Page 9 of Dead Air (Moon Murder Mysteries)

Seven

I t was a good thing Roger’s soul was already damned for an eternity.

Cenn wanted to murder him again for causing Niall to cry himself to sleep.

They had shared a cheerful and productive day but Niall’s thoughts returned to Roger as soon as he was alone and his mood tanked.

Roger wasn’t worth it and Cenn had nearly broken and gone to Niall, he’d felt so frustrated and useless as he watched from the shadows behind the door.

He’d been forced to wait until Niall fell asleep to comfort him.

“Be at peace, my sweet Niall.” Cenn whispered as he petted Niall’s face and hair with fingers made of smoke.

They smoothed away the furrow in Niall’s brow and soothed the raw puffiness around his eyes.

“You deserve nothing but joy and pleasure. Do not waste another tear on that disgusting creature. Do you understand me?”

Niall nodded faintly. “I won’t…” he breathed, the last of his sadness fading as he exhaled.

“That’s my good boy.” Cenn was pleased to see the tension melt from Niall’s face, replaced by a loose smile. “Dream of me. Dream of Chance.”

“I’m your good boy?”

“Of course, you are.” Cenn waited, listening to Niall’s dream for clues to his desires. “My love! You’re in a mood tonight.”

Cenn lifted Niall, making the room warmer as the quilt slid off his body.

He floated above the bed, his arms dangling loosely as Cenn peeled his boxers off.

They fell to the floor and Cenn rose and swirled around Niall’s body, gasping ecstatically as he merged with the downy softness of his soul.

In Niall’s dream, he was naked and restrained with his head hanging off the edge of the bed.

Chance was teasing Niall’s lips with the head of his cock.

“Open for me, my love,” Cenn whispered in Niall’s ear.

His jaw stretched and Cenn crooned adoringly as smoke filled Niall’s mouth, growing firmer and warmer as it slid back and forth.

Smoke curled around Niall’s ankles, spreading them as tendrils wound around his legs and his erection.

It lapped between Niall’s cheeks, making him moan around the smoke plunging in and out of his mouth as his cock was wrapped in sucking pressure.

He pinched and twisted Niall’s nipples, making him whimper and gurgle with glee. .

“That’s it. Show me how good you can take Daddy’s cock.”

Smoke slipped past the tight ring of Niall’s ass, slowly creeping deeper and stretching his passage.

A throaty chorus of pleading, orgasmic moans swelled from Niall as sweat dripped from his pores and cum spilled from his cock.

Cenn sucked up every drop and drank every euphoric cry from Niall’s lips as he came again and again.

Cenn exalted each time Niall screamed Chance’s name in his dreams and was nourished by the fiery rapture that made his mortal’s soul glow brighter and stronger in the night.

Each orgasm was a rush that took Cenn higher and fed his demonic need to claim more of Niall’s beautiful essence.

He reveled in Niall’s soul but didn’t leave any marks, slipping in and out and around it, tasting every tremor of pleasure and the vibrancy of his lust.

He couldn’t come the same way Niall did but Cenn experienced his own darkly ethereal implosion, a static electric burst of blue heat that lit up the room and made his eyes glow.

In that brief flash of a moment, Niall woke up and Cenn saw himself reflected in his eyes, two bright blue sparks in the night.

“Sleep!” Cenn whispered as smoke swept over Niall’s eyelids, making them close.

“Was I a good boy?” he slurred and smiled as he drifted back into the sensual peace of his dreams.

“Such a good boy.”

He lowered Niall back onto the bed and Cenn retreated to his corner, winded and stunned anew at the voracity of Niall’s hunger for Chance.

The desire to sate that hunger as Chance was overwhelming at times but Cenn worried that it would be too cruel to play with that part of Niall’s heart.

He believed he could have a fling with Chance but Niall didn’t understand how easy it was to manipulate his emotions.

Sex to appease Niall’s sensual demons? That was Cenn’s pleasure. Intimacy while Niall was conscious? That was taking Dùbhghlas’s game too far. Cenn didn’t want Niall truly falling in love and getting his hopes up about the future. Lust was fine but love was a crime.

Niall’s dreams meandered, as fresh and as clear as a spring morning on the mountain.

He wandered through the glade, talking to the butterflies and singing with the birds.

His aura was tranquil and he laughed softly in his sleep, happy to be alive and surrounded by nature.

But it wasn’t long until Niall came upon Chance in his tent.

“That’s my cue,” Cenn said with a pleased chuckle, listening for his next clue as he floated over the bed.

Praise kink suited Niall’s psyche like a glove.

He desired to be a “good” boy in all ways so why would sex be any different?

Being submissive also aligned with his desire to serve others and the greater good.

He was simply a good human to his fellow man and the planet and serving his Daddy was just another outlet for Niall’s innate need to please.

It had very little to do with a void left in Niall’s life by the loss of his father and more to do with his insatiable yearning for intimacy, but with boundaries.

After Andy, Niall craved safety and nurturing.

He wanted to be cared for and praised for his submission, not scared into it.

How could Cenn fulfill those needs while Niall was awake without engaging with his emotions and setting up expectations?

I could keep him. Why couldn’t I give him the perfect husband and the ideal life?

That was a ridiculous idea and impossible. Cenn was a fool for even considering it.

He was, though. A mortal life lasted about as long as a dream for demons. Fifty or sixty glorious years for Niall would pass quickly for Cenn but he could make those years the best of his demonic existence. Cenn ignored how many rules he’d have to break and how much he’d have to sacrifice.

New magick would have to be invented because as far as Cenn knew, there was no way to go back in time.

He had a charm to erase a memory and to see the past, but Cenn couldn’t undo a single day or a moment.

There were ways to break a demon’s deal or cancel it but the price would be too high and give Hugh Dùbhghlas unmatched power.

I have made new magick before…

Cenn was intrigued by the idea and wondered if he could create something that could save Niall and protect his soul.

That would require far more power and time than Cenn had at the moment.

It had taken him centuries to breathe his incantations to life and to teach them to enough of his demonic children to make them potent and sacred.

He set the idea aside, not wanting to tempt himself or get his own hopes up over impossible things.

Not when he could be cherishing Niall and making his dreams more magickal and satisfying.

At the moment, Niall was preparing to give Chance a decadent blow job in the forest. Acts of service were truly Niall’s love language and he had found bliss, nuzzling his nose and lips all over Chance’s sac.

“You’re starving, aren’t you?” Cenn groaned, wrapping himself around Niall and covering his skin in feather-soft kisses.

They would feel like the sun in his dream and Niall hummed happily as Chance’s fingers sifted through his hair.

Niall opened wide and took Chance deep into his throat, sucking greedily.

“Easy, my love! You’ll be so sore tomorrow,” Cenn worried as he filled Niall’s mouth with smoke, causing him to gag and hum in delight.

In his dream, Niall pulled Chance down to his knees to explore the rest of his body.

Even in his sleep, Niall yearned to touch, smell, and taste Chance.

He rubbed his face all over Chance’s chest, abrading his lips on the hairs and tugging at his nipples with the tips of his teeth.

Niall scratched and squeezed and purred like a kitten when he burrowed into Chance’s armpit, breathing in his scent and licking his sweat.

Niall’s desires didn’t come in a particular shape or color, but in smells, sounds, and textures.

He craved the presence and dominance of a man and Cenn had clearly created the ultimate trap with Chance.

Niall was currently fascinated with the light dusting of hair on Chance’s ass and drooling as he dreamt of rimming him.

“Such a good boy!” Cenn whispered encouragingly while Niall’s tongue flicked and wiggled and he growled in his sleep.

He was so hard and Cenn could smell Niall’s body growing warmer and more aroused.

Smoke swirled around Niall’s shaft and sac and curled into the cleft of his ass.

Cenn stroked, sucked, and filled Niall with tendrils of smoke, twisting and thrusting until he was as frantic and sweaty as he was in his dream.

Chance was pushed onto his back in the woods and Niall valiantly rode him with only his spit and a wish for lube.

In the cabin, Cenn was far more gentle, stretching Niall with heat and smoke and whispering words of love and praise in his ears.

This time, Niall was utterly spent when he came, collapsing on Chance’s chest as he was wrapped in Cenn’s embrace.

Three became one, bonded by the pure perfection of Niall’s soul.

It had taken hours and both versions of Cenn to quench Niall’s hunger but his spirit was at ease and some of the hurt Roger had caused had been erased.

Cenn knew better than to assume he’d relieved Niall of the entire burden.

His heart was too tender to let a thing like that go without it leaving a mark and it infuriated Cenn because he knew how unworthy Roger was.

He didn’t deserve a moment of Niall’s sorrow or regret and Roger sure as fuck didn’t deserve his sympathy.

Next time, Cenn would be more careful so that Niall wouldn’t blame himself and end up more traumatized.

What kind of demon are you, Cenn Cruach?

The question stopped Cenn and he recoiled, rushing back into his corner and then out of the cabin and into the night. He flew to the cliff where Roger had fallen and sat on the edge, above the ledge where he and Niall had hunted salamanders and where Roger’s body had been discovered.

A decent demon would have seen Roger as an opportunity and a shortcut, instead of interfering before he could reach Niall.

Cenn could have offered to save Niall in exchange for a piece of his soul.

Or Cenn could have let Roger do his worst, then at the attack’s zenith, offer Niall a chance to reverse their rolls and make Roger pay .

There were so many ways a decent demon could have manipulated the situation to his advantage but Cenn had chosen to play attack dog.

And now, he was protecting Niall like a dog with a bone, instead of operating like a respectable demon.

He was wasting time and had even imagined playing house with Niall for a lifetime.

What had gotten into him and what was it about this particular human?

Cenn had met pious mortals before and had cared very little about their twee souls or what became of them.

Niall wasn’t the first wholesome granola Cenn had ever encountered either.

He was very present in the 60’s and had a hand in the darker side of the hippie movement.

Something about Niall had corrupted Cenn and began to counteract his demon instincts the moment he arrived on Hawksbill Mountain.

Cenn had anticipated that the overly wholesome human would be a challenge, but this was something entirely different.

He had felt a foreign compulsion the moment they touched and Cenn’s need to possess and protect Niall grew more fierce with every moment they spent together.

How pathetic will this get and how much pride will I have left by the time this is done?

Cenn sighed down at the ledge, picturing Roger’s twisted, bleeding body.

That did very little to cheer him up and Cenn wondered if this was all part of Dùbhghlas’s plan.

Matters on the mountain were getting messy and Cenn’s integrity as a demon was already compromised.

Dùbhghlas would be pleased if he knew how quickly Cenn’s plans had gone awry.

But he was Cenn Cruach. The first and the father of all demons, was he not?

There were two things that Cenn could promise. One, he would prevail because he always did, even if he had to invent new magick or a new way to cheat. And two, Cenn would die and take Hugh Dùbhghlas with him before allowing the warlock to have the last laugh.