Autumn's War (The Spirit Shifters Book 4) (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-five

AUTUMN STOOD BY, helpless and scared, as Peter bundled Mia into the back of the truck and then climbed in beside her.  She was bigger now because of the shift, and her body stretched out across the whole seat, leaving Peter crushed up against the back.

“Sit in the front,” Autumn told him. “You’ll have more room. I’ll drive.”

But he shook his head. “I’m not leaving her, even if it’s only to sit up front.”

From the hardness of his expression, she knew arguing with him would be pointless.

“I’ll come with you,” said Chogan. “Just in case things get crazy.”

“Aren’t they crazy already?”

She wished there was something more she could do to help. She turned back to where everyone else stood. Marcus waited anxiously with the other two paranormals.

“Can you do something?” she begged Daisy, remembering what the girl had done for her on the journey here. “Help her feel better?”

The girl shrugged, but stepped forward.

“It’s different for other paranormals,” Angie said, filling in Daisy’s silence. “The same rules don’t apply as with humans. But she’s going to try.”

She reached out, flinching as Mia bucked, as bones broke and fur sprouted beneath her hands. She concentrated. Mia calmed for only a few moments before she snarled and lashed out again. Daisy stepped back, shaking her head.

Autumn didn’t need an interpretation. “Thank you for trying.”

They all climbed in the car, doors slamming. Autumn drove, at first having to go slowly to negotiate all the people on the streets, and then, once they’d made it out of the area and onto the freeway, she pushed the gas pedal as much as she dared. Every minute Mia was in fear and pain, was another minute Autumn would also feel for her friend.

As the miles flew by, Mia’s howls of pain deafened them.

The confines of the truck were too small to contain a screaming, shifting woman. Despite Mia’s petite stature as a human, her shifting creature was not so small. Driving frantically, breaking every speed limit around, Autumn found herself having to duck as a clawed paw came swiping toward her head.

Peter however, went unfazed. Even when Mia appeared horrific—her beautiful, doll-like face contorted by a muzzle and fur, Peter continued to hold her, stroking her head and murmuring reassurances to her.

Thank God Lakota was only a few hours away, waiting for them at Wenona’s farmhouse. She couldn’t imagine how horrific this journey would be if they had to travel all the way back to the reservation.

Autumn chastened herself at her lack of empathy. This was far worse for Mia than for her. The last person she should be thinking about was herself.

She’d been wrong not to change Mia when she’d asked. She’d fought against it, not wanting her friend to change, perhaps worried she would lose her to Peter for good, that Mia would no longer take her place as Autumn’s sidekick. She’d known Peter would want to keep Mia human, understanding in a selfish way that he’d want to keep her sweet and fragile and human, just as she had. But she should have respected Mia’s wishes. If she’d done so, Mia wouldn’t be going through the torture she was now. Every breaking bone, every howl of pain, Autumn suffered with her. She’d made herself ride in the same vehicle, wanting to punish herself by not missing a single moment of Mia’s agony. She’d made a mistake. A horrible, selfish mistake, and now her best friend was paying for it. If she’d changed Mia in the safety and calm of Lakota’s presence, she wouldn’t be going through this right now.

Autumn kept her foot on the gas and tried not to be distracted by her best friend’s screams.

Chogan leaned across her and pointed to the next turnoff. “Take that one. We’re almost there.”

“Thank God.”

Her whole body was tense in anticipation. Though she’d tried not to allow herself to think about it, she worried they’d return to some other crisis. Perhaps the soldiers seeming to withdraw from the city had nothing to do with them, and everything to do with them simply moving their target. Vivian had kept tracks of them before, there was no reason for them to believe she didn’t know exactly where they were now. Autumn worried Vivian would have come for Blake, and taken the others with her.

But as she pulled down Wenona’s long drive, everything, on the outside of the vehicle at least, was peaceful. Inside the car was a different story, with Mia continuing to shift, her screams now lessening to moans and soft cries, though the change was down to exhaustion, not a lack of pain.

She pulled the vehicle up outside the house, everyone jolting forward at the change in motion. Gravel flew up from beneath the wheels. She jumped out and ran to the back door, yanking it open to help Peter with Mia.

Movement came at the house, and she glanced around to see figures emerge from the front door. One of those figures was Blake in a wheelchair. They must have borrowed it from somewhere. He wheeled himself out and waited on the porch.

For a moment, Autumn forgot the reason she was there. Seeing Blake up and about took over all of her thought process. She left the car and ran up the steps to Blake, throwing her arms around him. She kissed him, her hands at the sides of his big, strong face.

“I was so frightened something bad would have happened to you.” She tried not to think about the fact something bad had already happened to him. “Only after we left did I realize how unprotected you all were.”

She watched Madison run up to Chogan and hug him hard. Billy milled around their legs.

“I had more right to be worried about you,” Blake said. “You were the one who put yourself in danger for everyone else.”

“Not just everyone else. It was for us, too. I want us to live peacefully. Together.”

He nodded. “I want that, too.”

Peter lifted Mia from the car, carrying her toward the house as she fought and clawed at him. He held on resolutely, his face a steel mask of determination not to let her go.

“What’s happened?” Blake asked, the tone of his voice changing.

“Mia got hurt. I had to inject her with my blood to stop her from dying. But now she’s how Tala and Romero were before. We need your father to help her.”

“Father!” Blake bellowed.

Lakota emerged from the house, Wenona at his side.

“We need you to help Mia in the same way you did Tala and Romero,” Autumn said. “She got shot and the only way to stop her from bleeding out was by giving her my blood so she would heal.”

“Take her through to the parlor,” Lakota said.

Peter carried her through, and everyone else followed.

Lakota turned to Autumn. “What about the gunshot wound?”

“It’s healing, and she’s stopped bleeding.”

He nodded. “That’s good. I would have difficulty binding a spirit guide to a body that might …”

“Mia’s not going to die,” she snapped. “Sorry,” she chastened herself. “It’s been a long day.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll help Mia. How did everything else go?”

“Apart from this, things went well. Some shifters were hurt, but not badly enough not to heal, and we had the city behind us in the end. The military presence in Chicago appears to have withdrawn.”

“That’s good. Now let’s go help Miss Mia.”

Lakota set up as he had before, with candles and herbs, flames and smoke. Peter hovered anxiously. “You have to give them some space, Peter,” Autumn said. She stood in the corner of the room, holding Blake’s hand.

Mia lay on the floor on her side. She reached out, her arm changing as she did so. Her fingers curled, the palm of her hand growing circular, thick black pads appearing on her palm. Black hair sprouted across the backs of her hand. Her wrist snapped up, making her hand twist at a ninety degree angle to her lower arm. She let out a scream as bloodied slits appeared in the tips of her fingers, and curled claws pushed through.

Autumn’s hand was at her mouth, her other hand clutched Blake’s tightly. “Oh, God, Mia.” She could barely bring herself to watch, but she’d played a part in Mia’s suffering and she wouldn’t turn away from her now.

Half of Mia’s clothing had split from her body, and now hung in shreds. But it wasn’t the body of a young woman that peeped through the flaps of cloth. Instead, a torso covered in the same thick, black fur lay beneath. Her body arched and then snapped back again. Mia’s face was only partly human, one eye its usual dark brown and completely human, while the other side of her face was covered in the black fur, and a golden yellow eye peered out. Thick white whiskers sprouted from her cheeks.

With the candles lit around Mia, far enough away so she wouldn’t knock them down, Lakota began to drop pinches of herbs from the pouch around his neck into the flames. Thick, white smoke instantly rose into the air above Mia’s body, gathering in a cloud.

Autumn watched, her eyes glued on the cloud. She knew what would happen next—assuming this worked. Mia’s spirit guide would be drawn toward the magic and welcomed by Lakota’s prayer, into a symbiotic relationship with her.

She was terrified it wouldn’t work, that the wound still visible in Mia’s clavicle would make the spirit guide reject Mia, and then where would that leave her? With a gunshot wound miles away from any hospital.

The smoke gathered, growing thicker. Autumn’s eyes were wide as she stared, watching the cloud for any sign of movement.

Mia continued to cry in pain.

“It’s not going to work,” Autumn whispered.

Blake squeezed her hand. “Shh. Have faith.”

A long sleek tail whipped down from the cloud, and Autumn caught her breath. Finally, Mia fell still and silent. It was going to happen!

A paw paddled the air. Then a smooth head lashed out, a mouth opening in a silent roar, massive canines exposed.

And the spirit guide dived into Mia, the cloud vanishing in a puff.

The shift that had never reached completion, began to completely take over Mia’s body. The petite woman she had been vanished before their eyes, the strong agile body of a big cat taking over. She shook the remains of her clothing from her body and got to her feet, slowly at first, a little wobbly as she found her balance, but then straightened.

The panther she had become was beautiful and graceful.

Peter fell to his knees before her, his arms around her muscular shoulders, his face buried in her fur. “Now we can run together,” he said, speaking into her fur. “Just like you wanted.”

Mia rumbled a low purr of pleasure.

Autumn smiled at Blake, tears of joy in her eyes. Though she could still see the matted area where Mia had been shot, the wound had stopped bleeding completely now and had started to close over.

Though Mia’s life had changed forever, at least she was alive.

Chapter Twenty-six

ONE-BY-ONE, engines roared their way into Wenona’s yard, as a number of cars, trucks, and bikes began to pull in. Others from the reservation had followed them, albeit at a much slower pace, back from Chicago. Everyone reported that the city was peaceful. Romero had made his way home to his family. Autumn hoped they would be relieved to have him back, and wouldn’t be too shocked by his news. David had also gone home, or at least to what was left of it. Peter pointed out that an explosion had occurred in the basement the last time they’d been there. Marcus, naturally, had wanted to find out how his sister was doing, Angie said she had nowhere else to go, and no one knew who Daisy really was, so they all stayed together and came back to the farmhouse.

Finally, Autumn was able to get Blake alone. They sat in the parlor while everyone else milled around the kitchen, drawn by the promise of another one of Wenona’s now famous meals.

She felt emotionally and physically exhausted, but being back in his presence made her whole again. Her heart was with this man. She sat on the edge of the couch, Blake in his chair beside her. How strange to see him in a wheelchair. Part of her still didn’t quite believe it. She felt like at any moment he’d get to his feet and walk off.

She reached out and touched the arm of his wheelchair. “So where did this come from?”

He shrugged. “I’m not sure, to be honest. After you left, Wenona took one look at me and muttered something about her hoping I didn’t plan lying around in bed all day. Then she stormed out of the house, and the next thing I knew she’d got in her truck and headed off down the drive. She was back a couple of hours later with this thing. When I asked her where she got it, she just said she knew the right people.” He grinned. “I didn’t want to know anything more than that!”

She laughed and then grew serious. “I should have thought about getting you a wheelchair. It didn’t even occur to me.”

“You had other things on your mind.”

“No. You were the only thing on my mind. None of this would have mattered to me if I didn’t have you, too.”

He reached out and took her hand. His grip was warm and comforting. “I don’t want you to feel obligated to stay with me, Autumn. I’m not the man I was. I’m not even a shifter anymore. Not like before.”

She shook her head at him. “Do you think I care about any of that? I love you for you—how brave and loving and gorgeous you are.”

He glanced away. “I’m none of those things now.”

“Bullshit. You’re still all of those things. And as for not being a shifter, I fell for you before I even knew shifters existed. It makes no difference to me.”

“It bothers me that I’m going to limit your life.”

She squeezed his hand tighter. “We’ll find you the best doctors money can buy. Medicine has come so far these days. There’s bound to be something that can be done.”

He lifted his deep brown eyes to hers, and she thought she might fall into them. “And what if I can’t be fixed?”

“Then we’ll help each other through this. I’ll be at your side, no matter what.”

“You’re the most amazing, incredible, beautiful woman I have ever met. I don’t know what I did that brought you into my life.”

Her cheeks heated with pleasure. “Actually, I think you kind of abducted me when we first met.”

He grinned and pulled her off the couch and into his lap. “Oh, yes. So I did.”

Autumn smiled back and wound her arms around his neck, pressing her lips against his, their mouths opening in a slow, deep kiss.

A fake cough made them break apart.

Sahale stood in the doorway. “I thought you would want to know that the internet and phone lines are back up.”

She smiled. “Thank you, Sahale.”

Blake said, “I guess that’s a good sign.”

“Yeah, the people of Chicago will be happy. I can’t imagine how they’ve been surviving with no internet!”

Blake chuckled. “I imagine there have been some frustrated techies.”

His words made her think of Toby, the kid Mia had been searching for who had turned out to be a shifter. She’d not heard anything about the others after they’d escaped the compound. With this whole thing over, she mentally reminded herself to check up on everyone and find out how they were doing.

With the phones back up, the first thing any of the shifters—who had managed to keep hold of their smart-phones—did was get online. Though Autumn and Blake had lost their cell phones a long time ago, a number of the people at the house still had them.

Madison appeared behind Sahale’s shoulder, Billy close behind. “Hey, you guys. I think you should see this. Put on the television. It’s bound to be on the news.”

Others filed in, Chogan, Tocho, Wenona, Tala, the news quickly spreading, and soon the room became crammed with bodies.

A reporter sat behind a desk on screen. They’d caught her mid sentence but it quickly became clear what she was talking about.

“Government has commanded all military to withdraw from Chicago and the surrounding areas, as long as peace remains in the city. Congress are blaming a private military company for the troubles in the city, claiming the company was brought in to explore other options of defense, but that the situation got out of control. They regret all of the riots that have occurred over the last two weeks and have terminated the company’s contract.”

Autumn turned to Peter and frowned. “But it wasn’t an outside company, was it?”

Peter shook his head. “No, but the government would never admit they had a Department of Paranormal Defense. A lot of military these days is brought in via private companies, especially for dangerous situations, so that part may be true. But no, this thing was started in the government. I should know. I worked there, as did David and Blake. They’re just using the private company line to distance themselves from this whole mess.”

“I wonder how long peace will remain in the city?” said Chogan.

Autumn frowned. “What do you mean?”

He looked troubled. “We came across a gang of shifters. They were taunting some civilians. The thing is, I recognized one of the wolves from before, when we’d parked near the shifter compound when we’d been searching for Blake and Tala. They were tormenting Madison and Billy while they were trapped inside the car. Another shifter was with them then, but he hung out on the outskirts, like he was supervising. The two young guys said his name was Ollie ... something. Pritchard, I think.”

“And this was near where the shifter compound was?”

Chogan nodded. “That’s right. They might have been snooping around and just happened to come across our vehicle, with Madison and Billy still inside, and decided to have a little fun. But they were definitely in the city when we were there, trying to cause trouble.”

“And there’s the guy who shot Mia,” Peter said, glancing over to Mia. She was back in human form and she smiled at him reassuringly, nodding to let him know she didn’t mind him discussing what happened. “He wasn’t military. He was just a young guy, but I think he wanted to make it look like the military were still fighting shifters, even when they must have already been given the order to withdraw from the city. Before I …” He cleared his throat. “Before I was forced to take him out, I demanded to know who was behind him, thinking it might be Vivian Winters, but he said he was from a gang. They call themselves The Company of Tooth and Claw.”

Autumn took a breath. “The graffiti we saw all over the city. The zigzag mark with the letters T and C across it. That must be their tag.”

“Do you think they’re something we need to worry about?” asked Chogan.

“If they’re willing to shoot me to try to make it look like the military were still a threat, I don’t think they should be taken lightly.”

“The shifter I got hold of,” Chogan said, “told me that this Ollie Pritchard wanted to cause trouble.” He shook his head and scornfully added, “They wanted to be badass.”

Autumn’s eyebrows shot up. “You’ve got to be kidding me?”

“I wish I was.”

Nadie came rushing into the room, her hand outstretched, a cell clutched between her fingers. “Autumn, I don’t know how she knew to reach you through me, but Vivian Winters is on a video call for you.”

Autumn’s mouth dropped open. “She’s what?”

“Just as I said.” She waved the phone at her. “She’s on the phone now.”

Autumn’s heart had frozen in her chest at the name of the woman, her veins running ice water through her body. She’d hoped she’d seen and heard the last of Vivian, that she’d crawled away licking her wounds, and hopefully putting her knowledge of shifters behind her.

It was not to be.

“What do I press?” Autumn asked, taking the cell phone.

“Here.” Nadie hit a button for her and Vivian’s ice blue eyes, blonde hair, and hollow cheekbones appeared on screen. “I’ve put it on speaker phone for you.”

“She can see me, too?” Autumn asked, trying to keep the nerves out of her voice. The woman was on a screen. She couldn’t hurt her. Vivian Winters was over.

Vivian’s voice spoke out of the cell. “Yes, of course I can see you,” she snapped. “I’m calling to say congratulations on ruining ten years of hard work.”

Autumn braced herself. “What do you want, Vivian?”

“Like I said, I’m calling to congratulate you. You got what you wanted. You ruined years of research. You even got Congress to deny that I and my department even existed. You ruined me and everything I believe in. You think I’m an enemy of this country. I was going to save this country. We would have been so powerful, no one else would even consider trying to fight us. Instead, our people will continue to live in fear while other countries conspire against us.”

“I’ve heard enough, Vivian,” Autumn said. “This sounds like the rantings of a mad-woman.”

“Did you think I would let you get away with it?” she said, her voice as sharp as broken glass. Autumn’s finger hovered near the ‘end’ button, but something about her tone stopped her from ending the call.

There was movement on the screen, Vivian disappeared from view, and a man appeared in her place. The change was so unexpected, like seeing a familiar face in unfamiliar surroundings, her mind took a moment to register who was on screen. The moment it did, her heart dropped out of her chest, into her stomach.

“Dad?”

He wasn’t wearing his glasses, which was part of the reason she hadn’t recognized him immediately. She always saw him wearing either his reading glasses or a pair of protective goggles over the top of them. Without them, his face appeared more vulnerable somehow, older.

He wore a gag over his mouth, but Vivian roughly yanked it away.

“Autumn!” her father croaked. “Are you okay?”

“Dad!” she cried again. “You let him go, you bitch.”

Vivian smiled coldly into the camera. There was no compassion in her eyes. Only icy hatred.

She’s crazy,
Autumn thought.
Oh God, the woman’s lost her mind.
That this woman had her father in her hands made her weak with helplessness. Scared, frustrated. Powerless.

“You took everything from me. Did you think I would let you get away with it unpunished?” Vivian lifted her hand to reveal a six inch long blade. She placed it against Autumn’s father’s throat. His eyes went wide, and he struggled, but he was tied against something—a chair, Autumn guessed.

“Autumn, hang up,” said Chogan. “Don’t give her the satisfaction.”

Tears blurred her eyes. “I can’t. It’s my dad. I need to know where he is. If I hang up, I’ve got nothing. They could be anywhere!”

She glanced back at Chogan, at Blake and Peter. They all seemed to have the same look in their eyes. One that made her heart stop beating, a hard lump in her throat.

“Hang up, Autumn,” Blake said quietly, as if he knew what Vivian intended on doing. “I’ve seen these kinds of calls before.”

“What? No!” She turned her attention back to Vivian. “You let him go, do you hear me? I will track you down and I will find you, if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

“Oh, you can track me down,” she said with a wicked smile. “But I promised you I would take something from you, and I meant it. Say goodbye to your father.”

The blade moved in horrifying slow motion. The loose, pale skin of her father’s throat opened up like a zipper being pulled across. His eyes widened even further, pain flashing across his face, quickly followed by the contortion of his features in pain. The white of his throat vanished in an apron of blood. A bubble formed in the blood and burst, a droplet hitting the camera and blocking out half of the picture.

Autumn opened her mouth, a scream piercing her ears. Her legs buckled beneath her and she fell to the floor, Chogan and Peter by her side in an instant, though she was barely aware of their presence. All she focused on was how the expression faded from her father’s eyes, and then the light, and finally life itself.

Vivian’s face reappeared on screen.

“I have your father’s blood on my hands now, Autumn Anderson. Avenge him if you dare.”

The screen went black.

Autumn sat on her haunches, lifted her face to the ceiling, and screamed.