Autumn's Blood: The Spirit Shifters, Book One (14 page)

Blake stared around. “You have got to
be fucking kidding me.”

Chogan looked to Autumn with fresh
suspicion in his eyes. “So what are they so caught up about you for
Blondie. A scientist, huh? What kind of scientist?”

Blake glared at her, but this time she
didn’t get the hint. “I’m a molecular geneticist.”

“So, basically someone who works on
DNA?” His eyes narrowed. “What are you not telling me,
Cuz?”

“Nothing.” Blake scowled.

Chogan gave a half-smile. “Now why do
I not believe that?”

AUTUMN COULD BARELY believe she’d just
seen herself on television. And for them to say Blake had killed
someone… Well, she knew the report was untrue. Chogan had been the
one who killed a man.

“I need to let my dad know I’m safe,”
she said. “And Mia, my roommate. They’ll be so worried if they see
the news.” With a deep-rooted sadness, she realized she didn’t have
many other people in her life who would be worried about her. She’d
spent so much time focused on her work, she’d not spent any on
cultivating new friendships, or relationships even. In fact, it had
been a long time since she’d been in a hotel room with any man,
never mind two.

“You can’t contact anyone,” said
Blake. “Dumas will probably have people stationed close to your
family and home. It’ll be the first place he’ll think you’ll
go.”

Chogan butted in. “And why is the
government so interested in her again?”

Blake ignored him. “We’ll be safe here
for the time being. We need to consider our next move.”

“Our next move is going and getting
those shifters out,” said his cousin.

Blake shook his head. “It’s not so
simple.”

“Sounds simple to me.”

“I can’t risk taking Autumn back
there.”

“Why not?”

“She might get hurt.”

Chogan locked a hand in his long hair
and gave an exasperated sigh. “Fine, we’ll leave her here. I still
don’t understand why you’ve dragged her along anyway.”

Blake scowled. “She was involved. I
couldn’t just abandon her.”

“No, but you can leave her
now.”

“That’s a government facility, Chogan.
Do you really think they’re going to let you waltz in and set three
shifters free after what Dumas has done to them? There’s security
on every door, cameras in every corner.”

“I thought you were supposed to be
part of that security?”

“I am. And I know the place better
than anyone. You’re not getting in there right now. Anyway, I can’t
leave Autumn on her own.”

Chogan appraised her, his eyes roving
up and down her body. She didn’t think much of the way the two men
were having a discussion around her instead of with her. She
thinned her lips and did her best to hold herself back from
punching him in the head.

He smirked. “Why not? She looks like a
big girl. I’m sure she can take care of herself.”

Autumn straightened, her eyebrows
cocked. “I am here, you know!” she snapped. She didn’t know who to
be madder at, but she turned to Blake. “He’s right. I
can.”

“I don’t care. I’m not leaving you
here alone. You’re too … important ...” He stumbled over his
words.

She noted the color in his cheeks and
the way he glanced away from her, and felt sure he’d been about to
say something else.

“Well, I’m not hanging around here,”
said Chogan, heading for the door. “You two hide away here, but I’m
going to find out what the hell is going on.”

Chapter
Thirteen

CHOGAN STEPPED FROM the hotel and
paused to assess his surroundings. The government building was
located on the other side of the city, but he didn’t intend to
catch a cab. One of his strengths was being able to run—even in
human form—and he enjoyed doing so. Besides, being on foot would
give him time to think. Something wasn’t quite right with his
cousin’s story about the blonde scientist, though he couldn’t
figure out what part was off. The woman wasn’t one of them, he knew
that much, but at the same time, there seemed to be something else
about her. She gave off a kind of radiance he found himself drawn
to, and, by the look of things, Blake reacted to her in the same
way.

It wouldn’t be the first time the two
of them had been interested in the same woman, and the situation
hadn’t worked out well the last time. In fact, things couldn’t have
ended any worse. The memory still managed to invoke a fresh stab of
pain. The events of almost ten years ago had been the final straw
for Blake, the thing that had finally caused him to turn his back
on their family and leave for good. He’d initially joined the army,
which led him to his role now.

He was aware that Blake held him to
blame about what happened all those years ago, and in a way he
couldn’t blame him. But, whatever Blake believed, Chogan couldn’t
help but feel like his cousin should never have turned his back on
his own.

As he ran through the streets, people
gave him strange glances. Not often did they see a six-foot-tall
Native American with long hair running through the city.

Having his cousin’s face plastered all
over the news didn’t help matters. People might catch a glimpse of
him and perhaps confuse him with Blake. Even though they were
distinctly different in body size and temperament, people who’d
only ever caught Blake’s face on television might get them
confused.

Chogan focused into himself and
connected with his wolf; a big, ferocious animal, always quick to
react, ready to shift whenever needed. His wolf liked him to be in
wolf form, wanted to be at one with the rest of the world. Chogan
sensed being in spirit form frustrated the animal, and sometimes he
had to mentally hold his wolf off from forcing him to
shift.

Being on the reservation, though
surrounded by forest and animals to hunt, the wolf grew restless
with the lack of new stimulation. Even though they were surrounded
by concrete now, he got the sense his spirit guide was enjoying the
challenge of this new hunt.

The wolf ran ahead.

Only a block from the government
building, Chogan drew to a stop. His wolf placed several images in
his head—a group of people standing outside the building,
surrounding the steps leading up to the unmarked blacked-out glass
doors. On top of the steps stood a man with silvery-white hair who
wore an expensive suit and a grim expression. Several flashes of
bright light made Chogan blink and raise his hand to shield his
eyes, as though the action would make a difference. The bright
lights he saw were inside his head.

Reporters
. He guessed they were
present for the apparent kidnapping of the scientist his cousin was
now holed up with in his hotel room.

Damn. With all those people hanging
around, he wouldn’t be able to get close to the building. He’d need
to send his wolf inside, though the farther his wolf travelled from
him, the weaker their connection became.

Still, he decided, getting
some idea of the layout of the building would be better than having
none at all
.

Go,
he instructed his guide.
Into the
building and down to the lowest level.

His wolf growled and leapt forward,
passing, unnoticed by the crowd of people, through the
door.

Chogan received information in a reel
of images in his head. More security stood on the inside. An
elevator, a set of doors, a corridor, more people in suits hurrying
as though the weight of the world was on their
shoulders.

Go down.

His wolf was still tied to the real
world, it couldn’t fly or dive beneath water for long periods of
time. Though able to pass through walls and doors as if they didn’t
exist, it couldn’t jump down an elevator shaft of several stories.
There had to be another way to the bottom level.

His wolf slowed its pace. It walked
with its nose close to the floor, searching for another way down,
but, as Blake had said, the only way seemed to be via the
elevator.

The wolf lifted its head and whined as
someone approached. Long, authoritative strides, suit jacket
flapping with the man’s motion. The wolf sent Chogan the image of
the same man who’d been stood on the steps. Was this the one Blake
had mentioned about being linked to the capture and torture of the
other shifters? Dumas?

The man entered the elevator and
pressed his finger to a screen on the right of the
keypad.

Go!
Chogan willed.

He sensed the wolf’s reluctance, but
it followed, and the elevator headed down. The doors opened and the
man walked out, unaware of the wolf hot on his heels.

They passed into a room filled with a
panel of computers. A couple of people at the panel monitoring
something beyond turned to nod at Dumas as he walked in. The wolf
rose on its haunches, front paws placed on the panel to see over
the top. A glass screen divided the computers and men from what lay
beyond. Three people were held captive. His wolf growled and, in
unison, all of the shifters lifted their heads.

Chogan wished he could hear what was
being said. The men were obviously talking to one another, but due
to the distance between him and his wolf, he was unable to pick up
their words.

The state of the captives made him
furious. Each of them sported blackened eyes and abrasions, and the
woman had each of her arms and legs bound in thick support
bandages. They were no longer tied, but instead each huddled in a
corner of their own personal cell. A metal chair stood in the
center of each of the cells. The source of the electroshock
treatment, he assumed.

How had his cousin been a part of
this? How could he stand by and do nothing while these people were
being hurt?

Anger boiled up inside him. Blake had
always made out like he was the injured party, the one who always
played the good guy to his bad, but now here were people who he’d
allowed to be harmed.

Using all his mental strength to keep
the bond with his wolf strong, even at hundreds of feet through the
earth, he urged his wolf forward, through the panels of glass and
into the individual glass cells with the captive shifters. Though
his wolf could do nothing physical, he placed a wet nose into each
captive’s hands in turn, nuzzling with hot wolf-breath, trying to
offer just a little comfort.

I’ll get you out,
he promised them silently.
However many of these sons of bitches I need to kill to do
it.

BLAKE PACED AROUND the hotel room, his
fists clenched at his sides.

“Will you sit down?” said Autumn.
“You’re making me anxious.”

“You should be anxious. Dumas won’t
have any qualms about picking you up off the street, faking your
death—probably blaming it on me at the same time in order to get me
out of the picture—and then holding you captive for the rest of
your life. Is that really what you want?”

She looked at him in alarm. “No! Of
course not, but I still don’t understand why he’d want
me.”

“I thought I’d explained this to you
already? I thought you understood.”

She held her hands out either side of
her body and arched her eyebrows. “Obviously not.”

He sighed and sat down on the edge of
the bed, only a foot of air separating their bodies.

“There are things you need to know
about shifters, Autumn. My kind are extremely secretive, and we go
out of our way not to interact with each other. By not gathering as
a group, we remain unnoticed.”

“Until now,” she said.

He nodded. “Until now.”

“So how does it work if you all stay
apart from each other? How are more spirit shifters
born?”

“You misunderstand. Our gift—or
curse—isn’t something that can be passed down from generation to
generation. Instead, our spirits choose us.”

She frowned. “They choose you?
How?”

“When a new soul is born in the world,
the spirit will recognize the one it is supposed to be with.
Sometimes, like in my case, this happens at birth. My spirit guide
was already waiting for me and we became joined as soon as I was
born. Of course, the strengths, like my ability to shift into the
form of my spirit guide—in my case, a wolf—didn’t come until we
grew stronger together and learned how to work together. Others
aren’t chosen until later in life, and those shifters are much
weaker, but they are still stronger and faster and have abilities
far greater than a regular human.”

Autumn could barely believe she was
going to ask this, especially with her own dubious religious views,
but she had to know. “Does having a guide mean you’re somehow
connected to God?”

He gave a short, humorless laugh. “Not
at all. There’s no higher power working here other than
spirituality. Not organized religion, just the power of
nature.”

“But if the spirits choose the person
they bind to, then surely that person must be some kind of
spiritual soul. They must have goodness at their
hearts.”