Immortal City (Immortal City 1)

“Need to concentrate,” Maddy said curtly.

Maddy downshifted and the Ferrari’s engine snarled. Needles jumped on the gauges as they roared down Outpost, glimpsing the caravan of black Escalades and then losing them again on the winding road. Sparkling Angel mansions flew by in a blur.

“So would now be an okay time to ask what is going on?” Gwen asked, holding on desperately to the door handle.

“They’re taking him,” Maddy said miserably.

“Who’s taking him?”

“The Angels. The deal must have been a lie and now they’re taking him.”

“Deal?”

“Jacks saved my life, which is against their law. Mark supposedly made a deal with the Council and the Archangels for Jacks’s life. But the deal was a trap and now they’ve caught him and they’re going to kill him and it’s all my fault.”

“What?” Gwen choked in bewilderment on all the information. “But they can’t kill him. He’s an Angel!”

“They’re going to make him mortal,” Maddy said. “Then they’re going to kill him.”

Maddy caught a glimpse of the caravan again. They had reached the bottom of the road and were turning left onto Franklin.

“Angels can be mortal?” Gwen gasped. “And there’s a law? And wait, who’s Mark again?”

“Honestly, Gwen,” Maddy quoted as she braked for the turn, “how can you live in this city and not know these things?”

She threw the wheel over and they roared off the winding road onto the trafficked street.

“OMG, are these seat warmers?” Gwen asked as she fiddled with the buttons on the dash.

“If you could just not touch anything . . . !”

Gwen frowned and folded her arms across her chest. Maddy squinted into the glare of the late-afternoon sun, panicking. She had lost sight of them. Maddy ground the gears into fourth and pushed the gas pedal to the floor. The engine screamed a high-pitched whine as they streaked forward like a crimson bullet.

“Hold on to something!” Maddy commanded.

The light had turned red. They flew into the intersection. Tires squealed as cars swerved, missing them by inches as they careened through the light.

“Where are they?” Maddy’s eyes scanned the street ahead as they tore past the other cars, horns blaring. “I’ve lost them!” she shrieked. “I’ve lost Jacks!”

“Just keep going straight!” Gwen said, her neck craning. “Maybe they’re going to the freeway.” Maddy swung into the bus lane and blew past the tourist traffic.

“Right there! Right there!” Gwen shrieked as she pointed to where the Escalades were turning up the on-ramp onto the Angel City Freeway. “They’re getting on the freeway! Going south!”

Maddy threw the wheel over. Horns roared in protest as she swerved in front of oncoming traffic, across the lanes of traffic toward the rushing on-ramp.

“We’re going to make it, hold on!” Maddy said. Their heads snapped back as they clipped the curb at the corner of the on-ramp, but Maddy straightened the wheel and they sailed up toward the elevated freeway. Gwen had gone white in the passenger seat.

“You are so losing your license after this!” she said.

Downtown lay ahead in the red haze of the dusk as they merged into freeway traffic. The sky itself seemed to be burning.

The caravan moved into the fast lane. Maddy followed. She could count five cars between them. She began to weave through traffic using the left two lanes, methodically closing the distance.

“How did you learn to drive like that?” Gwen yelled over the howl of six hundred horses.

“Watching Jacks.” She gunned the engine and slipped around another car.

“What?”