“Lieutenant Commander,” the soldier said.
“Private,” said Maddy. “Any chance you’ve got a working radio around here?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He rifled through a desk drawer, pulled out a radio, and handed it to her.
She pressed the button to activate the mic. “Can you hear me?” she spoke into it.
“Roger. Go ahead,” the radio crackled.
“This is Madison Montgomery Godright. Two blocks east of La Brea, just south of Sunset, there is a doorway at number two-forty-three and a half Formosa. Inside you’ll find a body. The deceased is First Lieutenant Thomas Cooper of the U.S. Navy. He died a hero. . . .”
• • •
Inside the temporary Angel medical tent setup, Maddy screamed and struggled despite all efforts not to. An Angel doctor was peeling the makeshift bandages off her arm, pulling lots of destroyed skin off with them. Maddy’s consciousness began fading in and out, the pain so great that she lashed out at the doctor.
“Nurse!”
A nurse held her down and Maddy felt a prick—she’d been injected with something. Soon a warm fogginess spread throughout her body, and her arm didn’t feel quite as bad.
“This is a bad burn you’ve got here, Miss Godright,” the doctor said. “But it’s not as bad as it could be. We Angels have actually discovered a next-generation burn treatment that will help you look as goo
d as new. The FDA has not yet approved it for human use, but it will be fine for you. It’ll leave a scar, that’s for sure. There’s no way around that. But it won’t be disfiguring. For now we will re-dress the burn and then begin treatment as soon as possible.”
Maddy nodded.
“Can I see the wing?” the doctor asked.
In an effort to avoid dealing with two excruciating pains at once, Maddy had only told the doctor about her burn. But he’d figured it out on his own. She began to sweat as she thought about the pain that had overcome her when she had retracted it in the storage room.
“Do I have to?” Maddy asked.
“I’m afraid so. It’s the only way for me to diagnose it and treat you.”
The doctor and nurse stepped away to give Maddy enough room to spread her famous wings.
Maddy could feel her Immortal Marks tingling, and then her right side began to hurt, badly. It felt a little bit like the first time her wings came out that first night, in the bathroom. Her breaths were coming fast and hard. Suddenly, her left wing ripped out with a whoosh, but the right wing wouldn’t follow. As expected, the pain was excruciating, even with the shot the nurse had given her.
Maddy yelled in pain. Just as she was starting to tumble off the examination table, the right wing emerged. The force of it caused Maddy to fall to the floor, knocking over her IV on the way. The doctor and nurse helped her to her feet. Her injured wing hadn’t straightened like it was supposed to.
Trying to deal with the pain as the doctor attempted to straighten it out, her entire body became covered in a sheen of sweat.
“Yes, yes, mm-hmm . . . three, four, two lateral movement,” he said to the nurse, who was taking notes. He kept relaying numbers that Maddy couldn’t understand. Finally he stopped reciting and looked at Maddy. His face was unreadable.
“As for the wing . . .”
“What? What do all those numbers mean?” she asked.
“It just means it’s very badly sprained and bruised. You won’t fly for a couple of months, at least,” he said. “It’s not broken, however. You’re lucky. You should see some of the wing injuries we’re dealing with in here. Some of these Guardians will never fly again. Tragic.”
Maddy thought of Jackson when he couldn’t fly and how he had to struggle with his very identity. The depression, his slow decline. With all the recent developments in Angel medical technology, she hoped there wouldn’t be too many Angels who were permanently disabled. Otherwise there might be a whole generation of Guardians sentenced to live underneath the shadow of this demon battle.
• • •
The door was locked, and she’d lost her keys somewhere along the way. Maddy had to knock.
She was met by her uncle, who had deep, dark bags under his eyes. His face was creased with worry and sleep deprivation.
“Maddy! Thank God!” He rushed to her and then paused when he saw her bandaged arm. “What happened? Are you okay?”