Immortal City (16 page)

“Well, I know what he looked like,” Maddy said. “He had dark hair. And pale, blue eyes.” Jacks laughed a little, shaking his head.

“I have my mother’s eyes . . .” he said. “And, I’m told, my father’s wings.”

“His wings?”

Jacks nodded. “Broad and strong. A Battle Angel’s wings.”

The question came out of Maddy so fast she didn’t have time to stop it.

“Can I see them?”

“My wings?” Jacks asked about his most famous feature in disbelief. “You don’t know—” he cut himself off, holding his tongue. Not wanting to come across to this girl as conceited.

“Yeah, your wings,” Maddy said, now embarrassed but unable to take it back. “I mean . . . what’s the big deal? Can’t I see them?”

Jacks got to his feet and pulled Maddy up with him. Maddy watched the muscles move under his shirt. Suddenly, the quiet night filled with the shrill tearing of fabric and Jacks’s wings expanded out of his back. Razor sharp, they pierced the night sky, knifing out from behind his shoulders with such force it blew her hair back. The sound of the
whoosh
was deafening. The wings reached out six feet in both directions, then settled, powerful and muscled, awaiting the command to fly. They glowed with their trademark blue luminescence, casting light on Maddy’s face. She was breathless.

“What do you think of them?” he asked.

Slightly afraid, but overcome with curiosity, Maddy reached out and ran her finger across the top of the left wing. It was hot to the touch.

“They’re . . . great.”

Jacks smiled. “Want to try them out?”

Maddy pulled her finger away. “You mean actually fly?”

“Sure. Real deal.”

“I don’t know,” she said, unsure.

Jacks held out his hand to her. “Do you trust me?”

Somehow, strangely, Maddy felt as if the question held within it far more than just this night. She was at a crossroads. She looked at this boy Angel, young and perfect, his hand outstretched before her like the hand of fate itself. It was a simple response—just a single word—but somehow, on some level, Maddy knew that it would change her life in ways she couldn’t imagine.

Her lips moved.

“Yes.”

Maddy pulled her hood up around her head and cinched the drawstring tight. “Put your arms around my neck,” Jacks instructed, kneeling down. “And hold on tight.”

When she finally gathered the courage to open her eyes, she and Jacks were rushing through the dark canyon just beyond the outlook. Maddy looked at Jacks’s winged body. It wasn’t just powerful; it was incredibly graceful too. The wings instinctively and effortlessly adjusted to the air currents as they sailed. Then they curved like airplane flaps, and with a powerful thrust, Maddy and Jacks ascended steeply out of the canyon.

Maddy screamed at first, but then something amazing happened. The scream grew into a shout. And the shout grew into a laugh. A laugh that seemed to start all the way in her toes and radiate throughout her body. Jacks and Maddy soared high over Angel City and into the night, as the stars hovered above.

“I thought you would put your arms out!” Maddy yelled.

“What?!” Jacks struggled to hear her over the wind.

Maddy yelled louder. “I thought you would put your arms out when you flew! Like Superman!”

Jacks laughed. He reached his arms out and let his palms ride on the air current. Maddy gripped his waist with her legs, then traced her fingers over his arms until they found his hands. Fingers laced, they buzzed the palm trees of Santa Monica, the neon pier, and then rushed out over the churning Pacific. Then Jacks climbed, up through the misty marine layer, until they were floating atop a moonlit bed of velvet white.

They flew past spiraling freeway connections swirling with traffic even at this late hour and rocketed over the rooftops of Brentwood, Westwood, and Beverly Hills. Then they dropped low to buzz the lights of Dodger Stadium. Jacks took them out over the scorched deserts of Palmdale and swung so low over an orange grove Maddy could taste the tangy citrus in her mouth. Circling back, they wove through the skyscrapers of downtown. Finally, Jacks pointed them toward a familiar sight. The Angel City sign. He brought them down gently on top of the fifty-foot glowing
C
of the word CITY
.
When Maddy unlaced her fingers from Jacks’s hands, she realized they had gone numb. They sat there together and let their feet dangle over the edge. Everywhere below, humanity twinkled up at them through a fine layer of mist.

“This is my favorite view in the entire city,” he said, a little smile playing across his lips.

“It’s wonderful,” Maddy admitted, her head still spinning from the flight. Jacks’s smile widened into a grin.

“It’s perfect, right?” But when he turned to Maddy, she was looking away from him. Her gaze had fallen down below and fixed on something. Jacks followed her line of sight until he saw the dormant Kevin’s Diner sign.

“So you live with your uncle?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“And you work at the diner for some extra spending money?”

“No,” Maddy said, slightly annoyed. “Kevin can’t afford to bring on another waitress, so I fill in. It’s only temporary, just until the cash flow improves”—she hesitated, embarrassed—“but it’s been temporary for four years now. At least I get to keep my tips.”

“That doesn’t seem fair.”

“
Life
isn’t fair,” Maddy said, irritated. “Well, for me at least. For you it’s perfect.” She folded her arms. Like in the classroom, Jacks’s face fell.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his mind churning with frustration. He looked into Maddy’s eyes, trying to figure out anything he could do, what he could say, to break through this wall she had set up against him.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, Jacks, this was . . . amazing,” she said. “It’s just . . . this isn’t me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this is
your
life, and it’s great. But it’s not mine. My life is down there. I’m going to wake up in the morning, and I have to go back to being Maddy Montgomery.”

She looked up at him and realized, with surprise, they were face-to-face. Jacks seemed surprised too. It had happened again. It was like a force greater than the two of them was drawing them together. Their lips were now inches apart. The air between them was thick with their body heat. Her lips wanted nothing more than to close the tiny gap between them and kiss. It was more than just how he looked. It was that same feeling she had felt in the back room of the diner. A connection between them. An electricity. As her heart began to pound, it was all she could do to whisper.

“I should go home now.”

•   •   •

They drove back listening to the purr of the Ferrari’s engine. Maddy watched the view disappear as they descended. Jacks wore the expression of a man trying to work out a difficult puzzle and getting nowhere.

“Here,” he said, pulling out his iPhone, “I want you to have my number. Just . . . in case.”

Maddy took down his info and added it to her phone’s address book simply as Jacks. In silent amusement she stared at the screen. What Gwen wouldn’t do for this number. She slipped the phone back into her pocket as they pulled up outside the darkened diner. “I did have a good time,” Maddy said at last. “Thank you again.”

Jacks nodded and gave her a vague kind of smile. She got out, closing the door quietly behind her so as not to wake Uncle Kevin. She had turned to go when she heard the window rolling down.

“Maddy, wait.” She peered back in the car. Jackson hesitated, considering his words. Then he spoke. “I want to take you somewhere. Out. Tomorrow night.” His expression was strangely conflicted, but his tone intent.

“Tomorrow? I—I don’t know,” she stammered.

“You’re not afraid to fly, but you’re nervous to go out with me?” Even in the dark car, his eyes pierced her. “Come with me, Maddy. Please.”

The word was out of Maddy’s mouth before could stop it.

“Sure.” What? She hadn’t even
thought
the word before saying it.

“Great. I’ll pick you up,” he said.

“Wait, Jacks,” she said, panic rising in her stomach, but he was already rolling the window up. “No, wait. Jacks, I can’t!” she yelled, but her protest was lost in the throaty rumble of the Ferrari. In another moment, he was gone. Maddy just stood there letting the dawning anxiety overtake her. What had she just done?

She slid her key as quietly as she could into the lock. Thank goodness Kevin was a heavy sleeper. She went upstairs. Slipping off her jeans and hoodie once again, Maddy sank exhausted into her bed. She turned her head on the pillow and looked at the glowing Angel City sign on the hill.

Absolutely confused and awash with the tingling sensation that she was still flying, Maddy drifted away into sleep.

B
y the next morning Maddy had nearly convinced herself it had all been a dream. Not just the previous night, but the whole thing. Jackson Godspeed entering the diner. Coming into school. Flying. She sat up in bed and looked around the room. The window was shut and locked, as it had been the previous night, and her hoodie and jeans were still lying over the chair back right where she had left them before bed. She got up, grabbed her uniform off the floor, and fished a pair of shorts and a tank top from her dresser for school. Outside her window palm trees swayed in a hot autumn wind. It was going to be a beautiful day.

It wasn’t until halfway through the morning shift that Maddy had it proved she hadn’t dreamt the whole thing. Kevin switched on the TV, and there it was. A breaking story on ANN that even had Jamie Campbell frazzled. Wearing a pantsuit and the usual caked-on makeup, she announced,

“In an unprecedented development, we’re hearing unconfirmed reports that Jackson Godspeed was spotted flying over Angel City last night and that he wasn’t alone.”

Maddy froze where she was standing with a plate of pancakes in her hand. The room seemed to shrink as she listened.

“Rumors of a mystery girl have been spreading across the Internet like wildfire all morning, easily becoming the number-one trending topic on Twitter and the most common search on Google. But who is she? Where is she? If you’re watching right now, mystery girl, you might as well come forward. The entire world is looking for you.”

Maddy didn’t even realize the dish had slipped from between her fingers until she heard it smash on the linoleum. She gasped. Someone in one of the booths started clapping. Kevin came around from the counter and eyed her, concerned.

“What happened?”

“I’m sorry, Kevin. I just totally lost my balance.” His expression turned to frustration, but he said nothing, and returned to the kitchen. Maddy got down on her knees and began gathering up pieces of the syrupy, broken plate.
Mystery girl?

The TV continued squawking.
“Stay tuned for more on Jacks’s mysterious midnight flight that has tongues wagging worldwide.”

Maddy spent the rest of the shift in a sustained panic. She was so used to being invisible, she even
liked
being invisible most of the time. Could they really have been seen? Of course they could have, she thought. They had gone all over the city last night. Yet she had never planned on anyone finding out—Kevin especially—but really anyone at all. What did this mean for tonight? And how had she ever agreed to go out with Jacks again in the first place? She felt a wave of nausea in her stomach as she realized she had just invited the prying eyes of Angel City—and probably the entire world—into her quiet, uneventful life.

When she got to school, Gwen was nearly hyperventilating.

“OMG. Look!” she commanded as she showed Maddy the Johnny Vuitton blog on her Berry. It read in all caps:

“JACKS FLIES OVER CITY WITH MYSTERY GIRL!!!”

A fuzzy picture taken from a rooftop security camera accompanied the article. It showed an Angel, in flight, holding on to a girl in a hoodie. Maddy’s breath caught in her throat.

Gwen was ecstatic. “I know you don’t, like, really know or care about this stuff, but this is so huge!”

“Really?” Maddy asked, attempting to disguise her shock as mild curiosity. “What’s the big deal?” She squeezed a book into her locker and tried to look as unconcerned as possible.

“Two people, one pair of wings,” Gwen said scandalously.

“Meaning . . . ?”

“Meaning she might not even
be
an Angel.” Gwen rolled the words around on her tongue as if tasting it.

“Oh, um, interesting . . .” Maddy stammered.

“I know, right? I mean, a human and an Angel? Dating? Sure, there might be rumors every now and then, but never anything
actual
. This is, like, maybe the biggest moment of my entire life! That means I have a shot!”

“But they don’t know who the girl is?” Maddy asked, fishing as discreetly as possible. Gwen frowned.

“No. And of course, his publicist is denying everything, but can you believe this week? First Jackson Godspeed comes into your uncle’s diner, now he’s flying around with some girl . . .” Maddy could almost see Gwen’s train of thought connecting the dots and moved quickly to derail it.