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“You all right, David?” Kreuz asked.
Louis, of course, knew all about what had happened to Sylvester after he lost his wings and was disbarred from the Angels. He knew he was a first-rate ACPD policeman, but that he’d grown a reputation for having a bad case of nerves, which was why he had been quietly relegated to desk work for years. It wasn’t until the famous Angel serial killer case that he’d had the chance to prove himself a hero in more ways than one.
“Of course,” Sylvester said. “I’m just a little short on sleep, is all.” He tried to smile but couldn’t manage to look Louis directly in the eyes. Sylvester’s daily fear was that his nerves would come back and overtake him. He dreaded that black overpowering sense of anxiety. What was going on now—the resistance, the war—was too important. He couldn’t afford not to be at the top of his game.
“You know you can talk to me . . . whenever you need to,” Louis said. Like all the Guardians, Sylvester had gone through Angel training under Kreuz’s watch. He had been a brilliant Guardian student—just as brilliant as Susan, who eventually became an Archangel. Everyone knew that Louis really cared about his “kids,” which he liked to think of them as.
“Sometimes I still think of it,” Sylvester admitted.
“The child? That was a long time ago, David.”
“You know I’ve never been able to let it go,” Sylvester said.
“We’re going to need you here with us, David,” Kreuz said. “The Angels. You’re one of us, and we’re going to need leaders after this is all over. And you’re proving yourself to be a born leader.”
Sylvester opened his mouth to object, but Louis cut him off.
“Besides, there’s more than one reason to move on from that,” Kreuz said. “If not for your sake, then for somebody else’s.” He looked over at Susan, who was speaking quietly into her phone in the corner.
“What do you mean?” Sylvester asked, following his gaze.
“I’ve seen the way she looks at you,” Louis said.
Sylvester was caught off guard, turning red. Susan was a beautiful, talented Archangel, and he was just a washed-up has-been Angel, a police detective, somebody trying to do a little good to make up for the wrong he still felt he had done. But still, he took a moment to think back to the way he’d felt when Susan reached out for his arm back in the office. . . .
“You’re imagining things, Louis,” he said.
“Some detective! Ha!” Louis smiled. “Well, time I got home before the sanctuary sends out a search party. That would be mighty uncomfortable for me. See you in a while, Sylvester. And tell Susan I said ‘so long.’”
“Will do, Louis,” said Sylvester. “And remember: take care of yourself.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Maddy had agreed to meet Jackson at his place up in Empyrean Canyon. She figured that, after breaking his heart at the pier, the least she could do was meet him on his territory.
She arrived early, only to find Jackson’s house and property eerily empty, totally dark. She didn’t have to worry about curfew; she had a special pass from Linden that allowed her to travel freely to the exclusive Empyrean Canyon, to the house she knew so well. It pained her to look into the darkened windows, thinking about how much time she’d spent inside with Jacks; she’d even helped him pick the house out when he moved out of his parents’. But that felt like such a long time ago, back before everything started to unravel.
Not so many days had passed since the Angels had left their homes, but already things looked a bit shabbier. Lawns were yellowing, dried palm fronds lay scattered in driveways, and debris cluttered meticulously maintained driveways. But despite all the emptiness, she knew Jackson was somewhere nearby. She had felt his frequency.
And so Maddy waited nervously, her confidence waning with every minute. She’d felt fully confident on her way over, reassuring herself that she was there not as an ex-girlfriend, but as an emissary from President Ted Linden himself, to plead for the help of the Angels. Their personal problems had nothing to do with it, and she hoped that Jacks could somehow see it that way, too. This was about more than just the two of them.
But as soon as she found herself standing at Jacks’s front door, all that confidence just vanished into the dark night. Then she saw him.
Maddy had expected Jackson to fly in, but instead, there he was, emerging from the woods toward the back of his house.
Jacks hit a button on the side of the garage and the lights blazed on, revealing the roundabout driveway with the fountain at its center. The fountain water was still and thick with a layer of green muck that had collected over the past few days.
For a few moments, Maddy held on to the slenderest reed of hope. Maybe Jacks had changed his mind. Maybe he thought that joining the humans in the fight was the right thing to do.
But as soon as he came into the garage light and saw the look on his face, she understood she’d made a huge error in judgment.
“What do you want, Maddy?” Jacks said. “And why didn’t you bring Flyboy with you?”
This was not off to a good start.
/> “Jacks, don’t start on . . . ,” Maddy said.
“What do you want me to do, then?” he said. His pale blue eyes flared in the glint of moonlight. He still didn’t even know why he’d agree to meet with her. All the anger he’d been trying to suppress started to well up. “I don’t get you, Maddy. Is this some weak attempt at patching things up?”
