Page 38 of Dead Air (Moon Murder Mysteries)

Now what?

Now, Shelby’s fourteen-year career as an ISB agent seemed trite after learning that there were actual gods and monsters.

The absurdly sexy biologist turned out to be a demon and had stolen Ranger Niall Gilpatrick’s heart and soul right out from under Silas.

He’d been helpless to stop it from happening and wondered what use he’d be, the next time a demon or a troll or whatever god forsaken abomination turned up at the park.

What chance did a man like Silas have against true evil?

Silas had failed to save Niall and was still baffled by all he had learned during his hike to the summit with Professor Lennox MacIlwraith and his “team.” The young Georgetown professor had arrived with an FBI agent, a small, elderly bald man, Roanoke’s medical examiner, twin brothers—one a doctor and one a paramedic, and a beautiful waif named Everly Wells.

They were not as they seemed either and Silas still couldn’t believe that MacIlwraith was a demigod who’d had a pair of hellhounds, a witch, and a changeling amongst his companions.

How was Silas supposed to return to his old routine and investigate the run-of-the-mill cases that fell into his lap?

The park’s visitors tended to bring their problems with them but aside from the rare domestic incident and wandering fugitive, things were generally peaceful until a hiker needed rescuing.

“He’s a motherfuckin’ demon!” Silas glared in the direction of the summit, sick to his stomach as he imagined Niall with Curn, or Cenn, or whatever the fuck the demon’s name was.

A knock on the door yanked Silas’s focus from the summit. He quickly gathered all the files and photos into a hasty stack and slid them into the top drawer of his desk before rushing across the room to the door.

Silas yanked it open and flinched, not quite ready to be face to face with MacIlwraith again. He drew back and considered closing the door but Agent Nelson elbowed MacIlwraith aside.

“Sorry to bother you again, Agent Shelby. But Nox would like to have a word with you and I think you wanna hear what he has to say.” The young FBI agent was the only member of their party who seemed “normal” and Silas had been impressed by Nelson’s quiet, perceptive demeanor.

“Fine. Come in.” Silas stepped aside and waved them in, still wary of MacIlwraith.

He looked nothing like a professor and more like the frontman of a goth band with his dark, wavy black hair, tattoos, tight, tattered black jeans, and combat boots. His nails were painted black and his fingers danced as he spun in the middle of the room.

“Oooh! You’ve been cursed!” he said in a dramatic whisper. “I’ll see what I can do about that but you might want to burn that sofa,” he advised as he pointed at it. “That demon christened it when he was here.”

Silas’s face twisted as he looked at it. “My couch? Why would he…?”

“Probably to mess with your head and keep you off his track,” Nelson guessed and scribbled on his notepad.

“I sleep there!” Silas complained, earning a sad hum from MacIlwraith.

“Poor work/life boundaries. Where have I seen that before?” he asked with a pointed look at Nelson.

“I’m sure you’ll sort him out too,” Nelson murmured, making Silas snort.

“I don’t need sorting.”

That got a chuckle out of MacIlwraith. “You’re feeling very out of sorts at the moment, agent.”

“How do you know?”

A wide grin spread across the professor’s face. “Have you met a lot of demons and demigods?”

“No!” Silas admitted with another snort but this time, it was weak and he was weary as he shook his head. “Can’t say that I have or that I want to meet anymore,” he said and MacIlwraith winced.

“I don’t believe you. I think you’re pissed and wondering if there’s a point to any of this. You’re wondering what you’re good for.” MacIlwraith raised an expectant brow.

“Maybe…” Silas heard that MacIlwraith could read minds but wondered if he was transparent. “Wouldn’t anyone?”

“Of course,” MacIlwraith agreed, holding up a finger.

“But you’ve got a good amount of fian in your blood, if I’m right.

And I often am,” he said out of the side of his mouth, making Nelson roll his eyes.

“You’re ready to run and hunt and you’re just the man to help me solve a mystery and hopefully save someone’s life. ”

That certainly interested Silas. He didn’t know what to make of all this demons and demigods bullshit, but solving mysteries and saving lives was a far better use of Silas’s time. “Whose life?”

There was a sheepish hiss from Nox. “I don’t know. I can’t even tell you if it’s a man or a woman from the state of the remains.”

“ Remains? ” Silas widened his eyes at Nelson. “Have they been reported? Is this an FBI investigation you’re pulling me into?”

MacIlwraith shook his head quickly. “No. Not yet, at least. We don’t actually know where the remains are. That’s why we need you.”

“What?” Silas blinked back at him, growing irritated and impatient. “How do you know there are remains?”

“That’s the tricky part,” Nelson said with a soft cough. “And the part you’re going to have the toughest time getting your head around.”

Silas looked at the door and considered shoving both of them through it. He had a feeling he was about to be introduced to more strange shit that he might not want to be involved with.

“How do you know there are remains?” he repeated. He couldn’t kick them out if there was a chance that this was true and someone was in danger.

“It would be easier to just show you.” MacIlwraith approached Silas, raising his hands.

“I’ll pass,” Silas said as he leaned away but MacIlwraith laughed.

“Don’t be scared. It’s just a vision.”

“A vision?”

“Just a vision,” MacIlwraith said soothingly.

“The oracle who warned us that Niall was in danger had another vision and shared it with me. I’ve revisited it so many times but I don’t know the place or recognize anything useful about the corpse.

I’m hoping you’ll be able to make more of it than I can. ”

“Are you serious?” Silas asked, receiving a soft chuckle from Nelson.

“He’s rarely serious but you can trust him.”

“Come on!” MacIlwraith whispered as he captured Silas’s face in his hands. “I’m certain Nelson and I can solve this one, eventually, but I’d get there faster with another wolf.”

“A wolf?” Silas frowned. “Wolves are cool but I—” he started but stopped when MacIlwraith shushed loudly.

“Relax and breathe with me, Silas,” he said in a low, lulling murmur.

“Okay…” Silas did feel relaxed, though, and smiled as he pushed out a deep breath.

He immediately sank into calmness and the sound of MacIlwraith’s breathing.

“Whoa!” Silas gasped when an earthy breeze brushed his cheek and he felt soil under his feet.

He opened his eyes and jumped, spinning as he took in the nighttime forest around them.

“Where—?” He recalled that MacIlwraith didn’t know the location and immediately took stock of everything around him.

Moonlight filtered through a mix of Fraser firs and red spruce and Silas noted the thinness of the brush on the forest floor.

It was cleared regularly but Silas couldn’t see any signs or markers on any of the trunks.

He noted the height and the phase of the moon and the maturity of the foliage on the trees.

“See! That’s why I need you!” MacIlwraith whispered excitedly.

“You’re already gathering evidence,” he said and Silas nodded.

He reached for his back pocket and his phone so he could take notes but it wasn’t there.

“Sorry. Visions and memories don’t work like that.

You can take all the time you need, though,” MacIlwraith said as he gestured for Silas to follow him. “Our friend is over here.”

Silas followed, paying close attention to the softness of the soil and looked for any mosses or mushrooms that might offer more clues to their location.

He passed another Fraser and smelled mountain laurel, arousing a memory but it was faint as MacIlwraith jogged downhill, past more Frasers to a creek.

“I think I know this!” Silas said as he joined MacIlwraith on the bank and turned back to see if he could find that memory.

Frasers with grape-scented flowers and this creek…

“I swear, I’ve been here before.” He gave his head a shake, then swore when he spotted what looked like a flannel and possibly denim in the water.

As he drew closer, Silas could make out the picked-over remains of a corpse.

“Christ,” he said as he lowered and carefully peeled the flannel away from the skull.

“Probably not,” MacIlwraith said, taking a knee next to Silas.

He shot MacIlwraith a hard look. “Is that your professional opinion, professor?” he asked, earning a shrug.

“Please call me Nox.”

“Alright… Nox.” Silas shook his head and returned to the skull. “I’m not a coroner but if I had to guess… This is a male skull. From the size of the clothes and the state of the teeth, I’d say he’s between twenty and fifty but I can’t tell you more than that.”

“Yet,” Nox replied. “We’re going to get better acquainted with him.”

“Wait!” Silas grabbed Nox’s wrist when he reached for the skull but released it when he remembered they weren’t in a real crime scene. It was still profoundly disturbing when Nox lifted it and held it up to the moonlight.

“We have to save him, Silas. I’m certain that Hugh Dùbhghlas is responsible for this and that something dark and twisted has happened to his soul.”

The thought turned Silas’s stomach. He didn’t know who this Dùbhghlas person was or how a soul could be assaulted but it made him sick. And it made him furious as he took the skull from Nox and studied it.

He couldn’t explain it, but Silas was struck by how beautiful the skull was. Even without its flesh and eyes and smile, Silas was holding something that had once been magickal and it was already sacred to him.

“Okay. But how can I help?”

“I have been at a total loss and even Nelson can only make out the bare facts. But I sense a hint of a fian about him too. I feel a wolf here.”

Silas hitched a brow at Nox. “What are you talking about? What’s a fian and what does it have to do with wolves?”

“Well! How much time do you have and are you interested in the history of wolves in Celtic Ireland and their significance in the old world’s lore?” Nox asked as he clasped his hands together excitedly but Silas shook his head.

“Give me the wave tops.”

“Fine,” Nox sighed. “The fianna were warrior-hunters who lived in the wild and wore ‘lupine’ hairstyles and furs. Some legends even describe them as transforming into raiding packs of wolves. But it was believed to be a rite of passage for young noblemen before they settled down and inherited land and is probably why there were prohibitions against hunting between Samhain and Beltane. Those who didn’t settle down remained in the wild and worked as mercenaries or were hired by noblemen to maintain order. ”

“What does that have to do with me and him,” Silas asked, nodding at the skull and making Nox grin.

“The first time I picked it up I sensed wolves and a deep connection to the moon. Like you, this man belongs in the wild. And like him, I sense wolves and a connection to the moon in your ancestry. Shelby is a Norse name but I’ll bet you’re descended from a gallowglass, or a gallóglaigh in Gaelic, which means ‘foreign warrior.’ Groups of Norse warriors arrived in Ireland and Scotland in the tenth century and some intermarried with the fianna and their descendants were considered elite mercenaries. ”

“Weird…” But it wasn’t all that weird to Silas as he studied the skull.

For some reason, Silas felt understood and a strong connection to their unnamed victim.

Silas didn’t know anything about his father except his name.

His mother had left him with his grandparents before she ran off to California.

She married an abusive man and was killed when Silas was six.

Somehow, Nox had provided more insight into his ancestry in a few seconds than Silas had gained from decades of database searches.

“So does this Hugh Dùbhghlas hate wolves or…fianna? Is that why this man is dead?” he asked as he returned the skull to its body and straightened.

Nox sighed as he stood. “I don’t know but I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to prevent this from happening.

” He pointed at the body, then offered Silas a hopeful look.

“Want to help me find this man and stop his murder?” he asked and Silas nodded as he stared down at the body, still mesmerized by the skull’s beauty.

“Sure.” Silas crossed his arms over his chest and scanned around them, etching the scene into his brain so he could return without Nox. “I can’t figure out how any of this is real but I’m in. Let’s see if we can find this man before it’s too late and prevent a murder.”