Chapter 178

 “I’m not the one playing games here,” I said. “You just told me that Lucian’s vampires were hunting me, so don’t blame me for being a little bit curious about my potential kidnapper.”

“So you admit you’re the one he wants?” Sideburns asked.

“Don’t put words in my mouth. It won’t help either one of us.”

“I don’t think her animal is a wolf,” Going-gray murmured. “She must

be a fox.”

“You know that there are two rival vampire sects, right, Pip?” Shade

chimed in. “One sect is under the thumb of Lucian, a primordial vampire, and the other sect is ruled by Marlowe, the Vampire God.”

My heart nearly burst. “The Vampire God?”

“Marlowe is more of a legend,” Shade explained. “He barely steps onto the continent of North America, though he has influences here too, but Lucian is the enemy we focus on.”

My face grew hot, then cold. Marlowe was the one I needed to find. The vampire horde we’d encountered wasn’t his. Just as my instincts had told me, the Vampire God wouldn’t have had his minions fetch me. He had come for me in person in an even more dangerous situation.

Sideburns shot Shade a warning look. “We aren’t here to discuss the vampires or their politics, even though Marlowe is a future threat. You can be certain of that.” His hard gaze snapped back to me and roamed over my face. For a second, he even checked out my boobs, but he quickly moved his eyes up, trying to disguise the heat simmering within them. He really didn’t like his attraction to me.

Another thought came to me, one I didn’t like. He was ashamed of his attraction toward me. We weren’t equals. He was the most high-ranking shifter, next to the king, and I was probably the lowest, if I even proved to be a shifter. We were mismatched in every aspect, except in biology.

My face suddenly burned with humiliation and anger, as I could feel his disdain toward me. I could also feel what was on his mind—bending me over and having his way with me.

Sideburns cleared his throat to rein himself in; the heat in his eyes cooled.

“Another group was also hunting you other than vampires,” he said. “You were wounded before we found you in that shrub. Our healer said you had an arrow and a bullet wound, along with the remains of some potent black spells.”

 “I’m one hell of an unlucky chick,” I said with a sigh. “The strangest things keep happening to me ever since I left home.”

I frowned and decided to tell them some half-truths. I had to give them something, a story, before I could figure out the truth for myself. “You’re damn right about there being another group. Some gangsters or satanic cultists were chasing me in the woods for no reason. I didn’t even know them, and yet, they were calling me horrible names. There was no way I was going to let them capture me so they could probably rape and kill me, so I ran and jumped from the waterfall. I survived and hid, and then you guys showed up and dragged me out here.”