Battle Angel

by Scott Speer

  “If David’s right about the head demon, we’re going to need all the support and Immortal firepower we can get to root it out. Before it’s too late,” Susan said. “You’ve got to help us get to the Angels, Louis.”

  “Something is definitely going on with the NAS and the Council,” said Louis. “They’re getting nervous. Maybe they know the resistance is growing. Gabriel has tapped the Godspeed kid to be his boy.”

  “Jackson?” Sylvester said.

  Louis nodded. “I don’t know how much Godspeed Junior knows. But our other spies tell me he’s spending a lot of time over in the chambers and with Gabriel in his little solarium. I know they ain’t just playing checkers.”

  “We just need you and the others to stay in place,” Susan said. “And for everyone’s sake, be safe, Louis.”

  “Don’t worry. I ain’t going nowhere. We’re too close,” he said. “And from what I understand, you can’t get a good steak or a decent Cuban up here in Angel City anymore, anyway.” He chuckled, gnawing on the tip of his unlit cigar, imported directly—and illegally—from Havana. “What about Maddy?” Louis asked. He’d always taken a particular interest in her, and, truth be told, he’d had a soft spot for all the Godrights since Sylvester could remember.

  “Apparently she’s spoken with Linden. We don’t know details yet. We’re waiting to talk to the big man himself.”

  Kreuz drained his 7UP and set the glass down on the table.

  “I don’t like it,” he said. “I’ve got a bad feeling. There’re too many loose ends. We’re running out of time. It’s going to be too little, too late.”

  “Maybe. But we’re not in a position yet to strike,” Susan said. “We just need a little more time.”

  “I hope we got it,” Kreuz said.

  “I suppose we’ll find out,” Sylvester said. “We just need to get to the head demon. We’ve got to make it happen, any way we can.”

  Susan’s handbag started ringing. She plucked out her phone and looked at the caller ID. “One of Linden’s people. Excuse me, gentlemen,” she said, standing up to take the call at the other end of the bar.

  The bartender, who had been busying himself by the bar, purposefully out of earshot, saw that the meeting was winding down. Their glasses had been drained. Kreuz was stretching. He went over to pick up the empties and wipe down the table.

  “Just put it on my tab,” David said.

  “The Seven-UP’s on the house,” the bartender said.

  Kreuz popped a final handful of peanuts into his mouth from the battered plastic bowl in front of him. “Funny, they got lobster in the sanctuary. But you can’t find no peanuts. Talk about a lack of planning.”

  Sylvester felt Kreuz’s eyes on his shaky hands as he handed the bartender his empty glass.

  “You all right, David?” Kreuz asked.

  Louis, of course, knew all about what had happened to Sylvester after he lost his wings and was disbarred from the Angels. He knew he was a first-rate ACPD policeman, but that he’d grown a reputation for having a bad case of nerves, which was why he had been quietly relegated to desk work for years. It wasn’t until the famous Angel serial killer case that he’d had the chance to prove himself a hero in more ways than one.

  “Of course,” Sylvester said. “I’m just a little short on sleep, is all.” He tried to smile but couldn’t manage to look Louis directly in the eyes. Sylvester’s daily fear was that his nerves would come back and overtake him. He dreaded that black overpowering sense of anxiety. What was going on now—the resistance, the war—was too important. He couldn’t afford not to be at the top of his game.

  “You know you can talk to me . . . whenever you need to,” Louis said. Like all the Guardians, Sylvester had gone through Angel training under Kreuz’s watch. He had been a brilliant Guardian student—just as brilliant as Susan, who eventually became an Archangel. Everyone knew that Louis really cared about his “kids,” which he liked to think of them as.

  “Sometimes I still think of it,” Sylvester admitted.

  “The child? That was a long time ago, David.”

  “You know I’ve never been able to let it go,” Sylvester said.

  “We’re going to need you here with us, David,” Kreuz said. “The Angels. You’re one of us, and we’re going to need leaders after this is all over. And you’re proving yourself to be a born leader.”

  Sylvester opened his mouth to object, but Louis cut him off.

  “Besides, there’s more than one reason to move on from that,” Kreuz said. “If not for your sake, then for somebody else’s.” He looked over at Susan, who was speaking quietly into her phone in the corner.

  “What do you mean?” Sylvester asked, following his gaze.

  “I’ve seen the way she looks at you,” Louis said.

  Sylvester was caught off guard, turning red. Susan was a beautiful, talented Archangel, and he was just a washed-up has-been Angel, a police detective, somebody trying to do a little good to make up for the wrong he still felt he had done. But still, he took a moment to think back to the way he’d felt when Susan reached out for his arm back in the office. . . .

  “You’re imagining things, Louis,” he said.

  “Some detective! Ha!” Louis smiled. “Well, time I got home before the sanctuary sends out a search party. That would be mighty uncomfortable for me. See you in a while, Sylvester. And tell Susan I said ‘so long.’”

  “Will do, Louis,” said Sylvester. “And remember: take care of yourself.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Maddy had agreed to meet Jackson at his place up in Empyrean Canyon. She figured that, after breaking his heart at the pier, the least she could do was meet him on his territory.

  She arrived early, only to find Jackson’s house and property eerily empty, totally dark. She didn’t have to worry about curfew; she had a special pass from Linden that allowed her to travel freely to the exclusive Empyrean Canyon, to the house she knew so well. It pained her to look into the darkened windows, thinking about how much time she’d spent inside with Jacks; she’d even helped him pick the house out when he moved out of his parents’. But that felt like such a long time ago, back before everything started to unravel.

  Not so many days had passed since the Angels had left their homes, but already things looked a bit shabbier. Lawns were yellowing, dried palm fronds lay scattered in driveways, and debris cluttered meticulously maintained driveways. But despite all the emptiness, she knew Jackson was somewhere nearby. She had felt his frequency.

  And so Maddy waited nervously, her confidence waning with every minute. She’d felt fully confident on her way over, reassuring herself that she was there not as an ex-girlfriend, but as an emissary from President Ted Linden himself, to plead for the help of the Angels. Their personal problems had nothing to do with it, and she hoped that Jacks could somehow see it that way, too. This was about more than just the two of them.

  But as soon as she found herself standing at Jacks’s front door, all that confidence just vanished into the dark night. Then she saw him.

  Maddy had expected Jackson to fly in, but instead, there he was, emerging from the woods toward the back of his house.

  Jacks hit a button on the side of the garage and the lights blazed on, revealing the roundabout driveway with the fountain at its center. The fountain water was still and thick with a layer of green muck that had collected over the past few days.

  For a few moments, Maddy held on to the slenderest reed of hope. Maybe Jacks had changed his mind. Maybe he thought that joining the humans in the fight was the right thing to do.

  But as soon as he came into the garage light and saw the look on his face, she understood she’d made a huge error in judgment.

  “What do you want, Maddy?” Jacks said. “And why didn’t you bring Flyboy with you?”

  This was not off to a good start.
/>   “Jacks, don’t start on . . . ,” Maddy said.

  “What do you want me to do, then?” he said. His pale blue eyes flared in the glint of moonlight. He still didn’t even know why he’d agree to meet with her. All the anger he’d been trying to suppress started to well up. “I don’t get you, Maddy. Is this some weak attempt at patching things up?”

  “This isn’t about us, Jackson,” Maddy said.

  “No? Then what is it about?” Jacks said. “It better be important. I would be in very serious trouble if they knew where I was right now. And especially big trouble if they knew who I was with.”

  Maddy had never seen Jacks so cold. So distant. He was purposefully keeping her away, at more than arm’s length. How was she ever going to get through to him?

  On top of everything, his aggression was making it impossible for her to remember what she had planned on saying.

  “Jacks,” she started, “you once loved a half-human half-Angel girl.”

  “I did. And I thought she loved me, too. But I was wrong,” Jacks said.

  “Don’t say that,” said Maddy. His words landed like a punch to her gut. But she had to keep telling herself that she wasn’t here to make herself feel better. She was here for humankind. Maddy took a breath to calm herself before looking back into his eyes.

  “Humanity doesn’t deserve this,” Maddy said. “And you know it.”

  Jacks turned and looked out on the darkened city. “Humans are self-destructive, Maddy. They can’t be saved from themselves. Loyalty is not a component of human nature.” He eyed Maddy coldly. “The demons are just doing your job more efficiently.”

  “Listen to yourself, Jacks,” Maddy said, a cold emptiness gripping her heart. “This isn’t you.”

  For a moment, she thought she saw a crack of doubt enter Jackson’s face. He looked into Maddy’s eyes, and Maddy could see it. Something she’d said had touched him. But as soon as it was there, it flickered away as if it had never been.

  “Maybe you don’t know me anymore, Maddy,” Jacks said.

  “You sound like one of the Council’s PR people,” Maddy said.

  Jackson’s lip curled. “The Council and Gabriel were the ones who pardoned me. The NAS was going to take my wings after I saved you, Maddy, but they saw something in me and gave me another chance. They’re the good guys.”

  “The good guys, Jacks?” Maddy shook her head. It was hopeless, just as she had known it would be.

  At least now she could tell Linden she tried. That she had done her best. It had been a foolish, last-ditch plan, but she had still harbored a shred of hope that it could have worked out differently. Remembering that hope, she spoke up again.

  “What have they done to you, Jackson? I barely recognize you.” Maddy looked at the angry Angel in front of her. How could he be so brainwashed? This couldn’t just be the result of her choice on the pier. . . .

  “They haven’t done anything to me,” Jacks said. “I’m just staying with my kind. There is a future for Angels, and I’m going to be part of it.”

  “A future? With the demons? Where are the Angels, Jacks?” She was feeling more frightened than devastated as she continued to listen to this Jackson impostor.

  “I’m not here to discuss our plans, Maddy,” Jackson said, face slightly flushing. “You chose not to be with us, remember? I came here to hear you out. To see if maybe you’d changed your mind and decided to listen to the Angel in you. And I did hear you. It’s clear you haven’t changed anything.”

  “I’m sorry to bother you, Jacks,” Maddy said as diplomatically as possible. “I’m going to go now.”

  Jackson whirled toward her, his eyes blazing under the bright light shining down from the four-car garage.

  “I don’t know why I even agreed to meet you. You made your choice,” Jacks said angrily. “It’s humiliating for me to even be here.” His voice cracked with emotion as he turned away. “I don’t even know why I’m doing this to myself.”

  “Jacks—” Seeing him in front of her, suffering, made Maddy’s voice turn tender. Despite his hardness now, her heart went out to him, the Angel she loved.

  Almost unconsciously, she moved toward him, like she had done a thousand times before. And he turned to her.

  Before she knew what had happened, their hands had found each other. As their fingers intertwined, Maddy felt as if her body had been jolted by a spark, just like it had in the diner the very first time they met.

  Surprise struck both their faces as they moved toward each other. Jackson took Maddy in his arms and Maddy was right there with him, and their faces, which had tried to be so brave, were now so close, almost kissing, and she could feel his gentle breath. . . .

  Maddy suddenly pulled away.

  “Maddy. It’s not too late,” Jacks breathed. He held her in his arms to keep her close, to make sure she felt the energy and attraction coursing through them.

  “Jacks, I can’t do this,” she whispered.

  Jacks’s face fell, and he let go of Maddy. He took a few steps away and turned his back to her, not saying a word. When he did speak again, his voice was flat and distant.

  “I’m glad you called. I needed to pick up some stuff from the house,” Jackson said.

  “You don’t have to try to keep up appearances for me, Jackson. We know each other.”

  “We thought we did. But you’re with . . . him now. Turns out I didn’t know you at all.”

  “Jacks, how could you be so cruel?” Maddy cried out. “You don’t know anything about it.”

  “I know everything about it.”

  “Jacks . . .”

  “Maddy, please leave.”

  “Ja—”

  “Please.”

  He didn’t have to ask twice. Holding her hand up to her face as if to hide her sadness, Maddy quickly got into her car and turned on the ignition. As she spun around the fountain to exit the grounds, her headlights hit on Jackson for a moment. He stood there in the cold, artificial light, sheet white, his face stony like some kind of vengeful god of old.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Maddy sent Linden’s team a report. “No go.” She didn’t explain further. They’d know what it meant.

  The visit had gone just as she’d expected, only it had affected her much more than she had imagined.

  The encounter with Jackson had left her rattled. Their unexpected burst of passion showed that their anger wasn’t enough to keep them apart, but now she regretted ever agreeing to go. Jackson was so different, so in line with the Council, more than he had ever been before. And he was so cold.

  Until, of course, that spark had flared between them.

  She thought of Tom getting ready to face the demons yet again and felt raw. And guilty. All it had taken was just one moment to nearly betray her promise to Tom, to almost kiss Jackson, like some Angelstruck girl stuck in a dream. And after everything they’d said to each other . . .

  • • •

  Maddy barely slept that night and woke up early the next day, her mind spinning like an overworked hamster wheel. She went to the diner, which was still closed to the public. She made some tea and slumped down in one of the booths.

  She looked over the quiet diner. Even though it was closed, Kevin had come in every day to give the place a good dusting and sweep. Always the optimist, Kevin had told her: “Need to be ready to open once the demons are gone.”

  Kevin had insisted on staying in Angel City even though Maddy could have easily gotten him out. He wasn’t ready to abandon ship yet, and, if Maddy was honest, he wasn’t ready to leave her behind, either. She had finally gotten him to agree to move to one of the bomb shelters set up all the way past Fairfax Avenue. But both of them knew that if the battle began, those shelters might not offer much protection.

  Maddy looked out across the diner. She could have probably walked around
blindfolded, carrying three hamburger specials, and still not spill a fry or a drop of milk shake. How many mornings, afternoons, and evenings had she spent there? Funny, she used to always want to get out of that waitress uniform, out of Angel City altogether, and now she longed for those days again. In a few days’ time, would there even be an Angel City?

  A voice broke her reverie, startling her.

  “Maddy. It’s been too long.”

  Detective Sylvester, in the same old overcoat he’d worn when she first met him in at ACHS. Standing next to him was someone else she knew well. Someone she wouldn’t have expected to see in a million years.

  “Professor Archson?” Maddy said, a smile brightening her face.

  The Archangel smiled back at Maddy. “I thought I told you to call me Susan, Madison.”

  “Sorry to burst in on you,” Detective Sylvester said. “I know the place is closed, but I took the liberty of picking the lock. I hope you don’t mind if we share a table with you for a few minutes.”

  Maddy’s eyes flipped from Sylvester to her former professor. Susan saw the look in Maddy’s eyes, and the confusion.

  “I’m not with the Angels, Maddy,” she said. “It’s been a long time coming. We’ve had an insurgent element within the NAS for years now. I’ve been helping as co-leader the entire time. We’ve just been waiting for the right moment to surface.”

  “You’re a rebel?” Maddy asked, breathless. “And you and Detective Sylvester . . . know each other?”

  “We go back,” Susan said. “To Guardian training. We were the same Commissioning class. We were Guardians together.”

  “Maddy, we need you,” Sylvester said.

  “I’ve already told Linden—I can’t do anything with the Angels. Jacks was my only chance. And he wasn’t much of one,” Maddy said. “The Angels aren’t going to help.”

  “We’re not giving up on that, Maddy,” Susan said. “David—I mean, Detective Sylvester—thinks that something is controlling the demons.”