The Haven Club, San Francisco, December 24, 1996
As he advanced up the staircase to the office, his fingers began to pick out her song, sending notes drifting through the air like twinkling starlight. It was not a song of gaiety or laughter. It was only music, and yet also so very much more. It carried Sorrow at the dimming of her beauty, Regret was laced with the Apology of a man who has done a lady wrong as he continued, the music evolving and reaching out to those who heard it.
It was a complex song, and made his fingers ache with its playing, but he played his heart, as he always did, and he tried to draw her pain from her heart and into his own. When he stood outside her door, he played of Love. Not the romantic love between Man and Woman, but the Love of Beauty, of song, of music, of art and all things which brought gladness to the heart. This is what he had seen in her, beyond the resemblance to his beloved Marie. The Love was harmonic perfection, without a single flaw, and he'd hoped the music within her own heart would hear his song and respond by pushing out its dimming gloom so that he could receive it, and make her smile again.
And from the shadows of the stairwell someone else watched. Although she could not see the singer's face clearely, she didn't have to. The song stirred those very things within her and for an all too brief moment other things. The silent watcher felt the tears rising to her eyes, but not tears of sadness. These were tears of joy such as she hadn't felt in so very long, something that almost brought back the happiness she'd once known.
Lillie looked up from her gloom to the sound of music. Not the usual carols that invade the holiday season, but the music she had not known since she had watched Maxwell play on the stage. The music lifted her heart. Making her smile softly. She closed her eyes...thinking it only the memory of the music. Lillie sighed. Wondering where his body might be laying. In a dumpster? In a back alley where he'd be fodder for rats? Pushing the thoughts aside she mused over the wonderful melodies. Hearing her door open, she gasped in shock at seeing Maxwell standing before her.
He stood outside the door and tried so hard to not -see- her. Of course, he failed. His eyes betrayed him and sought her out. He was caught up in the power of his own music.
And it made him sing to her.
If there were things such as Muses, one had taken over Maxwell's body. Song and music blended seamlessly in an attempt to soothe and comfort her. He made music to her alone, for her alone, and about her alone. He sang not to her ears, but to her soul, in an effort to bring her joy. Her life was longer than most, and so his song was longer than most, but time itself seemed to stand still for him as he looked into her eyes and beyond. He tuned himself to her spirit, feeling her reactions and breathing life into her song, which could not be mistaken for any other's.
Blood dripped into his eyes from the gash on his forehead, but the tinting only seemed to make her more beautiful, putting fire to her hair and extraordinary warmth to her skin as the song reached its zenith and then slowly descended from the heights to which it had soared.
"Lillie...." he said, as his trembling hand fell away from the strings, which dripped blood from where his skin had been shorn away by the complex melody. The word was half spoken and half sung as he dropped to his knees.
He could speak no more as his throat constricted, the body had been wrung dry by the spirit within it, and it was all he could do to not lose consciousness.
Watching from the shadows, Catherine couldn't clearly see the singer's face, not with the blood streaking it, but there was something familiar...and oh, the pain of that song, it had touched something in her, something she had thought locked away within herself her own pain the loss that even now after the centuries ached as if it had been only one night past.
Lillie stood and rushed to where Maxwell kneeled, shock showing in her face. She gently put her arms about Maxwell, sobbing slightly. Floods of emotions washed thru her body. Ever since the vision of seeing Maxwell killed, she had assumed that this person was lost to her forever. Seeing him as he was now,on his knees, dripping blood from his fingers and his forehead. His haunting melody lifted her spirit so, that she was overwhelmed with joy.
"H...How can this be?"
"Y...You are dead! I saw it.."
Max looked like a person with a strong sunburn. He could barely think, let alone speak. And yet he knew he must. He would not touch her, his bleeding fingers would mar her beauty. Struggling, he managed a weak smile. He could feel the shifting of her sadness as she held him.
"L...lovely Lillie ... I could not ... stay away."
As the power ebbed, his will reasserted itself, driving him slowly to his feet. It seemed ... degrading, somehow ... to cause her to lower herself as she had.
"Music .... is eternal," he said. He raised a trembling hand to his forehead, but stopped when he noticed the shredded fingertips.
Having her this close, looking at her face while he blinked the blood from his eyes. He wanted to hold her as he was being held, her lips were so full, so very much like Marie.
"Please ... Don't neglect your guests. What is ... a party without... its hostess?"
He tore his eyes away from her to look at her office, specifically for a place to lie down.
"If I could just ... rest here for a while?"
"Of course..."
Catherine watched as Lillie and the singer walked to her office door and entered. She waited until Lillie emerged alone a few moments later, then stepped forward.
"Miss Langtry?" she asked.
"Oh..Catherine." Lillie asked, closing the door. The sadness that showed on Lillie's face instantly changing to the one she wore for business. "Are you going on soon?"
"I will take my turn in a moment...but that man, who is he..." her hands clutched at each other, if she still breathed she would have sighed for the intensity she;d felt from him...and what was it that seemed so familiar? If only the blood had not hidden his features and then Ms Langtry's moving between them, she could have seen his face more clearly.
"His name is Maxwell..He's another singer. He might also be playing another number this evening."
"Maxwell." she repeated. That didn't mean much but then names meant little to Kindred, some of whom had used many over their long unlives..."I..I hope he is able to. Though after that..." her hands clenched tightly. "rarely have I felt such...I hope he is all right."
"It's really none of your concern." Lillie's eyes flashed, warning that the matter was closed.
Catherine nodded understanding and would not risk antagonizing the woman by saying more but oh, that song...the intensity...and she had to see the man again regardless. there had been something about him that would not let go of her till she did.
Lillie turned and led Catherine down the stairs.
A few minutes later the two women had reached the main room and Catherine smiled at Lillie then went to the stage. She nodded at the man at the piano, who began to play.
She'd decided to open with a song from one of the musical plays that had become popular in the last few decades. Most of these were in her opinion silly in lyrics or poorly constructed tunes but now and again there was one she thought worthwhile.
And this one exceptionally so because it seemed to capture so much of what existence was like for her and those like her. She had to wonder sometimes if the ones who had written it were kine or Kindred...for if they were *not* Kindred they should have been.
Night time sharpens
Heightens each sensation
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination
Silently the senses abandon their defences
Slowly, gently, night unfolds its splendours
Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender
Turn your face away from the garish light of day
Turn your thoughts away from cold unfeeling light
And listen to the music of the night
Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams
Purge your thoughts of the life you knew before
Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar
And you'll live as you've never lived before
Softly, deftly, music shall caress you
Hear it, feel it, secretly possess you
Open up your mind let your fantasies unwind
In this darkness which you know you cannot fight
The darkness of the music of the night
Let your mind start a journey through a strange new world
Leave all thought of the world you knew before
Let your soul take you where you long to be
Only then can you belong to me
Floating, falling, sweet intoxication
Touch me, trust me, savor each sensation
Let the dreams begin, let your darker side give in,
To the power of the music that I write
The power of the music of the night
You alone can make my song take flight,
Help me make the music of the night.
Lillie watched Catherine sing from her vantage point near the bar. The girl was good. Smiling, she remembered the days of her first theater. Talent ran thick in those days, not the usual rap (crap) and screeching of late. "I might have to sign her on full time" Lillie thought to herself. Glancing up to her office, she sighed. Lillie went out and started to mingle with her guests.
Catherine finished the last notes of the song and let her voice linger on them...not *too* long of course, that would never do, but just the right length of time.
It was this, *this* she found most enthralling. She'd sung before, when she'd still been mortal, but as much of a rush as that had been it had never made her feel the way it did now, even after the centuries it never ceased to thrill her. Every time was different in its own way so no matter how many times she took the stage she could never imagine herself becoming bored or jaded the way some did.
And each time she sang it was as if he was out there listening, or at least part of her wanted to imagine he was...that one night or another he'd hear her voice and come back to her...she would never believe him extinguished until she saw his body. She couldn't, not after their souls had touched so deeply.
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