Natural Born Angel (4 page)

And as his mind drifted over these things, he was shocked to realize that a tiny, bitter part of him was the slightest bit . . . envious. Jealous of all the cool things Maddy was going to be doing. Things that he could no longer do with his wings a mangled shadow of their former selves. A phantom pang streaked across his back.

Shaking his head, Jacks chased the thought from his mind. How could he think something like that, even just for a second? Maddy was becoming a Guardian, she was staying in Angel City, and he was nothing but happy, for her and for them.

He couldn’t believe any other thought had even crossed his mind.

J
ust minutes after giving Mark Godspeed and the National Angel Services the news that she wanted to be a Guardian, Maddy’s iPhone, last year’s birthday gift from Jacks, vibrated. She saw that it was an email from [email protected] – Mark’s assistant. The email detailed her schedule for the next week, day by day, hour by hour. Jacks, nuzzling her neck, looked over her shoulder. Headquartered in Angel City, the NAS, as the National Angel Services was usually called, had been formed after the Great Awakening to oversee and administer Guardians and Protection for Pay. They’d been doing it for almost a hundred and fifty years. And now they’d be overseeing Maddy.

Before Maddy had even had a chance to digest a third of the email, her phone began ringing. The caller ID read “
DARCY
”.

Maddy gulped. Darcy, Jacks’s long-time publicist, was also technically working for Maddy, too, although Maddy had turned down all media and appearance requests as she finished out her final year of high school (which had never ceased to both shock and horrify Darcy). The woman was a legend in Angel City – she never took no for an answer and always managed to get her clients the best magazine covers and land them at the top of the Angel Power rankings.

“Hello. . . ?” Maddy said uncertainly into the phone.

Darcy’s voice was clipped and excited. “Heard the news. So glad you’ve finally come to your senses. Luckily my guy at the
Today Show
is still interested, because we can do much better than cable for your first big interview. Remember this isn’t public yet, but don’t be too coy. Also, I’ve already got a call in to
American Protection,
and your fitting for the annual Angel issue of
Teen Vogue
is next week. If you’re feeling a little bit bloated, I hope you follow that raw cleanse I emailed you over the summer. Buckle your seat belt. We have a lot of work to do.”

Maddy just stood there, stunned, not even knowing where to start. “
Raw?
” she managed to sputter into the phone.

“This is NBC. Gotta go,” Darcy said, distracted. “Talk later.”

“But— ” Before Maddy could even get out a word of protest, Darcy had already hung up. Maddy held her iPhone out in front of her as if it were a snake about to bite, her eyes wide. She looked at Jacks.

He just laughed. “Welcome to the life of an Angel,” he said.

The next few days for Maddy were a blur of non-stop phone calls and meetings with Darcy and a series of assistants to the Archangels. And now Maddy found herself riding in Jacks’s Ferrari as it turned off Beverly towards the sleek and gleaming building that held the offices of the NAS and its board, the Archangels.

Maddy had never actually been to the offices before. The structure was much more impressive in person than in the photos she’d seen. It seemed futuristic and beyond modern, and she remembered reading that it had taken its Japanese architect ten years to fully complete. The dark glass monolith loomed above them.

“I can’t believe we’re going in
there
,” Maddy said, motioning to the building nervously. She remembered that night not so long ago when Jacks had taken her to her first “event”. She’d been sitting in the same seat in the same car. Now she was having that same sinking feeling as Jacks pulled off the street.

Jacks squeezed her hand.

“Don’t worry, you’re going to do great. Remember: no one starts out ready to be a Guardian. They’ll train you for two, three years before even thinking about nominating you. Just be you and you’ll do perfectly. You don’t need to know any right answers.”

On their way in, they passed a clutch of paparazzi standing on the pavement: “What’s going on, Maddy?! Jacks, what’s going on?!” They turned their heads away from the windows and kept driving, entering the underground parking garage. Maddy peered up at the imposing glass walls of the structure as they were swallowed up and surrounded by it. She wasn’t so sure about how great she was, in fact, going to do.

She knew what she
wanted
to talk to the Archangels about: the idea she had for a charity programme for the disadvantaged who couldn’t afford Guardians and who weren’t one of the lucky few to win protection via lottery. This proposal would of course face some spirited debate, she imagined. Her idea was to get this front and centre in her Guardianship, even during her introduction and training. But now, faced with the monumental architecture, she was starting to think she would have to do her best just to survive the encounter.

This was just a formality, Jacks had assured her. A time for Maddy to meet the Archangels and go through a brief pre-training interview process.

The valet snapped to attention as soon as he saw Jacks’s Ferrari.

“Hello, Mr Godspeed, Ms Godright,” he said. Maddy raised an eyebrow – she’d never been called by her father’s last name before. “They’re waiting for you upstairs.”

Jacks and Maddy entered the elevator. It dinged as the door closed and rapidly ascended towards the main NAS floor. Maddy’s stomach lurched. Jacks smiled his warm, angelic smile at her and took her hand in his. She felt briefly comforted.

The elevator dinged again, and the doors slid open noiselessly on to the waiting area. Sleek modernist Italian leather sofas offered Protections and other guests a place to sit while waiting for their meeting with the Immortals. An entire wall of flat-screen TVs played the latest, greatest footage from the Angelcams. Angelcams had quickly become one of the most popular additions to the Angel industry ever, and the technology had already made huge strides in the year since they’d been introduced. All Angelcams now beamed HD-quality footage directly to the NAS TV team, which then provided it to the networks and posted it on SaveTube, where millions of ravenous fans waited to see the next save and who the new famous Protection would be.

The beautiful blonde human girl at reception greeted Jackson and Maddy as soon as they stepped off the elevator. She looked like she could be a model in her free time – but her beauty still somehow wasn’t on the level of the Immortals.

“Just a moment,” she said, smiling, then speaking under her breath into her headpiece. When Jacks looked away for a moment, Maddy saw the girl give her the up-and-down. Maddy gave her a look
.

Within seconds the frosted glass doors that led to the offices opened up. Mark’s assistant greeted them, speaking faster than Maddy thought humanly possible, barely pausing even to breathe as they walked at a fast clip past the rows of assistants sitting at their desks outside the Archangels’ offices.

“Jacks-so-good-to-see-you,” he said, shaking Jackson’s hand. Then, with a big smile, “Maddy-I’m-Max-good-to-
finally
-meet-you-in-person-they’re-all-waiting-for-you-in-the-conference-room-do-you-want-anything-we’ve-got-waters-and-coffee-in-there-already.”

“Um,” Maddy said. “Water’s fine?”

“Great!”

Jackson started peeling off. “Hey, Max, I’ll just wait in Mark’s office, cool?”

“Already-have-the-game-on-in-there-for-you,” Max said. “Need-anything-let-Claire-know.” Jacks had described the workings of Mark’s office to Maddy to prepare her, and she remembered that Claire was Mark’s second assistant, who never seemed to leave the desk directly outside his office. Jacks had joked that he’d never even actually witnessed her leaving for so much as a bathroom break.

Maddy looked desperately at Jacks as he turned away from the conference room.

“
Don’t leave me
,” she silently mouthed to him.

“I have to. This is as far as I can go,” Jackson said sympathetically. “Remember: you’ll be great.” He disappeared down the hallway towards Mark’s massive corner office, leaving Maddy at the mercy of Max.

“Ready?” Max smiled at her, placing his hand on the steel handle of the opaque glass doors to the conference room.

Maddy took a deep breath and nodded.

The doors opened, and Maddy was met by the gaze of over a dozen Angels, mostly men, all in expensive tailored suits. The view, through a wall of tempered glass, looked out on to Beverly Hills and Angel City beyond. The Archangels were arrayed around a long, gleaming, dark wooden table. All waiting for her. The effect of all these flawless Immortals turning their eyes on her was overwhelming. Maddy felt her legs start to fail, but she just kept moving forward, aided by Max. Maddy recognized Mark among the unfamiliar faces. He secreted her an encouraging grin, and then his face flashed back to serious. An older Archangel near her stood up.

“Our newest star,” he said, flashing a million-dollar smile at her. The Archangel reached forward to shake her hand. “We can’t tell you how glad we are to see you here today.”

Most of the heads in the room nodded in assent, but Maddy also could see a couple more serious faces among the ranks of the Archangels that didn’t nod so quickly. Or even at all.

“Please, take a seat,” the Archangel said, motioning to the chair at the head of the table.

“OK, uh, thanks,” Maddy said, wishing now more than ever that she had her grey hoodie and iPod earbuds to hide behind.
OK, uh, thanks??
Could she have sounded any lamer? Why had she ever agreed to any of this? She was starting to bitterly regret her choice. Pure adrenaline filled her veins as she settled in her chair and looked at the prestigious Archangels, the leading lights of the Immortal City, each one famous worldwide, all waiting to hear from
her
.

“Here’s-your-water-Maddy-would-you-like-lime?” Max rapidly spat out, filling a glass with ice and pouring Perrier in, finishing it with a lime wedge without waiting for her response.

Another Archangel spoke up.

“Madison, my name is Archangel Uriah Steeple. We’ve asked you here today just to speak with you during the preliminary phase, before your training. As we all know, your preparation for the life of a Guardian has been less than standard.”

“That much is undisputed,” an Archangel with a goatee near the end of the table stated. Maddy thought she recognized him from photos as Archangel Charles Churchson, uncle to Steven and Sierra Churchson, who had been Commissioned with Jacks the year before.

The others glared at him.

Archangel Steeple continued undeterred. “But after consulting many of our experts, and conducting some, ahem, tests, there is reason to believe that you may have developed your abilities without even knowing it.”

Tests?
Maddy thought to herself.
How could they have conducted tests?

“In fact, there has been some speculation in the Angel medical community that you might even be able to develop
unique
features due to your mixed genetic code. Of course, these genes might not express themselves right away. In the same way that you’re still waiting for your wings to come out, much of this will have to be a wait-and-see game.”

Maddy thought of her recurring nightmare, in which her “wings” turned out to be little more than grotesque, bloody appendages, flopping around uselessly.

“Mark – I mean, Archangel Godspeed,” Maddy said, “should have been the first to tell you that I’m uncertain of my own Immortal abilities— ”

“But many of us aren’t,” one of the two female Archangels interrupted. Her hair was a dark lustrous brown, and her voice was rich and warm as she trained her gaze on Maddy. “We are, in fact, certain of what you are. Of what you can become.”

Archangel Steeple took over again: “You see, with the growing strength of the preposterous, racist anti-Angel movement around Senator Linden, and the way he and his flacks plan to introduce into Congress this dangerous ‘Immortals Bill’, which could threaten to ban Angel activities entirely, we’re quite concerned. Plus, we don’t even know what the Humanity Defence Faction will do next. Those wing-nut HDF activists are constantly persecuting us, led by that crackpot William Beauborg, who won’t rest until he sees us destroyed. So after all the backlash we received following last year’s demon attack, who better to help us launch the new, friendlier face of Angels than the half-human, half-Angel herself? It’s you, Maddy.”

The dark-haired woman Archangel spoke again: “The fact that your actual background to become a Guardian is not the norm, and some might even say
less than
ideal
, is beside the point, as we think you can quickly adopt the skills necessary to Guardianship.”

A snort of derision erupted down the table. It was the goateed Archangel again, Charles Churchson. “‘Less than ideal.’ That’s an understatement, Susan. What we need is a
strong
response to the racist humans and this proposed ‘Immortals Bill’, fringe as it may be. Senator Linden and his allies are proposing they extend the bill not only here in Angel City and the United States, but across the globe. We need to limit access to Guardian services until humans understand what we Angels really are capable of, and how much we’re worth. Launching some kind of
half
-baked Guardian won’t bring us anything.”

“Charles, we agreed you’d keep your minority opinions to yourself during this meeting,” Mark stated, anger edging his voice.