Page 9 of The Music Demon

CHAPTER TWOLyin’ Eyes

Shivaun turned and gave a little wave before closing the giant Abbey door.

Lyric’s body was vibrating with excitement as he set his internal dial for April Fools and rushed back to the Hill Country ice house. The date had ended early, but not without satisfaction. He’d received the encouragement he craved and believed the odds of keeping Shivaun, permanently, had greatly appreciated. Of course he wasn’t ecstatic about the date ending early and abruptly.Fucking Rosie.

He timed his arrival to be back at Wet Willie’s just when Gray Darby was stepping off the platform. The kid immediately set to packing the guitar away and zipping up the soft case.

“Enjoyed your performance,” Lyric said.

Gray Darby glanced at Lyric. “Thanks.”

“I’d like a few minutes of your time. Maybe buy you a steak dinner?”

Gray Darby stopped and looked closer at Lyric with suspicion written all over him. “Look, man. Appreciate it, but I’m straight.”

Lyric barked out a laugh and shook his head. “Not after your body. I’m after your music. I’m in the business. Give me an hour.” Lyric nodded toward the outside tables farthest away from the speakers. “Talk. Eat. Drink. No pressure. Anddefinitelyno… romance.”

The kid was clearly considering. “What do you do in the business?”

Lyric smiled a smile that looked like the ancient guile that it was. Darby might even have called it demonic if he’d believed in such things. “I make dreams come true.”

It was Gray’s turn to laugh. “And that sounds too good to be true.”

“Doesn’t cost a thing to talk.”

Gray glanced toward the outer tables. “I don’t have an hour. My sister works nights. I watch my niece. Single mom, you know?”

“How long do you have?”

Gray looked at his phone. “Forty-five minutes.”

“We’d better tell them to put your steak on the grill then.”

The longer Gray talked to Lyric, the more he felt at ease. He gave up a faint smile of surrender and shrugged. “Okay. I’m yours for forty-four minutes.”

As Gray placed his food order at the bar, Lyric looked the kid up and down a couple of times. The demon wasn’t an expert on human diet, but he’d observed eating habits for thousands of years. Long enough to know that people Gray’s size didn’t normally get a twenty-ounce sirloin with two orders of onion rings, two roasted cobs of corn on sticks, and biscuits.

After paying for that and two beers, Lyric said, “Haven’t eaten lately?”

Gray chuckled and looked unapologetic. Lyric admired that.

“I don’t get offers of free dinners from dream makers every day. And playin’ out,” he waved toward the band, “pays less than nothin’ when you count the gas to get here.”

The band announced a twenty-minute break just as Lyric and Gray Darby sat.

“How old are you?” Lyric began.

“Twenty-three.”

“How’d you get interested in this kind of music?”

Gray swallowed a gulp of Corona before saying, “Old woman across the street. My sister and I were raised by our grandmother. Grew up in her house. She passed a few years ago. That’s where we live now. Been on our own since I was sixteen. Anyhow, my grandmother was friends with this neighbor. She was in San Francisco in the sixties in the middle of it all. And she’s a trip.” He chuckled. “That’s what she’d say. A ‘trip’. She’s got posters and, ah, what she calls memorabilia all over her kinda weird house. I mean it's kinda weird even for Wimberley. Stops just short of bein’ a museum.” He offered a lopsided grin. “We get artist-types here, ya know. Anyway, she’s always playin’ that music. Not just ‘best of’ and greatest hits like musical muggles. Deep cuts, too.”

Musical muggles.Lyric felt amusement rise and demand a smile.

“Started spendin’ more time at her place than at home. She didn’t have anything to do but talk about music and…” He blushed a little. “Bake me cookies. I know that sounds cheesy, but I loved the stories and tunes. I’d sit on her living room floor where the A/C window unit could blow right on me, pretend I was living somewhere cold even though it was a hundred degrees outside, and read all the album covers.

“One day I noticed her name on one. She got a writing credit for two songs. Asked if that was her. She took the album, looked at the back and got this far off look on her face. I mean, I was a little kid and not into reading people, but even I could see she was remembering. She said she wrote a few songs back in the day.