Natural Born Angel (30 page)

L
inden had set a press conference for the evening of the day after Maddy’s save. The Angels were remaining quiet. No one knew what was going to happen, and a strange stillness hung across the city. Most of the day, Maddy stayed in her old room at Uncle Kevin’s, the last bastion of calmness in a world rocked by her unsanctioned save of someone who wasn’t a Protection.

Eventually Maddy decided to go out. She could at least go to her apartment and get some of her things to bring back to her uncle’s. She felt like staying at Kevin’s for a while for some reason. It just seemed more comfortable for her.

A small armada of paparazzi and supporters parted as Maddy drove into the parking garage of her apartment building off the Halo Strip. Some of the fans had signs that read “SAVE ME MADDY!” spurred by the dream that they too could be saved now without even being a Protection.

Maddy put on her biggest pair of sunglasses and just stared straight ahead as she pressed her way through the churning madness of photographers and fans.

Once she finally made it into her apartment, Maddy breathed a sigh of relief and put the keys down on the side table. She sat on the couch, its fine leather squishing underneath her as she sank into it.

Maddy’s eyes slowly scanned the luxury apartment, the designer furniture, the glossy black granite counter. Her gaze moved out of the window to the bird’s-eye view of thrumming Immortal City beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass. A grey marine layer still hung in the sky, sending a dim cast over the city. Her eyes passed to the open bedroom door, to the wardrobe door that wouldn’t close because of all her Angel clothes inside it. On the wall was a framed copy of her first magazine cover, for
Angels Weekly.
On the cover, Maddy looked confidently into the camera.
I’m here
, she seemed to say.
I have arrived
.

And for what? Her mind flashed back to the terrified eyes of Rosenberg’s assistant, Lauren. Her eyes as she thought she was about to die. And her automatic acceptance of how Maddy was just going to let her. The face of death. How could Maddy have been so blind? She had forgotten her own commitment. What had drawn her to Guardianship in the first place. It wasn’t Jackson’s fault. It was her own.

She suddenly felt very miserable indeed.

Maddy picked up her mobile phone and scrolled through the contacts.

He picked up on the second ring.

“Hello?”

“I didn’t know who else to call,” Maddy said, embarrassed, into the phone.

“I’ll be right over,” Tom said.

And he was. Twenty minutes later there was a knock at the door, and Tom was standing there.

“Hi,” Maddy said quietly.

“Hi,” Tom said. He lifted up a bag. “I came up through the back entrance. And I brought you some food. I hope you don’t mind Chinese. It was the only thing I saw on the way.”

Maddy realized with a shock that she hadn’t really eaten anything all day. Tom really was thoughtful. “Thanks,” she said. “I guess I should try to eat.”

“You’re not going to do anyone any good if you starve to death,” Tom said. He pulled a plate from the cupboard and scooped some vegetable noodles out of the takeaway containers. “The navy trained us to always make sure you’ve eaten. No matter what’s going on.”

Maddy took the plate of steaming food. She managed to take a bite or two before putting it to the side.

“I’m sorry about yesterday,” Maddy said miserably.

“No apologies,” Tom said. “Can we agree on that?”

“OK,” Maddy said. “No apologies.”

“He – I mean, Jacks – didn’t seem too happy,” Tom said. The pilot looked over at Maddy.

“No, he wasn’t,” she said. “It’s just so . . . complicated.” Maddy kept her eyes down. “The whole reason I became a Guardian was for an idea – the idea that those who
can
protect those who
can’t
protect themselves. Somehow along the way I forgot that.” She looked out on the darkening Angel City through the window. “And now everything is changing. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“Nobody can predict the future,” Tom said.

“He says it’s my fault.” Maddy glanced up, looking into Tom’s eyes.

“It’s not,” Tom said, suddenly upset. “Because Jacks can never see things the way you and I do. He doesn’t understand what it’s like. He doesn’t understand looking into your eyes and seeing the hurt, and the confusion, lurking behind . . . this beautiful, confident woman. He has no idea, he’s just an Angel.” Suddenly, like magnets drawn together, they were just inches away from each other. “I can see it, though.” She could almost feel his body heat radiating from his skin.

With a shock, Maddy suddenly realized her eyes were closing, and the heat of Tom’s breath was tickling her lips. And then his mouth was on hers. Without thinking, she pulled him in, closer, tighter, her lips pressing hard against his as she welcomed the kiss.

After a moment, they both drew back. Her breath was coming hard and shallow. She tried to look into his eyes, but in lifting her chin, her mouth brushed his, and then his lips were against hers again, and as much as she tried to stop it, she wanted it. Wrapped her arms around him and threw herself into the kiss. His fingers laced through the hair at the nape of her neck. It was all she could do to draw back. He must have felt the force of the kiss fading, and her lips withdrawing, because he suddenly withdrew too. Maddy knew she couldn’t be close to him any longer.

“We have to stop, please,” she breathed.

With the last of her self-control, she backed away until her back hit the far wall; then she slid down the wall to her knees. Stunned.

“I’m sorry,” he stammered, confused, “I didn’t know that was going to happen.” He looked around for his coat. “I should go.”

“No, don’t— ” Maddy stuttered. “I don’t know.” She sighed. “You don’t have to go.”

Maddy slowly gathered herself and returned to the couch. As if sleepwalking, Tom sat down on the couch as well.

“I – it’s not like I planned it or anything,” Tom said, his face slightly burning. “I respect you too much to do that.”

Maddy’s mind was whirl of confusion. It was as if everything had suddenly flipped upside down in an instant. Everything she felt and believed. That she could have been so attracted to Tom that they suddenly fell into each other’s arms.

It was like waking up in her home and suddenly discovering there was a whole other wing of it she’d never even known existed. And it’d been there the whole time. Maddy’s world swam before her eyes. Everything she thought true and real was now turned and distorted. But what was the truth?

There was something about Tom that felt real. Solid, tangible, in the glimmering, transient tempest of the Immortal City, where if you were famous, someone always seemed to want something from you, all the time, always. Where you couldn’t believe what you saw in front of you – it could simply be tricks of the camera. But the pilot next to her, she felt that he was
real
. She felt a connection to him, a kind that she hadn’t felt before – no, not even with Jacks. Like he truly understood what she had gone through. And she realized she’d been feeling this for a while. She just hadn’t realized it. And apparently he hadn’t either.

“Tom, when we first started training together, why did you say you had to help me?” Maddy asked. “That you owed something to Professor Archson?”

Tom took a breath in. “To Susan? I can’t . . . tell you, Maddy. Not now. It’s more than I can get into. I will tell you sometime, I promise.”

Maddy and Tom sat silently on the couch in the dark room, lit by the flickering blue of the TV in front of them. On screen, President Linden was about to give his press conference. As he neared the podium, he ran his right hand across the front of his suit jacket, smoothing it.

“Should we turn the volume up?” Tom asked.

The podium bore the new seal of the Global Angel Commission. Linden stood behind it, his lips moving but still muted. His hair was, as usual, perfect. The current sitting president of the United States stood behind him, off to the side, along with other global officials and their emissaries.

Maddy hit the button on the remote.

“It is under the gravest of situations that I speak to you tonight. Many of you may not have agreed with my viewpoints in the past, and many of you may not have even voted for me. But I hope that we can all put our differences aside and agree, as Americans, and global citizens, that something has to be done about the Angel question. The shocking footage of yesterday’s save by Guardian Madison Montgomery Godright confirms that abundantly. This save proves that the Angels’ insistence on high fees and Protection for Pay is just a ruse, that they in fact can save more than one person at a time, and around the globe thousands are dying unnecessarily due to greed and manipulation by the NAS. Although we know very little about the Angels’ methods or training, we have thought since President Grant’s time that the Angels could only save a certain number of people. Protection for Pay was supposed to allocate who got saved – not cruelly, without conscience, let others die.

“While once we thought that we were the recipients of a great good, we now know that we have been the targets of a much greater deception. It is now, with my powers as president of the Global Angel Commission and president-elect of the United States, that I lead us in this difficult time. In a joint session, what has been known as the Immortals Bill has passed both houses of Congress just moments ago. Simultaneously, across the globe, leaders of the GAC countries have put into effect their own versions of the bill. The Immortals Bill makes the supernatural acts of flying, strength and speed illegal, effective immediately.

“As of this moment, any Angel caught performing a supernatural act, regardless of purpose, will be subject to arrest and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law by federal marshalls, duly appointed local police officers, or members of the military. Flagrant offences may result in the loss of wings.

“Thank you, and God bless America.”

Without a further word, President Linden turned and walked away from the podium, flanked by his aides. The press room had erupted into a din of shouting and pandemonium on the part of the reporters.

The anchor back in the studio was in total shock, stuttering:
“I think, George, yes, I believe President Linden is done there. And I, uh, believe he just, well, he just
banned
Angel activities under his powers as world leader of the GAC. The Immortals Bill has been passed and signed. Is that what you heard? That’s what we got back in the studio.”

The black remote in Maddy’s hand turned the TV back to mute. She and Tom looked at each other, silently. The light from the TV still danced across their faces in the dark.

“You did a great thing when you saved that girl, Maddy. A hard thing, but a great thing.” Tom squeezed her hand tightly. But Maddy’s hands still felt cold. In fact, her whole body felt a chill as she watched the chaos on the Angel City news station unfold silently on the TV. She slowly pulled her hand away. Tom’s face flashed with disappointment.

“I’m sorry, I’m just confused,” Maddy said.

“I didn’t know, Maddy . . . what I felt for you,” Tom said. “But how could I have been so blind?”

Maddy leaned forward on the couch and hugged her knees with her arms, her mind roaring with thoughts of Tom, and Jacks, and of the passing of the Immortals Bill.

Angel City would never be the same again. Forces had been put into play that she could not have imagined a year ago. She had wanted to change things with the Angels, but she had never dreamed it would go this way. This would harm Jacks, Kris, Chloe.
Jacks
. Jacks, who now had his wings back. And now was banned from using them.

Jacks. A spasm of terrible guilt passed through her as she realized what had just happened between her and Tom. Her own swirling, shifting feelings cascaded inside of her.

Maddy got up and went to the window, looking out at glittering Angel City far below. A steady rain had begun pounding the streets outside, and the bright lights of the glorious playground of the Angels smeared through the wet window.

She knew the Archangels and the Council wouldn’t just sit back. They had too much to lose.

Maddy knew the Immortals would not just give in.

T
he next morning was bright and unbelievably clear, only the lightest white wisp of a cloud in the sky. The rain overnight had washed the Angel City streets clean and new and had drawn pollution out of the air, leaving the city feeling fresh. Maddy woke in her old bed at Uncle Kevin’s, looking out of the window. She had fallen asleep before drawing the blinds and was greeted by the Angel City sign, which used to meet her every morning.

Getting up out of bed, Maddy checked her phone: still nothing from Jacks. They hadn’t had contact in two days, since he left the diner after her illegal save. She realized with a pain that this was the longest they’d gone without talking since they’d met.

Maddy stayed downstairs all morning, curled up on the couch in an old sweatshirt, drinking tea and watching the developments on Kevin’s new TV. It kept her mind off Jacks. And Tom. There had been no official response from the NAS about the signing of the Immortals Bill, which seemed strange. The world was on the edge of its seat, waiting for a response from the Angels. The networks were still covering Maddy’s save, and there were many interviews with Lauren, the girl whose life she had saved.

“
She’s a real hero
,” Lauren said, tears in her eyes. “
She could’ve let me die like any other Angel would have, but she didn’t
.”

The footage cut to a reporter standing across the street from Uncle Kevin’s house. If Maddy had opened the curtains, she would have seen herself appear in the image.

The reporter spoke:
“And ‘hero’ Maddy Godright still keeping quiet, today, two days after her electrifying save of both her Protection, billionaire Jeffrey Rosenberg, and her unsanctioned save of Lauren Donnell.”

Footage showed Maddy, in sunglasses, driving her Audi into the parking garage at her apartment building. A thousand bulbs flashed as she drove slowly forward.

The reporter standing outside Uncle Kevin’s house continued.
“Sources say she’s keeping close to relatives and friends in this trying time, as we all wonder what will happen next.”

All of a sudden, the footage awkwardly cut from the reporter back to the studio.

On ANN, a snowy-bearded anchor in the studio seemed unprepared for this development. He shuffled papers in front of him and looked into the camera.

“We are, ahem, getting word that the Angels will be making a statement on President Linden’s ban of all Angel activities. In an unprecedented move, the Council themselves are said to be delivering a statement. It’s been forty years since the Council of Twelve has done anything public except for their annual endorsement of the nominees for Guardianship, or the very occasional appearance. And in the past twenty years, they’ve disappeared from the public eye almost entirely. And, yes, I’m getting word that we are getting a live feed right now via the NAS.”

The picture on screen cut to a close shot within the larger chapel that the Angels had been in during the footage from the Commissioning. Dark marble Ionic columns ran along each side, a shaft of light falling somewhere from the ceiling upon a stark podium that had been placed in the centre of the white marble floor. Instead of being seated, as the public was normally used to seeing them during Commissioning ceremonies, the Twelve were actually standing, as if to represent a united front. Their golden robes almost seemed connected in one glowing whole.

The graphic on the screen read:
LIVE – Council of Twelve Chapel.

The anchor back in the studio whispered:
“It seems the Council is in the newer chapel. And it looks like Gabriel is walking to the podium. Let’s listen in during what could be a historic moment for human- and Angelkind alike.”

One True Immortal stepped forward. It was, of course, Gabriel. He seemed even taller, more impressive than usual as he walked to the podium with the microphone. The Immortals behind him closed ranks, shoulder to shoulder, to fill the hole he left. Gabriel’s piercing eyes and sharp features, framed by his famous white hair, looked straight into the camera.

He began speaking.

“It is with true sadness that I have to stand here today. Unwarranted aggression, envy and spite have brought us to this point. For almost a hundred and fifty years we Angels have existed with humans in harmony, doing our divine duty: saving lives. Throughout, we have found a willing and reasonable partner in the United States government, which has always appreciated the invaluable services we provide.

“Recent developments have strained that bond to the breaking point. It is true that mistakes have been made. The deplorable behaviour of Archangel Churchson shocked us on the Council as much as it surely did you. And there is certainly room for . . . adjustments within the National Angel Services.

“But I am not lying when I say that this is not the way to help us reform. And we will not stand by as our divine rights are trampled upon by a newcomer president and his lackey Congress. We have been here far too long for that, I assure you.

“Thus it is with great reluctance, but also strong resolve, that I now say we will not allow any action to be taken against Angels. Retribution will be swift, effective and immediate. We are a united front of supernatural stature. Humans have yet to see an Angel at war, but if President Linden and his Global Angel Commission have their way, they shall see one soon enough.

“Thank you. And good afternoon.”

The almost empty bowl of granola and yoghurt Maddy was holding on her lap fell out of her hands. Her eyes were wide in total shock. The bowl rattled on the floor but didn’t break.

On screen, Gabriel stepped back into the shadows towards his fellow Council members as they nodded in assent, his skin nearly luminescent. The footage from the chapel began to fade to black.

The bearded anchor back in the studio was in disbelief as they cut back to him, his mouth hanging wide open.
“We’re back on. OK, we’re back on. And, yes, an official statement from Gabriel and the Council of Twelve. And it seems . . . it seems, folks, that Gabriel just threatened some kind of Angel . . .
military action
against the government if the international ban is enforced. Marcy, can we confirm that with the NAS? OK, yes, and you saw it here, Gabriel promising, quote, ‘swift, effective and immediate’ retribution.”

Maddy’s hand managed to find the remote and mute the TV.
An Angel war? What would that even look like?
Maddy asked herself.

Her iPhone buzzed on the table in front of her. Jacks was calling.

Maddy looked at the black vibrating phone like it was a snake about to bite her. Her mind raced immediately to what had happened with Tom the night before. After the second ring, she picked up.

Jackson’s voice was serious, urgent. “I need to see you.”

“OK.” She breathed the word out before she even knew it.

“Is there any way you can get out without being followed?”

Maddy peered through a crack in the brown curtains and saw the three-ring media circus still set up outside. “I don’t know, maybe. They’ll see my car.”

“Slip out on foot. Meet me just up the hill on Ivar Avenue in twenty minutes.”

Putting on an old pair of sweatpants and an even older hoodie, Maddy was able to walk straight out the front of the diner and sneak out the back of the car park between the bushes before anyone across the street noticed. Her pulse was beating harder and harder as she slipped on to a street parallel to Ivar and began walking a few blocks north, her sneakers crunching the fallen leaves underfoot.

Jacks’s voice had been urgent, distraught:
I need to see you.

What could he say?

Maddy didn’t even know where her feet were taking her, they just kept moving. But as her feet moved, one after the other, she felt somehow as if they were leading her to some kind of destiny. The residential street was quiet in the early afternoon, and she didn’t have too much trouble keeping herself unrecognized.

She reached the meeting point, slightly up the hill on the tree-lined street. She anxiously looked around, not seeing Jackson. Just a minute later, Jackson’s cherry red Ferrari squealed to a stop next to her.

“Get in,” Jacks said. Sunglasses hid his blue eyes as he opened the passenger door from the inside for her. Maddy got in the car and felt the six hundred horses roar under the engine as they peeled their way further up the street. After a little searching, Jacks found a dead end further up the hill and pulled to a stop. The engine died, and he stepped out of the car. Maddy soon followed.

Jacks stood there in a T-shirt and jeans, pacing back and forth at the end of the shabby road. It dead-ended to a guardrail, beyond which was grass and a gentle slope down to some houses below. No one was near. Jacks ripped the sunglasses off his face and looked at Maddy. Maddy had never seen his beautiful eyes set in such gaunt pain and anxiousness.

“You know the Council— ” Jacks started.

“I saw,” Maddy said sadly. “I saw Gabriel.”

“So then you know . . . war is inevitable.”

She looked at him uncertainly. “Does it have to be, Jacks?”

“Maddy, under the GAC ban, if you or I even
flew
right now, we could be taken by the police or military. Technically if we even had our
wings
out. Do you understand what that means? We can’t be Angels. This is about Angel rights.”

Jacks paced again, then stopped by Maddy’s side.

“I came here for one reason and one reason only. To get you. I cut a deal. For you, Maddy. So you could stay with us. I can guarantee your safety. Amnesty with the Angels. The unsanctioned save forgotten.”

Maddy was stunned. It took her a moment before she could find herself, but her response was sharp. “No one asked you to do that!”

“I knew you wouldn’t. So I had to do it myself, I. . .” Jacks trailed off, leaning forward and putting his hand on the guardrail. Maddy came closer to Jacks. His energy, which she always felt so clearly, and which was normally so calm to her, was abrupt, scattered. She reached a light hand towards his muscular shoulder to calm the pain.

He turned at her touch, and before they knew it they were kissing, his lips smashing against hers in the overwhelming moment. Jacks locked Maddy in his strong arms and she pulled up against him, running her hand behind his neck.

She pulled back. “No, Jacks, I. . .”

Jacks looked at her incredulously. “What’s wrong, Maddy?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” She ran the back of her hand across her lips. “Nothing’s wrong, Jacks. I just need to think. It’s hard to when we’re doing . . . that.”

“Maddy, I’m offering you a chance to be saved. To be safe with us. You have no idea what could happen,” Jackson said darkly. “This is your chance.”

She looked at the Angel she had loved for a year, his perfect features contorted with anguish as he looked down on her.

“A line has been drawn in the sand, Maddy. You belong on our side,” he said. “There have been problems, but we can fix them. Together, Maddy. The Council and the Archangels are willing to do that. But humans are greedy, impatient, jealous. You belong on the side of good. On the side of Angels.”

“But, Jacks . . . I don’t know what side I’m on,” Maddy said with doubt.

“Maddy, you swore to uphold the ideals of being a Guardian. You made an oath. Don’t forget that!”

“But am I really an Angel? Or just an ‘abomination’?”

She turned away, watching as a calico cat surreptitiously dashed across the empty street, its paws barely touching the asphalt.

Jacks walked towards Maddy, tiny pebbles crunching under his feet. He took her face in his hands. “Maddy, you are the best Angel I’ve ever seen. I watched the footage of your save. The skill there. There’s no doubt in my mind: you have more Angel skill than they could ever imagine.

“Don’t you see? Doesn’t the Angel in you see? We can bring Angels to a new era – there must be reforms. But you’re an Angel. They’ll turn against you, the humans. You’re too much of an Angel now.”

“How do you know you’re right, Jacks?” Maddy pulled away again, studying the grooves in the asphalt at her feet. “I finally realized what becoming a Guardian made me. What I had become. You tried to warn me, but I couldn’t hear you. The whole time I thought I was somehow keeping true to my purpose, but I was getting further away. And I would have let her die for a fashion line and the cover of
Angels Weekly
.” Maddy turned her face up to Jacks. It was a bitter mask of anger and regret.

“I don’t love you because you’re an Angel!” Jacks said. “I love you because you’re Maddy. But you
are
an Angel now. It’s no longer a choice. It’s a fact.”

He took Maddy’s hands in his, and she felt the jolt of electricity, the same she had felt the first night they met, in the back of the diner.

“What would I have to do?” Maddy asked.

“Come over to our side, in support of the Angels.” Jackson squeezed her hands in his. “I know it’s difficult, almost unthinkable. But you have to make a decision: do you stand with us or the mortals?”