Page 75 of Unleashing Mayhem
Dominico had been so turned on by his own slimy voice that he’d missed the room around them growing darker, the shadows in the corners lengthening and stretching, merging together. He’d missed the spiderlike limbs coming out of the darkness, and the white skull hanging three feet above his head.
Matty grinned, and maybe he had a bit of Nightmare in him after all, because for the first time in Matty’s life, he saw fear in Dominico’s eyes, even as the horrible wretch had no idea what surrounded him.
“Hecares,” Matty said fiercely, just as Nightmare’s talons pierced Dominico’s neck.
Nightmare was the most massive and monstrous and wonderful thing Matty had ever seen as he lifted the six-plus feet of Dominico off the ground, easy as anything.
His eyes were glowing, his skull was grinning, his fangs were flashing. If Dominico could see what had a hold of him, he’d piss himself with fear.
But Dominico didn’t get a chance before Nightmare dropped his limp body to the ground.
Matty twisted in his restraints to frown down at the slumped form. “He’s not dead already, is he?”
“No, sweet.” Nightmare glided forward, slicing through the ties so Matty could sit up on the gurney.
“Okay, that’s good.” And for some reason Matty was shaking again, his teeth chattering loud enough to be heard in the quiet. “You s-said he w-would hurt. You p-promised.”
Nightmare’s limbs were still eerily long, his talons more claws than fingers, but his grip on Matty as he lifted him off the gurney was the gentlest touch Matty had ever felt. “And he will.”
There was something in Nightmare’s voice that Matty had never heard before: a barely contained rage that in anyone else would have sent Matty scrambling. But this was Nightmare, so it only made Matty cling tighter.
“You’re trembling, little mate.”
“I kn-know. I c-can’t stop. B-But I knew you w-would come for me. Ikn-knew.”
Nightmare’s shadows draped around Matty like a cloak, and suddenly Matty was so perfectly warm. His shaking didn’t cease entirely, but it lessened. Nightmare set Matty on a chair, and then that skull face was pressed to Matty’s, forehead to forehead. His demon smelled like smoke and safety and the faintest hint of death.
Matty breathed in deep. “Where are we?” he asked.
“Some business for sale. In the back room.”
“Will we be interrupted?”
“No, sweet.”
Matty let out his breath, then leaned back in the chair. He watched as Nightmare set Dominico on the gurney where Matty had just been strapped. Watched as Nightmare shrank back down to the tall, slender demon form Matty knew best.
“Is he just…asleep?” Matty asked.
“He passed out.” Nightmare returned to Matty’s side. “I may have been overzealous with the venom.”
“You were hurt,” Matty said, suddenly remembering that flash of pain.
“Just a touch.”
Matty glared at him, relief and some other overwhelming emotion making him tetchy. “It was more than that. I felt it.”
Nightmare slipped his hand into Matty’s, squeezing tightly. “I’m unharmed.”
So they waited, their hands clasped together. They didn’t speak anymore, at least for now. Nightmare seemed to sense Matty’s need for silence, wrapped in this little pocket of time before his long-awaited retribution.
Finally, Dominico stirred. He groaned, his eyelids fluttering. He turned his head toward them, his gaze widening almost comically as he took in the sight of Nightmare at Matty’s side.
And while Matty might not have been able to eat fear like Nightmare did, he could almost swear in that moment he tasted it on the air.
“Dominico, this is my Scary,” Matty said, as pleasant as could be, making his introductions. “Scary, this is the man who tortured me. The one who wanted to own me. The one who thought he could take my life in the most painful way possible and then desecrate my corpse.”
Dominico jerked, his entire back lifting off the gurney with the effort to escape. But there were shadows on each of his limbs, holding him in place. “My demon—”
