Bound by Legend: A Bound Novel (7 page)

LUCIAN STARED AT
her, completely at a loss. Her brown hair hung in a dirty, tangled mess around her bruised face. Even so, she was beautiful. Something tugged at his heart at the sight of her too thin frame.

What the hell? He’d always cared for his channels, even been good friends with them. He’d never felt this. The closest he could compare it to was how he’d felt about
La Pucelle
. But Joan of Arc had been a woman everyone loved and no one touched. Like everyone else, he’d loved her from afar. This felt something like that only stronger, like his very soul recognized hers.

Lucian closed his eyes at the implications. The Higher Powers had to be playing a trick on him. He’d been fine without one for too many centuries and lives to count. And now, they chose to put this woman in his path. The Higher Powers help him if Morgan was indeed supposed to be his
sodales in aeternum—
his forever soulmate. He shook his head, there was no way.

“Morgan,” he gentled his tone. “Please, let me do what I’m supposed to.”

Morgan took the last drag off her cigarette and flicked the butt out the window. It soared through the rain, falling between the two buildings and landing in a puddle below. Damn, he was persistent. Then again, Arabrim would have been too if she’d tried to push him away like she was Lucian.

She’d been relieved when Arabrim had found her and taken her off the streets. To find someone she could depend on, someone who would never hurt her, even if he hadn’t understood her, had been a treasure. A treasure she’d had to watch die. Everyone around her eventually died. She couldn’t let Lucian in, for his own safety and for her sanity.

“Look, Lucian. I appreciate you going to all of this effort to find me and trying to help.” She turned on the window sill and swung her legs inside so that she faced him. “Really, I do. But you need to go. It has to be this way and I’m sorry if messes up your mission or whatever. Frankly, I’m too tired to give a crap anymore. So please, just go find another channel to protect and demon hunt with. I can handle myself.”

Lucian kept his gaze steady on her face. “I can see that. Come by those bruises naturally did you?”

She laughed, oh good grief, he was worried about a few bruises. “Nope, got them in a fight where I was the winner. These two,” she pointed at the new ones, “I got last night kicking a couple of guys’ asses. Like I said, I can handle myself.”

“Against humans, yes. What about when you come up against an upper-level demon with several lower-level demons helping him?” Lucian narrowed his eyes at her, wondering if she could see reason or if she had lost her mind. The sudden sadness in her eyes surprised him.

Morgan looked away from him and stared out the window at the rain. “Been there, done that. It got my dark angel killed.”

“And saved your life in the process.”

She continued to stare at the falling drops. “Yes.”

“Then he did his duty to you.”

A flash of anger made her turn. He stood with his arms crossed, regarding her. “So that’s just all okay huh? Arabrim is dead because I couldn’t banish the upper-level demon fast enough and there were too many lower-levels. I’m just supposed to be all right with that? No big deal as long I’m still alive.”

“That is the way it’s supposed to be, so yes, you should be alright with it. Arabrim will come again and even in death he lives. There is no point in grieving the death of one of us.” Lucian had witnessed the death of many dark angels over his lives, all of whom were like brothers to him, yet he didn’t mourn them. Miss them in that life maybe, not mourn them.

Why was she being so unreasonable about this? Hell, he’d been the dead one on more than one occasion. He simply went to the place of waiting until it was his time to be born again. Where was the sadness in that?

Morgan glared at him. “Arabrim was all I ever had besides Jake, and Lucy,” she motioned toward the dog, “and now you want to step in here and take his place. Why? So I can watch you die too?”

“Vita mea pro tua, semper.”
He spread his hands.

“That’s what I thought.” Morgan shook her head. She knew the meaning of those words. ‘My life for yours, always.’ She couldn’t let him do that. She couldn’t let anyone do that for her again.

Morgan swung her legs back up on the windowsill and draped her arms across her bent knees. She looked back at the rain. “Go away, Lucian. Please. Just leave.”

The conversation had brought to the surface every horrible feeling she’d had when Arabrim died. Many of the same feelings she’d felt when her parents died. When her sister died. When her best friend died. Even when her first foster parents rejected her. Everyone in her life left one way or another. Tears threatened and she refused to cry in front of him. She would deal with her pain on her own. Like she always did.

Lucian watched her struggling to control her emotions and something deep inside his heart knew he needed to give her some space to deal with them. Nodding to himself, he pulled a blank business card with his phone number and address written on it. He dropped it on the windowsill next to her. “If you decide you need me for something.”

She barely flicked her eyes at it. “Yeah, I’ll just call you on my handy dandy cell phone that I don’t have. There’s a grubby pay phone at the gas station a couple of blocks away, I don’t think it works. Oh, I got it; I’ll run back here and use one of the burn barrels to send you smoke signals.”

Deciding it was best to ignore the sarcastic remarks, Lucian asked instead, “Would you consent to me getting a cell phone for you?”

“I’m not your charity case.”

Lucian sighed. “I never said you were. Nothing fancy, just something with my number programmed into it so you can reach me if you need to. I promise to never call you.”

Morgan thought that over. She wasn’t really suicidal. Her life may be crap, but she had Lucy and no death wish. If she came up against something like she had with Arabrim, she would be stupid not to accept the help of a dark angel. If she could bring herself to call Lucian and ask for it knowing he may well end up like Arabrim. Maybe she did have a death wish.

Her eyes rested on Lucy for a moment. If something happened to her, Lucy would be alone on the street until she was picked up by animal control, or taken by someone to try and use for dog fighting or some other nefarious purpose. She looked at Lucian. “I will take the cell phone on one condition.”

Hiding the intense relief he felt, Lucian nodded, prepared to grant her anything. “What is that?”

“You have to promise on your place as a dark angel, that if anything happens to me, you will take care of Lucy. And I mean really take care of her. She lives with you. You can’t take her to the pound or dump her off on someone else.” She waited, breath held to see if he would agree.

“Done.”

“You promise?”

He looked her in the eyes. “I promise on my status as a dark angel that if anything happens to you, Lucy will live out her days with me and never want for anything.”

It wasn’t a promise made lightly. Lucian could tell by the relief in her expression that she knew exactly the kind of promise she’d been asking for. Even now he felt the weight of it as it settled over him. It was a promise he couldn’t break even if he wanted to, which he didn’t. Lucian just hoped it didn’t come to that.

“Will you stay here long enough for me to get a phone and bring it back?”

Morgan lit another cigarette then waved her hand toward the rain pouring down beyond the window. “I have no intention of dragging Lucy out in that.” She took a drag and blew the smoke out. “Not even if it meant I never saw or heard from you again.”

Ignoring that last comment, Lucian turned and left. He hurried down the stairs, out the door, and through the rain to his vehicle. Despite what she said, he wasn’t entirely convinced he would find here there when he returned. Especially if the weather cleared even a little in the meantime. He drove to the nearest store and had a phone added to his plan.

He programmed his number, as well as those of Isobel and Damien, into it then swung past a couple more places before he drove faster than the speed limit back to the abandoned building. He hated that he would be leaving here without her, that tonight he would be sleeping in a warm bed in a warm house while she slept who knows where. And there wasn’t anything he could do to change it right now. If he pressed too much, Morgan would just go into deeper hiding on the streets. Or worse, leave the city altogether and go in the Higher Powers only knew which direction.

Lucian let out a quiet sigh of relief when he reached the second floor and found her still sitting in the windowsill staring at the rain, nursing another cigarette. The dim light of the day reflected on the tears tracking their way down her face. Lucy’s ears perked in his direction but Morgan hadn’t heard him. He froze and backed up until he was on the stairway, then walked to the bottom. Lucian waited a moment then stomped back up the stairs.

By the time he reached the second floor again, her face was wiped clean of tears, though her hazel eyes were still red. Lucian affected not to notice as he strode toward her.

Morgan watched him come; glad he’d made some noise on his return. She wasn’t some damsel in distress and didn’t want him to see her crying. She glanced at the large backpack in one of his hands and frowned. “I said a cell phone. I didn’t agree to anything else.”

“I didn’t ask,” he said, handing her the small, touch screen phone. “Do you know how to use one?”

“Of course, I’m not a complete idiot.”

He only nodded. “My phone number, as well as those of Damien and Isobel, are programmed in. You guys were friends once. I thought you might want their numbers if you decide you want to be again.”

Not likely to ever happen. Jake and Patsy were as close to friends as she got these days and even then, she didn’t seek Patsy out often, it wasn’t safe. Bad enough she endangered Jake so much. “Thanks.”

“Now, as to this,” Lucian set the backpack on the floor, “there is a solar cell phone charger in there. You need that. The rest you can eat, give to the dog, throw it away, whatever you want to do with it. I’ll leave you alone now.”

Morgan watched him walk away, more than a little surprised he had actually left. She took a drag off her cigarette and pulled the backpack closer, unable to resist the smell of food. Even Lucy sat up and watched intently. Morgan unzipped the top and looked inside.

Tears sprang into her eyes and she blinked them away rapidly. What the hell was wrong with her? It was Lucian’s fault. Did he have to be so nice in the face of her rudeness? Why couldn’t he have just gotten mad and stomped away?

Inside the bag was a large bottle of soda, a liter bottle of water, and collapsible dog water dish. There was also a folding umbrella and a dog rain coat in Lucy’s size. The bag from a fast food restaurant wedged in there was labeled,
‘For you and Lucy.’
There were eight, large roast beef sandwiches inside it and a use anywhere gift card with
200.00
written on it.

Damn the man, she ground the butt of her cigarette out with more force than necessary then tossed it out the window. Grabbing four of the roast beef sandwiches, she unwrapped two and gave them to Lucy before opening her own and taking a big bite of the warm roast beef and soft fresh bun. Mmmm. She hadn’t had a fresh one of these in…she couldn’t remember how long it had been. She looked at Lucy and smiled as the dog carefully chewed through her two.

She would save the gift card for days when she couldn’t find anything else to eat. Or maybe use it as a weekly treat for her and Lucy. No, better to only use if she had to in order to stretch the two hundred dollars as far as possible.

OVER THE PROTESTS
of her stuffed stomach, Morgan managed to get the last bite of the second sandwich down. She sipped at the soda then pulled the doggy raincoat out. Underneath it, a carton of cigarettes rested next to a double pack of disposable lighters. Damn him, he’d thought of everything. At least now she could have another without having to worry about running out anytime soon.

She unfolded the doggy dish and poured some of the water from the plastic liter bottle into it, pleased to see her friend drinking real water instead of nasty puddle water. After shaking out the raincoat, she called Lucy, happy the dog would be covered in the rain. Then shoved the heavier of her two coats into the bottom of the new, larger backpack, placed the remainder of the food on top and put the slim phone in as the demon radar in her head started to give warning.