Page 19 of The Music Demon

With a grin, she said, “So you admire me?”

With a sideways glance and a sly smile, he said, “In more ways than I can list.”

“Try.” He laughed, but before he could begin composing a list on demand, she changed the subject. “Why’d you call me your best girl?”

“Did I say that?”

“Aye. When ye gave me the dessert of dragons.”

“Oh. Well. It’s just an expression.”

“’Tis an expression that implies there are multiple females referred to as ‘your girl’.”

“Does it?” Lyric looked down at Shivaun and caught a flash of temper behind her eyes.

“Aye. It does.” He chuckled. “I think ye like teasin’ me.”

“In fact, I do.”

“I do no’ like to be teased.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“We will no’ see about that, demon. I know how to get around by myself.”

“Well, actually, you don’t. Even I had to get instructions on how to find this place. It’s what you’d call off the beaten path. By design.”

When her confident expression faltered, the demon softened. He’d taken the banter too far. The last thing he wanted was to cause her to feel uncertainty. Female demons should be proud, fierce, and confident. Lyric wasn’t a warrior demon. He’d be first to call himself a lover not a fighter. But that didn’t mean he was without skills. He’d have no trouble or compunction about dispatching any creature who tried to compromise Shivaun’s spirit at this critical time of her awakening. Soon enough she’d realize that female demons are the walking incubators of magic, with enough power to create worlds or undo creation.

“I like teasing you because it raises the freckles on your nose.”

Involuntary reflex had her reaching to touch her nose with her third finger. “It does?”

Lyric smiled. She lowered her hand and, without warning, he gave her a quick kiss on the nose. “Yes. Precious. And we can leave anytime you want. Just say the word.” He reached down and picked up a circular pink shell with infinite concentric circles of glittering gold. Handing it to her, he said, “But I’m hoping you’ll want to stay for a little while and tell me everything about yourself. Who you were as a human.”

“I still think of myself as human.” She looked out at the horizon. “Maybe I always will. What did my sister tell you? About our, em, lives.”

Lyric shook his head. “For a female, Sheridan was extraordinarily closed mouthed. She was so mad about being separated from her elf that she didn’t even notice the turning.”

“Turnin’?”

“Her change. The transition from human to demon happened when she was my guest.”

Shy snorted at that. “Your guest? You give up a claim of hospitality if you take and keep a person unwillingly, demon. And between the two of you, you and my twin, guess who I’ll believe?”

“I give you that the term guest is a euphemism, but I use it because I tried to make her as welcome and comfortable as possible.”

“For a captive, you mean.”

“Well, yes.”

“What made you think you could win her over by takin’ her prisoner?”

Lyric inhaled a deep, chest-heaving breath and released a sigh that carried regret as meaningfully as if it was words. Looking down at the beach where they trod, he said, “Yeah. That was kind of crazy, huh?”

“Aye. You understand why the thing about me no’ findin’ my way from here would be alarmin’? People like us, Sher and me… We do no’ like restrictions. Recalcitrant ye might say. ‘Twas why people called us wild.”

“Who called you wild?” Lyric’s interest was clearly aroused. “And why?”