Page 68 of Legacy of Chaos

He hated that she was right, but the fact was, it wasn’t a new revelation. All that shit had gone down more than fifteen years ago, and it hadn’t been dealt with since.

And most of that was on him.

“Please, son. Talk to us. Your mom and I are concerned about you. It’s been nine months since Chaos died, and we still haven’t talked about it as a family.”

“Blade has talked about it enough for all of us.” His brother’s sharp words, as cutting as the weapon he’d been named for, sliced into him over and over, flaying him wide open.

You shouldn’t have left the twins alone.

You should have asked someone to watch them.

You should have fucking been there!

“Stryke,” Shade said, “Rade said you left him a message. You’re giving your StryTech facility to your brothers and cousins?”

“I’m building a new complex in downtown Sydney. I’ll live there.”

Since the entire continent of Australia had been ceded to demons, much of it was unoccupied, especially in the business sectors. Demonic governorship in the human realm was going through some growing pains, and while the district Sydney was in was home to only Ufelskala One and Two denizens who had mostly lived secretly in the human world, they were, in fact, still demons. And demons had a tendency to rule, not lead.

The messy demonic politics had made it easy for Stryke to swoop in and claim abandoned ultra-modern, human-constructed buildings practically for free. Most hadn’t been in use since the humans abandoned the continent, and those thatwerein use got emptied in favor of Stryke’s rapidly growing business and notoriety. He’d assured the people in charge that he’d bring in money, humans, and legitimacy for Australia’s government—which humans were still trying to accept.

It had been over a decade since the destruction of Sheoul-gra, when the human world learned about the existence of demons and angels, werewolves and vampires. And humans had reacted exactly how humans had reacted century after century to anything new: with fear and violence that eventually turned on themselves.

But Stryke’s goal was to bring down the temperature on the planet and provide the humans with tools that would protect them from demons like those that had killed Chaos. He’d sworn to do that for his brother. To prevent anyone else from goingthrough what Chaos had. What their entire family was going through.

“Might have been a good thing to tell us,” Shade said. “You know, your parents. Who haven’t seen you in six months.”

“Guilt trip noted. That’s why I’m here, Dad. I wanted to tell you myself. I’m expanding the company. The soul traps division has made millions, enough for me to branch out. I’ve got designs for upgraded communications tech and anti-demon weapons. But I’m most excited about working on demon-detection devices and software.”

“I thought you wanted to work for NASA or some other space agency.”

He had. And then Chaos died, and his entire life’s trajectory had altered in an instant.

“Things change.”

“Stryke—”

“I have to go.”

“But your mom—”

“Tell her I’m sorry I missed her.”

That had been over fifteen years ago, and he’d only seen his family a handful of times since. He’d seen more of his brothers, mainly because they’d moved into his compound, and Stryke had needed to keep in touch with them about that. But most interactions had been through holo-messaging and not in person.

“Stryke?” Cyan’s voice jolted him back to the present, which was a much better place to be, even with the threat of imminent death.

“Yeah?”

“What happened?”

He’d dreaded that question. Knew it was coming and only wondered why she’d waited so long to ask it.

Sweat rolled at his temples as he looked back up at the pipes and began calculations on the number of hours it would have taken to design the layout. It helped to keep his brain busy so his emotions didn’t get out of control.

“I was twenty-two. Only transitioned for eleven months.” And three weeks, two days, and six hours. He kept track because he’d noted the exact time the hellish experience of transitioning into a mature Seminus demon had ended. “I was supposed to be watching the twins at a theme park. Long story short, I was fucking some park employee when demons attacked. Chaos…” He swallowed, hyperfocused on the maze of ceiling pipes. A human would have spent days designing that. AI? Six seconds. “He died.”

“I’m so sor—”

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