Pure Redemption (Tainted Legacy) (34 page)

“What do you think he’s up to?” Ava asked as she watched Julia drive away.

“I think,” Gabe growled, “that he’s found a way to release Azael without my help.”

Chapter 24

“Rafe had books piled all over the desk in the office when I walked through the house. I just glanced at them because I was in a hurry to get back to you. They were definitely ritual books. I’m sure he took whichever one of them he needed,” Gabe grimly told Ava.

“Do you know anything about blood rituals?” Ava asked. Her own knowledge of them was limited. Azael had used his blood to track and retrieve Gabe and the experience had terrified her.

Gabe was quiet for a moment, his thoughts darting around, trying to grab hold of any knowledge he may have. “I don’t know much. I just know that they’re powerful. Especially if he’s using demon blood. My guess is he saved some of Azael’s blood specifically for this. But I don’t know that for a fact. He may have found another way. I’m sure he’s been planning this from the start, since Azael vanished.”

Ava was quiet for a while as Gabe drove. Finally, she asked the question she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer to. “What does he need Molly for?”

Gabe glanced at her
and yet again, communicated what he wanted to say without having to actually voice the words. He
confirmed her fears. Azael’s blood alone wouldn’t be enough for the ritual.

“They should be expecting us to go to the house,” Gabe pointed out as he drove. “Hopefully I can get in there, take Rafe by surprise and get Molly the hell out of there. And you,” he said, his voice pleading, “need to stay in the car. As soon as you see us, start the car and be ready to drive.”

He expected her to argue. She looked like she desperately wanted to but he took advantage of her silence and continued.

“When you hear the gunshot, be ready. I plan on going in through the woods
. I think that’s the best way to stay undetected.
I’ll come out with Molly at the entrance to the church.”

“Okay,” she said, trying not to let her emotions get in the way of making a plan.

He studied her for a moment. “Are you okay with this? I mean, Rafe’s not going to stop coming after us. Not unless we take care of him for good.”

She nodded resolutely. “He contributed to the death of my birthmother and I know he’s killed others. It may have been at Azael’s request but he still followed through with it. He put you through unspeakable torture and he
enjoyed
it. He’s evil. He needs to be stopped. I’m not willing to risk your life, or Molly’s or Julia’s hoping that he’ll just leave us alone. Because we both know he won’t. So yes, I’m okay with it.”

“Good. I want to get you and Molly somewhere safe and then I’ll figure out how to deal with Cam. As for Rafe…I disappeared and no one seemed to question it. I was thinking maybe I can take over at the radio station. I could say that I left to take care of some family business but that I missed the station. I could say Rafe decided he’d rather move on to bigger things. We can figure out the details later.”

“That’ll probably work. I can’t imagine anyone would miss him,” she said
with more confidence than she felt. There were all sorts of ways that plan could go wrong
.

They were almost to the church. She had a feeling Gabe was trying to keep her talking in an effort to keep her mind too preoccupied to worry.

“I’m going to park back here,” Gabe said as he pulled over a good distance from the church
’s driveway
. His brother’s hearing was as good as his and he didn’t want to risk alerting him to their arrival. “I want you to keep the doors locked.
And Ava, please, d
on’t get out of the car.”

She nodded. “I know. I’d just slow you down. And I’d be a distraction but Gabe…” she tried to steady her quivering voice, “I don’t know if I can do this! I don’t know if I can just let you walk in there. I just got you back. I can’t lose you again.”

“You
can
do this,” he assured her. “You can do it for Molly. We have an advantage right now. They don’t know that we know Rafe is here. But we need to stop wasting time because it won’t be long before they start to wonder why we’re not showing up at the house.”

He leaned in and gave her a quick, hard hug, not wanting to prolong things or make them more difficult than they had to be. “I’ll be right back,” he said with a great amount of assurance.

“I know,” Ava said as s
he forced a wea
k smile.

He bolted out of the car, raced through the overgrown ditch and disappeared into the tree line leaving Ava with nothing but her terror.

She knew why he hadn’t kissed her, or told her that he loved her. It would’ve sounded too final. Like a goodbye. Yet her body ached for that kiss and her heart ached for that proclamation. She forcefully nudged the feeling aside. They would have time for plenty of kisses later, she told herself.

She had her window rolled down just a crack because it helped her to feel a little less cut off. If it had been rolled up, she may not have heard the soft rumble of a car in the distance. A flash of silver caught her eye
as it reflected the sunshine
in the rearview mirror
. H
er instinct kicked in full-force. She didn’t know what kind of car Cam had but Gabe’s car had been silver. The area they were in was desolate. The likelihood of someone driving by was small. It seemed to be too much of a coincidence to ignore.

She instantly went into motion, putting complete faith in her intuition. She slid over to the passenger door, cracked it open and slipped out as she kept her body tight to the side of the car. She shut it and was grateful for the long grass in the ditch as she crouched down and rushed through it. The car was almost upon her as she crept into the tree line. It slowed as she dodged behind an enormous white pine.

It was Gabe’s car. There was no doubt. Nor was there any doubt that Cam was behind the wheel. They must’ve taken too long or done something to arouse his suspicion. She had her phone in her pocket but she didn’t dare use it to contact Gabe. She had no idea if he had his ringer on or off. She wouldn’t be to blame for giving his location away to Rafe because of her carelessness.

Cam stopped at the side of the road and her heart nearly exploded. She clutched the tree for support, willing her body to blend with it. She didn’t dare peek around it so she listened, waiting for the sound of the car door opening. It didn’t come. A few moments later the gravel began crunching under the tires once more. Her fingers flew to her pendant, her only source of comfort. It was still there and though she knew it wouldn’t protect her completely against Cam or Rafe, it would give her an edge.

She debated for just a moment. Gabe would hopefully hear the car approach. But what if he didn’t? She’d barely finished the thought when she realized the crunching of gravel had stopped again. She heard a car door swing open. She dropped d
own, below the grass line
and began to
edge
further into the woods. She paused behind a fallen mess of pines and listened.

Had Cam seen the empty car and assumed that they’d crept up to the church the way he’d told Julia to creep up to the cabin? Had he stopped, knowing they were there, and was he now planning on doing the same so as not to alert Gabe? That was her initial thought. But then she started to wonder if he had seen her, or if he had sensed her somehow. Had he heard her thoughts? How close did he need to be? She had no idea. She knew Rafe had to make eye contact to make his compulsion work but whether Cam needed that same type of contact, she wasn’t sure.

Was he heading to the church on foot? Or was he
making his way
toward her in the woods at this very second?

A trickle of sweat raced down her back. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to hear approaching footsteps over her own heartbeat. She also realized with sickening terror that she had not heard a gunshot yet. Surely Gabe had to be to the church by now. What was taking him so long? What if he ran into Cam on the way back? He would be totally unsuspecting and
most
likely completely preoccupied by Molly.

She debated going back to the car because Gabe was expecting her to be there. But the fear that Cam was there, watching and waiting, sent her cr
awling
forward along the damp forest floor. The tangy smell of rot clogged her nose and branches scratched at her legs and caught at her hair as she carefully and quickly hurried herself along.

***

Molly watched in resolute, yet calm horror as the blood continued to flow from her arm. She was lying in the middle of a circle of flames that danced around her. They were an icy blue, almost silver at times. They were unlike any flames she’d ever seen before. Instead of giving off heat, it seemed as if they were freezing her down to her very core. Her teeth chattered. It was the only part of her that moved.

Never mind that every cell of her body was screaming at her to get up and run straight through the fire. She was frozen in place and
that
had nothing to do with the mystical and terrifying frigidity of the blue conflagration. It was Rafe. That
asshat
. He’d told her to lay still and to her dismay, that was exactly what she was doing.

Ava had warned her about him. She would’ve listened to that warning if she’d had a chance. But she hadn’t. Everything had happened so fast.

She had been on her way back to her house when she’d spotted Julia’s car parked down the block. She could see the silhouette of someone inside. Of course she’d gotten out to see if it was Julia but within a few steps, she realized the person behind
the
wheel was a male. She’d
known
immediately that it was Cam. She’d marched up to the car, assuming that Julia was in the passenger seat. She wasn’t. The moment she’d realized this, she’d turned to flee but she’d found
herself caged in by strong arms and staring right into the eyes of Rafe.
She’d known it was him by the description Ava had given her. No one else could possibly have hair that red.
He’d told her to get in the car and to not argue or fight with him. To her complete disbelief, she did exactly as she was
told.

Cam had silently driven her to Rafe’s house.  She recognized it only because she’d driven Ava there once, to leave her with Gabe. Cam had pulled into Rafe’s driveway and Rafe had pulled in behind them. She wanted to demand to know where Julia was but to her bewilderment, she couldn’t utter a sound.

Rafe had come around to her side of the car and requested that she get into his. Her feet, to her horrific dismay, had followed his instructions.

Molly had never been to Ava’s grandfather’s church before. She knew that it was in a rural area and it had been abandoned. Common sense told her that this was t
he church he had brought her to
.

He continued to give her simple commands. While her mind was raging against them, a smaller, much stronger part remained traitorous and disobeyed her. It followed through with every request he’d made.

That was what led her to where she was now. Lying on the cold church floor, watching with odd, bleary detachment as her blood—her life—flowed out of her. Her conscious thoughts had long since become hazy and discombobulated.

Ava and Gabe may be on their way.

Or they may not.

She wasn’t entirely sure she cared anymore.

She just wanted the terror of this situation to stop.

She wanted the searing pain in her arm to go away.

She wanted to stop being so damn cold.

Rafe had carefully explained to her what he planned to do. She knew this wasn’t to ease her mind. Quite the opposite. She could tell he enjoyed seeing the terror on her face. Quite possibly, he also just enjoyed the sound of his own voice.

He had found a ritual that would free his father. It required the blood of an innocent as well as the blood of the one who had trapped him; an antidote to the blood of the angel and the blood of the demon that had sealed the cage.

She, unfortunately, was chosen as the innocent. When he’d told her this, she’d wanted to argue but of course, her lips were sealed shut.

If she could’ve opened her mouth to argue with Rafe, she would’ve told him that she wasn’t innocent at all. She’d cheated in calculus. More than once. And she had been highly covetous of Gabe and Ava’s relationship when they’d first met. Obeying one
’
s parents was clearly in The Ten Commandments but she was rebellious quite a lot. And the worst thing? When she was twelve she’d stolen a candy bar from the mini-mart. Her guilty conscious had always begged her to go back and pay for it, but she’d never listened. And of course there was her most recent transgression. She’d lied to Oliver. She’d told him that she couldn’t deal with the texts from Serena and now…now she would never have the chance to fix it. She couldn’t apologize for telling a lie that had hurt him.