So You Summoned a Soulmate

Chapter 9 - Mercy

Content Warning

This story includes s****l activity that is not meant for underage readers.

As always, handle with care and your mental health comes first...

Snapping the lid of my laptop down I am thousand pounds lighter after drafting a kick-ass email to my newest author. Everything is set for the launch next week. Signing a new independent author always gives me a deeply gratuitous feeling. Independent publishing is hard f*****g work and you don’t get any easy breaks, but if my bookstore can allow anyone to be seen, it’ll give the little guys as much of a chance as the big publishers. Turning around in my chair I study the small office that has become my second home.

I need a plant of something to liven up this stuffy space. I’ve really done nothing with it since Nona passed and left the Bookstore to me. The entire store I’ve changed and made my own, this room is somehow still hers though. I can’t bring myself to tear down her weird orange-yellow wallpaper from the eighties, or part with the all-together enormous solid wood desk that she worked on every day. To change too much in this office would be to change the heart of Smoldering Books, and that has always been Nona.

I know meeting the authors at the cafe in the bookstore is a double-edged sword, most of the time it makes me look more professional and lets them see the amazing venue I had cultivated. Not today, however, as soon as I shook hands with the mousy brown-haired Autumn and bid her adieu, Aria came to me with a delivery issue and the afternoon went to hell in a handbasket from there.

Task after task, contacting the delivery company to track down the missing books. Helping fix the inventory system so it wouldn’t say we have those books yet and a smattering of customers holding me up with questions much longer than I had ever accounted for. My mind flips back to the man I left sitting on my couch. Pace, he said he’d like to be called. Why did he change his skin from the beautiful red, are the horns just gone or…

“Hey,” Aria pops her head into the office door and startles me out of my chair. “Thank you for showing me how to contact the delivery guys! Now I feel like I have the shipment stuff all figured out.” My gut lights up with a mixture of shame and pride. This girl is amazing and she can handle every bit of the process, why does she doubt herself so much? I’ve made it my mission over the last few months to support her and coach her into believing in herself in small ways. Sometimes I see it working and other times I see her actively working on tearing herself down.

“It’s all in a day's work, my dear.” Chuckling, I clasp my thighs tightly closed. I need to head home and sort out some Infernal soulmate-related business. Some six-foot sexy Infernal soulmate business, that is. My mind is out the door and around the corner while I walk out of the office following Aria. Tossing her a perfunctory ‘call me if you have any questions’ she shakes me off playfully and I hope beyond hope she doesn’t need me. I’ve already overspent a few too many hours away from my visitor from another dimension and I’m terrified of what he’s done to my place while I’ve been away.

I wish I still had a home phone so I could call and check on him. Realistically he’s fine, fumbling with the TV remote or something. That should keep him plenty occupied.

Rushing myself out through the darkly coated glass door that reads ‘Smouldering Books’ I look up to find the sky is alive with the birds just like yesterday, but today their song is in my veins. The twittering and chirps lift my spirits as I beat the pavement on my way to the Men's Boutique a few buildings up from the bookstore. Something in their window has always caught my eye. Sleek, modern looks that will look devilish on my Infernal visitor. Maybe it’s their mixtures of grays and cobalt blues? Maybe I’ve always wanted to have a reason to buy musky fragrances and pants that are too tall and slim to ever fit on my wide hips. Regardless, today I’m going in and picking out a few things for Pace.

Chuckling I pulled the door open and decide all at once that I’m getting him an outfit so I could take him shopping. Firstly, I had no idea what size he will need exactly so this is all guesswork, and secondly, I realize that this was a uniquely human event. Shopping. Since he can clearly change his appearance to look human, I can take him out of the apartment. Why does that light a fire in my veins that I’m wholly unfamiliar with?

Plucking a pair of jeans out of a neatly folded pile I let my eyes slide over racks of shirts looking for the exact shade of red. The one that will match with his new olive skin but remind us both of the fierce complexion that hides underneath. Imagining how he will look in the clothes I pick out takes up my operating space. Blush creeps up my cheeks as I wave off the sales clerk who asks if I ‘need any help today’. I need help all right, I need to not be thinking about the man waiting for me back home. His deep black eyes and that dimple eat at my memory. My mind lights up with questions about how he changed his image and plans on interrogating him into the late hours of the night. Among other things.

The perfunctory exchange of goods and credit cards is as tedious as always. Maybe even more so because my urgency to get back to the apartment is fuel on the fire that has been raging in me since I locked the door and left.

Bags in hand my feet lead me down the block and around the corner to the familiar red brick of my apartments. Finally, I breathe silently to myself. I’ve gotten a ton of little fires put out today at the book store and I’m back to get this inferno of a situation figured out. Not that I know exactly what I’m going to do.

Climbing the stairs I ask myself again what I’m going to do. I have got to keep my hands to myself this time. When I turned around at the door this morning and he had changed his skin I was so taken aback. Terrified even. I don’t want him to think he has to stay in that human form. I actually really miss the horns. It’s like something took over my body when his hands slid over my hips. A passion I can’t name.

Am I going to send him back to guard prisoners for the rest of his life? Is that something I can even do? Because I swear I had no idea that I was capable of summoning him here in the first place. How had that happened? I still have that huge question hanging over me as I traipse up to my door at long last. Today has been too long, with too many side distractions. Guilt flares to life in my chest as I slide my key into the lock.

“Hunny, I’m home.” Joking mostly to myself as I let myself into the door my eyes fall on the couch. Empty.

Okay. My heart pounds and I beg it to stay calm. Dropping the bag of clothes by the coffee table I call out a bit louder.

“P, uh Pace where are ya?” My heart is rising up my throat as I fumble over my feet on the way to my bedroom. Nothing. It’s exactly as I left it yesterday morning. He’s not here?

“Bathroom?” Clattering my way to the white tiled room I know before I get there that it will be empty and yet I hold hope in my fist as I turn down the hallway.

Nothing.

Fuck! I left him alone too long. Did he go back to– to hell? No, I cast the thought away, that would make no sense.

Clues. I need clues. Backtracking into the living room I find the couch with the remote sitting just where I left him. The TV is off now so he clearly grew tired of that, but where had he gone after? Think Mercy.

Think like a man… like a child even. He’s new to this dimension and everything is sparkly and interesting. He can’t have gone far. Right?

My frantic heart drums a bachata beat in my chest as I scan the room for anything. Reaching out with a sense that lies just inside my body I let my eyes flicker over the furniture again. My power swells in my palms, searching as I splay my fingers wide. Turning slowly I let my power slide out through my body and search the room for any traces of him or anyone else who may have been here. The apartment feels hollow and cold as I stand within its empty halls. Just yesterday this was my solace, my fortress to escape the world. Now I’m scanning it to see if the soulmate I accidentally summoned was kidnapped.

I recognize the signature of Pace’s spirit. Carmine and glowing fiercely I track it around the apartment. I follow its trail as it focuses on the couch and then travels over toward the door where a silver spirit shows up.

There.

My eyes snag on a piece of paper taped to the inside of the door. What is that? Feet flying, I leap over the coffee table and snatch the page off the door in a rage.

Hey Aunt Merc,

I took Pace out to Colors.

We should be back before you have the chance to freak out.

Leo

He what?

Took Pace to a gay bar? What are they thinking? My mind reels as I release my powers to settle back under my skin and force my lungs to breathe.

Well, Leo has no idea he has an Infernal prison guard on his hands and I’m sure Pace was all too excited to get out of the apartment. Shame and rage dance the tango on my chest as I contemplate going to get them. I should wrap up their little night on the town. It’s barely dusk after all and they are hanging out at a bar already. Glancing around the apartment my eyes lock on the bag of clothes I brought home. He was naked wrapped in a towel when I left. What the f**k is he wearing now?