Authors: Marissa Farrar
To protect its pack.
His body began to shudder and twist. His eyes rolled in his head in absolute agony as the wolf left his body and he gradually returned back to a man. At least the fighting had stopped.
Tala and the other shifters had enough integrity not to attack him mid shift. If they’d done so, they would have killed him with ease.
Chogan rose to his feet, breathing hard, blood pouring into his eyes, his chest heaving.
“You’re a fool, Chogan,” Tala spat, stepping forward. “Think of the potential we gain by having her. We can give this gift to our loved ones. Husbands will be able to turn wives, women will be able to turn their children, if they wish. I thought this was what you wanted—for us to be the most dominant species.”
He shook his head in amazement. “Us? You’re not one of us,
Tala. You’re human, or are you forgetting that? There’s only one reason you’re doing this to Autumn, and that’s for your own selfish desires. You’ve wanted to be a spirit shifter ever since you were old enough to learn what Blake and I were.”
Tala’s
large, dark eyes narrowed. “If she was a man, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. You wouldn’t even hesitate to take what we need to make this revolution happen. Your judgment has been skewed by a pretty face and a tight ass.” The disdain in her voice was impossible to miss.
To hide how he felt, he bent to retrieve the remnants of his clothing, pulling on the torn material best he could. Internally, Chogan wrestled with himself. He didn’t want to admit it, but what she said was partially true. If it had been anyone else here—male or female—he’d be having a whole different reaction. Hell, he’d probably be patting
Tala on the back. But it wasn’t just anyone. It was Autumn, the woman who had filled his thoughts and heart since the moment he’d met her. It had been hard enough forcing himself to accept that she was with Blake, that she’d chosen his cousin above him, but at least he’d been able to tell himself that she was better off with him. She’d be happy with him.
He glanced toward Autumn. Someone had righted her chair again, but he couldn’t stand to watch her being hurt. The sight of the needle penetrating the pale skin of her inner arm, the blood congealing and dark on her face, filled him with rage and a kind of sickly discomfort he’d not experienced before. To see her hurt felt as if they were hurting him.
He eyed the vials of blood which stood on a metal cart beside her. Somehow, luckily, they’d not been knocked over in the fight. How much had Tala taken? Enough to leave Autumn weak, he could see that much at least from the way she slumped to one side in the chair, as much as her binds would allow. She was covered in contusions. Blood continued to dribble from her nostrils. Fresh bruises bloomed beneath her eyes. Another bruise spread up her arm where the needle had been placed.
“How long are you planning to keep her like this?” he said, his fists clenched, his voice a growl.
“As long as it takes.”
“To do what?”
“Change everyone we want into shifters. To finally outnumber humans.”
BLAKE HADN’T BEEN answering his cell, so Mia and Peter had spent most of the day searching the city for him. Mia’s concern for Autumn’s whereabouts had been building to panic level. On numerous occasions, she’d been close to breaking down, wanting to go to the police, but Peter convinced her there was no point. First, they needed to find Blake. The other shifter may well know Autumn’s location, and getting the police involved would only complicate things. They’d been to his place, pounding on a door—which to Mia, only looked like an indent in the corrugated iron wall—but had gotten no answer. Since then, Peter had been doing a methodical drive of the city’s streets, while Mia kept her eyes open for any sign of Blake.
Dusk was now starting to fall, lights in the shops and towering office buildings surrounding them blinking on.
Mia turned to Peter, anxiously chewing her lip. She’d been worrying at a dried piece of skin so badly, she tasted blood. “If we don’t find him soon, we won’t stand a chance of finding him at night.”
Peter’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “We’ll find him. As soon as he gives up on trying to find his cousin, he’ll go home. He doesn’t have anywhere else
to
go.”
“Unless the same people who took Autumn also took him.”
Peter shook his head. “What would anyone need Blake for? And besides, he is one of the toughest sons of bitches I’ve ever come across. You saw the state of your and Autumn’s apartment—the mess created when she tried to fight back. I never saw any sign of a struggle at Blake’s place, and believe me, he would have fought back if someone attacked him.”
“But we didn’t even get to see inside Blake’s place,” she said, confused.
“You didn’t,” he said, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. “But my mountain lion did.”
Understanding dawned. “Oh, of course.”
A familiar figure made his way down the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road.
“There!”
Mia declared, pointing across the street to where Blake’s large form walked, head down, hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket. He cut a forlorn figure, and she wondered what had happened. He couldn’t know about Autumn already, surely? He would have contacted them if he did. No, she couldn’t help but think something else had happened to make him appear that way—as if he had already been broken. Whatever it was, she wondered how he would take the news of Autumn’s disappearance and the obvious signs of violence in their apartment.
A thought occurred to her.
Why had he not been with Autumn? The two of them had seemed to be inseparable since Autumn started work for the government. As soon as she’d come back from the interview, he’d been all she’d talked about. She hoped nothing had gone wrong between them. Autumn certainly hadn’t said anything to her, not that they’d spoken much lately. Autumn had been busy with Blake, and she’d been with Peter.
Peter pulled the car up at the sidewalk and jumped from the car. Mia followed.
“Blake, wait up!” Peter shouted across the street. He caught her hand and they jogged through traffic together to catch up to the bigger man. Blake hadn’t even heard them, seeming to be lost in his own thoughts. He didn’t even notice others he walked past, practically bumping people out of the way in his efforts to get by.
“Hey, Blake, buddy. Wait up,” Peter called again.
This time, Blake heard and slowed his pace before lifting his head and turning to see them. His eyes widened in surprise
.
He lifted a big hand and rubbed the top of his head, frowning. “What are you doing here?”
“
We’re looking for you. Why the hell haven’t you been answering your phone?”
Something dawned on Blake’s features
. “Oh shit, I forgot to pick it up before I left my place. I’ve been shifting so much lately, the damn thing just ends up getting lost.”
Peter nodded in understanding. “We’ve been trying to get hold of you
.
Have you seen Autumn?”
“Autumn?”
he said, his eyes darkening. His gaze shifted away from Peter.
Something turned uneasily inside Mia. Was that guilt she saw on his face
? Surely he wouldn't have something to do with Autumn’s disappearance? She knew from her charity work that the majority of violence against women came from someone they knew. Blake certainly had his hard side. She prayed he didn't have anything to do with her going missing. She trusted Peter’s judgment, and he and Blake were close. Peter would have said something if he thought Blake capable of hurting Autumn, wouldn’t he? But then, why did Blake seem so broken, and why the guilt?
“She’s missing from our apartment,” Mia said. “
Things were broken and we found blood.”
“What?” Rage filled his face, and Mia’s
doubt in him drained away like someone had pulled the plug on her emotions. Whatever had happened between him and Autumn, she didn’t think he was responsible for her being hurt. “Why the hell would anyone want to hurt her?”
“
We were hoping you might know the answer to that,” said Peter. “Would the government be trying to get her back again?”
“
You know more about what they’re doing now than I do. I don’t exactly work there anymore.”
“I wondered if she’
d said anything to you. Perhaps she felt like she was being followed?”
“Tell him about what Toby found,”
Mia suggested.
“Toby?” said Blake, frowning. “
You mean the boy we released from the facility?”
Peter nodded. “The same. Turns out he’
s a bit of a computer whiz.” He looked around furtively. “We can’t talk here.”
“Why the sudden paranoia?” asked Blake.
“It has to do with what Toby’s discovered.” Peter looked around again, his sculpted mouth twisting as he considered their options. He grabbed Mia’s hand again. “Follow me.”
Together, they walked at a fast pace, not far off a jog, down the street, toward the harbor. The sound of rushing water filled Mia’s ears and she realized he was taking them to Buckingham Fountain.
They crossed to stand on the grass beside the small wall which divided the pool from the park. It was as close to the cascades of water as they could get. The massive fountain was made up of three layers of columns arranged in decreasing circles, reaching to the sky. More water spurted from the top with a towering jet in the middle, so the huge volume of water cascaded down the stone circles and into the pool below. Lights of orange, fading to pink and then back to orange again, glowed beneath the falling water. Behind the fountain, the city’s skyscrapers rose into the darkening, cobalt blue sky. The area was absent of the normal groups of families and tourists milling about, probably due to the trouble over the last couple of days keeping everyone indoors.
At least it meant they’d notice if anyone was trying to get closer to them than needed. The fountain would be closed down for winter very soon, and they were lucky it was still open. With dismay, Mia saw that some idiot had thrown a park bench into the water. Someone else had spray painted graffiti on the stone—some kind of tag she didn’t recognize. She had the feeling she was staring at remnants of the riots the day before.
“The sound of the water will mask our voices if anyone is trying to listen in from a distance,” Peter explained. “We should be able to talk freely here.”
Blake nodded, his face drawn down in a frown of concern. “So talk. You say Autumn is missing. What happened exactly, and what does it have to do with Toby?”
“I don’t think Autumn’s disappearance has to do with the government. It was too messy to be military work.”
“If the government didn’t take her, who did?” asked Mia.
“Chogan,” said Blake with certainty. “It has to be. No one else knows what Autumn can do, and I’m not sure even my cousin is stupid enough to tell others. The key to fixing all of this is taking Chogan out.”
Mia’s eyes widened. “You’re going to kill your own cousin?”
He smiled coolly. “As tempting as that is, I’m hoping locking him away for a significant amount of time will put a stop to this whole thing. I plan to take him back to the reservation and hold him there.”
“But how are you going to find him?” asked Mia. “We’ve been searching for you all day and it’s not as if you don’t want to be found.”
“I’ve played him at his own game. I’ve just called him and his crew out on regional television, calling them fraudsters and cowards. If he doesn’t come to me himself, I’m betting that one of his little pets will turn on him.”
The shrill of Peter’s phone snapped all of their attention to the sound. Peter fished his cell from his pocket and hit the button to answer. He listened for a minute, then lifted his grey-green eyes to Mia’s, pointed to the phone, and mouthed, “Toby.”
He spoke into the phone. “Wait a minute, you’re losing me. Where are you?” He listened again and then said, “What are you doing there? You were supposed to stay at home, safe with your parents until all this gets sorted.”
“Where is he?” Mia asked in a low voice, but Peter raised a hand to quiet her and she closed her mouth.
“I told you to leave all of that alone. You’re going to get yourself in some serious trouble.” He fell quiet. “Yes, yes, I know … Okay … Just stay where you are. We’re coming to get you.”
“Where is he?” asked Mia, almost frantic now. “What’s happened?”
“He’s across town,” he said, turning away from the fountain to march back toward his car. Mia and Blake exchanged a glance and then hurried after. “He says something has changed in the monitoring of everyone connected to Project Pursuit. Apparently, all of the data input is suddenly all to do with one person.”
“Who?” she said, panting, breaking into a trot to keep up.
He reached the car and pulled open the door for her before heading around to the driver’s side. Blake squeezed his large body into the back.
She slid into the passenger seat before he turned to answer her.
“Autumn.”
AUTUMN CLENCHED HER fists in fury. The other woman’s arrogance made her blood boil. What gave
Tala the right to think she could do this? She wasn’t even a spirit shifter like Chogan, Blake, and the others. Autumn wanted to throw a wrench in the works, knock her off course, if only to see the expression on her face.
She raised her voice to command everyone’s attention. “It’s not going to be that easy.”
Tala turned to her, a scowl on her face, her eyes blazing. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s taken years of experiments to create a solution which changes human DNA into shifter DNA. How do you think you’re going to be able to replicate that?”
The disdain that had been so apparent in Tala’s tone now appeared on her face. “My ancestors never had any of your fancy science equipment.” She held up the syringe filled with Autumn’s blood and positioned the point of the needle above her inner arm. “Have you even tried to inject the blood into a human?”
Autumn paused. Of course she hadn’t.
The other woman must have recognized the indecision on her face. “Then how do you know it won’t work?”
With no hesitation,
Tala plunged the needle into her flesh.
Chogan reached forward, but he was too late. “
Tala, no!”
She depressed the end of the syringe. The blood flowed from the clear vial into her bloodstream.
Everyone in the room held their collective breath.
Nothing happened.
Tala pressed her lips together and stared at the ground.
“Well?” asked Chogan, his eyes darting over his cousin’s face.
Tala stared back uncertainly. “I don’t feel any different.”
“It may take time.”
Autumn shook her head, disgusted. “I told you it wouldn’t work. Now let me the hell go!”
Tala
lifted her head and Autumn was surprised to see her dark eyes pooling with unshed tears. She suddenly realized how much this meant to the other woman. She might have gone about it the wrong way, but she’d done it because it was all her heart desired.
Blake …
she thought, with a pang.
My heart’s desire.
The same person who had turned his back on her when she needed him the most.
Tala
shook her head and moved toward Autumn, to let her go, Autumn hoped. But as she took a step, her face grew blank, her eyes glassy and distant as if focusing on something Autumn couldn’t see. The previously unshed tears spilled from her eyes and trickled down her cheeks. A wind raced from somewhere behind Autumn, whipping her hair around her face, blowing Tala’s away from hers. Autumn twisted in the chair, trying to see if someone had opened a door or a window, but they all remained either shut or boarded over. Plus, there was no sign of the wind outside, no howling around the eaves or sound of tree branches battering on the roof.
The wind came from somewhere else. Another
level
.
Tala’s
whole body went rigid, arms reached out, fingers spread like starfish. Her back arched, her small breasts thrust forward. Her lips parted and she inhaled, a slow steady breath through what seemed to be a closed throat, creating a sound too loud for her lungs alone.
Autumn stared, hardly able to believe what she was seeing. She felt, rather than saw, something move past her. Something else. The air crackled with power. A chill wracked through her entire body, as though she’d stepped into a freezer. She’d never felt this way in the presence of any of the other’s spirit guides before.
Beside her, Tala fell to her knees and screamed.
“Oh my God,” said Chogan, staring in horror at his cousin. But he managed to tear his eyes away long enough for his gaze to settle on Autumn. Something changed in his face, an uncertainty combined with the fear for his cousin that had previously blanketed his features.
Now!
thought Autumn, somehow hoping her thoughts could be projected into Chogan’s head. She suspected he was already considering the possibility that the distraction Tala was creating might be the only chance they’d get to escape.
They weren’t the only people thinking that.
Chogan started toward Autumn, but Rhys sprang into action, grabbing Chogan from behind so his forearm was pressed against Chogan’s chest.
Fight back,
Autumn willed. But Chogan’s focus was once again torn back to his cousin.
Tala’s
body began to transform, her skin morphing and swelling, her bones breaking. Every change caused another scream to burst from her lungs.
“What have you done?” Chogan yelled at her. “You stupid, stupid girl. What the hell have you done?”
Rhys looked around for help, though most were transfixed on the transformation happening before them. “Would you idiots help me?”
Michael seemed to remember himself and came over to help, though he struggled to shift his gaze from the monstrosity that used to be a woman.
“There’s a hatch for the cellar beneath that rug,” Rhys said, having to yell to be heard above Tala’s screams. “Get it up and we can put these two down there. Then we’ll be able to concentrate on helping Tala.”
Michael did as he was told. A couple of the others came to help. Autumn found herself being unstrapped from the chair, though her hands were then once again bound behind her back.
Two of the men, Enyeto and Rhys, grabbed Chogan by the arms. Michael pulled back a rug and lifted up a large metal hatch. It looked like it had once been a regular cellar, but had now been converted to a storm cellar, or perhaps had been designed for some other kind of threat. First they bum-rushed Chogan down the hole. She heard his body hit the steps on the way down and then come to a muffled thump. She winced. It sounded painful. She hoped they wouldn’t be so rough with her, but considering the treatment she’d already been dealt, she knew she couldn't count on anything. She glared at Enyeto. The bear-shifter had been Blake and Chogan’s friend, or at least had made out he was. She couldn’t believe he was doing this to them now.
The men’
s hands grabbed her again, though they seemed gentler than they’d been with Chogan. Instead of throwing her down the steps, they pulled her down. She lost her footing and stumbled, so they dragged her the rest of the way, dumping her unceremoniously on the concrete floor. The room was dark, with no windows to allow even the most meager amount of light in. Panic welled up inside her, certain they’d be shut down here in the pitch black, but, at the last moment, the Native American woman, Kasa, came down carrying a couple of candles which she placed at the bottom of the stairs. The candles had burned halfway down, but still had at least a couple of hours left in them. Autumn prayed they would get out of here before the light burned out for good.
Chogan groaned and pushed himself to sitting. Above thei
r heads, the hatch clanged shut, separating them from the rest of the world.
“Goddamn it!” Chogan swore. He swung a fist at the cellar wall, punching again and again, roaring in anger. Autumn cringed, frightened he might turn his fury on her. “Goddamn you,
Tala!” he yelled.
The energy went out of him and he fell still, breathing heavily, his forehead pressed against the cold wall.
“Are you okay?" Autumn asked, tentatively.
He gave a sigh. “Yeah, I’
ll survive. Just a few bumps and bruises. Nothing that won’t heal quickly enough.”
It looked like a whole lot worse to her, but she wasn't going to say so. Let him continue with his brava
do if it made him feel better.
“What about you?”
She gave a shrug. “I’ve been better, but like you, I’ll survive.” She rolled her shoulders. “I could do with this tape being taken off my wrists, though.”
He must have
noticed she was still tied up, her arms behind her back. The position had worried her as they’d brought her down the stairs, frightened they’d throw her as they had Chogan and that she’d end up landing flat on her face. She’d already suffered enough damage in the face area for one day.
He pushed himself up and shuffled over to her, going around her body to work on the tape binding her wrists. She was conscious of his body close behind hers, the heat of his skin surrounding her like a comforting blanket. The cellar was below
ground, and the ordeal she’d been through, combined with the blood that had been taken from her, plus the shock, had left her chilled.
“
What do you think they're going to do with us?” she asked over her shoulder as he pulled at her bonds. Some of the tape tore, a sound too loud in their confines. Above their heads, she could make out the muffled screams as Tala continued to battle the war going on for the rights to her body.
“
Well, what they’re going to do with you is probably quite different from what they’re going to do with me. I imagine they’re planning on keeping you long enough to get as much blood out of you as possible before you either die or they get found out.” She flinched at his words. He certainly didn’t bother sugar-coating things for her. “And as for me, I couldn't tell you. It depends on what Tala turns into when she’s completed whatever fucked-up thing she’s just done to her body.”
She couldn’
t help but bristle slightly. After all, that ‘fucked-up thing’ also happened to be the apparent talent that everyone suddenly seemed to be after. The same talent her mother had died for years earlier.
“She’s turning into one of your own,” she said.
Chogan shook his head, his long hair spilling down his back. “She’s forced a spirit guide to bind to the body of a host it hasn’t chosen. We are creatures of total symbiosis, existing together to help each other equally. The human provides the link back to the real world, to allow the spirit to experience life once more, and the spirit provides strengths and an ability to see the world on another level. You can’t force something like that. I don’t know how the spirit will react or how Tala’s body will cope with the change.”
I hope she suffers
.
The thought shocked her. She wasn’t a spiteful person, but after what the other woman had put her through, she couldn’t help herself.
Chogan shuffled his body to rest his back against the cold brick wall. He sucked in air through his teeth, his features tightening in pain. A dark patch soaked through his t-shirt. Autumn flexed her stiff wrists. Her hands didn’t seem to belong to her. Her fingers fizzed with pins and needles, and she wriggled them around to bring the feeling back.
“You need to let me take a look at that,” she said, nodding toward his chest.
Chogan glanced down at the dark patch. “It’s fine.”
She moved toward him. “No, it’s not. Stop being a hero.”
He had pulled the remnants of his t-shirt back on after his shift, so it wasn’t torn in line with his injury. To get a decent look, she needed him to take off his shirt. The placement of the wound, at the top of his chest, meant she couldn’t just lift it up.
She pulled the material up over his stomach, trying to ignore the lines of his abs, perfectly defined in the flickering candle light. Her heart beat more quickly. She’d seen him completely naked before. Seeing him with his shirt off shouldn’t be having
this effect on her. She sensed him staring at her, but deliberately didn’t meet his eye. He’d only do or say something to embarrass her further.
The t-shirt wedged between his back and the wall and he had to lean forward, closer into her, to allow her to pull the shirt up and over his head. His warm breath caressed her cheek and throat, the scent of his sweat and blood filling her nostrils, a strangely not unpleasant smell.
She pulled away, bunching his shirt in her hand. It was her turn to suck air in through her teeth. The claw marks were deep; grooves in his coffee-colored skin that revealed red flesh below. Blood smeared across his skin, fresh blood welling in the slices to dribble down over the curves of his pectoral muscle.
She tore the bottom of her own shirt, ripping off a piece to use as a bandage. He allowed her to press the cloth against the wound, keeping the pressure to help the clotting.
Autumn glanced up at his face. For once he wasn’t looking at her. He’d lost his bravado, biting his lower lip.
So Chogan could be vulnerable. Yet she still recognized his strength and bravery. Yes, his big mouth had gotten them in this position in the first place, but he’d been willing to fight for her, even though he’d been hugely outnumbered. He’d turned against his own people for her.
He cares about me,
she realized. And she didn’t think he simply wanted to use her for her powers. The realization turned something inside her, her emotions as twisted as the situation. Blake didn’t want her, he’d made that clear. But how did she feel about Chogan? This was all too messed up.
Chogan lifted his head, breaking her thought. “What happened, Autumn?” he asked. “How did
Tala get you here?”
For some stupid reason, she almost felt ashamed at her abduction, embarrassed that she’d been weak, that they’d gotten the better of her, that she hadn’t been strong enough to fight them off. Even so, she recounted what she knew—Rhys attacking her in her apartment, her imprisonment in the trunk of the car, then being dragged, blindfolded, through the forest to the cabin.