Chapter 8

Feeling the need to bring everyone up to speed, I searched for Rasmus and Zara. I found them on the third floor of the house. The room mirrored the library except it contained no books. Instead, Henry made it look like a picture gallery. The two guardians were quietly reading books at a table set in front of a large window that peered down the driveway. That meant they had witnessed what had happened.

Both of them looked at me as I entered, but it was Rasmus who spoke. “We would have come to help but didn’t want to be one more problem for you to deal with. Is Mulan okay?”

“I hope so. Conn thinks she hit her head on the van’s windshield when the wards went off.”

Rasmus closed the book he was reading to give me his full attention. “What caused the wards to react to her vehicle? The car has been in her driveway for several days with no problems.”

I shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. Someone in Mulan’s family probably caused the problem. Watch yerselves around them. They speak no English and don’t give a flip about anyone but themselves. They paid Mulan no mind when she got hurt. If I hadn’t given my word to Mulan, I would have hexed them.”

Rasmus grinned at my irritation. “Would you like me to incapacitate them until you can discern the level of danger they present?”

I froze where I stood. ”Would ya actually do that for me?” I knew I sounded shocked but I had a right to be.

Rasmus shrugged. “The magick is harmless and triggers a level of deep sleep that most find it difficult to awake from for many hours. It didn’t work as well on you but perhaps it would on them. Their jet lag might also work in your favor.”

My mouth twitched at one corner. It wasn’t funny, and yet it was. “I guess I’m just special.”

“You are certainly unique,” he said with a smile.

I looked over at Zara. I didn’t want her to feel left out. “How are ya doing today, Zara?”

She shrugged without meeting my gaze. “The books Henry provided are quite challenging to read. I seem to know the ancient language of them but I’m drawing a blank about some of the context.”

“What books?” I asked politely. Then I remembered Orlin had been the one who’d brought books for Zara. “Oh, wait... I know what books. They’re the ones my grandfather sent to me about forgotten races who practiced the ancient magick ya used to change the women into wolves.”

“Indeed,” Zara said flatly. ”You have an impressive memory and an extensive knowledge of witchcraft.”

“Perhaps, but only the version I practice. My dragon mage teacher delights in showing me that I have much magick left to learn.”

“The dragon is as immortal as my brother and I,” Zara said as if warning me. “His view of your kind is just as tainted as ours. I would imagine he hates you even more since humans killed most of what remained of his species.”

I snorted at her words. “As powerful as Zenos is, he could have ended humanity long ago and without the guardians helping him. He said he finds humans entertaining. We’re the comedic relief for his immortal boredom.”

Zara didn’t roll her eyes but her glance away from me served the same purpose.

I smiled at her. “I consider being human and forty makes me and the guardians two of a kind. I’m as set in my thinking and determined to do as I damn please as any guardian is. Sometimes I think I’m in training to be a guardian in my afterlife.”

A smiling Henry appeared in the doorway briefly. “Sorry to interrupt, Aran, but the Wu Shaman is awake. I thought you’d want to know.”

I turned to leave but Rasmus stopped me with a touch on my arm. I hadn’t realized he’d been close enough to reach out.

“Do you need a place to sleep tonight? I noticed Conn put Mulan in your bed.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Is that an offer to share your bed with ya?” Rasmus looked so hopeful that a smile bloomed across my lips. “If the Wu Shaman stays in my quarters tonight, I’ll check back with ya. How does that sound?”

“Hopeful,” Rasmus said with a smile of his own. “It sounds very hopeful to me.”

Henry could easily fix me up with a bedroom of my own. I could have told Rasmus that even with all the guests in the house, there were still empty rooms on the second floor with nothing in them. The third floor provided rooms for Henry and Gale and their helpers, but they weren’t all full, either.

If I was temporarily kicked out of my quarters, the idea of sleeping next to Rasmus with Mulan’s parents down the hall held more appeal.

That way, if Mulan’s parents gave me any grief, I’d hold Rasmus to his promise to knock them all out.

Despite Conn growling,the woman was determined to stand. I had to push on her shoulder with considerable force to help keep her in place.

“Stay where you are, Mulan. Ya”re recovering from a concussion, and that”s nothing to mess with.”

“I do not understand this,” she said.

I released my grip to pat her instead. “There’s nothing to understand yet. The wards went off halfway up the driveway. We don’t know why.”

“It happened just as I told you,” Conn said.

Mulan raised a hand to feel her forehead. She winced at the bandage that now covered her head scrape. “Did I pick up more than family at airport?”

I patted harder. “If ya did, the beastie hasn’t shown itself yet. The most important thing right now is whether or not that hard head of yers got permanently damaged. So behave and let us fuss over ya until we know for sure ya’re okay. Conn and ya can spend the night here. That way ya’ll be close to yer people.”

“Where will you sleep?” Mulan asked.

“This giant house has all kinds of empty bedrooms. Henry will find me a place.” I straightened until I stood over her. “Zenos says Ezra is on his way to breaking free of the angel’s hold. Ya need to be strong enough to shake yer shaman stick at him if that happens.”

“Staff is in van. You must fetch. Connlander cannot do it because he is too angry.”

I nodded. “Okay. I’ll go get it now. What’s it look like today?”

“Small vibrator in purse,” Mulan said, rubbing her bandage.

I fisted both hands on my hips. “Ya can’t be serious.”

“No one touch it or try to steal it,” Mulan said.

I sure wouldn’t mess with another woman’s sex toys, but she was with her family. What if someone in her family had found it? They could have taken her purse. The very thought of Ma finding a vibrator in my purse made me shudder.

“I’ll retrieve yer purse for ya. I’ll do it right now,” I said.

I left quickly before Conn questioned her unusual camouflage. That was a discussion I wanted no part of today.

I hadto track Henry down to get the keys because the van was locked. His people had turned them in to him for safekeeping. The inside of the van smelled faintly of cherry blossoms but also a muskier scent, like wet soil after a rainstorm. An electric charge echoed off the trapped air in the vehicle and it tingled my skin.

Maybe Mulan had picked up something at the airport. Or maybe her family had dragged something wicked along with them from their homeland. Whatever it was raised my hackles and all I wanted was away from it.

I rescued her purse from between the seats and searched inside it for the staff. The last thing I wanted was to tell her it was missing. I’d seen her transform it into a stick, a ball bat, and something that resembled a tire iron. She’d also turned it into a small baton that she often hid on her person.

It took me a while to sift through all the makeup, hairbrushes, and hair gels. Finally, I pulled out something that felt like rubber out from under all her female crap. The thing was ten inches long and anatomically correct. I shook my head at what I now held in my hand and tried very hard not to wonder about where she got her inspiration.

“I’m sorry, staff. I’m sure the Wu Shaman meant well. I also hope ya don’t feel demeaned by her choice of camouflage,” I told it with a laugh.

We are fine with her, a female voice announced in my head as the vibrator turned on in my hand.

I dropped it and watched as it bounced against the floor mat. “Shit,” I said, grappling for it as it buzzed toward the door. “Goddess, I didn’t know ya bloody could talk. She never said ya could do that.”

I finally wrangled it and shut it off. I shook it to make sure it didn’t turn on again.

We cannot talk to her. We can only talk to you.

I frowned at the thing I held because that didn’t seem fair to Mulan. She would not be happy when she realized I could talk to her staff and she couldn’t. It was doubly horrifying to talk to something that looked and acted like a vibrator.

I also didn’t know why I possessed such a skill. “Why can ya talk to me and not her?”

Because of those you carry. You allow us to be heard.

I put a hand on my chest. The Dagda stone had talked to me in the cave but had said nothing since. It certainly hadn’t told me I was special. It had barely kept me alive.

I shook the vibrator again. “Are ya saying I can hear ya because of the Dagda stone?”

We are the spirits of the staff. We talk to the Wu Shaman in our own way.

I held the vibrator up to the window so I could get a better look at the thing. It looked exactly like something ya’d buy at the sex toy store but certainly not anything magickal. Well, not magickal in the non-carnal sense. It turned on and vibrated—Goddess, help me.

I retrieved Mulan’s purse intending to return the vibrator to its hiding spot under the rest of Mulan’s precious woman things. I certainly didn’t want to hear that lecture again. My lack of femaleness was still a sore point between us.

Zenos laughingly yelled as he suddenly pressed his face against the passenger-side window. I screamed and swore at the sight of him. The stupid vibrator went flying as I frantically freed my hands to call a weapon like I always did when startled.

At least, the thing didn’t turn on when it hit the floor this time.

Swearing at Zenos and insulting his mother with every breath, I rubbed my chest as I once again searched for Mulan’s weapon on the floor.

Zenos opened the van door then and grinned at me. “Did ya lose yer cock, lass? I know where there’s one ya won’t have so much trouble keeping a grip on.”

“I ought to cut yers off with one of my demon swords for scaring me,” I said with a glare.

The wicked dragon mage snickered at my tone as I buried the vibrator under all of Mulan’s stuff again.

“And it’s not mine, ya dirty-minded bastard. I don’t use sex toys.”

Zenos stopped and smirked. “Well, why not? Is the guardian’s male human ego too fragile to handle his woman’s need for a little bit of extra fun?”

I grunted in disgust. Good Goddess, the one thing I could honestly not fault Rasmus for was his generosity in bed. Not that I intended to brag about that to my irreverent, too-nosey teacher. My sex life was no business of the dragon mage’s.

“Tell me something, Zenos. Is yer mind always in the gutter?”

“No—not at all,” a grinning Zenos said with a headshake that sent his long red hair swinging around his massive shoulders. “My mind is usually in some woman’s pants as I’m imagining what she and I could do together. Since ya’re not getting any cock from yer guardian at the moment, I figured that justified my fantasies about ya and made them less wicked. Ya’re ripe for seducing, Aran.”

I glared up at him and growled in my throat to keep from screeching at him.

There was no doubt Zenos could fulfill every promise I saw shining in his eyes. But so could the man I cared about who also cared about me. Sure, he might often leave me with no word of goodbye, but he never attempted to use me in bed—never.

Zenos saw me only as a conquest. I felt sure he looked at most women that way. Maybe he missed his mate. Maybe he didn’t. Whatever the truth of his feelings for her, Zenos needed to restrain himself in my presence. I was already taken. Wasn’t I?

“Piss off, dragon. I’m not interested in ya,” I said, slinging Mulan’s now vibrator-laden purse up my arm and over my shoulder. “If I was ever that desperate for a man, ya wouldn’t even be on the shortlist.”

Zenos chuckled. “Well, I guess ya put me in my place then. Now I’ll have to behave around ya. Forgive me for teasing ya, lass.”

I nodded stiffly and marched off. Even though his wicked, lustful expression might be burned into my brain, I wasn”t a woman who indulged herself with outright scoundrels just because they looked as good as he did.

Well, I wasn’t that kind of woman anymore. Prison had changed me.

I sure hoped it was for the better. I’d refused to sleep with Rasmus for good reasons. I would not bounce in and out of the dragon mage’s bed to pay for his teaching services, either.

I prayed to Danu that I’d be able to laugh about this later. A mature woman ought to hold a vibrator in her hand without feeling ashamed of it. But it was one thing to know ya should feel okay and another to pull off not caring about the opinions of others with dignity.

My face flamed the entire way to the house. Since I made it back unseduced and not much more emotionally scarred, I counted myself lucky. That lusty, teasing bastard calling himself my teacher was exactly the kind of male I used to like.