Page 31 of Unleashing Mayhem (Demon Bound #4)

Matty

M atty turned his head to the right, then to the left. He wrinkled his nose. Pursed his lips. Stuck out his tongue.

“What do you think?” Sascha asked.

They were in Sascha and Kai’s bedroom, and Matty was sitting on a little padded stool in front of Sascha’s vanity, taking stock of what the mirror showed him.

Matty kind of thought a lot of product had been used to make his hair do what it always did—fall messily wherever it wanted—but Sascha had spent a lot of time on it, so Matty settled on, “It’s nice.”

Sascha frowned at him in the vanity mirror, then sighed. “I’ll take it.” He held up a small dark pencil. “How do you feel about eyeliner?”

“I have no feelings about eyeliner whatsoever,” Matty answered truthfully.

Sascha put his hands on his hips, which kind of made Matty think it had been the wrong answer. “We don’t have to do this, you know. Doll you up.”

“I don’t mind,” Matty told him. After a moment, he shifted in his seat. “But, um, why are we doing this? Dolling me up?”

Matty had been coming out of his room with Nightmare in tow when Sascha had basically dragged Matty into his bedroom, declaring they only had a few hours to get ready and needed to get “straight to work.”

Matty had planned to go to the Lighthouse just as he was, so he hadn’t realized there was work to be done in the first place.

Sascha adjusted a few of Matty’s wayward strands. “Because you’ve never really come out with us before, and I thought we could make the night a little fun and not just all doom and gloom. Plus, Seth’s shown me some makeup stuff and I’ve never gotten to practice on anyone else.”

Matty had gone out with Sascha and Kai the one time, but in his fearful state, he’d convinced himself he’d seen a familiar face dancing in the crowd, and he’d run right out of the Lighthouse and basically sprinted home, hiding under his covers for the rest of the night.

Apparently Sascha didn’t count that time.

“Oh.” Matty smiled at his friend. “That’s really nice.” He nodded to the pencil Sascha still held. “I’ll try it.”

Sascha bent low and started swiping the pencil along Matty’s lash line. After a few minutes, he leaned back, narrowing his eyes to assess his work. He nodded once, seemingly satisfied, then leaned back to let Matty take a look.

Matty blinked at his reflection in the mirror. His big eyes seemed…even bigger. And maybe a little sultry?

He turned on his stool to face Nightmare, who was sitting silently in the corner, wreathed in shadow. Sascha had sent him wary glances every few seconds in the beginning, but he seemed to have gotten used to the demon’s presence by now.

“What do you think?” Matty asked.

“Pretty,” Nightmare rasped.

Sascha clapped his hands. “So! For clothes. Our styles are…not aligned, you could say.”

That was true enough. Sascha had once told Matty that he was detoxing from all the whites, blacks, and grays he’d been made to wear as a representative of his Mafia family. Now he favored bright colors and—when the weather permitted—as little clothing as possible.

But Matty didn’t mind whites, blacks, and grays. And he didn’t mind being covered head to toe either. He supposed his style could be defined as both cozy and boring.

“But,” Sascha mused, wandering over to his closet, “I do have this black mesh thingy I wore to one of the Lighthouse’s themed parties.” He held up what seemed to be a very small scrap of fabric, one with tons of tiny little holes. “What do you think?”

“Oh.” Matty considered. “Um…”

He looked to Nightmare, who remained expressionless in the corner. Then Matty raised the bottom of his shirt enough that Sascha could see some of the crisscrossed white lines that ran along his skin. “I usually prefer to keep these covered. My chest and my back. Mesh might not work.”

Sascha blinked. He blinked again. Then suddenly his pale-blue eyes were swimming with tears. “Oh, Matty.”

Matty had never heard his name sound so sad.

“It’s okay,” Matty reassured his friend, lowering his shirt back down. “They don’t hurt or anything.”

Sascha wiped at his eyes. Luckily he’d done Matty’s makeup first—if he’d been wearing the same eyeliner, it would have smeared everywhere.

When he’d scrubbed the tears away, Sascha’s face twisted into a surprisingly fierce look.

“You know, I was annoyed at the time, having to do Ivan’s dirty work.

But I’m glad Kai killed Luca. He should have made it last longer.

” He sniffed once, then turned back to his closet.

“Okay. So what are you comfortable showing? Do you want long-sleeved?”

“My arms are fine.”

Sascha dug around and then came out with a sleeveless black shirt with a high neckline.

“This and jeans, then. I have a loose-fitting pair. Comfy and very in right now, the oversize look. With your coloring and that black eyeliner, you’re going to look hot as fuck.

” He winced in Nightmare’s direction. “You know, objectively speaking.”

Matty grinned at him. “That sounds nice.” He reached out and grasped Sascha’s wrist gently. “ You’ve been nice. Thank you for taking me in. And for being so patient. You’ve been very good to a stray.”

Sascha glared at him. “You’re not a stray, Matty. You’re family. Fuck the Carusos. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a Kozlov.” He handed Matty the shirt and dug out a pair of jeans. “Okay, I’m going to find something bright and slutty for myself.” And he disappeared fully into his closet.

Matty rose from his stool and walked over to Nightmare. His demon stayed seated, but he wrapped his big hands around Matty’s hips, his face hidden by his shadows.

“Come with me to get changed?” Matty asked.

“Of course.”

“Wait!”

Matty turned to find Sascha had returned, and he swiped something wet across Matty’s cheeks.

“A little glitter. I can’t resist. There!” And he walked away again.

Matty tilted his head at Nightmare. “What do you think?”

Nightmare’s lips curled up at the corners. “Like the night sky.”

Matty let out a long breath. “I’m nervous, but not as nervous as I could be. Because you’re here.” He tapped his chest, at the spot he could feel Nightmare’s soul connection the strongest.

It had been Matty’s one comfort throughout this long, tense day: his connection with his demon, and the emotions that had been filtering through their bond.

Not just the dark devotion that was always there, wrapped around Matty like a blanket, but the bloodthirsty rage that had been growing by the minute.

Nightmare’s rage.

“You’re going to kill him for me,” Matty said now. He wanted to hear it once more from his shadow-wrapped demon.

Nightmare didn’t hesitate. “Yes, little mate.”

Matty felt words bubbling up inside him. Important words. Words he wanted to say out loud more than anything. But he held them back.

For now.

There were ghosts and monsters to put down first.

Matty was a little surprised to see the town’s regular bouncer at the door to the Lighthouse.

Mostly because the town’s regular bouncer was Benny, and Matty was fairly certain Nightmare had been a real bro and told Helio to take him and flee.

But here was Benny, in a sleeveless shirt he filled out very differently from how Matty filled out the one Sascha had given him. Helio was lurking beside him, glowering at every single person Benny let into the bar.

Benny’s eyes lit up when he caught sight of their group. He pointed to Sascha and then Matty. “Little dude and little dude!”

So, yeah, maybe his nicknames weren’t the most original in the world. Matty liked him anyway.

“You finally came to dance!” Benny held his fist up for a bump, and this time Matty got one in before Helio tugged his boyfriend’s arm back down.

“Hey, um, Benny?” Matty stepped closer and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Weren’t you supposed to be gone by now? You know, for the danger?”

“Oh, is that tonight?” Benny asked.

When Matty nodded, Helio hissed, “I knew it!” and Benny scratched at his head.

“Well, I’m supposed to be the bar’s protection.

It would be kind of shitty of me to leave right when things got rough.

” He crossed his arms, his biceps bulging kind of obscenely.

“Helio and I can make sure everyone gets out if things go down.”

“I will do no such thing,” Helio sneered.

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.

Dominico hadn’t just brought his men here to Seacliff.

Dominico had summoned a demon of his own.