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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 onlyseemslike 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 isour 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 isdisgusting. 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’twatch out for him, monitor Ezra, and make sure Mulan did her Wu Shaman duty.