Natural Born Angel (Immortal City 2)

Her wings.

Maddy realized how much she’d actually come to love them, how they really had become part of her. Part of her full identity. For the first time in her life she’d really felt complete, she realized. Her mind cast back to the terrible nightmare of them being monstrous and deformed, and instead how beautiful and perfect they really were when they finally emerged.

And now her wings were going to be taken away in a merciless disciplinary action.

With a shudder, she wondered how badly it would hurt.

But after a few more minutes of flying, Maddy realized curiously that no one was coming. No ADC agents. She had the skies to herself. Looking off into the distance, Maddy set her course for the Angel City sign and thrust her wings to gain speed.

Maddy landed a couple of blocks away from Kevin’s Diner so she wouldn’t be spotted by any photographers. She dropped into someone’s back garden. The little dog tied up in the back began yipping ecstatically as soon as he saw Maddy land, tugging against his lead.

“Shhh,” Maddy said to the dog, putting her finger to her lips before quietly slipping out on to the street.

CHAPTER 31

She was soon outside Kevin’s. Partially hiding from across the street, she watched the block for a few minutes, monitoring to see whether anyone who looked like one of the disciplinary agents was lingering around. She also anxiously kept casting her eyes to the sky, adrenaline pumping in her veins, convinced that the ADC was going to come any moment to shear away her wings as punishment for her unsanctioned save. But everything still looked safe outside the house.

Where were they? Were they just toying with her? Part of her just wanted to cry. But she stopped herself.

Maddy slipped in the side door of the diner and then through the back garden to the house. Finally, she was able to take a breath, although her hands were still shaking in fear of what was going to happen. She had broken the rules. Consequences must be paid. She leaned against the kitchen counter in the familiar setting for a moment, just breathing.

After searching for a bit, Maddy found the cordless phone handset smashed between the couch cushions – Uncle Kevin still had a landline. She dialled Jackson’s mobile phone number. No answer. She left a voicemail, telling him to pick up when she called from the landline number. After a minute, she dialled again. No answer. What was he doing? She needed him now, more than ever.

She dialled again.

Still no answer.

Maddy put on an old shirt from her upstairs wardrobe to replace the blouse that was now shredded in the back from her wings, and then went in the back of the diner. She crept up to the kitchen and looked in.

“Maddy!” her uncle said, relief spreading across his face. She could hear the TV in the dining room breathlessly reporting details of her save.

“Just a second.” Kevin undid his apron and hung it on a hook just outside the kitchen. He walked into the living room. Maddy peered out and saw him flip the OPEN sign to CLOSED. There was only one table with customers, and they were just paying the bill. They quickly stood up and left.

Maddy looked cautiously out into the car park to see if any suspicious characters were outside, but the coast still seemed clear. She walked into the dining room and sat down in her favourite booth, near the back where no one could see her inside. Jana looked at her with big eyes.

“Go ahead and take the rest of the night off, Jana,” Kevin said.

The wide-eyed waitress mutely nodded and disappeared to the back, her pumps squeaking on the linoleum.

The Magnavox was playing footage of Maddy’s save.

The bottom of the right-hand corner of the screen read: “Courtesy of SaveTube.” Maddy was shocked to find it was raw footage from her Angelcam.

“The controversy continues to grow, threatening now to explode. Angels: saving us, or letting us die? Operatives from an unspecified activist group hacked the Angelcam system this afternoon and immediately released unedited footage of Guardian Maddy Godright saving both a Protection and a non-Protection in a thrilling, spectacular save off the coast of Santa Monica today. So far, no comment from the NAS, but the furore grows across the country.”

It felt uncanny to Maddy as she watched the first-hand footage of herself making the save. It all seemed so quick: the ocean hurtling towards them through the window on the flight deck, Rosenberg’s unconscious face, Lauren crouched between the seats, the orange fireball as the Gulfstream morphed into incinerated gas, metal and nothingness.

Kevin brought two mugs of coffee over and settled into the booth with Maddy. He glanced out to where paparazzi waited on the other side of the street.

“I just couldn’t,” she said, looking into Kevin’s eyes. “I just couldn’t leave her behind.”

The door chimed, and both Kevin and Maddy turned their heads to the door. To her astonishment, it was Tom.

“Tom.” Maddy breathed the name. She was surprised to find relief heavy in her voice.

“I came as soon as I heard what happened,” he said, walking in tentatively and nodding to Kevin in the formal yet friendly way he seemed to do everything. “Are you OK?”

“I think so,” Maddy said, emotion starting to well within her with the realization of what she’d done. She looked up at Tom with terrified eyes. “They haven’t . . . come for me yet. For my wings.”