Page 61 of Unleashing Mayhem
“Yeah, it is.” Matty didn’t know what to do in this situation, and he found himself giving Benny a thumbs-up. “Thanks.”
The two supernaturals seemed to be in a strange staring contest now, both of them vibrating with tension as they glared at each other.
“This is Nightmare,” Matty told Benny while they waited it out. “You can call him Night. He’s—” Matty paused.Boyfrienddidn’t seem right. Andhusbandwasn’t technically correct either. “He’s mine,” he concluded.
“Right on.” Benny raised his hand for a fist bump, only to have Helio tug it back down again immediately.
But he and Nightmare seemed to have come to some sort of unspoken truce, because Nightmare finally spoke again. “There will be danger,” he said, apparently talking to Helio. “Take your mate.”
“Oh! Take Seth too,” Matty added. He wanted to be sure his friendly neighborhood baker was safe.
Helio gave a stilted nod and began pulling Benny away. Benny waved as he was tugged in the other direction. “Nice to see you, little dude!”
Matty watched him go, patting at Nightmare’s arm around his chest. “That’s Benny. We like him, just so you know.”
“Is Benny short for Benjamin?”
“What?”
“The accountant?”
Who the fuck?It took Matty a minute to catch up. “Oh. You heard Kai? Benny’s just Benny. There’s no Benjamin the accountant. Kai was just—”
“Meddling,” Nightmare finished for him.
“He wasn’t meddling.” It wasn’t like Kai had actually tried to steer Matty away from Nightmare after he’d realized they were bonded. Or maybe he had, but he hadn’t done a very good job. “He was just…adjusting.”
Nightmare released his hold, turning Matty to face him. His dark human gaze bore into Matty’s. “There will be no accountants for you, Matteo.”
It sounded like a threat, but it only made Matty grin.
“I know.” He rose onto his toes to kiss his demon, then stopped when he saw what was in Nightmare’s other hand. “Oh! My ice cream! Thank you, Scary.”
Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all, being out and about in town. Not when Matty had Nightmare at his side.
18
Nightmare
It was on the third day of Nightmare escorting Matteo around town that Matteo finally saw another familiar face, this one not so welcome.
Nightmare had just finished fetching his mate his ice cream cone for the day, and they were sitting on one of the town’s benches as Matteo discussed the local wildlife.
“I don’t think I’d mind being a seagull,” he mused, watching one of the birds in question dive to the sidewalk to snatch an errant french fry. “They get to live by the coast and steal human food, but they don’t get the bad reputation of, say, a pigeon.” His brow furrowed as he considered. “But there’s something lonely about birds, I think. Maybe because they don’t have anywhere cozy to go. Bird nests are just so open to the elements. If I were a fox, I could have a little den.” He took a lick of ice cream, turning to Nightmare. “What do you think?”
Nightmare had no interest in being any earthly creature at all, but he’d play the game for his mate. “One of the big cats inthe mountains,” he said after a moment. “Solitary, with a large territory. I’d protect your fox den from intruders.”
Nightmare was rewarded with a huge, beaming grin from his mate.
And then, a moment later, the soul connection between them thrummed with shock, and the ice cream fell from Matteo’s hands.
Nightmare’s shadows caught the dessert before it could hit the ground.
They were always close at hand now, his shadows. Where once they hadn’t ever deigned to emerge while Nightmare was in his lesser human form, they now tucked themselves into his clothing, waiting for any opportunity to rush out in secret to swarm their mate.
But Matteo didn’t reach for the little cone suspended in air, and eventually the shadows let it drop to the sidewalk.
Nightmare followed Matteo’s dismayed gaze to a wiry blond man who was pretending to read a newspaper in one of the outside seating areas of the local café.
