The heavy weight of another hound’s head pressed against her back, pushing her forward. Morgan strained to hold her position. Her muscles started to tremble of their own volition. The sweat on her brow turned icy and the darkness edged her vision. With no other way out, she did her best to ignore the signs of shock.
The front door burst open so fast the knob buried in the wall and the sheetrock cracked. Damien and Isobel ran into the living room at the base of the stairs. The hound dropped Morgan’s arm and turned to face its new adversaries. A wall of shimmering light sprang up around it.
With a howl of rage, the hound launched itself at Isobel. She didn’t even flinch when it slammed into the wall of her power. The pressure on Morgan’s back disappeared as Isobel raised a circle around that hound as well. Both hounds flung themselves at the golden wall several times before finally giving up.
Morgan would have laughed at the look of shock on the hound’s face if her mangled arm wasn’t about to send her over the edge into unconsciousness and the sounds of a savage battle weren’t coming from down the hall.
Isobel, eyes on the closest hound said, “Surprised? Watch this.”
Bone chilling howls filled the house as Isobel chanted. A second later the hounds disappeared in a swirl of black smoke.
Morgan blinked. “Did you just banish them?”
“Only for a while.” Isobel climbed the stairs and knelt next to her. “They can only be banished for a short time.”
“Better than I could do.” Morgan mumbled.
“You did what you could with the power granted to you.” Isobel straightened. “Wait here.”
Morgan cradled her arm and slumped against the railing post. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Isobel ran down the hall to where Damien, already taking injuries, fought alongside Lucian. She pulled on her power until it sang with sweet pain through her veins and raised three more circles around those waiting for a chance to squeeze into the bathroom. They turned on her with burning red eyes and flung themselves against her barrier. Though her power took heavy hits, it was nothing compared to the time she had Xapar in her circle.
She chanted the words of banishment, ignoring the howls that grated against her ears as they dissolved into smoke. The sharp spines of a hound’s fur peppered her arm and side as one exploded in Damien’s arms, followed by another held by Lucian.
Down to four hounds and confronted now by two dark angels and Isobel’s considerable strength, the last of the pack melted away into shadows on their own. Isobel pulled her power in and pushed it down until it was safe to release it.
The spines that had hit her arm and side burned like they were on fire. Isobel had barely reached for them when Damien’s hand stopped her. “They’re barbed. If you just pull them out, they will tear your skin.”
“How am I supposed to get them out then?”
Damien, his rich blue eyes full of love, began to speak in Latin, the words bringing forth his healing powers despite the fact the wounds weren’t life threatening. Isobel supposed the Higher Powers must make exceptions for hell hound spines.
Lucian stumbled past Damien and Isobel, barely seeing them and uncaring of his own injuries. His attention focused solely on Morgan’s injured form. Fear like he’d never known coiled in his gut. This wasn’t just his channel that was injured. This woman held his heart. He dropped to his knees next to where she slumped against the banister post. “Morgan?”
She opened her eyes and rolled her head a little to look at him briefly before her lids slid shut. “’S’up, Lucian?”
Her mangled arm lay limp in her lap, torn so badly he could see the bones of her forearm. The skin from her fingertips to well above her elbow was burned and blistered from the hound’s saliva, and the front of her jeans were soaked in blood. Lucian’s heart thudded painfully in his chest as he reached for her wrist. As soon as his fingers touched it, her eyes, clouded with pain, opened and she tried feebly to pull away.
“Don’t. Hurts too much.” Her words came out muddled and she shivered.
Maintaining his hold as gently as possible, he let the Latin roll off his tongue. He felt the warmth of healing move through his hands and into Morgan. In moments, her arm was healed and he moved on to the spines covering her other arm. When he was finished, Morgan slipped into a deep sleep. Lucian gathered her into his arms and sat down, leaning against the wall exhausted from the battle with the hounds, healing her, and his own numerous wounds.
Loud whining came from behind the door to Morgan’s room. Isobel opened it and Lucy burst through, running to Morgan. The dog whimpered softly and moved until she leaned against Lucian with her chin resting on Morgan’s shoulder.
Lucian looked down into the dog’s deep brown eyes. “It’s okay girl, Morgan will be fine.”
Lucy whined and scooted closer to him before nudging his arm, the one with deep lacerations across the shoulder and bicep that left bits of skin hanging. Lucian had been doing a good job of ignoring the fiery pain until the dog brought his attention to it. Adrenaline must be wearing off. Even with his arm feeling like it had been half-chewed off, he still managed to smile a little. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine, too.”
It was the truth, he would heal. Even if it took longer to heal from the bite of a hellhound, it would still be mostly healed in a few days.
The dog inched a little closer and laid her chin on Lucian’s shoulder. Deep, penetrating warmth spread through the injuries to his arm. Lucian froze, his eyes going wide as he stared at the dog and all over his body the various wounds flashed hot and the warmth receded.
Lucy sank down until she lay on the floor beside Lucian. Her eyes closed, her mouth open and panting as if she had just ran for miles. Lucian looked up at the stunned expressions on the faces of Isobel and Damien.
Isobel was the first to speak. “What just happened?”
“It would seem that Lucy is more than just a dog,” Lucian said.
“Okay, but what?” Isobel asked. “And why didn’t you already know that?”
She looked turned to look at Damien. “Can’t you guys tell when something is other than it is?”
Damien shrugged. “It depends on what she is. There are number of guardian type angels we can’t sense. They have their job and we have ours.”
“So she’s a guardian angel?”
“Not necessarily.” Lucian laid a hand on the dog’s side. Her panting had slowed and she didn’t look as tired. “Guardian angels come in all forms, but I don’t think she’s a standard guardian. They have many assignments, not just one. Lucy’s always with Morgan. I agree she’s a guardian. What kind, I can’t tell.”
Lucian looked back at Morgan’s sleeping face. His healing had taken care of the bruises on her face from her day spent wandering the streets looking for Jake. That was a surprise, they hadn’t been life threatening. He traced his fingers down the side of her face. Deep in sleep, she didn’t even stir.
“What’s coming for you that you need so much protection?” he whispered.
Worry made a slow knot in the pit of his stomach. Fear of losing her clawed at him and he tried to shove the feeling away. It could distract him at the worst possible moment. He and Morgan had connected in this life. If her life was cut short, or his, they would find each other in the next. Somehow that thought wasn’t helping.
Lucian had drifted for several hundred years, several lives, going where he was needed, never assigned, never grounded. He’d lived all over the world throughout his many lives, laid his head on too many pillows and in too many places to count. Home wasn’t a word he knew. He never stayed in one place long. In that moment though, staring into Morgan’s face, he knew he had found home. Where ever she was, that was it.
Gripping her body more firmly, he stood. Lucy rolled and heaved herself to her feet beside him. “We should get out of here.”
Lucy followed Lucian down the stairs. As he settled the still sleeping Morgan in his car, Damien and Isobel carried Morgan’s suitcase
out. When he opened the back door of the car Lucy jumped in and laid down on the soft leather seats with a sigh. As Lucian circled the car, headed for the driver’s seat. Isobel stopped him. “Where are the keys to Morgan’s truck?”
“They’re…I’m not sure.” Where had Morgan left them? Wait, she didn’t leave them anywhere. He’d turned off the truck and carried her inside. For the life of him, he couldn’t remember where they’d gone to after that. His mind certainly hadn’t been on the keys by that point.
Isobel shook her head. “Told you it would happen to you.”
He gave her a scowl. “I was doing fine on my own, now you got what you wanted and I can’t even remember where I put a set of keys.”
“You got what you wanted, too; even if didn’t know you wanted it. And more importantly,” Isobel said with a smile, “you got what the Higher Powers wanted. You can grump all you want about not being a free agent anymore, but you know better than I do that it isn’t for you to question their decisions or desires.”
Lucian snorted and rolled his eyes. “I think I liked you better before you got all of your memories back. Less of this wise, lived a lot of lives stuff and more listening to the dark angels around you.”
Damien chuckled darkly. “When exactly has she ever listened to us? I recall her nearly getting herself killed outside a gas station because she didn’t listen, almost burning herself up for the same reason, and ending up with a crushed skull and broken ribs, again for the same reason.”
It was Isobel’s turn to roll her eyes. “And I had very good reasons for all of those. If not for me ‘almost burning myself up’ you two would probably still be standing on that road fighting demons. And if I hadn’t ended up with the crushed skull and broken ribs, Xapar and all of those demons working for him would be the Higher Powers knows where by now.”
Lucian gave Damien a flat look. “She always wins these arguments doesn’t she?”
“Every time,” Damien confirmed.
Isobel raised shook a finger at them. “If you keep this up I’m going to leave you both sitting in the driveway in a circle while Morgan and I have a woman to woman chat about the benefits of such a maneuver.”
“I think it’s time to go.” Lucian edged toward the car.
Isobel chuckled and walked toward the house. “I’m going to find Morgan’s keys and then I will drive her truck over to the hotel.”
Damien followed close behind her. He wouldn’t leave until Isobel was safely on her way away from the house. Lucian slid behind the steering wheel as he watched them reenter the house. For all of his joking about liking Isobel better before she had all of her memories, he was truly happy to have his friend back. The three of them had watched the world change together since the fourth century. Granted, he and Damien had seen far more that, so much he couldn’t even pin point the century of his first life, but the past seventeen-hundred years had included Isobel as Damien’s soulmate and Lucian’s good friend.
Lucian glanced at Morgan as he started the car. Now it was four. He hadn’t wanted it, or maybe Isobel was right and he just hadn’t known he wanted it. Looking at the tough, stubborn, fearless, fragile, terrified, confusing contradiction of a young woman next to him, Lucian knew that where he may not have wanted it, he now wouldn’t give it up.
MORGAN JERKED AWAKE to Mr. Parker yelling downstairs. Her heart started pounding as she sat up, her thoughts a jumble of confusion. The sheets brushed against her skin and the terrifyingly familiar scent of the raspberry scented candles that her foster mother was obsessed with filled her nose. Her bookshelf held the few tattered paperbacks that she’d carried from home to home with her.
The sound of her foster father’s raging drew closer as he stormed in the direction of her room. Her mouth suddenly dry, Morgan looked around wildly. This wasn’t right. She didn’t live here anymore and hadn’t for four years. And yet, everything looked exactly as it had, it felt the same, smelled the same.
Morgan shook her head. No. She tried to squash the panic rising up inside. She could defend herself now; she wasn’t the Morgan that used to live here… Jake had taken her in, showed her how to live on the street. This wasn’t real no matter how much it seemed to be…right?
Lucian. His name floated across her thoughts and the image of his face filled her memory. No, she hadn’t dreamed any of it. Morgan knew without a doubt that Lucian and Jake were real. That Damien and Isobel were real, and Arabrim had been real. But none of them were there to help her now.
The door to her bedroom exploded inward, sending pieces of the frame flying into the room from her foster father’s kick. He started toward her, face red with rage. Morgan flung herself off the end of the bed just before his fist passed through the space she’d been in. Rolling, Morgan came up on her feet. She blocked his next blow and punched him in the face, blood from his nose sprayed down his lips and chin. Snarling with fury, he came at her as if he hadn’t even felt it.
Morgan kicked out, planting her foot in his stomach. His breath whooshed out, and still he didn’t stop. His hand shot out and gripped her throat. Morgan stared into his fury-filled eyes. Black shadows swirled across them. No, that wasn’t right. He had been a sadistic ass but there had never been the black swirls that indicated a demon-possessed.
Morgan’s knees buckled, dark mist ringed her vision, her lungs convulsed in their effort to pull in air. He leaned over her, the drops of his blood hot on her skin. “If you don’t come to the Kalona, he will take away everything until all you have left is him.”
Tara appeared in the room, her long, honey-brown hair falling down her back and her hazel eyes wide. Thank the Higher Powers, this really was a dream. Why did her sister always look older in her dreams, like she probably would have at eighteen? Why was she wondering about this when she was on the verge of passing out? Through the darkness closing in, she watched Tara yank Mr. Parker’s hand away. Morgan fell back into the closet door as air rushed into her lungs.
Mr. Parker turned and slammed his fist into the side of Tara’s head, sending her crashing into the wall. Just as Mr. Parker turned back to Morgan, Jax appeared in the room. He locked his tattooed arm around her foster father’s neck and pulled him back. This was really turning weird.
While Jax yanked Mr. Parker back, his attention was on her sister. “Tara!”
She struggled to her feet. “I’m fine.”
Jax jerked his head in Morgan’s direction. “End it, get her out of here.”
Mr. Parker broke free and lunged at Morgan. Tara was there first, shoving Morgan out of the way.
Morgan came up swinging as strong hands gripped her forearms. Morgan went wild, fighting with everything she had. It wasn’t until the hands became arms wrapped around her like iron bands she couldn’t budge that his voice began to penetrate the darkness bringing her fully awake.
“It’s okay. You’re okay. Calm down, Morgan.” Lucian’s voice washed over her. A low whine drew her further from her nightmare.
Relief made her muscles watery and brought tears to her eyes. Her heart still racing and her breath coming in heavy gasps, Morgan went limp in his grasp. Slowly, his arms relaxed. She pushed away from him and stumbled to the bed. It looked like it had been hit by a tornado in the light of a small lamp, even the pillows were gone.
It really had been a dream. The most real feeling dream, or rather nightmare, she’d ever had. Her fingertips brushed her throat. It felt tender as if someone really had nearly choked the life out of her. Lucy bumped Morgan’s hand with her nose and Morgan gave the dog a scratch behind the ears.
Then it finally sank in that she wasn’t in her room. Blinking, she glanced around. Where was she? Fear crawled up her spine. This wasn’t Lucian’s house. Her frantic gaze found him a second later. He stood watching her with a wary look in his eyes. Relief filled her again.
Lucian stepped closer. “Are you okay now?”
“Yes. No.” Morgan pushed her hair back with shaking hands. “I guess so.”
“That
sounds definitive. What were you dreaming?”
“It started like the same old nightmare and then got very real and strange.”
“Same old nightmare?” Lucian’s steady gaze was full of concern. “You’re always restless when you sleep deep, which isn’t often. I wasn’t aware you were still having nightmares. What are they about? You are more vulnerable when you sleep. A demon of the Kalona’s level could infiltrate your mind. I wish you had told me, I could have blocked him.”
Morgan snorted and looked away. “This one isn’t demon-induced. Monster-induced, maybe. Well,” she considered a moment, “this one might have been. It’s never gone so far or felt so real.”
“Tell me what happened that made it different.”
“Like I said, it started out the same, my foster father—” Her eyes flashed to his face. Lucian didn’t know. She’d never told him. Never told anyone. If the Kalona was using it against her now, she was going to have to open up to Lucian. He had told her of La Pucelle and the loss that had caused him guilt and pain since. It was time for her do the same.
Standing, Morgan looked down and realized for the first time that she wore one of his t-shirts, it fell almost to her knees. It would do for now. A quick glance at the bedside table located her cigarettes; she was going to need those.
Morgan grabbed the pack and the lighter and walked through a set of open double doors that led into another room. None of the lights were on and in the darkness, she couldn’t see where she should go. Holding up the pack, she asked, “Where do I…”
“This way.” Lucian’s stepped beside her, his hand resting on the small of her back as he guided her through a sliding door in a wall of glass and out onto a large balcony.
She lit her cigarette as soon as she stepped outside. After staring at the lit windows in the buildings around them, she walked over and flopped down in one of the cushioned outdoor chairs.
Unsure if she wanted to be alone, Lucian hesitated before sitting in the chair next to her.
Bound by Legend: A Bound Novel Page 19
