Bound by Legend: A Bound Novel

When demons show up there will be hell to pay…

At nineteen Morgan has already faced more loss than she can handle and has more experience living on the street than she wants. Unable to do anything other than keep on the move in order to hide from the demons that hunt her, she guards her heart and emotions carefully. But when the demons start talking to her and calling her by a name from another life, things spiral beyond her control.

Lucian, an ancient dark angel who has seen his fair share of lives, is happy being a free agent until his life is turned upside down when he’s assigned to Morgan. She’s unlike any channel he’s ever met and determined to do everything on her own. To make matters worse, she pulls at him in a way that can only mean one thing and it’s something he would like to avoid at all costs.

As the danger mounts and a demon prepares to open a gateway to the underworld, Morgan must find a way to overcome her past in order stop him.Offered what her heart desperately wants, and holding a key that will close the gate but open another, Morgan must find the strength to make the right choice.

Book two in the Standalone Bound Novels

BOUND BY LEGEND

Copyright © 2016 A.D. Trosper

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Published by

Silver Spirit Publishing

Library of Congress Control Number:

2016902934

ISBN-13: 978-0615986753

ISBN-10: 0615986757

Also By A.D. Trosper

Dragon's Call

Embers at Galdrilene

Book One

Tears of War

Book Two

Ashes and Spirits

Book Three

Tales From Galdrilene

A New Beginning

The Bound Series

Bound By Time

Book One

Children’s Books

The Legend of Christmas Magic

Multi-Author Collections

In Creeps The Night

Featuring "The Loop"

A Winter's Romance

Featuring "Mid-Winter Celebration"

Thank you to my husband and kids, for your continual support of my writing endeavors.

To my mother, for reading the first draft and offering suggestions.

To Chelsea, for all of your knowledge of the Cherokee and of the Kalona and for so willingly sharing it with me.

To Georgia, for all of your help when I was researching that area of Colorado and for beta reading.

Also a huge thank you my other beta readers.

Thank you also to Karmin Dahl, for all of your edits and for proofreading.

And last, but never least, thank you to the team at Blue Harvest Creative for taking my manuscript and turning it into a stunning book.

One last thank you goes out to all of my readers. You guys make writing so much fun.

Come to me, little black fox. Unbind me, set me free.

Stand at my side. One way or another, your heart is mine.

~ The Kalona ~

A DESTINATION DIDN’T
matter, as long as Morgan stayed on the move. She trudged through the snow and slushy puddles aimlessly as she wandered the path of the park. If it was the path. With the ground covered in a foot of white, there was no way to be sure.

She glanced at the sky. Ugh. Hopefully, this would be the last of the snow. It was April for heaven’s sake. Of course, in Denver, that meant little. Pulling her ragged coat tighter around her neck, she hunched her shoulders against the cold. The icy flakes still made their way through the narrow gap between her double layered stocking caps and the collar of the hoodless coat.

There were others like her in the park, those with no destination. Those who could do little other than wait out the cold snap and hope they didn’t freeze to death during it. Morgan avoided them. Some were nice, others though…they couldn’t be trusted and it could be difficult to tell which was which until it was too late. It wasn’t such a problem this time, not with Lucy to warn her.

Morgan’s gaze swept what she could see of the park through the big, heavy flakes. At least she couldn’t sense any demons. More and more of them seemed to be infesting the city. Enough that she’d had to abandon everything immediately after Arabrim’s death. Not that it mattered. This wasn’t the first time Morgan had lived on these streets.

An odd looking lump, covered with snow on a bench caught her attention. Too small to be a person unless it was a child, which was possible. Despite what people wanted to think, there were indeed a few children out here. “What do you think it is, Lucy?”

Beside her, the Rottweiler wagged her stubby tail. The dog didn’t seem disturbed or interested in the bench. Morgan approached cautiously.

The lump didn’t move. Please, Higher Powers, don’t let it be another frozen person. She reached slowly for the lump and gave it a shove. It gave beneath her hand, coating her thin knit glove in snow. Well, at least it wasn’t a person. It was something soft and squishy. She picked it up and shook it.

A coat! A warm one, by the looks of it. Someone must have shed it this morning when the weather had warmed enough to not need one and then forgotten it when they left. It even had a hood attached. Unable to believe her luck, Morgan shook it vigorously to dislodge the accumulated snow. Lucy backed away, closing her eyes against the flying wetness. With a laugh, Morgan brushed the collected flakes off the dog’s face. Slipping the thin straps of the worn backpack with a tightly rolled sleeping bag tied to it off her shoulder, Morgan dropped it next to her feet and gave the coat another shake.

Lucy turned her head, her ears up and a low growl in her throat. Morgan froze, listening for what had alerted the dog. A large man flew over the back of the bench and slammed into Morgan, knocking her to the ground. A burly face, wild with whatever mental condition kept him on the street, hovered above her. Dark shadows swirled through his blue, bloodshot eyes. Damn, it would be nice if her radar picked up demon-possessed better. His hand cracked across her face as he tried to wrench the coat away with the other.

Oh hell no. That coat was hers! Fueled by rage, she spit the metallic taste of blood from her mouth, rolled to her feet, and kicked. Her boot caught him in the stomach, knocking the air out of him as she yanked the coat from his grasp. She threw her fist forward, smashing his nose. Blood spattered in crimson patterns across the snow. Lucy snarled and barked warnings at the stranger.

The grizzled man grabbed for the coat again. Morgan lunged forward and jammed her elbow into his mouth, feeling his front teeth give under the impact. With a howl of pain, he backed off and glared at her. Morgan stood her ground. There wasn’t a demon in the Underworld that could make her give up her claim on the coat and she sure as hell wasn’t backing down to this demon-possessed man.

He jumped at her, trying to use his greater size and weight against her. Morgan spun away from him, nearly losing her footing in the snow. He took advantage of her momentary loss of balance and the side of her face exploded in pain from the solid blow, followed almost immediately by a backhand across her eye. Her stocking hats flew off from the force. It only added gasoline to the fire burning in her blood.

Morgan recovered quickly and spun, bringing her foot up. His nose crunched to the side. Screaming, he grabbed for the now misshapen feature and staggered. She wasted no time—he obviously didn’t plan to give up on his own—her foot came up between his legs, dropping him to his knees. His hands flew to the region and he bent at the waist. Morgan kicked his exposed face, knocking him on his back in the snow. Ignoring his groans, she stomped on his head a couple of times for good measure.