Free Natural Born Angel by Scott Speer Page A

cigar-chomping boss, and anger flushed through her – he was trying to keep her away from the other Guardians in training! She pushed the thought from her mind, trying to focus on the task at hand: surviving her next class. She wondered what boring thing they’d try to throw at her this time: translating ancient Angel texts from Latin into modern English? Memorizing every Archangel since 1910? Reciting the NAS’s charter and constitutional amendments, year by year?
    Caught in this storm of thoughts, Maddy turned the corner and almost ran directly into a female Angel who was in the middle of a sentence. Her Australian accent was unmistakable: “. . .even believe what’s going on here now? Next thing you know we’ll be taking applications from anybody off the street who thinks— ”
    The beautiful, lithe Angel, who was walking with another potential Guardian, stopped short. “Oh, hi, Sadie,” Emily Brightchurch said.
    Sadie cleared her throat. “Emily, this is Maddy Montgomery. You’ll be seeing a lot of her around here.”
    Maddy, flustered, stumbled on her words. “Nice to meet you, Emily.” Of course she knew who Emily was – an Australian Angel transplant who had come to Angel City that year to finish her training – though they’d never officially met. Emily was one of the most gossiped-about Angels in this year’s nominee class, and her earthy sex appeal was undeniable. She had caused a scandal by appearing in a series of arty, provocative black-and-white Bulgari ads on billboards along the Halo Strip, just across from the Chateau Marmont. She had flaunted the jewellery and her Immortal Marks – and nothing else – in the ads, and the billboards had caused more than their share of near-accidents on that stretch of Sunset Boulevard. She had deep-red hair, the hint of a few sun freckles and an absolutely perfect complexion.
    The sexy Angel looked Maddy fully up and down, and gave her a plastic smile that wasn’t meant to fool anyone.
    “ Hi , Maddy. Hope you’re getting settled in. We’re so happy you’re joining us, even though it’s at such a late, late stage.” Emily flashed the fake smile even brighter. “Everyone is so impressed that you’re willing to try despite your . . . difficulties . . . to be a Guardian when the rest of us have been training for so long.”
    Totally taken aback, Maddy stuttered out a few shocked words. Why was the privileged Angel being so . . . snotty? Maddy had never done a thing to her!
    “Be a sweetheart and say hi to Jacks for me, would you?” the Aussie Angel added. “Ta!” Emily turned to her companion Angel, who was eyeing Maddy with thinly veiled disdain. “Let’s go, Zoe. The others are waiting.”
    The two female Guardian trainees whisked away into the sunny afternoon, leaving Maddy speechless in their wake.
    “So glad you’re getting to know some of the other Angels,” Sadie said as they stepped into the golf cart.
    “Yes. Me too,” Maddy said grimly, looking over her shoulder as the two Angels joined the other group and disappeared into the canteen.
    Crossing the grounds in the cart under swaying palm trees, Sadie and Maddy soon turned down a road that led between the enormous white hangars Maddy had seen when she first arrived. Each one looked exactly the same, save for individual painted black numbers. They were low and hidden by a screen of trees behind the thick walls that surrounded the entire training campus, so you would never know they were even there. No frills. But obviously something was going on in them. Sadie parked the golf cart outside the building marked #5.
    Going into the building was like stepping into a pool of darkness. The sunlight outside contrasted with the inky blackness inside the building. After a few moments, Maddy’s eyes began adjusting to the dark, and she saw she was in a large room, one that was still only maybe one-tenth the size of the entire hangar. It was tiled from floor to ceiling in individual