Chapter thirteen

M addy sat up suddenly in the darkness. The dream she’d

been having was so vivid, but now it faded from her mind.

Something about an accident on Angel Boulevard. The more

she tried to hold on to it, the more distant it became. After a

few moments she couldn’t remember any details at all. The

only thing that stayed with her was a feeling—the undeniable

feeling of being watched.

She let her eyes adjust to the darkness of the room.

Something was different, but what was it? Her gaze moved

around the four walls that, since infancy, had been her entire

world. The nightstand with her old retainer case. The

jewelry box Gwen gave her. The small wooden desk Uncle

Kevin bought for her at the flea market, now overcrowded

with textbooks and financial aid paperwork. There were

even a few tween posters on the wall that she hadn’t found

the time to take down. It occurred to Maddy that adulthood

had been forced abruptly and unwillingly on the little room,

and it was doing its best to hang on to the last vestiges of

her fading childhood.

A draft caused Maddy to pull the covers tightly

around her. That was what had woken her. The window had

been closed when she went to sleep.

And now, it was open.

Her eyes darted to the window and, in a breathless,

panicked moment, took in the sight of a dark figure

crouched on the sill. The letters of the Angel City sign

spread out from his shoulders.

“You sleep like an Angel,” Jacks said. The shock of his

words in the dark room sent Maddy’s stomach leaping into

her throat. She didn’t even realize she had screamed until it

came out of her mouth.

“Don’t be frightened,” Jacks said, sounding worried.

“It’s just me. I’m sorry, I so didn’t mean for that to sound

creepy. Let me start over.”

“I’m not frightened,” Maddy gasped. “I mean, I was, I

mean, you scared me to death.” Maddy made a conscious effort

to slow her breathing and let the knee-jerk fear bleed

189/587

out of her. Gaining her bearings, she trained a flinty eye on

Jacks.

“What are you doing?”

“Can I come in?”

“No,” Maddy said curtly, “you may not come in.” She

sat all the way up in bed and drew her knees into her chest.

Cool night air rushed under the covers and around her legs

like seawater. Wearing only her old shirt and underwear,

Maddy began to shiver.

“I wanted to talk to you,” Jacks said.

“I don’t understand what was unclear about what I

said at school,” Maddy said coldly, “but I want you to leave

me alone. I’m not part of your world, and I really don’t care

to be.” She paused, waiting for Jacks to jump in with

something argumentative or clever, or maybe even with another

apology. Instead he simply sat there in his suit and Vneck,

listening. The silence lengthened. When Maddy spoke

again, her voice was softer.

“Look, I’m sure there are plenty of girls who would

kill to have you sitting at their window tonight.” She paused,

thinking of Gwen. “But I’m not one of them. If you’re still

190/587

trying to apologize, then fine, you’ve apologized. Now you

should just go home.”

“You’re right,” Jacks said. “You’re not part of my

world. You’re not one of those girls. And maybe that’s why.”

“Why what?”

“Why I can’t stop thinking about you.”

Maddy rolled her eyes. “Guys like you don’t say that to

girls like me.”

“I’ve never said that to anyone, actually,” Jacks corrected.

“In fact, I’ve never done anything like this before.”

He let out a little laugh. “How am I doing?”

He swallowed hard, trying to push down his nervousness.

He was astonished to realize he was nervous. Somehow

being around Maddy just put him in a different space.

Jacks felt so present.

Maddy stared at him, letting the anger and frustration

surge through her.

“Why are you doing this to me?” she asked finally.

He paused, considering.

“I’m being honest. I know you may not believe me.

But I haven’t been able to not think about you. When we

were in the back at the restaurant, and...” Jacks’s voice

191/587

trailed off, his face coloring. “I still feel terrible about what I

did. I lied to you and, even though I had good reasons for it,

it was wrong of me.”

Maddy studied him. Was he telling the truth?

Jacks smiled. “I mean this in the best possible way:

I’m not going to leave you alone until you let me make it up

to you. I’m serious. I’ll be here every night. You might as

well get me some pajamas and a toothbrush.”

Despite her best efforts not to, Maddy laughed. She

looked at Jacks and could see the faintest twinkle of light in

his eyes.

“So what you’re saying is that I should just give in and

let you make it up to me. Otherwise you’ll be tormenting me

like this for the rest of my life?”

“Pretty much. Yeah.”

“Well.” She sighed. “What do you have in mind?”

“Come fly with me.”

“Fly? I can’t fl—I mean, I can’t go anywhere with you

right now, anyway.” Jacks sat utterly still, framed by the letters

of ANGEL CITY on the hill. “It’s totally out of the question,”

she protested. “Besides, I have to work the morning

shift tomorrow and my uncle would kill me.”

192/587

The Angel remained silent.

“Plus school,” she added, her brow knitted. She could

tell by his silhouette that he had folded his arms.

“Maddy, it doesn’t matter if you can’t stand me. Just

do it to do something. To make the night yours.”

“What?”

“To live, Maddy.”

“I’m living just fine, thank you very much,” she said,

haughty.

“Really? By working the morning shift?” He softened.

“Maddy, you have the rest of your life to work the morning

shift. I’m asking you to come fly with me tonight.”

Maddy opened her mouth to say something, then

closed it. He was unbelievable. Still, she was surprised to

realize her pulse had quickened, and she could feel her heart

beginning to pound in her chest.

“I have applications, too,” she tried feebly.

“Stop making excuses.” Jacks grinned. Maddy eyed

her jeans and gray hoodie folded over the desk chair.

“I’m still mad at you,” she said.

“Understood.”

193/587

“And you’re not forgiven for what happened at the

diner or how you lied to me.”

Jacks nodded. “It’s a deal. I’ll meet you downstairs.”

Jacks reached into his pocket and pressed something. A car

alarm chirped in the driveway, cutting up through the night

air.

“I thought we were flying?” Maddy asked, confused.

“Yeah,” Jacks said, pulling out his Ferrari keys and

jingling them. “Flying.”

• • •

The Ferrari roared as Jacks expertly shifted, hugging the

turns of Mulholland Drive. The car rose quickly and effortlessly

into the Hills. Maddy had promised herself that she

would not enjoy this. In fact, she had had an idea to pout

the whole time. That would show him that he hadn’t won.

But with the warm leather seat vibrating against her legs

and the wind in her hair, Maddy felt the thrill of the moment

sifting through her defenses like fine sand.

Jacks navigated a hairpin turn. She shrieked with surprise

and held on to the door handle. Jacks looked over and

194/587

smiled. Ahead, the lights of the Los Angeles Basin beckoned.

The most amazing thing, Maddy thought, was that Angel

City looked different from inside the Ferrari. It really did. It

felt different too. Even smelled different. It wasn’t the rundown,

dirty city she knew. It was beautiful.

“I like to come up here at night after everyone has

gone to sleep,” Jacks said. The car rounded another turn.

“Up here it feels like you’re alone, you know? Away from all

the bother. Like the whole city belongs to just you.”

“The whole city does belong to you,” Maddy said,

looking at Jacks. “It’s a little different for the rest of us.”

“Well, you know what I mean,” he said.

“And what’s the bother? All the little people getting in

your way all the time?”

Jacks’s eyes roamed over her face. “Look, you seem to

think I live this charmed existence. And I guess in some

ways I do. But the truth is, I have to go through a lot of the

same things you do. I have pressure on me. I have expectations.

And I’m not perfect. I struggle.”

“Yeah, right,” Maddy groaned, her tone rebellious.

“The kid in the hundred-thousand-dollar sports car is

telling me about struggle.”

195/587

“I’m just trying to say we have more in common than

you might think.”

“You don’t know the first thing about me!” Maddy exclaimed.

Jacks downshifted hard, the gears grinding in

protest. His blue eyes flashed.

“Why won’t you give me a chance, Maddy?”

“Because,” she nearly yelled, “you think you just get to

have anything you want, don’t you? You want something,

it’s yours. That’s the way life works for you. Well, that’s not

how it works for me, so it’s not how it’s going to work with

me. I don’t fall for the money and the charm and the car. It

takes a lot more than that.”

Jacks nodded, suddenly thoughtful. He flipped on the

car’s turn signal.

“Okay, let’s ditch the car.”

He pulled the Ferrari onto a gravel turnout next to an

overlook and killed the engine. “Will you be warm enough?”

he asked. Maddy looked out to the bench framed against the

twinkling cityscape.

“I think so.”

The wooden bench was cracked and worn smooth, yet

was surprisingly comfortable as they sat. Just beyond their

196/587

feet, the earth sloped down gently at first, then dropped off

dramatically into a deep canyon. Cut into the hillside like

temples, the Angel houses glowed in the night. Jacks took

his jacket and draped it around Maddy’s slender frame.

“Thanks,” she said. No one had ever put a jacket

around her before.

Jacks’s presence inside the jacket was almost overwhelming.

His smell was intoxicating. Maddy took a deep

breath, steadying herself. Silence overtook them as they

looked at the city together. A cricket chirped nearby,

stopped, then started again. Jacks spoke.

“You said I wasn’t forgiven for lying to you. Well, it

wasn’t all a lie.” He paused. “I was only two... when my

father...” He trailed off.

Maddy chose her words carefully. “I thought Angels

couldn’t die.”

“True Immortals can’t, but there are only twelve of

them. Born Immortals can be... made mortal. ” Jacks

traced a circle in the dirt with the toe of his shoe. He stared

at it, thinking for a split second of the policeman’s visit to

his house and the mutilated wings that had been found on

the boulevard. “I don’t even really know what my dad

197/587

looked like, aside from a few old pictures. He died fighting

the rebel terrorists.” Jacks looked away, his blue eyes reflecting

the lights of the city.

Maddy raised an eyebrow—that’s something they definitely

hadn’t covered in Angel History. But there were a lot

of things the Angels kept to themselves.

“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.

198/587

“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?”

199/587

“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,

200/587

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.

201/587

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

202/587

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?”

203/587

“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.

204/587

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.”

205/587

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.

206/587

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14