Chapter 164

“No shit, we’re in California!” I cheered, though I had no idea what I had to cheer about, only that I was doing this smokescreen thing. I had to be careful what I asked, so I wouldn’t raise any suspicion. “Humans. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.”

That statement was a safe bet, since I bet no one got along with each other.

Shade snorted. “We couldn’t live without them when they had the technology, but now that they’ve lost it? They don’t even know what to do with their own toes other than going to war with each other. It’s painful to see their civilization crumble.”

I bit my tongue before asking what had happened. It seemed the world had passed me by while I had no idea what had happened to myself.

“Yep,” I echoed. “They aren’t number one anymore, are they? Those good old days of policing the Earth are long gone. Fuckers.”

I had nothing against humans. I was just making conversation to fish for more information. But somehow, I knew humans were non-magical and

 mortal. Those who hunted me clearly weren’t humans since they’d thrown magical fireballs at me singing a few strands of my lilac-blue hair.

Shade sent me a non-committal look. “No one expected the arrival of the second horseman when things were all great and humans were all excited about stepping toward the quantum age. All of a sudden, War came, clad in his armor, riding a red horse, blowing the war horn, and raising his sword into the sky. Then global wars swept over Earth. It was before my time, but the horror he struck into mankind and every species half a century ago is still raw. Humans haven’t been able to get themselves together in the wake of War’s destruction. The mass slaughter not only devastated human society but also crippled their entire civilization.”

What? Horseman? And War had come? The name sounded awfully familiar. A series of images spiked through my head like a flood of lightning piercing though a corner of darkness, outlining a formidable figure in red armor on a crimson horse. I could see his flashing clover-green eyes staring straight into my soul, and I shivered in front of such a being, not due to fear but an uncanny connection between us that was buried deeply in my genetic memory.

While I was still unnerved, the brown wolf beneath me suddenly grew in size and height.

“Hey!” I shouted a warning and was about to slip off his back.

Shade snatched me from the brown wolf’s back and placed me on the massive shoulder of his warrior form. I quickly wrapped an arm around Shade’s corded, furry neck to keep from falling. I didn’t need to see myself to picture the ridiculous image of me learning against a monster like a doll.

Going-gray turned to us. “Humans going backwards works fine for us. They still outnumber us, but without their technology, the playing field has been leveled. They’re no longer our biggest threat.”

He wanted to join the conversation, so he had shifted to his warrior form. He also wanted to use this opportunity to get rid of me riding him, especially since Sideburns wasn’t around and his younger cousin was more than happy to oblige and make me his burden.