Chapter 11

Zenos left me alone by the fire pit with my thoughts. Claiming a need to shift forms, he changed into a Phoenix and flew up through the space between the trees.

I sat there silently for several long moments and then just had to know.

I put a hand on my chest. “Talk to me,” I ordered. “Tell me about the three of ya.”

We are only one.

“Were ya mages?”

We are one power.

“What kind of power? How do I use ya?”

We are the power of three.

Talking to the Dagda stone was like talking to someone who couldn’t understand my words. I felt that way whenever I tried to speak with Mulan’s people. Oddly, talking to her staff was like talking to an old friend. I guess each artifact had a distinct personality.

I formed an image of all four of Mulan’s family members in my mind. “Show me which of them is evil,” I ordered.

An image of the four of them bound with a black rope instantly popped into my brain to replace my own. The sister’s husband faced his wife and parents-in-law. He was on the end.

Great.How was I supposed to tell the Wu Shaman that her family were all demon-possessed? Why didn’t she know this for herself? I reacted with a stress call.

Conn? I need to talk to ya. I’m in the grove.

Be there shortly, he replied.

I fed the fire pit flame more magick until it flared again.

Conn hadn’t bothered walking to me. Moments after I called, he materialized right beside me. “You bellowed?”

“Yes. We have a problem.”

Conn smiled and sat down in one of the chairs. “Are you referring to Mulan’s family members all being possessed by some ancient and very powerful demon who is not me?”

I glared at him. “How long have ya known about him?”

“I suspected it shortly after the van got caught in the wards. I’ve been studying them for days now. I could call him out with a challenge but that would make our wards seem like no threat at all. The best option is to wait for the demon to attempt something else.”

I gaped at him in shock. “Ya think we should wait for more trouble?”

Conn shrugged. “Yes. He has harmed no one yet. Mulan got hurt a bit, but she’s better now.”

Of all the things I expected Conn to say, telling me to let it go was not one of them.

I crossed my arms and stared. “Why hasn’t Mulan cast the demon out herself? That’s what Wu Shamans do. They cast out demons. She told me that herself.”

“I don’t think she cares enough.”

I grunted. “He uses that bloody cane to fool people into thinking he’s only an old man.”

Conn blew out a breath. “He can probably kill them with a thought but he won’t because I think they’re bait for a much bigger prize. And I’m not talking about Mulan, even though she is one of his targets.”

“So what do we do? We can’t let him terrorize Mulan’s family.”

“I’ll let you know. At the moment, I’m still looking for his weaknesses,” Conn said, spreading his hands. “He’s from the other side of the world, Aran. They don’t do things the same way we do. They follow different rules. Possessing humans for him is like me buying real estate.”

“How powerful is he... or she?”

Conn shrugged. “I feel a masculine energy when I’m near him.”

“Him, then.” I blew out a breath. “Do I go in with my sword humming? Or do I try to get Mulan to cast the demons out first? I don’t want to step on her toes.”

“Her parents didn’t have any demons around when I visited. Her father was mostly a pleasant man. Of course, I was handing him a large sum of money. Most people are nice under those circumstances.”

“If ya got an opinion on how to handle this situation, now is the time to tell me.”

“All right... I think we need to let this play out.”

“Goddess, ya’re worse than the dragon mage. Do ya find this interesting, Conn? Because I find it alarming. There’s a strange demon on my property and I want him evicted as soon as possible.”

Connlander of the Fir Bolg is being influenced. He does not sense the genuine danger. He believes he has things under control.

I jerked at the male voice suddenly lecturing me in my head. He sounded like he’d sounded in the cave when I first sought the stone’s help, only bossier. Could Conn hear the voice too?

We shielded your thoughts from him.

Thank the Goddess for that, at least. Conn already knew the stone could communicate with me but didn’t know it could exclude him. I didn’t see him taking that well when he found out.

Was the Wu Shaman unaware of her family’s demon problems? I needed to find out as soon as possible.

Your Wu Shaman knows. Her staff knows. She doubts her power to cast him out so she is pretending not to see the danger. The creature turned her family against her. She is not unhappy that she no longer has to serve them.

If everyone had figured out the problem, then why weren’t we taking him down? I could practically see Zenos smirking about me being the last to learn the truth.

As soon as I thought the thought, an image of a fanged creature appeared in my head. He looked like a cross between a bipedal wolf and a gnome. Long brown animal hair covered his body, but he had a long white mustache that framed his mouth full of teeth and draped down to the floor.

In my vision, he tromped toward Mulan’s whimpering sister, picked up her, and bit off her head to stop her screams. Blood flew everywhere. In the carnage”s background, her traumatized parents cried out in horror. I stared in numb shock at the creature boldly chewing on Mulan’s sister in front of me.

Then I remembered it was only a vision being shown to me. It hadn’t happened in reality—or at least, not yet. Goddess, I hoped the stone was warning me it could happen and not that it would.

This is the creature inside him, the stone said. He is an ancient one who does not care about humans any longer. He finds pleasure only in causing trouble and possesses them to create servants.

I nodded as I rubbed the shock from my face so Conn wouldn’t see it.

There was only one thing I could do about what I’d learned and that was to convince the Wu Shaman to do her job.

I foundMulan in her kitchen. She was humming as she wiped the already spotless counters. Conn had gone to see Henry about something. This was the first time she and I had been alone since her parents arrived.

I scratched like a cat on her screen door. The sound of my nails scraping on metal reminded me of her tiger cat and the destruction it had caused to the cat tree. Despite my warnings, Mulan only took them seriously after she experienced the animal”s increased aggression firsthand.

Realizing they needed professional help, she and Conn had given their tiger cat over to Bo for obedience training. He promised to deliver it back to them as a docile pet. Well, that’s what I thought he promised. Bo knew it was their personal tiger cat and that he couldn’t keep it. That much I was sure about.

“Hello, stranger. Do ya have a few moments to chat?”

Mulan smiled at my appearance. “I always have time for you.”

The staff still in vibrator form now lay in the middle of the kitchen table. I stared at it for too long before looking at her. “Why is that there? Aren’t ya worried someone is going to come along and start messing with it? Lots of people have a dark sense of humor, ya know.”

Mulan shrugged. “It is talisman to keep family away.”

“Goddess, woman. That inappropriate thing could keep me away. I don’t want to be around it, either.” I sat down at the small table and pointed the business end of the vibrator away from me so I didn’t have to stare at it. “I need to talk to ya about yer family, Mulan. There’s a problem.”

Mulan nodded and frowned. “I know. They are terrible, ungrateful guests. I am sorry for that. You get free haircuts for life.”

I waved my hand. “They are terrible guests, but that’s not what I came to talk about. I think ya know the real problem already.”

Mulan tilted her head. “What is mystery? They are rude people. I admit it.”

“Mulan, ya have to know one of them hosts an ancient demon. What ya might not realize is that he’s infected the other three.”

Mulan shook her head. “No, my father only seems like demon, but he is not one. He gives tough love.”

“Mulan,” I said more sternly. “This is not about yer father and ya know it. An ancient demon possesses yer brother-in-law. I think he’s planning to completely take over yer sister and parents and make them his servants. Ya need to cast the demon out of yer sister’s husband before that happens. Why haven’t ya done that already?”

“You make a mistake,” she said. “There is no demon.”

“Yes, there is. It was that creature who set off our wards. Ya’re either being fooled, or ya’re choosing to ignore him. Which is it?”

“You work too much, Aran,” Mulan said softly. “You never rest. Let things go.”

“This is our home, Mulan—our sanctuary. Ya’re allowing it to be invaded by one of the creatures ya’ve sworn to fight.” I snatched up the vibrator and shook it at her. “And this is disgusting. Turning yer staff into a sex toy is disrespectful to the magickals who power it. Ya should be ashamed of yerself.”

Mulan froze her cleaning to stare wide-eyed at me. “How do you know that? It is shaman secret.”

Sighing, I gently set the vibrator back on the table and turned it away from me again. I looked at her as I patted my chest. “I know it because the dragon mage told me the truth about the Dagda stone I put inside me. He said many artifacts are powered by magickals who lost the Great War among the tribes of my homeland. That means my stone, yer staff, and probably Dylan’s animal relic all have druidic sentience because of a deal the early druids made to preserve their power forever. This is something I know ya know already because ya’ve made staffs for others. That means ya know how to call those beings into an inanimate object and bind their magick to it.”

She blinked at me in wide-eyed shock... or maybe it was shock about my ranting. I couldn’t tell.

I lifted my hands in surrender. “Look... ya need to snap out of whatever hold that creature put on ya and do what needs to be done. I can’t allow it to stay in my house with Ezra still there. It’s too dangerous. The Dagda stone said the ancient being had all of ya fooled. Even Conn is waving away my concerns and wanting to wait until it blows up on us. I’ll give ya until nightfall to get up yer nerve, Mulan. If ya don’t act by then, I’m going to get the guardians to help me deal with yer people.”

She continued to stare without responding. When she said nothing more, I left. Maybe she thought I was joking. But I wasn’t. I was deadly serious. The last thing I wanted to witness in real life was Mulan’s spoiled sister losing her head to a creature Mulan would never forgive herself for not killing.

I informedHenry of all I’d learned and asked him to quietly set up the blue house for the guardians. My other houseguests were innocent bystanders in this situation—the guardians and the far darrig.

Neither Rasmus nor Zara showed any resistance to my suggestion they move to the blue house until the fight was over. I think on some level, they both already knew what was happening. Their lack of shock about my alarm reminded me once more of why I had kicked Rasmus out of my bed. There was no time to deal with that now, though.

Henry said he’d felt something was off but hadn’t been able to track down the reason for his feelings. I said some ugly things about Zenos being less than helpful but did credit him with issuing the warning. That was all Henry needed to prompt his people to act.

Rasmus and Zara busied themselves packing small duffle bags to take with them. Miracle that he was, Henry had found several to loan them. The guardians would be stuck on two cots for the night but I could see both appreciated being moved out of the line of fire.

While they finished, I blocked their rooms from the ones Mulan’s family occupied with a spell. Henry and Gale had tucked the four of them into their rooms with snacks for their afternoon nap. The barricade spell would hold firm for another twenty minutes.

I packed and sent a handful of Dylan’s things over to the blue house as well but had already suggested to Dylan that he find a place in town to stay. The far darrig had wanted to come back and help, but I talked him out of it. The truth was I couldn’t watch out for him, monitor Ezra, and make sure Mulan did her Wu Shaman duty.

There was only so much even a very determined warrior witch could do.

Conn strolled around the house with a smile on his face while I hustled the guardians out. It was like he was smoking or drinking something that made him un-normally happy. When Henry and Gale both got a good look at him, they nodded to me to let me know they would watch out for their weird-acting son for me.

I was pacing in front of Ezra’s statue when Rasmus returned to the house without Zara. He might rethink returning if he knew how badly I wanted to pull an energy sword and bark a challenge to the deceitful creature up the stairs.

“Do you fear for the fairy’s life or fear for your own if someone frees him?” Rasmus asked.

Since his question was sincere, I answered him back the same. “Zenos tells me Ezra has been working this whole time to free himself from the angel’s hold on him. Who knows what would it take for him to break free? What will the ancient demon do once he realizes I’m onto his game? All I have are questions, Rasmus. I’m convinced he’s done something to both Conn and Mulan. He’s somehow fooled everyone into thinking he’s not a danger to us. The Dagda stone showed me his true form and what he could do. It was too gruesome to allow to happen.”

“You seem very stressed. What can I do to help you, Aran?”

“Can ya restrain the fairy for me if he frees himself? I need to focus on the fight with the creature.”

Rasmus crossed his arms and thought about it. “I’m not sure what I could do to restrain him but I could try to keep him from killing you.”

Outside of interpreting the guardian’s words as yet another polite refusal to get involved, I remained grateful for his lame offer. I would think of Rasmus as my backup person in case the fighting got out of hand. He could at least contact Orlin in case of a major disaster, like my death at the hands of Mulan’s possessed family.