Cooper checked his phone again. He had the right address and the right office number. And Smith was meticulous with communication—it would be unlike him to give Cooper the wrong information.
Hey, Cooper texted.Any chance you changed locations?
Maybe Smith had given him an old address after all. Unlikely didn’t mean impossible.
He saw the three little dots that meant Smith was typing out a response, but then the softest whisper of a footstep had Cooper raising his head, ready to turn.
Before he could, something sharp jabbed into his neck. He lifted his hand to swat at it—had he just been bitten by something?—but his arm flopped only halfway up, heavy and useless.
Cooper’s head swam. He tried again to turn, but he couldn’t get his feet to cooperate. He couldn’t get his knees to lock either. He was falling, the floor rising up to meet him.
And then nothing. Only darkness.
19
Chaos
Ivan’s apartment had a man protecting the front entrance. A man at the door. Adoorman.
So literal sometimes, these humans. Chaos giggled from his spot on the sidewalk, but no one walking by glanced his way. They were all too focused on staring straight ahead as they marched toward their various destinations.
No matter. Chaos had something more entertaining for them than a little quiet cackling. There were a few trees lining the edge of the sidewalk in front of the apartment. Their leaves were gone, but the branches were all spiny and twisty. Very pretty.
Chaos lit one ablaze.
One of the passersby let out a yelp, and the doorman looked up from where he’d been surreptitiously glancing at his phone. “Holyshit.”
Some cool-headed human who’d stopped at the flaming sight turned to snap at him. “Hey. You got a fire extinguisher in there?”
“Shit. Um, yes. Shit.”
The doorman ran inside the apartment building, and Chaos slipped in after him, keeping his giggles to himself now. He’d already put the fire out the moment the man’s back was turned. The doorman would come back out to nothing at all—a perfectly intact, leafless tree. Maybe he’d think he was losing his mind, if no one else stuck around to confirm what he’d seen.
Very funny, but not Chaos’s concern anymore.
He sneaked past the doorman fumbling with the fire extinguisher, down the hallway, around to the elevators. Once inside the little moving carriage, he hit the button for the very top floor, sticking his tongue out at his reflection.
At the top, the elevator opened directly into an apartment, and Chaos waltzed right in, calling out, “Helloooo?”
It probably wasn’t very burglar-y of him, but if Ivan and Nix were home, Chaos would just pretend he was here for a little visit and then sneak the Book out when they were distracted.
No one answered his call though. There was no sign of Ivan or Nix, other than their mingled scents threading through the apartment.
Well, goodness, that was easy.
A little disappointing, since Chaos might have liked to see his friend. But Nix would no doubt track Chaos down soon enough. He wouldn’t be able to help himself, all sentimental like he was.
Chaos poked around the place for a minute. It was much more modern than Cooper’s, all straight lines and boring noncolors. Although there were already little touches from Nix—throw pillows, art on the walls, a few pieces of furniture that weren’t beige or white. He could scent Nix’s demonic signature on them. Apparently, he was making himself right at home with his human. Should Chaos be doing the same for Cooper? He wasn’t really one for decorating though. Perhaps Chaos would ask Nix to help him pick out a…rug? Something soft that wouldn’t irritate Cooper’s knees if a situation were to occur where he might be on all fours. Perhaps with Chaos on top of him.
Just in case.
Chaos could scent the demonic signature of the Book as well. He followed it to what was clearly Ivan and Nix’s bedroom. Clear because of the giant bed and Nix’s magical signature but also because the place reeked of incubus sex magic, the kind that leaked out of Nix when he was all worked up. The whole apartment did, really, but this room in particular was stuffed full of it.
Nix and Ivan obviously hadn’t had any trouble consummating the bond and then some.
Chaos ignored the sex magic puddles and tracked the Book to a little bedside table. There was a lock on the drawer, which Chaos exploded with relish. He scooped the Book out with one of Cooper’s cloth bags he’d borrowed. Demons couldn’t touch a Book with their own contract page in it, but that was easy enough to work around. It was a stupid rule, anyway, to have such a simple solution.
Chaos peered down at the thing, secure at the bottom of his bag. He could feel the telltale magic of the bonding page, weighty and a teensy bit intimidating. He could feel the messy signature of his own contract page as well. Nix’s contract page was inactive now, bonded as he was. Same with Kai’s.
