o4

...Three Four Shut the Door

They were all mad at her the next morning.

Okay, really, she couldn't blame them. It was her fault they had been so exhausted after all. She did find it rather amusing that they knew without her telling them that she had fed off their emotions last night and between her and the shadows, it had completely drained them. Of course, they didn't know the details (and they didn't need to). Still it was sort of funny that they inherently knew it was her fault.

"We didn't even take anything down!" Mick snarled, practically shoving one of the bigger amps at her, "It's all still set up and we gotta be on the road by noon at the latest!"

"You had best focus on the work at hand rather than yelling at me then, hadn't you?" she said, letting him place the amp on her back where she held it with her powerful wings. Mick opened his mouth to shout at her some more before closing it with a snap and stomping away. It was a shame that giggling wasn't considered sphinx like, otherwise she just might have sat on her haunches and had a proper giggle fit. They treated her with more caution than some goddess that demanded blood-sacrifices until they had cause to be mad at her, then they treated her like she was some human kid. It was hard not to find hilarity in the entire situation.

Despite a lot of bitching and shouting (all of which was directed at her, by the way), they managed to get back on the road well before noon. Jess soared above them, riding the up-drafting air currents. She beat the first van to the venue by a good half an hour. They were still grumbling at her by the time everyone got there, but mostly it had gone back to the way things usually were. She didn't mind. She could tell that the humans she had been charged to protect where happy and that made up for it all.

"Hey Liam!" called Jarred, The Open Cut's guitarist, "Knock it off with that humming, man! You got that song stuck in my head!"

"Yeah, well keep it there!" the singer hollered back, " 'cause we are gonna get started on some serious song writing after this!"

"What are we gonna pave the way for Alternative-gospel-rock," Jarred muttered to Jess. It was half hearted complaining at best. He was pumped and eager to get back to writing new songs. He really did like the tune. "What's the phrase for real nice in bebop," he murmured to noone in particular as he handed an amp to Jess. Jarred was the sort of artist who was in the habit of speaking out loud and in a way that took sometime to understand.

"Real easy," Jess answered.

"Yeah, there we go," he murmured, looking straight at Jess, "Waddya think we should call it?"

"Don't you have to write the song first?" asked Jess, handing the amp off to Liam.

"Nah," said Liam, "Anyway, I think you should name it. I mean, it's the least we can do after everything you've done for all of us."

"It isn't really..." Jess began to say.

"Yeah, yeah," cut in Jarred, his mind already working the melody into a more complex being, "Just give us a real good name!"

Jess looked over at Liam and said with a sphinx's smile, "Lullabies from Nightingales."

End.

A/N: this was written from 10.30 to 3.00 am in one sitting. Damn straight it's not lucid.