Shapes of Autumn (Boxed set, books 1 - 5)

by Veronica Blade

  Gina caught up to Natalie, snaked around and blocked Natalie’s path. As if oblivious to the obstacle, Natalie brushed past her friend and marched forward until she stood in front of me.

  “Girl fight! Girl fight!” Greg, Jeff and a few other guys chanted.

  “Quiet,” Zack growled to himself.

  Tell the truth, so everyone can hear, I told her. Do it! Now!

  “I have something I need to say.” She clapped her hands above her head until all eyes were upon her. “I don’t know if you all heard, but Autumn got caught cheating. Mr. Collins is threatening to call her parents and put it on her permanent record.”

  What the hell? Was Natalie trying to humiliate me by making it public knowledge? Maybe it was only my imagination that I’d gotten through to her. Autumn must be vindicated, I told her.

  Glancing over at Gina, I saw her approaching, terror in her eyes. I could hear her erratic heartbeat and could smell the bitter scent of sweat and fear.

  I couldn’t help myself as I sent Gina thoughts. I’m tired of all the lies, tired of feeling dirty all the time.

  “We framed Autumn,” Gina said.

  Say it again, but louder, so everyone can hear. Mean it, I commanded. Activity at the entrance of the room drew my attention. Mr. Collins. Perfect! I wondered how much he’d already heard. It probably didn’t matter since Natalie looked like she was on a roll. But just to make sure…

  Keep going. Tell the whole truth. Get it all out, I ordered both of them.

  “We set Autumn up so it looked like she cheated on her Social Science test,” Gina repeated, speaking loud enough to reach the four corners of the hushed cafeteria. “It was my idea.”

  I can’t stop yet, I told Gina.

  “We had it all planned ahead of time,” Gina continued. “Autumn was distracted that day which made it even easier to make her look bad. After class, she bolted. Natalie stayed after and asked Mr. Collins for help. He was only too happy to help a student in need, someone who seemed to be taking such an interest in his class.”

  “We sat down at his desk,” Natalie said.“The stack of answer sheets was right there and as soon as he looked away, I searched the pile for Autumn’s test, then Peter’s. Once I’d stuffed them under my shirt, I told him I had to use the restroom.”

  “And I was waiting for her there,” Gina said. “Inside a stall, we changed all Autumn’s answers to match Peter’s, then Natalie ran back to the classroom.”

  “As soon as Mr. Collins looked away long enough, I put the papers back, then told him I had to get going.” Natalie turned and walked back to her seat as if in a daze.

  “But that’s not all,” Gina said, still rooted to the floor. “I lied to everyone about something else.”

  Chapter Thirty-three

  “Daniel didn’t want me,” Gina said. “He wanted Autumn and it made me crazy. At first, I was pissed that she’d gotten herself grounded and couldn’t go to his party, because then I’d have to go alone. Or I’d have to get someone to go with me who wasn’t as popular. Then I got to thinking and realized the party gave me the perfect opportunity to steal Daniel. Of course, I could’ve tried with Zack, you know, since we’d already gone out a couple times. But he always seemed to be holding back, like something was on his mind. Or someone.”

  Go on, I urged her.

  She glanced at Zack. “Zack’s way out of my league anyway. I knew my best chance was with Daniel, so I helped him get really drunk at the party and came on to him. We were in his room and his shirt was off and all he talked about was how much he loved Autumn. Eventually, I wore him down. After cheating on her once, getting him to do it again when he was sober was easy.”

  I closed my mouth, my eyes darting around the room. There wasn’t a person anywhere who didn’t look completely stunned and engrossed in her confession, even Natalie.

  As if coming out of a trance, Gina shook her head and scanned the room. She covered her mouth and made an odd, strangled noise, then ran away sobbing.

  Guilt overwhelmed me for humiliating her so thoroughly.

  Don’t feel bad for her, Autumn, Zack shot into my head. After all she’s done to you, she doesn’t deserve it.

  The warning bell rang and the audience came alive, low murmurs escalating into a dull roar. Zack draped an arm around my waist to escort me to class, but I hesitated knowing Maya wouldn’t leave it at that. My eyes shot to her.

  She rose and sprinted to us, Trevor at her side. “Autumn, that was amazing! It was weird though, like they were hypnotized or something.”

  “Maybe they were,” Trevor said. “Maybe someone slipped them drugs or truth serum or something.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Zack said. “Mr. Collins and several other teachers heard the confession. Even if Gina and Natalia retract everything or blame it on hypnotism, their entire speech enters enough doubt to absolve Autumn.”

  “This is so great,” Maya squealed.

  “We’ll talk later.” I laughed at her enthusiasm. “We’d better get to class or we’ll be late.”

  † † †

  When I walked into my last class, Mr. Collins asked me to stay after. A tiny part of me wondered if he was so mean and hard-core that he’d consider their confession not enough proof. At the end, the classroom emptied and I approached his desk.

  He steepled his fingers, his eyes solemn. “I’d like to apologize,” he said once the room had cleared out.

  “You would?” I asked.

  “You were right the other day. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. I shouldn’t have assumed, especially with your clean record. I want you to know I’ll make sure this is all cleared up and that it never comes up again.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Collins.”

  “And I can assure you that Natalie and Gina will be penalized for their conduct.”

  Ouch. “I don’t know… Confessing in front of everyone took a lot of courage. Couldn’t have been easy. And now that everyone knows all the gory details, I think they’ll be suffering enough.”

  Mr. Collins’ brows shot up. “You don’t want them expelled?”

  I shrugged. “Not really. They took responsibility at great risk to their reputations. But you should do whatever you think is right. Just don’t do anything because you think I need revenge. I’m fine.”

  He gave a curt nod. “See you tomorrow.”

  I took off to the restroom to freshen up. As soon as the door closed, it opened again. Gina barged in, glaring at me, her jaw clenched. “You did this. How? Did you drug me? Do you know how humiliating that was?” she shrieked.

  “Almost as humiliating as having your boyfriend cheat on you with your best friend? But slightly more humiliating than being accused of cheating?” I asked, rocking back on my heels, arms folded.

  “Don’t be cute!” She took a menacing step closer.

  I didn’t want to have to beat her up. I didn’t think her psyche could handle any more embarrassment.

  “You drugged us, didn’t you? Some sort of truth serum.”

  I shook my head. “Nothing so diabolical.”

  “Then how?” she demanded.

  “I willed it. I commanded you telepathically to tell the truth. Then you did.” I smiled, knowing it was the exact truth, but fully aware that she’d never believe it in a million years.

  “This isn’t funny,” she hissed. “God, you’re such a bitch. That’s why Zack has to take breaks from you and get some action with me.”

  She stormed out, leaving me alone to freshen up. I tried not to gloat. Really, I did. As I brushed new gloss over my lips, I couldn’t stop the grin. I didn’t try to hold back as I exited the restroom and strolled down the corridor.

  Maya, Trevor, John and Janine were among the crowd outside, their eyes bright with excitement. I spied Zack beyond them.

  You’re a celebrity now. Too good for the likes of me. Zack gave me a crooked smile, looking way too sexy. I’ll be right over here, patiently waiting for my turn with you.

  I rol
led my eyes but wanted to laugh. And gloat. I really wanted to gloat as the congratulations poured in. After a while, my friends were satisfied and gradually dispersed.

  “I’ll see you later, right? At Bill’s?” Maya asked.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Text me when you’re on your way.” She waved and left.

  Zack put his arm around me and guided me to my car.

  “Do you have to work today?” I asked.

  “No. I asked Tim to cut my hours.” His mouth thinned. “This way, there’s less time that you’re alone and vulnerable to Charles.”

  “I think I can handle extra time with you. But, you know, someday, we’re going to have to talk about it.”

  “Yeah, I know. This Charles situation has me so amped up, I can’t deal with one more thing. I promise we’ll talk though. I swear. Soon.”

  “Sure. Speaking of Charles…”

  “What?” His brows furrowed.

  I stopped in front of the passenger side of the Mustang. “I really want to get my laptop from my house. I wished I’d remembered it yesterday.”

  “You can use mine. I don’t want to go back there unless it’s absolutely necessary,” he said. “It’s riskier each time we go.”

  “You’re right.” I sighed and plunged a hand into my purse, looking for my cell phone to text Maya. Where was it? I rifled through the bag again, but my phone wasn’t anywhere. I squeezed my eyes shut in frustration as I remembered setting it on the table of my house the night before. We’d been so anxious to get the hell out of there that we’d rushed off without it.

  “What’s on your mind?” he asked, reaching for the car door handle to open it for me.

  “My cell’s at my house.” I did a whine-moan combo. “What if my parents call and can’t reach me? What if they think something happened? They’re probably already freaking out. What if they come back and run into Charles?” The pitch of my words had risen to dangerous heights.

  Zack grabbed my shoulders. “Calm down. We’ll go back to your house. It’ll be fine.”

  “No. We can’t. Like you said, it’s too risky.” Panic crept into my voice. “We could stop and buy another phone, but I keep getting visions of Charles showing up at the store. We could be safer in a public place or he might be pissed enough to kill everyone there. That’s unthinkable. But I need a phone.”

  “It’s dangerous not to talk to your parents too. You know how they are and we can’t have them worried about you. They could slip up and get caught.”

  I nodded, knowing we had to go back to my house at some point. Even if my parents returned and Charles didn’t attack, how would they find me if I was at Zack’s and they couldn’t reach me?

  “Get in. We’ll be fast. We’ll get your laptop while we’re there.”

  We parked in front of my house and I sat still, a sinking feeling in my stomach. Would today be the day or would we escape unscathed again?

  “What did you do with Cara’s knives?”

  He reached over and opened the glove box, took one out and handed it to me. “Let’s get this over with.”

  I climbed out of the car and slipped the knife up my sleeve, thankful I’d dressed for the overcast day and worn a long-sleeved shirt. Just like the day before, we opened the door in silence and entered, little by little, our eyes darting around and looking for anything suspicious. The sun shone through the open curtain and everything looked exactly like we’d left it — as far as I could tell.

  “I don’t smell anything,” I said.

  “That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been here. This morning, I was going over last night in my head. If Charles came in earlier today and went directly upstairs without touching anything, his scent might be too light down here to detect.”

  “Right.” I tried not to panic, but the only thing I wanted to do was run screaming and call my parents for help. But putting them in more danger wasn’t an option. “Zack?” I swallowed the mass of fear crawling up my throat. “If he’s here, then he heard us come in.”

  Zack stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up. After a moment, he motioned for me to follow then started up the stairs. At the landing, I stopped but he continued on. I didn’t smell Charles or sense him, so why were my knees weak and my hands trembling? It had to be my imagination. I mean, there was no trace of Charles anywhere.

  By the time I resumed my climb up the stairs, Zack was already several feet ahead of me. He paused at the top which gave me a chance to catch up to him.

  “Something isn’t right.” Zack locked into place, his body alert and ready. He ventured into the hallway, but I stayed near the top of the staircase.

  Yeah, something was definitely off. I couldn’t smell Charles or detect him at all, not physically anyway. But my heart knew he was close. I just knew it. Something was different… I stared at the wall next to the doorway of my dad’s office. What wasn’t right?

  After I’d ransacked it the other day looking for clues about my parents, I’d left the door open and rushed off to get ready for school. When I’d gone into my room last night, I had looked into my dad’s office and noticed everything was exactly as I’d left it. I was absolutely positive the door had been open when we’d left last night. Now it was shut. And if Charles was in that room, maybe we couldn’t sense his energy past the wall.

  “Zack, get back here!”

  I rushed to him, but before he could get out of the way, the wall thundered in an explosion of drywall and dust as a massive human form burst through. Zack crashed to the ground, but sprang to his feet an instant later. By then steel arms had already imprisoned me, a sword pressed against my neck.

  “Oh, you can try,” Charles told Zack. “But her head will be gone long before you get to me.”

  Zack froze mid-lunge and scowled.

  “Kill me and let him go,” I said.

  Charles laughed and the cold steel pinched my skin. “Why do that when I can kill you both? I’ll cut off your pretty little head and have his too before he gets away.”

  “So now what?” I asked, feeling foolish for trying to bargain with him. He’d kill us both, no matter what deals we struck. Why? Because he could. I craned my neck to risk a glance at him and shuddered. His face wasn’t just scarred like Renzo’s — he looked like he’d been put through a wood chipper.

  “Let her go and I’ll come with you willingly. We can leave now, tonight,” said the guy who’d made me swear not to bargain my life for his.

  “Oh, that’s rich!” Charles growled. “As if either of you could make any deals. No, this is the end. I’ll cut off your heads for your parents to find. How would they like that, little one?” he whispered into my ear, making the hairs on my neck stand up.

  “So that’s it, huh? You cut off our heads and that kills us?” Zack asked.

  I wondered if Charles noticed Zack inching closer.

  “Yes, you completely detach the nerves and anything that feeds the brain. Then you separate the parts and make sure it can’t repair itself. Don’t you wish you’d known that when you thought you killed me?” A low rumble built in his chest. “Stupid fledglings.”

  I couldn’t see Charles’s face since my back was against his chest and I’d been watching Zack. But I could smell Charles. He reeked of dead animal and rotting clothes. But his stench was quickly forgotten as I remembered the knife I’d slipped into my sleeve just moments ago.

  “Please don’t kill me,” I whined, just to distract him as I let my arm drop, nudging my wrist against my thigh to loosen the blade. It inched down my arm until the handle connected with my thumb.

  “If you return to the king and tell him how you failed, you’ll look like a wuss. But if I go with you now, no one ever has to know.”

  Slowly, my other hand slid across my stomach toward the knife in the sleeve of my other arm.

  Charles snorted. “Nice try, but I’d rather be a fugitive than let you two live after what you did to me.”

  How could I use the knife most effectively so Ch
arles got maximum damage? And could I apply enough force with him behind me? I twisted slowly to meet his gaze, hoping he wouldn’t tighten his grip and press the sharp blade harder to my skin. He didn’t.

  As if Charles knew he had my attention, he leered down at me. “You would’ve been fun to keep around for a while, sweetheart.”

  My stomach lurched and I gripped the handle of the knife, turning toward him just a little more. “Your loss.”

  “Renzo will kill you for hurting us.” Zack’s face looked pained, helpless, as he shifted his weight to his other leg, which somehow brought him closer. He now stood about three feet away.

  “Renzo?” Charles’s voice became dangerously low.

  “Midnight-blue late-model Jag, dark hair, little fine scars all over his face. Yeah, thatRenzo.” Zack was bluffing. Renzo claimed he wanted to help, but would he actually kill a scout for us? Unlikely, but Charles didn’t know that.

  “I haven’t seen the Jag in days. Of course, I’ve been living in the forest and eating rats for a while so what would I know?” Charles snickered and the blade eased off my neck a fraction. “Time’s up. Say good-bye to your girlfriend, Zack.”

  With all my strength, I thrust the knife deep into his gut. Charles grunted and dropped the knife, then growled as his hand shot out to close around my throat. Breathing wasn’t necessary, and even if he broke my neck, I now knew that wouldn’t kill me.

  But I couldn’t afford to be out of commission in any way at all. Incapacitation would lead to decapitation. I thought about morphing into a small animal and slipping through his fingers, but I’d be so much easier to kill if he caught me. I needed every ounce of ferociousness the shape could provide. I needed to be the biggest, baddest animal around.

  My body quaked as I once again morphed into a bear. The increase in my size sent my body exploding outward and Charles’s grip around my midsection slipped. He didn’t lose much time though. His sword thrust into my side and pain sliced through me.

  I staggered back against the wall. My insides felt like they were being ripped apart and I let myself slide down the wall until my furry rump hit the floor. Zack morphed and leapt. Charles sidestepped and lunged for me.