Page 26

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 myhead 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 hearthatlecture 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.