Natural Born Angel (Immortal City 2)

Gabriel continued. “Even if we were to believe your hypothesis about the demons emerging, have these Dark ones been harming Angels? It seems in all these cases, humans have been perishing. Not our kind.”

Sylvester attempted to control his frustration. He motioned to the thick folder in his hand. “I’ve seen some of it first-hand myself. The death and destruction. And if you look at these documents, you’ll see it’s much more than just a hypothesis.”

Gabriel nodded, understandingly. “You may be surprised to know that we are already quite aware of some of your so-called demon incidents.”

“And you’ve done nothing?” Sylvester said, in shock. Mark’s face showed he was also surprised by the revelation that the Council might have known demons were operating at will on earth already.

“Although they may betoken the presence of demons,” Gabriel said, “we see no evidence they mean to turn on us.”

“But you can’t believe they won’t— ”

“We can believe a lot of things. What would you have us do? Ferret out the Dark Angels one by one? There is no surer way to goad them into turning their focus on us. You forget that we Twelve have dipped our swords in demon blood. It is not something we would relish again unless absolutely necessary.”

Sylvester stared at the Council in their glowing robes. “The humans won’t stand a chance.”

A sardonic grin appeared on the edges of Gabriel’s mouth. “Humans? As we speak, David, the humans are turning against us in an enormous case of ingratitude and arrogance. The very existence of our way of life is at stake. Once again we have been disappointed by mankind.”

Mark looked at Sylvester with regret in his eyes, as if to say he’d done his best.

“That is all, thank you,” Gabriel said.

Sylvester stood there, bitterly gritting his teeth. Gabriel turned and began quietly speaking to Uriah, the Council Archangel to his left. Sylvester stood rooted to his spot. Gabriel looked up at the detective, as if at an annoying child.

“That is all, detective.”

CHAPTER 33

Linden had set a press conference for the evening of the day after Maddy’s save. The Angels were remaining quiet. No one knew what was going to happen, and a strange stillness hung across the city. Most of the day, Maddy stayed in her old room at Uncle Kevin’s, the last bastion of calmness in a world rocked by her unsanctioned save of someone who wasn’t a Protection.

Eventually Maddy decided to go out. She could at least go to her apartment and get some of her things to bring back to her uncle’s. She felt like staying at Kevin’s for a while for some reason. It just seemed more comfortable for her.

A small armada of paparazzi and supporters parted as Maddy drove into the parking garage of her apartment building off the Halo Strip. Some of the fans had signs that read “SAVE ME MADDY!” spurred by the dream that they too could be saved now without even being a Protection.

Maddy put on her biggest pair of sunglasses and just stared straight ahead as she pressed her way through the churning madness of photographers and fans.

Once she finally made it into her apartment, Maddy breathed a sigh of relief and put the keys down on the side table. She sat on the couch, its fine leather squishing underneath her as she sank into it.

Maddy’s eyes slowly scanned the luxury apartment, the designer furniture, the glossy black granite counter. Her gaze moved out of the window to the bird’s-eye view of thrumming Immortal City beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass. A grey marine layer still hung in the sky, sending a dim cast over the city. Her eyes passed to the open bedroom door, to the wardrobe door that wouldn’t close because of all her Angel clothes inside it. On the wall was a framed copy of her first magazine cover, for Angels Weekly. On the cover, Maddy looked confidently into the camera. I’m here, she seemed to say. I have arrived.

And for what? Her mind flashed back to the terrified eyes of Rosenberg’s assistant, Lauren. Her eyes as she thought she was about to die. And her automatic acceptance of how Maddy was just going to let her. The face of death. How could Maddy have been so blind? She had forgotten her own commitment. What had drawn her to Guardianship in the first place. It wasn’t Jackson’s fault. It was her own.

&nbs

p; She suddenly felt very miserable indeed.

Maddy picked up her mobile phone and scrolled through the contacts.

He picked up on the second ring.

“Hello?”

“I didn’t know who else to call,” Maddy said, embarrassed, into the phone.

“I’ll be right over,” Tom said.

And he was. Twenty minutes later there was a knock at the door, and Tom was standing there.

“Hi,” Maddy said quietly.