So You Summoned a Soulmate

Chapter 10 - 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.

Full steam ahead I slide the lock home on the apartment door. This decision to go chase down my nephew and Infernal soulmate, he so innocently took out to the bar, grates against my nerves. I am not the ‘rain on your parade’ kind of person, but I guess someone has to be that way sometimes because Pace has been in this dimension for maybe twelve hours and has no idea what he’s doing. Now he’s going to just blend into a bar, looking for all the world like he just stepped off the runway in Milan? Right. I have to at the least supervise, I grumble to myself.

Frustration builds in my chest as I march my absolutely not dressed for the bar self down the stairs in exactly that direction. Who am I becoming? A woman that chases a man down when he goes out?

Absolutely not.

I’m not going down that road, that’s for certain.

This is different. Sure, I’m pissed.

I’m going to find those ass clowns and give them a piece of my mind but I have to play this right.

Calm down Mercy, just don’t go in there screaming.

The bar is more than a few blocks away so I have plenty of time to let the rage that boiled to life when I found my apartment abandoned fall off as I stomp my way over.

‘Colors’ is, as always, lit up like the rainbow it was so literally named after. All the soffit lighting slowly strobes a brilliant cast of colors as the sun sets behind me. On any other night my pulse would race thinking about a night of dancing and fun ahead of me, but tonight I’m sweating bullets for what I’m going to find beyond those doors. What did he dress Pace in? Leo isn’t known for his subtlety. No, in fact, he’s known to be high drama with a penchant for makeovers. That poor Infernal prison guard has no idea what hit him.

Puffing out the last of my irritation I head in. Let’s get this over with. Thankfully there is no cover until after eleven tonight. At least I have one small thing going right for me today. Well, two. No cover and signing a new author. Maybe my ire isn’t all because these two dumbasses took off, but because it was terrifying to come home and find him gone. It was as though, as quickly as he appeared in my life he could disappear. Irritation spikes me to my core, the fear of losing more people in my life sneaks back up on me like a familiar foe. Here today and gone tomorrow, the story of my life.

My eyes tour the wide and busy room looking for Leo’s soft teddy bear curls and Pace’s giant form. What is he wearing? I don’t think any of Leo’s things will fit him, that’s for sure. This whole situation has left me out of control. How had I closed my eyes yesterday as a strong, if lonely, businesswoman and opened them today to be chasing down a man who left with no warning? What is happening in my life?

Music blasts from the DJ’s booth as my eyes adjust to the darkly lit interior of the bar. People are milling around between tables, a few putting on their best moves on the dance floor. All these people shuffle by and not a single one are the ones I’m looking for. Faces pass as I make my way down the middle of the room toward the bar. Surely I will be able to see them if they were here. They have to be here right? There hasn’t been so much time that they would have gone somewhere else. Right? Glancing at my phone to look at the time a thought shoots through my brain like a bullet.

Tapping on the phone icon I press the second number on my favorites list and ring Leo. Why did it not occur to me to call me until now? I am going to blame it on the rage and this being a wildly weird situation. Also, I’m getting Pace a phone, I decide just now as I listen to Leo’s phone ring again and again in my ear.

“You want to order a drink sweetie?” Glancing over my shoulder the bald bartender is asking me if I’m standing at his bar to order and I shake my head.

“Um, no but have you seen this guy?” Clicking on Leo’s contact image I hold my phone up for the leopard print-clad bartender to inspect.

“Yup, he’s around the back playing pool. Winning too I bet.” Grinning widely at me I see the flash of a gold tooth at the corner of his smile as I thank him and start around the bar. Of course, there’s an ‘around back’ that I have no idea about, it’s been years since I was here last and when I was it was mostly for the free entry and dancing. I’m so out of place here. I should be ten years younger and twenty pounds lighter to hang out here.

Pop-synth music blares as I round the bar finding a crowd of people, pool tables, and Leo. Leaning against the dark purple wall Leo is smiling broadly, chatting with some guy I don’t know. He usually is, that doesn’t surprise me in the least. Heading in his direction I search the ambling crowds for Pace, not that I have any idea what he will look like in clothes. The last time I saw him I was walking backward away from his towel-clad tented lap begging my body to listen to my mind. A blush like a heat wave rushes over me as I search for the very same man.

My eyes slide over the green cloth covering the pool table to the man leaning over it expertly lining up a shot. His long arms stretched out, shirt sleeves rolled up his deeply tanned forearms. My eyes eat up the scene as Leo calls out to me.

“Aunt Merc!” I can’t look away from the man at the pool table. His black eyes flash up to mine from behind the pool que. Good lord, his gaze eats me up as the room around us ceases to matter. It’s me and him, and this line of tension tied between us like a string.

Something low in my belly flutters and I’m warm all over. He crooks a mischievous grin at me. The dimples on his cheek can’t hide the salacious look in his eyes. He is thinking about the last time we saw each other too. His hands on my ass. Me grinding into his erection.

“Aunt Merc,” Leo steps in front of my line of vision, snapping the tension like a rubber band. “So glad you found us.”

“Uh yeah…” Taken aback by his hug I hug him back. I love the kid I do. He means well, even if he’s a little pushy. Well, a lot pushy.

This little s**t took my demon out and has the nerve to stand there smiling! Wait my demon? Where did that come from?

All my thoughts seem to crumble apart as my eyes wander back to the sight of Pace with the pool cue stretched out over the table the way I’d like him to stretch out over me.

“Oh I see you had no trouble finding your man, huh.” Leo’s prattling doesn’t usually make me want to smack him upside the head – today though it’s so grating all I can do is fake a pinched smile and nod. All of my concern on the hustle over here seems to have been for nothing. Pace looks as human as he did when I left for work. Not a horn or claw in sight, much to my internal chagrin. It turns out I rather liked the monstrosity, but this version is handsome too.

Well that is something to talk to a therapist about. My time spent standing awkwardly to the side is shoved away as I grab a cue and huffed out “I call next” to the guys. What a weird thing to say, ‘the guys’. One of them isn’t even a guy exactly.

“You sure you can handle this heat?” Pace’s somber vibrato taunts as I rub chalk on my pool cue. Oh, can I?

“You haven’t seen heat yet, Pace.” But he has. He totally has. That kiss on the couch was the hottest thing I have experienced since being a horny teen. Will I be letting him know that? Absolutely not!

What I will be doing is making sure he suffers for making me worry about him going missing though. Make him sweat for the distressing discovery of coming home to find it absolutely destitute of my Infernal prison guard.

Tossing off the protective over shirt I fight off the moment of hesitation that tells me I don’t look good without a second layer of shirt to cover my ‘plump in all the wrong places’ frame. f**k that voice, tonight I’m just gonna flaunt the assets.

Chucking the purse and over shirt under the pool table I stand to once again take in the scene I’ve walked blindly into. We’re really at a bar right now. I don’t think I’ve been out in… my brain buffers for moments that turn into minutes and I can’t come up with a number. Too long, that’s for sure.

Someone must have given Pace some pointers because he is crushing Leo with shots that take two and three balls out at one time. How is someone who has probably never seen this game so damn good?

My eyes drift over his outstretched arms, lining up his next shot. Shoulders bunched under the gray cotton of a button-down that I definitely have to remember to thank Leo for later. His warm brown human-disguise skin seems to glow from beneath the cool-colored fabric. I can almost see the trail his chest hair makes as it flows from the nape of his neck under the shirt that I’m suddenly thinking about tearing it off of him. Eyes hawk-like with focus flash up at me and I am slain once again. The heat of his gaze roars through me, lighting my need aflame.

Panties, incinerated.

“You didn’t call it!” Leo shouts in triumph. Snapped out of the moment I’m glancing around confused as the two men begin to argue over calling the pocket on the 8 ball.

“Not fair, you didn’t tell me about that rule.” Pace chastises gruffly.

“You can’t be serious. That’s the rule. The main rule of billiards.” Leo’s chortling retort rears a wave of protective instinct in me. Pace wouldn’t know, he’s not from this dimension.

“And how would he know that?” My words fall out thoughtlessly. Oh, s**t.

“Everyone knows that. Guess I’m the winner.” Pulling the balls out for the next round Leo is winking at the cute man that walks up next to him as I shelf my cue.

I guess I don’t have to play now, which is better ‘cause I’m no good at pool.

Grabbing Pace’s hand I make for a table and pull him behind me before he can even think of protesting. Sliding into a booth, I Iook up at him expecting for him to take the other side. Instead, he motions for me to keep scooting. I guess we’re both sitting on this side then.

When we are finally in some semblance of privacy I stage whisper to him, “Not cool man.”

Shrugging, he hangs his head but I can’t help but keep spewing my upset.

“Opening that door and you weren’t there. That s**t was scary. Humans would kill you if they knew what you are.”

“You are human.” Soft brown eyes meet mine as his words melt my anger right on my tongue.

“Clearly, I’m a different kind.” My huff gives him time to retort.

“I like your kind, my soulmate.” His fingers brush up my arm as our heads inch closer inward.

“Soulmates don’t just desert each other.” I try for cutting and land somewhere around affirming that we are indeed soulmates, which I’m not sure I’m ready to cop to yet. Or ever.

“Never.” The iron in his words stills my hurt. Somehow I know he would never really leave. He could, however, really get hurt by the awful people this world has in too many of its corners.

“I guess we’re getting you a phone.” Holding my hand to my forehead I begin the mental day planning that this task will require. Two or more hours of buying, setting up, and teaching him how to use the device has to be made a priority.

“But I can stay.” Smile bright and teeth a tad too pointy reminds me of the dark, wild Infernal under this human skin disguise.

“I don’t even know how I got you here.” Exasperation lights me up at the turns this damn day have taken.

“Y’all want a drink?” A very sugary sweet waitress clad in a black tank top and denim daisy dukes blinks down at us expectantly from the other side of the booth. She popped up quickly.

“Do we?” Pace questions, and it occurs to me that I do. God, I really do want a drink. Pace should have one too, he has never had a night out after all. I may not have had a good time in a couple of years but he hasn’t had one ever. Not one single day of his much too long and probably boring life has had a night out in it. Immediately, my goal illuminates my brain.

Let’s show him a real good time.

Ordering three different kinds of drinks for the both of us I hand her my credit card and open a tab. My guilty conscience gets the better of me as she turns excitedly away from us. “These drinks are technically poison.” My eyes plead for understanding from Pace as I continue. “Not -not the kind that kills you…fast. But the kind that makes you feel good and lose.” Nodding he looks over my face, seems to find whatever he is looking for, and smiles.

“Humans are more fun than I thought.” Squeezing his bicep in my excitement I warm at the contact. My eyes seem to be locked on him as we take our drinks, thanking the waitress and instructing him on how to perform a proper ‘cheers’. Our glasses clink a bit too firmly and we are throwing back our first round of poison as a raucous energy rolls through me.

“What did you do for fun, at the…” Words fail me, which seems extraordinary because I sell them for a living.

“In Fathomless?” His infernal sounds off with his flat human teeth.

“Endless? No, uh fathomless. Is that right?”

“Close but not quite. I would talk to my…” His eyes glance around the bar as he finds the right word, “My wards, let them tell me their life’s stories, mistakes, and moments of glory.”

That doesn’t sound very fun. Eyes sliding over the bar around us, so many people living so many different lives, and yet we are all connected in this moment at this bar that I have never even been into until tonight. On second thought I would probably be interested in the prisoner’s stories too if that’s all there was to do.

“Any of those stories you are interested in recreating?” Lips curling into a wolfish grin he slowly rounds on me until the space between our bodies in the booth is nonexistent. Hip to hip. My shoulder pressed firmly into his chest as his arm comes to wrap around me.

“So many. Humans are quite passionate.” His breath flows over my skin like lava. Every one of my nerve ending begs him to let go of his restraint and grab ahold of me. We might as well be alone in this place for all I care about the people around us. It’s just us two here. Pace and I. “Or so I’m told.” Grinning at me all I see are the dimples and canines. This man, uh Infernal. He’s gonna cause a scene here if we keep going on this way. I might just take his face in my hands and show him how humans show each other passion.

Not just yet. Slow your roll there Merc.

“Good! Let’s make some stories of our own. Scoot.” Shooing him out of the booth I lead us over to the dance floor that looks a lot bigger now that I have some of that good poison in my stomach sloshing around a while.

A bluegrass house music mash-up of oldies and new songs plays on a seemingly never-ending circuit as I push and pull Pace into different dances. He picks them up easily and just as he hits his groove I insist on a new one.

I’m just the worst ain’t I? Chiding myself for putting space between us I know that this here is a ‘run out the clock’ maneuver. Pounding drinks, dancing and soon one of us is going to be sloshed. I’m counting on it being the newbie. Hopefully.

Five rounds in, however. I am proven to actually be the newbie. Tripping over my flats I hold on to Pace for dear life as we sloppily giggle our way home. Leo shows us the way in some twisted humor of fate. The foundling adult guiding the way for the once strong, now idled by liquor, middle aged adult.

Fate has had such a hand in the last twenty-something hours of my life, I consider as a moment of quiet repose settles over the group. Toddling down the sidewalk I hear of chorus of ‘soulmate’ sing-songing around between my ears. It can’t possibly be real. I mean I’ve heard of people saying it but there can’t actually be souls that are waiting to meet each other just drifting around. Across dimensions too, that’s f****d up. How are you supposed to meet them if you don’t have powers like I do?

My eyes water as I gaze shakingly up at Pace. Soulmate? What do I really know about the man? Infernal. I know I somehow summoned him. That is pretty f*****g certain at this point. I know the exact coloring of his skin. His real skin. Carmine. Supple and calloused in places. His hand under my shoulder is a glorious disguise but I suddenly longed for the Pace I met just this morning. The real one, horns and all.

Plodding up the stairs took all thoughts fly away from my brain. Jostling into my apartment I thank Leo, mussing up his hair with a friendly aunt hug and shutting the door firmly in his face. “Okayyyy, goodnight to you too.” He calls from the other side of the door. I can afford to pay no notice to him, the little s**t stole my man today. Leaning against the hewn oak slab of a door, I level my gaze at said man sprawling out on my couch.

Human skin moist from the liquor and exertion he lifts his hand from wiping hair out of his face and locks on to me. In moments the air changes from ‘yay, finally home’ to ‘oh it’s so on’.

Pulling himself up with a grin, I rush out, “Not like that!”

Confusion lights up his face, eyebrows raised in question he stills as my words fall on his understanding.

“Oh does this form not entice you enough?” Indeed it does. There is just something about the man I met this morning that I just can’t stop daydreaming about. Is it the horns? The red skin that turns to black at his hands? I don’t know but I’m craving it.

“Hmmm,” Pretending disinterest is a lot harder than it appears in books and television. Especially when I’m practically, almost probably, drooling at the sight of him pulling his buttons apart one by f*****g one. “It does, it really does. I just think...” My words fall flat as the shirt is cast aside and his hands land on the button of his jeans. I don’t think. I can’t process a single thought. I haven’t got the facilities for it any longer.

“You think what my sweet?” The zip is echoing through the apartment as my heart beats a dub step in my chest.

“I think I’d like...”

My words are drowned out as windows smash around us.

Glass flies across the room.

I’m thrown back into the door and my footing effectively disappears from beneath me as the whole earth seems to rattle.

A man with a huge flaming sword and eagle wings screams as he stands on the overturned couch. “Behold your captor!”

Shit? Birdman starts to swing the sword around about the same second that Pace disperses with his human form. Before the glory of my Infernal soulmate hits my eyes, my mind racks for a solution. Why didn’t my wards work? Who the hell is this guy? Why can’t I seem to get a break today?

All at once all my horny bratty energy is pointed against this attacker. Against this would be captor. Against this bird-brain who would dare take my soulmate from me. I’m not even sure I believe in it yet, not really, and he would rip it from me.

Not no, HELL NO.

Rage blasts through my fingertips as restraints lash into his arm. My power whips across the room like ropes. Binding his sword arm to his side and his other behind his back like a chicken wing. Seething I wrap his wings together with my thorny blackened vines.

“How dare you.” I can’t help but shout. “Come into my apartment – uh sanctuary and lay claim to my soulmate.” His roaring cries blister my ears as my ire grows. “He is not yours to take. He belongs to me now.”

Hands splayed out before me I push him toward the window, hobbling with intoxicated effort. The banishing spell is on my lips before I make a mental note to remember it. Lashed tightly with black thorny vines he struggles to free himself. To talk, breathe even. I don’t allow it. I can’t. He wants what is mine. Mine. Soulmate.

Well, he can’t have him.

Spitting fire in the form of an ancient banishing spell I shove all of my power into sending him far, far from this realm. Bird-brain can get f****d.

In a blink, he is gone. Off to some realm I have never seen nor know the name of. My breath rushes out in rasps as I take in my wrecked living room. Glass is everywhere. That seems to be the worst of it though. Extending my arm with a last-ditch vow of strength, I mend the window, weaving my protection wards back together. Though they didn’t really work, did they? My name being whispered with Pace’s slight fang lisp is the last thing I know before my exhaustion crashes down onto me like a ton of bricks.