Page 19 of Legacy of Chaos

He was arrogant, rude, dismissive, and…the most beautiful male she’d ever seen. The bastard.

He wore his clothes, professional and tailored for his athletic build, with casual grace. The top buttons on his burgundy shirt were undone, the sleeves rolled up to reveal hisdermoire, the dark symbols flexing over ropy muscles. Shrewd black eyes and short, ruffled black hair complemented his tan skin and rugged face.

He might be wearing expensive clothes and look like he’d been born in an office building, but she could picture him in the fighting gear his brother, Blade, wore too.

Dammit, she had to stop picturing him at all. He might be gorgeous, powerful, and brilliant, but so was Satan.

So, yeah, Stryke was awful, but she fell in love with his facility. She’d always wanted to see it, and it didnotdisappoint.

The sprawling campus stretched beyond the luxurious high-rise offices to several ultra-modern outbuildings. Stryke didn’t take her to all of them, merely pointed out where they were, what they did, and why she wasn’t allowed in any of them. Mostly, it boiled down to need-to-know, and as it turned out, Cyan didn’t need to know jack shit.

But Stryke sure knew how to take care of his employees. Throughout the facility, there were cafés, break rooms with showers and cots for naps, and even a daycare for demonlings, and a separate, smaller child care center and school for human children. The hundred-thousand-square-foot Commons Mall boasted several eateries, shops, and even a beauty salon and grocery store.

Apparently, very few humans worked at StryTech, and those who did, lived in specially built, highly secure campusapartments with walking trails and one of two gyms on the StryTech grounds. Sydney was relatively safe for a demon city on a demon continent, but few humans wanted to live outside StryTech walls in a city populated almost entirely by underworlders.

“This is kind of amazing,” she murmured as they passed a crystal fountain depicting a battle between an angel and a demon, the story playing out in moving animations on the surface of the water. Across the stone walkway, a sparkly, rainbow-colored food truck calledA Slice of Heavenserved generous helpings of various cakes. Next to that, a black-and-red truck calledThe Devil’s Foodoffered spicy, traditional demon dishes made with Sheoul-grown ingredients.

“It didn’t look like this when I bought it.” He gestured at Hawking Tower. “I acquired headquarters first, and then I spent four years building the rest.”

“I remember,” she mused. “You bought the first building when you were twenty-two. You said you got it dirt cheap because, at the time, Australia was practically worthless after being ceded to Sheoul. You named it after Stephen Hawking and then named every new building after famous scientists.”

He gave her a surprised look. “How do you know that?”

Heat bloomed in her cheeks, which was ridiculous. It wasn’t as if she’d stalked him or anything.

“That article a few years back inForbesmagazine. You gave them a tour of the new, expanded campus.”

“Ah, that.” He ushered her inside the Curie Research Center, one of four laboratory facilities on-site. “I had to show the world that what I built wasn’t a human meat processing plant or something. Didn’t stop the tabloids and conspiracy nuts from saying it, though.”

She barely heard him, too focused on the magnificence of the hyper-secure biology and chemical labs. The security wasinsane, with layers of safeguards like machines that could detect weapons and evil DNA, and Senchi demons who could sense emotions and thoughts.

Thankfully, she’d stopped imagining throat-punching Stryke a while ago. Still, the Senchi demons watched her with suspicion as Stryke took her through a misty portal in the high-tech center designed to kill all harmful bacteria. When they stepped out, she came to a shocked, dead stop, her mouth gaping in awe.

For so many reasons.

The first? The person who greeted them…wasn’t a person. It was a robotic replica of Stryke, its movements and voice so lifelike she felt the urge to kick it in the dick.

“Welcome to StryTech’s engineering facility,” it said. “Behind the glass wall, you must wear hazmat gear. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask someone else.”

With that, the AI bot turned around and strode off.

“Wow,” she said. “That thing really captured your sparkling personality.”

Amusement turned Stryke’s expression from serious to almost playful. Like a cat that wasn’t ready to catch the mouse yet.

“My people worked hard to capture just the right amount of dismissiveness.” He moved on to a laboratory on the far side of the space. “Let’s meet your team.”

She tried not to marvel at how good his ass looked in those black slacks as she followed him to a small area where two people, both humanoid and male, were programming a 3D printer, which was, of course, the most cutting-edge technology available.

The dark-skinned guy cast a glance over his shoulder at Stryke. “We should have a mockup of the new weapon’s basic design in a few minutes.”

“Excellent.” Stryke gestured to her, hisdermoirerippling around his forearm. The scientist in her would love to study that thing. See how it worked. The female in her appreciated how it flexed smoothly over hard muscle and veins. Dammit, she shouldn’t be admiringanythingabout him. “This is Cyan. She’s here to make sure we don’t fuck up DART’s precious baby. Cyan, this is Dr. Dakarai. He’s the team’s engineer.” He cocked his head at the blond guy who didn’t look old enough to legally drink alcohol in many countries. “That’s Dracx. He’s a metallurgist on temporary loan from Project 6hell. He’s helping figure out what materials will work for what we need.”

Dr. Dakarai nodded politely. “Given your species,” he said to her, “I assume you are a technomancer.”

“I am.”

The doctor nodded. “I’m a lion shifter, and Dracx over there is a Geomorph.”

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