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In the distance, a huge explosion of concrete and flame rocked the edge of downtown as a demon touched down on a freeway, pulverizing a large stretch into ash and fire instantly. As Maddy looked out across as much of Angel City as her front lawn perch would allow, it seemed to her that the demons weren’t flying
straight. It was just as Kevin had said—it looked like they were following the freeways.
BOOM.
Before she had a chance to think for even a microsecond longer, an enormous explosion erupted just blocks away, rocking the very ground Maddy stood on. The shock waves from the blast rippled through her body.
Gasping and stunned, Maddy sprinted into the middle of the street. Out toward the Walk of Angels, a snarled cloud of flame and smoke crept toward the skies above rooftops and palm trees. Car alarms blared all across the city, and emergency sirens began to wail.
Overhead, a sudden streak of black fire and flame passed, followed by the deafening roar of two F-16s, which appeared to be trying to get in position to fire on the Dark Angel. Something in Maddy’s subconscious told her to duck, even though the jets were hundreds of feet in the air. They launched missiles as the beast passed over the hill, and soon the whole group disappeared over the ridge toward the Valley.
Still more demons appeared in the far-off sky, and the air raid siren began singing its howling song again. There was already a smattering of fires all across the city.
Chaos. Pure, hellish chaos.
Maddy dizzied under waves of panicked frequencies running through the city all at once. Using her every ounce of effort, she tried to isolate them, just like Susan had taught her in class. But it was too much. And there were too many. How would she be able to—
Suddenly, a vision. Maddy braced herself under the impact of grisly imagery and human misery. It was close. The young woman was close. There was still time before she was lost.
With a holler, Maddy leaned forward. Her wings rocketed out of her back faster than they ever had, creating a huge whoosh and ripping two surprisingly clean holes in the back of her shirt. Before they’d even reached their full span, Maddy took two big pumps and began rocketing west, soaring over buildings and swaying palms. In only a handful of seconds, Maddy shot north, skimming over the 101 freeway in the Cahuenga Pass up into the Angel City Hills, which was lined with lush trees on both sides. The freeway was almost empty, except for a few cars that had used the chaos to evade the checkpoints and were frantically fleeing the city.
Clenching her jaw, Maddy streamlined herself as much as she could and tried to put on speed. She had only seconds. Any miscalculation would be fatal.
In her peripheral vision she saw it: the Dark Angel. Careening toward the exact spot she was zeroed in on, streams of dark smoke pouring off its back as it flew at top speed.
Maddy dropped toward the freeway with a final burst of energy. Below, the concrete and painted white lines blurred with the speed.
Then, in one horrible, single instant, the demon tucked itself into a ball with nonchalant flexibility and violently smashed down to the freeway, just to the left of Maddy, who had almost reached the road. She had nearly gotten to her target—a young woman on a Vespa riding on the access road right next to the freeway who would never have known what hit her if it hadn’t been for Maddy. At the exact moment the demon touched down, the middle of the freeway exploded in a fury of concrete and flame, and Maddy used everything she had to concentrate on one point and one point only.
And she screamed.
Suddenly everything—the flames and concrete and demon and girl and Vespa and smoke—froze. The demon was still wreaking havoc on the freeway, halfway into making a gigantic crater, but it was frozen there, in all its evilness, its limbs curled up against its body like a cannonball, flames leaping off its back in one cold, solid fan. The lethal slabs of concrete and countless particles of dust that had just shot up from the freeway were now suspended in midair.
Maddy had frozen time. Though it had been infinitely more difficult than the first time, when she’d made a save with the jet and Jeffrey Rosenberg over the Pacific. But now, to her astonishment, she could feel that the Dark Angel was somehow battling her effort. She tried to ignore it and zeroed in on the save.
Hurtling right toward Vespa Girl was a huge Volkswagen-sized chunk of concrete. The tendrils of the girl’s brunette hair were flying back from under her helmet and frozen in position. A strange look of unknown fear was frozen on her face, but experience told Maddy that the girl’s inner survival instincts were telling her something was wrong. Still, she had no clue she was about to be crushed to death.
Maddy calculated. She would have a second, maybe one and a half, to make the save before the time freeze spun out of her control.
With every milligram of concentration she had, Maddy shot down as the time freeze began to collapse in on itself. The Dark Angel fought strongly against her power, but with a final push, just as time was about to tick back on and the concrete mass was starting to budge from its hold, Maddy violently scooped the girl off the back of the Vespa.
She put everything she had into pulling the girl up, but she wasn’t quite fast enough to totally get away.
The concrete hurled itself sideways, catching the back of Maddy’s left Converse sneaker as she flew up with the girl in her arms, and smashed the Vespa into a thousand pieces of Italian metal and plastic. The slight impact to her foot sent Maddy spinning as she flew, and she tried to shield the girl as they whirled in the air and tumbled to the ground in a heap.
Maddy tried to cover both herself and the girl with her wings as a shower of dust and fine bits of concrete from the impact cascaded down upon them. Flames shot above the crater, sending a car veering across the freeway to avoid debris until it hit the median, tipped to its side, and slid about a hundred feet.
Vespa Girl started hyperventilating and struggling in Maddy’s grasp; she still had no idea what just happened.
“Shh. Calm down! Calm down!” Maddy gasped, trying to catch her breath as well amid the cloud of dust. “It’s okay. I’m an Angel. I just saved you. You’re going to be fine.”
As she said it, Maddy had to wonder: Are they actually going to be fine?
With a sinking feeling, she heard the demon’s raspy, ragged breathing. Maddy looked out from under her wing and saw the thing climb out of the pit it had just made. It had been a while since she’d seen one of them this up close and personal, and it was more soul-shattering than she remembered. The Dark Angel’s very shape seemed to be shifting and changing, and Maddy realized that its skin was nearly on fire. It was a black fire, shimmering and roiling along its body. This one seemed to have only one head, but enormous horns speared out of it, and a series of jagged spikes exploded out of its shoulders and back.
Emerging from the crater like a messenger from hell, the demon turned to Maddy and the girl. Its dark red eyes glinted, dead-like, with recognition. One could almost say it looked excited. The demon took a step forward and flicked a blackened tongue out of its mouth.
Still in Maddy’s arms, Vespa Girl screamed.
