Pure Redemption (Tainted Legacy) (33 page)

“No. I think he’ll tell me because I’ll make him tell me,” Gabe said
coldly. K
nowing that Ava’s next question would be
how
, he pulled the gun from his pocket. “This ought to hurry things along.”

Ava stared at it for a moment
and then turned her grim face toward Gabe. “Where did you get that?”

“It was in my nightstand.”

“Do you know how to use it?”

“Yes,” he said with no trace of doubt in his tone.
His body had gone rigid. It felt like granite as Ava ran her palm o
ver his arm. “He threatened you,
” he grated out in a voice so thick with hatred she barely recognized it. “He is
not
going to get away with that.”

“Gabe,” she began, startled by the harshness of his tone. His body felt unyielding under her hand.
His expression was
uncompromising.

“I mean it Ava. Whether I use this,” he said as he lifted the gun unapologetically, “or whether I have to rip his heart out myself, he will not hurt you. I won’t let that happen. Taking
him out of the picture is the only way to be sure he’s out of our lives.
I promised your parents I would take care of you. Now I’m promising you.
”

She nodded slowly.

“So you’re not going to fight me on this
?” he demanded.

“No. But I’m coming with you
. I’ll stay out of the way.”

“No. This isn’t up for debate Ava.” His tone backed up his statement.

“What are you going to do, Gabe? Tie me up and drag me to my
parent
s
’
house?” she asked in a tone that was full of furious disbelief. “Oh my gosh! You would tie
me up and drag me to my parent
s
’
house!” she accused as she took in the immovable look on his face.

“There’s clothesline in the junk drawer,” he flatly replied, though the thought hadn’t crossed his mind, he realized he wasn’t opposed to her inadvertent suggestion.
And her parents may actually thank him for it if it kept her safe.
“There’s no way you can come with me. I wouldn’t be able to keep my mind off of you for t
wo seconds. I would end up
getting us both killed.”

“As opposed to just you—”

Ava’s words were cut off when Gabe startled her by spinning around to the front door. “Someone’s here.”

“How do you know?” she demanded.

“The sigils are glowing again.”

“I hate that I can’t see them!” she said with a scowl, knowing it would’ve been helpful to her when Cam had shown up earlier.

He started to push her toward the bedroom but she dug her feet in. “I’m not going to hide!”

“You’re going to stay safe!”  he shot back.

A delicate knock on the door surprised them both. They
stared
at each other in confusion
for a few, tense moments
.

“Ava?” a quiet voice called.

“Julia?!” Ava cried as she tried to dart around Ga
be. He caught her by the waist, lifted her off of her feet and set her back down on the other side of him.

“She’s not alone! The sigils wouldn’t behave like this if she were alone. They sense evil,” he reminded her. “I’ll get the door. If you won’t go into the bedroom, will you at least promise me you’ll stay back?”

She nodded and he released her as he cautiously opened the front door. His gun was drawn and at his side.

Julia crossed the threshold as if nothing was amiss. She smiled at Ava and it was then that she noticed the strained look on her friend’s face. Her eyes looked glazed and her movements were just a bit too stiff.

“Julia?” Ava said softly.

Julia ignored her and turned to Gabe. “Your brother has a message for you, he said it’s time to come out and play.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Gabe said. His face had turned hard. As Ava took a step closer to her friend, he shot his arm out to stop her. “Stay back,” he said as he gr
abbed her firmly by the wrist this time
. She let out a yelp and at first he was worried he’d hurt her but when his gaze swung back around to Julia, he saw that she’d unsheathed a filet knife. The leather case fell to the floor at her feet. “Stay back,” he repeated as he tried shoving
Ava
behind him. This time, she listened.

“Something is wrong with her. She’s coated in darkness.”

“Rafe thought that since Ava likes knives so much that I should  have one of my own,” she said in a voice so eerily calm that it reminded Ava of a bedtime fairly tale gone severely wrong. “Rafe said you’ll definitely play when you find out that Molly’s the prize,” her lips trembled but she continued with the words that were not hers even as her eyes glossed over with tears
.

“Julia, put the knife down,” Gabe quietly commanded.

She shook her head. “Rafe said I can’t. And he said if you get too close, I’m supposed to use this and then you’ll never be able to ask me how to find Molly.”

“We don’t just want Molly, we need you to be safe too,” Ava said. “What are we supposed to do?”

“He wants you to go to his house,” Julia said. Her voice was trembling now and tears filled her eyes but had yet to spill over.

“Julia,” Gabe said soothingly as he backed up and carefully pushed Ava further into the cabin, “why don’t you come in. Tell us again because I’m not sure I understood.”

Julia’s face
scrunched up
in confusion. “He said—”

“Come over here,” Gabe interrupted as he tried to coax her to the center of the room.

“Gabe?” Ava questioned quietly.

He didn’t take his eyes off of Julia as he motioned her forward. She took a hesitant step, clearly puzzled by his request.

“You know that Rafe used compulsion on you, don’t you?” he gently asked. She blinked and nodded. “I can see it on you Julia. I can see his blackness coating you. Now what else can you tell us?”

“Nothing,” she whispered. “I’m not allowed to tell you anything else.”

“Where’s Molly?” Ava asked.

“I…I can’t…” Julia said in a tremulous voice. The knife wavered in her hand.

“None of this is your fault. You know that, right?” Gabe asked. Julia’s mouth opened but she closed it again without saying anything. “This is all going to be over soon. When it is, the three of you should…I don’t know. Go get a massage or something. Maybe some ice-cream? Or is Ava the only
one
that’s crazy about ice-cream? I know she loves Butter Brickle. I like it too. How about you Julia? What do you like?”

Julia shook her head in confusion.

“What are you doing?” Ava whispered.

“Keeping her busy,” Gabe replied quietly.

“I don’t have time to talk,” Julia said in a
quivering
tone. “I’m supposed to tell you to go to Rafe’s house. You need to go. If you don’t go, Molly…”

“We’ll go,” Gabe assured her. He paused for a minute. “How are you feeling now, Julia? Any better? Do you think maybe you can put the knife down?”

“No…I…” she stared at the weapon in her hand, an almost curious look on her face. “I’m supposed to…”

“I think you could put it down now if you really wanted to,” he calmly coaxed. He could feel Ava at his side
. H
e didn’t have to see her face to know that she wanted to demand to know what he was doing. Julia’s hand wavered and Gabe lunged at her.

Both Julia and Ava screamed. Julia thrust the blade upward, slicing through Gabe’s side. The blood flow was instantaneous. He let out a pained grunt as he caged her wrist in his fist. The knife clattered to the floor and Ava swiped it up.

“No! No, you can’t…” Julia whimpered as she futilely tried to struggle against him.

Blood poured down his side but he wrestled Julia around so that her back was to his chest and his arms trapped her body tightly to his. “You’re not going to hurt yourself. You need to calm down,” he said.

“Gabe,” Ava said in a shaky voice, “you’re bleeding pretty badly.”

“I know, its fine,” he grated out. Just because he healed fast didn’t mean that he didn’t feel the pain of an injury when he sustained it. He had just gotten accustomed to ignoring it. At the moment, he was more concerned about Julia.

“Let go of me,” she whimpered as she thrashed in his arms. She jabbed her elbow into his side, causing him to grimace.

“Julia,” Ava said as calmly as she could, “he’s trying to help you.”

“I think she’ll be okay. She just needs a few more minutes before I can let her go.” He nodded toward the walls. “The sigils are wearing away at the compulsion. The blackness is almost gone.”

Julia began to still.

“Are you okay?” Ava asked her.

She shook her head and let out a sob. Gabe relaxed his grip little by little, keeping his eye on her the whole time. Ava knew he was watching the blackness fade from her aura. When he seemed satisfied that the effects of Rafe’s compulsion had worn off, he slowly released her. She stumbled into Ava’s arms.

“I know, I know,” Ava said as Julia began to cry against her shoulder. “You’re okay now,” she said as she smoothed her hair away from her face.

“It was Cam!” Julia wailed. “He talked me into leaving with him and then later…later he went back for Molly. Something is
wrong
with him! I don’t think…I don’t think he’s
human
!”

“Where are they now?” Gabe demanded. “Julia, I know you’re scared but this is important. Where’s Cam?”

She looked at him distrustfully. “I heard them talking. You’re just like them, aren’t you?”

“I’m not like them at all because I’m on
your
side,” Gabe said. “That’s all you really need to know right now. We’ll explain everything else to you later.”

“Cam’s at the house,” Julia told Ava as she pulled away from her. “I never saw Molly but Cam told me she’s with Rafe.”

Ava’s fear spiked, cold and fierce as it coursed through her, numbing her to the bone. “Where
are
they, Julia? Do you know?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know for sure. When Rafe came to…” she swallowed hard, “when he came to
talk
to me, I heard him with Cam afterwards. He said something about a church. But I don’t know which one. But Ava, he wants
you
. He said if you don’t show up tonight, none of us will ever see Molly again.”

Ava and Gabe shared a fearful look over Julia’s head. She was trembling and Ava hated to leave her but she knew she had no choice. “Alright,” she said as she looked at Gabe, “we’d better go.”

“Ava, if he wants you then that’s the last place you should go!” Gabe fiercely told her. “You should take Julia and go back to your parents
’ house
, just like we talked about.”

Ava ignored him, not wanting to waste the time arguing, and turned to her friend. “How did you get here?”

“I drove,”
Julia said. “I have my car. He
told me to park at the end of the driveway and walk the rest of the way so you wouldn’t hear the car.”

“Damn it,” Gabe grumbled. “I heard a car. I just wasn’t paying attention. I should’ve realized it stopped. I wasn’t expecting them to come back and I sure as hell wasn’t expecting
you
.”

Ava nodded. The cabin was nestled back in the woods. Her driveway was longer than an average driveway.

“Are you okay to drive now? Can you make it home?” Ava wanted to know.

Julia nodded. “You’re not going after them, are you?” she whimpered.

“We’re going to get Molly out of this mess,” Ava said with more assurance than she felt.

“I don’t know if you can,” Julia warned between sniffles. “They said something else. I didn’t understand what they were talking about. Something about a blood ritual? They said it had to be done in the church. It sounded like Rafe planned on doing it tonight. That’s why he wanted me to tell you to go to the house. He wanted Cam to distract you. Or detain you, or whatever. But he’s at the church with Molly right now. Maybe he’s already—
,
” she choked on the rest of her words.

Ava took in a sharp breath as Gabe let loose a string of expletives that put Ava’s earlier cursing to shame.

“What is a blood ritual?” Julia whispered. Her eyes were huge and terrified. She was trembling despite her friend’s arms around her. “What does that mean?”

“It means we had better hurry,” Gabe said. He’d taken off his shirt and had it pressed against his side to staunch the flow of blood from the hideous gash. He pulled it away, satisfied the bleeding had s
topped
. He darted into the bedroom for a clean shirt.

When he came back, Ava was murmuring to Julia and had calmed her considerably.

They drove Julia the short distance to her car. Gabe walked her to it. He watched the surrounding woods closely and didn’t leave until she was tucked inside and had locked her doors.