Natural Born Angel (Immortal City 2)

Maddy’s voice was clear: “Jacks, I want to become a Guardian.”

Phone up to his ear, Jacks felt a smile slowly begin on the very edge of his lips, then spread until his whole mouth was open with joy. He began to laugh.

“Maddy! That’s so great! I mean, I thought, what about— ” Jacks cut himself off. “It’s just so fantastic!”

“It’s a lot right now. But I think it’s the right decision. And that means no long— ”

“Distance relationship,” Jacks finished her thought. “And I thought you were going to be all the way out in Chicago. For four years!”

“I’ll be right here.”

“You have so much to do!” Jacks couldn’t stop smiling. His voice was shot through with excitement. “What are you going to set up first?”

Maddy laughed. “How am I supposed to know, Jacks? You’re the Guardian Angel! This is all new to me.”

“You’re right, you’re right. Well, you have at least two years of Guardian training, so don’t be too hard on yourself, OK?” Jacks said, trying to collect his thoughts. “It’s just such great news! We have some celebrating to do. Forget ice cream. My house in forty-five?”

Maddy laughed. “OK. Just as long as there’s not champagne. The bubbles give me a headache.”

Jacks hung up when he heard her disconnect, and he quickly began gathering his stuff up from the dressing room. His mind was racing. After what seemed like the umpteenth discouraging session at physical therapy, he at last had some cheerful news. He thought of all the training Maddy would be getting, learning all the Guardian skills, including how to fly – if she got her wings – and joining the Guardian ranks presumably in a few years.

And as his mind drifted over these things, he was shocked to realize that a tiny, bitter part of him was the slightest bit . . . envious. Jealous of all the cool things Maddy was going to be doing. Things that he could no longer do with his wings a mangled shadow of their former selves. A phantom pang streaked across his back.

Shaking his head, Jacks chased the thought from his mind. How could he think something like that, even just for a second? Maddy was becoming a Guardian, she was staying in Angel City, and he was nothing but happy, for her and for them.

He couldn’t believe any other thought had even crossed his mind.

CHAPTER 5

Just minutes after giving Mark Godspeed and the National Angel Services the news that she wanted to be a Guardian, Maddy’s iPhone, last year’s birthday gift from Jacks, vibrated. She saw that it was an email from [email protected] – Mark’s assistant. The email detailed her schedule for the next week, day by day, hour by hour. Jacks, nuzzling her neck, looked over her shoulder. Headquartered in Angel City, the NAS, as the National Angel Services was usually called, had been formed after the Great Awakening to oversee and administer Guardians and Protection for Pay. They’d been doing it for almost a hundred and fifty years. And now they’d be overseeing Maddy.

Before Maddy had even had a chance to digest a third of the email, her phone began ringing. The caller ID read “DARCY”.

Maddy gulped. Darcy, Jacks’s long-time publicist, was also technically working for Maddy, too, although Maddy had turned down all media and appearance requests as she finished out her final year of high school (which had never ceased to both shock and horrify Darcy). The woman was a legend in Angel City – she never took no for an answer and always managed to get her clients the best magazine covers and land them at the top of the Angel Power rankings.

“Hello. . . ?” Maddy said uncertainly into the phone.

Darcy’s voice was clipped and excited. “Heard the news. So glad you’ve finally come to your senses. Luckily my guy at the Today Show is still interested, because we can do much better than cable for your first big interview. Remember this isn’t public yet, but don’t be too coy. Also, I’ve already got a call in to American Protection, and your fitting for the annual Angel issue of Teen Vogue is next week. If you’re feeling a little bit bloated, I hope you follow that raw cleanse I emailed you over the summer. Buckle your seat belt. We have a lot of work to do.”

Maddy just stood there, stunned, not even knowing where to start. “Raw?” she managed to sputter into the phone.

“This is NBC. Gotta go,” Darcy said, distracted. “Talk later.”

“But— ” Before Maddy could even get out a word of protest, Darcy had already hung up. Maddy held her iPhone out in front of her as if it were a snake about to bite, her eyes wide. She looked at Jacks.

He just laughed. “Welcome to the life of an Angel,” he said.

The next few days for Maddy were a blur of non-stop phone calls and meetings with Darcy and a series of assistants to the Archangels. And now Maddy found herself riding in Jacks’s Ferrari as it turned off Beverly towards the sleek and gleaming building that held the offices of the NAS and its board, the Archangels.

Maddy had never actually been to the offices before. The structure was much more impressive in person than in the photos she’d seen. It seemed futuristic and beyond modern, and she remembered reading that it had taken its Japanese architect ten years to fully complete. The dark glass monolith loomed above them.

“I can’t believe we’re going in there,” Maddy said, motioning to the building nervously. She remembered that night not so long ago when Jacks had taken her to her first “event”. She’d been sitting in the same seat in the same car. Now she was having that same sinking feeling as Jacks pulled off the street.

Jacks squeezed her hand.

“Don’t worry, you’re going to do great. Remember: no one starts out ready to be a Guardian. They’ll train you for two, three years before even thinking about nominating you. Just be you and you’ll do perfectly. You don’t need to know any right answers.”

On their way in, they passed a clutch of paparazzi standing on the pavement: “What’s going on, Maddy?! Jacks, what’s going on?!” They turned their heads away from the windows and kept driving, entering the underground parking garage. Maddy peered up at the imposing glass walls of the structure as they were swallowed up and surrounded by it. She wasn’t so sure about how great she was, in fact, going to do.