“You’ve been getting into trouble,” Cooper murmured, too quietly for Sam to overhear, his spine tingling with a strange shiver at the way Chaos’s exploratory touch was tickling his fingers.
“Me?” Chaos widened his eyes with faux innocence. Their plain brown color was less unsettling than before, but Cooper kind of missed the fox-like pair. They’d been so strange. Pretty, kind of.
Cooper almost laughed at Chaos’s completely unsuccessful attempt to look guileless, but he was interrupted by the loud growl of his stomach rumbling.
Chaos’s gaze zeroed in on Cooper’s belly, his eyes narrowing. “You’re hungry,” he accused.
“You’re real,” Cooper countered.
Chaos straightened to his full height, pinching the tip of one of Cooper’s fingers in reprimand. “Of course I am.”
The thought of it made Cooper lightheaded again. He’d summoned a demon. An actual, real-life demon.
Now would have been a nice time to dive into his bed and hide under the covers. Maybe stay inside for a whole week this time.
But if Cooper hid his head in the sand, what other kinds of trouble would Chaos get into?
Chaos stole back Cooper’s attention by pressing his teeth lightly into Cooper’s knuckle, holding Cooper’s finger in his mouth. “There are a lot of food establishments in the area,” he mumbled around Cooper’s digit.
Demons were fucking weird. Cooper gently—but firmly—tugged his hand away from Chaos’s mouth. “You want to go out again?”
“If you’ll come with me.” Chaos directed a frown to the front entrance, like the outside world had offended him. “It’s boring by myself.”
It was a bad idea, surely. Cooper should be hiding Chaos away until he could figure out the scope of what he’d accidentally brought into his life.
But his apartment, usually so spacious, seemed way too small to hold all Chaos’s energy inside it. The walls that had always been so comforting to Cooper were suddenly confining. Could he really keep Chaos inside for any extended length of time?
And there was one place Cooper liked. A diner nearby where everyone minded their own business.
“All right,” he said, hoping against hope he wasn’t going to regret this. “Let’s go out.”
Chaos gave him a dazzling smile, a dimple appearing in his left cheek.
He kept hold of Cooper’s hand as they left the building.
The evening airwas a little too cold to be wearing just a sweatshirt, but Cooper didn’t want to deal with herding Chaos back into the apartment and out again to get a coat, so he dealt with the discomfort. The diner wasn’t too far, anyway.
Plus, Chaos’s hand was warm in his, enough so that the heat seemed to spread, seeping up Cooper’s arm.
“You have pleasing hands,” Chaos told him brightly as they walked, echoing Cooper’s thoughts eerily.
“Um, thank you?”
Chaos did a little test swing of their joined hands. “It makes it quite agreeable to clasp one together with mine.”
“That’s…good?” All Cooper’s statements were coming out like questions, but he’d summoned a literal demon today, so he was cutting himself some slack.
“Itisgood,” Chaos agreed. Then, “Tell me, puppy—”
Okay, here it was. They were going to get into it now, right? Cooper had apparently sold his soul to a demon, even if he hadn’t meant to. What exactly were the terms? When this contract was done, did Cooper have to, like, go to hell with him?
But Chaos didn’t get into any of that. Instead, he asked, apropos of nothing, “Why would someone urinate in an alley, when humans went to all the trouble of inventing bathrooms?”
It took Cooper a moment to realize they really weren’t going to discuss demonic contracts, and another moment to answer. “Um. Well, not everyone has easy access to indoor bathrooms. Not everyone has easy access to the indoors, period.” He thought of his father and added, “And some people are…altered. Drunk or using drugs. They might not be totally aware of what they’re doing.”
“Ah. I see.” Chaos started to swing their hands with abandon, enthusiastically enough that they almost hit a man coming from the other direction. He gave what sounded like a happy sigh. “I was right, this is all much better with a companion.”
Cooper took the opening. “You didn’t come from here? From…Earth?”
