Page 19

She stared at him, blinking slowly. “I didn’t surrender. I recognized.”

Kaos’s breath stilled.

“That’s what it felt like,” she continued.

“Like... something inside me had been waiting. And when he touched me, it stopped waiting.” She reached for her cookie again but didn’t take a bite.

She stared at the air between them with small nods.

“No,” she confirmed lightly, locking her eyes on him. “Not surrendered. Remembered.”

Kaos leaned back slightly, jaw clenched. He needed to anchor himself in something neutral before he unraveled entirely.

“Maybe you can go to sleep now,” he said, quieter.

“Go meet your devil-angel again while I go touch base with Kildare. Let him know your inspiration is still inspiring.” He stood, adjusting his coat.

“And I’ll grab dinner. Maybe celery. Something bland after listening to your angel-demon bedtime erotica. ”

She burst out laughing, her body folding sideways across the cushions. “Elegant,” she wheezed after a moment. “Bitter and nutritious.”

Her laugh bubbled in his blood and cock as he headed for the door.

“You know,” she called after him, voice still colored with amusement. “You could just say it.”

He turned at the door, powers sucking up everything she dangled between them. “Say what?”

Her one drawn up leg slowly wagged as she held him captive with her small smile. “That you wish I was dreaming of you.”

Another chunk of power bowed at her little feet. “Remember when I said I’d shove my fingers past your lips and drag them along your tongue like a promise?” He opened the door before he did something she’d never recover from. “You think I said that because I wanted to be in your dreams?”

His powers felt her breath hitch and it created a loop straight to his chest and cock.

He hurried out the door and shut it, the quiet click resonating louder than a slam.

He moved quickly when his Lust banged at the door of his control with hungry, cruel fists.

He sharpened his thoughts into a blade, forcing clarity on the unexpected storm brewing inside him.

Inside her. It was no longer a simple game of temptation and control.

It had become something deeper, darker, and infinitely more dangerous.

His appetite was now a vicious craving, daring anything or anyone to stand in its way.

He didn’t need permission to sate it, nor did he intend to seek it from anyone.

What he needed was more intuition than his pathetic human vessel was equipped with.

Because he didn’t just want her at night.

He wanted her in the day. And he didn’t just want her with his true form, he wanted her with his human one too.

The two of them were snarling rivals that initially wanted to kill the other, but now a truce had been struck.

They would both have her.

****

Jaxi pressed her hands to her cheeks, warmth flooding through her face, down her neck, and straight into her heart. She sank onto the couch, staring blankly at the spot where he’d stood moments before, her heart pounding fiercely in her chest.

“He likes me,” she whispered softly, barely daring to believe the words as they slipped past her lips. A smile bloomed, bright and ecstatic, before uncertainty flickered at the edges of her joy.

But did he really?

She replayed his words over and over. “Remember when I said I’d shove my fingers past your lips and drag them along your tongue like a promise?” Jaxi whispered, savoring each word as if they were precious, dangerous secrets. “Do you think I said that because I wanted to live in your dreams?”

His eyes. His voice. The careful intensity—every memory sent a delightful shiver down her spine. Yet doubt crept in, taunting her with ambiguity. Had he just confessed desire, or was he simply challenging her again?

She thought back to everything they’d shared that night.

The cookies, the chaos, the way he stirred the batter like it had personally offended him.

She remembered the way he tasted it off her finger—slow, deliberate—and how her breath hitched like he’d just rewritten her pulse.

He surely had. And he hadn’t smiled. Not once.

But something in his eyes had burned, and it left a mark.

That moment felt like a dare—and maybe an invitation. Or a silent pleading.

Then the playlist wall. Her scribbled names.

The way she danced like no one was watching—even though she knew he was.

He hadn’t joined in, but he hadn’t looked away.

When he caught her mid-air and spun her like she weighed nothing, she’d felt it.

The tension in his hands. The way he lingered just a second too long.

And when she’d dared to hug him, it was like hugging a tree of life.

Joy and elation surged through her, filling her blood and bones with secret colors and sounds and feels.

Oh my.

And the bath. She flushed just thinking about it.

He’d sat outside the door like a guardian—and a storm.

She’d told him too much. Or maybe just enough.

His voice had reached through everything, and his answers…

still haunted her. Redemption. Proof. Pain.

And that one line… ‘Whoever made you think you had to shrink’… that had gutted her.

And then the couch and the milk and cookies.

Her smile began to bloom again. Toes against his leg.

Hard, muscular leg. And the dream she’d just told him.

Why would she tell him that dream? She chewed on her lower lip, opening herself to the real answer.

Oh yes, she wanted him to know. She wanted to force him to react.

Even if it meant a bad reaction. But it hadn’t been bad.

Not really. He hadn’t mocked her, he hadn’t flinched.

But his jealousy had bled into the air, sharp and claiming.

She had never felt anything more powerful and dangerous and…

glorious. But he hadn’t taken. Not physically.

He’d only watched her. And asked and listened.

Like she was something rare. And maybe beautiful.

Jaxi pulled a pillow onto her lap, hugging it close as she stared thoughtfully at the closed door, anticipation battling with confusion. Either way, Kohl had just made their game infinitely more thrilling, and she couldn't wait to see what happened next.

****

Kaos crossed into his apartment and shut the door behind him with a low thud. The silence hit differently here—quieter, darker. He exhaled and dragged a hand through his hair, pulling his phone from his pocket and dialing Kildare.

He answered on the second ring. “There he is. How’s the upgrade?”

Kaos didn’t answer at first. He stared at the wall like a blockade. “It's not an upgrade, it’s a handicap with sharp teeth.”

Kildare laughed low. “You sound like it’s chewing on you.”

“Every time I use these human… tools , they root deeper. Like a bad line of code. Not just in the flesh, in the wiring, in the pulse. They weren’t made for me—but they’re starting to grow. And I can’t tell if I’m feeding them or they’re feeding on me.”

“Sounds perfectly normal.”

Normal. Kaos’s jaw flexed. “She doesn’t flinch or obey or yield.

She dances with fire and doesn’t burn, she doesn’t ask to be seen—she just is.

” He steadied his breaths, that nagging thought festering in the marrow of his bones.

“Why are you letting me touch her? In any form? You made it clear my true body would trigger a bond. Draw attention. So why are you letting me do this? Why not post me at the door like a sentinel?”

“Because you need to,” he said, voice low. “And nobody said you couldn’t. Yet.”

Kaos found himself at the closet in his room.“You downloaded ten years of human tech, behavior, and useless social diseases,” Kaos continued. “But nothing about women.”

“That was intentional,” Kildare said smoothly. “Those things have to be learned through experience and exploration.”

“And you know this because you have experience with it?”

A sharp breath escorted out his, “Hell no. But I know enough.”

Kaos turned to the dresser drawers, opening the top one. “Of course you do. Mr. Ancient. I’m short a few millennials.”

“You were created for a purpose.”

Kaos growled, snatching up clothes. “Which was ripped from my soul,” he reminded.

“Well. Not entirely.”

Kaos paused at the hint of change. “What does that mean?”

He drew in a deep breath. “I don't know, but I know.”

Kaos shook his head. “You are fucking absurd.”

“Yes,” he said in flippant understanding. “And you can trust the plan. Whatever it is.”

Kaos pulled a clothing bag from the closet door. “I can't wait to learn what the dark fuck it is and how it’ll get ripped from me again.”

“Ahh, come on,” Kildare scolded with a chuckle. “No need to be a pussy. It's just pain.”

Kaos realized suddenly. He didn't care about his pain. “If something or someone dares hurt her, I would not forgive or forget it.”

“Relax, Dark One,” Kildare cautioned. “She’s in good hands. No matter how fucked up anything might seem. Trust the one behind the plan.”

Raviel. “I don’t share your faith, Ruby.”

A slow breath left him. “Neither does Krave. Who by the way says hello. As does your son, Kross.”

That name moved through him like a slow fire, stirring a demanding curiosity. “What else do you know?”

The silence stretched just long enough to throb.“I know Kross is gathering power. I know Raviel’s silence is intentional. And I know the pattern forming around your girl is older than either of us were allowed to study.”

Kaos stilled, heart thudding once—low and hard. “What pattern?”

“The kind that doesn’t loop,” Kildare said. “The kind that breaks and yet remains unbreakable.”

Kaos gripped the frame of the doorway, rage twisting in his spine.“Then tell me now—am I meant to protect her, or lose her?”

“You're meant to find out,” Kildare said. “That’s the part you can’t download. That’s the part the fire won’t burn away.”

Kaos’s hand tightened on the clothes in his fist. “Then make peace with what I'll become.”

He hung up, barely remembering he couldn't crush the device that served as a human lifeline to her. Heshoved clothes into the ba g She whimpered and the soun d then headed for the bathroom, pausing halfway.Subtle alarm twisted low in his gut. He’d only been gone fifteen minutes.

Maybe less.And somehow, it already felt too long.

Obsession lined his body like gravity, forcing him to recalibrate everything.He turned sharply, rerouting back to the studio. He’d shower there. Inside the same space her breath and pulse lived.

****

Kaos stepped inside the studio, his eyes landing on Jaxi, standing before the far wall with a paintbrush in her fingers. “I know his name,” she whispered.

He shut the door and walked slowly in then froze at seeing the painting.

It was him. Not Kohl. Kaos. Wings dripping with pain and shadow, hands blood-bright.

Eyes like emerald ruin. And before him—her.

Painted not in his arms, but between him and something unseen.

Like she had stepped forward, facing a force not yet named. Shielding him.

Her head turned and she locked dazed eyes on him, her chest heaving with shaky breaths. “I know his name,” she repeated, the words raw. “It’s Kaos.”

****

The second his name left her mouth, a thread pulled straight from the center of her. Light pulsed in his chest—deep red and gold, weaving through cracks in a fragile shell. He stepped forward and black wings unfurled behind him.

“Oh God,” she whispered, heart hammering.

He stepped again, revealing onyx horns curled up from his head. Dark eyes locked on her.

The brush slipped from her fingers.

He moved closer, the shadows of his wings stretching across the studio walls. Every breath he took pulled the air tighter, binding them in a moment neither could escape or fully grasp. Her heart thundered in her chest, the tremor in her hands matching the storm building between them.

Kaos. The name turned inside her again—full and claimed. “Are you... real.”

His gaze flared with those red embers as he came to her, stopping exactly where he had in the dream. “You called me forth, Fleshling.”

Fleshling. She shivered, breath catching in her throat. She didn’t move, but everything inside her leaned toward him. A walking dream, vivid and impossible. “Where... is Kohl?”

His gaze held hers. “My human vessel remains apart from me,” he said quietly.

Jaxi blinked, trying to process while her eyes continued to devour him. “Are you… real?” She slowly reached out, needing to feel if he was. “Am I dreaming?”

He eyed her outstretched hand and pulled her back into his gaze. “I am no dream. I exist within him. I also exist beyond him.” His eyes narrowed. “But remaining here creates danger.”

His words and the shift of his wings stole her breath. “Why?” she wondered, her stomach twisting. “You can’t… stay?”

Her breath caught at the low growl he gave. Just like in the dream. “Bonding with me here exposes you, Little Human,” he said, the words rough against her skin. “Tell me—how did you summon me?”

She blinked around tears and gasped through the burn in her chest. “I... I don’t know,” she whispered, looking back at the image she’d painted.

“I dreamed of you, but you were… blurry.” She looked back at him, stepping closer.

“I thought... I was forgetting you, and... I wanted to remember. You said I would forget, but I didn’t, I remembered everything,” she swore, wiping tears. “I’ll never forget.”

“You spoke my name,” he whispered, his wings slowly moving behind her. “Who gave it to you?”

She regarded his wings, desperate to feel them again. “It…just came to me. After I painted you...” She slowly reached out and touched his wing, jerking her hand back when he growled.

She held both hands at her chest in fists. “Does it hurt?” She roamed her gaze over the sharp cut of muscle on his body. “You’re... so beautiful. And real.” She covered her mouth with a hand, looking up at him. “ Are you real?”

“I must leave,” he urged. “You're not safe with me here. I’ll find you in your dreams.”

She latched onto his wings with both hands, a sob choking her. “Please... don’t...” She shook her head, gasping for air, trembling. “Don't leave me.” Her lungs burned, her chest ached. “You said you were mine.”

Panic hit her and she threw herself into him, wrapping her arms around him as tight as she could.

The connection of their bodies brought a surge of joy and hot energy.

Oh God, he was real. His muscles burned like hot steel.

She pressed her face, then mouth on him, tasting it was true, her dream alive and breathing in her arms, his breaths ragged and hot in her hair.