Page 28 of Dead Air (Moon Murder Mysteries)

“You don’t know how long I have been here.

You don’t know what it’s like to forget love and hope, to feel nothing but malice.

The only yearning I know is for souls but I lost mine so long ago that all I can remember is the emptiness and the endless drive to pull the entire world into this void with me,” he said, his voice trembling with self-disgust. “Show me the exit and I will take it! But I won’t let him have you, Niall.

You are mine and you will always be free. ”

“There will be a high price to pay, then,” Oglethorpe predicted as he sank onto Niall’s only chair, groaning as he stretched his legs.

“Hugh has your horde of souls and you will be marked for death. They will seek you out and drag you back to him in chains. It’s the binding clause in every demonic deal. ”

Cenn nodded. “You can’t trust a demon’s honor so there has to be a severe penalty. We’re nothing without those souls, just a jumped up púca or a sluagh,” he said with a sneer but Oglethorpe chuckled.

“You’re trouble enough without those souls but Hugh could become something too dark and dangerous for Nox and I to contend with if he consumes all that you know and possess.”

“I thought you and MacIlwraith were his end game,” Cenn admitted. “I foolishly assumed that Niall was just a pawn and that I would be the one holding Dùbhghlas’s soul after the two of you outsmarted him.”

“I still could be,” Niall said, raising his hand. “He gets very little if he gets my soul and then I’d end up with Cenn when he loses.”

The powerful pixie let out a startled yelp, shaking his head as he peeked between the twins. “You wouldn’t be you anymore! I’ve seen stolen souls before and it’s awful. You wouldn’t even know you were with him!”

“Right.” Niall swallowed loudly, his gaze skipping around the room before it landed on Cenn. “But he could do less damage and there’s a better chance that you all could beat him if he only gets my soul.”

The thought alone made Cenn sick and he wanted to burn the entire forest to the ground.

“No. Absolutely not,” he stated, his hand slicing the air.

“No one touches your soul except me and it stays with you, intact,” he added with a threatening look at Oglethorpe.

“There will be no compromise as far as Niall is concerned.”

“Do I get any say in the matter?” he asked and Cenn shook his head.

“You’re too young and too pure—too selfless—to decide,” he said, cutting Niall off when he started to argue.

“Why do you think Dùbhghlas chose you? He is counting on you to be the sacrificial lamb and for me to do whatever it takes to save my own skin. That’s what demons do and when you turn a saint into a demon, you get a baby terminator. ”

The sun god’s throne woke up. “How does that work?” Nelson asked, looking up from his notepad.

Cenn waved at Niall. “This man is pure empathy and has an immense capacity for kindness. Serving others is his greatest passion,” he said, looking around the room and through to the porch to see if anyone didn’t agree or believe him.

“It’s damn near impossible to make a deal with someone like Niall.

But once all that empathy and kindness is gone, the hunger to fill that gaping emptiness is unquenchable and unstoppable. ”

“Well, that’s not exactly true…” Niall traced a stitch on his quilt with the tip of his finger. “I have other passions,” he mumbled.

“Carnal passions don’t count because that’s just nature and your passions are extremely natural,” Cenn said and ignored the odd burst of warmth in his chest as he pictured Niall in his natural, carnal glory.

“That’s strange,” MacIlwraith said as he pointed at Cenn. “I felt a tickle of something there but it wasn’t dark and demonic.”

“Demon lust,” Cenn said with a bored wave.

MacIlwraith stared at Niall for several moments. “There’s a lot of smoke in his soul but it doesn’t seem to be corrupting him.”

“There’s an echo in here because I swear, I just said that.” Cenn rolled his eyes. “He’s fine and I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to Niall. We never made a deal and I’ve kept him safe.”

“Hold on…” Niall sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, scowling at Cenn. “You offered to get rid of Andy the other night!”

I can’t catch a single break today.

“I can explain.” Cenn pressed his hands together, begging Niall to forgive him for one more whoopsie.

“I had already made up my mind to break the deal because I knew you would never have a price, that you’d never part with your soul.

I didn’t even want it. Like that,” he qualified quickly.

“But I was…scared of losing everything so I asked, to prove to myself that I was right about you. That’s why I’ve been stalling! ”

Niall’s lips twisted and his face pinched slightly. “I’m not sure if I want to be mad or touched.”

“Maybe both but lean towards touched?” Cenn suggested, then ducked onto the porch as soon as he saw a gap in the gawkers. “Pardon me,” he said but Shelby blocked the stairs.

“Why do I get the feeling that you’ve been in my office recently?” He crossed his arms over his chest and Cenn could hear Shelby’s inner beast roaring as he calmly waited for a denial.

“We’re going to laugh about this later,” Cenn said as he rested a hand on Shelby’s shoulder.

“Are you going to be in prison when we share this laugh? Because that’s the only place I can see us hanging out, once whatever this is, is over.”

Cenn pretended to be wounded. “I thought we had something special.”

“Fix everything you fucked up,” Shelby said through clenched teeth.

“Fine,” Cenn flailed a hand. “It will all be cleared up in a few days. But you do understand who I am, don’t you?”

Shelby didn’t seem at all concerned. “I don’t care if you’re the king of the killer hill fairies, or whatever Merlin called you. I’ll sell my soul to be the one who punches your ticket, so I can be there when your ass gets sucked back into Hell.”

“He’s joking ,” one of the twins stated firmly and pulled Shelby away.

“Who’s gonna tell him?” Cenn asked over his shoulder as he left them. “Niall doesn’t want to see me right now so I’m going to take a walk so he can clear his head.”

“Tell me what?” he heard Shelby ask as he headed into the woods and the other twin chuckled.

“There’s no such thing as Hell. It’s all around us, wherever men and demons decide to do their dirty work.”

Cenn couldn’t have put it any better so he went to kill time by the creek.