Saving Autumn

by Marissa Farrar

  Beside her, Tala fell to her knees and screamed.

  “Oh my God,” said Chogan, staring in horror at his cousin. But he managed to tear his eyes away long enough for his gaze to settle on Autumn. Something changed in his face, an uncertainty combined with the fear for his cousin that had previously blanketed his features.

  Now! thought Autumn, somehow hoping her thoughts could be projected into Chogan’s head. She suspected he was already considering the possibility that the distraction Tala was creating might be the only chance they’d get to escape.

  They weren’t the only people thinking that.

  Chogan started toward Autumn, but Rhys sprang into action, grabbing Chogan from behind so his forearm was pressed against Chogan’s chest.

  Fight back, Autumn willed. But Chogan’s focus was once again torn back to his cousin.

  Tala’s body began to transform, her skin morphing and swelling, her bones breaking. Every change caused another scream to burst from her lungs.

  “What have you done?” Chogan yelled at her. “You stupid, stupid girl. What the hell have you done?”

  Rhys looked around for help, though most were transfixed on the transformation happening before them. “Would you idiots help me?”

  Michael seemed to remember himself and came over to help, though he struggled to shift his gaze from the monstrosity that used to be a woman.

  “There’s a hatch for the cellar beneath that rug,” Rhys said, having to yell to be heard above Tala’s screams. “Get it up and we can put these two down there. Then we’ll be able to concentrate on helping Tala.”

  Michael did as he was told. A couple of the others came to help. Autumn found herself being unstrapped from the chair, though her hands were then once again bound behind her back. Two of the men, Enyeto and Rhys, grabbed Chogan by the arms. Michael pulled back a rug and lifted up a large metal hatch. It looked like it had once been a regular cellar, but had now been converted to a storm cellar, or perhaps had been designed for some other kind of threat. First they bum-rushed Chogan down the hole. She heard his body hit the steps on the way down and then come to a muffled thump. She winced. It sounded painful. She hoped they wouldn’t be so rough with her, but considering the treatment she’d already been dealt, she knew she couldn't count on anything. She glared at Enyeto. The bear-shifter had been Blake and Chogan’s friend, or at least had made out he was. She couldn’t believe he was doing this to them now.

  The men’s hands grabbed her again, though they seemed gentler than they’d been with Chogan. Instead of throwing her down the steps, they pulled her down. She lost her footing and stumbled, so they dragged her the rest of the way, dumping her unceremoniously on the concrete floor. The room was dark, with no windows to allow even the most meager amount of light in. Panic welled up inside her, certain they’d be shut down here in the pitch black, but, at the last moment, the Native American woman, Kasa, came down carrying a couple of candles which she placed at the bottom of the stairs. The candles had burned halfway down, but still had at least a couple of hours left in them. Autumn prayed they would get out of here before the light burned out for good.

  Chogan groaned and pushed himself to sitting. Above their heads, the hatch clanged shut, separating them from the rest of the world.

  “Goddamn it!” Chogan swore. He swung a fist at the cellar wall, punching again and again, roaring in anger. Autumn cringed, frightened he might turn his fury on her. “Goddamn you, Tala!” he yelled.

  The energy went out of him and he fell still, breathing heavily, his forehead pressed against the cold wall.

  “Are you okay?" Autumn asked, tentatively.

  He gave a sigh. “Yeah, I’ll survive. Just a few bumps and bruises. Nothing that won’t heal quickly enough.”

  It looked like a whole lot worse to her, but she wasn't going to say so. Let him continue with his bravado if it made him feel better.

  “What about you?”

  She gave a shrug. “I’ve been better, but like you, I’ll survive.” She rolled her shoulders. “I could do with this tape being taken off my wrists, though.”

  He must have noticed she was still tied up, her arms behind her back. The position had worried her as they’d brought her down the stairs, frightened they’d throw her as they had Chogan and that she’d end up landing flat on her face. She’d already suffered enough damage in the face area for one day.

  He pushed himself up and shuffled over to her, going around her body to work on the tape binding her wrists. She was conscious of his body close behind hers, the heat of his skin surrounding her like a comforting blanket. The cellar was below ground, and the ordeal she’d been through, combined with the blood that had been taken from her, plus the shock, had left her chilled.

  “What do you think they're going to do with us?” she asked over her shoulder as he pulled at her bonds. Some of the tape tore, a sound too loud in their confines. Above their heads, she could make out the muffled screams as Tala continued to battle the war going on for the rights to her body.

  “Well, what they’re going to do with you is probably quite different from what they’re going to do with me. I imagine they’re planning on keeping you long enough to get as much blood out of you as possible before you either die or they get found out.” She flinched at his words. He certainly didn’t bother sugar-coating things for her. “And as for me, I couldn't tell you. It depends on what Tala turns into when she’s completed whatever fucked-up thing she’s just done to her body.”

  She couldn’t help but bristle slightly. After all, that ‘fucked-up thing’ also happened to be the apparent talent that everyone suddenly seemed to be after. The same talent her mother had died for years earlier.

  “She’s turning into one of your own,” she said.

  Chogan shook his head, his long hair spilling down his back. “She’s forced a spirit guide to bind to the body of a host it hasn’t chosen. We are creatures of total symbiosis, existing together to help each other equally. The human provides the link back to the real world, to allow the spirit to experience life once more, and the spirit provides strengths and an ability to see the world on another level. You can’t force something like that. I don’t know how the spirit will react or how Tala’s body will cope with the change.”

  I hope she suffers.

  The thought shocked her. She wasn’t a spiteful person, but after what the other woman had put her through, she couldn’t help herself.

  Chogan shuffled his body to rest his back against the cold brick wall. He sucked in air through his teeth, his features tightening in pain. A dark patch soaked through his t-shirt. Autumn flexed her stiff wrists. Her hands didn’t seem to belong to her. Her fingers fizzed with pins and needles, and she wriggled them around to bring the feeling back.

  “You need to let me take a look at that,” she said, nodding toward his chest.

  Chogan glanced down at the dark patch. “It’s fine.”

  She moved toward him. “No, it’s not. Stop being a hero.”

  He had pulled the remnants of his t-shirt back on after his shift, so it wasn’t torn in line with his injury. To get a decent look, she needed him to take off his shirt. The placement of the wound, at the top of his chest, meant she couldn’t just lift it up.

  She pulled the material up over his stomach, trying to ignore the lines of his abs, perfectly defined in the flickering candle light. Her heart beat more quickly. She’d seen him completely naked before. Seeing him with his shirt off shouldn’t be having this effect on her. She sensed him staring at her, but deliberately didn’t meet his eye. He’d only do or say something to embarrass her further.

  The t-shirt wedged between his back and the wall and he had to lean forward, closer into her, to allow her to pull the shirt up and over his head. His warm breath caressed her cheek and throat, the scent of his sweat and blood filling her nostrils, a strangely not unpleasant smell.

  She pulled away, bunching his shirt in her hand. It was her turn to suck air in through he
r teeth. The claw marks were deep; grooves in his coffee-colored skin that revealed red flesh below. Blood smeared across his skin, fresh blood welling in the slices to dribble down over the curves of his pectoral muscle.

  She tore the bottom of her own shirt, ripping off a piece to use as a bandage. He allowed her to press the cloth against the wound, keeping the pressure to help the clotting.

  Autumn glanced up at his face. For once he wasn’t looking at her. He’d lost his bravado, biting his lower lip.

  So Chogan could be vulnerable. Yet she still recognized his strength and bravery. Yes, his big mouth had gotten them in this position in the first place, but he’d been willing to fight for her, even though he’d been hugely outnumbered. He’d turned against his own people for her.

  He cares about me, she realized. And she didn’t think he simply wanted to use her for her powers. The realization turned something inside her, her emotions as twisted as the situation. Blake didn’t want her, he’d made that clear. But how did she feel about Chogan? This was all too messed up.

  Chogan lifted his head, breaking her thought. “What happened, Autumn?” he asked. “How did Tala get you here?”

  For some stupid reason, she almost felt ashamed at her abduction, embarrassed that she’d been weak, that they’d gotten the better of her, that she hadn’t been strong enough to fight them off. Even so, she recounted what she knew—Rhys attacking her in her apartment, her imprisonment in the trunk of the car, then being dragged, blindfolded, through the forest to the cabin.

  “But where was Blake?” Chogan demanded.

  “I told you before, he was looking for you.”

  “He couldn’t still have been at the reservation.”

  Autumn pressed her lips together, trying to stop the tears burning her eyes. Once again, she was filled with shame. Blake hadn’t wanted to be with her. No, that’s wrong. He’d told her she needed to be protected, she just hadn’t listened. Her pride had been hurt—her heart had been hurt—and she hadn’t been able to stand the thought of being around him.

  She took a breath. “When Blake went back to the reservation, he found something out about the death of the girl he’d been involved with, Shian.”

  Chogan’s features froze, his whole body went rigid. “What?”

  “I think you know, Chogan.” Autumn sighed. She was suddenly so tired at having to deal with all of this. A deep and impossible longing to go back to a time before Blake and Chogan had entered her life washed over her.

  “He found out about the baby,” Chogan confirmed.

  Autumn nodded. “He said he couldn’t carry on with a relationship with me when he was thinking about someone else.”

  “But Shian’s death was years ago!”

  She nodded. “That’s what I said. It seems finding out the truth has brought everything back to him, like it’s only just happened.”

  Chogan’s shoulders dropped. “I guess that gives him another reason to hate me.”

  He doesn’t hate you, she wanted to say, but couldn’t, knowing she’d only be trying to save his feelings. Instead she said, “Why didn’t you tell him the truth all those years ago?”

  He shook his head, looking down at the ground as he spoke. “It wasn’t that easy. Shian’s family didn’t want everyone to know, saying they couldn’t stand the idea of people gossiping about her when she was gone and couldn’t stand up for herself. And then my uncle—Blake’s father—told me I needed to keep the news to myself for the time being. He didn’t know how Blake was going to react, and Blake was such a mess anyway, it seemed like a good idea. I was clueless about what was actually going through Blake’s head about me and Shian. The next thing I knew, he was confronting me about knowing my secret, so I figured he’d worked it out about the pregnancy. Then he threw the whole me and Shian seeing each other behind his back theory at me, and the very next day, he’d left and gone and joined the army.”

  “Poor Blake,” she said. It was all so tragic, lives taken so young and others altered irreparably. “Poor Shian.” She lifted her head to look at him. “Poor you.”

  “Yeah, poor me,” he said, his tone bitter, sharpened with sarcasm. “The one everyone feels sorry for.”

  She reached out to dab blood from just above his eyebrow, but his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. Their faces were only inches apart, staring into each other’s eyes, breathing the same air. His eyes appeared even darker in the poor light, like liquid pools of darkness she felt as though she could fall into.

  He’s going to kiss me …

  And she was going to let him.

  It wasn’t a long, slow approach. Instead, his other hand reached around the back of her head, knotting in the hair at the nape, forcing her face closer to his. He paused for the briefest of moments, studying her eyes to gauge her reaction, to see if she was going to push him away. When she didn’t, his mouth pressed against hers, hard, fierce, urgent, a low moan coming from deep in his throat. And to her surprise, she found herself kissing him back, her hand placed on his naked chest, his skin still tacky with blood. She returned the ferocity of his passion, all of the pain and fear and hurt of the past twenty-four hours pouring out into this physical act.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  CHOGAN BROKE THE kiss, his heart hammering.

  Did she realize the affect she was having on him? Her hand was pressed against his chest, right above his heart. Could she not feel how hard it was beating?

  His wolf called to him, diverting his attention. No, not now! He wanted to lean back in, to resume kissing the girl of his dreams, but his wolf called again. He closed his eyes and concentrated, using his spirit guide to see outside of their prison cell, though at that moment, he didn’t want to be anywhere else. Just being this close to Autumn, with her skin touching his, was enough.

  But his wolf insisted, calling to him like an alarm going off inside his head.

  He blinked and looked through his spirit guide’s eyes. The view, blurry at first until he fully focused, was of trees, though there was movement all around them. They were outside, somewhere in the forest surrounding the lodge. What was the movement? Then he saw them, men all around, dressed in black with balaclavas and helmets protecting their heads and faces. They slipped around the tree trunks, creeping stealthily between them, running almost silently from one to the next. Ever moving forward. In their hands, held at their sides, were guns.

  Chogan pulled himself back into the room with Autumn. “Oh, shit.”

  She was staring at his face, her blue eyes wide. From her expression, he knew she understood he’d witnessed something outside of the cellar. “What’s wrong? What did you see?”

  “Someone is coming.”

  “Who? Help?” Her natural instinct was to focus on the positive, and he wished he could say something to continue her hope.

  “I don’t think so. They look like military.”

  “How far away are they?”

  “Close.”

  He knew they couldn’t be far. The connection he had with his wolf lessened the farther away the spirit went from him, and the images he was being sent now remained sharp and were growing sharper.

  He exchanged a glance with Autumn and sensed her stiffen, breath held. They both glanced toward the low ceiling, waiting for what would happen next. Everything was out of their control. His wolf guide could do nothing in spirit form.

  Within seconds came the bang of a door slamming open, and muffled shouts of alarm. And then they heard the pop, pop, pop of gunfire, followed by screams of pain. Autumn’s hand had moved from his chest to tighten on his forearm.

  “What do they want?” she hissed at him.

  He had a feeling he knew, and she was sitting by his side. He didn’t want to frighten her. “They’re probably just trying to break up a gathering of shifters. The meeting must have been reported.” He kept his voice low. He covered her hand with his own and squeezed her long fingers, hoping to reassure her. “If we stay quiet, there’s no reason for them to even
know we’re here.”

  She pressed her forehead against his shoulder. “Oh God,” she whimpered in fear.

  Chogan focused in on his wolf, prowling around the room above. Men in black, holding weapons, surrounded the group of shifters. A couple lay on the floor, injured—shot—and with a sinking sensation, he realized one was Enyeto. Tala was at their center, but something was wrong with her. Had she been shot too? No, it was something else, her body moving in strange ways, her face distorting before returning back to normal. She was still battling the shift she’d forced.

  “Where is Doctor Autumn Anderson?” one of the men demanded.

  “I don’t know who you’re talking about,” said Rhys, positioning himself protectively in front of Tala. Whatever Chogan thought of the tiger-shifter, he was at least grateful for him doing that.

  The man talking lifted his pistol and fired. Rhys flew back, a circle of blood appearing across the top of his shoulder. “Jesus fucking Christ. You shot me, you son of a bitch.”

  “Consider yourself lucky that it’s only a flesh wound. I’ll shoot someone else if you don’t tell me where Autumn Anderson is. We know you brought her here.”

  He lifted his gun, this time pointed at Leah Phelps’ head. Someone screamed. “No! Wait! She’s in the storm cellar. Beneath the rug.”

  Chogan drew back into the present, beside Autumn. “Get behind me,” he said, maneuvering himself so she was now between his back and the wall. “They’re coming.”

  Footsteps thumped above them until they came to a rest right above their heads. More thumping followed, and then the metal hatch creaked as someone pulled on the ring which served as the handle. It was hard to lift, rusted after countless years of not being used, but then the hatch swung open, offering the extra light from the moon shining through the open door and the additional candles.

  Heavy booted feet stomped down the steps, bringing one of the men, the leader, into view. The helmet over his head obscured his face. He held his weapon in both hands, pointing the barrel at them. “Autumn Anderson?” the man said. “You’re coming with me.”