Pure Redemption (Tainted Legacy) (35 page)

Instead of being able to say any of this, she’d been forced to listen to Rafe drone on. He’d hoped to use Ava’s blood. That would’ve been ideal. Someone good and pure enough, he’d pointed out with contempt, that she’d changed the heart of a Nephilim. She would’ve been an ideal candidate. But since Ava was being completely uncooperative, he’d decided Molly would have to suffice.

He’d ordered her to the center of the church. It looked as though he was searching the floor for something. At first, Molly couldn’t imagine what he was looking for. Then she remembered what Ava had told her about the carving of the demon’s snare. She began futilely searching the floor as well but decided if it was there, she was not going to be able to see it.

Finally, Rafe told her to lie down and while her mind was shouting at her that she had better not, she couldn’t stop herself. She found herself flat on her back. Rafe had reached out and taken hold of her hand, stretching her arm out along side of her. Internally, she flinched at the sight of the dagger. Outwardly, she stayed perfectly still per Rafe’s instructions.

A silent scream tore through her body as he slit her from elbow to wrist. He gingerly placed her arm on the floor, and then leapt back so that he stood against the outer wall of the church. He pulled a silver flask from his pocket and drank languorously from it. To Molly, it appeared that he drank until it was empty. Then he raised his hands and began chanting words in a language that she did not understand.

The floor of the church rumbled and shook as she watched, transfixed, as the thick, dark liquid poured from her. It seemed to find its home in grooves in the floor, spreading, circling and finally igniting, called to life by Rafe’s rhythmic cadence.

As the flames leapt to life, Rafe’s chanting ceased. Her eyes found him through the blaze.  To her relief, he looked somewhat drained. His shoulders slumped and he did not appear to retain the same superior air that had been so evident before. His hand seemed to shake as he wiped a stream of sweat from his brow.

She couldn’t see the outline from her position but she was quite certain that she was in the center of a hexagram. A hexagram enclosed in a circle. It was the very design that had once been carved by an angel.

Her mind hysterically grasped the realization that she was likely lying in the exact spot where Gabe had died.

“Now all that we need,” Rafe calmly told her, though his voice quaked with exertion
,
“is the blood of my brother. And you see, I believe he is kind enough to be on his way to deliver it to us as I speak. Julia was supposed to lead him to Cam but Cam has just informed me that Julia did not check in as she was supposed to do. That leads us to believe that perhaps they were able to help Julia overcome my little mind game. There is a possibility that one of your friends is safe and sound. For now. If that’s the case, we will surely deal with her later.”

Molly simultaneously wanted to breathe a sigh of relief at hearing that Julia was safe and scream out at Rafe to shut the hell up because she loathed the sound of his voice. As if he knew this, he continued on.

“As always, I had a backup plan.
I was willing to wait out the week but as your mind clearly
confirmed to
Cam, it would have been a futile promise to keep. Gabriel would’ve simply betrayed our family yet again. So I had to improvise.
I was sure that Julia would be able to lure them to Cam while I dealt with you. But since she failed, she has inadvertently lured them here,” he shrugged. “Since this is ultimately where I need my brother to be, I am quite okay with this.

“Oh, here’s an update,” he said as he held up his phone, as if she could read the message that was displayed at such a distance and through such a barrier. “Cam has just informed me that your friends are, indeed, here.”

If Molly had been able to sob, she would have.

Gabe and Ava were walking right into his trap.

“Thank you, Molly,” Rafe solemnly said. “You’ve been a darling. Your blood has created the entrance; Gabriel’s blood shall unlock it. Now, since you’re lying there so nicely, cooperating so well, I think I’ll step out for just a bit.”

She watched his retreating back. He didn’t go through the double doors at the back of the church. Instead, he walked up toward the altar and disappeared through a side door. An office perhaps? A storage room? A back door?

It didn’t matter, she realized. They wouldn’t know he was there, regardless of where he’d disappeared to.

She strained one last time to scream. To yell out a warning. It was a
fruitless
attempt because while she felt the eerie effects of Rafe’s compulsion fading, slithering away, in fact, her life, her energy, was also fading.

She closed her eyes for just a moment and when she opened them, she saw Gabe’s horrified face through the flames. She wanted so desperately to warn him. It was too late for her, she could feel it. The flow of blood had slowed but she knew that was only because her body was nearly emptied of it. It had little more to offer. But since she could not speak, she did the only thing she was capable of doing.

She closed her eyes
again
.

She couldn’t stop herself from meandering down the path to her own death but she could close her eyes so she would not have to watch Gabe walk into his.

Chapter 25

Gabe
had worked his way
through the woods without incident, despite the distance he had to cover. It had been necessary to park far enough away so as not to alert Rafe to their arrival. Yet leaving Ava that far behind, alone, made him tense, almost nauseated with worry. He needed to get in, get Molly, and get them all out of there.

He
had
stood at the edge of the forest, noticing immediately the sleek black car that was parked in the front of the church. It was surrounded by the overgrown grass but he
’d
recognized it as the same black car that had been in the driveway the day he’d gone to talk to Rafe. He
’d
waited a moment, listening. He
’d heard
the faint, unmistakable sound of Rafe’s voice coming from within the church. Even with his exceptional hearing,
he hadn’t been able to
make out the words from where he
’d
stood.

He
had
note
d
that he did not hear anyone’s voice in response to his brother’s. He
’d
hoped it was safe to assume that Cam was not with him. As for Molly, he
’d
hoped she
was
. He
’d
darted from the safety of the tree cover, through the tall weeds, and landed against the side of the church. The lilting sound of a chant had stopped. He
’d
crept alon
g the outer wall, gun raised and
ready as he rounded the front of the church. He
hadn’t been
surprised to see that the outer doors had been left open. With no other choice, he
’d
made his way inside.

His body
had
bristled, screaming at him to get out of there. The feel of danger in the air was cloying, palpable as it coiled around him. While he certainly did not have a death wish, he was not as afraid for himself necessarily as he was for Ava. He did not want to have to put her through the torment she’d just been through. Because of this, he
’d
utilized every one of his senses to their fullest extent. 

He
’d
slid in among the side wall of the church that was now oddly familiar to him. He
’d
listened for even the slightest sound. What he
’d
heard was an unusual crackling melded with a hiss. A flickering from within
had
caught his eye and he
’d known
immediately that it was a blaze of some sort. His heart
had pounded wildly as he’d wondered if he was too late. Wondered
if his brother had managed to set Azael free. If that were the case, it wouldn’t matter how careful he was. They were all doomed, damned, really.

The sizzle and whisper of the flames blocked out any other sound that he might hear. He
’d
continued to move forward, feeling very much as though he was walking into a trap. Yet, he needed to find Molly. If she was here, it was because of him. He would do whatever he needed to do to get her out safely.

He had rounded the wall now and inched his way to the archway that led into the sanctuary. He took in the familiar sight of the rotting wood, the worn floor, the boarded up windows. What was unfamiliar was the circle of fire that danced in a chaotic rhythm in the center of the room. From here, the dancing flames cast dazzling shadows across the wall. He used this to search for
his brother but he didn’t appear to be inside. With a feeling of heavy trepidation, he stepped through the doorway.

His heart seemed to slam to a halt as he took in the sight of Molly. Her skin was nearly translucent, her eyes blank and hollow. She blinked at him and then closed her eyes. They stayed closed as his eyes scanned over her. Her usually brilliant orange coloring had faded, bled to nearly nothing. What little of it that was left was streaked by the blackness that was threaded through it.

She was dying, her soul nearly depleted. He knew he shouldn’t, but he abandoned any sense of caution at the sight of her. He realized he was in plain sight as he wrenched a piece of wood off of the window frame. He slid it into the flames and it instantly disintegrated into a charred ash and drifted to the floor.

For the first time since he’d gotten out of the car, his confidence faltered. If the flames disintegrated a piece of wood faster than he could blink, what would it do to him? What would it do to Molly? How was he going to be able to get her out of there without disintegrating
both
of them?

From the faded looks of her, he knew he didn’t have much time to come up with an answer to those questions.

He glanced at the front of the church, up by the altar. During his earlier explorations, he’d discovered a side door that led to a small, empty room. Off the back of the room was a door that led outside. He knew he needed to keep an eye on both entrances, at opposite ends of the church.

He positioned himself so that he could see both as he crouched down, hoping the flames would conceal him at least partially, even momentarily
,
as he forced himself to think.

***

Sickly orange light from the setting sun leaked in through the trees. It lent her just enough light to see by as she found her way, finally, to the clearing where the church stood. She’d stopped several times, just briefly, listening, scanning, straining to be aware of any type of movement that would alert her to Cam’s presence.

She was still a distance from the edge, barely covered by the base of a tree when the church came into view. She caught just a glimpse of what she was sure was caramel colored hair disappearing through the doors at the front of the church. She realized that Cam had chosen to follow the length of the road, taking the longer but easier path.

Once he
disappeared into the church she bolted ahead, covering the rest of the forest ground and the overgrown lawn quickly. As Gabe had, she found herself against the outer wall of the church. An eerie silence cascaded around her as she moved forward.

The weathered entrance doors were open, hanging askew but open all the same. As she peered around them, Cam was in plain sight. He had his back to her but a glint of…something snapped up her attention.

A sickeningly familiar, silver-
blue light flickered across the room in front of him. The flames caused the gun in his hand to shimmer. He had it drawn, pointed at someone as he remained mostly hidden in the entry, behind the doorframe.

She knew that if it was drawn, it was pointed at either Gabe or Molly. Regardless of which, she knew she needed to stop him. Both of them would, and had, put their lives on the line for her and she was not going to hesitate to do the same for them.

She sent up a soundless prayer, willing her footsteps to remain silent, drowned out by the crackling of the fire, as she closed the distance between herself and Cam.
She did not bother trying to shield her thoughts, not that she had any idea how to do such a thing. She simply trusted that the church itself would shield her in the same way the sigils had.