speak languages. He was born knowing all languages in all cultures of all dimensions.
He had no family and no history of development. He had a demonic code of behavior, albeit not ethics per se, built in as a guide.
His history began the moment music brought his consciousness, and body, forth in full bloom of creation.
No. He didn’t tell her all that. Instead, he simply said, “Yes,” softly with sincerity.
“So you agree we’re different, you and I.”
He took her hand in his again and grinned. “In the most perfect ways. I’d like to show you the differences that are most important,” he said suggestively.
“Demon. I take your meanin’, but there’ll be no conquestin’ this night.”
“No?” She shook her head. “Tomorrow?”
Shivaun’s responding laugh drew the attention of a couple of demons who’d been negotiating a deal in a shadowy back corner of the club.
The demon, Quicksilver, turned his head in her direction, squinting to try to see through the ‘smoky’ atmosphere. Quicksilver knew that sound. He’d heard it only twice before in his long life, but the sound was unmistakable. Sweet tinkling like windchimes that only demons can hear underneath the laughter of the rarest of all precious things. A female. Like a siren call. He knew she must either be mated or an avowed singular, but if there was the slightest chance…
Quicksilver’s companion kept talking. Apparently, he was so intent on the transaction that he hadn’t heard what Quicksilver heard. Thank helrings for small concessions. “Hold that thought. Be back in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”
The demon prowled around the edge of the room until he was close enough to spy on the couple of interest. He didn’t know Lyric, but recognized him. He didn’t know the female, but was close enough to sense that she was unmated.
Shivaun turned in Quicksilver’s direction, but didn’t see his smile stretched across sharp cheekbones or the gleam in his eye that screamed predator. She didn’t see anything. Because Quicksilver was a shapeshifting demon, almost as rare a creature as was she. In all the dimensions of all the worlds anchored to the Earth plane, there was no species so feared by other elementals. Since true shapeshifters couldn’t be seen, unless they wanted to be, they could know anything, be anywhere, and wreak every sort of mayhem imaginable.
Even though Shivaun couldn’t sense her stalker visually, she was suddenly uneasy and felt the crawl of chills run up her body. She was new to being demon, but she and her sister had been forced to hone their intuitive senses growing up wild in the New Forest. Their lives sometimes depended on trusted that elusive inner voice. But there was nothing to report other than goosebumps, which felt larger and uglier as a demon.
Huh. Put that in the downside column.
“Why are ye makin’ an exception in the case of Dougray Darby?”
“Whoever, whatever, chooses who is born into what body, in what dimension, in what culture, at what time… I think they made a mistake in Darby’s case. If destiny is tied to a moment in time but there’s a misalignment, so the individual’s unique gifts don’t match up, it’s a shame. A waste.”
She regarded him with a newfound respect. “And if you could use your own ‘gifts’ to right a wrong? Should you do it? Is that the question?”
He looked a little sheepish. As if demons shouldn’t be caught being accused of righting wrongs. “The question is, what do you think?”
“I think it has the potential to be an amazin’ good deed. It could also wreck his life.” Lyric inhaled deeply. “But humans make choices like that every single day. This or that. This or that. Life is an endless series of forks in the road without a guidebook sayin’ what will be the consequences of one choice over another. We do the best we can. You could say this is just another choice, but the stakes are bigger.” She paused. “’Cause for one thing he’d be givin’ up his family.”
Lyric took a minute to turn her words over in his mind. “You think I should withdraw the offer?”
When she shook her head, a handful of red locks fell over her shoulder. “No. I think you should let him decide. I’m feelin’ a kind of anticipation, waitin’ to hear.”
The demon chuckled. “Yeah. Me, too.”
He was so enraptured by every nuance of Shivaun’s tone or facial expression that his senses were focused completely on her. Otherwise, he would have pushed his awareness into the club to identify