Page 36 of Dead Air (Moon Murder Mysteries)

“I don’t really care about his old beef with Merlin.

He would have stayed off my radar if it weren’t for that cult and those girls.

He was barely on Merlin’s radar, we were all so sure Dùbhghlas had learned his lesson after he was run out of polite society.

We thought he was harmless and had moved on. ”

“You thought Dùbhghlas would let something like that go? He blames Oglethorpe more than anyone.”

“Merlin is a busybody and a pain in the ass, but he was right. I hate to admit it but he usually is. Dùbhghlas brought it on himself, doing the things he did.”

“I’m not arguing!” Cenn insisted. “What he’s done goes against nature in ways that even demons can’t abide,” he said and MacIlwraith’s brows rose.

“I would have thought that necromancy was your bread and butter.”

“No…” Cenn’s face pinched. “Death is part of the sacred, natural cycle of life and should be the one universal law that even magick cannot truly break. Without death and the promise of glory, what would sustain you? ” He tapped his temple.

“What would be the point of me, if no one had to fear death? I’d have nothing to barter with and nothing to gain. ”

“Why allow it, then?” MacIlwraith challenged, earning a sad sigh from Cenn as he turned and looked in the direction of the visitor’s center.

“It’s not for me to allow or prohibit, just as I am not the only one who can create magick.

” Cenn looked around, for dramatic purposes, then stepped closer.

“Between you and me, I’m not even sure if I invented the magick in my charms or simply put names to skills that were already evolving in others like me.

I’m the one who started this ‘first’ business but I might have just been the first to survive the metamorphosis or the first to make the claim. ”

MacIlwraith whistled, shaking his head. “You’re pretty close, if not the first. There might have been others but we don’t see many contenders in mythology until the Devil and Hell are introduced to Christianity.

Even Hades is a romantic hero, depending on who you ask, but you’re why demons are synonymous with pure evil. ”

“Now you’re just trying to flatter me,” Cenn chuckled and waved it off. “There are many reasons why some cannot let go of the dead or seek their aid. It is for them to decide if it’s worth the consequences and damnation,” he said, then nodded over MacIlwraith’s shoulder at Nelson.

He didn’t look but shook his head. “Nelson would kick my ass if I brought him back.”

“You’d try, though.” Cenn remembered that Merlin wasn’t technically immortal like MacIlwraith but was at least eight-hundred years old. “Will Nelson age if he stays with you?”

“It’s too soon to tell but I’m hoping he won’t,” MacIlwraith admitted. “My question remains, Cenn Cruach. Will I be putting his future and our dreams in jeopardy if I leave you here?”

“You think you could take me now?” Cenn laughed but MacIlwraith wasn’t smiling as he pushed away from the rail.

“Stad!” he announced as his hand snatched the air, causing everything to stop around them.

Even Cenn was frozen as a butterfly hung in the air by the post. The hairs on Cenn’s neck stood when he noticed the lack of a breeze and the backpack was stuck mid-swing, hovering over Nelson’s shoulder as he stared at them, motionless.

“I can show you the light,” MacIlwraith said and raised his hand and placed it on Cenn’s forehead, blinding him.

He was engulfed in golden light and warmth and Cenn heard an organ, reminiscent of Bach before it was interrupted by a thumping guitar and a pounding, hypnotic drum beat.

Cenn tried to scream but light and trippy, bluesy music spilled from his mouth.

It stopped as suddenly as it started, snapping Cenn back to the present and Niall’s porch as birds chirped and the breeze ruffled their hair.

“I’ve got you!” MacIlwraith caught Cenn when his legs gave out.

“Was that… ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida?’” he asked, holding onto the rail as his vision refocused.

“I thought it would be a cool touch. You should come with me,” MacIlwraith added with a cheeky wink.

“I’ll pass but I see that Darrach Clancy has taught you a trick or two. That’s a good one,” Cenn said and saluted MacIlwraith.

“Oh, he’d never have taught me that. I had to figure it out on my own and it took years to catch him in the act so I could try to replicate it.”

“Fascinating,” Cenn said dryly. Hugh Dùbhghlas was truly fucked but so was Cenn if he wasn’t careful.

“We could have a truce,” MacIlwraith suggested, possibly reading Cenn’s thoughts again. “Who knows, you might need my help one day or you might see a reason to help me.”

“Help Niall. I don’t want anything from you but I’ll gladly accept a truce if you’ll do everything in your power to protect him. Give me your word and you’ll have no reason to worry about me unless we’re the last two standing.”

“That could be a very long time from now and we might find a way to get along. There’s no telling how much love will change you,” MacIlwraith said with a hopeful look but Cenn rolled his eyes.

“You and Niall really overestimate the power of love. I love him , not you or your family of mutant fae. That won’t change.”

MacIlwraith pretended to be wounded. “Once a demon, always a demon, is it?” he asked but clicked his teeth when Cenn nodded.

“That’s not what you started as and mark my words: magick will find a way to manifest when powerful beings—such as yourself—mate with humans.

If an offspring isn’t created, that magick will change the human.

It could change both parties . I see it changing me and Nelson every day, but so far, in only good ways. ”

“You don’t know that it’ll be the same for us and I’d notice if Niall changed.”

“I’m not so sure…” MacIlwraith smiled and waved when Nelson whistled to get his attention.

“I have to get going but I don’t want you to take that…

demonstration as a threat or a warning. We don’t have to be enemies and I intend to look out for Niall.

Not as a favor to you, but because I consider him a friend now and because he’s a good person who never should have been pulled into this business with Dùbhghlas. ”

“That we can agree on,” Cenn said, bowing his head. “I suppose it’s good he has friends he can talk to about this and something to leave the mountain for.”

With that, Cenn and MacIlwraith parted ways on surprisingly peaceful terms. They would stay out of each other’s supernatural business and Cenn was somewhat open to assisting if Niall was somehow involved and made him .

Cenn would make absolutely certain there would never be any need for them to involve Niall and that he’d be far too busy for one of their capers.

Niall returned with his box of supplies and wanted to know all about Cenn’s “heart to heart” with the demigod.

“It wasn’t exactly a heart to heart, more of a subtle warning.

MacIlwraith is a lot smarter than the warlock gives him credit for.

Mostly because he isn’t in a hurry to let go of his mortal life.

He’s too comfortable and happy playing the professor and part-time detective with Nelson, not that I blame him. ”

“Sounds like you’re on the bright side now,” Niall said but Cenn promised he wasn’t.

Despite Cenn’s repeated denials, Niall was still optimistic and was pleased at how well things had ended between them.

He was also looking forward to getting to know the twins, Everly, and Fletcher better and they had told him about a bookstore where Niall could find books on anything related to magick, the occult, and mythology.

With Niall in such a good mood, it was easy to lure him into bed and whip him into a filthy frenzy.

Cenn flicked Niall’s throat and did the thing with his smoke tentacles again, leaving him completely spent.

Once he was sleeping soundly, Cenn snuck out of the cabin and went to settle the score with Willoughby.

He appeared outside Willoughby’s family home in Dallas, Oregon.

His parents had left him the house and five pristine acres but Willoughby lived alone, his career and his life in shambles.

Cenn waited until the light came on in the study to sneak into the shadow behind the door and listened as Willoughby screamed at his attorney about the latest lawsuit.

“I don’t care what the little slut says!” Willoughby crumpled the filing into a ball and hurled it across the room. “I pay you to make problems like him go away,” he said, then ended the call.

His problems weren’t going away, though.

This latest lawsuit was just one of many and the accusations were piling up.

Willoughby had been exposed by an intern two years earlier and the floodgates had opened.

All his political prospects had evaporated and Willoughby couldn’t get anyone except the press to answer his calls.

That was exactly what he deserved but Cenn was going to make sure Willoughby never hurt anyone like Niall again.

“I can come back from this. I always do,” Willoughby said and poured himself another drink from the decanter on his desk.

“Not this time,” Cenn said as he stepped out of the shadows as Niall’s lumberdaddy, startling Willoughby and causing him to knock his drink off the desk.

“Who are you?” he asked, fumbling as he opened a drawer to his right and pulled out a pistol, eventually aiming it at Cenn. “Don’t come any closer!”

“Tsk tsk, Andy! What would voters think? You helped close the boyfriend loophole to keep guns out of abusers’ hands,” Cenn said as he stepped into the light. “Put the gun down,” he commanded, forcing his will upon Willoughby and making the hand holding the pistol lower and place it on the desk.

“Who are you?” Willoughby began to cry as Cenn came around the desk and perched on the edge next to him. “What do you want from me?”

Cenn’s smile was wide and his eyes lit up with malicious delight as he canted toward Willoughby. “I want you to kill yourself,” he said cheerfully and it took a moment for Willoughby to process what Cenn had said.

“No! I won’t!” He shook his head wildly and tried to stand but Cenn grabbed his shoulder and shoved him back into the seat.

“You will because I’m going to make you ,” Cenn growled as he leaned toward Willoughby and revealed his real face for just a moment, forcing a terrified shriek from him.

“Please!” Willoughby covered his face, sobbing. “Why are you doing this to me?” he begged when Cenn slapped his hands away and grabbed the back of his hair.

“Because I am Niall’s revenge.”

Willoughby wet himself. “Niall? You—? He—?” Fear and denial exploded in his brain and Willoughby struggled to find an excuse or a way to rationalize what he had done. “I’ll do anything he wants! I’ll apologize, I’ll pay him!” he said, then let out a yelp when Cenn slapped him.

“ He wants nothing from you. He has spared you and given you his grace but did you learn?” Cenn asked loudly, making Willoughby jump and cover his face again.

“I’m sorry! I have a problem, I—!” he started and screamed again when a piece of paper flew from the printer behind him and landed on the desktop. The pen jumped from his shirt pocket and into his hand before the cap shot off, hitting one of the diplomas behind Willoughby.

“You do have a problem,” Cenn agreed. “I want you to write that down.”

Willoughby nodded jerkily. “Okay. I can do that,” he said and hunkered over the page, prepared to write.

“Hold on! I’d like you to copy what I say. Can you do that, Andy?”

“I think so.” Tears rolled down his cheeks, landing in little round puddles on the paper.

Cenn thought they’d be a nice touch. “You don’t need to address it to anyone, let’s keep it informal,” he began. “Just write: I brought this on myself. I have a problem and I can’t stop. This is the only way to make up for all the pain I’ve caused.”

“No!” Andy shook his head. “Please, no!”

“Let me help you!” Cenn said and jumped into Willoughby’s body but didn’t do anything to muffle or subdue his consciousness. He was very much aware as Cenn used his hand to write the words, then tossed the pen across the room.

“Stop! Don’t! ” Willoughby begged when Cenn picked up the gun and flicked the safety off. “Stop, stop, stop!”

How many times have you heard that? Cenn asked, laughing inside Willoughby’s head as the pistol’s muzzle was placed between his teeth.

Willoughby shook his head, tears sliding down his cheeks and drool leaking around the end of the pistol and his chin.

You terrorized sweet Niall so badly, he thought it was a fucking miracle when his house blew up.

Andy’s pleading whimpers were music to Cenn’s ears and he savored them, hoping Willoughby remembered every one of his victims and heard their whimpers in his final moments.

It’s your turn to go out with a bang.

“No!” Willoughby cried just before he pulled the trigger, blowing the back of his head and his brain all over the wall and the diplomas behind him.

The pistol landed on the rug next to the chair with a muffled thud as his soul was thrown from his body.

Cenn let it go. He liked the idea of keeping it and tormenting Willoughby by making him watch Niall enjoy a lifetime of pampering and good sex but couldn’t stand the idea of the monster being anywhere near his love again.

This is a new experience.

Cenn raised Willoughby’s hands and wiggled his fingers, a wheezing, whistling giggle gurgled from what was left of his jaw and out of the hole in the back of his head.

He almost touched his cheek but didn’t want to leave any reason for anyone to doubt that Willoughby had killed himself.

Willoughby’s hands dropped and flopped naturally when Cenn leaped out of his body.

“That’s so much better!” he declared as he floated above the scene, admiring the pattern of the blood splatter and the bits of brain and flesh dripping off the frames and trophies.

Smiling and satisfied, Cenn faded into the shadow behind the door and flew out of the house, leaving all the doors and windows locked behind him. With justice finally served, Cenn returned to Niall’s cabin to watch over him as he napped.