With the owl removed, Enyeto turned his attention to Chogan and Rhys. Chogan knew he was in trouble. He could do little to fight off the huge black bear. He only had speed on his side. Still, he was torn. Enyeto was one of his tribe, their families had known each other for forever. It felt so wrong to be turning against him. He hoped Enyeto felt the same way. Chogan experienced a rush of fresh anger at Tala for putting him in this position. They could still have achieved what was needed without getting Autumn involved.
Enyeto swiped at him, thick claws like hooks. Chogan managed to drop his chest to the ground, escaping the worst of the blow, but one of the claws caught just above his eye, opening his flesh. Chogan yelped in pain, and spun around, snarling. The bear opened its massive jaw and roared back at him.
He understood what Enyeto was trying to say. Stay back or this would end badly. He didn’t think the bear really wanted to hurt him. Surely Enyeto felt the same way he did?
Those who had been standing farther at the back of the room, those whose powers were not as strong, had also begun to start their shifts. Even though their connections with their spirit guides were weaker and their shifts took longer, once they had completed their transformations they would be almost as strong as he was.
Though he hated doing so, Chogan had to admit defeat. He would still get Autumn away from this situation, he promised himself, but he would need to go about things a different way.
He forced himself to lower his body to the floor in an act of submission. He willed his wolf to leave him now, though he sensed the animal didn’t want to go, still wanted to fight. That was the wolf’s nature, to protect those it viewed as its own.
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.”
Chapter Twenty-one
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.”
Chapter Twenty-two
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 blo
od 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.
Saving Autumn Page 16
