Chapter 15

Mulan’s happiness had lost some of its shine after she spoke with her parents but her resolve was still in place. They didn’t believe her story about the jiangshi—no big surprise there—but the Wu Shaman threatened not to release him at all if they didn’t go along. After that threat, they came around.

She took Conn home and pampered him. I never asked a single question about what her pampering entailed but she returned a short thirty minutes later citing he’d fallen asleep.

Rasmus elected to sleep alone until both statues were gone from the foyer. He said he didn’t want to be a distraction to me. We both knew he would have been, so I had to be a grown-up and appreciate his thoughtfulness. Of course, his decision frustrated me too, but it had been my decisions that caused the fight between us to go on for so long.

I also was a big enough person to admit that we might have handled Zara differently if I had not gotten my feelings hurt. I might have inserted myself more strongly into his and Orlin’s plans for the female guardian. Not that I was blaming myself for my current crisis.

Sure, Ma would have blamed me, and Fiona might have as well. Both would have caved on the issues between me and Rasmus sooner than I had. Did that make me more stubborn than them? Or did it simply mean I trusted my judgment over even his?

I had never encountered a man as powerful as Rasmus, even in his human state. Admittedly, Zenos was a close second.

The dragon mage returned late that evening. He strode into the foyer like a conquering king arriving home from a war. It was a shock when he didn’t immediately rail over the absence of willing wenches and bowing servants not there to greet him, but I saw the desire to do so in his haughty gaze.

While the guardians were reserved and secretive, Zenos displayed his power proudly. He also seemed completely unconcerned about the opinions of others. Since some would say that about me, so I could only admire him for it.

In terms of being annoying, he went beyond Rasmus, who annoyed me daily. Zenos managed to annoy me every time he opened his mouth.

But my dragon mage teacher told me truths that no one else bothered to share. He wasn’t trying to shield me from my power or myself. He simply told me what I didn’t know and let me deal with it as best I could. I had no words for how liberating it felt. He treated me more like an equal than any other magickal I’d ever met. Zenos earned my tolerance and gratitude by valuing my opinion and sharing information with me.

A questioning gaze that came ever closer warily shifted between Mulan and me sitting on a couch plotting and the now sheetless creature we had mostly concluded wasn’t a demon. There was still a little room for doubt but I was completely ready to make the call that we truly were dealing with a jiangshi.

Zenos grinned when he saw Mulan’s shaman staff back in its natural form. My face heated with memories of what it had been that day Zenos had flirted with me, but I wasn’t bringing up its previous disguise if he didn’t. The last thing that dragon mage needed was more embarrassing ammunition to use against me.

“I see things are finally normalizing. Did ya lasses figure out the big secret yet?”

Mulan glanced at Zenos and then at me. “Does he speak to us? What is lass? Is it same thing as ass? Should I zap him?”

Communications suffered when global translations didn’t work out well. Translating Zenos into something palatable was an even harder task. Also, the idea of Mulan zapping Zenos highly appealed to me, and I felt highly tempted to goad her into it. Mulan was definitely in a zapping mood. Luckily for the dragon mage, my maturity won out.

I kept my eyes firmly locked on Mulan’s serious gaze instead of looking into the dragon mage’s laughing one. “Zenos is very old-school in his English. Men are lads and women are lasses. He’s not trying to offend anyone. It sort of happens naturally for him in every conversation.”

“Fine. I will ignore odd speech then.” She turned to speak to the dragon mage again. “Greetings, Zenos of the One. I hope you are well today.”

The dragon mage’s smile was all kinds of wicked. “Greetings to ya as well, Mighty Wu. Ya’re certainly looking much better than the last time I saw ya. Have ya recovered from banging yer head?”

“Yes. Head is healed now.”

“And I appreciate yer polite greeting.”

“You are welcome. Aran taught me how to address you properly.”

I narrowed my gaze at his polite conversation with Mulan. He owed me one as well. “Tell me something, Zenos. Do ya always leave without telling anyone where ya’re going? I could have been worried about ya today, ya know. Ya are a guest in my home.”

“Well, now, I have a grand alibi for my time away but I fear it would be wasted on ya in yer current mood. If ya weren’t willing to accept the guardian’s excuses, ya for sure won’t be accepting mine. Yer Rasmus and I are not the kind of men who sit around with our thumbs up our arse. We’re men of action and that’s what we do.”

I grunted in disbelief. “Ya’re right, Zenos. I really don’t want to hear yer excuses, and I still don’t want to hear the guardian’s. But I’m extremely curious about how ya overheard the private conversation I had with Rasmus because that’s the only way ya could have known we discussed those things.”

“And I’m curious if ya told the Wu Shaman what ya did with her staff while she was wounded.”

Mulan snorted. “What wicked, disrespectful thing did the descendent of brash Irish god do with my shaman tool?”

I glared at her for playing along with his dirty joking. Conn was corrupting her. That had to be why she was acting like this. “I did nothing, ya traitorous twat. I would never touch yer tool without yer permission.”

Zenos smirked. “Don’t be fooled, Mulan. Aran turned yer massive cock on and pointed the bloody thing at me. I thought she was making a pass and asking how my manhood compared to it. But then she turned me down when I agreed to bed her. I think they call that sending mixed messages these days. Ya’d think I’d understand women, being immortal and all, but I don’t think it’s possible to understand females. Yer kind are a perpetual mystery.”

Mulan turned to me and raised both eyebrows. I blew out a breath. “It did not happen the way he says. I dug the vibrator out of yer purse to make sure it was the staff. Then Zenos slammed his face against the van window trying to scare me and he startled me into dropping it. The stupid thing turned on when it hit the floor and I had to chase it down to turn it off. The blasted thing nearly vibrated its way under the seat. It was embarrassing and I did not proposition him.”

The Wu Shaman crossed her arms and looked at Zenos to see if my denial was true. He chuckled and shrugged.

I turned and smacked her arm. “Why are ya checking my story with him? He’s the one lying—not me.”

Zenos roared with laughter at my offended tone. “The truth always riles Aran up. I’ve never met a woman with less deceit in her. She’s so much fun that I might need to extend my stay.”

I narrowed my eyes until I was glaring at the dragon mage through slits. “Even yer compliments sound like insults. I can’t believe I was starting to think kindly of ya.”

Mulan laid a hand on my arm to soothe me but she looked at Zenos when she spoke. “Aran and guardian boy toy have not been together in long while. Forgive her, Zenos. She ignores her needs and is testy.”

“Listen now...” I began but Mulan’s fist tightening in the air shut me right up. I clawed at my throat while I stared wide-eyed at her for having the nerve to spell me.

She smiled at Zenos. “When Aran sleeps with boy-toy, I cannot do that to her. He makes her very powerful.”

“Ya don’t say. It must be serious between them if they’re sharing magick.”

Mulan nodded. “Yes. I think it is. He grovels at her feet begging to return to her bed. Her guardian also says my demon brother-in-law is not demon. He says he is a jiangshi who stole life force of demon.”

Zenos slapped his gigantic hands together and clapped in approval. “The guardian is right. The jiangshi were created as a way of imprisoning humans who needed more than one lifetime to give up their trouble-making tendencies. Very few of his kind are left in this world. I think yer brother-in-law survived this long by stealing the energy of an immortal demon. That’s definitely a demon suit he’s wearing. I bet it belongs to the demon royal who needs it back to complete his regeneration.”

My throat finally released enough for me to comment. “By having the royal demon’s life force, he’s stopping the true demon from returning. What a brilliant strategy.” It was almost as brilliant as Zara stealing the life force from young women to keep her alive and young.

Zenos nodded at our findings. “I’m sure he hates his old man with a cane human form. I know I’d hate looking like that. I bet he parades around as a demon more than anything else.”

“We seek to make him young again yet still erase his ability to jump bodies,” Mulan said.

Zenos grunted. “Why don’t ya just end the bastard, Mighty Wu? Ya’d be doing a good deed for the demon he stole his form from and getting rid of a problem for yer family. A jiangshi can die for good if ya know how to kill him. Ya just got to find the right way.”

Mulan shrugged. “Killing him would be worse decision. Spoiled sister loves him.”

“Well, good luck to yer attempts to reform him then. If I’m awake tomorrow, I’ll come watch.”

Mulan shook her head. “No, we must do it tonight. We cannot trust our magick to hold him until morning.”

“Let me see if I can help with that.” Zenos walked over and poked at the hairy creature’s cheek. “No, he’s good until tomorrow. The guardian will have to release him before ya can work yer plan on him. Those snooty bastards can stop time, ya know. That’s what he did here for yer jiangshi.”

Zenos glanced at the sheet-covered Ezra and pointed at him. “The fairy’s good for another couple of weeks but he won’t last that long. Yer answer to that problem is on its way. I had a vision of him getting free.”

“Is that yer omniscience talking?” I asked with all the snark I possessed.

The dragon mage never even dignified it with a frown, which was highly disappointing.

Zenos smiled at me instead. “No, not omniscience this time. I have a gift for predicting as well. But in this case, it’s a matter of connecting the dots. Ya got to get the angel energy off of him or ya’ll never be able to send him beyond the veil. Didn’t yer guardian tell that, either?”

Mulan and I exchanged glances. Why would Rasmus not tell me there was no need to worry about Ezra and the jiangshi? Was it more of his determination to not get overly involved? Our squabbles were no reason for him to withhold valuable information from me. And I would tell him so the first chance I got.

“Well, night all. I’m one very tuckered dragon this evening,” Zenos said with a wave as he started up the stairs.

I hissed out my frustration after he was gone. “Now ya see why I want to kill Rasmus as much as I want to sleep with him. This is the guardian’s bloody way of making sure he has to be involved even if he only chooses to watch. I swear if he brings a book tomorrow, I’m going to seriously hurt him.”

Mulan burst out laughing. “I’m going home to sleep, witch. Maybe I have sex if I get lucky. You should have sex too.”

“I’m not in the mood.”

“You are funny woman. Lie. Lie. Lie.”

She was right, of course, but I wasn’t admitting it. Not after learning Rasmus had once again withheld secrets from me.

“If Conn doesn’t keep ya in bed too long, come to breakfast in the morning. We’ll work out the details then,” I yelled at her back.

Her head bobbed as she let herself out and thoughtfully locked the front door behind her.

I stood seething in the foyer for a few minutes more. Sometimes my life was great and sometimes it sucked. At twenty, I’d found that variety exciting. At forty, all I wanted was a soothing nightly ritual before I went to sleep. Well, that and a warm, welcoming set of masculine arms to sink into.

Hating the chaos I lived with, I yanked the giant sheet from the floor and tossed it into the air. As it fell, I chanted, shoved some magick into the fabric, and then motioned for it to spread out like a blanket until it felt gently over the jiangshi.

It was an OCD moment for me. I found it unsettling that Ezra was the only bad guy who successfully remained hidden. I had no choice except to fix it.

After that task was completed, I needed to decide what to do about my sleeping arrangements. My room was mine again and so was the bed. The problem was that I didn’t want to be in it alone. What was a tired, grumpy warrior witch supposed to do when she needed some sleep? My eyelids were heavy and my headache had returned. I’d be no use to Mulan tomorrow if I frowned at the ceiling all night.

Muttering under my breath and calling myself a fool, I climbed the stupid stairs of my stupid mansion to once again sleep next to the stupid guardian who was driving me insane. Giving up my independence for comfort was so weak of me. But after napping with Rasmus today, I knew I needed the guardian’s company to get to sleep.

Maybe I needed to tell Henry and Gale I was finally ready to eat my pride for dinner. They could serve it up with all the I-told-ya-so comments they felt I deserved. Every cell in my needy, womanly body said the humiliation would be worth being able to wrap my legs around the naked male who wanted me next to him.

Except I’d forgotten that Rasmus was sleeping in the blue house with Zara.

Since I’d already climbed the freaking stairs, I wasn’t trudging back down like a rejected lover. So I climbed into the guardian’s bed that at least smelled like him.