Page 3 of Chaos Demons

“Yeah, really big. A bit overwhelming actually…” He trailed off. Then he smiled and seemed to regain some of himself with a deep breath. “But I’ve always liked challenges, and this would definitely be a challenge.”

“It would,” I replied. “But don’t worry about me and Reia. We’ll be fine. Go do what makes you happy.”

His smile grew into a brilliant grin. “Yeah, I will, thanks. It’s still slightly terrifying,” he said as he rose. “This will be the first job I’ve had outside the house in… almost thirty years.”

“You’ll do fine,” I encouraged him.

“Thanks, Anais. I’ll go tell Grey I’m in.”

I was about to go back to pondering who I was and my life’s purpose when I heard a knock on the front door.

With a sigh, I rose and went over to open it. I’d been about to say, “hello,” but all I managed to get out was, “Hell…”

There, on the landing, was Eva, my middle daughter with her arms crossed, clearly upset, and surrounded by boxes and suitcases.

“Oh gee, thanks, Mom. Quite the welcome,” she said, glaring at me with silver-blue eyes identical to mine, daring me to challenge her. “I’m moving back in, and no… I don’t want to talk about it!”

ANAIS

“Eva?”I blinked. “You’re—”

“Please, save me the lecture, Mom,” she snarled, brushing a copper-red lock of hair out of her eyes. “I don’t want to hear it. I know you didn’t like Trent and it turns out you were right. Well, now I know he’s a creep and it’s over and that’s all I’m going to say about it. Now, can I come inside? It’s cold out here.”

“Allow me to help you with those,” Grey said, swooping in to pluck up several of the cases, easily carrying them inside. “Which room will the young lady be staying in?” he asked me.

“Top floor, front room,” I said, then turned to Eva to confirm. “You want your old room?”

“Yeah, whatever.” She began picking up other items and ferrying them into the front room. I stepped back to let her do her thing, uncertain if she wanted help. “Who’s the guy in the fancy get-up?” she asked.

“That’s Grey, my…”boyfriend?Gods, that sounded so odd to say. Lover would be more accurate, but I wasn’t going to tell my daughter that.

Fuck-buddy?my horny self asserted.Private Dick? One of my daemon tri-fuck-ta?

“He’s my new… our… butler.” Well, that hadn’t come out right at all.

“Butler? We have a butler now? Swanky.” Eva brought in the last of her things and I closed the door behind her.

“Are you… okay?” I asked tentatively.

She turned to look at me with an incredulous look. “You suddenly care?”

I winced. That had pierced straight to my heart. “I’ve always cared, Eva. I love you and I’ve always tried—”

“Tried to control me and tell me what to do and who I could see. That’s not love, Mom. If you loved me, you’d leave me alone and let me see whoever I wanted to see.”

And… there it was. It was like I was looking at my younger self: same eyes, same face, and the same attitude I’d had when I was her age.

I was pretty sure I’d said something like that to my adoptive parents growing up, and I knew exactly what she was feeling… and yet, I still didn’t know how to reach out to her. I just wanted to keep her from making the same mistakes I had. And I’d made so many mistakes with bad boys in the past.

This was the problem with Eva. She was too much like me. You’d think that would mean we got along, but it didn’t. We always seemed to end up fighting.

“I do love you, and I have no right to complain about who you see.” I tried to salvage something from this conversation. I really didn’t have any right to tell her what to do. She was eighteen now and technically an adult. Also… I was seeing three men at the same time right now so… yeah.

Eva gave a cocky grin. “Sooooo, if I wanted to bring home some fifty-year-old sugar-daddy to fuck me in the ass and make me scream so loud you’d hear me two floors down, you’d be okay with that?”

She always had to keep pushing.

“Yes?” I said, trying to be kind, while also trying not to imagine some creepy old dude doing nasty things with my daughter. But that “yes” had been more of a question than a firm agreement, and Eva knew it.

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