In the darkness of her mind, she drifted. To that first night when Jacks came into the diner. Back to the night they went flying together, and how the city had looked reflected in his eyes. To the gym, and the way his lips had felt against hers. Looking down, she realized she was floating over the rooftop now. It was quiet up here. Peaceful.
She could see her body and the dark pool growing underneath her. The police were everywhere now. She watched with detached curiosity as they pulled Ethan up and took him away. Angels began landing on the roof. She saw Mitch, wearing the black armor of the ADC, an ancient broadsword flashing in his hands. Maddy also recognized a couple other Angels as they landed, sheathing their swords. The demon must have fled.
Then she saw Jacks. He was yelling something as he knelt over her body. On his back was a bleeding, bloody stump. She saw him take her in his arms and hold her. He was calling her name over and over. I’m up here, she tried to say, but he didn’t seem to hear her. He shook her body again and again. The drone of a helicopter filled her ears, and suddenly, she felt herself being pulled back. Steadily, painfully, pulled back down toward the roof.
Her eyes opened. Jacks was holding her. A spotlight shone down on them from a chopper hovering above.
Maddy squinted up at Jacks in the glare of the spotlight.
“Just hang on, they’re coming for you right now,” he said. She watched his eyes dart helplessly over her body.
“They’re going to fix you, Maddy!”
She moved her lips. “I’m sorry for what I said. . at the station. I’m sorry for being so impossible all the time.
Can you. . forgive me?”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Jacks said urgently. “This is all my fault. If I had never convinced you to leave with me. If I had never kept bothering you. If I had never gone into your uncle’s diner.” He trailed off, his throat closing. Maddy shook her head. The pain drilled through her.
“I’m glad you did.”
The darkness took her again. She was dancing with him at the party now. Maddy couldn’t even feel her feet moving over the floor. She didn’t know how long she danced with him. It could have been minutes or only a few seconds.
When she opened her eyes and found Jacks again, he was looking at her with terror-stricken eyes.
“Don’t do that,” he said. “Stay with me.”
“I’ll try,” she said. Her response was barely more than a whisper.
“Tell me how to help you, Maddy,” he said desperately. “What can I do?”
“Hold my hand.”
She felt his fingers lace into hers. Her hand was sticky against his. His hand was trembling. He leaned on one elbow. His strength was leaving him. Maddy felt the darkness coming for her again, and this time, she was sure, she would not be back. It was almost impossible to move her lips.
When the words came out, they were slurred.
“Promise me something,” she said.
“Anything.”
“Be the best Guardian you can be. Save lots of people.
And every time you save someone, think of me.”
“No, don’t you dare say that. We’re together now; everything is going to be okay.” He looked across the roof with agonized eyes. “I can see them coming. They’re coming for you right now, Maddy.”
Maddy realized there was no pain anymore. It was becoming peaceful again. “Jacks,” she said, “I think I have to go now.”
“Please. Don’t leave me, Maddy.” He was begging.
“It’s okay,” she said. “It really is. Do you remember my pretend memory?”
“The park,” Jacks said.
“I can see it. I’m looking at it now. I can see my parents; they’re beautiful, Jacks. I think I’m going there now.
And if I’m lucky, they’ll let me stay with them. Forever.”
Tears spilled over Jacks’s eyes. “I’ll wait for you, Jacks,”
Maddy whispered. “I’ll be waiting for you there.”
Her eyes closed. She felt Jacks’s hands reach down and unclasp something from around her neck. Then she felt the cold, hard weight of a ring on her finger.
“You are my Guardian Angel, Maddy,” a voice said, but it was far away from her.
Everything was far away now. She tried to smile, but her body was no longer obeying her commands. It was all happening so fast. Then the darkness came and took her.
Jacks collapsed next to Maddy. They lay there, side by side on the cold rooftop. The paramedics descended on them. Maddy was no longer breathing, but Jacks thought she could still see him. A medic unclasped their hands.
He watched as they shocked her again and again. If he could’ve talked, he would have begged them to stop. But he couldn’t. The strength had gone out of him. He watched Maddy’s eyes empty of life, but she still lay there looking at him, somehow seeing him. She seemed happy to be with her Angel, finally at peace.
“Call it,” he heard one of the paramedics say. Then they stopped shocking her and, finally, let her be.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Beep. Beep. The sound at first was distant, then came closer. It grew clearer. Beep.
Jacks faintly moaned. The sound of his own voice seemed strange. He tried to swallow, but his tongue felt numb and paralyzed. Struggling to open his eyes, he made out a gauzy shape to his left. He was lying on his side. Then his eyes closed shut, the effort too much. He groaned slightly again. Consciousness began slipping away.
“Jacks? Can you hear me?” a voice said. Beep. Beep.
Jacks made another effort to open his eyes and was more successful this time. He saw a white curtain and gray, blinking machines. The blur took shape as he focused. It was his mother, Kris. She moved in and out of focus. He felt her take hold of his hand.
“Hi, darling,” she said.
As if from an electric shock, Jacks jolted up, reaching for his back in an attempt to push away Ethan’s plunging knife. His mind swirled in panic. It took Kris and three nurses to restrain him, ultimately getting him to lie down on his side again. Jacks reached back and touched the place where the knife had severed the wing. Instead of an Immortal Mark, he now felt only a mass of destroyed flesh and bandages. He lay there trembling as the awful memories returned to him. The demon. That boy Ethan. And Maddy’s glassy, lifeless eyes.
“Maddy,” Jacks whispered.
“Rest, Jacks,” Kris said and squeezed his hand. Moving his head as best he could, he realized he was in a hospital bed. The room was clean and impossibly white.
“You were. . hurt,” Kris said. “The doctors were worried. But everything’s going to be okay. You’re going to be fine. They’ve performed emergency surgery on your wing.”
Jacks looked at his body. He was covered in bandages.
He forced air in and out of his nostrils, trying to keep consciousness, trying to keep the one thing at the top of his mind from overwhelming him. The girl who had died in his arms.
“That boy,” Kris said.
“I know,” Jacks rasped.
“He was troubled. It seems his father died in an accident in which a Protection was saved. He used the father’s life insurance money to travel the world in search of. .
revenge.”
“The Dark Angel,” Jacks said.
Kris nodded.
“It appears his mother didn’t even live with him. She had been institutionalized ever since her son’s return. When she saw what he became.”