Page 69 of Unleashing Mayhem
Benny turned to him, and he didn’t seem at all put out by Helio’s unwillingness to help. “But think of how grateful people will be. You’ll be owed, like, tons of favors.”
Helio’s eyes gleamed, and he seemed for a moment to…shift. Like he grew taller and brighter and a little more than human. “Mm. That’s true…”
“And I’m the one asking you, so I’ll owe you, like, extra.”
Helio hummed in thought, looking at Benny in a way that made Matty feel like they should definitely be giving the two some privacy.
“Get rid of your friends,” Helio said, echoing Matty’s thoughts. “I want to start taking payment now.”
“Okaaay.” Matty sidled past, pulling Nightmare with him, Sascha and Kai following right behind. “We’ll just… Bye, Benny!”
“Have a rad night!” Benny yelled after them, seemingly unconcerned that Helio was already squeezing at his pecs with deranged fervor.
The bar wasn’t too full yet, but there were some people dancing already, grinding together to a pop remix Matty didn’t recognize. Matty didn’t see Seth in the crowd, so hopefully he’d either gotten out of town or, at the very least, stayed in for the night. Matty knew Sascha had texted him to keep his distance.
Cooper and Chaos were already stationed inside, both of them standing at the bar. Chaos had just been poured some shooter that had flames dancing on it, and he was laughing in delight as Cooper looked on fondly.
Sascha threw his arms up as the lights flashed. “Let’s dance!”
“Oh.” Matty sidestepped to the wall, where a high-top table with stools to sit at was open. “I’ll just—” He gestured vaguely. “Over here.”
Nightmare stayed standing beside him while Sascha and Kai made their way to the dance floor.
“I don’t really dance,” Matty admitted, peering up at his demon. Nightmare still looked disturbingly handsome in his human form, but at least he was covered up in a long-sleeved shirt. “Did you want to?”
Nightmare shook his head. “No, sweet.”
They sat at their table and watched the dance floor. It was kind of nice, even. Although, the bartender kept bringing over drinks that one pretty man or another had sent for Nightmare. It was hard to tell who the culprits were as the crowd grew, with so many people checking Nightmare out, so Matty glowered in everyone’s general direction to be safe.
They returned the drinks, telling the bartender to give them to whoever he pleased. Nightmare wasn’t interested in human liquor, and Matty didn’t want his mind impaired in any way. Not with what was at stake tonight.
Still, Matty could almost convince himself it was a fun night. Or at least, he could see how it might be in the future. The music had a good beat, and Sascha and Kai’s version of dancing seemed to be mostly Kai standing still and pawing at Sacha while Sascha ground against him. Matty could probably manage that sometime—with Nightmare, not Kai, of course.
It had been almost an hour when Matty saw the first familiar face in one of the bar’s dark corners. After that, it was only a matter of seconds before he spotted another. And then another. Matty didn’t see Dominico yet, but he suddenly knew it, deep in his bones.
Dominico was here.
Matty turned to let Nightmare know and saw that his demon had gone completely rigid.
And then Matty felt it through the bond: shock and dismay, or what Matty thought might be Nightmare’s version of them. He looked to the dance floor to see Kai had stopped dancing and was standing just as stiffly, holding Sascha tightly to his side, as if to protect him from something.
And then Nix burst through the bar’s entrance, with Benny and Helio right behind him. Benny started calmly directing confused patrons out the door as Nix made a beeline for their table. Matty saw Cooper and Chaos at the back entrance, letting out a small crowd of patrons there as the fire alarm went off.
“Sarkaron,” Nix said, a desperate edge to his voice.
Nightmare nodded, scanning the crowd. “I know.”
“What’s going on?” Matty asked. He didn’t think this reaction was just from Dominico’s presence, if he really was on site. They’d planned for that contingency, and it didn’t make sense that the demons were panicking. “What’s happening?”
It was Nix who answered him, wringing his hands as Kai and Sascha ran up to their table. “There’s another demon here. We can sense him.”
“One of yours?” Matty asked. He didn’t remember hearing about anybody else in the Void, but maybe—
“Ours isn’t the only Book in the world, sweet.”
Matty nodded uncertainly. He’d known that, he thought. Or maybe he’d only assumed.
And then the truth of it hit him, sudden and sure. The reason everyone was so upset.
