Chaos Unlocked

by Lana Kole

  “Because you wrought chaos. A lot of it.”

  Her next words got stuck in her throat but she forced them out on a whimper. “So, I did all of that? The walls? The elevator?”

  Stepping to her side, he waved a hand and a projection appeared against the nearest wall. It was a news report.

  THE BEGINNING’S END was stamped across the screen, along with a breaking news tag. Daria gaped at the live video. The entire building had collapsed, rubble and smoke and ashes and fire were all that remained of Maleston’s only prominent nightclub.

  “Oh my god… ” Her heart sank, and she turned to her father for some form of… was it comfort she was seeking?

  She should’ve known she wouldn’t find it with him. Beaming down at her, pride was the only thing that shone bright in those dark eyes. “You sure as hell did. I saw you bring down all that chaos and knew you were of my descent.”

  Emotion swelled inside her, and she couldn’t decipher if it was relief at having an answer, or exhaustion. Chaos... she was Chaos’s daughter.

  The room spun as the information sank in, and she knew in her gut it was truth. She didn’t even need her demon to confirm it.

  Her head snapped up. “My job!”

  Daria stumbled away to lean against the nearest surface, a fountain situated in the middle of the fucking floor. So many things made sense suddenly. The hellish ending to her career, the past-due rent, the botched interviews and small jobs…

  Chaos took a seat in front of her, kneeling down in his expensive suit to level with her. “Been having a string of what seemed like bad luck lately? Feeling out of sorts?” At her blank stare, he shrugged. “You don’t know how to control it, so it tends to leak out at the most inopportune times.”

  She nodded, tears welling at the thought that she’d been the one to ruin her own life. There wasn’t even another person to blame—it’d been her chaos leeching onto other people.

  “Don’t worry—I’ll teach you how to control it.”

  Wiping the tears away, she nodded, her brain finally, sluggishly, shutting down amongst all the craziness of late. The chaos.

  A dry laugh tore from her throat, and she glanced to her demons, needing... something. Thinking maybe her life wasn’t completely in ruins. Not after what her and Misery…

  Her eyes narrowed at his relaxed form. The unfamiliar twist to his lips—the false ease with which he just… existed.

  Alarmed, she stood and turned to her father. “Wait, what are you doing to them? What’s wrong?”

  Stalking across the floor, her boots were loud against the tile, announcing her presence long before she landed in front of Misery. He was smiling. A true, genuinely bright smile. His head turned in her direction and it only curled his lips more, his teeth showing, for God’s sake.

  “What are you smiling about?” she asked, resisting the urge to shout, as the room spun around her. Something was wrong. Why were they so relaxed! They’d literally just escaped death at the hands of a cult! A cult worshiping the very man in this room! And they wanted to what? Party with Chaos a little?

  His smile faded a little at her harsh words, and she wished she hadn’t said anything.

  Wait, yes I do. Misery. Doesn’t. Fucking. Smile.

  Not openly like this. No. It was reserved for private moments.

  A hint of remembered arousal teased her with the memory of their private moments, of the reason he’d been so open with her.

  “You don’t smile, Misery,” she croaked out.

  His lips just curled more, and he reached out a hand to her. Confused, she slid her palm into his and with no preamble whatsoever, he pulled her down onto his lap. She squeaked as she landed, but then her cheeks flushed at the public show of affection, and she scrambled to stand back up, but his hands on her hips and the look in his eyes halted her movements.

  “You make me want to smile, Daria.”

  Her heart flipped at the words, but she couldn’t trust them right now, no matter how they made her feel. They were under the influence of whatever Chaos had given them.

  Speaking of… she looked around for him, only to meet his gaze immediately, his chin propped up on both hands as he sighed in their direction. “Oh, this is even better than the movies. Keep going.” He nodded.

  Chaos’s words made her even more determined to prove that this was all a charade, so she broke Misery’s hold on her and stood. She bounced her gaze from demon to demon, their glazed eyes and carefree slumped forms just flaming her anger higher, hotter. Finally, she landed on Truth, whose head was cocked, his eyes bouncing back and forth. He waved the joint off as it was passed his way again and she narrowed her eyes.

  Gathering her courage, and hoping this didn’t blow up in her face, she purposefully stepped toward Truth. No, wait. He and Misery seemed too close. It probably wouldn’t work with him.

  Slowly, she turned to Betrayal. He was the one she knew the least of. They’d had one interaction, and while he’d worked with the others to protect her in the hallway, she didn’t think he liked her very much.

  Which made him perfect.

  As he puffed contentedly on the blunt, the fucking thing never seeming to burn down, she stepped closer and stopped beside his slouched position. Even Daria had to admit his dark appearance, tattoos, and fuck off attitude had its appeal—if she was a glutton for punishment.

  Her gaze bounced to Misery, his matching attire, with a new frown on his face.

  Do I have a type? she wondered with a wince.

  At least Misery was nice though. Betrayal just arched a brow at her, daring her to say or do whatever it was she came over and invaded his space for. His look pushed her into motion, the stubbornness welling up and refusing to let her back down.

  Throwing one leg over him, she settled in his lap and placed her hands firmly on his chest.

  His very… solid, warm chest. A growl sounded over their heads, but she pointedly ignored it as she leaned closer to him. His eyes were narrowed and he looked only a split second away from turning his head.

  “Don’t tell me you’re going to say no,” she dared on a whisper.

  He hummed, before she grabbed the back of his head and closed the distance between them, a surprised squeak escaping when his beard abraded her cheeks. His kiss was rougher than she was prepared for, his tongue forcing its way into her mouth as his hand mirrored hers, twisting in her long locks as he cranked her head to the side.

  Breath stolen, she was already panting by the time a hand encircled her arm and tugged her back and away from Betrayal and his assaulting return of the kiss. When she turned her head, it was Misery who had a hold on her. The growl was coming from him, his gaze, now clear at least, bouncing between the two of them.

  “Don’t tell me you’re jealous, brother,” Betrayal chuckled deeply from in front of her, the motion jarring her on his lap, and she was suddenly very aware of the large erection she sat on top of.

  Misery’s gaze lightened just a hitch, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell if you weren’t staring right at him, like she was.

  “Well, no,” he huffed. “But we haven’t discussed boundaries yet.”

  Unable to do anything but blink, she startled at his words, but then remembered her goal for opening this can of worms.

  “You awake now?” she said, or attempted to, but her voice came out rocky.

  “‘Atta girl,” Chaos cheered.

  Misery’s slow blink followed his words, and he turned to see the others doing the same. Betrayal tossed the blunt into the fire, the flames crackling blue when it burned up.

  “Yeah, I guess we are now,” Betrayal grumbled, unceremoniously dumping her off his lap as he stood to pace. Misery helped steady her, his fingers caressing where he’d gripped her hard to pull her back from Betrayal.

  Sorry, his eyes seemed to say.

  Sorry for what, though? His words spoken in a moment while impaired? Or the jealousy he wouldn’t admit to?

  “The fuck is going on here?” B
etrayal growled, turning to the culprit—Chaos.

  Slamming her emotions into a locked box, she fumed as she stepped toward Chaos. “I second that. This is bullshit. Whatever fog you’ve got us in needs to stop—now. We still have questions.”

  “Like what?” he simply asked, falling into the nearest available chair as if he was the most cooperative man in the world.

  “What’s more chaotic than someone who beats Death?” a voice filled with awe rasped from behind her.

  The tone in the voice alarmed her, and she turned to see Death’s normally warm olive face pale a little.

  “That’s why I couldn’t reach you. That’s why you keep coming back.” He began to pace and Daria’s heartbeat picked up at the growl in his voice. “Not because of Pandora’s curse, and the bloodline. But because of his bloodline.” Death turned and pointed an accusing finger at Chaos.

  Chaos stared at Death impassively, his face calm, fingers steepled in front of his mouth, before his gaze roamed lazily across the room, pausing briefly before skipping to where Daria stood, fists clenched, frustration evident in every line of her body.

  “Yeah.” A nod, a slight twitch of his lips. “Chaos trumps everything. Even Death.” A smirk twisted his features, smug glee and arrogance staining the room.

  “Fuck.” Death drew the word out on a quiet exhale, fingers spearing through his hair and gripping tight to the base of his neck, tension lining every inch of his frame. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” He turned away, lean muscles in his back rippling as he strove for calm. And lost.

  Note to self, Death is a control freak.

  When Daria thought about it though, it made sense, and she sat down hard at the revelation. Death was sure—absolute. If one thing was absolutely certain in life, it was death.

  And Daria didn’t even have that.

  The question was, why hadn’t her mom?

  “Death?” she inquired hesitantly, wiping her now sweaty hands on her thighs as her heart pounded a tattoo against her rib cage.

  He turned on his heel, giving her his full attention. “Yeah?”

  “Why couldn’t you have helped my mom? Could you not have saved her? Stayed with her?”

  Betrayal scoffed, but she ignored him even when his mumbled words cut her deep. “… such a damned burden.”

  Death’s entire body stiffened, an anger she hadn’t seen in him before practically wafting off of him, a darkness deeper than even Misery’s, and she was suddenly very, very, afraid.

  “Why don’t we ask the person who’s responsible for her death in the first place, hmm?” His words dropped low, into a deep growl, like the earth moving itself, making way for a new grave. “You think you can bring us here, drug us up, and we’ll forget about your little cult? The wrong they did? The death they wrought?”

  Chaos stilled, tension clear in the lines of his form. “Let’s not beat around the bush.” When he turned to Daria suddenly, she jumped, the tension in the room making the back of her neck tingle. “Ask me.”

  Her throat ached with unshed tears as she imagined the answer, the question not even given volume yet.

  “Why did you kill my mom?” she rasped out, unshed tears from a mix of anger and pain she’d only recently accepted was hers to feel.

  At first he frowned, but it faded into a smirk that was completely out of context, but then again maybe not, considering who stood before them. His cat returned, loping into the room from seemingly nowhere and perching on his lap.

  “That wasn’t me, Daria. I am not responsible for the murder of your mother.”

  “Murder?” she questioned, the little bit of hope she had dying out at the confirmation of their suspicion.

  With that word planted firmly in her mind, her suspicion wildly out of control, she surveyed the ones present at the time of her mother’s so-called accident—her demons. Death, confident and sure in his anger as he glared daggers at her father. Misery, who seemed a little more broken than just a moment ago. Hope, who gleamed bright and beautiful, but even he wore a frown on those full lips. Her beaming ray of absolute trust—Truth. And last but oh, most certainly not least, Betrayal, dark, angry, frustrated, and clearly desperate to be anywhere else. But was that because of who he was, or the question that was on the tip of their tongues?

  “If not you, then who?” she voiced their thoughts.

  Epilogue

  MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE

  In the lavish room, the one oh so familiar to her, she sat. The sunshine was beautiful and bright, at least, she was sure it would be, if it were real.

  But this was her life, and she was used to it. Better not question it either. Questions led to anger, and anger led to… well, better not to think of that right now.

  Sometimes, she got lonely, here all by herself. At least, she used to. Then one day, Mother had returned, asked her a simple question, and she had eagerly agreed.

  Sometimes, she wished she hadn’t agreed at all.

  Now she had voices—loud ones, angry ones, with deep tones and gruff answers to her innocent questions.

  Combing her long brown hair in the vanity mirror, she suddenly had the urge to smash the spotless glass. To grip a shard until she bled and then dig it into her wrist just to see what happened.

  She sighed. “You again?”

  Sorry, he mumbled from within, not sounding very sorry at all.

  “I’m not really in the mood to kill myself today, so if you could tone it down just a bit, I’d greatly appreciate it.”

  But she knew he couldn’t help it.

  He was… curious.

  TO BE CONTINUED…

  Afterword

  Hello there!

  Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed getting to know Daria and the guys as much as I did. They are near and dear to my heart, even if they don’t cooperate sometimes (Betrayal, I’m looking at you). Reviews mean everything to an author, so if you’d like to tell me what you thought, please do so! I look forward to reading them.

  If you’re not hooked yet, give book two a go—Betrayal Exposed is out! Then come hang out with us on Facebook, in The Koled Cave, my readers’ group, or sign up for my newsletter!

  Until next time,

  Lana

  Acknowledgments

  Daddy, for continuing to turn a blind eye to the dirty things I write.

  Mom, for letting me make lunch and vent about the characters who won’t listen. (Hint, they never do.)

  Brotatochip, for telling all your friends about me and always fixing my computer when needed.

  Serious thanks to my girls Alicia, Kathryn, Chloe and Margaret. Forever my brainstorming and wordforming gals, you have my heart.

  To my other girls, so supportive in whatever I do: Jarica, Loxley, Denise, Meg, and Katie.

  And especially to my betas, who put up with my strange requests and pat me on the back when I feel paranoid: Rachel S, Rachel P, Harley, Izzy, Erin, Stacey, Paula, and Sue. You guys are so good to me.

  Also By Lana Kole

  Crystal Clear Series

  Illusion of Escape

  Illusion of Death

  Illusion of Darkness

  Complete Collection(w/bonus content)

  Unlocked Series

  Chaos Unlocked

  Betrayal Exposed

  Misery Undone

  Truth Revealed

  Standalone

  Feline Good

  About the Author

  Lana resides in Tennessee, convinced her southern twang is part of her charm. With two cats and a dog, her hands are full, and not just of treats like her pets would like to believe. As a full time author, she dedicates all of her time bringing to life different characters and developing new worlds for her readers to lose themselves in. And more often than not, she loses herself in them, which is her favorite place to be: with a cat in her lap, a snack in hand, and voices in her head.