Bound by Legend: A Bound Novel (34 page)

Morgan shivered, unable to comprehend killing a dark angel for any reason.

Sarah continued, “Then she used the water of the South Fork to create a doorway to the Underworld and released the Kalona. The demon didn’t do as she thought he would. Instead of just killing the whites, he killed everyone. Including you, her daughter. Your mother, Nany-hi, died closing the door.”

“So,” Morgan paused and took a drink of her coffee to ease her suddenly dry throat. “What does that have to do with me in this life?”

“Nany-hi closed the gateway. Unfortunately, she died before she could seal it. As her daughter, your spirit is still of her blood, still Cherokee.” Sarah set her empty cup on the end table. “The Kalona must have been prying at the door ever since and now he has opened it enough to slip through, though he is tied to it, and unable to go more than a few miles beyond in any direction. In order to be set free completely either you have to join with him or he has to possess your heart. Either of those things will release him, though in different ways.”

“Different how?” Lucian asked. Morgan could feel the tension in his body.

Sarah looked into Morgan’s eyes with a weighing look. “If she goes to him willingly, turns her back on the Higher Powers and joins with him, he will rise to highest level of demon power, be freed from the binding that keeps him from walking the earth and be freed from the binds that hold him to the Cherokee. If he just takes her heart, he will be unbound from the gateway and able to roam at will, be he will still be tied to the Cherokee and gain no status in the demon ranks.”

“Why Morgan specifically?” Lucian’s voice remained even as his arm tightened around her. “Why not another of the Cherokee?”

“Nany-hi was the guardian of the symbol. A position that passes naturally through the bloodline and can only be transferred to another bloodline through a special ceremony.” Sarah gave her a sympathetic look. “It was transferred to your bloodline three generations before Europeans set foot on the eastern shore. Upon her mother’s death, it transferred to Morgan. Because Morgan is a channel whose soul will come again and again throughout time, it will be her place to guard it in each life unless she chooses to pass it to another bloodline.”

“I’m up for that. How do I pass it on?” She would happily hand it to whoever would take it.

“It can’t be transferred until the Kalona is sealed away. Your bloodline opened the gateway; it must be yours that seals it up.”

Great. No wonder he was so desperate to get her, so ready to kill everything she cared about in order to force her hand. Sarah’s earlier words kept chasing those the demons had spoken around in her head. “What do you mean, join with him?”

“I mean, as a mate.”

Lucian’s jaw tightened and his eyes took on a dangerous glint.

Morgan’s skin crawled and she shivered. “Since there is no way in hell that’s ever going to happen and I would really like to keep my heart inside my chest, how do I stop him?”

Sarah brushed one of her braids over her shoulder and leaned forward. “Since he is tied to the Cherokee, you will have to create the seven sacred directions around him before you can banish him and seal the gateway closed.”

“Okay, fine. What are the seven sacred directions and how do I create them?”

“They are North, East, South, West, Above, Below, and Here. Each is represented by a symbol which you will need to create them,” Sarah said. “You can create them using the sacred plants cedar, pine, spruce, laurel and holly. The last two don’t grow well here, but I’m sure we can find one or the other.”

It sounded easy enough. “So that’s five directions, what do we have to do for the other two?”

“No.” Sarah shook her head. “It’s four. We will use either holly or laurel, not both. The last three directions are more specific. You will need the power of the owl to represent Above. I have owl feathers with me. Below is a power animal which thankfully you have. You will also need the symbol for Here, which is you, and you will need the cougar to anchor your soul.”

“A cougar?” Morgan looked at her in disbelief. “How the heck am I supposed to get a cougar? Go into the mountains with a can of cat food and start calling kitty-kitty?”

Isobel and the dark angles chuckled though Morgan didn’t find anything about this funny at all.

Sarah’s lips twitched into a brief smiled before she answered, “No. You just need something that represents the cougar which you already have. However, I’m not sure we should use it.”

“I do?” The woman was crazy. Morgan knew exactly what she had of what, it wasn’t like she owned a ton of possessions and had a piece of cougar lying forgotten in a drawer somewhere.

“Yes.” Sarah’s expression grew grim. “The tip of a cougar claw is inside the locket which was worn by your first mother and lost when she died. It is not coincidence the locket found its way to you.”

“Then we have everything. Good, let’s get this done.” Morgan made to stand up, then sank back when Sarah held up her hand.

“There is more to this than just the Kalona. You will have to complete the seven sacred directions to banish him and seal the doorway. In order to do that you will have to open the locket to use the claw.”

“Okay.” Morgan shrugged. “So we’ll pry it open.”

“If only it were that simple,” Sarah said with a sigh. “There may be repercussions if the locket is opened.”

“What repercussions?” Damien asked, a wary look in his blue eyes.

Sarah stood, walked over to the window and glanced out at the storm which seemed be letting up. “There is an obscure legend, one an old shaman told me. He said it was a lost one. I’m not sure if it’s true or not.”

She walked back to the chair and leaned against it with her arms folded across the back. “The legend claimed that the demon Pandora was chased to the eastern shores of the U.S. before Europeans ever set foot in the west. A channel followed Pandora here and met a Cherokee shaman who also had a problem, he needed to seal the Kalona to the Cherokee tribe to restrict the Kalona.

“They joined together, their different gifts working together to create Pandora’s prison and seal the Kalona. The legend says it was your locket that was used to seal Pandora’s prison shut and to break the seal on the locket is to break the seal on the prison. The problem with the locket is twofold, it holds Pandora and it is also linked with the Kalona and carries his taint. When it comes into contact with one who is blessed by the Higher Powers, the taint will attempt to stop the heart of the wearer.”

Isobel rubbed her forehead. “You’re saying if we use the locket then there is a chance Morgan could die and we will, in essence, open Pandora’s Box?”

“We might, or we might not either. As I said it was a legend, told to me by a very old man who had some dementia, one that no one else I’ve spoken to has ever heard of.” She shrugged. “I have no way of knowing for certain.” Sarah turned her gaze to Morgan. “As to whether or not the locket will harm you, I have no idea.”

“I do,” Morgan mumbled under her breath.

Damien frowned. “We can try to contact a taxidermist and see if we can buy a cougar claw, even if we have to buy the whole stuffed cougar to get it.”

“If we have time,” Lucian said, his face pensive.

Morgan stared out the window. The rain still fell, but not as heavy and the thunder had reduced to a low rumble. Hopefully, either they would find a cougar claw somewhere else or the legend was just a story. She looked at Lucian. “Do you think the legend is real?”

“I don’t know. I know Pandora was loose from the late thirteenth century through the first half of the fourteenth.” He shrugged. “I was between lives when she was imprisoned. As far as I know, the channel that did it chose eternal life after that.”

Morgan turned to Damien, “What about you? Or you Jameth?”

Damien shook his head. “My lives and deaths are usually pretty close to Lucian’s. I also missed her imprisonment.”

Jameth spoke up, “I was alive when she was imprisoned. I didn’t see it happen or hear how it happened. All I know is the channel, her name was Hope, lost her dark angel in the process and burned herself up with her power while sealing Pandora’s prison.”

“Well, that’s just great.” Morgan let out a sigh and leaned back.

“What about Hope’s dark angel? Surely he would know. Is he alive right now?” Isobel asked, her gaze taking in all three men.

“No.” Jameth leaned his shoulder against the wall. “Hope and her dark angel were
solades in aeternum.
When Hope chose eternal rest, he went with her.”

Morgan threw her hands in the air. So they may or may not free one demon while trying to lock another away. Pandora didn’t sound like a demon one would want to set loose on the world. And the locket might kill her if she tried to use it. Hopefully, they could find a different cougar claw. Hopefully, there was time.

Faint, eerie howls underscored the slowly calming storm outside. Somehow, Morgan didn’t think they would have enough time.

MORGAN CARRIED HER
suitcase back to her SUV as the sun slowly crawled into the sky the next morning and turned the tattered clouds of the spent storm into brilliant pinks. The day promised to be clear and warm yet Morgan couldn’t help feeling chilled. Everything seemed to be closing in on them.

She shut the back door of the truck, tossed her backpack on the front seat, and turned to watch Lucy pad around the grass on the front lawn. Lucian’s trunk shut behind Morgan. He would be ready to get on the road. Still, she stood watching the dog. This moment, standing under the sunrise with the mountains filling the sky to the west and a soft breeze in sighing in the trees, this moment was peace and she desperately wanted some peace. A chance to relax and breathe without constant danger, of one kind or another, breathing down the back of her neck.

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.”