Page 33 of Demon Loved
She would always have to keep the truth of her soul, her spirit, hidden from most of the people she met.
Except for times like now, when she allowed just a little of it to slip out.
And then she slowed, shifting into another minor key as she echoed the chorus one last time.
There’s a distance in my soul
That no map could ever show
Like shadows between stars
So close, yet so far
So close, yet so far….
The song ended there, the final chord drifting off into utter silence. All around him, the people in the crowd stood quietly, as if they weren’t sure what to do next.
But then someone started clapping, and another, and the applause turned thunderous, echoing off the buildings across the way and the tall retaining wall that kept the street above from sliding down into the park. Belshegar clapped as well, clapped until his palms began to hurt.
Pain. It was such a human thing.
In that moment, he would have given anything to be human, to be one with the people in the crowd all around him.
A few feet away, Brianna’s mother was wiping tears from her eyes. “How does she know?” she asked. Her voice was only a little more than a whisper, the words intended for her husband and no one else, and yet Belshegar was still able to hear them well enough. “How does she know what it feels like for us?”
“Because she’s a poet,” Levi McAllister replied in equally low tones. “Along with so many other things.”
Then Levi looked over at Belshegar, and his expression shifted, becoming one that seemed far more public, friendly and open. “What did you think?”
“I think she was amazing,” he said honestly, and Levi smiled.
“We think that, too.”
Up on the stage, Brianna was making awkward little half-bows, as if she knew she needed to acknowledge the adulation from the crowd even while being horribly embarrassed by it. After a minute or so, however, she made her escape, fleeing with her twelve-string in hand. A few seconds later, the woman who had been watching the musicians’ equipment came up to retrieve the six-string Bree had left behind, shot a brilliant smile at the audience, and then hurried off again.
Belshegar had no idea who had been scheduled to follow her, and he rather pitied them in that moment. He might not have been human or understood all the subtle nuances of their interactions, but even he realized that appearing after such a scintillating performance must be trying, to say the least.
He and Brianna had exchanged phone numbers at the end of their second date, so he thought he would leave the park and go to the Vino Zona tasting room not too far from her apartment and see if she would like to meet him there. That was just far enough away from the park where the festival was being held that it would allow her a bit of separation.
So he murmured a goodbye to her parents and made his way through the crowd to the sidewalk, then walked to the end of the street and continued his way down the hill. This part of town wasn’t nearly as flush with visitors, probably because so many of them were in the park, listening to the music.
In fact, he was the only one in the tasting room, and after he told the woman who was tending the place that he was going to check and see if his friend wanted to meet him there, she nodded and headed toward the back of the space, allowing him some privacy.
He got out his phone.
I’m at Vino Zona. Would you like me to buy you a drink?
The seconds ticked by with no response. Perhaps Brianna’s parents had scooped her up and taken her out for a congratulatory treat, or perhaps she was so thronged by admirers that she hadn’t even had a chance to look at her phone.
But then his cell phone chimed, and he let out a breath of relief.
You have no idea how much. I’ll be there in a few.
He smiled and turned toward the woman who worked at the tasting room.
“My friend will be here shortly.”
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