Chapter 12

An hour passed with no sign of them. I knew the barrier spell had worn off.

After disappearing again, Rasmus quickly returned a second time with a book in hand. He parked himself on one of the lobby couches and proceeded to ignore me while he read.

I made an effort not to feel too insulted by his lack of attention. The guardian didn’t get overly excited about much of anything—not even in the heat of battle. During his first appearance in true human form, Orlin made sure that he didn”t remember his true guardian self. A very human Rasmus had calmly punched a troll until he knocked him out. That was insane by Shadow Breaker standards because everyone knew that was like punching a stone wall. But a stoic Rasmus had seen nothing wrong with it.

Rasmus was always calm—annoyingly calm. If he was any calmer, I’d forget he was even around at all.

Why in bloody hell was he here anyway? He wasn’t paying attention to anyone, especially me. He might as well go back to the blue house and read his book in relative peace there. I had survived the fight with Hisser without him being around. I’d survive fighting Mulan’s demonic brother-in-law on my own.

Maybe Rasmus thought I was na?ve for living so hyperaware of every situation. Despite my need to face situations head-on, and my constant anticipation of the worst, he had never openly criticized me.

But he also wasn’t patting my back and telling me it would be okay.

Why did I even care about someone like him? Here I’d been thinking about inviting him to bed. If he brought that damn book to read, I’d kill him, though.

My hand itched to call a sword. But the moment I did Conn would know it and come to see what was going on. Then I’d have to convince him that confronting Mulan’s parents was a good idea. I still wasn’t sure I’d convinced the reluctant Wu Shaman.

My heart nearly stopped beating when Mulan’s weird family finally appeared on the stairs. They saw me pacing in the lobby and started whispering to each other. I pretended to survey the lobby as if I intended to redecorate it. Rasmus reading in a composed manner lent some support to my flimsy ruse.

The four of them cautiously moved down the stairs, nodding to me when I glanced their way. I stared long and hard at the brother-in-law who used his cane to lower himself down every step. It made him the last person to arrive at the bottom. If ya looked in his angry eyes for too long, ya might even feel sorry for him.

Starting to panic, I put my hand out to call an energy sword. The brother-in-law chose that moment to wave at me and smile.

Mulan’s sister and parents began to talk rapidly to each other in their own language. They turned to look at me every few words. It was both eerie and annoying not to understand what they were saying when it was clear they were talking about me. They did the same thing when Mulan wasn’t present.

I hadn’t dared ask Zenos to translate. Goddess only knew what kind of nonsense he’d tell me.

The chant to call a weapon froze on my lips as Mulan walked through the front door wearing a very old and dirty leather vest over her clothes. Complete surprise caused me to blink, and as my vision cleared, I spotted the staff in her hand. Even it looked normal.

As Mulan glanced at her family, she spoke to them in her language, and then forcefully thumped the end of her staff against the floor. Her sister screamed like someone had stabbed her and threw herself in front of her new—or rather old—husband.

Her parents clasped their hands together as they responded to her, obviously pleading with Mulan not to do anything to their new son-in-law. Doubt flickered in her eyes.

Leaving Ezra unguarded, I strode to her side. “What are they saying to ya?”

”Nothing,” Mulan said with a frown, her voice tinged with disappointment. “I am here to do as you asked. I am here to do my job.”

“Well, ya don’t have to make it sound like I brought ya here without a good reason. He’s yer brother-in-law. It’s yer family that’s in danger of being possessed. I could take him down myself but I figured I’d be stepping on yer Wu Shaman’s toes.”

Her snort was loud. “Old man demon is hardly worth casting out.” She blew out a breath. “Plus, he is brother-in-law. Demon is probably keeping human side alive.”

“Are ya saying yer family knows what he is?”

Mulan hung her head and nodded. “He told them. This is more shame I must bear. My sister and I both sleep with demons now. We are failures.”

I rolled my eyes and lowered my voice. “Well, at least ya got the better deal.”

“That is rude to say but also correct,” she said sadly.

Now I blew out a breath. Good Goddess, this was a complicated task. “Look, Mulan, I had a vision of yer brother-in-law biting yer sister’s head off. Would you rather that happen in reality?”

Mulan sighed heavily. “That is hard question to answer about sister I loathe.”

My spine snapped straight. “Right. What was I thinking? Let me appeal to ya as a magickal who does good for the world. No one—no matter how awful they are—deserves to have their head bitten off by a demon.”

Mulan’s demonic brother-in-law grunted loudly. They must have understood that we were discussing what to do to them. Her sister and parents called out anxiously and ran behind him to hide. They huddled together a few steps up the stairs.

The brother-in-law glared openly at us. I ignored his glare to focus on Mulan.

She sighed so forlornly that I sighed too. Mine was in frustration. Mulan hated these people. Didn’t she? I wondered if she cared about them more than she wanted to admit.

“Parents will disown me if I cast out demon. Sister will lose husband. Parents will lose wealthy business partner. I will be terrible child forever.”

I glared at her parents for being cowards and not warning us about the demon. Not only did Mulan get hurt physically by their omission, but she was now in emotional agony. Her ethics warred with her desire to win their affection.

I snorted at the situation. “Are ya sure ya weren’t adopted? Maybe they’re not really yer parents. Maybe she’s not really yer sister. They certainly don’t deserve ya, Mulan. They don’t deserve all the worry ya’re feeling over this.”

Her dismissive snort extinguished any hope I had of rationalizing this for her. ”So, what do you want to do then? Staying here is not an option for him. If ya want, ya can send them all home to China and let them sort it out back there. I hold nothing against good demons—ya know that. But everything in me—and I’m including the Dagda stone—tells me that his intentions are not honorable.”

Her nod was slow but there. “I know this is probably truth.”

“If ya tell me ya can’t because they’re yer family, I’d understand that. Do ya want me to call an energy sword and take care of him myself? I’ll not think badly of ya. If this was Fiona and Ma, I’m sure I’d be hesitating too.”

“No. It is not for you to do,” she said, wrapping both hands around the staff as she leaned on it.

She didn’t look anywhere close to deciding. I chewed my lip and tried to think of a compromise that might spare her from traumatizing her family. Nothing came to mind.

The Wu Shaman lifted her chin and her staff. The little turtle shells on the end of it clacked together with the movement. She drew in a breath and prepared to call her magick.

“No... wait,” I said, stopping her. “I have one more idea. Let me hold yer staff for a minute.”

Mulan turned and blinked in shock. I sighed before holding out my hand. “I’m not going to use it on them. Trust me in this. I’ll explain later.”

She considered my request for a moment before lowering her arms. “First, you say cast him out. Then you say wait. What is wrong with you, Aran?”

I sighed. “A great many things are wrong with me but I just need to check something.”

She pushed the staff into my outstretched hand. “Thank you,” I hissed between my teeth.

Instead of answering, she crossed her arms and walked away. I held the staff and closed my eyes. Hey—is anyone in there listening to me? I need yer help.

We are here, the female voice said.

I worked hard not to sigh again over how weird this was. Thanks for talking to me again. I need a second opinion on a situation. Mulan’s sister seems to have attached herself to an ancient being. My artifact warned me about him. Do ya agree that he’s dangerous?

What is dangerous for non-magickals is not dangerous for you or Wu Shaman.

I huffed at the staff’s evasiveness. This creature invaded my home without revealing what he was. He knew about Mulan being a Wu Shaman and yet chose not to reveal himself to her. Worse, he made the Wu Shaman believe he was as harmless to her as Conn.

All ancient ones like him seek power. He maintains mental control over his human wife and her parents, which means he has taken partial possession of them. If no one stops him, he will spread his full essence to their minds and gain the ability to jump between their bodies. His power is great.

Possession was against the demonic code of survival. Demons had many methods to prolong their existence, but absorbing someone else”s life force was off-limits. Not even demon royals were above following that rule. Conn should have seen this situation for what it was. What had the creature done to Conn? Only another royal could cause so much chaos. The ancient demon must have been a leader among his kind.

The ancient one energetically mirrors the demons he interacts with. They feel a sense of unity with him that blinds them to danger. He fools Connlander of the Fir Bolg in this way.

So Conn wasn’t getting the same vibe from him as I was. I nodded and kept my eyes closed. I didn’t want anyone to suspect what I was learning. What will happen if Mulan casts the demon out of his brother-in-law?

Demon does not possess Wu Shaman’s human brother-in-law. He is merely the human form of himself.

My eyes opened to glare at the creature. So he was passing himself off as some rich old man and had attached himself to Mulan’s family. I handed the staff back to Mulan who’d moved close enough to reach for it when I was done.

“You were talking to staff. What did staff tell you?” she asked.

“Yer sister is married to an actual demon in his human form. And I learned he’s here to collect power.” I swept a hand between us. “Maybe he wants yers. Maybe mine. Or maybe both. Ya can bet he’s aware of Ezra too. If his game had been to lure Conn, he’d have played that card already.

Mulan glanced at the demon who was pretending to be human. “If I kill him, I lose family and become hypocrite.”

I rolled my eyes. “He’s not a regular demon, Mulan. He’s an ancient creature who has partially possessed your family. If ya don’t do something, he will take them over and hop between their bodies. Will casting him out kill him?”

“No. Chinese demons never die.”

A dark thought occurred to me. “He risked coming here because of yer relationship to Conn, didn’t he?”

She ducked her head to stare at the floor. “How can I know what demon thinks? ”

I put a hand on my chest and wrapped the other around her hand on the staff. Her swearing let me know that she now heard both voices just as I did.

I stared hard at her. “He’s done nothing, but they both say he will do something. This may be our only chance to stop him.”

“How do you talk to them?”

I let go of the staff and dropped both my hands. “The dragon mage knows how it works but I haven’t figured it out yet. Yer staff hated hiding out as a sex toy.”

“No, it did not. I asked first. We speak in visions.”

I chuckled. “Okay, I made that up. I was the one who hated it.”

“Because you are prude,” Mulan said. “Conn sees no problem with demon.”

“He’s imitating Conn’s energy. The staff said it was his best demon talent.”

Mulan heaved out a great breath before turning to her family. She raised her voice and spoke to them in the language they shared. Whatever she said must have finally gotten through their programming because they gasped and stared down the stairs at the demon.

He growled as he glared at us. Had Mulan outed him?

“Did ya tell them?”

She nodded and frowned harder.

“Did they believe ya?”

“Yes, but they have not asked for my help.”

“Do ya honestly think they will?”

Mulan thought about it and shook her head. “No. They will want to keep him. Possession twists their will to his.”

The brother-in-law must have understood our conversation because he tossed aside his cane. His human body split like a guardian’s as he changed forms. It was like watching a horror movie. The ancient demon transformed from an old man to the large, powerful creature of my vision.

And he did it like a guardian. I might be fighting a creature stronger than me.

“Conn!” I yelled out. A now too-familiar panic set in when my demon did not appear. Something was wrong again.

I looked over at Rasmus who had lowered his book to stare at the transformed demon. Was I supposed to be grateful that he was finally watching? Shaking my head at his unhelpfulness, I turned back and saw the demon with an energy sword clutched in his hand.

The Dagda stone chose that moment to speak. He mirrors you this time.

I looked at my empty hand. Goddess, did that make him able to draw on Conn’s power?

Yes, the Dagda stone answered.

My mind scrambled to absorb the information but not for long. A blast of power from his free hand hit the middle of my chest and sent me flying into the wall behind me. The last thing I saw before my eyes closed was Rasmus jumping up from his seat to join the fight that I hadn’t been able to convince him was coming.

I woke sometime later onone of the fancy couches in the foyer. I could tell where I was from the feel of the leather against my aching back.

Gale sat beside me on a footstool with a cold cloth pressed to some painful spot on my forehead. I blinked until my eyes opened all the way and immediately saw the demon frozen with an energy sword in his hand. Someone with a dark sense of humor had put him next to the sheet-covered statue of Ezra as if we were creating a museum display in the foyer.

“Where’s Rasmus?” I asked.

“Once the guardian saw you were okay, he left to take care of another matter.”

Of course he did. But there was no use complaining to Gale. She couldn’t influence my guardian’s priorities or move me to the top of the list.

“Where’s Mulan? Is she okay?”

Gale rolled her eyes. “Mulan is fine. But my son is not and neither are you. So lie still.”

My eyes grew wide. “Conn didn’t come when I called. That’s only happened twice in twenty years, Gale. I knew something was wrong again. What happened to him?”

“The demon had partially possessed him. It’s like a human getting the flu. Conn’s purging the other demon’s essence from his system. It’s painful and makes him very ill. He’s also extremely mad at himself for allowing it to happen. Henry is helping him get through it. He’ll be fine in a few hours.”

“If he wasn’t so concerned about Mulan, Conn wouldn’t have been fooled by that creature. She was trying so hard not to start any trouble with her wretched family and he was trying to go along because he loves her.”

Gale smiled. “Yes. Love hurts us in strange ways.”

I nodded. My love for Mulan had made my head hurt. My back wasn’t in much better shape. I tried to laugh and that hurt too. “It especially hurts when ya end up face down on a marble floor because ya were trying to force yer best friend to do something she didn’t want to do.”

I pointed to the frozen creature. Someone had artfully arranged his long white mustache so that it draped away from his feet. There would be no more decorating my house with statues of bad guys.

“Who stopped the demon?”

Gale smiled. “Mulan and her weapon stopped the demon with a well-spoken chant. Afterward, the guardian did something to help keep him that way but said the effects would wear off in a day. He works very hard to not get involved in things, doesn’t he?”

“Yes. No one works harder at anything than Rasmus does at not involving himself in my real life.” I patted her hand and replaced it with mine on the washcloth. “The demon threw me into the wall.”

“Yes, he did, and everyone saw it. Mulan’s family was appalled at his transformation and more appalled by his actions. But they also begged Mulan not to end him completely. I don’t think they understand that demons can’t be killed or that he doesn’t truly care about them.”

“Because they’re a little possessed too. How can they not know about Mulan’s work? She’s been a Wu Shaman since she was a teenager. She went to school to be one. The hair thing was how she made a living but casting out demons was her calling.”

“I think seeing both of you hurt because she hesitated was too much guilt for Mulan. She fled the house without even checking on you. Henry said she burst into tears when she saw how sick Conn was. She blames herself for your injuries and rightly so. It’s her family causing all the trouble.”

I sighed. “I know, but I can’t be mad at her just for hesitating. Her family makes her as crazy as my ex-husband makes me. I’m feeling more awake now, Gale. Will ya help me sit up?”

Gale put one arm around me and lifted my back until I was upright. Under the washcloth on my head was a knot the size of my fist—or at least, that’s how big it felt. Marble was not a soft surface to land on.

I gingerly swung my legs to the floor and breathed out a sigh when I discovered I wasn’t dizzy. I looked at Gale. “Mulan did the right thing in the end. That’s what matters.”

Gale arched an eyebrow at my statement. “Not really, Aran. She should have destroyed him. That ancient one has never regenerated. You can tell by how he still sees humans as weak prey for his use. Regeneration teaches a demon that being strong is a fleeting state. Regeneration is a price to be paid. His human body’s age and physical condition reveal that he never paid it. Demons are not like humans who learn by watching each other die.”

“Yes, I suppose we do,” I muttered. “But this wasn’t all Mulan’s fault. I need to be more decisive when I’m convinced of something. Conn has fussed at me for my hesitation since I’ve known him. He also thinks I’m too merciful and gloats when that tendency causes me all kinds of trouble. The middle ground is indeed the hardest road for me to walk. If I’d suspected about his possession, though, I promise ya I would not have hesitated.”

Gale smirked at me, took my washcloth, and dipped it into a pan of cold water to re-wet it. “Your other weakness is that you care more for others than for yourself. That’s foolish for someone with your powers. I’m sure it worries your mother daily.”

I shook my head at that one. She didn’t know Bridgette O’Malley the way I did. Ma was more of a risk-taker than I was. She would never have stayed in prison for all those years. I was a bloody coward compared to my mother.

“Isn’t caring for others supposed to be a good quality?” I asked.

Gale laughed but I think it was at my sorrowful expression and disappointed tone.

She smiled at me. “If you don’t mind your sympathetic tendencies causing you a concussion now and again, I suppose you could consider it a good quality.”

I cautiously stood and tested my legs. “I have to tell ya, Gale, your son sounds just like ya when he lectures me. Ya share the same dry wit and sarcasm too. It’s an effective combination. I feel nearly as guilty about what happened as the Wu Shaman does.”

“Then I’ve done my job,” Gale said. “I hope Henry is as successful with Conn.”