Autumn's Blood: The Spirit Shifters, Book One (25 page)

“Here,” she said, thrusting the bundle
of his clothes toward him.

He sauntered up to her, standing nude,
only a foot between them. He made no attempt to take the items from
her. She deliberately kept her gaze averted, her cheeks coloring
with heat. She shoved them against his chest.

“Just take them, will you,” she
hissed.

He chuckled and finally relieved them
from her grasp.

“We might as well rest up for a bit,”
he said, pulling the clothes on. “There’s no point in us heading
into the city before the others, just in case we get some unwanted
attention.”

She nodded. She guessed that made
sense, though she was desperate to find out if Blake was
safe.

The cool night air made her
shiver.

“Come and sit with me,” Chogan said,
sitting down at the base of a large pine tree. The forest floor was
covered in a soft bed of needles. “I’ll keep you warm.”

She didn’t miss the cheeky smile on
his face, but she couldn’t say no. She’d freeze if she
did.

She sat down beside him, and he slung
his arm over her shoulder, like they were a couple of high school
sweethearts. Deliberately, she kept her back angled toward him so
as not to give him the wrong idea.

In an hour or so, they’d head to the
outskirts of the city and grab a cab to take them to where she
hoped Blake and the other shifters would be waiting.

THEY GOT THE driver to drop them off a
couple of blocks from the meeting point. They walked the rest, side
by side and in silence. Tension encompassed Autumn’s entire soul,
not just in anticipation of what might take place over the next few
hours, but because she worried Blake wouldn’t be waiting for her.
Her heart thrummed, her breath shallow with nerves. She found
herself clenching and unclenching her fists.

Please be there; please be
there,
she found herself chanting over in
her head.

She glanced at Chogan and a slow smile
spread over his lips. With a jolt, she remembered something Blake
had told her about being able to send his wolf ahead of him to
scout what lay further on. Had Chogan done that now? Had he already
seen Blake waiting for them?

“Is he there?” she asked.

He only gave her a grin, which, with
how Chogan worked, could have been either positive or
negative.

“Tell me, damn it!”

He only smiled that knowing
smile.

She gave a growl of frustration and
broke into a sprint, rounding the corner where they were supposed
to be waiting. Her heart dropped. No one was there. But then she
caught movement from the alley right before the
junction.

She almost burst into tears with
relief. There was no possibility that the huge man standing,
surrounded by a small group of people, was anyone else. His solid,
indomitable form towered over the other men and women. Her heart
beat hard, her mouth running dry. She wanted to run to him, but
he’d told her he wasn’t interested in her, that he couldn’t think
about her that way. Chogan lurked behind her, sandwiching her
between the two cousins.

Blake must have caught sight of them
in his peripheral vision. He turned his head toward them and a
smile broke out on his face. Immediately, he left the people he was
with, striding toward her. She held her ground, but he reached her
and scooped her up, crushing her to him.

“Autumn! Thank God, you’re
safe.”

Her arms found their own way around
his neck, pressing her face into the strong curve of his throat,
feeling his heat, drinking in the musky scent of him. His fingers
laced in her hair and he pulled back her head, exposing her face to
him, and kissed her, deep and sweet.

Whatever he’d said before, his actions
now spoke differently.

She broke away from his embrace, her
fingers automatically touching his cheek, his jaw, tracing down
across his chest, back over his shoulders. “Are you all right?” she
asked, part of her still feeling frantic. “Did they hurt
you?”

“No, Autumn. I’m fine,
honest.”

“What happened back there? I heard
gunshots. I was so scared.”

He nodded grimly, his dark eyes locked
on hers. “Yeah, I heard them too. I was worried you might have been
shot, but once I’d managed to lose them, I doubled back and checked
the direction you’d headed. When I didn’t find any sign of blood, I
figured you’d made it away safely.”

As if his words had reminded him of
the reason for her safety, he turned to Chogan. “Thank you for
taking care of her.”

The corner of his lip quirked. “No
problem.”

“So what happened at the reservation?”
she asked, wanting to fill in every detail of their time
apart.

“I let them catch sight of me and led
them in the opposite direction of the one you’d all headed in. I
found a spot near the river which was hidden from the aerial view
by some boulders and overhanging trees, and managed to shift. Once
I’d done that, I knew I’d be able to lose them.”

“What about your father?”

Blake chuckled. “As expected, Dumas’
men came to the house, but he threatened to pull a political
shit-storm down on their heads because they were on reservation
land, and they went away with their tails between their
legs.”

Autumn smiled. “Good. That’s
good.”

They both became conscious of the
people standing around them.

“There are still a few reporters
hanging around the entrance,” he said.

“Don’t worry,” said Chogan. “I can
take care of them. Enyeto and I will take things from
there.”

“Okay.” Blake turned to her. “Autumn,
are you sure you’re up for this?”

She nodded. “I want this to be over. I
want my life back, or as much of it I can still get, and I’ll do
whatever I need to make that happen.”

His lips tweaked in a smile. “Okay,
then. You’ll come with me.”

“Damn right I am.”

She didn’t plan on letting him out of
her sight again. Not knowing what had happened to him back at the
reservation had felt like someone had ripped her soul in
two.

Blake addressed the rest of the group.
“And everyone else knows what they need to be doing?”

Heads were nodded, nervous smiles
exchanged.

“We need to go to the subway station
three blocks from here. Everyone, give us time to get there and
then swing into action. Let’s get our people back and teach these
sons of bitches what they’re dealing with.”

A chorus of ‘good lucks’ rang
out.

Blake took Autumn’s hand and together
they left the relative safety of the alley, and ran down the
street.

Chapter
Twenty-two

CHOGAN PLANNED ON keeping the
reporters busy, giving the others time to shift and make it up to
the roof. Then the next part of the job would be down to them.
Enyeto hung back, lurking around the corner until the time came for
them to make their move.

He approached a redhead he recognized
from the local news. She was young and beautiful, clad head to toe
in a cream-colored Armani suit. She lifted a manicured hand to her
mouth to stifle a yawn. Perhaps she wasn’t used to being up this
early? There was a reason he wanted her to notice him, and it
wasn’t purely so the others could enter the facility uninterrupted.
If this whole thing went to plan, he intended to make sure things
changed around here, and he would need her to make that
happen.

With his hands shoved in his jean
pockets, he sauntered up to her. “You’re up early. So what’s the
latest?”

She turned, a frown marring her
features, but then she caught sight of him, her eyes traveling up
his body to rest on his face, and a smile tugged at her perfectly
made-up lips.

“The news never sleeps.” Her eyes
flicked over his body again. “I assume you’re not another
reporter?”

He circled her. “No, I’m not another
reporter, though I think I could have something which would make an
interesting story for you.”

“And what would that be?”

“Something related to the kidnapping
you’re all here to get the dish on.”

Instantly her stance changed, her back
straightening, eyes narrowing in suspicion. “And what would you
know about it?”

“A fair amount.” He paused. “Blake
Wolfcollar is my cousin.”

“Is this some kind of play for money?
‘Cause you’re talking to the wrong person. My producer is right
over there.” She nodded toward one of the news vans, where a man in
his forties smoked a cigarette and nursed a take-out
coffee.

“I’m not after money. I only want
people to know the truth.”

She cocked one eyebrow. “And you think
you have the truth?”

“Hell yeah. And after today, none of
you will ever look at life the same way again.”

Now her expression changed to one of
skepticism. Already, he could tell she was wondering if he was some
kind of nut. The next hour or so would put an end to
that.

Huge shadows glanced off the ground
and the woman frowned and looked up. Chogan followed suit, lifting
his face to the sky, though he already knew what he would
see.

Two birds, giant eagles, rode eddies
high above their heads, their sheer size only becoming apparent the
closer they got. Mutters of astonishment turned to disbelief as the
birds landed on the edge of the roof of the building, seeming to
peer down at the gathering crowd. Early morning commuters joined
the team of reporters in sky-gazing and people began to point and
exclaim out loud.

“Holy cow!”

“Have you seen the size of
them?”

“What are eagles doing in the middle
of the city?”

“They can’t be real!”

The reporter Chogan had been speaking
to seemed to have forgotten he was there. The guy she’d pointed out
to be her producer yelled, “Annabel, get your sweet ass over here!
We need this on camera!” She left Chogan’s side at a run, toward
another man with a huge video camera. A third man holding a boom
microphone ran behind him.

One of the birds let out an
earsplitting screech and left the rooftop, plummeting through the
air as it dived for the gathering crowd, huge talons spread. Chogan
knew there was no way she intended on hurting anyone, but she
certainly caught their attention. People screamed and lifted their
arms to shelter their heads and faces. The powerful wings created a
wind as she flapped to slow her downward descent and rise back into
the sky.

From a distance came the now familiar
thrum of helicopter blades.

Is it the same one that
chased us before?
Chogan
wondered.

The chopper came into view over the
building. It tried to land, veering and circling in the sky as if
in some kind of mating dance with the two birds. Each time it
neared the rooftop, one of the birds screeched and dived at the
machine. If there was a collision, the two shifters would be
killed, without doubt, but they would take the helicopter down with
them.

Noticing the commotion, the security
guards for the building came out, joining the crowd forming on the
street. They’d not bothered to shut the darkened glass doors behind
them.

Now was their chance. Chogan glanced
over to where Enyeto was waiting and discreetly lifted his chin,
giving him the signal.

With everyone’s attention focused on
the sky, they slipped inside the building.

BLAKE AND AUTUMN ran down the steps
into the subway.

Blake paused and then tugged on her
hand, leading her away from the trickle of commuters. “Come on,
this way.”

They left the main passageway and
headed into a service tunnel. A metal gate barred the way, a thick
chain and padlock keeping people out. Blake took the chain and lock
in each hand and gave a huge wrench, bending the metal, forcing the
lock to pop. He glanced to either side, checking the coast was
clear, and then unhooked the chain and opened the gate. He pressed
Autumn forward through the gap, then turned and pulled the gate
shut again, looping the chain back through. The result wasn’t
perfect, but hopefully no one would notice the broken
chain.

Any light from the train tunnel
vanished as they went deeper. Blake’s eyesight was better than a
normal human’s and his wolf’s was excellent in the dark—sending him
images to allow him to find his way. But Autumn had normal
eyesight, and within a minute of entering this new tunnel, she
started to stumble. He knew she couldn’t see anything, despite the
fact she hadn’t complained, just clutched tighter to his
hand.

“It’s okay,” he reassured her. “We
won’t be in the dark too long. We’ll reach the facility
soon.”

“And then the real danger starts,” she
said, her voice coming out of the darkness. “I know the dark won’t
hurt me.”

“I won’t let anything else hurt you
either.”