Page 15 of Calling Chaos (Demon Bound #3)

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Chaos

C haos was feeling absolutely wonderful.

He was at a strange meeting that was sure to end in glorious mayhem and bloodshed, Cooper was at his side, and Chaos’s loyal summoner had somehow just received Nix’s tentative approval for their future bond (not that Cooper knew a future bond was coming their way, but still).

Chaos didn’t need Nix’s approval, of course, but it would make things easier if the incubus wasn’t trying to save Cooper from Chaos’s clutches. It was far too late for any nonsense like that, anyway. Chaos may have originally decided to keep Cooper on a whim, and weren’t whims just the best ? But the decision was burned into his very bones now. Cooper was his. They would bond. They would be happy. They would make adorable—

Well, they couldn’t actually make adorable hatchlings—as Cooper had found out today—but they would definitely put in the effort over and over and over again.

The big double doors at the front of the restaurant opened, and Chaos craned his neck to see who was coming in. He was curious about these traitorous mobsters Ivan was trying to weed out. Would they be wearing tracksuits and gold chains like in the movies? Maybe Chaos could start a little jewelry collection with the accessories of whoever they took out during this meeting.

But the duo that entered didn’t look anything like that. Instead, there was a big blond guy dressed in black and a little dark-haired man—Chaos sniffed the air and corrected himself: dark-haired vampire —at his side. He seemed at first to be dressed in an equally subdued way, but when he turned to glance behind him, Chaos saw there was a very large bright-pink kitten embroidered on the back of his gray sweater.

Ivan nodded at the newcomers. “Alexei,” he said shortly, addressing the burly blond.

So. The other cousin. Chaos frowned at him, unimpressed. All these blood relations, and Cooper had still ended up lonely and neglected. So what use were they, really? Cooper didn’t need them; that was for certain. He had Chaos now.

Alexei nodded back at Ivan without saying anything. Maybe he was mute or had lost his tongue somewhere exciting .And the little vampire pressed into his partner’s side, waving at the table before telling them his name was Johann, “or Jay, if you like.”

Cute , Chaos decided. Not as cute as Cooper, but certainly cuter than the other vampire duo at the table. The Wolfe fellow got Chaos’s hackles up, his energy weird in a way that was maybe exciting or maybe terrible, Chaos hadn’t decided yet.

The front door opened again, and the regular mobsters started coming in, all of them nodding respectfully at Ivan, looking in surprise at Alexei, and in general avoiding their table warily, congregating on the other side of the restaurant instead. There were only a few tracksuits, but there were some chunky gold rings on pinky fingers Chaos wouldn’t mind stealing, just to see how they’d look on Cooper’s elegant digits.

He’d be sure to wipe the blood off first.

Eventually their party stood, getting ready to gather at the front area so the meeting could begin, and Chaos glanced to the side and found that Jay had sidled up to him at some point.

“Are you a demon?” the little vampire asked, his voice bright but quiet enough that none of the humans around them could hear.

Chaos pointed at his chest. “Who, me?” he asked innocently as Cooper walked ahead.

Jay narrowed his gray eyes, but a smile played at his lips, like he was in on the joke. “You are, aren’t you?” he pressed. “And do you have a tail?”

“What do you think?”

Jay bent backward to look at Chaos’s rear, then nodded once, decisively. “I’d like to see it, please. Nix already promised to show me his.”

Chaos cocked his head, pretending to consider. “Nix is nicer than I am though.”

Jay’s smile fell the tiniest bit. But he didn’t argue or try to order Chaos around, so Chaos leaned in, murmuring, “If you look over during the big reveal, you’ll see it. And my wings.”

“Ohhh.” Jay’s eyes lit up with delight. “Kai has wings too.” He nibbled on his lower lip. “His are a little scary though.”

Chaos shrugged. “Mine are cute. That’s what Nix says, at least.” Should Chaos ask Cooper to confirm? Probably yes. Chaos would like to hear it from Cooper’s lips, that he was cute. That his wings were fetching.

Jay grinned at him. “And if you look over, you can see my fangs.”

Psh. Fangs were boring, but Chaos did kind of like the idea of this little guy being a bloodthirsty monster underneath the cute packaging, so he nodded anyway. “Deal.”

They all gathered in the big, open area at the front of the restaurant, facing the men. Cooper and Chaos were on the far left, next to Sascha and Kai, with Ivan and Nix in the middle. Alexei and Jay were on the other side with Wolfe and Eric. They were like a panel of judges on some reality talent show, except without the podiums or cameras or fame or general sense of entertainment.

So maybe not like that at all.

Chaos made sure he was standing slightly in front of Cooper, in case any of these men decided they wanted to start shooting early. The humans they were facing were all feeling very nervous, their anxiety wafting off them in bitter, sour tendrils, which Chaos enjoyed. Of course, Cooper had nerves enough to fill the whole room with, but Chaos felt a bit guilty about liking those particular tendrils. It meant his puppy was suffering while he was enjoying himself.

In the future, once they were bonded, Chaos would handle all these Mafia meetings. There was no reason for Cooper to distress himself with business nonsense when Chaos would be there to do it for him. Cooper could stay home, hacking or gaming or even napping, if he wanted. And then Chaos would return, triumphant and maybe even a little bloody, and they would mate ferociously and make pretend hatchlings together.

Marvelous.

Ivan started his speech, some boring number about business and family and betrayal and blah, blah, blah . It was annoying to listen to, but it was easy to ignore the meat of it and focus on the anticipation of bloodshed, and the ease with which all this tension could dissolve into pandemonium.

Chaos was going to leave this meeting stuffed full of delicious mayhem; that much was for sure.

He perked up when some of Ivan’s lieutenants brought out a bruised and battered man tied to a chair, the men muttering among themselves at his arrival. This was Sergei. The one who frightened Cooper so much. Chaos eyed him skeptically. Underneath his bravado, he looked…broken. And tired. Just any other human man who’d reached too far and come up short.

Who was he to frighten Chaos’s beloved puppy?

Well, no more. With Chaos at his side, Cooper wouldn’t have to fear judgment or violence or anything else from these silly mortals. Chaos would be his protector, his vengeance seeker, his hand-holder extraordinaire.

Chaos was so caught up in plotting his delectable future that he only barely heard Ivan say the words “—we’ve gathered new allies, ones I doubt any of you have the gall to cross.”

Oops! Chaos had almost missed the signal. Wouldn’t that have been hilarious?

The others were already transforming, so Chaos let his demon form erupt, tail and wings and horns sprouting from his body. He caught Jay’s gaze—oooh, the little vampire’s eyes had turned all black; that was cool—and winked at him, grinning when Jay flashed his little fangs at him.

Men started screaming, and ohhh yes, that was the beginnings of mayhem in the air, thick and smoky and twisted. Chaos drank it in, greedily inhaling the swirly, salty, sweet, bitter, sour mixture.

Several of the men in the crowd drew their guns, and one of them yelled out, “What the fuck is this, Ivan?”

“Why, Gregor,” Ivan purred, sounding almost as sultry as Nix for a moment, “what the fuck does it look like?”

“It looks like fucking—fucking Halloween tricks. A smoke screen. You think this is enough to scare us off?”

Maybe this Gregor fellow was trying to sound angry and intimidating, but he only sounded panicked. Chaos grinned.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Wolfe sighed, and then he was off the stage, tearing the man’s throat out with his teeth, doing the same to Sergei in the next moment.

Just like that, two men were dead.

Chaos took back his previous indecision—Wolfe was great . He’d started the bloodshed early and taken out that jerk Sergei while he was at it. Good stuff, there.

Ivan and Alexei and Kai seemed less pleased, all three of them frowning like Wolfe had made some sort of social faux pas, possibly because the surprise fountain of blood had led to Sascha fainting on the stage.

Kai was picking up the blond human now, glaring at everything and everyone.

Wolfe—his fancy suit absolutely covered in blood—cocked a brow. “Wasn’t that the point of identifying the traitors?” he asked coolly. “So we could do away with them? Eric and I have places to be.”

That had been the gist of Ivan’s plan, Chaos was pretty sure. Maximal pizzazz and a little bit of blood spillage now, and less general warfare to keep his position later.

There was a flash of movement in the crowd. Another one of the traitors Chaos had seen Nix eyeing was trying to run.

No. Nope. Not allowed.

Chaos dove after him, talons extended, their sharp points slicing into the man’s chest as easy as breathing. Hot blood sprayed into the air, and Chaos heard Cooper yelp behind him. Was his puppy worried about him? He needn’t be. Chaos was fine. He was wonderful , actually. Had Cooper really wanted to miss this?

It was fun. Fun, fun, fun, fun.

And now those beginnings of mayhem turned into a proper frenzy, all the humans yelling and some of them shooting. The supernaturals of their party—except Kai, who had hold of Sascha, and Nix, who was guarding Ivan and Cooper—started corralling humans, flicking or kicking guns out of hands. Chaos cackled in delight as men screamed at the sight of him up close.

Maybe he wasn’t as cute as he’d thought. He’d definitely have to double-check with Cooper later.

He flashed his fire for show but didn’t kill anyone else, as tempting as it was. The blood was fun and all, but it was the anarchy of it all that really fed him.

Although, one man did try to crawl under a table to the exit, so Chaos set the leg of his tracksuit alight just long enough to drag him out screaming.

So silly.

Chaos drank it up while he could, all the noise and fear and bedlam. But sooner than he would have liked, it took a boring turn. The shooting stopped, the men were subdued, and Nix began using his energy-reading skills to sort through them, deciding who could stay in the organization, who could go freely, and who would have to be taken out completely, too much of a risk to let live.

Chaos sighed loudly. When no one paid him any more attention—other than a few cowardly humans giving him nervous looks—he made his way back to Cooper, who was now sitting on the carpeted floor with his back to the wall, far away from everyone else. His muscles were clenched stiffly, and up close, Chaos could see he was trembling.

He smelled like fear.

Chaos crouched and reached out a hand to soothe him, but Cooper shook his head, halting Chaos’s gesture in midair. “I need—need to hold it together until the end.” He gave Chaos a brittle smile, nodding his chin to where everyone else was gathered. “You have fun, okay? I’ll just…decompress here until it’s all over.”

Chaos frowned. He didn’t like that. He wanted to whisk Cooper away, to hold him close and keep Cooper pressed against him until his trembling eased. He could do that. He could take Cooper away from here and demand he feel better.

But he shouldn’t do that, right? This was Cooper’s business, all part of the life he’d been living before Chaos came along, and it wasn’t up to Chaos to make decisions for him.

(Unless the decision was about who he was going to bond with, in which case Chaos was definitely in charge.)

Maybe later, after they’d discussed it and Cooper had agreed. Maybe then Chaos could take over all this messy stuff for him. But Cooper had told Nix he wasn’t going to try to manage Chaos, so Chaos would try to give his summoner the same courtesy. When it was just the two of them, it was whatever Chaos wanted, whenever he wanted. But that only worked if Chaos—how had Cooper put it?—paid attention to the boundaries.

So he didn’t scoop his human up. Didn’t steal him away from what was scaring him. But he did ask, “You’re sure you’re okay?”

Cooper gave him a jerky nod, his glasses sliding down his nose. He didn’t correct their position. “Mm-hmm.”

Chaos cocked his head, unconvinced. “You’re not afraid of me again, are you?”

Cooper gave him another one of those smiles that wasn’t a real smile. “I’m a little afraid of everything right now. I just need a minute.”

It wasn’t the most satisfactory answer, but it would have to do.

Chaos left Cooper’s side reluctantly and circled the restaurant instead, sticking his face and his talons into the group of men to frighten them every now and again. He let Jay study his tail for a while. He made faces at Ivan that only Nix could see as Ivan led this second—and much, much more boring—meeting with the men who were staying.

In the end, four traitors were set aside for execution, and Ivan asked Chaos to burn the bodies afterward. It wasn’t as exciting as setting someone on fire when they were alive and kicking, but it was still a little novel, so Chaos agreed, bounding out to the back alley with Jace and Tag.

Four gunshots from those two, a quick use of Chaos’s powers, and it was done. No more traitors.

Which meant Ivan’s business was taken care of, which meant Cooper’s immediate obligations were over, right? It was time for Chaos to take Cooper away from this mess, maybe tuck him into bed with one of his video games until he felt better.

Except when Chaos returned to the main room of the restaurant with Tag and Jace—a room that now smelled like food and blood—there was only Ivan, neither Cooper nor Nix anywhere to be seen.

Cooper’s cousin was staring into the distance, his energy muddled and unreadable, his mouth slack and his eyes dazed.

“Boss?” Jace asked, having to stand directly in front of Ivan to get his attention. “Things have been…dealt with. You need anything else here before we head out?”

And then Ivan was pulling a gun on Jace, holding it to his forehead. He didn’t seem to be aware of anyone else in the room. He didn’t seem to be aware of much, really. “I do need one more thing from you, Jace,” he murmured, his voice strangely robotic. “And I’m afraid refusal isn’t an option. I need you to summon a demon.”

Oh. Nix was gone, then. Really gone. Like, back to the Void. This meeting must have completed whatever his contract with Ivan had been.

Chaos felt a twinge of sympathy for his friend. Nix had seemed very fond of his human summoner. But Ivan also seemed to have it handled, what with the gun and the threats and the Book in his hand. It was almost enough to make Chaos like the man. Ivan wasn’t going to leave Nix in the Void for long. He was going to summon him again, and then he was probably going to bond with him for good right after.

How sweet.

But Chaos didn’t need to be here to bear witness to any of that. Not when Cooper was still so distressed. He sidled around the wall instead, making his way to the entrance to the kitchens, following the tug of the soul piece in his chest to where Cooper was. He must have joined Kai and Sascha there before Nix got pulled away.

Chaos would take this as a reminder not to make Nix’s mistake. Cooper was too sweet to pull a gun on someone to summon Chaos a second time. Chaos needed to fetch his human and complete his wily seduction so Cooper would never be in that position. He needed to get to the point where he could tell Cooper they were bonding and not have Cooper run away in fright.

He needed to tell Cooper what was what, and then he needed to make it so.