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Rasmus smiled at me. “They are his original family.”

“Original?What does that mean?” I turned around to look at Conn. His head was down and his shoulders were shaking. I snapped my fingers at him to make him stop laughing. “Look at me, ya laughing hyena. What’s the guardian hinting at? Ya know I hate it when Rasmus knows something I don’t. He’s arrogant enough as it is.”

Henry cleared his throat. “Connlander, stop laughing at your keeper and answer her. She deserves your respect.”

Conn finally raised his head. “I told you Aran was like no one else before her. Do you think I would ask you to come here if she were not worthy of your time?”

Gale crossed her arms and looked at him. “I admit I am impressed that the witch defends you to the world.”

Nodding, Conn smiled at the demoness. “Yes, Aran does that all the time. She’s done it since I met her.”

I glared at Conn. “Are ya going to tell me about yer actual relationship to these two demons, or should I keep trying to guess, Conn? Sometimes yer joking around is not funny and this is one of them.”

The Wu Shaman chose that moment to walk into the foyer singing in Chinese. When she realized there was a crowd listening, her staff struck the floor until the turtle shells on the end of it clacked together.

“Don’t attack, Mulan. These people are Conn’s guests.”

“They are demons... andstrangers,” Mulan added.

I rolled my eyes at her drama. “Yes, I know they’re demons and that Conn never warned us they were coming today. Put yer Wu Shaman staff away and come be introduced. Henry and Gale will be our new caretakers. Conn pranked us. We’ll have to get even with him for it later.”

Henry laughed loudly as he stared at Mulan while Gale’s frown at the Wu Shaman couldn’t have been deeper. I sighed and wondered if I needed to draw my sword to keep the peace.

“No,” Rasmus said in my ear.

Wondering who I could get to train me to keep Rasmus out of my head, I blew out a breath and waited for things to play out.

Still laughing, Henry shook his head at his mate’s reaction. “Why are you pretending to be above this? It wasyouruncle who used to pretend demons weren’t real and that he wasn’t one. You need to admit once and for all that your genes are the reason the boy only falls in love with the odd females.”

Gale turned and looked at him. “Connlander isour king, Henry. He can consort with whatever sort of female he chooses but some warning of what she was would have been nice. Her magick is strong enough to be a problem for him and us.”

“Yes, Galicia. I agree with that. As you said Connlander isour king, but he is a king who knows more than most about how hard it is to live alone. If this strange female gives him joy, we have no choice but to accept her.”

“Iam notstrange. I am Wu Shaman,” Mulan said, pounding her staff on the foyer floor until the entire house shook.

I flinched and looked around for any damage before glaring at her. “Don’t cause an earthquake in my museum of a house, Mulan. Put your staff away.”

I looked from Mulan to the demons and blinked at their strange conversation.

“Have you figured it out yet?” Rasmus asked from over my shoulder.

I turned my head and glared up at him. “Ya enjoy it when I’m too tired to think clearly, don’t ya? If ya weren’t keeping me up every night, I’d be doing fine figuring things out.”

Chuckling, Rasmus turned me to face him and pinned my arms in place so I couldn’t move.

“Long ago,Henare of the Fir Bolgfell in love and mated withGalicia of the Fomorians. Their forbidden love for each other resulted in the surprising birth of the first immortal child born to any of Goddess Danu’s tribes in several millennia. The child grew up to become the youngest demon king the tribes had ever known. When the Goddess sent her beloved Tuatha de Danann to bring peace to all of Ireland, legends say the one true king traded his freedom to save his war-hungry people from experiencing true death. Some say he’s the reason demons never die. Even if that isn’t true, he is certainly the reason that demons still live.”

Mulan and I both turned in shock to look at the couple. She stared at them, frozen like a statue. I was the yeller so that’s what I did.“Goddess bless, Conn. Why didn’t ya tell me Henry and Gale were yer parents?”

Conn shrugged a shoulder. “I’m so used to hiding our relationship from the world that it never dawned on me to point it out to any of you. But I should have known the guardian would explain it. Rasmus loves sharing every little thing he knows with everyone he comes into contact with.”

Rasmus grinned at Conn. “Is that supposed to be insulting? Surely you know I think more highly of myself.”

Conn chuckled. His grin left when Mulan dropped her staff on the floor and covered her face with her hands. He rushed to her side to offer comfort, but she wasn’t having it. Mulan yelled at him in Chinese and pushed him away to face his parents.

She bowed her head to each of them. “I practice Wu Shaman magick and drive out evil demons for living. You may hate my work. I accept this. Still... you are welcome in my home while your rude, insensitive son shares my bed. I will kick him out if he deceives me again.”

I blinked at Mulan’s long speech. She rarely said more than a few sentences and she rarely showed any humility.