Autumn's War (The Spirit Shifters Book 4)

by Marissa Farrar

“Is this what you wanted?” she yelled at the crowd. “Innocent people being shot. It stops here. Right now!” She broke down, harsh painful sobs emitting from her chest.

  Someone stepped forward and spoke in Chogan’s ear. Above their heads, the couple of choppers that had been circling suddenly banked steeply and flew away from the city center.

  “There are reports of the soldiers leaving, Autumn,” he said, gently. “I think this might be over.”

  She gazed down at her friend, a tear slipping from her eye and trickling down her cheek. “Yes, but at what cost?”

  “We need to get her to a hospital,” Tala insisted.

  Chogan shook his head. “The hospitals are overwhelmed. We tried to get help for someone outside of the city, so God knows what it’s like in Chicago. She could end up lying on a stretcher in a corridor and dying before anyone even looks at her.”

  “You could give her your blood,” Tala suggested, looking to Autumn. “She’s not too far gone yet. Even if her shift doesn’t complete, the healing qualities could help keep her alive until we get her back to my father to complete the shift.”

  “Is that possible?” Autumn turned to Chogan, and Peter—who had returned from the crowd with blood on his hands—for help.

  Chogan nodded. “It’s worth a shot.”

  Autumn gave herself over to the decision. They had no real alternative. “Quickly, take her down to the labs. They’ll have syringes and gauzes there.”

  Peter scooped her up in his arms, his face rigid with anguish. Mia appeared tiny and almost child-like in his arms.

  “Not too many people,” Autumn said. “We don’t want to crowd her. Chogan, you come. Tala, too. You’ve been through this yourself. You might be able to get through to her when her shift starts and won’t stop.”

  Autumn hated to think of the pain she was about to put her friend through, but she had no choice. It would take too long to get to the hospital. No ambulances would get through the crowds, and, like Chogan said, even if they did manage to get her to the hospital, the place would be so full she might not even be seen. Besides, Mia was probably already in pain. A gunshot wound was bound to hurt.

  They hurried back into the elevator and traveled down to the laboratory. Chogan swept everything off the bench, glass smashing to the floor, metal landing with a clang and a clatter. With the space cleared, Peter gently lay Mia down on the hard surface, keeping one arm pillowed beneath her head. With his other hand, he held the balled t-shirt, which was now sodden with her blood, hard against the wound.

  He lifted his eyes and looked at Autumn. She noted the tears swimming in his vision, the same as hers. He spoke to her without saying a word—we can’t lose her.

  No, they couldn’t. She couldn’t imagine a world without Mia in it. Losing her would be like losing a part of herself.

  “We won’t,” she told Peter, hoping her words would be the truth.

  She turned to Tala. “Quickly,” she said, rolling up her shirt sleeve. “There are needles in that box over there. Grab me an elastic band to use as a tourniquet.”

  Tala hurried over to the direction Autumn had nodded, and grabbed the items needed.

  “Let me do it,” she said to Autumn. “I’m a nurse, remember?”

  She did remember, but her hesitation was less to do with Tala’s ability, and more to do with if she could trust her or not.

  “I’ve learned my lesson,” Tala said quietly. “You can trust me.”

  Autumn held out her arm, palm up. “Don’t make me regret trusting you.”

  “I won’t, I promise.”

  Expertly, she bound the top of Autumn’s arm, pulling the strip of elastic tight. She tapped at the veins popping in Autumn’s inner arm. The needle pierced her skin and slipped inside the vein. Dark red blood filled the plastic tube.

  Tala withdrew the needle and placed a piece of gauze against the puncture wound.

  “How is she?” Autumn asked, turning back to Peter.

  “She’s still breathing, but her pulse is weak. She’s losing a lot of blood.”

  “Keep the pressure on the wound,” Tala instructed. “We’re almost done.”

  It didn’t feel strange to be sharing her blood with Mia. Mia was like a sister to her, and she’d have given her anything she needed—hell, she’d give her an organ if that was what was required. A little blood was nothing.

  She watched with her heart pounding as Tala lifted Mia’s limp arm and injected Autumn’s blood into her bloodstream.

  She, Tala, Peter, and Chogan held their collective breath as they stepped back from Mia and waited for what would happen. As before, with Tala, at first it seemed nothing would happen, but then something in the atmosphere changed and the hairs lifted on Autumn’s arms.

  Mia’s spirit guide had arrived.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  MIA HADN’T FELT the bullet enter her body. She’d seen the muzzle of the gun lifted and pointed in Autumn’s direction and had simply reacted. Her one thought had been to get Autumn out of the way of the bullet.

  She’d planned on pushing Autumn, even though her friend had a good six inches of height on her, but even though she launched herself at Autumn, she couldn’t remember pushing her. Instead, all she’d been aware of was something punching her in the shoulder.

  She remembered Autumn holding her on the ground. Her friend’s voice had come to her, but she’d sounded suddenly distant, or perhaps Mia had been plunged underwater. She wasn’t quite sure. Everything felt confused and disjointed.

  Chaos broke around her, people yelling and rushing around. Yet somehow she was separated from it all.

  Then the pain started, a bloom of white hot agony that made her head swim. It started in her shoulder, but spread down into her torso and her arms. The pain was too much, too great, and she welcomed the darkness that claimed her instead of having to embrace the agony.

  But a sharp prick of pain brought her back to the surface and her mind blurred. Suddenly, she became aware of her surroundings. She saw Autumn, Peter, Tala, and Chogan standing in a laboratory. The tension in the room was palpable. Her view of them was from behind, and they stood around something. She tried to get a better look, but she didn’t have control of where her vision was drawn. With shock, she recognized the hand lying limp on the bench, a used needle sitting beside it.

  She was looking at herself.

  Was this what it was like to be dead? Was she dead and her spirit was hovering above herself? She’d heard reports of such things happening, but had always taken such stories with a pinch of salt. Now she had proof, though she doubted she would have any way of telling anyone about her experience. If she was dead, she would surely see a light at an end of a tunnel, or some other clichéd end of life experience.

  But no, she’d changed as well. Her vision was different, her sense of smell. She sensed something else with her. As if she wasn’t alone, as if someone else was sharing an invisible space with her. In her mind, something growled.

  What the hell…?

  Then a crack, like a gunshot, ricocheted around her brain, and suddenly she was back in her body again. Her eyes flew open, agony worse than anything she’d experienced before encompassing her whole body in its grip.

  Mia opened her mouth and screamed.

  Something else in her body snapped, a muscle ripping from its tendons seemingly out of its own will. In her confusion and fear and pain, she almost missed the presence of another mind in her body, sharp with keen intelligence, something that seemed to think her body was its own.

  Autumn stepped forward, reaching out to Mia. “Mia, honey, you were shot. I had to give you my blood. Try not to be afraid. You’re shifting now.”

  Her words filtered through to Mia’s brain. Was it true? But of course it was. It made total sense. The feeling of another creature somehow being with her, in her heart, sharing her thoughts … her mind.

  Yet they were strangers, she and this creature. Something she instinctively felt should be harmonic was an
ything but. It was as if they’d both found themselves in a situation neither of them understood or had agreed to.

  Mia tried to reach out with her mind to the spirit animal that now inhabited her body. It’s okay. Calm down. We’ll work this out. But another bone in her body snapped and involuntarily she let out a piercing shriek. She found it impossible to concentrate, to focus on the creature deforming her body. The pain wouldn’t let her. The animal was frightened as well. It wasn’t bad or evil. It simply found itself back in the mortal world and its first instinct was to inhabit a body that it recognized as its own.

  Unfortunately, Mia’s body wasn’t that.

  She’d asked for this, and she’d gotten what she’d asked for. She just hadn’t realized it would hurt so badly, or that she’d be so scared.

  She wanted to turn to Peter, to have him hold her in his arms, but though he stood close by, the shock on his face made her heart drop. Would he reject her now? What did she look like? Even as the thought passed through her head, she felt her face began to change, her mouth pushing outward, her teeth dropping from her gums as much sharper teeth pushed through. Mia spat, the small oblongs falling onto the hard surface beneath her.

  She wanted to cry in shock, to put her hands to her face and somehow push her expanding features back into her skull, but she didn’t even have control of her hands. This was her worst nightmare come true.

  “Try not to fight it,” said a voice.

  It took Mia a few moments to focus in on the female face and conjure up a name. It was Tala, the woman who had abducted and tortured Autumn.

  “The more you fight the change, the harder and more painful it will be. I’m telling you this because I’ve been in your place.”

  Mia tried to speak, to tell her to go fuck herself, but her tongue wouldn’t comply, her mouth and throat no longer had the capacity to create words. Only a growl and a snarl came out.

  “It’s okay,” Autumn said, stepping closer, though Mia didn’t miss the anxious expression on her friend’s face. “Tala is trying to help. Her suggestion might have just saved your life.”

  Mia couldn’t think about her life or future right now. What was happening at that moment was as far as she could think. The pain made her wish and pray for oblivion, but every time her mind tried to detach from the situation, a new bone breaking jarred her back to the present with a scream. How could she have asked for this? How could she have even contemplated allowing Autumn to do this terrible thing? All she wanted was for it to stop.

  Almost as bad as the physical pain was the war going on inside her head. She sensed the animal’s presence like a parasite working over the back of her mind. The idea of living in harmony with such a creature seemed so far-fetched it would have been laughable, had the situation not been so terrifying.

  Peter, she wanted to cry, Peter, please, make it stop. But her mouth wouldn’t form the words.

  How did he live like this?

  Tala spoke again, her voice urgent. “Mia. Listen to me. I know this is awful for you right now, but it will get better, I promise. But you need to calm down. We need to get you out of here and take you to my father to complete the shift. Then the pain will stop.”

  Her father? Lakota? Was he here? Then she realized they’d left him back at Wenona’s house, and she cried out in misery. She wouldn’t last the couple of hours it would take to get back to him. She didn’t think she’d last the next few minutes without losing her mind.

  Peter reached out to her. “I’m going to carry you, okay? Try not to fight me.”

  She would do her best, but she wasn’t the one in control of her body. She didn’t want to hurt Peter. He was the last one she’d ever want to harm.

  His strong arms scooped beneath her body and he lifted her. She twisted and bucked, but he held on tight.

  Autumn called the elevator, and Peter whisked Mia through and into the car. They came back out onto the ground floor level. People still waited outside of the doors.

  Voices rose around her in a crescendo.

  “Is she going to be okay?”

  “What’s happened?”

  “Can we do anything to help?”

  Peter’s voice came, loud and brash. “Get out of my way!”

  No vehicles were parked anywhere close, all of the streets being taken up by the masses of Chicago’s population, and the shifters who had gathered them here. Peter pushed through, but her body began to change, and the horror she saw in people’s eyes made them step back voluntarily, creating a path for them to pass through.

  “We need a car,” Autumn said, frantic. “Please, does anyone have one we can borrow?”

  A male voice came out of the crowd. “My truck’s parked over there. Here, take the keys.” The set of keys flew through the air, and Chogan snatched them.

  “Thank you,” she heard Autumn say. “Thank you so much.”

  She saw those who had followed—her brother, Marcus, the other two paranormals, and shifters Nadie, Sahale, Tocho, and Romero.

  At the sight of Marcus, the thought of her parents flashed through her mind.

  How would they feel to learn they had a son still alive, and a monster for a daughter?

  Chapter Twenty-five

  AUTUMN STOOD BY, helpless and scared, as Peter bundled Mia into the back of the truck and then climbed in beside her. She was bigger now because of the shift, and her body stretched out across the whole seat, leaving Peter crushed up against the back.

  “Sit in the front,” Autumn told him. “You’ll have more room. I’ll drive.”

  But he shook his head. “I’m not leaving her, even if it’s only to sit up front.”

  From the hardness of his expression, she knew arguing with him would be pointless.

  “I’ll come with you,” said Chogan. “Just in case things get crazy.”

  “Aren’t they crazy already?”

  She wished there was something more she could do to help. She turned back to where everyone else stood. Marcus waited anxiously with the other two paranormals.

  “Can you do something?” she begged Daisy, remembering what the girl had done for her on the journey here. “Help her feel better?”

  The girl shrugged, but stepped forward.

  “It’s different for other paranormals,” Angie said, filling in Daisy’s silence. “The same rules don’t apply as with humans. But she’s going to try.”

  She reached out, flinching as Mia bucked, as bones broke and fur sprouted beneath her hands. She concentrated. Mia calmed for only a few moments before she snarled and lashed out again. Daisy stepped back, shaking her head.

  Autumn didn’t need an interpretation. “Thank you for trying.”

  They all climbed in the car, doors slamming. Autumn drove, at first having to go slowly to negotiate all the people on the streets, and then, once they’d made it out of the area and onto the freeway, she pushed the gas pedal as much as she dared. Every minute Mia was in fear and pain, was another minute Autumn would also feel for her friend.

  As the miles flew by, Mia’s howls of pain deafened them.

  The confines of the truck were too small to contain a screaming, shifting woman. Despite Mia’s petite stature as a human, her shifting creature was not so small. Driving frantically, breaking every speed limit around, Autumn found herself having to duck as a clawed paw came swiping toward her head.

  Peter however, went unfazed. Even when Mia appeared horrific—her beautiful, doll-like face contorted by a muzzle and fur, Peter continued to hold her, stroking her head and murmuring reassurances to her.

  Thank God Lakota was only a few hours away, waiting for them at Wenona’s farmhouse. She couldn’t imagine how horrific this journey would be if they had to travel all the way back to the reservation.

  Autumn chastened herself at her lack of empathy. This was far worse for Mia than for her. The last person she should be thinking about was herself.

  She’d been wrong not to change Mia when she’d asked. She’d fought against it, not w
anting her friend to change, perhaps worried she would lose her to Peter for good, that Mia would no longer take her place as Autumn’s sidekick. She’d known Peter would want to keep Mia human, understanding in a selfish way that he’d want to keep her sweet and fragile and human, just as she had. But she should have respected Mia’s wishes. If she’d done so, Mia wouldn’t be going through the torture she was now. Every breaking bone, every howl of pain, Autumn suffered with her. She’d made herself ride in the same vehicle, wanting to punish herself by not missing a single moment of Mia’s agony. She’d made a mistake. A horrible, selfish mistake, and now her best friend was paying for it. If she’d changed Mia in the safety and calm of Lakota’s presence, she wouldn’t be going through this right now.

  Autumn kept her foot on the gas and tried not to be distracted by her best friend’s screams.

  Chogan leaned across her and pointed to the next turnoff. “Take that one. We’re almost there.”

  “Thank God.”

  Her whole body was tense in anticipation. Though she’d tried not to allow herself to think about it, she worried they’d return to some other crisis. Perhaps the soldiers seeming to withdraw from the city had nothing to do with them, and everything to do with them simply moving their target. Vivian had kept tracks of them before, there was no reason for them to believe she didn’t know exactly where they were now. Autumn worried Vivian would have come for Blake, and taken the others with her.

  But as she pulled down Wenona’s long drive, everything, on the outside of the vehicle at least, was peaceful. Inside the car was a different story, with Mia continuing to shift, her screams now lessening to moans and soft cries, though the change was down to exhaustion, not a lack of pain.

  She pulled the vehicle up outside the house, everyone jolting forward at the change in motion. Gravel flew up from beneath the wheels. She jumped out and ran to the back door, yanking it open to help Peter with Mia.

  Movement came at the house, and she glanced around to see figures emerge from the front door. One of those figures was Blake in a wheelchair. They must have borrowed it from somewhere. He wheeled himself out and waited on the porch.