She allowed the implication of what he’d said to sink in. Something else occurred to her.
“So is your wolf spirit here now? Listening to us?” She couldn’t help but find the idea slightly freaky, as though she no longer had her privacy.
He shook his head. “My spirit guide doesn’t watch me, but the world around me. That way, it can guide me when needed, show me danger, or warn me of something.”
“What does it feel like? Does your spirit guide speak in your head? Can wolves even speak?”
Blake laughed. “No, of course not. No more than any other wolf can speak. But my wolf shows me things, put images or smells in my head.”
“All the time? Any time he wants?”
Again he shook his head. His gaze drifted away from her for a moment as he considered what he was about to say. “Have you ever been asleep and dreaming, only for someone to talk to you or the phone ring, and the sound somehow infiltrates your dream? You know it’s happening and your body fights to either wake up or ignore the noise. Well, that’s what it’s like for me all of the time. In the back of my mind, I can feel my wolf, what it’s seeing or feeling, and I can either choose to wake up and fully connect, or else I can choose to sleep and not open my mind.”
She smiled. “It’s interesting that you compare blocking your mind off to your guide as like being asleep.”
He shrugged. “I’m never more awake than when I connect completely, especially when we go that step further and become one.”
“When you become a wolf?” Her voice was hushed with awe.
“When the wolf and I become one.”
“That’s amazing, you know.”
His gaze smoldered. “You’re amazing.”
She glanced away, the heat in her face deepening in intensity. “But how is it possible that I’m able to do what you say, if I even accept that what you’re saying is right? I mean, I can kind of understand you being able to do what you do—even though I’ve had to seriously rethink some of my beliefs—because of who you are, you know, your ... culture.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You mean because I’m Native American.”
She bit her lower lip, worrying at a piece of dried skin. “Well ... yes. Isn’t the existence of spirit guides something you’ve been brought up with, something your culture has believed for centuries?”
“Autumn, just because one culture has embraced a part of life, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in other cultures as well. We just learned to accept and embrace it as a part of our lives. It was never hidden away, but the rest of the world simply assumed something like that couldn’t be true. Of course, those able to shift into the form of their guides were never paraded around. They would have been taken away and treated like freaks—”
“Like how Dumas is doing now,” she interrupted.
Blake’s features darkened to a scowl. “Exactly. Which is why I have to figure out a way to save those people.”
“You will,” she said, and then corrected herself. “We will.”
He shook his head. “You’re not going anywhere near that place. God knows what will happen if Dumas gets hold of you. He can make you vanish from the face of the earth.”
Her eyes widened. “He can’t do that! I have family who will ask questions, friends and colleagues who will wonder where I am. They’ll go to the police.”
“It won’t make a difference, Autumn. If he wants to bleed you dry in order to change as many people as possible, that’s exactly what he will do. He’ll tell other people in authority you’re needed for the security of this country, and they won’t say a thing. Everyone lives in fear now, and if he says you’re needed to make our country safer from the threat of terrorism, no one will question him.”
The pressure in Autumn’s head increased, making it feel as though her heart was thumping in her temples. “But that’s insane.”
Suddenly, the walls of the small hotel room seemed to be closing in around her, her chest tightening, heart pounding. Breath whistled in and out of her lungs and she struggled to catch it. The only driving force inside her was a desperate knowledge that she needed to get out, and needed to get out now.
She jumped to her feet and rushed for the door, the floor tilting beneath her feet like a ship in a storm. People she knew were dead. Men could turn into animals. Someone wanted to capture her and do God-knows-what.
She managed to get to the door and reached for the handle, but her spinning mind couldn’t seem to focus on where her fingers needed to be to get the door open. She was only barely aware of movement behind her, of Blake calling her name, concern thickening his voice.
“Autumn! Autumn, wait!”
Then his hands were on her shoulders, turning her to him. She locked her gaze on his deep dark eyes, her mind taking focus on the only solid thing in the room. Before she could process what was happening, his mouth was on hers, crushing the breath from her lungs for a different reason this time. His arms wrapped around her back, holding her against the solid heat of his body. How he held her! Never had she been caught in the grip of such a powerful man before, as if every inch of his body was coiled muscle, and she found herself being grounded by his strength. The heat of his mouth burned against hers. Her fingers locked around his neck, reaching into the soft hair at his nape. Seemingly of their own accord, her hands traced his skin, running down the thick cords of his throat and across his massive shoulders. All panic fled her mind as he kissed her deeper, his tongue entwining with her own. She pressed herself into the hard planes of his body, wanting to lift herself up and wrap her thighs around his narrow hips and forget everything else that was happening.
They broke apart, gasping, staring at each other with a new kind of wonder. Blake reached out, his fingers cupping her cheek. His skin burned. But he shook his head and lowered his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Autumn. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“What? Why not?”
“This is all too complicated as it is.” He took her hand and led her back to the bed. Her heart stuttered at their proximity to clean sheets and a soft mattress, but he took a seat on the very edge, leaning forward with his elbows pressed into his thighs, his fingers pressed into his temples.
“I’m scared, Blake,” she said, finally admitting to herself that it was the truth.
“You should be. Dumas is a dangerous man.”
“So he can take me and no one will ever know what happened?”
He lifted his head and locked his dark eyes on her. A shiver ran through her body. “I’ll know what happened. And I won’t rest until you’re safe.”
Chapter Fourteen
THE DOOR OF the hotel room burst open and Autumn quelled a shriek of surprise. Chogan’s form filled the gap. His eyes were hooded with anger, his forehead drawn down in a frown. The other man took three long strides across the room and caught his cousin by the material of his shirt, hoisting the bigger man to his feet and propelling him backward. The two men hit the hotel room wall, a picture knocking from a hook and falling to the floor with a crash, and the scream finally escaped Autumn’s throat.
“What the hell are you involved with?” Chogan demanded.
Blake pushed back, the initial advantage of surprise gone. Chogan stumbled briefly, but quickly regained himself, leaping to his feet and squaring on Blake like two men in a wrestling ring.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Bullshit! I saw those poor shifters, what they’d done to them. How could you be involved with someone who is doing that to your own kind? What the hell do those people want from them?”
“They’re just trying to find out what we are.”
Chogan snarled. “I don’t believe you. There’s more to it.”
Terrified they’d hurt each other, Autumn jumped to her feet. She positioned herself between the two men, hands held out, placed against their chests to separate them. The same heat which radiated from Blake also came from his cousin’s skin.
She turned to
Blake. “If he’s like you, why don’t you tell him the whole story?”
“Damn it, Autumn!” Blake glared at her.
Chogan leapt on their exchange. “So I’m right. There is more to this.”
Blake paused and then grabbed Autumn’s hand and dragged her outside into the corridor. A small Hispanic woman wheeling a trolley of clean sheets and mini toiletries passed them by. She gave them a sideways glance, but nothing more.
Autumn snatched her hand from his and put her hands on her hips. “So are you going to explain to me what your beef is with your cousin? It seems to me like he only wants to help, and we’re not exactly overwhelmed by people wanting to help us right now.”
“You have no idea what he’s like.”
“No, I don’t. So why don’t you tell me?”
Blake turned from her slightly and ran a hand across his buzz cut hair. He shook his head as though fighting an inner battle, then opened his mouth to speak. “Chogan doesn’t consider himself—or any of the shifters—on an equal level with humans. He thinks our abilities make us a higher species. He thinks humans should know about us, should bow down and worship us. That’s part of the reason he’s so furious about the other shifters being held captive. In his head, it’s like the masters being held and tortured by the slaves.”
“Wow.”
He looked grim. “Yeah, wow. I don’t know how he’s going to react to the news that you might be able to change humans into shifters. It could go one of two ways—he sees you as the messiah and wants to try to change as many people into shifters as possible, or he’ll view you as the anti-Christ who is about to reduce our kind to nothing.”
“Okay, neither of those are good reactions,” she said, slowly. “But other than hoping he’ll help us, what other options do we have?”
“We go it alone.”
“For how long? We barely know each other. I can’t just go on the run with some strange man for God-knows-how-long. I have a job! I have a life.”
Blake glanced away, as if suddenly uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, but your life just changed.”
She stared at him, hardly able to believe what he was saying. Had her old life really ended? It was all too much to handle.
“I still don’t think we can do this alone, whatever this is.” She remembered Chogan’s kindness upon finding her crying in the street after her latest confrontation with her father. “I want Chogan to know what’s going on. The full story.”
“You don’t know what he’s like,” Blake warned again.
“You said you’d not seen each other for a long time. Maybe he’s changed?”
Blake gave a sigh, his huge shoulders sagging, and Autumn knew she’d won this argument at least.
“Anyway,” she said, looking around the cramped corridor. “If he’s like you, can’t he just use his spirit guide to listen in on this conversation?”
He shook his head. “It’s an unspoken law between shifters that we don’t watch each other. Imagine the total lack of privacy you’d go through your whole life otherwise. Besides, my wolf would know if Chogan’s was here.”
“Okay, but I still think we need to tell him.”
“Fine. But if this all goes horribly wrong, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
They went back into the room.
Chogan stood, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. He looked up at them as they walked in. “You two finished your little mothers’ meeting?”
“Yeah,” said Blake. He motioned with his head toward the bed. “And if you want to hear what we have to say, I suggest you sit down and shut the hell up.”
Chogan gave them a tight smile. “I guess I don’t have much choice in the matter.” He sat down.
Blake stood above him, his arms folded across the expanse of his chest, his biceps bulging. “You wanted to know Autumn’s involvement in all this?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
“The man I work for, General Dumas, wants to figure out a way of turning regular humans into spirit shifters. He wants to use them to create an army which will have an advantage above all others.”
Chogan’s mouth fell open. “You have got to be shitting me.”
Blake scowled. “Are you going to let me talk?”
His cousin fell silent.
“Autumn, Doctor Anderson, was brought in to try to replicate how a shifter’s genetics change when we shift, and she was trying to do so with human DNA.”
Chogan shot her a look and she shrugged in an apology. “I didn’t know what I was working with then, only that I’d never seen it before.”
“Anyway,” Blake interrupted, “while she was conducting her experiments, she cut her finger and some of her blood contaminated the slides. The human DNA began to change, just like shifter DNA.”
“You’re telling me she’s able to change humans into shifters?”
“There’s a possibility, yes.”
She held up her hands. “We don’t know that yet. I wasn’t able to confirm the experiments properly. Your cousin here got me out of there quicker than I had time to think.”
“We had no choice. If Dumas had of gotten there before me or Haverly, you’d be locked up beneath ground right now. You were lucky Haverly was with you when the accident happened.”
A thrumming from above their heads caught everyone’s attention, causing them to simultaneously lift their faces to the ceiling. The sound grew louder, a pulsing on their ears.
“What the hell?” Blake went to the window and peered out, before turning on Chogan. “Did anyone see you? Follow you back?”
Chogan frowned. “I don’t think so. There were a lot of people around.”
“Well an unmarked chopper is right above the hotel. I’m going to guess it isn’t just sightseeing.”
“Shit.”
Autumn turned from one man to the other. “What’s happening?”
Blake picked up his leather jacket and threw Autumn her coat. She snagged the item from the air and pulled it on, though the thin suit jacket wouldn’t offer much protection in the cool evening.
“Dumas must have had people positioned outside the building to watch out for anything unusual. I’m guessing Chogan’s appearance fell into that category and they’ve sent someone after him, hoping to find us. We need to get out of here.” His hand made contact with her lower back, hustling her out of the room. “Let’s go!”
Though frightened, she couldn’t deny the thrill she experienced at the sensation of his big, hot palm pressed so close to her skin. The memory of the kiss they’d shared was still at the forefront of her mind.
Together, they ran down the corridor. The sound of the helicopter grew louder, the roar quickly developing into a thwop-thwop-thwop which pounded on their ear drums.
A window was positioned at the end of the corridor. The previous view of the city was blocked as the aircraft appeared, hovering just outside. The interior of the helicopter was open to the air. Autumn caught a glimpse of a man in protective gear crouched inside its body, something held between his hands, before the window exploded inward and her senses were overloaded by the shatter of glass and a rattle of automatic gun fire.
She dived for the floor, helped in part by Blake shoving her down from behind. The cheap hotel carpet was suddenly far closer than she’d ever anticipated coming to it, the garish colors and pattern vivid in her vision as she crawled, commando style, to reach the nearest exit.
“Go!” Blake shouted.
Chogan was already ahead and he turned to reach out to her, grabbing her hand so they rose to a crouch together and scuttled toward the fire door.
Blake pulled his weapon and fired off three shots in succession through the hole where the window had been only moments before.
“Blake!”
Terrified for him, she glanced back to make sure he was following. He fired off another shot before spinning toward them and chasing them out into the stairwell.
They ran down, Autumn’s heart pounding. Her feet felt like
they couldn’t move fast enough, simultaneously wanting to get out of there, while worrying she was going to stumble and pitch headfirst down the stairs. After the deafening roar of the helicopter, the shattering glass and machine gun fire, the slap of their feet against the treads sounded strangely hollow.
Movement came from below, the sound of people running up the stairs toward them.
“Shit!”
Blake’s fingers wrapped around her wrist and he yanked her away from the stairwell and through another door. He pushed her out onto another floor, hustling Chogan along with her. The Hispanic woman who’d passed them earlier stood frozen in the action of letting herself into a room on the second floor. From her upturned face and wide eyes, she’d obviously noticed the commotion from above.
Without pausing, Blake pushed past her, dragging Autumn with him, Chogan following close behind. He ran to the window and opened it, leaning out above the alleyway below. On the opposite side of the alley stood an industrial trashcan filled with black trash bags.
“You’re going to have to jump.”
“What?” She stared at him in alarm.
But Chogan was already climbing onto the ledge. “Don’t worry, I’ll catch you.” Cat-like, he sprang from the ledge, landing with a flurry of trash in the can. His head popped back up and he held out his arms to her. “Come on,” he yelled up, his fingers beckoning her toward him.
“Do it now!” Blake insisted, peering over his shoulder, his gun still clutched in one hand and pointed toward the hotel room door.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she muttered. She climbed onto the ledge, trying not to look at the drop below. Even though they were only on the second floor, the height was frightening from up here. Her legs trembled beneath her and she closed her eyes briefly, willing herself to be brave. She took a breath, gritted her teeth, and leapt.
Autumn fell through the air … and straight into Chogan’s arms. He caught her and they rolled together so she found herself tangled in his limbs, pressed against his body. He reached out and pushed her hair from her face, her breath catching as he focused his almost-black eyes on hers.
Autumn's Blood: The Spirit Shifters, Book One Page 11
