Chapter Three

Merihem

His mad tearing around the house had done nothing to calm his demon half, in fact, if anything, he was starting to stress the neighbors would call the cops and have him arrested. They still did that on earth, and Merihem did not want to be locked in a cage after everything else his day had brought him.

Calm the fuck down.

Find him.

He tried reasoning.

You’ll scare the fuck out of the little goat. He’s like a twentieth of our size. Can’t you see this won’t fix things?

Find our blissful one.

Don’t start with that shit. Merihem cupped his balls, recalling the insult those tiny hooves had inflicted. He kicked us in the nuts. That does not say blissful one to me.

You said it, he’s scared.

You were the one roaring ‘mine’ at him.

That they were now back in the kitchen, and he stood having this conversation, possibly looking like a moron, passed them both by.

Yes… well, he is. It was a shock.

A shock… it’s a fucking catastrophe, is what it is.

Merihem forced his demon to recede when he was about to start another tirade. His head wasn’t in any place to go another round. He had better control of his demon than his best friend Dakata, or so he thought. After what had happened—he wasn’t sure what to call it—Merihem wasn’t sure.

There was one question on his mind as he strode up to Dakata’s bedroom, going in search of something to wear. He wasn’t going to use his powers right then, not when Merihem didn’t know when he’d need them more. He was clueless, trying to figure out if getting kicked in the balls equated to him actually touching his blissful one.

Was there a loophole for that sort of thing?

He opened Dakata’s closet and groaned at the sight of all the suits. “Who the fuck needs…” he counted, “forty suits! Who?” He rifled through the shelves, looking for something, anything that wasn’t a suit.

At the back, he found a pair of jeans and a sweater that looked unworn by a band that Dakata managed. Dressed, he went to retrieve his sneakers from where he’d left them in the hallway before the disaster.

In one of the downstairs drawers where Dakata kept a stash of cash, Merihem grabbed a wad. He shoved that into his pocket, along with the house keys, after he exited the front door, locking it up behind him.

On the street, his head crowded with thoughts about how fucked up his life was, Merihem hailed a cab without thought and got in the back… then stared at the driver when he asked, “Where to, mate?”

Dakata was who Merihem thought about visiting. Face it, the whole damn business was all his friend’s fault. Well, his and Silas, Dakata’s blissful one, but sitting in the cab, that didn’t seem like a wise idea when Merihem was as pissed at them as he was at anyone else.

He couldn’t go to the demon realm. Besides the obvious—him getting kicked out and losing his job—he didn’t want anyone down there knowing he had a slight problem.

He’s not a problem, he’s our blissful one. Sitting here will not find him, come on, get your act together.

“Mate, ya okay?”

No, he fucking wasn’t, and his demon was giving him a fucking headache that went with the throbbing going on in his balls. How was he supposed to sort his mess out when he literally had no one to talk to about anything? How?

Merihem stabbed a hand into his jeans, pulled out some dollars, and handed them over, mumbling, “Sorry for wasting your time,” as he got out and stalked back to the house.

He heard the guy mutter something about crazies before the car drove off. Up the front steps, Merihem stared at the locked door and hesitated about going back inside. Instead, he turned and sank down onto the top step, staring forlornly at the empty street. Darkness fell swiftly while he moped and ignored the fact he was hungry.

He’d have become horrified by his behavior if he’d not had other, more important things to worry about. Like, how was he going to find out who the little pygmy goat was without raising suspicion? How could he find out if what had happened to his balls actually constituted a lifelong commitment to the hottie?

Don’t forget that cute little butt with his horns on the back of our leg.

Shut up. Merihem didn’t need the reminder that the goat had actually hit him twice. Two touches! Fuck.

Everyone that knew him got he was a ‘love em and leave em’ kind of demon. He’d lived by that motto for a very long time. Up to now, Merihem had never considered changing it, not for anyone.

He’s not anyone, he’s our blissful one.

Turn off the damn record. A part of him was only now arguing with his demon side for form. It was a thing they both liked to do.

Find a way to fix this, or the record will turn into a permanent fixture in your life.

The threat was genuine, and Merihem didn’t need to be attuned to his demon side to know it. Can’t you be reasonable?

Find him, and I’ll show you exactly how reasonable I can be.

Merihem heaved a sigh and gave in. He got up off the step, wiping the dust off his ass to swing around, coming to a decision. Doing nothing, was it really an option?

No .

So where did that leave him?

Going to find our tiny goat and…

One step at a time, okay!

Whatever you say.

Merihem felt his demon’s glee and satisfaction at having won the first round.

We have to find him first, so don’t go getting excited.

We can use our power for that.

No, we can’t! We don’t want Asmodeus suspecting anything, we’re already in his bad books.

Oh… bad books? What’s that?

Merihem opened the door and tried to think of a way to explain it when something he’d not noticed when he’d first entered the house struck. The unfamiliar scent, one that gave a powerful punch to his balls that matched the hooves kicking him earlier.

Because of his demon being hell bent on finding the goat in his rampage, they’d not taken the time to scent the place. A mad dash through the house bellowing ‘mine’ at the top of his lungs wasn’t rational. They needed to be rational about this.

Rational…

Yes, rational. We use our other senses, the ones that don’t require using our power. Warming to the idea, inside, Merihem blocked his other half, his nose wrinkling as he sniffed the air. He followed the unfamiliar scent to where it was strongest.

He’d been coming to Dakata’s house for a long time, and he knew how it smelled. Knew where everything was… he came to an abrupt halt in the kitchen and stared.

His eyes gleamed with the knowledge the tiny goat hadn’t disappeared—or not far—when the clothes and headphones were nowhere in sight. The cloth the little one had dropped was gone and on the side of the sink was a clean one. Merihem picked it up and sniffed. The goat’s scent was all over it, and it was fresh.

He held on to the cloth and followed his nose into the laundry room. There, he looked at the one door, opening it silently, he stared at the mops, bucket, and other cleaning stuff. Was the scent strongest in there?

Filtering out the other scents of detergents and whatever else, Merihem kept the tiny goat’s smell as his focus. He edged into the small space, getting half a foot in, and scowled. The space was far too cramped for someone of his size. His gaze narrowed on the back wall… but not for someone who was small.

Did Dakata say the place had a basement?

His heart doing a little pitter-patter thing, Merihem backed out and carefully closed the door too, but not all the way as he’d found it. A grin that Dakata would have recognized instantly as wicked appeared while Merihem considered how best to find out, if indeed, the little goat had used that way as his escape route, and if he was the new cleaner who would be back the next day.

His demon was quivering with excitement and that suggested to Merihem he was going to have to keep a tight rein on his demon side, or they’d be back chasing a tiny goat around the house.

Merihem was a hunter. He’d trained for many years to stalk his prey.

Not prey!

He didn’t respond because arguing with his demon half had so far proved fruitless and increased the risk of worsening the head pounding. No, Merihem had to think clearly if he was going to catch the little goat.

He placed the cloth back where he’d found it and left the kitchen, going upstairs to get as far away from where the goat's scent was strongest. He didn’t need to have that playing havoc with his thoughts when he needed to be sensible. Shutting himself in the bedroom for good measure, he reached for the phone at the side of Dakata’s bed. He dialed the number he knew by heart and waited as it rang.

Putting his thoughts in order, Merihem needed to clarify a few things first to give him a starting point and that he could do without raising suspicion. He was positive about it!

“What now?” Dakata growled breathlessly. “You’ve barely been in charge five minutes. You can’t have fucked anything up already.”

“Did I interrupt something?” Merihem asked sweetly and with a huge dollop of sarcasm, recalling he remained pissed at his friend for his situation and the current clusterfuck that ensued.

Dakata grunted, and Merihem was sure he heard Silas moan in the background.

Oh, to the demon gods, were they…

“Fuck off, Meri… oh like that…” The next moan was all Dakata before he asked, “What do you want?”

Seeing as the situation could get out of hand quickly and with his current situation, Merihem didn’t need any of Dakata’s and Silas’s sexual antics, giving him even bluer balls. “What times and days does your cleaner come in?”

“Huh… yeah…”

“Focus, Dakata,” he snapped, his hand clenching tightly around the phone.

“Erm… Monday through Friday… while I’m at work… I…”

“Does she have an assistant?” he interrupted at the next round of groaning.

“Right there…” he whimpered down Merihem’s ear. “No… what assistant?”

“Great. Thanks.” Merihem hung up and stared at the empty and spotless bedroom, his smile returning.

So, no assistant, then who was the guy?

His smile dimmed when thoughts of pulling the records of every employee that Dakata had went sailing out the window.

He plonked his ass down on the bed, deep frown lines appearing, then disappearing, as he mulled over his next step.

Spying…

Yep, that would totally work. If the guy came back.