Chapter Fifty-Three: Ava Drake

Present day

Wickery Bridge, VA

"She won't do it!" Winifred cried into the phone despairingly.

She was pulling off the highway, minutes away from Wickery Bridge, glancing between the road and her daughter, who sat cross-armed in the passenger seat with a scowl that suggested Gabe's calls had just ruined an otherwise good day. This time was meant to be spent restoring their close relationship and instead it had been cut short, which Ava clearly didn't appreciate. But what choice did Winifred have? They were the closest to Mystic Falls. They would be the first to get to Wickery Bridge. But with every call she took, every mile she drove, everything Winifred had rebuilt with her daughter was being left scattered along the road behind them.

Ava turned her head and looked out the window. For her, it wasn't that shopping in Lynchburg had been anything different from what they'd done in the past. They talked, they ate, they had coffee, they spent more money than they should have; all that was pretty typical. It was what Ava had planned afterwards that had pissed her off. She had tickets for a play. Initially, she only had the one ticket, but after a quick call she'd managed to get two. But it wasn't the play she cared about missing; it was who was starring in the play.

When Ava was fifteen, she'd taken dance lessons after school. Dimitri wasn't happy about it – complaining about where that was going to get her in life – but her mother was supportive. Winifred had no idea why Ava was so keen on having the lessons until she met the instructor. Or, more specifically, the instructor's son. Chase Carter was seventeen, golden white skin, thick brown hair in a fade cut, green eyes, and lived up to his name since every teenage girl was chasing him for his number. Lessons took place in her high school's dance studio after hours and, for a while, Chase's presence faded Ava's crush on Cristian into near non-existence.

Despite the extra attention he'd lavished upon Ava throughout her lessons, choosing her as his dance partner each and every time, Chase remained professional and nothing ever happened between them. She realized where she stood with him when he once said he wished she was a couple of years older. Two years seemed like such a huge age gap back then, particularly after he turned eighteen. Still, she had been the only girl he'd kept in touch with after he left for college. It had pained her when he started dating someone else in his second semester, but they'd remained distant friends nonetheless. And today she had missed her first chance of seeing him in years. Missed his first starring role. Like every other bad thing that had been happening to her recently, it was all Gabe's fault. Of course she was the only one who could help with his silly predicament, but it didn't mean she was going to.

Continuing to speed down the road, Winifred nudged her daughter, offering her the phone. "Gabe wants to speak to you."

Ava reluctantly took it, holding it to her ear. She'd listen to what he had to say, but it wouldn't change her mind. "What?"

"I'm going to tell you something, but you can't tell your mother," Gabe said to her.

Ava's head twitched curiously, her ear pressing into the phone. "Ok-ay," she dragged out in agreement.

"I know you want me out of your mother's life, and if you help me with this, you might just get what you want," he said. "I'm the vampire who turned Stefanie, and you know Cristian wants my section of the talisman. I'm going to give it to him."

Straightening in her seat, Gabe now had Ava's full attention. "But if you do that then –"

"Don't say another word," he quickly interrupted, silencing her. "Your mother can't find out about this. I know it's going to kill me, but I caused all of this and it's my job to end it. Cristian only wants Raid out of the picture because he and Stefanie are together now. Lorraine would have told him that. Don't let two innocent men die because of your step-brother. I'm almost there. Please help them."

As they came up to the bridge, Ava had only seconds to decide what action she was going to take. It only took seconds before her decision was made. If Gabe died, there was a chance her family could be reunited. If Raid died, there would be nobody standing between Cristian and Stef. Without Raid, she knew the lengths Cristian would go to in order to make her his. She'd seen Raid defeat him. He was the only one who could keep Cristian from her.

As the car came to a stop, she uttered one stern word to Gabe before handing the phone back to her mother: "Fine." She stepped out of the car, removed her shoes, and wasted no time in pushing through the overgrown foliage at the end of the bridge. Her mother ran out of the car, watching over her, her hands clasped together, as Ava took the steep drop down into the river.

Most of the car was submerged with only a partial view of Raid and Adam through the upper section of the windows that remained above water. In their panic, it took them a while to notice her swim up to them and slap her hands on the car. The sudden noise made them turn in her direction, water splashing around their necks.

"Ava!" Adam declared in surprise. "How did you –"

"Shut up," she told them, her legs below kicking furiously to hold her afloat. "I'm not here for small talk." She could feel the weight of the car slipping slowly down her palms. She emitted a chant, casting a spell around the car. She couldn't get them out, but she could stop the car from sinking further, at least for a few minutes. Gabe had better hurry. Each time she needed to repeat the spell would be a further few seconds the car would continue its descent underwater. Finally the spell was over and she felt the car halt. She removed her hands, sculling them in circles to maintain herself above the surface of the river.

"Can you get us out?" Adam asked urgently.

"I would have done that if I could," she shot back. "If Raid can't get you out with his magic then neither can I."

"I can't use my magic!" Raid defended. It had taken his cousin a long time to find the keys he'd dropped to the floor of the car, but when he'd finally found them and unlocked the cuffs that were suppressing Raid's powers, they discovered to their horror that Raid's magic still hadn't returned. Raid held up the opened cuffs to head height, displaying them to Ava through the window. "I had these on. I still don't have my magic back. How long does it take?"

Ava studied carefully the black tourmaline stones scattered around the circular metal strands. She'd heard about these through Gideon, cutely named the Power Crush Cuffs by Zakariah. An invention by Stef. If witches had any way of getting their hands on them, they would have done it long ago to prevent vampires from using them. Luckily, loose-lipped Zakariah had bragged about how they worked. "Stef's unconscious somewhere, isn't she?" she realized.

Raid pinched his eyes closed at the words. If she was being taken to Cristian, he was hoping she would have woken up by now. He couldn't stand the thought of her being so vulnerable around him.

Ava nodded in recognition of his reaction, her chin hitting the water. "Your powers pass to the creator of the handcuffs until they are removed, but your magic won't return until she activates hers."

Raid and Adam yelped in unison as the car sunk downwards. Ava slammed her hands back on the car, casting the spell once again. The water was now up to their raised chins by the time it was completed.

"We're not getting out of this, are we?" Adam wasn't even sure he wanted to hear the answer to his question.

Before Ava could reply, she heard car doors slam behind her. She turned her head, seeing Gabe run towards the river. Winifred grabbed Phoenix by the arm before he had a chance to follow, nodding as he listened to her. Her words were inaudible to Ava, but she had her suspicions what they were.

Ava snapped her head back to Adam. "Whose car is this?"

"Phoenix," Adam sputtered, his bottom lip grazing the water as he spoke.

"Then your luck's about to change," she assured him.

Phoenix plunged into the water just as Gabe reached the car. He immediately yanked on the door handle to the driver's side with all the strength he possessed and only succeeded in ripping it off the door. He held up the broken piece above the water, staring at it with wide eyes.

Ava snarled at him, her eyelids pinched. "Do me a favor and don't try that again, Brawn Over Brains."

Phoenix came to a stop, treading water beside Ava. "Winifred told me you need my blood to undo a spell on the car?"

"That's right," she confirmed. "I won't be able to keep the car afloat and perform the new spell, but I think it will remove the magic keeping it shut."

"You think?" Raid fretted loudly, overhearing her.

"You got a better plan?" she snapped at him.

Raid only huffed defeatedly in response, rippling the water in front of his face.

"Didn't think so." Ava's legs kicked harder beneath the water as she held her palms up at Phoenix. "Blood," she requested of him. She recited the spell she needed to perform in her mind as Phoenix bit into his hand and wiped the blood against her open palms. Holding her hands high above the water, she clasped them together. "Be ready," she told Raid and Adam, "and take a deep breath. I'm about to begin."

The second Ava began the spell, the car instantly lurched downwards. Raid and Adam took their final breaths as Gabe swam around the car. With him on one side and Phoenix on the other, they had both areas covered for a quick escape.

The car sunk lower and lower. The windows gone. The chant continued.

Gabe and Phoenix dove below the surface, trying both front and back doors as Raid and Adam struggled from inside to escape. Pushing, pulling, kicking without success. Murky water surrounded them, pockets of air escaping their lips. The fear in their eyes was unbearable. Their desperation was unbearable. With each second that passed, they lost more hope that this would work.

Gabe and Phoenix returned to the surface for air. The roof of the car gone. The chant continued.

"Fuck!" Gabe exclaimed. How long was this going to take? He plunged back down again, Phoenix following.

Striking at the windows wasn't working, so Gabe punched against the body of the car instead, a dent gradually forming in the metal beside the door. When the dent was large enough to dig his fingers between it, Gabe pulled fiercely along the edge of the door, as Raid tugged over and over on the inside handle.

Then Raid's tugs weakened. He looked up at Gabe with a sad shake of his head. It was over. This was his goodbye.

Then, with a final weak attempt of the handle and a furious pull by Gabe, the door launched open.

Gabe grabbed Raid just as Phoenix swam across the windshield to help Adam, who was fortunately more alert than Raid and already started pulling himself out of the car. They headed towards the surface, their lungs burning, their heads bursting, their visions shaky.

With a gasp, they all broke the surface.

The only one who didn't draw a breath was Raid.

"Get him... to land... now!" Adam heaved.

"By then, he'll be unconscious," Phoenix countered. "Gabe, hold him steady."

Despite Gabe having no idea what he had planned, he held tightly to Raid, his back pressed against his chest. Phoenix swam over, delivering a quick hit upwards towards Raid's diaphragm. Water expelled fiercely from Raid's mouth and he wheezed in a desperate breath. Another strained breath. Again and again, until his head flopped forward in exhaustion.

"I had to do that once when Raid almost drowned on his own vomit after drinking too much," Phoenix explained to Gabe. "It was not a pretty sight." When Raid raised his eyes weakly up at him, having formerly sworn Phoenix to secrecy about that particular experience, he added promisingly, "I will never tell that story to Stef..." Only, the moment Raid was out of earshot, Gabe pulling him towards the riverbank, Phoenix added quietly, "...again."

Gabe did his best to place Raid steadily on dry ground, helping him find his feet, but it didn't last long, and Raid went from feet, to knees, to flat on the floor. As soon as Adam approached, he did the same, so Gabe decided to leave them in Phoenix's care as he made his way across the bridge, towards Winifred and Ava.

"Thank you for helping," Gabe said to both of them.

Ava squeezed water out of her clothes with her fists, stating, "My part's done. I want Mom to take me home now."

"One last thing," Gabe requested, walking past her towards his car.

Ava followed him in annoyance. "I said I want to go home!"

Gabe entered his car, pulling out his phone, a map, a pocketknife, and his section of the talisman from the glove compartment. He closed the door and placed all items on the hood of his car. "I need a locator spell. The talisman belonged to Stef. You can use it to find her."

"You loaned it to Gideon, which means she gifted it to you," Ava disputed. "It's not going to work."

"It has to work. I have nothing else of hers," Gabe insisted, spreading out the map. He lifted his head, looking at her imploringly. "Please. Don't make me go to her parents' house and ask them for something that will help me find their missing daughter. This will be the last thing I ask of you. The very last thing."

Ava knew what he meant by that. He'd soon be dead. She was suddenly wondering if this was the right thing to do. She let out a heavy breath and grabbed hold of the talisman. "It's not going to work," she repeated.

Raid's voice came from behind them. "This will work." He staggered weakly on his feet towards them, wet streaks of dirt down his front, holding out the black tourmaline handcuffs he'd had in his back pocket. It was the closest thing he had to Stef when he thought he was going to die, and he hadn't wanted to let them go. "Her magic is in them."

Reaching out, Ava took the handcuffs and turned back to Gabe with her eyebrows raised. "See," she said, satisfied. "Exactly what I needed."

Placing the handcuffs down, Ava sliced into her hand with the pocketknife and allowed her blood to fall over the map. She could feel the accuracy of Stef's location emanating from the link to her magic as she performed the spell, closing her eyes and chanting as the blood travelled across it. As soon as she felt it hit its mark, she opened her eyes.

"Do you recognize that location?" she asked, looking down at the street the blood stopped on.

Gabe peered closely at the map, nodding. "Stef's been taken to Saint Joe's."

"Where's that?"

He straightened, ready to leave. He shot an update to Zara, telling her where to meet them. "Damon's bar."