Page 5 of Chaos Demons

“Get out!” she screamed at me, flinging the pillow at my head. I was so stunned that it actually hit me, bouncing off harmlessly before falling to the floor.

“Eva, there’s something I need to tell you.” I pushed ahead, determined to say this now and get it over and done with since no time was going to be a good time to tell her. “I’m—”

“I don’t care. Fuck you! Leave me alone! Get out!” She looked around for something else to throw at me and found the wireless bedside alarm clock. I didn’t think she’d actually throw it, but then it was in her hand, and she was rearing back—

I backed out and closed the door quickly as the clock crashed into the other side of it.

“That went well,” I whispered, grimacing through my sarcasm. “Time to talk to Reia.”

GREY

It seemedyoung miss Eva was… very spirited.

I sighed as I cleaned up the fragments of a porcelain figure which had once been a fairy of some sort. Half the pieces had ended up on the front room’s blue and beige rug, while the others had scattered in every other direction. I swept them all into a dustpan, then rose and glanced at Ana.

I hadn’t said it to her yet, I didn’t think she was ready to hear it, but in my heart, I knew I loved her and it hurt me to see her so upset.

Of course, I’d never loved anyone before in my life and had no idea what it felt like and had had to check with Harmonia about these strange, new feelings. But the undeniable conclusion was that I loved her.

I’d admired and respected people. I’d lusted and desired others. I’d even felt hints of affection for people, but nothing… nothing like what I felt for Anais.

Probably because, for all my previous relationships, my void had been there, tearing at me, distracting me from whatever else I felt. But since Ana filled my void, I was able to finallyfeelthings. I could really and truly experience a full range of emotions and it was… wonderful! I knew love, and I knew I loved her, and I’d tell her… eventually. But now wasn’t the time.

“Fuck me, Grey.” She sighed running a hand up over her face and into her shimmering silver hair. “I just… don’t know what todowith her!”

Ana leaned against a wall nearby, head back against the painted plaster, looking up at the ceiling. She crossed her arms under her magnificent breasts, emphasizing her bust. But that wasn’t what captivated me in that moment. It was the pain in her silver-blue eyes.

“I tried to have Reia tell her about being a daemon and… well, you saw what happened.”

I had. Young Eva had stormed downstairs to yell at Ana. The gist of her anger seemed to be that her mother wasn’t “man enough” to tell her about this herself. Also, there seemed to be a fair amount of confusion and consternation. She still didn’t believe what she was being told and thought it a “sick joke.” She seemed to think her mother was “punishing her” for the time she’d spent away, living with her boyfriend.

“I try telling her the truth, and she throws my favorite figurine at me. Except I’m sure when she learns the truth, she’ll yell at me for not having told her everything. I can’t win with her!”

“I know a daemon who can fix this,” I said as I held up the dustpan with the remains of the shattered figurine. “I’ll have it repaired in a day or two.”

As for what was happening with her daughter… I wouldn’t be much help. I’d never had a child. I knew nothing about parenting and the care and time that went into it. After meeting Ana, I thought it might be something I’d want. I got along well with Young Miss Reia, or so I thought. But with Eva… I wasn’t so sure anymore.

There was also the added matter of a bubbling turmoil in Eva that I feltverykeenly.

She had an aspect that was bursting to get out. Yet from what I’d felt, I doubted it was sex or healing. This was more a roiling tempest of rage, which made me wonder where she might have acquired this new aspect.

I didn’t know who her father might have been, but from what Ana had said, she was fairly certain he’d been human. That meant any aspect Eva possessed would be from Ana, and if so… that meant Ana was far more than just a daemon or daemon lady.

She was a goddess.

Except I couldn’t be sure, which was just another mystery surrounding Ana.

I’d suspected for some time that Ana might be more than just a daemon lady. I just didn’t know how to tell her, because it didn’t make any sense. Gods were primal forces. They didn’t forget they were gods. And as far as I knew, no new gods had been born in the last few decades.

So if she were that powerful … why hadn’t she — or anyone around her — known or sensed what she was before now?

I laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder but didn’t know what more I could do at the moment.

Ana pulled her gaze down from the ceiling to look at me. My heart beat all the harder when those pristine silver-blue eyes locked onto mine and her silken silver hair shifted over one eye. Gods, she was the most beautiful being I’d ever met.

“I don’t know what to say,” I said honestly. Yet Ana should know… “I think part of Eva’s anger is coming from a deeper place within her.”

Ana quirked a brow at that.

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