Page 47 of Chaos Demons

“Thank you,” Ana whispered to me as she finished up. “I want to help these people, but…”

“I know,” I whispered. It was a constant concern of our kind, keeping ourselves hidden.

She embraced me from behind as I kept a wary eye out. “You’ll be leaving, won’t you?”

I turned in her arms and cupped her face, leaning down to press my lips to hers in a quick desperate kiss.

“Yes,” I breathed, my lips brushing over hers. “And you’re staying.” It wasn’t a question, and I hoped she’d take it the right way. “You’ll do more good here than with us.”

She nodded, and for a moment we simply pressed our foreheads together, faces close, breath hot in this tiny world between us.

“What if you get hurt?” she asked, voice choked up.

“It takes a lot to seriously hurt me. Same with the others.”

She nodded, then her lips were pressed against mine with even greater urgency. “Take care,” she breathed.

“I will.”

After another quick kiss, she broke away. Grey was there, waiting for her.

I let them have a moment and glanced around the church instead. There were several dozen people in here. Most seemed well, but it was clear more than a few had come in off the streets after one calamity or another.

Ramsey stood by the door with Eva and I headed their way.

“We’ll be heading out in a moment,” I said to him. “Go say goodbye to Ana after Grey’s done.”

“I’m coming with you,” Eva said, voice heated.

“No,” Ramsey and I said as one.

Eva glared at us.

“You’re needed here little warrior,” Ramsey said. “With us gone, you’ll need to protect your mother and the rest of these folks. That’s just as important as what we’re going to do. If we’re not worrying about your mother, we can focus on the bastard behind all of this.”

I nodded along, Ramsey clearly knowing the right words to reach Eva.

The young woman sighed. “Fine, but I get dibs on the next apocalypse,” she huffed.

“Done.” I chuckled as Ramsey headed toward Ana.

Eva looked up at me. “So, you’re some sort of werewolf?” she asked. “I saw you shift. That was so cool.”

“No, not a werewolf. My true form is a wolf that’s over a hundred feet tall and who’s destined to devour the world someday.” Given how unrattled she’d been by everything, I figured it couldn’t hurt to tell her the truth.

“Fuck,” Eva said, eyes wide. “That’s rough. Not… not today though, right?”

I hope not.“No.”

Her brow furrowed. “So… why don’t you wolf-out and just maul this Nari guy?”

“It’s not that simple. I need to work very hard to keep my wolf contained. If I fully let it out thenitwould be in control and it would start its destiny of devouring the world.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah.”

“All right. Time to go,” Grey said from behind me. “You good to stay here and protect your mother, Eva?”

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