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Panicked sailors on the deck of the carrier scrambled for their guns as the Angels neared the ship.
“Hold your fire! Goddammit, lower your weapons!” the captain screamed.
Jackson was at the head of the formation. He landed first, his folding cybernetic wings distinctly larger than the other Angels’ and glistening metallic blue under the morning sun. In one hand he held a large, glowing sword, the same kind of sword Maddy had seen when the Angels had descended on the library tower rooftop and battled with the demon. Jacks held up the sword in a sign of nonaggression as more Battle Angels slowly began to drop gracefully down onto the deck behind him, each of them with a sword. Mitch was among them, as were Steven Churchson and even Vivian Holycross’s boyfriend, Julien Santé.
Maddy descended the stairs, and Jackson looked up at her.
Maddy hadn’t even noticed that Tom had landed until, just then, he climbed out of the cockpit of his jet, pulling his oxygen mask off. Stunned, he looked at Jackson and the Angels, then up at Maddy.
Maddy’s knees shook as she walked down the bridge stairs, wavering under the emotional weight of everything that was happening.
Jacks had come.
Of course he had.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Maddy dizzied under the shock of Jackson’s arrival. Just moments before, the entire battle group had been steeling themselves for the arrival of the demons, and now everyone stood silently, in awe at the sight of upward of forty Battle Angels on the aircraft carrier. A distinct glow glinted off the swords each Angel held, the perfect Immortals looking formidable in their black battle armor. Jackson turned his pale blue eyes up to Maddy.
Maddy had thought that the dark wing she saw for a split second in her premonition had belonged to a demon, but of course she should have known. It’d been Jackson’s new wing in shadow against the sun.
Maddy took a few steps down toward the flight deck, where Jacks and the other Angels had landed, but she had to stop for a moment, holding herself up by the railing. Her head spun.
He had come to save Maddy. Just as he always had.
Tom jumped out of the open cockpit, tossing his helmet to a crewman nearby.
Making it the rest of the way down to the deck, Maddy approached Jacks. But Tom beat her to it, putting himself right between Maddy and Jackson.
“What are you doing here?” Tom said bitterly. “Haven’t you done enough damage? Go back to whatever hole your kind is hiding in and leave us to our fate.”
“I’m not here to talk to you, Tom,” Jackson said, trying to stem his anger.
“This is just some kind of Angel trick,” Tom said. He stepped up close to Jackson and looked him in the eyes. The Angel and the man faced each other eye-to-eye. A little thrill seemed to run down Jackson’s body. “Isn’t that right, Godspeed? What are you going to do this time?”
“Tom!” Maddy pulled at his arm, trying to get between the two of them. “Calm down!”
“I didn’t come to fight you. I came to help,” Jacks said, his nostrils flaring. Maddy still tried, unsuccessfully, to separate them. “But I will if I have to. Fight you, I mean. With pleasure.”
“And I’ll be glad to dirty my hands with some Angel blood!” Tom said.
“Please!” Maddy shouted, pushing them both away from each other. Captain Blake intervened and helped pull Tom back, and Mitch approached to stand next to Jackson, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“They said they’re here to help!” Maddy said.
“If you even knew the danger these Angels put themselves in by coming here, you’d be a little more welcoming,” Jacks said.
“Ensign, get the lieutenant downstairs and cool him off!” the captain shouted to a sailor. He turned to Jacks. “And you, Godspeed’s the name, right? You have thirty seconds to explain what you and your people are doing on my flight deck without prior authorization.”
Mitch stepped up. “I can do that, sir,” he said, winking at Jackson. “We’re here to kill some demons.”
• • •
The crewmen showed the Angels to their temporary living quarters. As everyone began to clear from the deck, Jacks caught up with Maddy in one of the hallways just one level down. Maddy had been trying her best to avoid his gaze ever since the Angels had arrived.
“I need to talk to you,” Jacks said, catching her by the wrist.
“Oh, Jacks . . . ,” Maddy said, looking over her shoulder for Tom. “I don’t know.”
