Page 52 of Unleashing Mayhem
Matteo’s soul was for Nightmare and his shadows. No one else.
Nightmareonce again found himself on human public transportation.
He and Matteo were meeting Chaos and Cooper in Seacliff, the other pair arriving by way of rental car. Cooper had informed them that he’d only recently received his driver’s license, and Nightmare wasn’t willing to leave Matteo in the hands of an inexperienced human driver. And knowing the little chaos demon, it would be just like him to take over the wheel and drive them all off a cliff, if only for his own amusement.
The bus was safer for Nightmare’s summoner.
Matteo was alert but far less twitchy than on the voyage over, his surveillance of their fellow passengers more purposeful and less paranoid.
“Maybe it’s a good thing we’re taking care of things,” Matteo mused after giving a burly, bearded man a remarkably thorough once-over.
“It is, sweet.”
“Because then we can go somewhere private and just fuck and fuck and fuck for days.”
A woman across the aisle from them coughed loudly.
“If you like,” Nightmare said evenly, as if he wasn’t salivating behind his fangs at the thought of such a thing.
Matteo gave the coughing woman a look and lowered his voice. “And when Dominico comes, you’re going to make him suffer? Make him hurt?”
“Yes, sweet. He will suffer greatly.”
Nightmare knew now that Matteo liked hearing things said out loud for reassurance, often more than once. And while by no means verbose by nature, Nightmare would tell his mate what he needed as many times over as Matteo required.
And for once in his long existence, Nightmare could perhaps use a little reassurance of his own.
He didn’t like that Dominico’s men had been found in an occult shop. Demons weren’t the only inhuman creatures roaming this realm. And while the likelihood of those mobster humans finding anything of substance was unlikely, it wasn’t impossible.
But that wasn’t for Matteo to worry about. The sweet contentment he’d been radiating since their bonding needed to be maintained at all costs. And perhaps that was selfish of Nightmare, but so be it. It fed something in him, that sense of well-being emanating from his mate. Nourished some deep, dark place he’d never known needed filling. He ached to keep it.
Nightmare had known the taste of Matteo’s soul already, but he hadn’t realized how the whole of it would feel. That it would be like a bright bit of light in his sternum, nestled somewhere that had never once seen the sun. A place for Nightmare’s shadows to feel the heat of that blaze, a warm caress Nightmare had never known they craved. Even now they kept diving in, basking in the glow of it—a small bit of recompense for being denied the pleasure of wrapping around Matteo in public.
Nightmare had been sure of his course ever since he’d come across Matteo in the dream realm, but this was confirmation.
Matteo was Nightmare’s purpose, his answer to an existence that went beyond mere survival. His destiny. His perfect, soulful mate.
And Nightmare had claimed him for eternity.
So Nightmare kept his worries to himself, and soon enough their bus arrived at their destination, the depot in Seacliff.
Once they were off the bus, Matteo glanced around warily, then tucked his hand into the crook of Nightmare’s elbow. “Let’s walk to the house. You want me to be seen, right?”
Nightmare didn’t. He wanted to keep the sight of his beautiful summoner all to himself, for him and his shadows alone.
But the plan said otherwise. So they walked, Matteo’s thick hoodie in place despite the heat of the summer sun.
Perhaps Matteo was not feeling completely carefree, then. He was still hiding, in his way, even with Nightmare at his side.
They didn’t come across anyone who seemed likely to have been working for Dominico. They mainly came across families Matteo identified as tourists, swarms of them taking photos and devouring the local treats while they visited the quaint shops of the town. The few solo travelers they saw were mostly women, and none of them smelled like nefarious intentions. There was no one Matteo seemed to recognize, other than familiar townspeople he still shied away from.
At least not until they arrived at the house. Because there on the porch was a large, muscular figure, his burly arms crossed in front of his chest, a slim blond man standing beside him.
The warrior Kaisyir and his human mate.
Nightmare halted their progress on the sidewalk, keeping Matteo at his side. “Did the chaos demon spill so soon?” he called out. “Who would have thought the little menace was such a telltale?”
“It was the incubus, actually,” Kaisyir told him in his low rumble. “As soon as he got off the video call.” He sent a severe look Matteo’s way. “Matteo. Come stand by Sascha, over here.”
