“There’s some more stuff for you in the bag. Hope you don’t mind. Not trying to act all uppity by bringing it.”
“Thanks, Morgs. And trust me, I would never think of you as uppity.”
“Good.” She took another drink. Already pretty buzzed and fuzzy, might as well go for broke. Maybe a demon would show up and take the choice she knew needed to be made away. Stupid way to think, but her brain seemed to want to wander off in all kinds of directions.
Memories of Lucian, letting her off the hook when she couldn’t bring herself to dredge up her past, of him offering her a way to run if she needed to, of their searing kiss that almost took them over the edge roamed through her head. Each of them breaking little pieces of her wall. She was suddenly glad the he wasn’t around. In her current state, she would be much more open to the possibilities between them.
No, this night was better spent with Jake. Comfortable, familiar, Jake who had kept her alive when she knew nothing. Jake, who’d had enough to drink his nightmares wouldn’t translate into real world dangers for her tonight. Another half bottle between them and her mind quit worrying about things like love, lust, and decisions.
THOSE DAMN CONSTRUCTION workers were starting up in her head again, but it was dulled like they hadn’t fully got to it yet. One of these days, she’d learn to drink just enough to get pleasantly buzzed without sucking down so much she woke with a massive hangover. It seemed she either took one or two drinks to relax or downed a whole damn bottle.
Morgan cracked open her eyes. The deep bluish-gray of early morning shadowed everything around her. Jake snored heavy somewhere to her right. The branches of trees, tiny leaves formed all along their lengths, crisscrossed above her as darker shapes against the sky. Instinct sent off warning bells in her head making her realize just how vulnerable she was lying there, her head hazy with the remnants of the whiskey still floating in it. There was no way she was prepared to defend herself if need be.
Her heart leaped with a brief shot of adrenaline and she scrambled to sit up and take stock of her surroundings. Something soft slid off her shoulders. A shifting of the shadows out the corner of her eye had her turning in that direction, her sluggish mind trying to kick into gear.
Lucian gave her a small smile from where he sat leaning against the trunk of a tree, legs stretched out in front of him, ankles crossed. “Go back to sleep Morgan. You’re safe. So is Jake.”
Morgan twisted to look at Jake and found his slumbering form covered in a thick blanket with Lucy curled up against him. She looked down and fingered the same type of blanket that had slid down when she sat up. Finally, her bleary gaze found Lucian’s. “You did this?”
He nodded and Morgan said, “How long have you been here?”
“I arrived about the time you two were getting so drunk a group of gang members could have walked up with guns drawn and all you would have done is laugh hysterically at them. I lurked around the edges of the park, staying out of your way while keeping you both safe.”
Lucian reached out and gently ran his fingers down the side of her face. “What happened?”
It took a minute for her to realize he was talking about the bruise that likely decorated her face. “Nothing I couldn’t handle. I’m fine.”
“You don’t have to fight those battles, you know. I’m here if you need me, but I won’t push you to be someone you’re not. You don’t have to run from me, Morgan.”
An emotion she couldn’t define welled up in her at his soft words. It was comforting and secure. Did she actually feel safe? Without saying anything, she scooted closer to Lucian and curled up on the ground next to him with her head in his lap. His leg was warm against her uninjured cheek through the denim of his jeans. She barely registered him tucking the blanket around her shoulders as the remaining whiskey pulled her back into a dreamless sleep.
Lucian stared down at Morgan nestled against him and smoothed her hair away from her face. Glancing at Jake, he studied the other man for a moment before returning his gaze to Morgan. Would she ever trust him the way she did Jake? Maybe one day she would feel comfortable coming to him when she needed to untangle her feelings. Trust him with her past.
Though Lucian hadn’t meant to overhear most of her conversation with Jake, his hearing was so superior to a normal human’s, he couldn’t help it. He tried to ignore the warmth that spread through his chest at the thought she might actually care about him, and the thought he might feel the same about her. So used to being on his own, he wasn’t quite sure what to do with the new emotions. Lucian sighed and leaned his head back against the tree, trusting to time and the Higher Powers to work it all out.
When Morgan woke again, her head was pillowed on her arm. Sirens wailed somewhere nearby. Her head throbbed in time with the rise and fall of the strident noise. Couldn’t people stop hurting each other and having medical emergencies long enough for a person to have a hangover? Was that so much to ask? Yeah, it sounded selfish and she didn’t care.
With a groan, she pushed herself up until she sat leaning up against the tree where Lucian had rested. At least, she was pretty sure he’d been there. Had she dreamed that?
Looking down, she noticed the blanket for the first time since waking. Her fingers trailed over the soft material. He had been there. Her heart warmed at the memory of snuggling next to him, her cheek resting on his leg. The sense of being safe still filled her. It had been too long since she last felt safe. Morgan didn’t quite know how to deal with the feeling now.
She’d lived in a lot of different houses and without a house for a long time. Her time with Arabrim had been brief, only six months, and where she might have felt safe with him, there had never really been a sense of home. It wasn’t something she truly felt at Lucian’s house either. But with Lucian, in that early morning hour, she’d felt it. Was it possible that home was a person and not really a place at all?
Morgan snorted and leaned her head back to rest against the bark. Sure, home was a person and unicorns were going to come prancing down the street any moment crapping rainbows and spreading peace on earth. The whiskey must still be working a little of its liquid magic. Home wasn’t a person. It wasn’t a place. It didn’t exist and hadn’t since her parents died.
“What’s funny?”
Jake’s voice had her opening her eyes and turning her head to look at him. “What?”
“You kind of snorted, kind of laughed. What was funny?”
“Oh.” Morgan sighed and squinted against the bright, cheery sunshine. “Unicorns pooping rainbows.”
Jake chuckled and rubbed his forehead. “How you feeling?”
“Like I drank too much last night.”
“Sorry I fell asleep.” He yawned then took a small sip from a water bottle, then poured some into his cupped hand for Lucy. “Wasn’t a smart thing to do. Thanks for the blanket.”
“I didn’t give you the blanket. Lucian was here, making sure nothing bothered us.”
Jake raised his eyebrows. “That was nice of him. He’s a lot like Arabrim isn’t he?”
“He’s nothing like Arabrim.” Morgan looked away. Lost in thought, she stared across the park. Lucian was a different type of dark angel from what Arabrim had been. Arabrim would have followed her when she left, would have stepped in before she took the first sip of whiskey and would have seen her back in her bed at his house after a long lecture about putting herself at risk and about not behaving like a channel should.
Lucian seemed to accept her for who she was. Hopefully, he really did and there wasn’t some sort of agenda behind his actions. Given what he was, there was no reason to suspect him of being anything other than forthright. Even so, she’d learned a long time ago to never take anyone at face value.
Jake started to roll his blanket up, pulling her attention back to him. He was the only person in the world she fully trusted to never purposely hurt her and he knew her well enough to leave her alone when she needed to think. She loved that about Jake.
; With a something between a sigh and groan, Morgan stood and started rolling up her own blanket as Lucy came to stand beside her. Lucian too, seemed to know when to leave her alone though she knew it must drive him crazy. His consideration overwhelmed her and turned her mind to other things. They were supposed to have stayed in a hotel last night. Had she left him to drag her luggage along, or had he just stayed at his house?
“Here, tell Lucian thanks for me,” Jake said, trying to hand her the blanket.
Morgan shook her head. “Keep it. In fact,” she tossed her blanket at him, “keep this one, too. I doubt I’ll spend too many more nights out here for a while. There’s some crazy shit going down.”
“Does it have anything to do with that asshole in the alley a while back?” Jake took her blanket and shook it out before starting to reroll it tighter than what she had.
“Yeah. Hey,” Morgan pulled her phone out, “program your number in so I can call you.”
Jake threw his duffle over his shoulder. “Don’t need to. After the necklace thing, Lucian found me and put my number into both of your phones and both of your numbers in mine.”
“He did?” She looked down at her phone.
“Yeah. He said he knew we were good friends. Told me it would mean a lot.” Jake shrugged. “I couldn’t say no, Morgs. I didn’t want to. We kind of lost touch when Arabrim was around. I don’t want that to happen again.”
Morgan slowly slid her phone back into her pocket. Lucian was definitely nothing like Arabrim. “I better get going.”
Jake nodded. “Drive careful, Morgs. Call me if you get into trouble and need my help.”
“I will.” She turned and walked across the park toward her truck with Lucy trotting along next to her. Jake wouldn’t be able to help with what was going on, but what else could she say? ‘Sorry, Jake, I won’t call you because if I’m in trouble I can’t handle it’s because a pack of hellhounds is dragging me off?’ And knowing Jake he would try to help anyway and get killed.
Morgan opened the back passenger door of the suburban and Lucy jumped in. After closing the door, she circled around to the driver’s side.
“Nice morning, isn’t it?”
She spun around. A tall man with dark hair and deep green eyes stood so close Morgan instinctively stepped back against the side of the truck. Almost as tall as Lucian with a similar build, a white tank top hugged his torso and blue jeans hung low on his hips. “Uh, yeah.”
Her demon radar was completely silent but that didn’t mean a damn thing when it came to demon-possessed. Something about inhabiting a human body blocked it. He smiled, his expression disarming. It didn’t remove the edgy-feeling warning something wasn’t right.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” He held his palms up as if trying to show he meant no harm drawing attention to the black lines of what looked like some sort of tribal tattoo that started at his wrist, climbed his right arm and coiled around his shoulder before disappearing under his shirt.
“What do you want?” Inside the truck, Lucy snarled and barked through the closed window. Morgan searched his eyes for the telltale swirl of shadows that would mark him as demon-possessed and found none.
“Just commenting on the day.” He shrugged. “You don’t seem the sort that normally hangs out around here. It made me curious.”
His eyes remained open and sincerity filled his voice. She still didn’t trust him. “You don’t know anything about me, so don’t assume things.”
“Direct aren’t you?” He narrowed his eyes at her. “You remind me of someone. Have we met before?”
“Oh, please.” Morgan rolled her eyes. “If you think a line like that is going to work on me, then you have another thing coming.”
She turned just enough to reach for the door latch.
He stepped forward and pushed a hand against the door. “Stay and talk with me.”
Her body went on high alert as warnings clanged in her head. “Get the hell away from me whoever you are.”
“I’m sorry. I should have introduced myself. My name is Jax. And you are?”
“Ready for you to get your damn hand off my truck so I can leave.”
A scowl pulled Jax’s brows together. The green of his eyes deepened and changed to a dark red. “I can see this won’t go as they thought it would. A shame, it would have been easier. Especially on you.”
Morgan’s heart lurched into a gallop as she tensed. “Who thought? What the hell are you?”
“Close, but not quite.” He chuckled without mirth as his hand shot out and gripped her throat, slamming her back into the side of the truck.
Lucy’s enraged snarls came through the glass of the window as the dog dug at the door.
The man cast a wary look at the dog through the glass. Morgan brought her knee up, he blocked her with ease.
“I don’t think so,” he said, turning his attention back to Morgan. “I tried to be nice about it. They thought you might be more willing if you could be made to like me. I can see that will never happen.”
She tried to fight his grip and found the same iron strength of a dark angel. There was no way he was a dark angel though. She tried to raise a circle around him, pulling on her power until it burned through her veins. It started to form. Fire flashed in his eyes and her magic snapped back like a broken rubber band leaving her feeling dazed.
“Morgan!” Jake’s shout carried across the park.
She couldn’t draw enough breath to yell at him to stay away. Jax’s red eyes snapped to hers. “Morgan?”
His grip loosened a fraction. She spit at him. Ignoring it, Jax pulled her away from the truck and shoved her back, nearly knocking the breath from her lungs. “Morgan Brooks?”
When she remained silent, the muscles in his jaw flexed as he ground his teeth. His hand tightened its grip as he leaned forward and hissed, “Answer me or I’ll kill him.”
It didn’t take the flick of his eyes toward the rapidly approaching Jake for her to know who Jax meant. Her heart froze. Reluctantly, she nodded.
He swore and released her with another shove. “They didn’t tell me your name, only where I would find you and what you looked like.”
Morgan watched him, her heart pounding as he stared at her. His eyes shifted between dark red and green, indecision on face. Slowly he took a step back. “I can’t. Not you. She would never forgive me. Damn it!” He ran his hands through his dark hair. “Why did it have to be you?”
What was he talking about? Morgan didn’t ask, nor did she move.
Jax held out his hand. A tendril of black flames curled around his fingers before shooting toward Jake.
“No!” Morgan whirled toward her friend, heedless of the danger now at her back. The shadows struck Jake and sent him falling.
“What did you do to him?” Morgan turned back ready to attack Jax in defense of her friend, to hell with the consequences, and found the parking lot empty. She looked around but didn’t see him anywhere.
Sprinting, she ran to where Jake lay and dropped to her knees beside him. With a groan, he slowly sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “What happened? Who was that guy?”
Morgan glanced back at the parking lot. “I have no idea. He…uh…took off right after you tripped.”
“I didn’t trip. It was almost like I blacked out or something.” Jake glanced around, a fierce expression on his face. “He better hope I don’t find him.”
Shaken, Morgan swallowed hard. “Don’t worry about it. I told you, I don’t need you to fight my battles for me. You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Jake stood.
After getting to her feet, Morgan looked around carefully again. The adrenaline rush had washed away the hangover completely. “I need to get back to Lucian.”
Lucian’s car turned onto the road and drove toward them before slowing and pulling into the spot next to her truck. Relief washed through Morgan at the sight of it. She could admit there were some battles she just couldn’t fight.
LUCIA
N STEPPED OUT of the car, a cardboard drink tray in his hands. As he approached them, the wonderful aroma of coffee wafted from the three cups.
“I thought you two might benefit from this.” He gestured at the cups with his free hand.
Morgan’s legs chose that moment to give out, dropping her on her rear in the grass. With trembling hands, she pushed her hair behind her ears. What the hell was Jax? And why hadn’t Arabrim ever told her about him? Were there more? A shudder ran through her.
“Morgan?” She looked up. Lucian’s eyes were mere inches from hers as he knelt in front of her, their golden depths filled with a wealth of concern. “Are you okay?”
“I’m…no.” She shook her head. “I mean, yeah, not really.”
Lucian handed the drink tray to Jake. “Are you sick?”
“Some guy attacked her when she was trying to get into the truck,” Jake said, taking one of the cups from the tray.
“Someone you couldn’t fight off?” His gaze searched hers then softened though the worry remained as he took her hands and observed the slight tremble. “Someone who left you afraid.”
Morgan tried to pull her hands away, but he held onto them. The fear faded quickly as the sense of safe filled her again, irrational as it was. “I need to get out of here.”
Lucian stood, pulling her with him. He remained standing close to her and the sense of protection joined the feeling of safe. Lucian was a distraction she could hardly afford right now. A weakness she didn’t want. But he was there. Considerate, caring, willing to accept her even with all of her broken pieces. And though he seemed intent on maintaining the distance she kept trying to convince herself she wanted; Morgan was sure that if she reached for him, Lucian would bridge the gap between them.
The rational part of her, the one that grew smaller with each day spent in Lucian’s presence, cried out to keep the walls up. To protect her heart, her emotions, herself.
Confused and overwhelmed by unfamiliar emotions, Morgan turned her attention to Jake. It was easier to focus on him. He didn’t cause all kind of confusion in her mind and heart. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
Bound by Legend: A Bound Novel Page 16