by Amity Hope
Ava swung around to tell him that was not funny and this was not the time for jokes. The somber look on his face as he gazed at the cage assured her he hadn’t been joking. Instead, she sat next to him, taking his injured hand in hers and spreading the burn cream on it with her free hand.
“How many of you are there?” she asked.
“Nephilim?” he shrugged. “Rafe is the only other one I know but they’re out there. In fact, I’m sure I have more siblings than I can even fathom. Azael has always alluded to it but I’ve never gotten up the nerve to ask. Or maybe I’ve never wanted to know. Not if it meant being the biggest failure in the family.”
“So how does that work? Does he just kidnap women and force them to have children?”
“No,” Gabe said with a harsh laugh. “Not my mother anyway. She chose her path. She had no reservations about having a child with a demon. She was well rewarded for providing Azael with us and that was all she wanted. His wealth. From what little I know, I think it’s hard to carry a Nephilim to term. He got the children he wanted. She got the money, the house and whatever else she wanted. Don’t confuse my mother with a saint, held against her will. As far as I can tell, she, at least, was a very willing participant.” He paused, lost in thought. “But I think it must have worn on her after a while. I don’t know if her conscious got the best of her or if Rafe did something so truly horrible that she realized how potentially evil we could become.”
“So she hurt you…and Azael killed her?” Ava thought that was what she’d seen but the memory was clouded with blood and agony. She fought not to shudder at the memory. Instead, she wanted to hold on tightly to Gabe and make that gruesome day disappear for him forever.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. She wasn’t really my mother. Not in the sense you’re thinking. She produced me and that’s about all I can say about that.” Gabe yawned and he looked surprised at doing so. “That r soer. Not ineaping must be some nasty business.”
Ava thought of how the blood had started to flow and how his body had convulsed and she couldn’t disagree. “You’re tired.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I think I am. Usually I just sleep out of boredom but…I’m actually tired.”
“Come on then,” Ava said, rising from the couch, trying to pull him along with her.
“Ava, no,” he said decisively.
“Gabe, yes,” she said, just as stubbornly. “We’re both exhausted. It’s a big bed. Besides, I’ll feel a lot safer if you’re with me.” It wasn’t a lie and he sensed that.
“Are you sure?” he asked, but he was already getting to his feet.
Minutes later they were nestled in. She scooted over to him. He let out a resigned sigh.
“Do you not want me near you?” she asked.
“Ava, what I want and what is right are almost always entirely different things.”
“You’re fighting to keep me alive. You went against your family trying to do it. You’re willing to deal with the sigils making you miserable because they keep me safe. I could go on but the point is, maybe you made mistakes in the past—”
“‘Mistakes’ does not even begin to describe some of the things I’ve done,” Gabe admitted, his voice bursting with tension.
Ava put a finger to his lips. “It’s all in the past. You’re making the right choices now. I need you. I need you to be here for me and to not check out on me.”
“I’m not going to check out on you,” he assured her. “At this point, I’m pretty sure I’d do just about anything for you.” I’m just afraid it won’t be enough, he thought.
“Hopefully Grier will come back to us with something.”
Gabe slid his arms around Ava. She didn’t hesitate, she curled right into him. She felt safe with him. He was not going to let her down. He wanted to be able to promise her that but he was desperately afraid it was a promise he could not keep.
“Grier’s stronger than either Rafe or me. But I’m afraid even she is not an equal to my father. If she’ll even help us,” he growled in frustration, realizing and not caring that the sound was not entirely human. “We are completely powerless against them.”
She put a soothing hand on his shoulder. He fought to not hold on to her any tighter, for fear of breaking her.
“Gabe,” Ava said softly. “If we can’t overpower them, then we need to find a way to outsmart them.”
Outsmart a full blooded angel and a full blooded demon?
“Right,” Gabe said. As if we have a snowflake’s chance in hell at doing that.
Chapter 22
“I don’t have the luxury of moping around, wallowing in my remorse and torment. Time doesn’t allow it.” Or was it his demon blood that would not allow it? Would not allow him to bask in a few moments of self-indulgent compunction? No. He wouldn’t think of that. What was done was done. It was in the past. Ava had said so. But her future was delicate and must be prepared for with the utmost prudence and discretion.
“That does not explain why you are sleeping in her bed.” Grier had not been pleased to find them together.
“Because the kitchen floor was hard,” Gabe replied. He sighed. “Look. I get it. You hate me. I mostly hate me. But somehow, some way, Ava has found it in her heart to not hate me. Can you at least get the information I asked for? Can you find out if what I am asking will work?”
He had been exhausted the night before. Ava had fallen asleep in his arms and he was absurdly proud of himself for the amount of restraint he had shown. He had never slept, actually slept with a girl like that before. It was oddly…amazing. And he wanted to smash his own head into the wall because he was thinking of that when he should be thinking of his plan.
He shook his head to clear out the smut. Somehow, in his Ava induced state of rapture he had managed to formulate a plan. It was dangerous. There were countless ways it could go wrong. But he wouldn’t worry about that now. What he needed to worry about now was whether or not it would work. And, what scared him the most was that for it to work, he would need Grier’s help.
“You were correct in your assessment,” Grier grudgingly allowed. “If Azael’s plan is carried out, it will forever tip the balance.”
Gabe sucked in a sharp breath. As terrifying as that was—forever tipping the balance—he wanted to hear that. He needed to hear that because—
“I will be allowed to assist you. But only to a certain extent.”
He let out his breath in a relieved rush. “Thank you.” He laid out his idea for Grier. It was because of her he had formulated the plan. He wanted to set a trap for his father. Similar to the one Grier had placed on the inside of the cabin to hold him there.
She listened attentively before pointing out the flaws in his plan. One could be remedied easily. The trap would be more powerful if it were forged on sanctified ground. She agreed with Gabe that the abandoned church could serve this purpose.
The other flaw was not easily remedied. “You must understand that I only have the capability of creating the trap that will cage your father. Nothing more.”
Gabe nodded numbly. He had not been prepared for the enormity of the second flaw. Or the remedy for it. “I understand.”
He hesitated, weighing his words. “Grier, I didn’t choose to be what I am.”
“I know. What I question is whether you can choose not to be.”
“Gabe?” He turned toward Ava’s voice as Grier disappeared.
She was thickly cloaked in a fear that was gnawing away at her the same way the monster of her nightmares might. Only this was not a nightmare. The monster was very real.
He had expected this. Last night, he was sure, she had been in shock.
“I’m right here,” he said as she shuffled out of the bedroom. He went to her and held her as tightly as he dared.
“Were you talking to someone?” Ava asked as she buried herself in his chest and hugged him back.
“Grier was here.”
Ava look
ed around.
“She’s gone again.”
“I see that. I’m glad. I feel…” she paused. “I don’t even know what I feel. I thought angels were supposed to be…I don’t know. Not so frightening,” Ava admitted.
Gabe smiled at the irony of her statement. She was frightened by an angel and yet she felt safe with him?
“You need to remember that Grier is not human, Ava. She’s even less human than I am. She doesn’t feel human emotions or probably even really understand them,” Gabe explained.
Ava nodded slowly. “That does make sense. Actually, it explains a lot.”
“There are different classes of angels. Grigori have been on the earth for millennia just watching. That’s all she knows. That’s what she was created for.” He sighed. “I keep trying to remind myself of that because I can’t expect her to understand something that she’s not able to understand.
“I admire Grier,” he admitted. “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t agree with her. But that’s just my point. She is determined to do what she believes is right. She has a strict code of honor and she’s following it. If they were all like her, no angels would have fallen. My father would not be after us.”
“I know,” Ava sighed. “She’s listening to a higher power than herself.”
“It’s not like her kind to sit atop a puffy white cloud practicing her harp and buffing her halo to perfection. She has a job to do and she’s doing it.” He sighed. “I just wish she wasn’t doing it so well.”
He looked at her hesitantly and his voice was pained when he spoke. “Ava, yesterday, in the church, did I hurt you? When I pushed you? I didn’t mean to shove you so hard. I just wanted you out of the way. I heard you cry out.”
Her hand went to her hip. It had hurt with a blinding pain at the time. She had been sure it would be badly bruised, possibly even fractured. But now that Gabe had asked, she realized it didn’t hurt at all. In fact, she’d forgotten about it. She rolled down the waistband of her pants. “It’s fine, see?” she asked. “Not even a bruise.”
He looked relieved, though still guilty. “I think Grier must’ve healed it before she brought us here. I’m sorry I hurt you.”
< alignh="24" align="justify">“She can do that?” she asked with wide eyes.
“There’s really no limit to what she can do,” Gabe explained. “The limitation lies in what she is willing to do. I was worried you’d be in a lot of pain this morning so I’m glad she healed you.”
“Whether she healed it or not, you just did what you had to do. I know that.” He didn’t look so convinced. “Come here,” she said as she sat down. Gabe sat next to her and she put her head on his chest. “I’m fine. But how are you doing? With the sigils, I mean.”
He tensed and Ava instantly felt worried.
“There’s something I need to tell you. I need to prepare you,” he warned.
She sat up, alarmed. Her fear so strong this time it nearly took his breath away. Gabe started rubbing her back, trying to calm her.
“Remember the night we went to Florentine’s? You asked me why I stuck around? Why I didn’t leave my family? I tried. Once, when I was fourteen, I ran away. He found me and I paid for my ‘transgression’ as he called it. I paid for three solid, miserable days. Blood calls to blood. His blood is running through my veins. No matter where I am, no matter how far I run, if he performs a blood ritual, he can find me. I can’t escape him. I can’t get away. These sigils,” he said as he pointed to the wall, “are blocking him from finding me. For now.”
The color had drained from Ava’s face. “What do you mean? Is he going to show up at the door?”
Gabe shook his head. “No. But I think he’s trying to take me. I can feel it,” Gabe grimly told Ava. “It’s pulling at me, the way he pulled Rafe out of the church.”
Ava’s hand flew to her mouth. “Are you going to just disappear on me?” When Gabe didn’t answer she gripped his arms tightly. “Tell me!”
“Unless Grier’s sigils can block him completely, probably. When I came looking for you last night, I was going to talk to you, to your parents. I was going to ask them to take you away. To hide you somewhere. If I could take you with me, I would be trying to convince you to run away with me right now. I would be looking for somewhere safe but the thing is, nowhere with me would be safe for you. I would lead you right to him,” Gabe miserably admitted.
“What will he do if he finds you?” Ava asked though she thought she already knew. The look Gabe gave her confirmed it. She felt ill with terror. She buried her face in his chest and held him as tightly as she could, as if by sheer will she could keep him there. “I don’t want anyone to hurt you. Not ever again.”
She began crying so soundlessly that Gabe would possibly not have realized it if it weren’t for her tears soaking into his shirt.
“Don’t do that,” he softly commanded. “Don’t cry over me.”
“If anyone deserves to be cried over, it’s you,” Ava told him, just as softly. “We need to find a way out of this. We need to stop him. Can’t he be stopped somehow? How do you kill a demon?”
“You can’t kill a demon. They’re immortal. Just like angels. Look at me,” Gabe requested. She did as he asked and he wiped the tears off of her face. “I had an idea. I spoke to Grier about it. I don’t know if it will work but she’s looking into it.”
“What?” Ava asked. “What is it?”
“These sigils, the seven seals of the archangels, are the most powerful sigils ever created. They’re powerful because of what they are but also because they can only be forged in the blood of another angel. No other being can create them so intricately or so accurately. The fact that they are created in blood makes them binding. Like a cage.” Gabe paused, letting his words sink in.
“You want to trap him?” Ava asked. “Here?”
“No. The sigils would have a more powerful effect on him than they do on me but even still, if he walked through this door, they would not be strong enough.” Ava looked at him expectantly. “But if the sigils were placed in a church, on sacred, holy ground, I think it might hold.”
“A church? You want to trap him in my dad’s church?” Ava asked. She was ready to list off all of the reasons that wouldn’t work.
“No,” Gabe assured her. “Not there. In your grandfather’s church. It’s abandoned, right?”
Ava nodded as the first glimmer of hope began to awaken. “Do you think it will work?”
Gabe shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. Grier is trying to find out.”
Her hope flickered as she slumped against him. “You said the sigils can only be created by another angel. Do you know any other angels besides Grier? Because the last I heard, she wasn’t willing to help.”
Gabe forced a reassuring smile. “She was granted permission to help. But only in a passive manner.”
“Meaning?” Ava pressed.
“The permission she was granted would allow her to create the sigils. But anything beyond that, anything requiring her to actively step in, will be denied.”
“Okay,” Ava said as she slowly nodded, allowing the information to sink in. “So do you think it will work? Creating a demon’s snare out of the sigils on holy ground? Will it be strong enough to hold him?”
“I don’t know,” Gabe honestly replied. “Until I saw the sigils last night it never occurred to me that containing Azael was even a possibility.”ityils
“What if it doesn’t work?” Ava whispered.
“Then we’ll both be answering to the wrath of my father.”
Ava was trembling but he didn’t need to feel her physical response to know how terrified she was. Oddly, what he was realizing was that it wasn’t herself she was afraid for. It was for him. As much as she did not want to die, she knew that her death could be obtained quickly where his…his body could endure unbearable torture for an endless amount of time before ever giving out on him. She knew this because she had seen it. She had felt it. She was terrified that he
would be put through it all again and worse.
“Try not to worry,” he told her.
“Can I see?” she asked abruptly, yet quietly, taking him by surprise.
“See what?” he asked though he was sure he already knew.
“Your scars.”
He was already shaking his head ‘no’ before she had the words out.
“Please,” she whispered, her voice coaxing, her eyes pleading.
“Why?” he asked, resigned because even though he desperately didn’t want to, he knew he was not capable of denying her anything.
“Because I want to know you. I want to know all of you and your scars, they’re a part of you.”
He didn’t answer, neither in protest nor agreement. When Ava took his hands he let her pull him to his feet. She cupped the back of his head in her palm and tilted his lips down to meet hers. The kiss they shared was gentle and sweet. The kind of kiss Gabe, in the past, would have rather skipped. With Ava, it was different. He didn’t want it to end.
When it did, he heard himself agree in a voice that was barely audible.
She hesitantly took the hem of his shirt in her hands. Slowly, she inched it up until Gabe had to help her slide it over his head. She placed another soft kiss on his lips before turning him.
He knew what she would see. A mass of badly scarred flesh. First chopped and then charred. His flesh gouged and then scorched to stop the bleeding which had not stopped on its own. Every injury he had ever sustained—and they were infinite, over the years—they had healed. But not this one. It was gruesome, he knew, and he kept it well hidden.
Ava didn’t say a word as she helped him slide his shirt back on. They sat again and she snuggled into him, as she had the night before. After a long silence that Gabe did not feel comfortable breaking Ava spoke. “Did I tell you yet that I love you?”
“I think you might have mentioned it,” Gabe replied in a voice that sounded uncharacteris unre atically unsure.
“Good, because I do. I love you. And when this is over,” she said, “I am going to do everything I can to make you happy. For as long as you’ll let me.”