Page 80 of Unleashing Mayhem
Matty
Matty woke up warm and rested and…light.
He’d never felt so light, not once in his life.
And maybe he shouldn’t have felt that way after having his life threatened and watching a man get sliced slowly and painfully into pieces just the night before, but he did. Like there was a giggle at the back of his throat, just waiting to come out.
He kept it in for now. Nightmare was sleeping, and Matty had never seen him do that. Maybe he needed the rest. And he deserved it, after making every single one of Matty’s dreams come true.
They’d separated again at some point in the night, and Matty had turned in his sleep so they were facing each other, one of his legs slung up over Nightmare’s hip. The shadows must have cleaned Matty up, because he didn’t feel sticky anywhere.
One of them tickled his cheek now, and Matty pursed his lips, a silent good-morning kiss hello.
“I’m awake, sweet,” Nightmare rasped, barely above a whisper. “Only resting.”
“Oh.” Matty glanced up to find Nightmare’s eyes already open, his flat white gaze focused on Matty’s face. “Good morning, Scary,” Matty said with a grin. “The rest of our life begins today.”
Immediately, Matty’s cheeks warmed. That had to have been the cheesiest thing he’d ever said in his life.
But Nightmare’s lips twitched, his fangs peeking out in a small grin. “That it does, little mate.”
The giggle that had been threatening finally came out, and Matty tucked his head into Nightmare’s chest, laughing at absolutely nothing, except for maybe how wonderful he felt.
When he’d gotten it out of his system, Matty let out a happy sigh. He was safe and warm in their little cocoon together, and he found himself saying, “I think I might want to go back to school. Luca pulled me out of high school, and he never let me get my GED. I’d like to now.”
He hadn’t realized it was something he wanted until the words were already leaving his mouth. But it was true. He’d had so much taken from him, and Matty wanted to take a little of it back, if he could. It was a start, at least.
“A noble pursuit,” Nightmare told him.
“I can do that part online, I think. But maybe—maybe one day I’ll want to go to college? If they’ll have me. I could study film or—or something like what Cooper does with computers?”
His sentences kept ending in question marks, and some of the lightness left Matty as he considered. Shouldn’t he know by now what he was interested in? Shouldn’t he have had some secret yearning for a vocation lingering in the back of his mind all this time?
Nightmare rubbed a soothing hand along Matty’s spine. “You’ll be able to study many, many subjects in your lifetime, Matteo. You don’t have to choose now.”
Matty bit at his lip, scratching his nail lightly down Nightmare’s chest. “I might not be a good student.”
Nightmare scoffed, but it was a nice kind of scoff. “There’s no need for you to be. But you’re curious and brave and determined. You’ll do well.”
Matty frowned. “I’m not sure I’m any of those things.”
One of the shadows pinched his cheek as Nightmare told him, “I’m certain enough for the both of us.”
Matty snuggled even closer, although it was barely possible with how hard he was pressed against Nightmare already. It was a nice reminder that they were naked, and wonderful things could happen when they were both naked together.
But then Matty’s stomach grumbled loudly enough to startle the shadows, sending them spinning off the bed.
Matty glared down at his stomach. “Maybe we should go down for breakfast.”
“Mm,” Nightmare agreed, his lips pressed tightly together, like he was fighting off a smile.
They dressed quickly and headed down to the kitchen. The whole crew was gathered around the table there, with assorted mugs in front of them and a plate of pastries that had clearly come from the Bakeshop on the table.
“Does anyone know if Seth’s okay?” Matty asked as he and Nightmare walked in. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten to check the night before. “And Benny?”
Sascha swallowed his bite and cleared his throat. “They’re both fine. Seth stayed in last night, and Benny’s the one who dropped off the pastries this morning. I don’t know if he even knows what really happened last night. He just gave me afist bump and told me to pass one onto you while his creepy boyfriend glared at Kai like he was the devil.”
There was a sort of tense silence after his announcement, and it took Matty a moment to remember that he’d basically admitted to being a bloodthirsty murderer at heart last night.
