Natural Born Angel (Immortal City 2)

The anchor posed a question: “What would you have viewers do?”

The professor almost laughed, but then just shook his head slowly, sadly. “Do? I would say it is an important time to be with your loved ones. That’s what I will be doing.”

Maddy heard a small voice, distant. She realized it was Tom on the phone still.

“Maddy? Maddy?”

She slowly lifted the phone back to her ear. “I’m here, Tom.”

“We just got the order from Linden.” His voice was tense, focused. “I’m on my way to the carrier. We’re deploying within the hour, Maddy.”

“But the professor just said that conventional weapons won’t do anything against the demons. You don’t know what you’re up against!” Maddy protested, her voice quaking with emotion as she remembered once again the terrible sight of that demon careening along the freeway, and then atop the library tower. Smoke, fire and the emissary of hellishness. She imagined an army of them and shuddered.

After the destruction last year in Angel City with just one demon, what was an army of thousands upon thousands of demons going to do?

“We have to, Maddy. The war on Angels is over. Now we’re just fighting for our survival,” Tom said. “I’m doing my duty.”

“Tom,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “I’ll come see you. Before you leave. To say goodbye.”

“I would” – she could hear the fighter pilot’s voice quavering slightly – “I would love that. I will see you there, then. I need to go now, Maddy. I’ll be at Dock 2.”

The phone went silent. “Tom’s going to fight them, Kevin.”

“Sit down for one minute, Maddy,” Uncle Kevin said, putting a kind hand on her shoulder as she sank down to the couch. He came back shortly with two cups of tea. The warm smell of the tea filled the living room, a stark contrast to the darkness they were feeling.

“There are still the Angels,” he said. “They can fight. For earth.”

Maddy looked up at her uncle with uncertain eyes.

“Well, they can’t just stand by. How could they?” Kevin said.

“The demons, they’re here for the mortals. Not the Angels,” Maddy said. “The Angels know that. According to the prophecy, this coming of the demons has one purpose: to overtake the world and enslave mankind. Now, after we were at the brink of war, the Angels . . . they’ll be too proud to help us now.”

Maddy’s mind cast back to her final meeting with Jackson. His bitterness. Her heart ached.

Suddenly, from the kitchen, they heard the faint tinkling of glasses in the cupboard. The pictures on the mantle started to shift slightly under the vibrations. The windows rolled under the trembling. Maddy steadied herself by putting a hand on the side of a chair. It was another small earthquake, and it quickly faded. But Maddy could only assume that it wouldn’t be the last.

Maddy and Kevin faced each other.

“Tom’s waiting for me,” she said.

Squeezing Kevin’s hand, she stood up. Here, in this incredible time of uncertainty, doubt, and darkness, she was sure of one thing, at least: she had somewhere to be, someone to see.

*

The last tremors of the quake had faded by the time Archangel William Holyoake recorded the brief video statement to be released to President Linden, the GAC and the worldwide media. Simple, to the point and brutal: “We regret to inform you that we will not intercede on the humans’ behalf in this conflict with the demons.”

Just behind the Archangel, to his left, stood Jackson Godspeed, wearing his advanced, matte-black battle armour. His daunting wings remained sheathed for now. Jackson’s eyes remained neutrally focus

ed forward towards the camera as Holyoake spoke. Emotionless. Other Guardians were also collected near the podium, including Mitch, Steven Churchson and Emily Brightchurch, in a show of strength and solidarity. Emily stood just beside Jackson in black leggings and a loose, low-cut tank top, and, on her right wrist, a ton of bracelets that matched her Divine Ring.

The statement was being recorded and transmitted from what looked like little more than a glass cube perched in a grove of trees in the middle of the Angel City Hills. The glass cube was simple: it had a marble floor and an elevator. An elevator that led down to a complex underground system that humans had never laid eyes on. A contingency plan for something exactly like this.

Archangel Holyoake finished his statement and began walking away from the podium. The low buzz of conversation filled the glass room as Guardians began speaking to each other.

Jackson felt his hand getting squeezed. He looked down and saw it was Emily. She smiled at him.

“I’m with you, Jacks. I’ve always believed in you. No matter what state your wings were in. You aren’t weak. We Angels aren’t weak.”