Pure Redemption (Tainted Legacy) (25 page)

Julia gave a curt little shake of her head. “I don’t think so. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Ava was about to lunge at Julia but Gabe held her back.

“I can’t let her leave with him!” Ava said.

Gabe sighed. “We can’t really stop her. It’s not like we can drag her out of here screaming at you that she doesn’t want to go.”

“This is so, so bad,” Ava whimpered.

“I know,” Gabe agreed. “The black around him was nauseating.”

Ava blinked in surprise. “The what?”

Gabe gave her a surprised look in return. “The black that was surrounding him.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The blackness,” he said, enunciating each syllable, as if it should be as obvious as the moon in the sky. “Isn’t that what you noticed?’

Ava shook her head. “No. I noticed how similar he was to you. What do you mean the
blackness
?” she asked with raised eyebrows. 

Gabe frowned at her. “Surrounding him?” he said again, decisively, but faltered when she shook her head in confusion.

“You saw black surrounding him?” Ava asked, for clarification.

“You didn’t?”

She gave him a subtle shake of her head. “
Noooo
.”

Gabe shook his head in disbelief. “Do you know who else has a blackness like that?”

Ava shook her head again, prickly needles of dread poking at her spine.

“My brother.”

Chapter
1
8

After the initial shock of Gabe’s revelation had worn off, Ava was insistent on finding Julia and dragging her away, kicking and screaming or not. They had searched for her and hadn’t been able to find any trace of her or Cam. After a while, out of options and with Julia refusing to respond to her phone calls, they had given up and driven home.

Ava
had
called Molly though. She’d explained the situation as vaguely as possible, only admitting that they perhaps had offended Julia and Cam. And that Julia didn’t seem to be speaking to her at the moment. Ava asked Molly to try to get a hold of her and to let her know if Julia was okay. This, of course, had resulted in a string of questions that Ava struggled to answer without being dishonest. Not a simple task without explaining exactly why Cam’s presence was so frightening.

So far, they hadn’t heard from Molly
again
. This meant that not only hadn’t she run into Julia at the carnival, but she wasn’t returning Molly’s calls or texts either—and Ava’s nerves were frazzled.

“It was
oozing
around him,” Gabe said, mystified not by the fact that he could see the blackness but that Ava couldn’t. They were sitting on the couch in her cabin and both were still a little bit in shock
.
“How could you miss it?”

“Gabe,” Ava said carefully, “do other people have the blackness around them? Like Rafe and Cam?”

“Not like that no. Some darkness but…no…not like that. The worst I’ve seen is a dingy gray. His blackness was so strong I could feel it. You couldn’t
feel
it?” he asked in disbelief.

“I thought you couldn’t feel people’s emotions anymore?”

“I can’t. Not like you described. This was more of a feeling of wrongness than anything. I don’t think that qualifies as an emotion,” Gabe pointed out. “I could just feel the darkness surrounding him. It was…nasty,” he said, making a face.

She shook her head. Wondering how best to break this news to him. “Um, Gabe? No one else I know has ever seen the blackness on people.”

“Just the other colors?” he asked, bewildered.

“Other colors?” she echoed.

He stared at her, the disbelief on his face as evident to Ava as the blackness had been to him. “You don’t see
any
of the colors?”

“What colors?” she asked softly.

“You, your parents, you’re surrounded in gold. The three of you, it’s the most incredibly brilliant shade I’ve ever seen. Molly is a deep red, almost orange while Julia is a bright green. You don’t see it?”

She shook her head. “What about you? What color are you?”

Gabe scowled. “I can’t see anything
around myself
. I don’t know if it’s because I can’t see my own or if I just don’t have it to see.”

“Why didn’t you ever ask me then? If you thought maybe you couldn’t see your own but thought I
could
?” Ava wondered.

H
e looked away, then back to
her
before hesitantly speaking.
Shame and embarrassment colored his tone.
“Because I was afraid you’d tell me that it looked like Rafe’s. I didn’t want to know.”

“Oh, Gabe, no,” Ava said as she pulled him into a hug. “You are nothing like Rafe. You never were.”

He hugged her back but didn’t look convinced.

Auras
? Ava
assumed
. She’d never given them much thought before
. Now
it was the first and only thought that came to mind now. “
I just wish you would’ve mentioned it,” she admitted.

“Why would I?” he demanded, flustered. “I thought…I just thought you saw th
em.
The colors are so
obvious
. I thought everyone saw them!”

Ava tapped her fingertip on her chin as she tried to make sense of what Gabe had said. “You know, maybe you see the colors now instead of feeling their emotions. You, well, you used to use
it to your advantage.
”

“
To m
anipulate
people
,” Gabe said with a frown.

Ava gave a curt nod. “But you’re sure you can’t do that anymore?”

“I usually don’t feel
anything
from anyone. Tonight was a first.”

“Maybe this is what took its place then. Like the scar over your heart took the place of the scars on your back,” Ava suggested.

“Why?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“So now I ca
n’t manipulate people,” he said. H
is voice
had beco
me harsh at the thought. “But now I can see souls.”

“How do you know they’re souls?” Ava asked, curious, not doubtful.

He shrugged. “The same way I know yellow and blue make green.” He paused, suddenly uncertain. “They do, don’t they?”

She gave him a small smile and nodded.

“Then those colors are the colors of souls,” he said, with utter assurance.

“Wow,” Ava  muttered. “I just can’t believe this didn’t come up before.”

Gabe shrugged. “You didn’t ask before.”

“I didn’t know to ask.”

“And I didn’t know to tell.”

“Oh my gosh,” Ava moaned as she
pinched the bridge of her nose. “W
hen you told me that Kara
didn’t
look like someone you would be with and that Dawson
did
look like someone I would be with…?”

Gabe nodded, giving Ava a look that said he thought it should be obvious. “I was talking about their souls.”

“Wow,” Ava said
again
. S
he collapsed into the cushions of the overstuffed sofa. “How did we miss this?!”

Gabe came to an abrupt halt as a puzzled look crossed his face. He looked to Ava as his eyes darted around the walls and back to her again.

“What?” she asked, feeling instantly
on edge.

“Those?” Gabe asked as he pointed to various places on the wall. “Why are they pulsating?”

Ava looked briefly to where he’d been pointing and then looked back to Gabe with a helpless, lost shrug.

“You don’t…” Gabe said haltingly, “you don’t see
those
either?”

“See what?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper
. The
feeling of trepidation grew and she thought, perhaps, she may be able to guess as to what Gabe was speaking of this time.

“The markings on the wall
s
,” Gabe noted. “They’ve looked the same ever since I came here but not now. Now,” he said, giving them a wary look, “they’re behaving differently.”

“Are you talking about the
sigils
?” she asked. “You
see
the sigils? They’re still there?”

He nodded as he
rose from the couch and went up to the wall. He raised a finger
, tracing a pattern that left no doubt in Ava’s mind.

Then a greater realization struck. “You’re touching them. You couldn’t
even get near them before
. Why didn’t you say something earlier?” she demanded, already knowing the answer.

“I just thou
ght they were part of the décor. L
ike that painting you have
that waterfall
. But now they’re behaving oddly,” he told her.

Ava
looked at him curiously.
“You shouldn’t be able to touch those. Grier placed those there for protection,
to keep evil away
.
You, um, you used to set them off.
”

“So
why
are
these acting like this now?
”

That’s a very good question
, Ava thought to herself.

“You’re
scared
,” Gabe noted.

Whether he was reading the flickering across her soul or simply reading the look upon her face, Ava could not be sure. She nodded. “Grier placed the sigils here to keep you in, but also to block evil. If your father were to come too near, they would pulse.”

“You think my father is coming?” he asked, his voice going hard and his body tensing.

“Not necessarily.” However, it was an interesting question. If Gabe had survived and returned, had Azael? “They just detect evil.”

“They pulsed before? When
I
went near them? Do you think it’s because of me again?”
He looked troubled over the possibility.

“I don’t,” Ava said, decisively. “It would make no sense that it just started today.”

“So if not me, who?”

Ava glanced at the window. It was dark outside, with the moonlight only casting a dismal glow.
“I think…” she trailed off and cringed. “I think Rafe has been hanging around. Maybe it was him?”

“Stay here,” Gabe said as he rushed out the door.

Ava followed directly behind him.

The night had cooled off considerably. There was a dampness blanketing the air, bringing an ever greater chill. They could hear crickets, frogs and the sound of the waves gently hitting the shore
line
. Shadows were cast about the yard by the moonlight bea
ming down behind the tall pines that skirted the yard.

He turned to her
and shook his head in annoyance. S
he simply shrugged and followed him as he went out to the middle of the yard. They stood, listening and watching but it was impossible to tell if something was lurking in the surrounding woods. Gabe would’ve stayed out longer. He wanted a chance
to look around more thoroughly
but he refused to do so with Ava at his side. He grabbed her hand and hurriedly pulled her back to the cabin.

“Why did you follow me out there?” he demanded as he closed the door safely behind them.

“Because I’m not going to sit in here and let something happen to you again!”

Gabe didn’t even want to know what Ava thought she could possibly do to protect
him
.
  H
e thought it best if he didn’t point that out. “Ava,
I can take care of myself. But i
t would be a lot easier if I didn’t have to worry about you,” he firmly told her.

“I know you’re all big and strong and whatever
. B
ut you shouldn’t have gone running out there either,” she said somewhat defiantly.

“Yeah? Well I have this,” he said as he
held out his hand
. Grier’s
switchblade
was in it.

Ava stumbled back a step at the sight of it. In a shaky, slightly accusatory voice she said, “You still have that thing?” It wasn’t really a question because it was obvious that he did. “I mean, you still carry it with you everywhere?” she asked warily.