Page 53 of Calling Chaos

Sascha straightened in Kai’s lap, as if affronted. “Kai isn’t some ‘violent man,’” he argued, shaping his fingers into air quotes. “He’s a…protector.Myprotector. He takes the violence for me, lets me close my eyes to it while he keeps me safe. At least until we can leave it behind for good.”

Well, yeah, that sort of sounded like a good deal. Cooper looked to Kai. “And what does Sascha give you, then?”

It was definitely the shock making Cooper open his mouth again and again. He would never normally pry into another couple’s life like this. By all rights, Kai should be telling him to shut the hell up and mind his own business.

But Kai answered, his voice a deep rumble, “Sascha gives me a reason. A purpose. He…anchors me.”

From what Chaos had said, that was what the mate bond was, in a way. A person becoming a demon’s anchor to the human realm. But Kai clearly didn’t mean it literally, judging by the look in his eyes. He meant something romantic. Soulful.

Was that what Chaos was looking for? His soul’s anchor, in more ways than one? Cooper couldn’t picture it. Chaos was wild and silly and sweet. What if he picked the wrong anchor? What if they tried to ground him too much, and they snuffed out what made him such a perfect menace?

As if reading Cooper’s mind, Sascha spoke again. “You summoned a demon too, didn’t you, Coop?”

“Yes.”

“Did you mean to?”

“No.”

Sascha gave him another smile, this one less strained. “Me neither.”

Cooper didn’t know what to say to that. It had obviously worked out well enough for Sascha. He hadn’t been left alone in the end.

Sascha frowned off into the distance. “Although, yours doesn’t seem to like me much.”

Kai growled again. “Ignore Chaos. He’s a brat.”

Defensiveness had Cooper narrowing his eyes at the demon. “He’s not,” he protested, even though Chaos kind of was. “He’s just protective.”

Kai cocked a brow. “He thinks Sascha would harm you?” he asked, making it clear how unlikely he found the concept.

“No. He’s just—I was just—” Cooper searched his brain for a way to talk about it without embarrassing himself and failed. He let out a breath, admitting, “I was lonely. He wants to blame someone. My family gets the short stick, I guess.”

Instead of seeming offended, Sascha gave Cooper a knowing, rueful look.

The thing was, other than being gay and adjacent to the Mafia, the two of them had nothing in common. Sascha had always like clubbing and shopping and reality TV. He’d been young enough when his mother had died that he barely remembered her, and he often seemed to forget exactly how Cooper was related to him, calling him a distant cousin. He wasn’t cruel, but whether he felt like acting charming or sullen seemed to turn on a dime.

Cooper was his nerdy, antisocial relative but definitely not a friend.

“You never liked blood much either,” Sascha eventually said.

Was he trying to get to an area of common interest? Not wanting to watch men get dismembered wasn’t the most solid basis for friendship Cooper had ever heard.

But Sascha continued, “You know, if you wanted to get away to, like, recover from the shock of all this, we have a place in Maine with extra rooms. Our housemate, Matty—I think you’d get along. He’s…quiet also.”

Kai made a vague, affirmative sound. “Leave Chaos here.”

Sascha swatted lightly at the big guy’s arm. “He can bring Chaos if he wants to.” He cast Cooper a sidelong look. “If— Are you—? You’re…together?”

“He’s my friend,” Cooper said simply. Then immediately complicated it by explaining, “He’s, um, trying to find the right human to bond with. Down the line. He’s with me until then.” He left it vague as to what being “with him” entailed, and Sascha and Kai exchanged an indecipherable glance.

“Well, either way, then,” Sascha eventually said. “Come visit. Stay a while. I didn’t mean to neglect you.”

Before Cooper could protest that Sascha wasn’t at fault, Chaos’s voice rang through the kitchen. “We’ll consider it,” he declared loudly, sounding all kinds of haughty but maybe slightly less acerbic toward Sascha than before.

He’d come in through the swinging door leading to the main room of the restaurant, and then suddenly he was right in front of Cooper.

“Come, puppy,” he said at a much quieter volume, his golden-yellow eyes boring into Cooper, their noses almost touching. As always, he smelled faintly of smoke, but it didn’t turn Cooper’s stomach the way the scent of the restaurant had. “Time to go home.”

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