“You don’t have to be rude about it.”
“Was that rude?” Chaos cocked his head, considering. “I don’t think it was. I didn’t say you were displeasing. I like your features. They are in factquitepleasing to the eyes. And your scent pleases the nose.” He shuffled forward on his haunches. “I think I’d like to nibble your fingers, even, but I might accidentally take one off, so I’ll refrain.”
Come to think of it, Chaos did have awfully sharp teeth.
Standing straight was suddenly an extreme challenge. “I’m going to pass out now,” Cooper confirmed.
“I’ll catch you.”
Cooper’s brow furrowed as his vision once again went dim around the edges. “You’re kind of…dainty though.”
Chaos kept up his strange, shuffling approach. “I’m stronger than I look. Go to sleep, puppy. I’ll do my best to be back before you wake.”
Cooper wanted to tell him that when he woke up, this whole imagined scenario would probably be over, but his eyes were already falling shut, the world falling dark. Again.
4
Chaos
Chaos stared down at the human who’d summoned him.
He had lowered him oh so very gently onto the floor after he’d collapsed. Chaos hadn’t even dropped the human’s head to hear the crack.
He was already taking such good care of his puppy.
The slumbering human wasn’t at all like Chaos’s usual summoners, who were more often than not wild, brutish men hungry for power or mayhem. Or both.
Why else would one summon a chaos demon? The reward had to be worth the risk.
Thissummoner, though, was slight and fearful, with a quiet voice and soft hands. His delicacy was actually a bit…disturbing. Chaos would need to pay attention to keep him protected. From the sound of the telephone call his puppy had accepted, there were enemies in the area. Enemies with projectile weapons.
But protected Cooper would be, enemies or not. Chaos had decided so.
He’d been all ready to snap his teeth and threaten to bite his summoner’s face off—show them who the real boss of this arrangement would be—but Cooper clearly wasn’t the megalomaniac Chaos had been prepared to subdue.
His soul piece was…soft. And sad. And tired.
Chaos couldn’t stop prodding at the little niblet in his chest, wishing he could take the piece out and study it. How did one so young become so sad and lonely? Humans, like much of this realm’s creatures, seemed to roam in packs, even the modern-day ones. Chaos had spent quite a bit of time watching them through the portal in the Void, so he knew. So…where was this Cooper’s pack? Why weren’t they taking care of him?
Chaos couldn’t see any obvious reason Cooper would be cast out. He hadn’t lied before—Cooper’s looks were quite pleasing. His lips were plush, and he had that pretty reddish-blond hair, like a fox’s fur. And those mismatched eyes? Wonderful. He had skinny limbs and a soft tummy, one Chaos wouldn’t mind laying his head against. Slender, clever fingers too. Ones Chaos wouldnotbite off, no matter how nibbly they might look.
Yes, quite pleasing. A sad, yummy soul piece and a pleasing meat suit. So why all alone?
It would have to be a mystery for later. For now, Chaos wanted to explore. He wasn’t going to stick in one place while he waited for this new puppy of his to rouse. Who knew how long that would take? His summoner had clearly been running on fumes even before the summoning, and a contract took it out of a human.
Although, before he left… Chaos stopped in the doorway of the room, looking back at Cooper, sprawled out on the floor. If this human was to be Chaos’s puppy to care for and tend to, he should make sure he was comfortable as well as safe, yes?
Chaos scurried into the hallway, checking the rooms until he found one with a bed, before grabbing the blanket off it and bringing it back to place over the unconscious human.
There.
Chaos whirled away, only to pause again.
A pillow. Humans used pillows when they slumbered.
He didn’t want to go all the way back to the bedroom—been there, done that—so he grabbed one of the large tomes off the desk and shoved it under his puppy’s head.
It was the right shape for a pillow, even if it was a bit firm.
