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“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.

Chapter Sixteen

Even though I didn't sleep well without Rasmus by my side, I still managed to get some rest.

While I was making my way down the stairs the next morning, Rasmus and Zara walked through the front door. I walked by and waved as I went to my room to change.

Later, the guardian wrinkled his forehead at me over breakfast. I’d shaken my head to ward off any public discussion. We were acting like some old married couple talking with our eyes. If he started finishing my sentences, I would be in real trouble.

The breakfast conversation mainly focused on the jiangshi. Mulan was still on the fence about the best way to fix him. Of all people, it was Zara who chimed in with some truly helpful info. The female guardian gave us her best teacher-of-an-inferior-species look as she arrogantly explained.

“Traditionally, someone magickal creates a paper talisman with symbols which gets affixed to the jiangshi’s forehead. The symbols serve to hinder the creature's ability to possess others, body hop, or otherwise abandon in their human form.”

Sipping his tea, Rasmus also contributed to the discussion. “Talismans also were the reason that many of the jiangshi got destroyed. Everyone knew who they were.”

I nodded at both of their comments. “I imagine their actual form was fragile with human death despite it also being magickly immortal. Mulan’s brother-in-law is an old man with a cane in his human form. Even someone ancient wouldn’t be hard to kill if they didn’t have some kind of powerful magick sustaining them.”

Conn’s head lifted from his phone. “I heard someone say kill. Are we killing him, after all? I’m ready to end this.”

My demon familiar picked at his soft scrambled eggs and nibbled dry toast this morning. I felt sorry for his loss of appetite but not enough to override Mulan’s decision not to kill her brother-in-law.

“No, Conn. We’re not killing him. Didn’t ya hear anything Zara said? Her idea is good. I can see a talisman working.”

And I was being sincere.

The guardians had nullified Zara’s negative motivations toward humanity but left the profound intellect that the female guardian had cultivated during her time alone on Earth. If I thought too long about how easily the guardians reprogrammed people, I might have killed both of them in their sleep and laid out a plan to get rid of all the others, including Orlin.

Ya’d think the female guardian might be a little grateful for me championing her idea. Instead, Zara shrugged off my compliment as if it meant nothing to her.

It was becoming clear that her innate resentment of me had evolved into a strong disdain, even if she didn’t remember the details of why she hated me. Did she instinctually know I was her jailer? Or had Rasmus and his cover story about me sparing her life thinned? She rebelled nearly daily. I currently doubtedher reformation would last five weeks much less five years. But I was keeping that to myself for now.

Zara’s disgusted snort was loud. “What was done to them originally won’t work anymore. No one can walk around with a piece of paper stuck to their head in this century without being treated for mental problems. You need to adapt the solution to the current culture.”

“Maybe we use tattoos for symbols,” Mulan offered as a suggestion.

Zara nodded and smiled. “Yes. Tattoos would work well. The best would be to draw them in ink, and then magickly transfer them onto the creature’s human form. The only problem is that tattoos can be lasered off human skin—even dead skin.”

Then the female guardian pointed at me with her fork. “Aran knows a spell to drive the talisman beneath his human flesh. She did it to her family’s heirloom. Putting the talisman inside him would force it to remain a permanent part of him.”

“Are ya finding many spells of that sort in yer research?” I asked, pretending to be more interested in my food than in her answer.