Pure Redemption (Tainted Legacy)

by Amity Hope

  “Boyfriend?” Ava asked. They’d gone on a whopping one date, as far as Ava knew. “Oh, Julia—”

  “No! I don’t want to hear it! Friends are supposed to support one another. I didn’t like Gabe at first. I thought there was something off about him. I thought he was going to break your heart but I didn’t say anything because I trusted your judgment. And I’m the first to admit that I was wrong about him. And you,” she said as she pointed a finger at Ava, “are wrong about Cam.”

  “I’m not,” Ava said as she tried to reach out and put a calming hand on Julia’s arm.

  “Why can’t you just be happy for me?” Julia asked as a tear trickled down her cheek. She wiped Ava’s hand off and started to back away. “I finally found a guy that I really like that actually likes me too and you’re just trying to ruin everything!” She turned and ran out of the front door. Ava followed her out, catching her by the elbow as she reached for her car door.

  “Julia! I need to tell you what I know about him!”

  Julia pushed Ava away, her face livid. “You know nothing about him! So what are you going to tell me? Are you going to make up lies about him? Why don’t you worry about your own mixed up mess of a relationship and leave me alone!” She dove into the front seat, slammed the door and drove away at a speed that was far faster than was usual for her.

  “It didn’t go well?” Gabe asked as he appeared next to Ava.

  “It went horribly,” she admitted.

  “Now what?”

  Ava gave him a look that was somewhere between an apology and a question. “Now I talk to Molly? I tell her everything?”

  Gabe nodded. “I know you’re not sure about this but I actually think it’s a good idea. Ever since we brought it up, you seem a little…I don’t know, just relieved. Get Molly over here.”

  ***

  “I thought you sounded frazzled on the phone but you look even worse,” Molly accused. “Please tell me Gabe didn’t go running off again.”

  Ava sighed. “He didn’t go running off the first time.”

  “I made lunch,” Gabe said, interrupting. “Why don’t you come eat and we’ll tell you what really happened to me.”

  “Ohhh, sounds top secret,” Molly teased. Then she saw the look on her friends’ faces and realized Gabe was serious. “Oh. Oh, wow, okay.” Trying to lighten the mood again, she nudged Ava. “How freaking lucky are you? He cooks, too?”

  Ava choked down a laugh, covering it with her hand as they followed Gabe into the kitchen.

  She flopped into a chair and Molly took the one next to her. Gabe placed a plate of sandwiches in front of them.

  Molly stared at them a minute before looking at Gabe. “I thought you said you made lunch.”

  “I did,” he motioned to the sandwiches as Ava took one. “Ava really likes peanut butter and jelly. I was going to make a box of mac and cheese but it looked kind of complicated.”

  “Dude,” Molly said in total bewilderment, “you just boil water!”

  “No,” Gabe bounced back at her with an equal amount of bewilderment. “The instructions took up the whole back of the box!” He shook his head forlornly. “I thought I was supposed to remember factual things but I guess I’ve forgotten how to cook.”

  “I don’t think you forgot,” Ava said with a small smile. “I don’t think you ever learned in the first place.”

  “Not even mac and cheese?” Molly demanded.

  Ava shrugged. “I’m pretty sure if it involved anything more than microwaving, the answer is ‘no’. He’s right though, I do love pb& j.”

  “So,” Molly began as she eyed up the supposed meal, “this is a delightful lunch and all, but I’m kind of under the impression that you wanted to discuss something more than Gabe’s inability to boil water.”

  Molly looked to Ava for support but she was busy tearing her sandwich into bite size pieces. She finally nodded, dropped her sandwich, which she was far too nervous to eat, and told Molly everything. To her credit—or perhaps due to being in shock—Molly didn’t interrupt once.

  “Can you please say something?” Ava finally asked after what felt like an exceptionally long time as Molly blinked at her in silence.

  Molly’s eyes darted from Ava to Gabe and back again. “I don’t know what to say,” she finally admitted. “For once, I am speechless.”

  “I’m not making it up,” Ava quietly told her.

  Molly shook her head. “If it were anyone other than you, I’d never believe it. But I don’t think you’ve ever lied to me. Not once. And I’ve known you since kindergarten. And the look on your face right now, it’s giving me chills. But Ava…really? Angels? Demons? Nephilim? Are you sure? Maybe you just…”

  “What?” Ava scoffed. “Imagined it?”

  “It happened,” Gabe told Molly as he came to Ava’s defense. Her doubt was evident but he couldn’t blame her for it. He stood from his chair so that he was directly in front of Molly. He inched his shirt up and Molly’s expression turned into one of awe at the sight of his nicely sculpted abs.

  “Dear sweet—”

  “Molly!” Ava grumbled. “Focus!”

  “Oh, right, sorry. I can’t think straight when I’m nervous!” Molly wailed, not pulling her eyes from Gabe’s stomach until his shirt was fully lifted. Then her gaze turned more serious as the angry purple gash over his heart became evident. She reached up to trace it with her finger.

  Gabe looked at Ava with raised eyebrows. She gave him a discreet shoulder shrug, indicating Molly was fine.

  She finally turned to Ava, her face pale, her eyes wide. “This looks new.”

  “A little over a month old,” Ava agreed.

  “It’s directly over the heart. And I’m no expert at knifes or weapons or whatever but I would think that for the gash to be that evident, it would’ve had to have gone in pretty deep. And he would have to be pretty strong to force it straight through,” Molly said in a shaky voice. “But still. You guys?” her voice was almost pleading as Gabe slid his shirt back down. It was as if she wanted assurance that this couldn’t be real. That it was all an elaborate scheme even though she couldn’t imagine a reason for it.

  She made a helpless gesture. “I want to believe you. I think I believe you but…wow, it’s just all so…wow…” she whimpered. “He’s not even human?” Her eyes settled on her friend and Ava gave her a forced semi-smile and a helpless shrug of her own.

  “Need more proof?” Gabe asked.

  Ava saw her friend swallow hard. “There’s more?”

  Gabe withdrew what was apparently the ever-present blade from his pocket. Ava gritted her teeth at the sight of it. He held his palm out to Molly as Ava reached for some napkins. Molly cringed as Gabe gingerly sliced open his palm in the same manner he had at the abandoned church.

  Molly’s questioning gaze went to Ava.

  “Just watch,” Ava nearly whispered as she took Gabe’s hand and pressed the napkins against it.

  “You saw it, right?” Gabe asked Molly.

  “The cut? Yeah. And that blood is impossible to miss. So now what?” she asked in a shaky voice.

  “This,” Gabe said as he held up his hand. The cut, though clearly evident had started to pull itself back together. “Give it a few more minutes and it’ll be gone completely.”

  “There won’t even be a scar,” Ava told her.

  Molly’s face crumpled in confusion. “Then why the scar over the heart?”

  Ava shrugged. “No idea.”

  “Gone,” Gabe said as he held up his hand, showing Molly only the vaguest of scars. He knew before long, even that would be gone completely.

  Molly put her elbows on the table and rested her face in her hands. “I think I need a minute,” she mumbled through her fingers. She took several deep breaths. Then a shudder went through her. “You could’ve been killed!” She leapt at Ava across the table and threw her arms around her.

  “I know,” Ava said as she tried to swallow down the knot in her throat. “Beli
eve me, I know. I think about it every day.”

  “Let’s go talk in the other room,” Gabe suggested. “It’s more comfortable and this could take a while.”

  Molly collapsed into the overstuffed chair. To Ava, she looked like she was on information overload but Ava was just grateful that Molly was handling it as well as she was. She wouldn’t have blamed her at all if she’d bolted out the door and called Ava crazy in the process.

  Ava had the sudden urge to cry, with relief, for once. Having their secret out in the open, not having to hide from her friends, and most importantly, having Molly’s support, it meant everything to her.

  “You doing okay?” Gabe asked. The question was aimed at both of them. He got matching, weak smiles from both of them in return. “Okay then. We should probably tell her the rest,” he said to Ava as he put a comforting arm around her.

  “There can’t be more,” Molly said, her voice flat but her eyes wide. “Tell me there can’t possibly be more.”

  “It’s Cam,” Ava carefully began. “I tried to talk to Julia about it but it didn’t go well. She wouldn’t let me say anything. She’s so mad at me right now I don’t know if she’d believe me if I did tell her. She has this crazy idea in her head that I’m jealous about Dawson.”

  “Dawson?” Gabe asked, clearly flustered. “What does he have to do with this?”

  Ava explained, in detail, the argument they’d had.

  “But Dawson had nothing to do with any of it, Julia just had it in her head that he did. It’s Cam that’s at the heart of this,” she explained to Molly. “He’s Nephilim.” Just saying the words out loud made Ava shudder and Gabe pulled her in closer.

  “That poor, sweet, mixed up girl,” Molly moaned. “She finally gets herself a guy and he’s Nephilim?! But let me guess. Not the pb&j making kind but the evil kind. Sorry! Sorry! Nervous, remember?” she asked with a shaky laugh that wasn’t really a laugh. “My head is spinning and I’m having a really hard time grasping all of this. If that bastard touches a hair on her naive little head, I will stab him through the heart myself.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t think you need to do anything that drastic,” Gabe said uncomfortably.

  “What do you need me to do?” Molly asked. “Do you want me to talk to her? Drag her butt back here so you can tell her everything you told me?”

  Ava sighed miserably. “No, I think, and I really hate to say it, but I think at this point, it’s best if we don’t tell her anything.”

  Molly narrowed her eyes at her friend. “Why not?”

  “We think it’s safer for her,” Gabe told Molly. “We talked about it earlier and it seems obvious my brother is up to something. First, Kara and now Cam.”

  “Wait. Who is Kara and what does she have to do with anything?” Molly demanded and Ava quickly filled her in. If Molly had been mad about Cam, she was livid about Kara.

  “As I was saying, first Kara delivered a message from Rafe. Then we bumped into Julia who is coincidentally dating another Nephilim?” Gabe shook his head. “Something is up.”

  “You didn’t see the way she looked at him. She clearly worships him and there’s a chance that the reason for that is, well, not entirely because of his human charms,” Ava admitted.

  Molly sighed. “This just keeps getting worse. Do I even want to know what you mean by that?”

  “Most Nephilim, because of the demonic part of their blood, inherit qualities, or abilities, that are…” she paused trying to find a polite way to say it.

  “Manipulative, controlling and sometimes just plain nasty,” Gabe supplied and Molly’s eyes widened.

  “So healing quickly isn’t the only, um, side-effect of being Nephilim?” Molly asked and Gabe let out a self-deprecating laugh.

  “No,” he said, “which is why things might get real complicated, real fast.”

  “Unless we get her away from him,” Ava reminded them. “Maybe he hasn’t done anything to her. Maybe she’s just infatuated because he’s using some very human charms on her. I don’t know. What I’m afraid of though, is that she won’t care. I’m worried that if she thinks we’re trying to keep her away from him, that she’ll go running right to him.”

  “So we need to be sneaky about it,” Molly stated.

  Ava grimaced.

  “Yes,” Gabe decided. “We just need some time to figure out what Rafe is up to. And maybe Cam is no part of it. I don’t think that’s the case but the problem is, we really don’t know.”

  “Even if he’s not,” Ava said softly, “as a general rule, I don’t think Julia dating a Nephilim is a good idea.”

  “Agreed,” Gabe said.

  “In the meantime, we need to get Julia away from Cam,” Ava pointed out. “But she’s so mad at me right now she won’t listen to anything I have to say.”

  “She’s not mad at me. Not yet. Maybe I can talk her into staying with me for a few days. But I’ll need a reason. You know,” Molly said contemplatively, “Serena Hendricks has been texting Oliver a lot. He says it’s nothing and that he ignores them but maybe it’s about time that it really started bothering me.”

  “Molly,” Ava said in a warning tone. “What are you going to do?”

  She looked pensive. “I think I feel a break-up coming on. Hopefully only a temporary one but definitely one that I’ll need Julia’s support to get through. I’ll probably need her to spend the night, maybe the week. She can hand me some tissues and tell me that I’m so much better than Serena.”

  “Oh, Molly no,” Ava quickly replied. “We can think of something else!”

  “Such as…?” Molly asked. Ava had nothing. She looked to Gabe, who had even less. “This guy could hurt her. I mean, really hurt her. Not just break her heart. Right?”

  Ava nodded.

  “Then I’m on it,” Molly decided. “As for Oliver, guys come and go, but best friends are forever,” Molly said decisively. “Except for maybe him,” she continued as she pointed accusingly at Gabe who had Ava nestled into his side as he played with a strand of her hair. “He looks like he might be pretty permanent. Just look at you two. You’re so lovely-dovey it’s disgusting. And completely awesome…And possibly somewhat depressing for a girl who is about to become single.”

  Molly was babbling now and Ava knew it was nerves. She took another try at convincing her that they could come up with something else. After tossing around ideas, nothing seemed as solid of a plan as what Molly had come up with.

  “Okay,” Molly said as she stood up. “I’ll put the break-up plan into motion as soon as I leave here.” She was already starting to tear up and Ava immediately wrapped her in a hug.

  “You are the best kind of friend, you know that right?” Ava asked. “And as soon as this is over, you and Oliver will get right back together.”

  “Right,” Molly tried to agree. “As long as Serena doesn’t swipe him out from under me.”

  “She won’t,” Ava said and she truly believed it.

  “”Well,” Molly said as she took a deep breath, “let’s get this over with.”

  Chapter 20

  Ava flinched in her sleep and Gabe knew immediately that the nightmare was beginning. She’d had them periodically since he’d been back. The first time it had happened there had been that ridiculous pillow between them. Her whimpers had awakened him that time. Not sure what to do, he’d tried to shake her awake but the disturbance only seemed to make things worse. When that hadn’t worked he’d flipped the pillow out of the way and pulled her into his arms. That night had been a bad night. She had thrashed and whimpered and finally clung to him in her sleep. By the time the nightmare had passed, his chest had been wet with her tears. Her body still trembled long after the thrashing had ceased.

  She didn’t wake herself and after she’d calmed again, much, much later, he’d replaced the pillow and pretended nothing had happened. Since then, he’d asked her and found out that she was still haunted by that terrible night. The nightmares were seldom now, seemingly brought on by st
ress. Considering how worried she was about Julia he wasn’t surprised when he realized it was starting. He’d given up on trying to wake her up. It seemed she just had to wait it out.

  So when the first whimper escaped her lips, he did what he’d become accustomed to doing. Now that she slept curled into him, he pulled her a little bit closer. He wiped the hair out of her face and started whispering nonsensical but calming words in the darkness of the cabin’s bedroom. Even in her sleep she clung desperately to him, as if by sheer will she could change the nightmare and keep him with her, instead of watching him fall away. He rubbed her arm soothingly and dropped light kisses on her forehead, feeling guilty that he was the cause of all of this. That the horrible memory of what he had done was the cause of this.

  This time, the night terror seemed to last longer than usual, possibly not only because of Julia but because of the sigils behavior igniting a fear in her. Something had set them off and obviously, that something was evil.

  “It’s okay, Ava. I’m right here,” he said quietly into her ear when her whimpers increased. Her grip on him tightened as if on some level she knew he was there but she couldn’t pull herself out of the darkness to get to him. “Shhh, you’re okay,” he continued to tell her as he cupped a hand around her face and used his thumb to push away the light stream of tears.

  After a while it passed, as it always did. Her breathing became more even. Her grip on him loosened just a little, though his, on her, remained the same.

  He didn’t seem to need nearly as much sleep as she did. Those first few days, he had. He’d been exhausted. But now, now he just enjoyed lying next to her, feeling her body pressed into his all night long. He could lie awake half the night just feeling mesmerized by her presence, by the rhythmic sound of her breathing.