Page 77 of Unleashing Mayhem
24
Nightmare
The unfortunate drawback to claiming a sweet, wounded soul was that sweet, wounded souls inevitably attracted devoted companions.
And while Nightmare wanted nothing more than to carry Matteo upstairs to the bedroom and surround him with nothing that wasn’t Nightmare or his shadows—to go over every inch of Matteo’s tender skin and reassure himself it remained intact—there were obstacles in Nightmare’s way.
Living obstacles. And they were Matteo’s people, so Nightmare wasn’t allowed to murder them all for delaying him in his goals.
For Matteo, Nightmare would tolerate them. Even if Nightmare was currently…less steady than perhaps he should have been.
It didn’t matter that they’d planned for the possibility of Matteo being taken. That knowledge hadn’t done anything to quell the bottomless rage and agony Nightmare had felt at finding Matteo in Dominico’s hold once again, that vile man’shands and knives and the stench of his rotten soul surrounding him.
If it wouldn’t make Matteo cry, Nightmare would eviscerate Nix this very moment for losing him.
The other demons and their mates were gathered in the living room off the house’s entryway. Chaos was grinning maniacally from his position on the couch, for some reason wrapped in a multitude of blankets while his mate fussed around him, adding and removing pillows seemingly at random.
Kaisyir had cleansed himself of any traces of blood and was resting in one of the room’s oversize armchairs, holding Sascha in his lap with utmost tenderness. Ivan and Nix were standing off to the side, Nix clasped tightly in his human’s arms, the tears running down the incubus’s face doing little to ease Nightmare’s ire with him.
The room was silent as Nightmare and Matteo entered. Matteo shifted in Nightmare’s arms, moving as if to climb down, and Nightmare tightened his hold.
Matteo looked up at him. “Scary, can I have a few minutes?”
Minutes were nothing to Nightmare. They were inconsequential segments of meaningless time, drops in the bucket of his extended lifespan. But he found himself requesting, “Five minutes only, sweet.”
Matteo pressed a cool kiss to his cheek. “Thank you.”
Nightmare lowered him gently to the living room floor. Matteo was still draped in Nightmare’s shadows, at least. They wouldn’t be leaving him anytime soon; they were just as unsettled by the events of the night as Nightmare was.
Because while it was true that, with the bond, Matteo hadn’t been in life-threatening danger from Dominico, the vision of him on that table…
It had been a glimpse of what might have been. Whatcouldhave been, if fate hadn’t played out differently. If Nightmare hadnever found his Matteo in the dream realm. If Sascha and Kai hadn’t found him first, rescued a stranger without knowing what they were doing.
If none of that had happened, it would have been Matteo tied down in some dark room just like that, dying friendless and alone and in wretched, overwhelming pain.
And that thought, even hypothetical, was agonizing in a way Nightmare had never felt. It was ten times more excruciating than the pain demon’s venom, and Nightmare was just as helpless to fight against it.
He couldn’t take his eyes off Matteo. Couldn’t stop reassuring himself that his human was here and whole and brimming with life.
Matteo walked over to Sascha and Kaisyir first, grabbing Sascha’s hands and murmuring to them both. He seemed to be apologizing for the mess he’d brought into their town, and Nightmare had to bite off his offended growl. Matteo was shaken from his ordeal—if he wanted to make unnecessary apologies to undeserving parties, Nightmare would have to allow it.
Nightmare focused his gaze on Chaos, even as his attention remained on Matteo. “Aren’t you healed already?”
Chaos’s grin widened. “Of course,” he said happily, accepting a mug of something hot from Cooper. “But my puppy’s taking such pleasure in pampering me. I should get hurt more often.”
“No,” Cooper said fiercely, tucking the blankets tightly around Chaos’s legs. “You shouldn’t.”
Chaos laughed brightly, his head thrown back like Cooper had said something hilarious. “You see? He never tells me no. But he was so worried for me, he can’t help it.”
Nightmare watched as Matteo moved on to Ivan and Nix next. Nix was blubbering, apologizing for losing him, and Matteo was patting at his arm. “It was always the plan B, me gettingcaptured,” he said softly. “It just happened in a different way than we expected.”
Ivan tucked Nix under his arm again, murmuring something in his ear, so softly that Nightmare couldn’t hear it, though it made Nix finally wipe away his tears as he leaned into his mate.
Ivan glared out at the room at large. “Nix did nothing wrong. It was chaos out there—we’re lucky he was able to get the others to safety. They might have been grabbed for extra collateral.”
No one argued—the others perhaps because they agreed, and Nightmare because he didn’t care enough to form the words. Not now that Matteo was back in his clutches.
Ivan’s cold gaze landed on Nightmare’s. “He’s gone, then? Dominico?”
