Kris Starr used to be famous. Rock and roll. Sold-out shows. Literal magic. Empathic talents and screaming fans. But he has a problem or two. He's having a hard time writing new music. It’s Midwinter, which means he’s surrounded by depressing holiday cheer. And he's in love with Justin, his manager, who has a talent for rescuing almost- or once-famous bands ... and who’s hiding secrets of his own. Justin Moore, on the other hand, is very good at keeping those secrets -- he's had to be for years. One secret involves a demonic inheritance that would make him a target of suspicion. Another involves his past. And the third involves Justin’s feelings for Kris Starr, rock and roll icon and now his client ... and a powerful empath of his own.

A Demon for Midwinter

“If you want to share your lecture notes I can find something more specific.” Justin was now mentally immersed in seventies politics and popular media; he’d absentmindedly picked up Kris’s beer and not his own, but forgot to drink from it. “Are you interested in late sixties precursors? Because the obvious one’s Buffalo Roam’s ‘Things Worth Doing,’ as amazingly not subtle as it is.”


Kris put in, “Mirage covered that one once, live, I don’t know if anyone recorded it, but we were opening for them in Dublin and, ah, as far as popular response, the whole arena got up and cheered and sang along? If that helps with international perspectives.”


Father and son favored him with identical expressions of historian delight. Bill said, “Do you remember what year? And do you want to be a source for an academic article?”


Chapter 47