Page 81 of Unleashing Mayhem
Maybe he and Nightmare were no longer welcome here, in Sascha’s safe place. Maybe they were too broken and twisted for family and friends.
But then Sascha stood from the table, walking quickly over to Matty and enveloping him in a hug, not even hesitating with the fact that Nightmare and his shadows were within touching distance.
“Everyone’s got their issues,” Sascha murmured in Matty’s ear before releasing him. “Come eat something.”
And then Cooper was making space for Matty at the table, and Nix was patting gently at his shoulder, and Kai was placing a Danish in front of him.
“Blueberry lemon,” the big demon said gruffly. “Sascha saved it for you.” He looked over to Nightmare, arching a brow. “We don’t have any virgin blood or children’s tears on hand, but the coffee’s hot.”
Nightmare scoffed, scooping Matty from his chair and placing him back down on his lap. “As if I would have anything to do with children, crying or otherwise.”
“We won’t ask you to babysit the hatchlings, then,” Chaos said nonsensically, ducking under Kai’s massive arm to steel his mug of coffee, seemingly for no other purpose than to hear him yell in rage.
Matty sat very still for a moment, until he was certain he wouldn’t burst into tears at the table. Until the happiness in his chest was contained enough for him to move steadily.
Then he ate his breakfast, surrounded by his friends.
By late afternoon,the other couples had left to go back to New York—with a promise to return to Seacliff later in the summer for an extended stay—and then it was only Sascha and Kai in the house with Matty and Nightmare.
The other two had sojourned to Sascha’s office to rebook their flights and reschedule their travel plans, so there was plenty of space for Matty and Nightmare to be on their own, but Matty had gotten kind of accustomed to his and Nightmare’s new routine of strolling around the town every day.
“Should we go for our walk?” he asked a little before sunset, and Nightmare agreed.
The evening was warm, and now that they didn’t have to make an effort to be seen by lingering mobsters, they had the option to explore more of the residential neighborhoods, so Matty took them down a new route.
And there, on a street Matty had never been down before—near enough to the coastal path that he could still hear the sound of the waves breaking against the rocks if he listened closely—was a little house.
It was a single-story clapboard cottage, painted a cheerful pale yellow, with a covered porch and a large, overgrown yard. The sign said it had two bedrooms and one bath.
The sign said it was for sale.
Matty stood there staring at the apparition, Nightmare’s hand clasped tightly in his. He looked up at his demon. “You believe in fate, right?” Matty asked. “You think we were, like, meant to be together?”
Nightmare had never said as much, but Matty didn’t know how else to describe Nightmare’s very singular obsession with his mortal soul.
Nightmare’s dark human eyes flashed white in the twilight. “I believe you’re mine.”
Matty grinned up at him, even though it wasn’t a real answer to his question. Or maybe it was.
And then Matty couldn’t stop staring at that sign. He’d loved living with Sascha and Kai—as much as he’d been able to love anything with how scared he’d been of Dominico’s return—and he knew he wanted to stay close to them. But also…
A place of his own. Matty had never had that. Not once.
“I don’t have any money,” he pointed out quietly, more to himself than anyone else.
Nightmare huffed, sounding almost offended. “I can get you money, sweet.”
“You can?” Matty tilted his chin to peer down at the shadow nestled between his pecs, the one who’d become his more or less permanent companion. “Are you all robbing banks now?”
“I’ve found my way into endless dreams over the centuries, little human. I’ve seen buried gold, hidden riches. Not all of it was imagined. I know where to find these things.”
Well. That was… Matty didn’t know what to say to that, actually. Those things—buried treasures haunting someone’s nightmare—didn’t sound real to him. But then again, neither had demons, once upon a time.
“Enough for a little cottage?” he eventually asked, unable to keep the hope from his voice.
“Many times over,” Nightmare told him, pulling Matty closer to him and wrapping his arms around Matty’s chest so Matty was still facing the house. He seemed content enough to stay there, staring, for as long as Matty liked.
Matty bit at his lip. “It’s not too small for you, is it?”
