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 heshouldn’tdo 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. MaybethenChaos 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 foodandblood—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.
