“So how come you’re moving away from Billy’s dad?” he asked, checking the rear view mirror again to make sure the boy was still asleep. The amount of light available in the car was barely enough to see by.
Her mouth twisted. “I don’t know if you’d call it moving, or running.”
“What do you mean?”
“He doesn’t exactly know we’re gone. Well, I guess he might now. He didn’t come back from the bar last night, so I used the opportunity, and grabbed Billy and a few of our things, and took the car.”
Chogan lifted his eyebrows in surprise. “I take it you weren’t getting on then?”
She gave a cold bark of laughter. “That’s the understatement of the year. He was aggressive with me—not hitting me, but shoving me, pinning me up against walls whenever he got angry. He even locked me in the bathroom one time because I’d disagreed with something he’d said.” She lowered her voice. “I could handle it, but then he started putting his hands on Toby, smacked him because he had an accident, or spilled some juice. He started swearing at Toby, calling him horrible things. I threatened I’d leave if he didn’t change his ways, but he didn’t. So I left.”
Chogan nodded, thinking how much strength it must have taken to pack up your worldly belongings and walk out on your life to protect your child from his own father.
Nadie, who had been quietly watching the world go by from the passenger window, reached out and tapped Chogan’s arm. “We’re almost there, aren’t we?” she said, pointing to a sign for the National Forest.
“Yep. We are.”
He spotted a particularly wide area of road and pulled onto the shoulder, signaling for the others to pull in, too. It was as a good a spot as any.
“You guys wait in the car,” he told Madison, as he climbed out.
“How long are you going to be?”
“I can’t be sure. We’ll be at least a couple of hours, so make yourselves comfortable. Try to get some sleep.”
“Can’t we come with you?”
He shook his head. “Not this time. I’m sorry.”
She didn’t argue with him, and for that he was glad. She seemed to trust him, though he felt her trust was misplaced. All he’d managed to do so far was let everyone down.
They’d have to share the bikes for the moment. Peter and Sahale, awkwardly straddling one bike with Peter driving, while Chogan took Nadie on the other. If later they needed space to fit Blake’s body across one of the seats, one of them would have to shift and come back by animal, making sure they shifted back well before they reached the car so they didn’t frighten Madison and the boy.
“You’ll be fine,” he told Madison, who watched them anxiously from the open driver’s door. “Lock the doors, and put the seats back. Try to get some rest.” She nodded, her hand instinctively resting on her son’s leg. She leaned forward, over the driver’s seat, and pulled the door shut. The boy hadn’t woken, despite all the commotion. The last few hours, together with whatever drama he’d been dealing with before, had obviously taken its toll on him. Chogan wondered if Billy’s father was looking for them. Would the man know by now that Madison had run with their son? What kind of sick son of a bitch would you need to be to hurt a woman as beautiful and vulnerable as Madison, and threaten a child as well?
He let out the throttle on the bike and got moving, Nadie holding onto the back of the seat, rather than his waist. Peter and Sahale followed close behind. They headed into the forest, the headlights on the bike lighting the way, bumping and jolting over the uneven trail. His wolf ran up front of the bikes, helping Chogan to see where he was going by sending back images of what lay ahead. Despite Chogan’s anxiety, his wolf displayed none of Chogan’s concerns. Instead, it ran on ahead, tongue lolling. Every so often, its nose dropped to the ground as it caught another scent, and changed direction, darting in a way that made Chogan almost lose control of the bike. He trusted his wolf’s instincts; it would lead him back to the exact place he’d left Blake. Though he knew he’d be able to find the cabin again easily enough, he’d run from the soldiers for so long, exhausted and in fear and pain, he could easily mistake one clump of bushes or gathering of trees for another, so missing the place where he’d abandoned Blake’s body.
Besides, he wanted to stay as far away from the cabin as possible. He had no idea if the soldiers were still there, if they’d continued to use the cabin—now fully fenced, he guessed—to house more shifters, or if they’d moved on to a different area. But either way, he didn’t want the attention of more armed men.
They were getting close now, having to negotiate muddy trails, sometimes heading off the trail to get around fallen tree trunks. His ears met the sound of water trickling, and the bike broke through some trees. Chogan found himself at the edge of the gorge he’d run through when he was being chased. Moonlight lit the water, casting shimmering reflections from the ripples.
They were close.
His heart picked up its pace, his breath growing shallower. He gripped his hands into fists. He didn’t want to be here. When he’d been running before, with everyone chasing him and his cousin dying on his back, he’d sworn to himself that he’d never return to this part of the forest. And yet here he was, back again.
He wouldn’t let the panic overtake him. He tried not to imagine the sound of shots, of numerous feet pounding through the undergrowth, chasing him down like a pack of dogs hunting a fox.
His heart beat harder in his chest, and he bit down on his lower lip, tasting blood. He didn’t want to see Blake’s body; the guilt was overwhelming. What if animals had gotten to him? He hoped Blake’s wolf had hung around long enough to scare any scavengers off.
They reached the spot. Even in the dark, Chogan recognized it. How could he not? The indent in the bottom of the tree trunk where some animal had hollowed it out. The clump of bushes. The small clearing with the rocks. But there was no sign of Blake’s body.
He stopped the bike, and both he and Nadie climbed off. They left the headlights of the bike on, lighting the area, though with their shifter eyesight they were able to see in the dark better than any human.
Chogan walked around, his hand knotted in his hair. “What the hell?”
“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” asked Peter. “This is a big area.”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
He dropped to his knees in the spot where he’d last seen his cousin’s body. He touched the ground. “Look. The grass and weeds are crushed here, flattened where his body was.” He lifted his head to look at Peter. “Someone has already moved his body.”
Peter frowned. “Why would someone do that?”
“I don’t know.” Thoughts of autopsies ran through his head, but he couldn’t even bring himself to give voice to the terrible images. Quickly, he checked the ground to see if any of the surrounding area had drag marks or other areas of crushed undergrowth where an animal, or pack of animals, may have dragged Blake’s body. But there was none. Blake had been a big man. Nothing could have dragged him off without making at least a bit of a mess of the foliage.
Unless he’d been carried.
He thought back to the soldiers. Would they really have bothered carrying Blake’s body all that way back? What reason would they have for doing so? Maybe they’d thought they could learn more about shifter biology from his body, but it wasn’t as if they didn’t have access to hundreds of shifters now. Shifters were out in force. He doubted Blake was the only one they had access too. It didn’t make sense.
“Why would anyone want his body?” Chogan wondered out loud.
“Unless he wasn’t dead,” Peter suggested.
Chogan shook his head. “No, he had been. I sensed death from Blake’s body.” With his senses, he couldn’t be wrong about such a thing.
“How close behind were the soldiers when you ran?” Peter asked.
“Real close. I could practically smell them.”
“Is it possible that they
revived Blake? Maybe one of them had medical training and they brought him back.”
A tiny spark of hope flared in Chogan’s heart. Was it possible his cousin was still alive?
Chapter Six
THE OUTSIDE WORLD no longer existed.
Caught, suspended, floating in a black sea, he had no understanding of anything anymore. He was vaguely aware that he once knew something else, something unreachable, but no part of him was able to put the thoughts into any kind of structure. They were like dreams fading the moment he woke. He reached for the ideas, to grasp them and construct them into something understandable, but before he could they were gone.
He remembered pain, an overwhelming pain, but he no longer felt it. For that he was thankful. He believed there were details about himself he should know, his name or where he came from, but there was only the darkness.
Was he dead?
Surely if he was dead, other dead would be here with him? Yet he was completely alone, not a single sound, or shade of light, or faint voice in the distance. There was nothing, and it was a nothingness he couldn’t decide if he should be frightened of or not. Yet he felt calm, peaceful. He no longer understood the concept of time. Hours could have passed or it could have been years.
He had no way of knowing.
Chapter Seven
ONE BY ONE, people were brought in to Autumn and Lakota, and one by one, they were connected to their spirit guides and turned by Autumn’s blood.
The more connections they did, the faster the process got, until a veritable conveyor belt of shifters flooded in and out of the tourist building. Outside, the number of impossibly large, predatory animals continued to grow. A few took themselves off into the surrounding forest, while the aerial shifters lifted into the sky, trying out their newfound wings. The screeches, howls, and roars of the animals filled the air.
Most of the volunteers came in excited but nervous, and eager to get on with things. A few changed their minds at the last minute, and backed out of the cabin to rejoin their friends or family members. Autumn didn’t think any less of those people. She couldn’t imagine how terrifying it would be to change who you were forever.
Finally, they were done.
Mia stepped forward. “Now it’s my turn.”
Autumn turned to her friend. She was exhausted from the process, the taking of her blood, and everything else that had happened. She shook her head. “Please, Mia. Not now. I don’t have the energy to argue with you.”
“Why do you need to argue? Just do it.”
She put her head in her hands. “Please, Mia. Have you not seen the sort of pain those people went through to make themselves shifters? I can’t put you through that kind of pain. You’re like a sister to me.”
“If you see me as your sister, you should respect my choice.”
“What about Peter? Don’t you think you should talk to him first?”
She sighed. “We’ve already gone over this. Neither of us believes in asking a man’s permission to do anything.”
“Not permission, no. But surely it’s worth a conversation. You love him, don’t you?”
Mia’s eyes flicked down to the floor, her cheeks turning a shade of pink. Then she lifted her gaze back to Autumn. “Yes, I love him. I love him with all my heart. That’s why I want you to change me. I want to be like him. I want to be able to understand everything he goes through and help him.”
“How would you feel if he made such a huge decision without discussing it with you? What if he came back and told you he’d been able to make himself fully human again, and so he’d just done it?”
Mia bit her lower lip, and nodded. “Okay, you’re right. I’d be furious.”
Autumn relaxed inside. She didn’t want to turn her friend at all. At least now she’d bought herself a bit more time. She’d just have to hope that when Peter came back, he was completely against the idea and able to change her mind.
“What now?” she asked Lakota. “Do we keep moving?”
He shook his head. “We should get some rest. It’s going to be getting dark soon. And you look exhausted. You need some sleep.”
Mia reached out and rubbed Autumn’s arm. “Are you feeling okay? I’m so sorry. I’ve only been thinking about myself. I never thought about how you were doing.”
Autumn gave a half smile. “I’m okay. Lakota’s right, though. I could do with some sleep.”
“Take the couch,” the older man said. “The rest of us will make ourselves comfortable on the chairs.”
“What about Chogan and the others?” she asked. “Will they be able to find us here?”
“They’ve traveled hours past where we are now. They still need to search the area where Chogan left Blake, and then start heading back to us. At first light, we’ll get back onto the freeway. They’ll find us there.” He glanced out of the floor-to-ceiling windows, at the huge animals prowling between the bikes and vehicles, the people who sat within them showing no sign of fear at the enormous beasts. “We’re a bit hard to miss,” added Lakota.
It was true. It looked like some kind of freakish safari park out there.
“Okay,” she relented. She was too tired to argue about others being more needful of the couch. All she wanted to do was curl up and close her eyes, and try to forget this crazy world existed for a few hours.
With nothing else she could do, she took herself off to the couch and lay curled up on her side, with her back to the madness she’d at least in part been responsible for creating. She let out a deep sigh and some of the tension in her body ebbed away.
Seconds after closing her eyes, Autumn slept.
Chapter Eight
LEAVING THE BIKES and progressing on foot, Chogan, Peter, Nadie, and Sahale followed the route Chogan had taken when he had been chased by the soldiers a couple of days earlier. When he’d been running with Blake on his shoulders, the time had simultaneously gone quickly while he’d felt every step. Retracing the route made him realize what a huge distance he’d managed to travel, especially carrying someone the size of Blake.
The shifters sent their animal guides ahead as far as they could while still maintaining contact.
Finally, Chogan put out a hand to halt the others. His wolf had gotten far enough to catch a scent of human movement and the chemical tang of oil from a number of large vehicles. Even though he and the other shifters kept at the cabin had escaped, it didn’t appear as though the army had given up on this particular area as a compound.
He didn’t want to get too close, not wanting to risk getting either himself or his companions in trouble. He’d learned his lesson about taking too many risks, and he didn’t intend on repeating his mistakes.
Instead, he focused in on his wolf, sending him, with his nose to the ground, toward the clearing the group had run across, where he’d found Blake shot in the center, and toward the clump of bushes where he’d left Tala. As he’d expected, there was no sign of his cousin. His wolf picked up her faint, strange scent—part human, part bird. With it was mixed the smell of several men. But one thing he didn’t pick up on was the distinctive aroma of death, as he had with Blake. He didn’t know if Blake was alive or dead now, but he was sure Tala was still alive, and wherever they’d taken Tala, they’d also taken Blake.
He called his wolf back to him, and sensed the other shifters do the same for their guides. They needed to get away from here.
Together, they retreated, heading quickly and silently back the way they’d come, making sure there was enough distance between them and the soldiers before they dared speak again.
Eventually, they reached the spot where they’d left the bikes.
Peter turned to him. “So what are you thinking?”
“Same as you, I’d imagine. That they’ve taken Tala. Probably to the same place where they kept Autumn.”
“And what about Blake?”
“I can’t deny the possibility that he might still be alive. He’s a shifter, and we heal, though I thought he was beyond th
at point. But if he is alive, they’ll have taken him to the same place they’ve taken Tala. I guess we just have to hope they’re both still alive when we get to them.”
“What about Autumn? Are you going to tell her?”
“I don’t want to give her any misplaced hope, but I owe it to her to tell her the truth.” The thought of telling Autumn that Blake might still be alive made his insides twist in a way he didn’t want to examine too deeply. Had he really harbored the idea that with his cousin out of the way, Autumn would now be his for the taking? He didn’t like to think about what kind of twisted person that made him.
She will never know how rotten my soul is, he swore to himself. However bad things got, he wouldn’t let her learn just how wicked he was inside.
The bikes roared back through the forest, back to the car where he’d left Madison and Billy. Autumn wasn’t the only one he wanted to hide the real Chogan from, he realized. He didn’t want his new friends to see him as he really was either.
Part of him wondered if Madison would still be waiting with Billy—hell, if the car would be there at all. He knew nothing about the woman, except that she was running from an ex and she loved her son—but otherwise she could be anyone. They’d left her with the keys to the vehicle for safety, so what was there to stop her driving the car off to wherever she wanted?
They got closer to the place where they’d left the car. Though the roar of the motorbike engines was loud, another commotion filtered through to Chogan’s sensitive ears. He frowned and increased the throttle, speeding up the bike, despite the hazardous trail and the poor light. On the back, Nadie was forced to wrap her arms around his waist to hold on. He swerved around fallen tree trunks and branches. Splashing through muddy puddles so the water sprayed up and soaked his jeans.
Autumn's War (The Spirit Shifters Book 4) Page 5
