Page 65 of The Music Demon

“What?” he asked.

Coming fully into the present moment, she smiled, and said, “Enjoyin’ your enjoyment.”

She thought Lyric’s features softened in a way that suggested squishy feelings, but she quickly dismissed that as imagination; seeing what she wanted to see. She needed to stop projecting her hopes, dreams, and wishes onto Lyric and take him at his word. He wouldn’t say he couldn’t love if it wasn’t true.

Doo turned to the demons with a wide smile when they reached the alley entrance where he stood. Shivaun noted his eyes were sparkling with elation.

“Do you believe this?” Doo asked.

Lyric chuckled. “I believe.” He looked up and down the street. “So where would you like to live?”

“Live?” Doo repeated stupidly.

Lyric looked at him like he’d said something stupid. “It’s an expression for a place of residence. An address? Where you sleep, keep clothes, take showers?”

“Okay. Okay. I get it.” Doo looked around. “Am I looking for a for rent sign?”

Lyric chuckled. “That would be one way of doing it, but thank Paddy it’s not the wayweare going to do it. Tell you what.” Lyric pointed to a café across the street. “This incomparable female and I are going to go to that café and wait. You walk around, decide where you want to be, and then come get me.”

Doo looked around frowning. “You’re not going to hurt anybody.”

“Not my style. My style is more making offers people won’t refuse. Nobody gets hurt.”

“Like my sister winning the lottery.”

“That’s right.”

“But the person who would’ve won if you hadn’t stepped in. They were hurt.”

“No. They weren’t. They would have pissed the money away. Three years later they’d be in theexactsame situation as before the win, wondering where the hel it all went. This is not conjecture. This is fact.”

“Got it.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah. Big takeaway. If you argue with a demon, don’t plan to win.”

Lyric laughed softly. “Your conclusion is good. Your phraseology’s not. People don’t say ‘takeaway’ in this time zone.”

“Time zone,” Doo repeated. “Funny.”

“I thought so. Go find your new ‘place’. And don’t take all day.” Lyric’s eyes moved pointedly to a fixed spot behind Doo.

With a good-humored chuckle, Doo said, “Sounds like you’re ready to get rid of me. I’ll be back before lunchtime.”

“I have no trouble believing that,” Lyric replied.

Shivaun gave up a soft snort of agreement having also witnessed how much Doo packed away at meals.

The café across the street had the windows open which meant that, if they commandeered one of the tables closest to the street, they’d have open air seating. Perfect for people watching. Knowing it would please Shivaun, Lyric commandeered a table with an offer that wouldn’t be declined by anyone other than Howard Hughes. Two guys in Soho garb and big chain jewelry were happy to trade the squat for cash when they heard a number.

The demon had taken note that Shy liked to observe her surroundings. That might have been an understatement. She approached the practice of people watching like a scientist mid-experiment and she never seemed to tire of it.

Lyric had supposed it was because she was still learning how things operate in the modern world outside the preserve where she’d grown up half feral. He included 1967 in the idea of ‘modern’. In New Forest terms, 1967 was space age.

It was a clear, sunshiny day with impossibly blue sky; air that wasn’t yet full of sludge and toxins. Sitting on the border of chaos – close enough to literally reach out and touch it - with a jumped up lemonade and Shivaun O’Malley, Lyric was thinking he might be the luckiest demon alive.

Her eyes never stopped moving over all the strange sights and sounds.