Autumn's Blood: The Spirit Shifters, Book One (18 page)

Her heart lurched. “Autumn? Why are
you looking for Autumn?”

“Please, Miss Henderson. I can’t
discuss this standing out in the hallway. If I could just ask you a
few questions ...”

Mia hesitated, chewing a dried piece
of skin on her lower lip. The weight of her phone rested in her
pocket. If she was unsure of anything, she’d excuse herself to the
bathroom and call the cops from there.

She unbolted the door and slowly edged
it open. “Okay, come in for a few minutes, but I have to tell you
that my boyfriend will be here any moment.”

The man seemed to repress a smile.
“Oh, sure. I won’t take up much more of your time.”

She stepped back, allowing him into
the apartment. “So what’s this about? Why are you trying to find
Autumn? She isn’t in any kind of trouble, is she?”

“Actually, yes, I’m afraid she is.
Have you seen the news lately?”

Mia’s unease deepened. “No. I don’t
watch much television.”

“Perhaps you should start.” He picked
up the remote and turned on the flat screen in the corner of the
living room. He flicked through until the news channel came
on.

Mia stared at him. Why on earth was
this man trying to get her to watch the television? “I don’t
understand what you’re telling me.”

“Just wait one moment.” He hesitated.
“There!”

Her attention flicked to the
television just as Autumn’s face appeared on screen. Mia’s heart
dropped out of her stomach, her hand lifting to her mouth as she
read the travelling headlines on the screen.

Young scientist kidnapped
by rogue security guard.

A man’s face replaced
Autumn’s, serious, dark, striking. He looked like he had Native
American heritage.
Was this the same man
Autumn had been talking about?

She remembered the agent still
standing in the room with her and turned to him.

“Oh my God. Poor Autumn! Is she
okay?”

“We don’t know that yet,
Miss.”

“I can’t believe it.” Her legs gave
way and she sat down heavily on the edge of the couch.

“May I?” asked Calvin, nodding to the
seat beside her.

“Yes, of course.” She shifted up
slightly to make room.

“So I’m sure you understand it is
extremely important we locate Autumn. We know she has a father
still living in the city. Is there anyone else she might try to
contact? A boyfriend or close friend, perhaps?”

Mia shook her head. “No, not really.
Autumn doesn’t date and I’m her best friend. I’d be the one she’d
contact if she could.” Her mind was in a whirl. She’d been so
preoccupied with the case of Toby West, she struggled to comprehend
that her roommate was now the one missing. Why on earth would
someone want to take Autumn? Her friend was as harmless as they
came. All she did was work.

Something in Mia’s head clicked. “Does
this have something to do with the new project she was working
on?”

The man’s gray eyes hardened “What has
she told you about her work?”

Mia’s heart lurched as she caught
sight of something she’d not noticed before.

Flecks of gold in his
right eye … Oh God …

The world around her seemed to stop.
The only sound in the room was the blood pounding through the veins
in her temple. Her phone! She needed to call for help. She lurched
to her feet and almost stumbled. “I’m sorry,” she managed to say,
staggering away from him. “I need to go to the bathroom. This has
all been such a shock …”

As she spoke, she turned back to make
sure the man wasn’t following her.

She gave a small scream of fright. He
stood, a gun pointed at her head.

“What the hell!”

He motioned with the gun. “You need to
come with me.”

“What? Why?” She felt detached from
the situation, as if she was watching all of this happening to
someone else. And the thing she really didn’t understand was what
connection this man had to both Autumn and Toby.

“Do you really think you should be
asking questions with a gun pointed at you? Now, get to your feet
and come with me.”

“You’re not going to hurt me, are
you?”

“Only if you do something to make
me.”

Chapter
Sixteen

THE CHANGE OF motion of the warm,
furry body she lay upon woke Autumn. She couldn’t believe she’d
managed to sleep, and not only that, she’d not fallen off. The
wolf’s run was so smooth she’d not even been dislodged from between
his huge shoulders.

The two wolves drew to a halt. Dawn
had arrived, and between the expanse of tree trunks, in the
burgeoning light, peeped the start of a small town. Simple,
single-story wooden homesteads, with wide open front yards, lined a
dirt road. The hour was still early and none of the lights in the
homes were on, with the exception of a few porch lights.

Chogan sat down on his haunches.
Finally, Autumn was able to make out the color of the wolf’s fur—a
beautiful russet red which caught the gleam of the early morning
sunlight. He turned his big head to take her in, his eyes shining
golden yellow.

Blake followed suit, sitting down
slowly so she slid down his back, her feet planting on the ground.
Her legs were numb and tingly, suffering from pins and needles from
riding on Blake’s back for so long. Immediately, she felt the loss
of his body heat, the bite of the morning air even cooler than
Chicago. They must have come farther north, crossed the state line
into Wisconsin, or even Minnesota.

Blake swung his head to her and nudged
her away, his wet nose pushing into her palm. Those intelligent
amber eyes connected with hers, speaking to her without needing to
say a word.

They’d arrived at the reservation, and
now they needed to change back to men.

Autumn retreated, standing slightly
behind a tree. She used the trunk as support for her still weak
legs, moss and bark flaking beneath her fingertips.

Her eyes widened as she watched the
two wolves. She couldn’t imagine a time when she would not find
this to be utterly amazing and horrifying all at the same time. The
thing happening before her eyes wasn’t even supposed to exist—a
thing of myths and fairy tales, but she couldn’t deny what was
right in front of her.

The two wolves moved apart, giving
each other some space.

Their bodies tensed, Blake’s fur
trembled, rippling like water. A low growl issued from deep within
his barrel chest and he lowered his head as the roar turned into a
howl. The mournful sound travelled miles across the forest. She
imagined if anyone in the town heard it, they wouldn’t be getting
back to sleep that morning.

Before her eyes, they began to shift
back, fur melting away to reveal human nut-brown skin. The shape
and lengths of their limbs morphed, bones shattering and reforming
with agonizing howls of pain from Blake. Chogan seemed to suffer
the agony in silence, though Autumn felt sure the process didn’t
hurt any less.

Their long snouts shrank and flattened
to their faces, the jaws full of teeth vanishing. Ears rolled down
to become flush with their skulls.

Finally, they stood back up, both men
again.

Both naked.

Autumn gulped and averted her eyes. As
much as she thought she’d never get used seeing them shift, she
also thought the regular bouts of nakedness would not be something
she’d become blasé to. Of course, it helped that both men were
gorgeous—Blake with his huge bulk of muscle and swirls of tattoos,
Chogan leaner, but still cut, with his smooth, darker brown skin
and long black hair. She didn’t think she’d ever been present with
two specimens of more perfect male beauty.

Neither man seemed conscious of their
nakedness.

“Welcome to Big Lake Reservation,”
Chogan said.

She gave an uncertain smile. “Thanks.”
She turned to Blake. His face was a schooled mask, hiding, she
suspected, the myriad of emotions churning through him.

“Wait here,” said Chogan to his
cousin. “People are used to seeing me in this town, but I think you
might cause a bit of a stir.”

Especially stark
naked!
Autumn thought, but didn’t
say.

Chogan ducked down low and ran between
the trees, heading out into the town. He stayed close to the parked
cars and garden fences, seeking as much coverage as possible.
Whatever Autumn had thought about the no-clothes thing, he
obviously realized it wasn’t normal behavior to run through the
streets as naked as the day he was born. He vanished from
view.

“Are you all right?” asked Blake,
snatching her attention from his cousin.

She couldn’t look at him, heat glowing
in her cheeks. “I’m fine,” she said, keeping her eyes trailed on
the ground. It was one thing taking in the sight of him when his
attention was elsewhere. It was something else looking him in the
face, full frontal.

“I realize this has been a lot to take
in.”

“Are you kidding me? I’ve been chased,
shot at, and rode around on a giant wolf. This is just a normal
working day for me.” She risked lifting her eyes to his.

He cracked a smile. “That’s good to
hear. I wouldn’t have wanted to frighten you.”

“Takes a lot more than that,” she
smiled back. “Where’s Chogan gone?”

Blake sat on the ground, leaning back
against the tree with one leg propped up, the position covering the
particular area that kept catching her eye. She was relieved. At
least now she could look at him—appreciate the thick breadth of his
muscular thighs, hard stomach, and shoulders without thinking she
was about to spontaneously combust. Just about.

“He’s gone to get us some clothes. We
can hardly walk around town like this.”

Autumn pressed her lips together to
repress a childish snigger.

A rustle in the undergrowth caught
their attention and Chogan reappeared between the trees, clothes
bundled in his arms. “Stolen from clotheslines, I’m afraid.” He
threw a pair of jeans and a t-shirt at Blake.

Blake snatched them out of the
air.

He dressed, the items way too small
for him—the length too short, almost exposing his stomach, his
biceps busting out of the armholes. He couldn’t even get the jeans
done up, though Autumn certainly appreciated the shape of his ass
in the soft denim.

He held his hands out either side of
his body. “I look ridiculous. Couldn’t you have found anything
larger?”

“I wasn’t exactly in
Bloomindales.”

Blake narrowed his eyes in annoyance
at his cousin, but put out a hand to Autumn. Surprised, she slipped
her small palm into his much larger one.

“Let’s do this, then,” he
said.

She didn’t miss the flicker of
Chogan’s dark eyes down to their connected hands. She hoped he
wasn’t going to cause any problems there. The last thing she wanted
was to come between the two cousins, especially when they already
seemed to foster a tenuous relationship.

They ran at a jog down the street
together, Blake and Autumn hand in hand, Chogan leading the way.
Several blocks later, they passed a small grocery store on the
corner and then reached a modest home. Like many of the others,
with the exception of a number of trailers, the house was a
single-story, white-washed, wooden building. Modest but tidy.
Chogan walked up the path, toward the front door. Blake stopped at
the gate, hesitating.

Chogan stopped and turned back to him.
“Everyone will be pleased to see you, you know.”

“Yeah? I doubt that,
somehow.”

“Just because you gave up on us
doesn’t mean we gave up on you.”

Pain flicked across Blake’s strong
face.

What had happened?
Autumn wondered.
What
would make him want to leave his home for such a totally different
life?

Chogan let himself into the house,
Blake and Autumn lurking behind.

“Uncle?” Chogan called through the
open door.

Movement stirred from the back of the
property. “Chogan, is that you?”

Autumn felt Blake stiffen beside her,
heard his breath catch. In the short time she’d known him, she’d
never seen him nervous or uncomfortable, not even when people shot
at them and a helicopter chased them. Right now, tension radiated
from him like body heat.

“Yes, Uncle, it’s me. I’ve brought
someone to visit.”

An older man—in his sixties, Autumn
guessed, though his face was lined with grooves and ridges deeper
than she would have expected from someone his age— approached
Chogan, who still stood in the open doorway.

The man’s eyes widened and he stared
past his nephew, to where Autumn and Blake still waited a little
farther down the path. “Blackened Hawk?”

Autumn couldn’t help her surprised
glance toward Blake.

He smiled. “Hello, Father.”