Bound by Legend: A Bound Novel

by A. D. Trosper

  The ground level was surprisingly empty when she reached it. Most likely everyone had left when the rain slackened. Either that or they had fled from the sounds of demons being banished, though most humans couldn’t hear it.

  She opened the umbrella and stepped into the rain. The quiet patter of it on the fabric above her head soothed the remaining adrenaline from her system. After crossing the street, she headed for the park. It was as good a place as any until she could decide where to go next. Pulling a cigarette from the pack, she paused to light it and then continued on.

  Lucian watched her leave as his heart slowly calmed. He’d desperately wanted to help her when the demons attacked. When one had landed on her, he’d nearly jumped in, but she’d handled it. Morgan was right; she could take care of herself. At least until she came up against a stronger upper-level demon. And when that happened, he would be there, whether she liked it or not.

  MORGAN TREAD QUIETLY down the alley, Lucy trailing behind her. Their breath came in clouds in the icy air. Though the past several days had been warm, a front had moved in with the setting sun and dropped the night time temperatures low enough to create the patches of ice she slipped on occasionally.

  It was nights like this she really missed her sweatshirt and second t-shirt. They might not have been much but they had still made a difference. In the back of her mind, a little voice whispered that all of the warmth she wanted was only a phone call away. Morgan stomped ruthlessly on the voice. She’d made sure to use the solar charger to keep the battery full, even if she had no intention of ever actually using the phone.

  A movement between her and the end of the alley made her pause. Straining to hear in the quiet of early morning hours, she remained frozen. A dog’s bark echoed through the night. The crash of a trashcan somewhere. The loud bass of a passing car on the street. A siren wailed in the distance. The figure up ahead seemed as still as she was.

  Morgan took a few, slow steps forward. The figure shifted as if it meant to leave the alley then stopped. She followed suit. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on her senses. Not a demon at least. Creeping down the alley again, she moved to the side opposite the figure.

  She reached the end where the street lamp cast its light at the same time her intuition started screaming at her. The figure lunged. A burly man twice her size moved with more speed than he should have and slammed her into a wall, one hand over her mouth the other pressing up against her windpipe. His greater weight pushed against her as he looked at her with eyes that had shadows swirling in them.

  Shit, a demon-possessed.

  He smiled as if trying to be comforting. It was anything but. “You are a hard one to find. Do not worry, little Inola. I am not here to hurt you.”

  Lucy snarled menacingly. He flicked his shadowed gaze at the dog. “Call it off, or I will kill it.”

  The voice coming from the man’s mouth had the guttural sound of a mid-level demon. Morgan twisted, trying to find a way to free herself enough to fight back. Damn it, this wasn’t a fight she was willing to lose. Even so, she wasn’t willing to endanger Lucy either. The dog would be no match against a person with the strength of a demon behind it. When the man lifted his hand, she didn’t hesitate to give Lucy the command to back down. The dog lowered herself to the ground with a whine.

  Wait, little Inola? That had been her name in her first life. It meant Black Fox in the Cherokee language. The demon in the tower had used it as well. What the hell was a demon doing calling her a name from another life? How would it even know? Nothing good would come of this. Morgan struggled again.

  He crushed her against the wall, using his considerable weight to pin her there. “Little Inola, is this any way to react to one who can help you? Who can make all of this go away?”

  With no way to free herself, Morgan did the only thing left to her, she spit in his face.

  The demon-possessed only smiled again. “The Kalona remembers you. Your mother let him out. He wants to offer you the chance to stand at his side.”

  Morgan felt herself going limp as the memory crashed over her.

  Her mother, dark hair streaming in the wind as she glared at the white men with vengeance in her eyes, chanted something Morgan didn’t understand. Through the eyes of one too young to understand what was happening, she watched the scary, tall, jerky shape emerge as she huddled under one of the wagons. It began to slaughter the men, women, and children around her. The dark shape of the taloned hand dragged her screaming from beneath the wagon.

  With a look of horror, her mother began another chant.

  Agony burned through Morgan’s chest and the vision faded.

  Morgan jerked in the man’s grasp, the dull ache in her chest a reminder of what she’d seen. A shout carried down the street, though she barely heard it through the confusion in her mind.

  The man looked down at her. “Another time, Inola.”

  He stepped back abruptly and disappeared into the dark alley. Unprepared for the sudden absence of pressure, Morgan stumbled forward and hit the pavement on her knees. A moment later, Jake was kneeling next to her. “What the hell happened, Morgan? Are you all right, did he…”

  Morgan placed a hand on his arm and tried to settle her chaotic thoughts. “I’m fine.”

  “It doesn’t look that way. What did he do, Morgan?”

  “Just some creep, that’s all. I’ve encountered them before.” Morgan got slowly to her feet and called Lucy to her. The dog was quick to respond, licking her hands and whining.

  Jake gave her a confused look. “If he had you in a way you couldn’t break free, why didn’t you set Lucy on him?”

  “He would have killed her.” Morgan shook her head and looked at Jake. “I can’t explain it, Jake, so don’t ask me to.”

  “Morgan…is everything all right?” Jake’s eyes searched her face. “You’ve been hiding away more than usual. I haven’t seen you in a week. And now this.”

  “I’m fine, Jake. Just let it go.” Morgan sighed and picked up the umbrella that had been broken during the scuffle. Stupid demon guy must have stepped on it after she dropped it. Tossing it aside, she straightened the backpack. Who cared about the umbrella right now? She needed to get away from Jake before the demon decided to use him as leverage. And she needed to get away so she could think.

  “What is he doing here?” Jake muttered.

  Morgan looked up. Lucian strode toward her down the darkened street. He appeared relaxed, like it was perfectly normal for someone like him to be wandering around the unsavory area at whatever time in the morning it was.

  He stopped in front of them. “Morgan.”

  Jake bristled beside her. “Didn’t I tell you to leave her alone?”

  “It would appear there are times she can’t take care of herself.” Lucian eyed the man. What relationship did he and Morgan have?

  Morgan straightened. “You’re right; there are times when it’s difficult to take care of myself. If tonight had gone down differently, Lucy would be wandering lost and alone at best, dead at worst.” She swallowed around the tightening in her throat. “So I’m asking you to take her home with you, Lucian.”

  Lucian stared at her in surprise. She was sending the dog with him? What happened must have shaken her more than it showed. It was getting more dangerous with each passing day. “I agreed to take her if you died. Since you still live, I will take her if you agree to come with me as well.”

  “Who the hell is this, Morgan?” Jake frowned at her with worry in his eyes. “You’re really willing to send Lucy off with him?”

  “It’s what is best,” she said to Jake before turning to Lucian. “No deal. Either you take her now, or I crush the cell phone and disappear. I promise, you will spend the rest of this life searching for me and will always be a step behind.”

  Lucian growled something that sounded like a curse under his breath as a mix of frustrated emotions played across his face. Finally, he threw his hands in the air. “Fine. If you insist on being stub
born as a damn mule, then you got it. I will take Lucy and you can rest easy. I will stay away from you.”

  Morgan nodded as her eyes stung. She knelt and rubbed her hands on either side of the dog’s face. “You’re going to go with Lucian. It’s better this way.” Hugging the dog tight she said, “I love you.”

  The dog wagged her stubby tail and licked her face.

  She straightened and pointed to Lucian. “Go with him.”

  Lucian stared at Morgan for a long moment, totally at a loss as to what to do other than take the dog. Everything in him wanted to resist leaving her. He’d hoped that if he gave her some space she would eventually be willing to come with him. Instead she seemed even more determined to push him away.

  There was nothing he could do. He had no power over his channel. An unnamed and unrecognized feeling pulled him to stay, to protect and shelter her. It was more than what a dark angel normally felt for his assigned channel. It was something Lucian didn’t want to explore the implications of too closely.

  Forcing himself to move, Lucian turned and walked away, calling Lucy to him. The dog looked back at Morgan.

  “Go with him.”

  Lucy stared at her for a long time before following. Once they were around the corner, Lucian scooped the dog up in his arms. His wings unfolded, shredding the back of his shirt in the process, and launched him into the sky.

  Morgan stared after them until they disappeared around the corner then turned with a heavy heart and started walking. Jake kept pace beside her and she knew she would have a harder time shaking him. He was as stubborn as she was.

  After they had walked a good two miles with Jake staring suspiciously at first a bag of trash and then at junk car that must have been dumped by the road earlier in the night, he finally looked at her and asked, “Mind telling me what all of that was about?”

  “I can’t really tell you.” She pulled out a cigarette. A few flicks showed that her old lighter had finally given up the ghost. Morgan dug in her pocket for one of the new ones, lit the cigarette and took a long pull off it. Glancing at Jake, she offered him one which he took. They smoked in silence for a while.

  “Can you tell me anything? If that guy who had hold of you in the alley is threatening you with something, I can make sure he disappears.” Jake chuckled darkly as a haunted look flashed across his face. “Wouldn’t be the first time I made people dead.”

  Morgan shook her head and took another drag. After blowing the smoke out, she sighed. “Yes, he was threatening me and at the same time no, he wasn’t. He seems to think I would have an interest in working with his boss. I don’t.” She gave him an earnest look. “Don’t even think about going after him. The…people he’s involved with are more dangerous than anything you’ve come up against, even in the sand pit.”

  Jake’s brow furrowed as he blew out a cloud of smoke. “Christ, Morgan. Sounds like some deep shit. How did this guy decide to come after you?”

  Morgan took another deep drag and laughed bitterly. “Because of something my mother did, a long time ago.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “The sins of the mother?”

  “Something like that.” She took another drag, letting the rush of nicotine calm her nerves. “Look, Jake, it’s probably best if you stay far away from me for a while. I don’t want you getting caught up in the middle of it.”

  Jake laughed. “I thought you knew me, Morgs. You’re my friend. The only one I really have unless you count batty Patsy. If shit is going down that involves you, you can bet your pretty little ass I’ll be there for it.”

  Morgan couldn’t help laughing. “So I have a pretty ass do I?”

  She had to admit, he had a way of dispersing the tension.

  “You know it, baby.” Jake looked thoughtful. “Why did he call you, Inola?”

  She shrugged and flicked her cigarette butt. After pulling out another and lighting it, she said, “Who knows? He was a crazy creep trying to convince me to work with his boss.”

  He studied her face. “You’re a good liar, but not that good. You know more than you’re telling me. It’s okay. I get it. Need to know only and shit like that, right?”

  “Right.” She nodded.

  It would really be best if he stayed away. If she was any kind of decent person she would chase Jake off just like she had Lucian. It wasn’t as if being alone was anything new to her, but she’d been friends with him since her first stint on the streets at barely fifteen.

  It was Jake who had taught her how to fight. How to not only defend herself, but be the aggressor if need be. It was because of Jake she was able to escape the last of her foster parents when things had reached a boiling point. It was Jake who she’d sought afterward and Jake who had nursed her through one of the worst beatings of her life.

  Morgan couldn’t bring herself to be the kind of mean it would take to drive him away. Broken though he was, Jake had been her rock before Arabrim found her and he had been so again after the dark angel died.

  LUCIAN SAT IN the living room at his house with Lucy’s chin on his knee as the sun set behind the mountains to the west. He absently stroked the dog’s head while he talked with Damien and Isobel.

  “I just don’t know what to do with her. Giving her space didn’t work. Short of just following her around and being a total nuisance, I’m at a loss.” He leaned his head against the back of the comfortable chair. “This morning she made it perfectly clear she wanted me to leave her alone.”

  Isobel gave him a concerned look. “We can’t just leave her to wander the streets alone. It isn’t safe, demons aside.”

  “I think you must have known a softer side of Morgan. A side that came out under Arabrim’s care and one that’s buried deep now.” Lucian sighed. “After following her for the last couple of weeks, I have no doubt she can handle herself against most human foes unless someone shoots her or if a group decides to attack her. There’s only so much one person can do and she can’t use her powers on regular humans. Against multiple demons, she’s formidable and unafraid to come to physical blows with them. That won’t help if a high-level with several lower-levels come at her at once.”

  “I know,” Damien said. “We fought alongside Morgan a couple of times before Arabrim died and she disappeared. She’s strong in her power, but nothing like Isobel.”

  Lucian snorted. “Nobody in this life has the strength Isobel does.”

  Damien spread his hands. “All the more reason to keep track of her, even if from afar.”

  Lucian ran the encounter he’d witnessed through his mind again. Jake had stepped in just as Lucian was preparing to move in. He had expected the demon to kill Jake. The fact it fled confused him. “The demon-possessed mentioned the Kalona and Morgan’s mother. He also called her, ‘little Inola.’ Any idea who Inola is and what the Kalona would want with Morgan?”

  “Who is this Kalona?” Isobel asked, looking between the two of them.

  “The Kalona is an upper-level demon, only a step below Xapar in rank and strength. In 1851, a Cherokee woman, a channel named Nany-hi, agreed to let the Kalona loose as revenge against the whites in the wagon train headed along the Cherokee Trail to the gold fields in California. The history of this particular train has been erased from human history,” Lucian said.

  Isobel stared at him in horror. “A channel let a demon loose?”

  Damien nodded. “He had promised her revenge. She actually killed her dark angel before setting the Kalona free so he wouldn’t stop her. She thought the Kalona would only kill the whites in the train, not the other Cherokee or the blacks. When the Kalona started in on them, Nany-hi panicked and sealed him up again at the cost of her own life.”

  “Aiden and I were part of the group that investigated afterward,” Lucian said, grimacing at the memory. “There were no survivors. Kalona had ripped the heart from every man, woman, and child in the wagon train.”

  “If she sealed him back, then how is he reaching out now?” Isobel took a sip of her steaming coffee.r />
  Lucian shook his head. “I have no idea. There’s no way to know right now if the demon possessing the man was just spouting lies in an attempt to scare Morgan into swaying the same way Nany-hi did. Maybe he thinks the Kalona can be set loose again.”

  “Maybe.” Isobel stared into her coffee with a frown as if the answer lay in the dark liquid. After a long moment, she looked up and said, “Let me try to talk to her.”

  Damien raised an eyebrow. “You realize that would involve flying. It takes too long tracking her by car.”

  Isobel huffed and brushed her hair over her shoulder. “I’m well aware of that. I think I’ve learned to deal with flying pretty well.”

  “That’s true.” Damien chuckled and shot her a look full of dark mirth. “At least you’ve stopped shredding my arms with your nails and you hardly hyperventilate anymore.”

  “I do better than that and you know it.” She glared at him though it held no heat of anger.

  “Of course you do,” Damien said with a completely straight face before shooting Lucian a quick glance that said the opposite.

  Lucian suppressed the laugh that tried to break free. He wasn’t about get in the middle of that. Okay, so maybe he was. “Damien only agrees with you because he doesn’t want to spend the night trapped in one of your circles.”

  Damien growled. “How did you know about that?”

  “Did you forget that Isaiah found you sitting in it?” Deep laughter broke free. “He told everyone.”

  “Great,” Damien groaned. “That shouldn’t even work on us.”

  Isobel smiled innocently. “It only took a small variation in the way I directed the energy.”

  Damien shook his head and stood. “If we’re going to do this, let’s get it done.”

  Isobel set her coffee cup aside and got to her feet, standing close to Damien. The humor in her eyes gone, replaced by wary acceptance of the flight to come.

  Lucian rested his hand on her shoulder. “Now that I’ve followed her so much, her soul’s energy is easy for me to find. It won’t be a long flight.”