Bound by Legend: A Bound Novel

by A. D. Trosper

  Closing her eyes, Morgan pulled the fresh, rain-washed air into her lungs and let it out slowly. It seemed like forever since she hadn’t been running from something. Her moment of peace passed as the images of the people she’d lost filled her mind one by one and faded until only Jake remained, lingering with pain that hadn’t been dealt with yet. In that moment of peace, Morgan felt more tired than she ever had.

  Lucian’s arms encircled her from behind and she leaned into his warmth as he asked, “Are you okay?”

  Morgan opened her eyes. Lucy laid in front of her, ears pricked forward, expression expectant. Something in the dog’s brown gaze steadied her. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  Isobel closed the trunk on Damien’s car. “You guys ready?”

  “I think so,” Lucian answered letting Morgan go and stepping back. When she turned to face him, his eyes searched hers. “Are you sure?”

  Morgan didn’t need to ask what he meant. Burying her emotions under the need to survive, she nodded and walked around the truck to open the door. “C’mon, Lucy, let’s go.”

  The dog bounded into the truck, jumped over the back of the front seat and flopped down on the middle bench, her tongue lolling out. As Morgan got into the driver’s seat a faint howl drifted on the sunrise. She started the engine and waited for Lucian to back out then followed him. Damien and Isobel, in his black car, stayed in her rearview mirror as they drove. Behind them, in a rental car, were Sarah and Jameth. It was an unusual feeling to know she didn’t face this alone.

  Morgan watched Golden fade away behind them, careful to stay close to Lucian’s car as they moved into Denver and took I-25 north. They would be staying in Brighton that night but Lucian’s planned route would keep them as far from Riverdale Road, and that length of the South Fork, as possible for now.

  It took over an hour to reach Brighton thanks to a wreck on I-25 and their round-about route. Even so, they still reached the hotel well before noon. Morgan saw with relief it was a Best Western. Something simple, and normal.

  Morgan waited in her truck while Lucian checked them in. A few minutes later she carried her two bags into a standard room with two queen sized beds. Lucy happily followed. Whatever Lucian had said to them at the desk, they didn’t seem to have a problem with the large dog.

  Plopping her bags down on the luggage rack, Morgan turned to find Lucy sprawled in the middle of the bed closest to the window. “Claiming that as your own are you?”

  Lucy wagged her stubby tail and stretched.

  Lucian carried his bags in, glanced at the dog, and set them on the other bed. “Guess she’s already decided which one she wants to sleep on.”

  Morgan shook her head and turned her attention on the dark angel. “Any luck finding a cougar claw?”

  “Not yet. With the hounds in full hunt again, we don’t have much time.” He paused and smiled. “Damien tells me there is a great burger place here. I have calls out for the claw, there’s nothing we can do other than wait and see if anyone calls back. I haven’t heard the hounds since we left Denver. Why don’t we take a moment and forget about it. At least spend an hour enjoying good food and the company of friends?”

  “What about Lucy?” As nice as it sounded, Morgan didn’t really want to leave the dog in the hotel room.

  Lucian slid one arm around her waist and pulled her close, scorching her lips with a kiss that made her forget about food or anything other than the fact that they were alone in a room with a bed. Her heart leapt and her breath came faster as she returned the kiss, pressing herself closer to him.

  He ended the kiss with a low chuckle. “We’ll take her with us.”

  It took a moment for her brain to engage and remember what they had been talking about. “Oh, um, okay. Are you sure?”

  “Don’t you think she deserves a cheeseburger?”

  Morgan laughed and stepped away from his embrace. “Nobody is going to be eating anything if you don’t stop holding me like that.”

  Lucian prowled closer, a mischievous glint in his smoldering gaze. “Why is that?”

  “Because,” Morgan said, backing away even as her body flushed with heat. “Either we are going to be too occupied to eat or I’ll suffer spontaneous combustion.”

  “Mmmm, we can’t have you combusting now can we?” Lucian moved impossibly fast, his arms encircling her waist before she could blink.

  Squealing and laughing, Morgan tried to push away even as his hot kisses down her neck made her knees buckle. She sank into him with a groan. His large hands found their way under her shirt, caressing her skin and igniting a fire deep within her. And then he claimed her mouth, his tongue sweeping in to tease her further.

  Morgan’s hands moved up under his shirt of their own accord, exploring the hard muscles of his stomach and chest. All of the tension of the past few days, all of the sorrow, all of the fear, screamed for the release offered by his body.

  Sometime later, an hour? Maybe two? Morgan wasn’t sure, someone knocked on their door. She wished they would go away. Drifting in a blissful emotional state of peaceful nothingness, while her sated body lay twisted in the sheets with Lucian’s, she didn’t want to move. Maybe not ever again.

  Damien’s muffled voice came through the door from the hall beyond. “Are you guys ready to eat? We uh, waited for you as long as we could, but we’re getting pretty hungry.”

  Morgan felt heat flush over her face and neck. Lucian cocked a grin at her. “Are you blushing?”

  “No. I don’t blush.” And she didn’t, at least not normally. Right then she wanted to crawl under the covers and hide. Had the others known why she and Lucian hadn’t come out of the hotel room? Probably.

  Lucian chuckled and climbed from the bed. “Yeah, just give us a minute and we’ll be ready.”

  Groaning, Morgan slid out of the bed. She really hadn’t wanted to move. After gathering her clothes from the floor and putting them on, she dug through one of her bags until she unearthed her brush then set to work combing through the rats nest her hair had become since arriving.

  It didn’t take long and by the time Morgan laid the brush down, Lucian was fully dressed and looking as good as he had when they got there. Damn dark angel speed. She shoved her feet into her boots and called for the dog. They all piled into her SUV, Morgan relinquishing the driver’s seat to Damien since he knew where the restaurant was. Behind them to the west, mountains shadowed the horizon. In front, to the east, the land spread out in a plain that was surprisingly flat.

  Damien navigated the traffic with ease and soon pulled into the driveway of a strip mall and then into the smaller parking lot belonging to a white building with blue, yellow, and red awnings and a sign proclaiming it “Good Times.” Morgan hoped it would be. They could use some good times.

  As the truck eased into a parking spot, Morgan saw several small, umbrella-topped tables outside. This place was already good in her book since Lucy would be able to sit with them. Or at least with her. Morgan didn’t care if the others wanted to sit inside; she wasn’t leaving the dog in the car. For one, with the temperature hovering in the low nineties, it was too hot.

  When she started toward the tables Lucian stopped her. “What do you want me to order?”

  Morgan shrugged. “Whatever you think looks good. I told you, I’m the world’s least picky eater.”

  She settled at one of the umbrella adorned tables, thankful for the shade it provided. Lucy laid down a few feet away in the shade of the restaurant itself. Isobel, Jameth, and Sarah took seats at the other small tables. The three tables were clustered close enough together that they would be able to talk freely without bumping elbows. A line of trees and bushes separated their seating choice from the busy road several yards away, helping to keep the noise of passing cars down.

  Morgan glanced at Lucy laying in the shade and asked, “Are you sure Sorsha will be okay?”

  “My neighbor always looks after her when I have to be away. Sorsha will be fine. With a cat door and someone to fill
her food and water, she’ll be content.” Isobel paused then snorted. “In fact, now that Lucy is out of the house, Sorsha is probably quite happy.”

  Chuckling, Morgan stretched and stifled a yawn.

  Isobel smiled. “Didn’t sleep well?”

  Morgan shook her head and leaned her elbows on the table. “You?”

  “I think I fell asleep about an hour before I needed to get up,” Isobel said around a yawn of her own.

  “I don’t think any of us slept easy last night,” Sarah said. “Hard to relax when you can hear those cursed hounds howling.”

  “Tell me about it.” Morgan gathered her hair and pulled it over one shoulder to allow the breeze to reach the back of her neck. “It’s even harder when you know they’re after you.”

  Isobel gave her a sympathetic look. “It’s never easy when something is after you specifically.” Her eyes took on a faraway look. “Much easier when it’s just random demons you need to banish.”

  “Did you have a demon after you?” Morgan leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table.

  “A demon from the highest level. He spent several weeks terrorizing me, making me think I was seeing things. Unlike you, I had no idea I was a channel, no idea what was going on.” Isobel eyes focused again. “Thankfully, he is back where he belongs, along with every demon he brought against us.”

  “Talking about the time you nearly got yourself killed?” Damien said.

  They all turned to look at the two men carrying several sacks each. Lucian raised an eyebrow at Damien. “Which time?”

  Isobel rolled her eyes. “I did what needed to be done each time.”

  Someday, Morgan was going to have to ask her friend to tell her more about what happened in this life before they met. Lucian set a couple of the sacks on the table in front of her and then began parceling out the food in them. He unwrapped two plain cheeseburgers and tossed them to Lucy, then pulled out a small cardboard cup with a plastic dome on it. The cup read Paw Bender on it. Morgan gave him a puzzled look. “Ice cream, in this heat?”

  “It’s for Lucy.” He flashed her a grin. “They make it especially for dogs. It’s vanilla custard drizzled with peanut butter and topped with dog biscuits.”

  He popped the lid off and held it so she could see the contents. A smile spread across Morgan’s face as he carried over to where the dog ate her cheeseburgers and set it down. Lucy stopped to sniff at it then began to lick the cold treat. After Lucian settled at the table, he handed her a very large cheeseburger piled with lettuce, onion, tomato and condiments. It smelled divine. Then he set a couple of different packages of fries on the table. One filled with seasoned fries, another with green chili on them, and finally onion rings.

  Morgan took a huge bite of the cheeseburger, relishing the wonderful flavor of it while Lucian unwrapped two giant double cheeseburgers with bacon. Conversation flowed between the three tables as everyone ate and Morgan tried to decide which style of fry she liked better. The seasoned fries had a small cup of deliciousness next to them filled with something Lucian said was Wild Dippin’ Sauce. It tasted like a cross between smoky barbeque sauce and steak sauce and she couldn’t get enough of dipping the fries in it and even opened her cheeseburger and used a fry to spread some on that, too.

  While she wasn’t a picky eater, Morgan still knew good food when she had it and Good Times did appear to have wonderful food. She glanced at Lucy. The dog had finished her cold treat and first burger and was now working on the second. As they enjoyed their meal, some of the tension eased out of her shoulders. Sitting there in the middle of the day, surrounded by friends and food, with the cool breeze carrying no hint of the hounds, Morgan found herself relaxing in spite of everything.

  The only thing that marred the time was when her thoughts strayed to Jake. He had loved warm days like this, and he would have loved this food. She was glad she’d spent that last night in the park with him, if only…

  Morgan blinked several times to keep the tears from coming. It didn’t stop the ache. She missed him.

  On the way back to the hotel, Morgan rode with Isobel and Sarah in the back bench where they could talk easier while Jameth sat up front, Lucian drove, and Damien shared the middle bench with Lucy.

  When they got back to the hotel, Isobel joined Morgan in her room after shooing the dark angels away. Morgan sat down on the edge of the bed as Isobel shut the door and said, “I thought we could use a little girl time without them hovering around.”

  It really hadn’t been that long since they’d had girl time. Nope, it was best not to think of the evening that had been interrupted by the phone call. Thankfully, Isobel didn’t bring it up either. “Where’s Sarah? Didn’t she want any girl time?”

  After turning on the TV to some series about vampires, Isobel sprawled on the bed near the window next to Lucy. “I’m thinking we are younger than her usual companions for this type of thing. Plus she and Jameth are off searching for a cougar claw and the rest of the items.”

  “I hope they find it all soon,” Morgan said as she pulled her feet up on the bed.

  “I hope so, too. They have to be careful, though. If Jameth or Sarah cross the hounds’ path, the hounds will follow them to see if the path leads to you.”

  Unease sent a ripple through Morgan’s stomach. “How likely is that to happen?”

  Isobel frowned. “I don’t know. Jameth contacted several taxidermies that aren’t too far, but they were out of cougar claws and teeth. The farther they find it, the more difficult it will be to retrieve it. Only the fact that we’re well out of your normal area is keeping the hounds from hunting in this direction. Even if they can’t smell you, they can smell the dark angels and will investigate to see if you are who they protect.”

  “So either we find one close or we’re screwed?”

  “Pretty much.”

  Morgan flopped back on the bed. “Well, that’s just freaking great.”

  For a while, neither of them said anything while the fictional characters on the show struggled with made up problems. Finally, Isobel changed the subject and they passed several hours mindlessly watching whatever shows came on and chatting as Isobel told her about the summer in this life that brought her and Damien together. How Xapar had made her think everyone was dead.

  Morgan wished what happened to Jake had only been a hallucination. It wasn’t, though. Jax had ripped out Jake’s heart making Morgan feel as if he’d done the same to her.

  Pain radiated from her chest and Morgan quickly shut those thoughts down before the sting in her eyes turned into a flow of tears. Not now. One day, but not now.

  As the night wore on, their talk lapsed into silence and Morgan’s eyes grew heavy. Just as sleep pulled her under, a faint howl drifted through the open window on the cool night breeze.

  MORGAN WAS IN the bedroom of her last foster home again. Fear beat in her chest and tied her stomach into knots. Her foster father raged somewhere beyond the closed door. Morgan closed her eyes and tried to will it all away. Though she knew it was a dream, she couldn’t stop the sensations that continued to overwhelm her.

  The door burst open, sending splinters of wood flying into the room. Instead of her foster father, a hound filled the doorway. Its reeking breath filled the room and Morgan froze. It glared at her; saliva dripped off its tongue and burned holes in the carpet. The hound lunged, Morgan closed her eyes raised her arms, prepared for the impact. When it didn’t come, she opened her eyes.

  Jax stood in the middle of the room, his arms squeezing the thrashing hound in a vice-like grip. His voice came out in a rough growl as he said, “I told you not to attempt this.”

  Morgan wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or the hound and frankly, couldn’t care less which it was. Rage flushed through her and she leaped off the bed, uncaring what he was or what he was doing. He would pay for what he did to Jake.

  A firm grip on her arm made Morgan turn to see what she faced now. Tara stood in front of her, worry clear on her fac
e. “Come with me, it isn’t safe here anymore.”

  Confused, Morgan stared at her sister, the rage at Jax temporarily forgotten. “It’s never been safe for me here.”

  “The real-life place wasn’t safe,” Tara replied. “This, while not pleasant, was safe when it was only a dream.”

  “Only dream?” Okay, this was getting weird now. “What are you talking about?”

  “This isn’t your usual nightmare, Morgan. This is one that can kill; the kind people don’t wake up from.” Tara tugged on her arm. “Come with me, I will explain when you aren’t in danger of being eaten.”

  Morgan glanced at Jax still struggling with the hound as another appeared in the doorway.

  Jax turned to look at Tara, an unreadable look in his eyes as he said, “Go, before it’s too late.”

  The second hound leapt into the room, slipping past Jax’s grab for it. It opened its mouth. Morgan felt the hot breath of the hound in the same instant there was a hard jerk on her arm and darkness surrounded her.

  And then she was standing. Golden light filled one side of the night sky while a deeper black tried to swallow the starlight on the other side. The flat rock of the ground beneath her feet was smooth as water worn stone and stretched in all directions to the horizon without change or definition.

  Tara stared into Morgan’s eyes, her expression serious. “You must be very careful when you sleep. Some demons, like the hounds, can walk wherever they wish. Even in dreams. Have your dark angel shield you when you sleep.”

  Morgan looked away and slowly took in the strange scenery, or rather lack thereof. “This is the strangest dream I’ve ever had.”