Page 32

Nightmare

N ightmare felt it a moment before the others: a sharp, electrical impulse in the air. It was oddly familiar, though Nightmare knew he’d never met a demon of this kind before. Familiar because this demon’s powers, like his own, were rooted in suffering.

A pain demon.

Nightmare had heard of them, lurking in the depths of the demon realm.

Other demons avoided them, so as not to become their next meal.

They were known for being particularly ravenous, struggling to find a balance between keeping their prey alive long enough to feed and inadvertently killing them with the pain they inflicted.

Perhaps Nightmare should have felt some sort of kinship at its presence, solitary as his own existence had been in the demon realm. But this demon had been summoned to harm Matteo. There would be no kinship for it here. No mercy.

Nightmare kept watch for it as the bouncer and his fae mate began shepherding humans out, as Nix and Sascha and Kaisyir all came to the table where he and Matteo sat. Nightmare couldn’t find the creature, but he could feel its energy growing closer. Stronger.

Nightmare tried to break it to Matteo gently, that there were other demons that roamed this realm. And he watched as terrible understanding washed over Matteo’s face, the knowledge that Dominico had a new kind of weapon with which to torment him.

Nightmare would never let that happen. This demon would not touch Matteo. It would not disturb one hair on his mate’s head.

Nightmare would make sure of it.

Cooper and Chaos joined them, and even Chaos was remarkably subdued, throwing concerned glances toward his human.

“Protecting our mates comes first,” Kaisyir growled.

As if there was any question.

“I’ll get Matty, Sascha, and Cooper out,” Nix offered quickly. “We’ll meet with Ivan and get as far away as we can.”

Nightmare inclined his head in agreement.

As much as he was loath to let Matteo out of his sight, that was for the best. He couldn’t have Matteo within reach of an enemy demon, and fighting and battle weren’t in Nix’s nature; the incubus would be particularly mismatched against another demon. Running was best.

“There are men here too,” Matteo said, and Nightmare felt a fierce pride run through him at the steadiness in his mate’s voice, quiet though it was. “Dominico’s men.”

Nightmare surveyed the bar. It was true that, now that the other patrons had run—the masses growing quickly panicked at the fire alarm and forced evacuation—a number of men remained glued to the walls, clutching at poorly hidden human guns.

They weren’t approaching the table or attempting to fire any shots.

It was clear they weren’t the main cavalry.

And there was a wiry blond Nightmare recognized.

“Kaisyir,” Nightmare rasped.

Kaisyir cracked his knuckles. “I will handle the humans and their weapons. You and Chaos attend to the demon until I finish.”

Chaos rubbed his hands together, his brown human eyes finally flashing with fire. “It’s a pain demon, isn’t it? It feels all prickly in the air. This is going to be fun.”

Nightmare felt Matteo tugging at his sleeve. He lowered his head to his mate. “Nightmare,” Matteo whispered, and his voice was no longer so steady.

“Go with Nix, sweet,” Nightmare coaxed. “I will be with you as soon as I can. We will regroup.”

Matteo was trembling now, tears welling in his big brown eyes. “I’m scared. Really scared.”

Nightmare cupped his mate’s cheeks. He could feel that electrical signal growing stronger.

Nearer. They didn’t have much time. “I know, sweet,” he soothed.

“But after tonight, it will be over. Dominico has contracted with a demon, and such a contract leaves a trace. Even if he were to escape, I’d be able to track him.

We’ll end this, with blood and pain. Just as I promised. ”

And then Nix was tugging Matteo away, and Nightmare had to allow his mate to be pulled from his side.

They hadn’t been parted since Nightmare had been summoned to this realm. Nightmare hadn’t realized how painful it would be to watch him go, only a single shadow on his person to keep him company in Nightmare’s absence.

It was wrong. All wrong.

The human mates had only just escaped when the back door of the bar burst open to reveal a demon only slightly larger than Chaos, with glowing red eyes and elongated arms almost reaching the floor. He was bald but for two red horns jutting from his scalp, and his skin was a mottled, stony color.

And he was alone, no Dominico in sight.

There was no more time to mourn Matteo’s absence.

Nightmare, Kaisyir, and Chaos reverted to their demon forms instantly.

Discretion was no longer their main concern, and only Dominico’s doomed group of humans remained, anyway.

Nightmare distantly registered their murmuring at the shift, but his focus was on the pain demon in front of him.

“Where is your summoner, demon?” Nightmare asked.

The creature’s only answer was a snarling screech, loud enough to shatter glasses at the bar.

“Oooh, I like him,” Chaos whispered, his skin smoldering with banked flames.

Kaisyir was already off, dispatching the screaming men with guns with practiced ease, even as bullets began sinking into his skin.

It would take him only a few minutes to complete his task.

Nightmare noted with particular satisfaction when a certain blond human man had his throat sliced by one of Kaisyir’s knives.

It wasn’t quite the same as Nightmare ripping the man’s heart out himself, but it would have to do.

The pain demon screeched again. Chaos, eager for violence as ever, leaped into the air with his talons outstretched, his small wings giving him the momentum to land at their visitor’s feet.

But Chaos didn’t get a chance to land.

He was immediately thrown back by a burst of energy from the enemy demon, engulfed in red light that crackled with electricity. The bar filled with a pungent scent, like burned rubber, as Chaos cried out.

The red light dissipated, and the little demon sat slumped on the floor for a moment, a hand to his chest. “Ouch,” he said clearly, though he didn’t sound too put out by it.

The pain demon let out another horrendous screech.

Nightmare sent his shadows toward it, letting them writhe through the available crevices into the creature’s mind.

But there was nothing to twist or manipulate there, no desires or fears or regrets.

The creature was a void inside, its only imperatives the distribution of agony and the aims of its contract: capturing Matteo for its master.

Nightmare didn’t know if that emptiness was in his nature or a twisted side effect of his particular contract, but the result was unsettling, even to Nightmare’s shadows.

They swarmed out of the demon’s mind and returned to Nightmare’s side, chittering with unease.

Then Chaos was up in the air once more. His flames erupted in front of him, clearing a path, and he was able to get close to the pain demon this time.

Close enough to slice deeply through the pain demon’s arm, but also close enough for Chaos to be wounded in return.

The pain demon got his talons into Chaos’s side, and he used his bloody hold to toss the little demon away from him.

Chaos landed on the ground again, his wings crumpled underneath him.

This time, Chaos didn’t rise. He didn’t cackle in delight at his unexpected defeat. He only slumped onto the floor, twitching and moaning weakly.

The pain demon must have had venom in his talons, as Nightmare did.

The creature screeched and stalked over to Chaos.

Nightmare let out a warning growl, allowing his limbs to lengthen and his skull mask to appear from the ether to protect his face.

Whatever poison he’d been given, Bracchus would recover or he wouldn’t. But either way, this pain demon wasn’t going to live long enough to deliver a killing blow.

Nightmare approached the two of them. The pain demon sent a burst of its electrical energy his way, and Nightmare’s shadows swarmed to take the hit.

They shrieked with pain, their cries operating at a frequency higher than a human could register, and Nightmare mourned their suffering. His devoted companions, his weapons and his friends.

But it was for Matteo, this pain. Nightmare and his shadows would take any amount of suffering for that.

Nightmare could feel it now, his mate’s fear and anxiety, brought to a boil by the wretch who had summoned this new monster. They would pay for making Matteo go through such anguish again, this demon and its master.

Nightmare stretched out a spidery limb, and the pain demon swiped at him with its talons.

Nightmare didn’t attempt to dodge them. They caught in Nightmare’s skin, and fire licked up Nightmare’s veins—the poison trying to achieve its aims—but he kept going, straight into those mad red eyes, locking his talons in and letting his own venom flow.

The pain demon screeched and flailed, clawing at Nightmare’s arms with all the fervor of a caged animal.

More venom. More poison. That fire spread through Nightmare, and his muscles twitched and jolted with agony. His shadows roamed inward, racing through his veins, trying to combat the venom as best they could.

It didn’t matter if they were successful. Nightmare would not falter.

Too much was at stake.

Eventually the demon in his clutches went still—paralyzed by Nightmare’s venom—and Nightmare dropped it to the ground, clenching and unclenching his fist as his muscles continued to spasm.

He turned to find Kaisyir cradling a limp Chaos in his arms.

“You have your knives?” Nightmare asked.

Kaisyir possessed demon steel, and its use would be necessary here. A demon couldn’t be killed by human weapons, and even sharp talons were no match for demonic bone and sinew.

“I do,” Kaisyir said darkly.

“Allow me five minutes to search. Then decapitate it. Have Chaos burn the remains.”

Perhaps Nightmare should have mourned the need to end the life of one of his own, but he couldn’t find the empathy to spare. This creature had made its choice, and its soul would return to the realm from which it had come, dispersing there.

It was a better fate than it deserved.

Nightmare crouched down, breathing in the scent of the demon on the floor. Its essence itched Nightmare’s nostrils, and Nightmare’s muscles were still spasming from the poison inside him, but he kept at it, marking the tendrils of the contract this creature had made.

He stood, keeping his beastly shape. If a townsperson saw him, so be it.

Nightmare had a human to hunt.