddy had.

Tears streamed down Maddy’s face as she propped herself up slowly, painfully, on one elbow, then the other. She sat up like that for a few moments as she waited quietly for the sharp pain to cool down to radiating ache. Then, with a shock, Maddy realized she hadn’t heard a single noise since waking up. She was deaf. It didn’t take long for the fear to settle in as she realized exactly how in dire straits she was. Looking out from the rubble, she saw a golden retriever barking hysterically on the street, its mouth opening and closing as it yelped. But Maddy couldn’t hear any of it. The dog wore a collar and was dragging around the shreds of a blue leash.

Maddy sat still and watched the dog, thinking about its owners. She wondered if the leash was frayed because the dog had gnawed through it to get free from wherever it was tied . . . or from whatever poor hand had been holding it. Funny, Maddy thought. The survival instinct is popping up in even the most domesticated of America’s pets. Then, slowly, the slightest bit of hearing came back. Maddy felt a bit like she was underwater, trying to listen to someone talking on land. The dog was so close, but the barking sounded distant. Feebly, she snapped her fingers, straining to hear the tiniest of sounds. Little by little, the sounds around her grew louder, until she could hear jets flying far, far overhead. Then an explosion somewhere not too far away, confirming the battle was still raging.

And the dog kept barking and barking at Maddy. Then, suddenly, its hackles were raised and the fur stood up on the back of its neck. Maddy heard something behind her.

In horror, Maddy realized what the golden retriever truly was barking at. And it definitely wasn’t her.

Craning her neck in pain, Maddy saw it: a hideous Dark Angel. Most likely the one who had attacked her. It had come to finish the job.

The demon was enormous, each of its arms as big as a Corvette, its spined wings spread ominously behind it. Twisted horns ran along its shoulders and arms, and all the way down its back. Its shape continued to shift, black flames coursing around its enormous limbs, its scales shimmering as it moved. The only things that remained constant were its terrible eyes. They glowed with hatred, as if they’d come straight from hell. And then . . . did it smile?

With a shot of blood-chilling terror, Maddy realized that this was the demon from her nightmares. This was the Dark Angel who, in her dreams, had transformed from a normal demon into something bigger and more powerful. Something indescribably worse.

It took a step toward her.

Panic coursed through Maddy’s pain-wracked frame. She attempted to stand, but her body wouldn’t listen to her. Stabbing pain stuck into her legs as she tried to lift herself up by pushing down with her palms, and she collapsed down onto the rubble once again. Her left wing was still in good shape, but her crushed right wing just flopped down.

Maddy could hear the demon’s footsteps now, crunching as it walked along. And she could feel its oppressive heat. She knew she had to do something.

She raised herself up off the rubble as much as she could. Her head, her head . . . Everything hurt so badly.

Panting, Maddy reached out her arms and began miserably dragging herself forward, inches at a time.