Page 79 of The Music Demon

Lyric noted there’d been two declarations of admiration from the lovely demoness in a short space of time. Perhaps he would have liked to not wonder if there was an ulterior motive, but he was a demon and couldn’t help it. He was also intelligent enough to connect dots hanging in the air in front of his eyes. So he wondered if the slathering of praise had anything to do with the secret surprise that was in his near future.

“So where are we goin’?” Shivaun asked as they approached the ferry to Sausalito.

“Place called the Trident. Owned by the Kingston Trio.” He turned to Doo. “You know their music?” Doo shook his head. “No? Well. In a few years they’re gonna know about you.”

Shivaun kept the dinner conversation lively with pertinent questions for Doo.

“Have you met any girls?”

“I couldn’t not meet girls if I was tryin’. There are more girls on the sidewalk of my block than in the whole town of Wimberley.”

“I suppose what I meant to say is, are ye datin’ any girls?”

Doo laughed out loud. “I’ve been here for one day.”

“I’m thinkin’ that means no,” she said.

“Yeah. It means no. Girls are on my list, but my priority is findin’ people to play with.”

Shivaun could feel a quickening of Lyric’s energy when Doo mentioned music.

“Does that mean you have a plan?” Lyric was intensely curious about that, but also pleasantly surprised by Doo’s initiative. He’d been thinking Doo would expect him to do all the heavy lifting, as was the m.o. of Lyric’s usual proteges.

“Maybe calling it a plan is overrating. But I thought I’d check all the bulletin boards I can find, ask around if there are any bands looking for a guitar, or a lead singer, or a songwriter, or all three.” He made a motion with his hands and said, “I even thought about knocking on the door of the Jefferson Airplane house. I mean, they wouldn’t live right in the middle of everything if they didn’t want to be, you know, in the middle of everything. Right?”

Lyric might have expressed a ghost of a smile. “Right.”

“So. Look. You’ve done everything but play the music for me. I’m here, right in the big damn middle of things, which is crazy in anybody’s book. I have gear.” He looked at Shivaun. “Thebestgear. I’m basically being paid to find my way inside music history and make some ripples.”

Lyric had coached hundreds of brilliant musicians, constantly trekking to the creative source to find new ways to urge them toward their potential. He wasn’t designed to appreciate that the end result was to bring joy to the world. He simply acted on instinct, his internal compass pointing toward make-the-music-the-best-it-can-be. Where that led, who it helped or hurt, was somebody else’s department.

Some of those partnerships had been successful. Some had been a waste of time. None had been emotional on any level.

That was why the heartfelt tug, when it pulled at something inside, was so unfamiliar to Lyric. As a demon he didn’t get indigestion. He didn’t have to wonder if he was having a stroke or an episode of hypertension or even a heart attack. His first thought was that some disgruntled someone somewhere had put a sorcery contract out on him and that he was feeling the effects of a curse.

His next thought was that he was going to suffer the inconvenience of having to take time away from the two things that presently held his interest - the Darby project and his courtship of Shivaun – and use a chunk of accumulated currency to get a sorcerer/ess to reverse the curse. What a waste of time and treasure.

The Council should outlaw the practice.

In fact, the practice of contract spells had been banned for millennia, but demons and sorcerers have in common that they never allow rules to stand in the way of what they want.

Whether it be called intuition, gut feeling, or self-awareness, Lyric didn’t think what he was feeling was a curse. But he couldn’t put a name to it either.

When they dropped Doo back off at his place, Lyric said, “By every measure, it looks like you’re making a fine adjustment. Better than expected. I’ll check in on you day after tomorrow.”

“If you want. And you have time. But I mean. I’m here and not goin’ anywhere anytime soon. So. Don’t feel like you have to hover.”

“Is this a kiss off?” Lyric gave Doo a stern look and raised his chin.

Doo’s expression fell. “No. Um. Not at all. I just…”

Lyric sniggered. “Just kidding, kid. It’s commendable that you’re taking the training wheels off without me telling you when.”

“I’ll always be happy to see you,” Doo said.

“Always is a long time.”

“See ya, Doo Darby,” Shivaun said. “I’ll come to your first recital.”