Chapter 165

“Humans aren’t our enemies, vampires are,” Shade explained. “And you forget that even before the human global wars ended, the supernatural war had already started.”

“Everyone wants power.” Going-gray shook his head. “Without War, the second horseman, paving the path for us, the supernaturals would never

 have dared come into the light. The Feds would still have control of the fifty states, and we’d never have been able to claim Nevada as Shifter City.” “The bloodsuckers got Washington State, which has richer soil,” Shade

said ruefully.

“There’s always good and bad.” Going-gray shrugged one of his

massive shoulders. “And they don’t come to our land of sun and heat.” “California still belongs to humans, though,” I chimed in after I had

safely deduced that I could throw in a question. “Shouldn’t we take it?” “It’s best if California remains independent and neutral,” Going-gray

said. “It’s our cushion.”

“It’s dangerous to be complacent, cousin,” Shade said. “War might have

done us a favor, but it was not out of the kindness of his heart. When Death, the next horseman, comes, he’ll have no discrimination toward any species. The prophecy said that even if we can delay him, as every power on Earth has been trying to do, his daughter will still come to finish the job. In fact, she’s probably already here.”

My heart rammed into my ribcage and nearly burst with panic.

The hunters had called me “Death bitch.”

But it couldn’t be me. I couldn’t be Death’s daughter who came to finish

everyone off. I wasn’t that kind of person.

Was that why the hunters had tried to put me down, as they deemed I

was horror and death incarnate? I didn’t believe those assholes who would go after a lone girl like me, but then why had my limbs gone ice cold?

Shade glanced at me sideways. “So what was a pretty girl like you doing in a sexy sleep gown in the wilderness anyway, Pip?”

He wasn’t calling me Catnip, which meant he wasn’t trying to make a joke. He only used the light tone to disguise his serious concern.

Going-gray snapped his eyes toward me with undisguised suspicion. This one always thought the worst of people. That was why he was Sideburns’ second-in-command.

“I don’t remember,” I half-lied. “I might have been sleepwalking, and then I fell from the waterfall and hurt my head. Then the river brought me here.”

Shade regarded me steadily. “Be careful next time.”

I knew he didn’t believe me, but he was kind enough not to call me out on my half-truths. What he didn’t know was that it was simply too hard to

 explain what had happened to me. Plus, I didn’t want the shifters to know about the hunters.

What if they were associates? The shifters might just hand me over to—

Wait a second. Shade had mentioned that Mage Town bordered both Shifter City and California. We were heading to the inner city of California now, and from there, we’d cross to Shifter City in Nevada.

That meant I had escaped Mage Town, and the hunters had to have been mostly mages.