“Worse?” I croaked. What the fuck was worse than what we’d just gone through?
The detective sighed. “Look, I just wanted to give you a heads-up since you’ve helped us so much. The fog demon story got national media coverage. Now there’s going to be a press conference at the White House tonight.”
The whole forest around me swam at his words and dizziness overtook me. National media coverage. White House press conference. Oh, this was so bad.
“Okay…” Supernatural shit made the news often, but when they called a press conference, a smackdown was coming.
“Evie, they’re going to make every supernatural register for identification and adhere to curfew and God knows what else. They’ve had enough. I felt I owed you a heads-up since your crew helped us out of a bind. Teams will be heading out in the morning.”
Identification, curfew.What?My hands shook as adrenaline pumped through me. Teams heading out?
“Thanks, Detective. I gotta run, but I really appreciate the heads-up,” I told him and signed off.
I called Croft.
“Do you know?” I asked the second the vampire answered.
“That the government is about to tag us like animals and attempt to control our every move? Yes, I have an inside source.”
Fuck!
“What do we do?” I asked. He was the leader of the local vampire seethe, and a lawyer. If anyone had a plan, it’d be him.
“It’s too late for us,” he replied, “but as far as the authorities know, you’re human. So while we’re all getting registered starting tomorrow, you remain human. Do you understand?”
Holy shit. My head swam with the ramifications. I was registered at birth as a human, and when I’d starting working with Mack, I’d enlisted as a human. Every bounty hunter’s race had to be listed on their application.
“Okay. Human. Got it. Anything else?” I said while my brain galloped off in a million different directions. This was really bad. Increased control was the first step in a war for race supremacy.
Heavy silence descended upon our conversation until Croft finally spoke again. “Anyone demonic in origin is going to be taken to a holding site until they can determine the individual’s role in society.”
Bile rose in my throat.
Cass. They were coming for Cass. For my best friend in the whole entire world, the one who always had my back.
Over my dead fucking body.
That little booty-short-wearing demon imp was no danger to humans.
I whimpered.
Croft cleared his throat. “So tomorrow morning when the registration team arrives at the alpha’s place, you have no supernaturals of demon origin on your property.”
Oh God.
“Damn right I don’t.” My voice shook.
“And Evie?”
I swallowed hard. “What?”
“Close that fucking gate,” he said, and hung up.
I was really glad I took that three-hour nap, because shit was about to hit the fan.
12I will fucking cut you
I didn’t havethe composure to deal with the upcoming shitstorm calmly after what had just happened to Molly. My nerves were frayed. So instead of walking into the cabin and coolly announcing that we had an issue to talk about, I ran through the door and yelled that the government was coming after us and Cass was going to be taken. Needless to say, it created a panic.
