Autumn Rising (9 page)

Chapter Twelve

THE SHIFTERS SLEPT most of the day with no further interruptions.

Chogan had
rested fitfully, one ear alert for any disturbance. He kept his wolf close by to prowl around the outskirts of the cabin. He was tempted to send his wolf farther, to try to get an idea of what the military were up to, but the greater the distance his wolf went from him, the weaker their connection. By doing so, he worried that he’d miss something close by and leave them open and vulnerable to attack.

He hadn’t been the only one who had been restless. Soft crying had come from the new girl
, Lexie, until she’d finally fallen asleep, her head rested in Danny’s lap. Rhys had muttered and grumbled to himself as well, until sleep too claimed him and he’d started snoring softly. Blake, used to sleeping in uncomfortable and unfamiliar situations, had lain himself down on his back, his hands behind his head, and had quickly given in to his slumber. The others hadn’t even emerged from the two bedrooms.

But now night was falling
, and he intended on keeping his promise to Rhys. They needed to come up with a plan, and they would put it into action this very same night. He had no intention of standing around useless while more and more shifters were dumped here and he did nothing.

He got to his feet, silent. He nudged Blake and Rhys awake, placing his finger on his lips to keep them quiet as well, and motioned with his head toward the cabin door to show that he wanted to speak with them outside. He hesitated for a moment, and then nudged the new guy, Danny, awake as well. The guy seemed to have some balls, and he figured the more the better.

The young man seemed to instinctively know what was being required. Carefully, he untangled himself without waking his girlfriend, and followed Chogan and the others outside.

“It’
ll be fully dark again soon,” Chogan said to the other men. “And I meant what I said about us coming up with a plan to break out of here.”

“Good to hear it,” said Rhys
, sarcasm layering his voice.

Chogan didn’t bother to respond to him directly. “I’ve been thinking about it all day, and t
he one advantage we have is that of surprise and confusion. If they’re not expecting us, we can take them from all levels—air and land.”

“But how would they not be expecting us?
” said Danny. “Surely they’ll be prepared for us trying to escape.”

“I’m thinking we need a distraction of some kind.
A smaller group could begin an attack on one part of the ring. While that’s happening, the bigger group could take on another part while the soldiers are weakened in numbers, assuming they send men to defend against the first group.”

“The first
group is liable to get killed,” said Blake, frowning.

“I know. That’s why I’m willing to lead it. I’ll take Michael as part of my air attack, and perhaps
Mischa, if she’s willing. She’s fast and strong.”

“You could be sacrificing yourself and the others.”

“I’ll sacrifice myself, if I need to,” he said, trying to ignore the awful churning of nerves in his stomach. “I got everyone in this mess. I need to stand up and be counted. As for the others, I can’t speak for them, but I will ask them.”

“I don’t want you to put yourself in danger,” said Blake.

He forced a laugh. “I don’t want to either, but I think that ship has sailed, Cuz.”

“I
t should be me who leads the first team. I know how the military works. I’m more likely to get out alive.”

“No, that’s the exact reason you need to be in the other group. They need you to lead them, and you’re our best fighter.”

“I can fight too,” Rhys interrupted.

Chogan nodded to him. “Which is why you’ll be in the main group
, too. There are weaker shifters among us. They’ll need protecting.”

Blake frowned. “And what are we going to do about Tala?”

That’s where Chogan drew a blank. No matter what he thought of, he couldn’t think of a way of getting Tala out of there safely. She still hadn’t woken, but as soon as she did, her shift would most likely start again. They couldn’t carry someone mid-shift. Not only was it impossible to keep hold of limbs that were constantly changing, shrinking and morphing in your hands, there was also no way of telling how she would react to being touched. She would be in agony, no doubt, and could easily lash out and harm whoever was trying to help her.

He couldn’t meet Blake’s eye. “I don’t know. We may have to consider leaving her.”

“No,” said Blake, with finality. “I already told you, I’m not leaving my sister here.”

“We’ll think of something,” Chogan said, not wanting to get into a fight with his cousin
, and trying to buy them time. “Let’s go and tell the others what we’ve discussed.”

T
ogether, they went back inside the cabin. A couple of the others had already begun to stir, and they went around and woke the rest, gathering them inside the main living area of the cabin. Chogan could have killed for a hot, strong coffee, maybe even with a shot of something stronger added, but all they had was water.

He crouched beside Tala and reached out to touch her shoulder. She was lying on her side and one eye opened, winking up at him. She opened her mouth to speak, but the moment she did so her face began to change again, and the only thing that came from between her lips
was a low moan of pain. Her features began to stretch, her mouth and nose elongating, the nose melding to the upper lip, and turning black. A hard, shiny surface covered the skin of her conjoined nose and mouth, and when she opened her mouth again to try to speak, the tongue that curled out from between the two hard husks was no longer human.

He sensed a presence standing at his right shoulder and turned to find Leah beside him.

“Her animal guide is a bird,” the other girl said. “I recognize her shift.”

Chogan turned back to his cousin and immediately saw what he hadn’
t before; the lower half of Tala’s face was now a beak.

Of course, Leah’s guide was also a bird, so she would recognize the formation and patterns of the metamorphosis. Leah crouched beside
him and reached out to touch Tala’s arm, which was now covered in thick, hard quills that would have become feathers if allowed to complete their transformation. “I would guess a crow,” Leah continued. “Or perhaps a raven.”

He took a moment to allow the news to sink in. It was like discovering the sex of a baby after a nine month pregnancy. Part of him was proud of his crow-shifter cousin, the other part of him was dismayed
that she was now suffering.

“Thank you,
Leah. That’s really good to know.” At least if they knew what kind of animal she’d bound to, they might be able to make contact with it, somehow, try to placate it into living in synergy as the rest of them did. He prayed that would happen. The thought of Tala being able to soar above the treetops lifted his heart. It gave him hope.

Leah blushed. “Welcome.”

But, for the moment, it seemed Tala’s shift would continue, though it seemed to have slowed. The problem of how they would escape this place, and take her with them, remained.

Everyone else had gathered in the open plan living area. The young couple stood close together, Danny’s arm protectively around Lexie’s shoulder. Harry Bernard, and the new woman, Julianne, hung out near the back. Toby had sat himself cross legged on the floor, his hair hanging in his face, as he fiddled with his useless computer. Michael had his arms folded across his chest, his face tense. The father and son, Garth and Jerome, remained
side by side, and Mischa leaned against one of the walls, her hands shoved in her jean pockets.

Blake and Rhys came to stand either side of Chogan, flanking him like a couple of bodyguards.

He addressed them all. “I know you don’t want to stay here. You want to get back to your families and homes.” They nodded and murmured in agreement. “We need to fight back. We have a plan, to cause confusion and use it to our advantage.” He ran through what they had discussed before.

Michael
heard his part to play and paled, but nodded his agreement. “I have a family, but I know others do too,” he said. “But I also know what it’s like to be held captive and feel useless, and I won’t do it again. If I can help save others, than I will, with one condition.”

Chogan said, “Name it.”

“That I’m able to write a letter to my family for someone to deliver if I don’t make it.”

Chogan didn’t even bother to try to reassure the man that he might make it home. They were hugely outnumbered by men with guns. They needed to be realistic. “Done,” he told him.

Leah stepped forward. “I want to come with you too,” she told Chogan.

“No, you’re too young.”

“I’m twenty-one! And I’m a shifter, I can fight. I’ve fought for you before.”

“And you got hurt. No
, Leah, I won’t see that happening again.”

“But
..?” she started to protest, but Chogan silenced her with a stop motion of his hand. She stepped back, her mouth twitching as she tried to repress a scowl.

“I’ll come with you,” said
Mishca, the tall, black woman. “I don’t have any family. If something happens to me, I don’t think anyone will miss me too badly.”

Chogan felt a pang of sorrow for the woman. “Thank you, Mishca.”

“Shouldn’t you take someone else?” Blake said. “Three shifters doesn’t seem like much to me.”

“It will be enough, and
it’s better that we are weaker and you are stronger. We need for you to get out of here in one piece.”

“We all want to get out of here in one piece.”

Chogan forced a smile. “I guess you can’t always get what you want, Cuz.”

“So when are we going to start this attack?”

“Not until it’s fully dark. Our shifter eyesight will give us an advantage on that front. Before then, I suggest those of us who are strong enough should send our guides out to survey the perimeter, see if we can spot any weak areas. Even if the number of soldiers remains the same, you might notice some that aren’t paying as much attention or perhaps seem weaker. They might have weapons, but they’re still just men. We need to find two areas on different points of the circle, preferably not too far apart. My team goes in first, with the idea of creating noise and chaos as much as anything else, and then a couple of minutes later, the second group hits. We want soldiers at the second group’s spot to hear the commotion and race to help those being attacked by the first group. Hopefully, the perimeter will then be weak enough to breach.”

“When do you suggest we do this?” asked Rhys.

“I think we should go in a couple of hours,” Blake said.

Chogan checked out the reaction of the group. No one rejected Blake’s suggestion. The younger women appeared nervous, as did Toby, though he knew the boy would never admit it. The men all mirrored the same bravado, arms folded, eyes narrowed.

“We still haven’t figured out what to do about my sister,” said Blake. “I won’t leave her.”

Rhys stepped forward. “I’ll carry Tala.”

Chogan blinked at him in surprise. Of all the things he’d been expecting Rhys to say, it definitely hadn’t been that. Then he remembered how the tiger shifter had protected her during the attack in the warehouse downtown. He obviously felt something for
Chogan’s cousin.

“Are you sure?”

“I know it won’t be easy, but I owe her.”

“You can’t carry her while she’s shifting, it’ll be impossible,” said Chogan.

Blake shook his head. “And if anyone is carrying her, it’s going to be me. She’s my sister.”

“
No,” said Rhys. “I was part of the reason she got herself in this mess. If I’d refused to help her in the first place, she would never have been able to overpower Autumn. I knew what she wanted of me was wrong,” he shrugged. “I guess I’m a sucker for a pretty face.”

Something
inside Chogan’s stomach tightened at the mention of Autumn. He’d not forgotten that Rhys had abducted her in the first place. “It doesn’t matter anyway. You can’t carry her mid-shift.”

Leah spoke up. “She doesn’t shift when she’s sleeping. Is there any
way to make sure she’s asleep when we try to escape?”

Of course!
Why hadn’t he thought of that?

Chogan grinned at
Leah. “Smart cookie.” The girl’s cheeks flushed, but she grinned with pleasure. “We can’t make sure she’s asleep, but we can knock her unconscious. It won’t be fun, or pleasant, but at least she’ll stand a chance if we can get her out of here.”

“If we knock her unconscious, the first place we’ll need to take her is the hospital,” said Blake. “And I don’t think a hospital is going to be able to help her much as she is.”

Chogan frowned. “We’ll take her to the reservation then.”

“There won’t be enough medical resources for her.”

“It’s the best chance she’s got. We can hardly take her to a regular hospital as she is. They’d call the cops and we’d land up right back where we started.”