Page 9 of Calling Chaos (Demon Bound #3)

8

Chaos

C haos pushed his lower lip into a pout as his puppy held out a hand for the phone. “No telephone,” Chaos insisted. “More kissing.”

He’d very much been enjoying the kissing. Cooper tasted minty and fresh, and his mouth was warm and wet and welcoming. His body would be the same; Chaos just knew it. He could tell by the lovely, soft give of Cooper’s belly, and the delightfully fleshy handfuls of his bottom.

Chaos had enjoyed the way Cooper went limp in his hold, the way he let Chaos’s hands roam over him while he kissed him feverishly. The human’s arousal wasn’t a violent, possessive wave, like some men Chaos had known. It was a slow, burning sweetness, and it smelled like charred caramel.

Tasty, tasty, tasty.

But it was melting on the air now, as Cooper was distracted by the ringing telephone. “I can’t ignore it,” he was saying. “It might be work. If it’s Ivan, I need to answer it.”

Chaos held the phone up to see what name was displayed. He scowled at the screen.

Ivan.

Cooper kept reaching for the phone. “I need to answer, Bracchus.”

Chaos held the phone behind him, out of Cooper’s reach. He wasn’t going to be swayed by his true name leaving Cooper’s sweet, soft lips. “Why?” he asked petulantly.

“He might need me.”

No, no, no. Chaos didn’t like that. Cooper had been taking care of Chaos’s needs, taking him out and giving him games to play and practicing kissing with him. What did Ivan’s mortal needs matter? The other human had Nix for those things. He didn’t require Chaos’s puppy too.

“What happens if you don’t pick up?”

Cooper sucked in a harsh breath. “Um, Ivan kills me?”

Chaos let out an enraged growl, his wings stretching out behind him as his tail lashed against the mattress. Ivan would dare harm Chaos’s summoner?

Cooper shrank into himself, away from Chaos, the scent of his arousal extinguished completely, replaced by the acrid bite of fear now. “Oh damn. You don’t like that.” He smiled awkwardly, holding his hands out in supplication. “Okay, he’s not going to literally kill me. That was an exaggeration. He’ll probably start by leaving an angry voicemail.”

The ruffled feathers on Chaos’s wings smoothed back down. And oops—the bedspread was smoking. Chaos put out the small, smoldering flame. He hadn’t meant to do that.

He gave a delicate cough, trying to push back the growl that still seemed to want to come out. “We’ll wait for the voice message, then,” he said primly.

Cooper only nodded, eyeing the charred circle on his bedspread.

They waited together. Cooper’s legs were still bracketed by Chaos’s knees—he hadn’t retreated that far—but he wasn’t leaning on Chaos anymore. There was…distance.

It was irritating.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me,” Chaos reminded his puppy. He usually found humanity’s fear of him funny, but he wasn’t even slightly tempted to cackle right now. “I’m your friend.”

He was, by contract and now by choice. And also potentially his future mate, but Chaos kept that part to himself for the moment.

Cooper gave him a smile that looked a little more genuine than before. “I told you, I’m just…going to be, sometimes. I’m not used to demons, you know. To growling and wings going all crazy and my bed catching on fire.”

Chaos frowned down at the phone in his hand. “You’re not going to want to kiss me anymore,” he said in a quiet voice. Quiet and pathetic. Cooper should really take pity on him.

Chaos was counting on it.

Cooper let out another one of those funny breaths. “I’m not worried you’ll hurt me.”

“So we can kiss again?” Chaos asked immediately, pressing his advantage.

“You want to?” Cooper’s cheeks flushed a lovely pink. “That wasn’t enough, um, practice?”

“Of course not. I set the bed on fire, didn’t I? I’ll need lots of practice.” Chaos gave Cooper a stern look. “ Lots .”

“But the bed thing was about—”

“Lots,” Chaos repeated firmly.

The flush on Cooper’s cheeks deepened. His fear was dissipating, giving way to more nervous embarrassment. That was much better. “Okay. We’ll…practice again,” Cooper agreed.

Chaos’s lovely, agreeable summoner.

The phone dinged, and Cooper told Chaos it was a sign that the voice message was ready.

Chaos handed him the phone, only to pull it back at the last second. “Play it out loud,” he demanded.

Cooper pressed play, then the little speaker button, and they listened to Ivan and his frustrated words. “ Cooper .”

Chaos frowned. He didn’t like the way Ivan said Cooper’s name. Like he was angry. Like Cooper had done something wrong.

“Why the hell aren’t you picking up? You have something of mine. Something you never should have taken. I need it back. Right the fuck now. I’m coming over. Be ready.”

Ivan was obviously talking about the Book. He wanted it back? Was he trying to bond with Nix? That was hilarious, but it didn’t really matter—Chaos wasn’t ready to give the Book back to the man with the mean voice.

What if Chaos got very good at kissing in the next few hours, and Cooper agreed to mate with him after all? He’d need it then.

At the diner, Cooper had insisted he wasn’t the right human for Chaos, but Chaos wasn’t convinced at all. With each passing moment, he was getting fonder and fonder of his puppy.

“He’s talking about your Book,” Cooper muttered, echoing the less fun half of Chaos’s thoughts. “If he wants it, I have to give it to him.”

Chaos grabbed the phone back, shoving it into his pocket. “No.”

“Bracchus…”

“If he tries to take it, I’ll slash him with my claws. Right across the belly.” Chaos held up taloned fingers in demonstration. He would too. Ivan’s belly would deserve it, for not being Cooper’s belly.

Cooper pressed his fingers to his forehead, like he was thinking very hard. “Okay. Right. So if this day is to have a nonviolent end, we need to leave and, um, take the Book with us.”

Chaos beamed at him. “You’re more than a little wise, after all. I was wrong to say otherwise before.”

Cooper rolled his pretty eyes. It was a bit sassy of him, but Chaos didn’t mind, if it meant Cooper’s fear of him was dwindling even smaller. Soon it would be a tiny pea, too inconsequential to matter. Then Cooper might not mind bonding him.

And they were going out again! That was delightful. The computer game had been fun, but Chaos had played for hours already. He wasn’t sure he wanted to return to it, when there was the whole outside world to explore.

“Where will you take me?” he asked eagerly.

Cooper still had his fingers pressed to his forehead. “I guess a hotel?”

“A love hotel?” Nix had told Chaos all about those. He’d liked to watch them through the portal, just like the porn shoots.

Cooper’s ears turned the same pink as his cheeks. “We don’t really have those here. Just—just a regular hotel.”

“That’s fine,” Chaos told him agreeably, magnanimous now that he was getting his way. “I’ve never stayed at one.”

He hopped off the bed, ready to start their adventure. So many new experiences his puppy was giving him already.

Not too much later, they were at a hotel bar. It was just like a regular bar but at a hotel.

Apparently Cooper had a few “secret bank accounts” with “stealth credit cards” so he could check them into the hotel under a different name, in case Ivan came looking.

It seemed like an awful lot of trouble just to hide from a regular human, but maybe it was like the numerous locks Cooper had on his apartment door.

Chaos’s puppy liked to feel secure.

Cooper had waited patiently while Chaos inspected the hotel room on their arrival, delighted at the novelty. Cooper had gotten them two beds, for some reason. Chaos was due to sleep soon, but he didn’t see why he had to do it in his own bed. He was going to curl up with Cooper, obviously. Friends snuggled, didn’t they?

The room had smelled like sterile cleaning supplies but not strongly enough to mask the layers of human emotions that had built in over the years. Lust, sorrow, and boredom were the strongest, although there were little pockets of other things, like a bit of rage and disgust.

The bar was a little more Chaos’s cup of tea. It was quieter than a tavern of old, but the people were still a mix, as they tended to be in establishments like this. Everyone here had come from different places for different purposes, and their conflicting goals and emotions stirred up a mild bit of disorder in the air. It was a calm sort of chaos, but it was still something.

Chaos had always been partial to the flavor of violent mayhem above all—spicy and sharp and metallic—but now, with Cooper, he was getting a taste for many different types of disarray.

It was oddly pleasing. After all, variety was the spice of life. Chaos had read that on a tea towel through the portal once.

Cooper was beside Chaos on a stool at the bar, studying the menu with a furrowed brow. The bartender—an annoyingly handsome man with very stupid facial hair—returned, and Chaos did not like the interested gleam in his eye as he looked Cooper over.

Yes, Chaos’s puppy was aesthetically pleasing, but that was for Chaos to know and others to…not know.

“I’ll just have a seltzer with lime, please,” Cooper told the bartender, his eyes remaining lowered on his menu. He might have been too shy to look up and notice the man’s interest, but Chaos certainly saw it.

The bartender hesitated, then placed his hand on Cooper’s menu in a way that had Cooper looking up at him. The man’s eyes widened when he took stock of Cooper’s mismatched pair, then gleamed anew. Like he thought Cooper was exceptionally pretty. Like he thought he might have a chance.

I will bite your hand off at the wrist , Chaos threatened in his mind, sensing Cooper might not like him saying the words out loud. There will be fountains and fountains of blood.

“If you’re interested,” the bartender drawled, oblivious to the murder and mayhem Chaos had planned for him, “we’ve got some good mocktails here, on the back page. There’s one with guava that’s my favorite.”

Cooper’s cheeks flushed with embarrassed pleasure at the suggestion, and Chaos let out a low growl from somewhere deep in his throat.

The growl was too quiet for the bartender to hear, but Cooper’s gaze darted to Chaos, and whatever he saw on Chaos’s face had him blanching.

Cooper nodded frantically at the bartender. “Guava mocktail sounds good,” he said quickly, pushing the menu away. “And a water for my friend, please.”

Chaos didn’t need any water, and good thing too, since requiring the consumption of a tasteless liquid to live sounded as boring as anything could be. But he was pleased his puppy was thinking of him. He cut the growl off and lowered his head onto Cooper’s shoulder, snuggling his face into Cooper’s cool neck.

When the movement garnered the bartender’s attention, Chaos flashed his true demon eyes at the man, grinning when confusion washed over his face.

“That’ll be all,” Chaos crooned, just as sweet and polite as his puppy.

When the man had scurried away, Chaos lifted his head. “You like him,” he accused, something strange and bitter swirling in his belly.

“What?” Cooper seemed genuinely confused by the allegation. “I don’t even know him.”

Chaos pressed a finger to Cooper’s cheek. “You blushed.”

“I blush when strangers are nice to me. It’s embarrassing in, like, a nice way.”

Chaos considered that. “Am I nice to you?” He thought he was, at least by his own standards, but he wasn’t sure Cooper felt the same way. Chaos didn’t know how he could be much different, though, if Cooper disagreed. He was what he was.

Cooper seemed to consider the question, his brow furrowing thoughtfully. “You are,” he said after a moment. “In a bossy sort of way.”

“And you like bossy?” Chaos pressed.

“I don’t mind it,” Cooper said with a shrug. “I’m pretty easygoing.”

“Even though lots of things make you nervous?”

“It’s easier to deal with that stuff when I’m doing it for someone else. Like, I wouldn’t necessarily be hanging out at a hotel bar by myself. But with you here, it’s not so bad.”

Oh, that was a lovely thing to say. Chaos lowered his head onto Cooper’s shoulder again, suddenly pleased with the general state of things.

The bartender approached with their drinks, and this time, Chaos flashed his fangs at the man. He backed away with a start, then held a hand to his forehead, as if checking for a fever. He eyed Chaos warily as he headed to the opposite end of the bar, leaving them in peace.

Cooper shot Chaos a suspicious glance as he tasted his mocktail. “What did you just do?”

Chaos grinned innocently, his blunt human teeth back in order. “I smiled at him.”

Speaking of mouths. And teeth that were sharp and then not sharp.

Chaos took out Cooper’s phone. Cooper had given him his password, and Chaos had done some research while they were in the rented car on the way to the hotel, when Cooper had been distracted by his cards and accounts.

Just because Ivan had interrupted them didn’t mean Chaos was letting go of his advantage.

“Puppy?” Chaos asked sweetly.

Cooper looked up from his drink. “Yeah?”

Chaos pushed the phone toward him, showing Cooper the video he’d pulled up. “Can we practice this next?”

Cooper yelped, flipping the phone over and shoving it down onto the bar top, glancing around like he’d just committed a crime. His cheeks were much redder now than they’d been with the bartender.

“Chaos,” he said in a low voice, as if afraid for his words to carry. “You can’t pull up porn at the bar.”

“Why not?” Chaos asked with a pout. “I kept the sound off.”

Chaos had thought Cooper would appreciate the courtesy—his puppy didn’t like too much attention being drawn to him—but perhaps Chaos had been mistaken.

Cooper took some slow, deep breaths, his chest rising and falling noticeably with each one. He sipped his drink once. Then again.

Chaos waited him out. See how patient he could be?

“You want me to blow you?” Cooper finally asked, his voice just as low and quiet as before, not even looking at Chaos for some reason.

“No, silly,” Chaos told him, at his usual volume. “ I want to blow you .” In case Cooper didn’t fully understand, he clarified, “I want to put my mouth on your cock and suck on it.”

He’d wanted to do it since he’d seen the first video of it in Cooper’s porn stash. There were just so many ways for humans to mate with each other, almost none of which Chaos had ever had a chance to explore, too busy following orders and unleashing mayhem.

But now he was here, with his agreeable puppy, and he wanted to try all of them.

Cooper lowered his head onto his hand, his ears now the same red as his cheeks. “Oh my fucking God.”

Chaos patted Cooper’s pretty hair and winked at the bartender, who was gaping at them. Chaos didn’t mind the man and his stupid facial hair so much, now that everyone knew where everyone else stood.

The hotel bar was pretty fun after all.