by Sasha White
The note continued on and carried. I could tell because as it spread out, there were no other sounds. Prosaic City wasn’t a quiet town at night, but I was fairly sure I could hear a pin drop at the farthest reaches because there was no other sound but the one sound Teegor was creating.
Finally, just when it seemed that if the sound continued nothing else in the world would ever matter again, it died away. Teegor lowered his hands and looked around. “Time for the police to give an order, Victoria,” he said gently.
I cleared my throat and looked around. “Okay, folks,” I said in my most authoritative voice, which I did my best to project. “Show’s over. Time to head for home like the good citizens you are.”
The people nearest to us all blinked, as if waking from a very interesting set of dreams. In ones, twos, and small groups they started wandering off.
“My team, spread out, and gently remind any citizens that it’s time to go home like good beings.”
Maurice and Amanda put Cleo and Linus down, then they and the others headed off. Ralph stayed in wolf form and stayed with Buddy. “What about him?” he asked.
“No one can see him,” Teegor said. “It’s unbelievable to have a golden dragon sitting here, so it’s not here.” He smiled as my mouth opened. “Yes, it’s my power hiding him.”
I closed my mouth as my phone rang. “Hello Darlene, what’s our status?”
“All police units are reporting in. Most feel that they fell asleep on duty and are apologizing for it. Chief’s told me to advise any officers who feel this way that we had a gas leak that caused drowsiness, but everyone’s fine.”
“I like the Chief’s ability to come up with the really believable lies when needed. We’ll share the same with officers on the scene here.”
“Good. And Detective Wolfe, the Chief says to tell you that you’ve done a good job tonight.”
“Thank our specialist. He’s the one who saved the proverbial day.”
“The Chief thanks all of you.”
“We unlive to serve.” I sent a message to my team via my wrist-com, giving them the head’s up on what our official reason for the disturbance was supposed to be, then turned back to Teegor. “How are we going to get Buddy home? I’m not trying to sound like a downer puppy, but I don’t know that your power can hide him from everyone if he flies off.”
“We’ll take him into Necropolis,” Teegor said. “He can head home from there.” He shook his head. “Our bigger worry is those instruments.”
“We’re not playing them anymore,” Linus said.
“Uh huh.” Teegor went to him. “Could I have that, please?”
“Sure.” Linus handed the guitar over. Or rather, he tried to. The guitar didn’t seem to want to leave his hand.
Teegor took hold of it – and let go immediately. “Ow.” He shook his hand. “Let’s see if it’s any better with little Cleo’s tambourine.”
It was the same the same thing – she tried to give it to him, the tambourine wouldn’t leave her hand, and when Teegor touched it he had to let go immediately.
“Should I toss it?” she asked. “I mean, they flew out of our hands when our so-called protector vampires fell down.”
He shrugged. “Sure, give it a try.”
Both kids tried to toss their instruments away. The instruments didn’t budge out of their hands. Either the instruments were stuck to them or Linus and Cleo were faking it and were also the best actors in all the planes of existence. I doubted the latter.
“Why won’t they release?” I asked Teegor.
He had one hand on his hip and one on the back of his neck. “We-ell, if I were a betting being, I’d bet on these things being spelled in some way so that if there’s a powerful agent of good in the vicinity, they won’t release.”
“Vic’s a powerful agent of good,” Amanda said. “And she had the tambourine in her jaws. Ralph had the guitar. They both tried to make them work, and the music didn’t…accommodate. So I don’t think that’s the right answer.”
Sexy Cindy took the tambourine from Cleo. No issues. She tried to hand it to Teegor – it didn’t budge out of her hand but hurt his hand again when he touched it. Sexy Cindy handed the tambourine to Amanda, same thing. We passed it through the group. No one could get rid of it unless we were handing it to someone else, but Teegor couldn’t touch it for any length of time.
Sexy Cindy handed the tambourine back to Cleo, who was able to take it back, no issues. “Unless we all turned bad from hearing that music, the agent of good idea isn’t working.”
I considered the facts. “Maybe it’s not a being of good so much as a being of musical power with the wrong alignment, so to speak.”
“And the instruments won’t release because Teegor could then touch or destroy them?” Freddy suggested.
“That makes sense,” Teegor said.
“But what do we do?” Cleo seemed to be living to ask the hard questions. “I don’t want to have to sleep or shower or whatever with this tambourine.”
“I don’t want her playing it,” Ralph said.
“You know, it hasn’t made any sound since Teegor made the so-called music stop, thank the Gods and Monsters,” Maurice said. “And it should have jangled what with all of us passing it around like it was a collection plate.”
“Should I try to make it work again?” Cleo asked.
“No,” I said quickly. “Let’s just assume that it won’t play because Teegor’s here or something. We can worry about bad instrument intricacies later.” I didn’t want to hear one of the so-called songs Linus and Cleo could play again, potentially ever. “Think we can destroy the instruments?” I asked Teegor.
“I think we might want to take them into Necropolis, probably to the University.”
“Buddy said that the music’s influence was spreading and was going to go past Prosaic City easily,” Ralph reminded us. “How do we know that this isn’t some elaborate plan to get us to bring these instruments onto the undead plane?”
Sexy Cindy looked behind me and Teegor and her eyes opened wide. Then she opened her mouth and screamed.
Night Music, Necropolis Enforcement Files #2, by Gini Koch, will be coming out in full in February 2015.
If you’d like to know more about Night Music, then visit my webpage at http://www.ginikoch.com/bookstore.htm
About Gini Koch
Gini Koch writes the bestselling fast, fresh and funny Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series for DAW Books, the Necropolis Enforcement Files series, and the Martian Alliance series for Musa Publishing. As G.J. Koch she writes the Alexander Outland series and she’s made the most of multiple personality disorder by writing under a variety of other pen names as well, including Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C. Koch. Buy her books – her meds don’t come free, you know. You can reach Gini via her website: www.ginikoch.com
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Books By Gina Koch
Writing as Gini Koch
The Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt Series
Touched by an Alien
Alien Tango
Alien in the Family
Alien Proliferation
Alien Diplomacy
Alien vs. Alien
Alien in the House
Alien Research
Alien Collective
Universal Alien
Alien Separation (coming May 2015)
Alien in Chief (coming December 2015)
Camp Alien (coming May 2016)
Aliens in Armani (Touched by a
n Alien German Language Version)
Alien Tango (German Language Version)
Necropolis Enforcement Files
The Night Beat
Night Music (coming February 2015)
Standalones
The Happy Acres Haunted Hotel for Active Seniors
Random Musings from the Funny Girl: Or How to Make the Most of Multiple Personality Disorder
Anthologies
Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs. Aliens
Unidentified Funny Objects 3
Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets
Martian Alliance Series
The Royal Scam
Three Card Monte
Dr. Wu (coming 2015)
Writing as G.J. Koch
Alexander Outland Series
Alexander Outland: Space Pirate
Alexander Outland: Space Avenger (coming soon)
Writing as Anita Ensal
Anthologies
Boondocks Fantasy (anthology)
Love and Rockets (anthology)
The Neighborhood Series
Being Neighborly
Contingency Plan
Standalones
A Cup of Joe
Writing as Jemma Chase
Standalones
The Disciple
Hotter Than Hell
Amazing & Waiting: Two Novelettes
Writing as J.C. Koch
Anthologies
Madness of Cthuhlu, Volume 1
A Darke Phantastique
Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters
Writing as A.E. Stanton
The New West Series
When Josie Comes Home
Deacon’s Ark: The New West
