Page 37 of The Music Demon

Huh. Put that in the downside column.

“Why are ye makin’ an exception in the case of Dougray Darby?”

“Whoever, whatever, chooses who is born into what body, in what dimension, in what culture, at what time… I think they made a mistake in Darby’s case. If destiny is tied to a moment in time but there’s a misalignment, so the individual’s unique gifts don’t match up, it’s a shame. A waste.”

She regarded him with a newfound respect. “And if you could use your own ‘gifts’ to right a wrong? Should you do it? Is that the question?”

He looked a little sheepish. As if demons shouldn’t be caught being accused of righting wrongs. “The question is, what doyouthink?”

“I think it has the potential to be an amazin’ good deed. It could also wreck his life.” Lyric inhaled deeply. “But humans make choices like that every single day. This or that. This or that. Life is an endless series of forks in the road without a guidebook sayin’ what will be the consequences of one choice over another. We do the best we can. You could say this is just another choice, but the stakes are bigger.” She paused. “’Cause for one thing he’d be givin’ up his family.”

Lyric took a minute to turn her words over in his mind. “You think I should withdraw the offer?”

When she shook her head, a handful of red locks fell over her shoulder. “No. I think you should let him decide. I’m feelin’ a kind of anticipation, waitin’ to hear.”

The demon chuckled. “Yeah. Me, too.”

He was so enraptured by every nuance of Shivaun’s tone or facial expression that his senses were focused completely on her. Otherwise, he would have pushed his awareness into the club to identify the makeup of the gathering. He would have known if other demons were present. Be it love or infatuation. Strong feelings account for missteps and Lyric was blissfully ignorant of the fact that he’d just made a big one.

So far as others were concerned, even sensitive elementals, Quicksilver was part of the wall; close enough to listen without proof that he was there. He needed to conclude his business quickly so that he could follow the pair when they left. After all, encounters with female demons didn’t come along every millennium. If she was an actual single female, she could make him more powerful than a god as his mate. On the other hand, if he decided he didn’t like her very much, he could sell her for an eternity of favors. If he could figure out how one went about capturing a female demon. Tricky that.

CHAPTER SIX Goin’ to California

Lyric wasn’t surprised to be summoned by Gray. The opposite, no call, no agreement, would have been a surprise.

Of course, there was the obligatory harbinger of summoning. The demon version of reading the name of a caller on a screenbeforeanswering. Naturally, Lyric’s harbinger was musical. While sitting in the club with Shivaun, the singer, who’d been singing torch songs in the extra-dimensional vein of Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, and Julie London, suddenly stopped. She turned to the accompanists, said something the audience couldn’t hear, and began a new song. “People Are Strange”.

Lyric laughed out loud partly because of the comedy of that song being performed in a club with no humans and partly because it was a Doors song. Gray’s audition for Lyric, though neither knew it was an audition at the time, had been a Doors song.

It wasn’t the first time he’d given summoning privilege to a human, but he didn’t do it often and he’d never done it for a reason as exciting as adding new music to his favorite cache. Being summoned was uncomfortable enough to make a demon extremely irritable. And irritable demons often become spoilers of good human-elemental relations. Such incidents had been known to inspire tales that persisted for eons, eventually being reimagined as religion or myth.

The music demon was old enough and experienced enough to be able to control the anger usually associated with a summons. Gray’d said he wanted three things. Proof that his sister was indeed rich before he left. A week to take his sister and niece to Disneyworld before he ‘left’. And a promise that the demon would keep an eye on what remained of the Darby family after he was gone. Lyric was happy to oblige.

According to plan, after Disneyworld, Gray would tell his sister that he didn’t want to insert himself into her good fortune, but that it had always been his dream to climb Mount Everest. She would be dubious, of course, since he’d never shown the slightest interest in rock climbing. Not even so much as rappelling down the nearby cliffs that rose above the Frio River. But he’d be convincing. She’d fund the venture which would pay a guide to tell an emotional tale about the tragic accident. He'd report that Gray slipped through one of the icy fissures that never thaw, from which bodies cannot be recovered.

Shivaun asked to accompany Lyric on the relocation excursion. Again, he was happy to oblige. ‘Activating’ his project while courting the lovely demon? At the same time? Win. Win.

Haight-Ashbury

A note from Lyric:A handful of very sensitive humans identified the phenomenon of ley lines. And a couple of those were brave enough to tell others what they thought. Speaking up when standing just outside the herd is always risky business. It’s been known to result in grants being withdrawn. It’s also been known to result in humans tying others to vertical poles rising from bonfires and setting them ablaze.

Since reception of new facts or a new perspective isn’t widely welcomed in the best of circumstances, messengers are inherently courageous.

A few of these unusual people recognized a different ‘feeling’ coming from the earth at certain points. They knew the torch and pitchfork crowd would have an easier time with their theories if they claimed the lines were marvelous, positive energy. Humans like to cubbyhole everything as good or bad.

Ley lines are intersections of mystical, or magical, convergences that can just as easily be home to chaos and anarchy as peace. That was one of the great ironies. Just as the ‘peace movement’ was fueled by forces sometimes thought of as dark. Destruction necessarily precedes change.

As powerful as ley lines are, in any dimension, it’s the intersections you want to pay attention to. That’s where vortexes form.

So. Haight-Ashbury. Some say it became the epicenter of change because of cheap rent. The story goes that the old Victorian buildings had survived the big fire. The city declared imminent domain to build a freeway. The project fizzled, but former residents had relocated to suburbs. That left lots of old, mostly empty buildings in disrepair with cheap rent and loose rules about what happened there.

That’s the version for those who must have a mundane explanation. For those open to the truth? Ley lines. Haight-Ashbury is at the intersection of ley lines made more powerful by the history of the geographic area.

Ever seen the tarot Tower card? Haight-Ashbury.

Lyric never would have guessed that showing Shivaun how she could change her clothes with a thought could be so much fun. He actually laughed so hard at one point he thought he might lose his breath, which was impossible for a demon, of course.

It started when he suggested that she prepare for the trip to 1967 by looking the part. After an hour of watching her delight in trying on costumes, he began to see why the odd heterosexual male might end up in women’s clothes design.

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