Saving Autumn

by Marissa Farrar

  “Tala’s upstairs, you moron.”

  “She took Autumn the first time and brought her here. I had nothing to do with it. It was your people who took her from here—military men.” He coughed and shook his head, wincing at the pain. “You only just missed them. They can’t have gotten far. We need to go after them.”

  “Don’t be stupid. You’re not going anywhere.”

  Chogan rose to his feet, unsteadily at first, but quickly regaining his equilibrium. “We’ve both let her down, Cuz. I don’t know about you, but I don’t intend to do so again.”

  Blake’s teeth gritted. “It was your fault I let her down!”

  “Bullshit. You had her, cousin! You had the girl who has the power to change the world. And not only that, she happens to be smart and beautiful and sexy and just about everything a man could ask for in a woman, and you threw it all away over someone who died ten years ago!”

  Blake stared at him and realization dawned. “You’ve got a thing for Autumn.” It wasn’t a question.

  Chogan smirked. “I’m a hot-blooded male, aren’t I? Who wouldn’t have a thing for her? And anyway, what do you care? You’ve already told her that you don’t think the two of you have a future.”

  “Not for you to step in and take my place,” he growled.

  Chogan shook his head in bemusement. “What have I ever done to you, Cuz? Okay, you thought Shian and I were seeing each other, but you know now that was wrong, you’d just jumped to conclusions. I stayed with your father and sister, saw them through hard times when you weren’t around. So what is it I’ve done to make you hate me so much?”

  “So what if you weren’t seeing Shian? You still betrayed me. You lied to me for years!”

  Chogan pointed a finger. “No, that’s where you are wrong. I never lied to you. I simply never told you her secret.”

  “That’s just as bad! Lying by omission.”

  “She made me promise not to tell you. Right before she died, she made me promise. What was I supposed to do? Break that promise?”

  “Her family knew. The only one in the dark was me.”

  “Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Shit happens.”

  Blake’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Shit happens? Is that the best you can say? I lost the girl I’d thought I would end up marrying and the baby we could have had together, and all you can say is ‘shit happens?’”

  “It was years ago, Blake. If you’d stuck around, perhaps we would have told you the whole truth in the end, but you didn’t.” Chogan took a deep breath and slowly let it out through his nostrils. “Let it go. Move on.”

  “But not with Autumn?”

  Chogan challenged his stare. “I guess that’s her choice.”

  “And you think she’s going to choose you?”

  “She kissed me.”

  Blake felt as though he’d been punched in the stomach. No, she wouldn’t do that. Chogan was behind this, just as always. “You kissed her, more like!”

  Chogan shook his head. “No, Cuz. You’re wrong. All those years ago, you were wrong about Shian and me, and you’re wrong about Autumn too. You might have pushed her away, but she had feelings for me before that.”

  Blake barked a laugh. “You think she has feelings for you? You’re insane.”

  “No, you’re the one who is insane for pushing her away.” He shook his head. “I told myself she deserved you, that you were the better man. But I was wrong. If you were the better man, you’d have done everything in your power to protect her with every inch of your body and soul. Instead, you’re the one who has hurt her.”

  “Yeah, right. What do you think all your antics did to her? If it wasn’t for you, those psychopaths would never have even known of her existence. You talk about not hurting her, but you almost got her killed.”

  Chogan glowered. “I hate myself for that. But I will never let it happen again. From now on, I will do everything I can to take care of her.”

  A female voice came from behind them, yelling down the cellar hole. “Hey, when you two have finished having your little heart-to-heart, you fancy getting your asses back up here so we can figure out what to do about getting Autumn back?”

  The two men glared at each other. Chogan got to his feet. “I’ll get her back if it kills me.”

  “But you’re hurt.” Instinctively, Blake reached out. Even though he wanted to punch Chogan himself right now, he was still the cousin he’d grown up with.

  “It’s fine,” he said, shrugging him off. “Just a flesh wound, and anyway, I heal quickly.”

  He was right. The head wound had already started to heal. Blake knew he’d never be able to get Chogan to do anything other than what he wanted anyway. What was the point in even wasting his breath?

  “Fine, but we need to move. If you say they only left ten minutes ago, then we can still catch them. They must be on foot because we couldn’t get a vehicle through here, the trees are all grown over and there’s no landing place for a chopper.”

  “They came by foot and I never heard any signs of a chopper nearby.”

  “If we go by wolf, we’re bound to catch them.”

  Without any more discussion, Blake turned and ran back up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Chogan followed, picking up speed the more he moved. They reentered the main room and Blake watched his cousin’s reaction as he took in the sight of the injured and dead shifters, and Tala as well. For the moment, she seemed to have halted her shift, and lay panting on the floor. From Chogan’s expression, Blake guessed that he must have known what she had done.

  “Why did you let her take Autumn’s blood?” Blake said.

  “It wasn’t like I had any choice in the matter.” He glanced around at the people remaining. “And I did try to stop her, but she had me severely outnumbered. Besides, she’s a grown woman. She makes her own choices.”

  Mia put her hand on her hips. “Will you two stop standing around chatting like we’re at some freakish tea party? We need to do something!”

  “They can’t have gone far,” said Blake. “We need to go after the people who took her.”

  The man Peter had been nursing sat up, pushing Peter away. “I’m going too. Those sons of bitches shot me.”

  Chogan glared at him. “Don’t be an idiot, Rhys.”

  “The bullet passed right through and I’m healing already. Look.” The tattooed man showed them where the flesh had already started to knit. “I’m strong and I’m fast.”

  “The more of us there are, the better,” Blake said.

  “I don’t trust him,” Chogan said with a scowl. “He’s one of the traitors who put me in that hole.”

  Mia snapped, “You’re going to have to sort out your differences after we get Autumn back.”

  “What about Tala?” asked Blake. He hated the sight of his twisted sister, the battle that was of her own making going on inside her body.

  “I’ll stay with her,” said Mia. “You guys go and get my best friend back.”

  Peter glanced anxiously at Tala, still writhing. “You don’t know what’ll happen to her. She might hurt you.”

  “I’ll be fine. Getting Autumn back is more important.”

  “I don’t know, Mia,” he said. “Perhaps Toby can stay as well?”

  “No, you need me, too,” interjected the boy. “I can get ahead of them and I’m designed to hunt in the dark, but I can’t shift in here.”

  “Okay,” said Blake. “We’re all going. And we’re going as our guides.”

  MIA WATCHED THE men and the teenage boy leave the cabin.

  She was curious, and Blake’s sister would be fine for a few minutes. It wasn’t as though she could actually do anything to help the other girl. Besides, Tala had brought this upon herself.

  Hurrying to the open doorway, she stopped to watch the four men and the boy. She felt awkward as Toby stripped, not wanting to feel like some kind of pervert, focusing her attention, for the moment anyway, on the more familiar lines of Peter’s lean body. It
was a sight she struggled to tear her eyes from, her heart filling with a mixture of emotions she could barely hold on to. She’d have sworn she could actually feel the organ swelling in her chest. Amazement, fascination, lust, and love … could it be love as well? He glanced over his shoulder at her, offering her one last reassuring smile before falling forward onto all four. His skin began to prickle with fur, golden in the moonlight. He face reshaped, his hind legs lengthening. A tail emerged from just below the dimples between his buttocks and lower back. The fur thickened, becoming sleek and glossy. Rounded ears unfurled from the top of his head.

  Peter turned to her, wisdom in his coal-ringed amber eyes. He blinked slowly before he sprang away, joining the two wolves and tiger at his side.

  She turned her attention to Toby. The boy no longer looked much like a boy. Plush, honey-brown fur covered his torso. His arms were outstretched, but they no longer looked much like arms either. His skin had turned black and almost translucent. Beneath the paper-thin skin, his bones began to elongate, growing long and thin. His palms became part of the arm bone—or perhaps it was the arm that became the hand—and the fingers, too, began to grow, lengthening and spreading apart, becoming bone-like. The boy’s head curved, his nose flattening against his face. His ears grew, becoming huge and pointed, rising high above where his now furry head stopped. A row of spiked teeth filled his mouth. His feet grew curled and clawed.

  Mia stared.

  Toby lifted his strangely deformed arms into the air and swiped them down. Like a giant banner being unrolled, thin, black skin filled the gaps between the spread finger bones.

  Wings.

  Mia found herself staring at monstrously-sized bat, even bigger than the boy had been. The bat’s body was at least the size of a full-grown man, the wing span stretching multiple times that size. The bat beat its wings and the wind its motion created swept against her face. The creature lifted into the sky, emitting a high pitched shriek Mia’s human ears only just picked up. It lifted between the trees, silent and swift. The two wolves and the big cats also paused to take in the sight of the giant bat.

  No wonder the boy had left his apartment in the middle of the night to go to the woods near his home. Being nocturnal, it must have been the only place the creature would have felt at home. This was its natural habitat. This place … at night. She only hoped that advantage would help bring back her friend.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  THE MAN HAD his arm wrapped around Autumn’s throat, dragging her backward through the forest. The arm was thick with muscle and fearsomely strong, but that didn’t stop her from fighting against it. She battered his forearm with her fists and tried to get her footing so she could kick back and catch him in the shins.

  “Let go of me, you son of a bitch,” she croaked. “I’m capable of walking!”

  The man snorted. “And have you run off as soon as you think our attention might have wavered? I don’t think so.”

  “There are six of you and one of me. Do you really think I can just slip away?”

  “You’ve slipped away before,” he growled. “I’m not taking any chances.”

  She couldn’t decide which was worse—the situation with Tala, or what was occurring now. The phrase about fires and frying pans flashed into her mind. These people were clearly powerful and she doubted any chance of escape. Whatever they wanted to do with her, they would, and they’d proven their ruthlessness by the shooting at the cabin. At least in the cabin, with Chogan at her side, she’d had some support, though the helplessness she’d experienced earlier in the day had been even more terrifying than what she was going through now. The unknown had terrified her. In this situation, she understood the evil she faced—or the people behind it anyway. She didn’t doubt these guys were military. The way they held themselves reminded her of Blake, and the thought filled her with a combination of guilt and longing. But she’d kissed Chogan; did that mean there was no going back for her and Blake?

  Autumn worried about Chogan and the other injured shifters they’d left behind, despite the part they played in her abduction. As she’d been dragged out of the door, some had been moaning in pain, others, more worryingly, had been silent. She’d managed to catch a glance of Tala, but the woman had been on her knees, her face pressed against the wooden floor. She didn’t think Blake’s sister had been shot, but to say she’d not looked well would have been a huge understatement. The quick glance she’d gotten had revealed Tala’s face to be pointed and blackened as if covered in a shiny mold. Her arms had been elongated and twisted like broken wings, flapping uselessly at her sides. Spikes, like dark quills, protruded from the skin left bare, blood seeping from the wounds.

  My blood did that, Autumn reminded herself. There had been no need for laboratories and expensive scientific equipment. Tala had been right, though she was now suffering the consequences. Something had changed when she had injected herself—Autumn had both seen and felt it—but did that mean Tala was like the others now? She couldn’t say for sure. Until Tala’s shift completed, if it ever did, she wouldn’t be able to confirm that the injection of her blood created true shifters.

  “Do you want us to go back for any of the others, Thorne?” one of the men asked, directing the question at her captor.

  “Not for the moment. We know where they are if we need them.”

  The name jarred her. Thorne? As in Calvin Thorne? She remembered the man being with both Blake and Maxim Dumas during the time she’d spent at the government facility. Was that where these people were from? Did Calvin Thorne plan on continuing Dumas’ good work?

  “Calvin Thorne,” she spat. “What the hell do you want with me?”

  The man laughed in her ear. “Ah, so Blake’s little piece of ass remembers me, then? I must have made more of an impression than I gave myself credit for.”

  She struggled some more, but it did no good. He was far stronger than her. “Don’t give yourself any credit. You went to my apartment and abducted my friend, Mia. You should be in jail.”

  The man snorted. “The government does what it wants, and it wanted to protect me. I guess they figured they had better things for me to do than languish in a cell. No one knows this project better than me. Even Dumas didn’t really appreciate me, he preferred that idiot, Blake, which just shows how much he knew. Others above him figured out I could be of more use.” He continued to drag her as if her weight meant nothing, even though she was hardly the petite type. Her heels scraped a groove through the fallen pine needles, revealing a scar of red mud beneath. “Anyway, I guess I got dealt my own punishment by one of your little pets.” With his free hand, he lifted his mask.

  Autumn twisted her head to see what he was trying to show her. Five knotted scars, new and angrily red, ran down his cheek.

  “Would you believe a fucking cat did this? It was a big fucking cat, but a cat nevertheless. I always did hate cats.”

  She felt no sympathy for him. “You deserved worse! When Blake and the others discover what you’ve done, they’ll track you down and kill you.”

  He laughed again, the sound infuriating her. “Do you hear that, boys?” he said, raising his voice to address his comrades. “She thinks her little friends are going to come and find us.”

  “I don’t think, I know! And when they do, they’re going to rip you to shreds.”

  Thorne snapped his hand in toward him, wrist pressing tight against her throat. She was already bumped and bruised from her earlier experiences. The pressure was painful and made her choke. “Don’t be so sure about that.” He wheeled her around and her eyes widened.

  Her stomach crawled into her throat as realization dawned. They must have been planning this all along.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  THE TRAIL OF numerous men was easy enough to track. They hadn’t made any attempt to mask their path, and even without Chogan’s extra wolf sense of smell, he’d have been able to follow the obvious tamping down of the fall leaves where the men’s feet had trampled.
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br />   It felt strange to be running with his cousin at his side again, though the tension between them remained. Flanking the wolves, the other two shifters ran. At Blake’s side was the mountain lion, Peter. At Chogan’s side ran the tiger-shifter, Rhys. Tiger, tiger, burning bright, he thought, understanding what the line may have been inspired by—gold and black stripes in the moonlight.

  Above their heads came the almost silent beat of leathery wings.

  Though Autumn’s abductors had a good head start, the shifters would be faster. As long as the military men didn’t reach the edge of the forest first and disappear in their vehicles, they would catch them. Chogan couldn’t say what would happen to Autumn then, but he would do everything in his power to protect her.

  He wished he could send his spirit guide on ahead to scope out the scene, but that was impossible when they were as one. Though his speed, strength, and senses were all hugely improved when he merged with his wolf, the one disadvantage was no longer having an invisible, silent watcher to relay information back to him.

  The scent of humans ahead filled his nostrils, growing stronger. He glanced to Blake who gave an almost imperceptible duck of his head as he ran. Chogan had known his cousin long enough to understand what the nod meant. He smelled them too. Humans, lots of humans. How many had taken Autumn? He felt sure he’d only seen six or so men. Were others around, and if so, how many?

  It doesn’t matter how many there are, he told himself. He’d keep going until he got Autumn back. The memory of the kiss they’d shared burned on his brain. Right at that moment, he no longer cared if Blake hated him. He’d been punished for years for something he didn’t do and then rebuked again for keeping a promise to someone they’d loved. Why not give his cousin something real to hate him for? After all, he’d probably hate him anyway.

  The dark forms of men appeared between the shadows of the trees. Chogan’s heart picked up a notch. The men didn’t appear to be running. If anything, they seemed to be stock still and facing the shifters now upon them.