Autumn's War (The Spirit Shifters Book 4) (5 page)

Besides, he wanted to stay as far away from the cabin as possible. He had no idea if the soldiers were still there, if they’d continued to use the cabin—now fully fenced, he guessed—to house more shifters, or if they’d moved on to a different area. But either way, he didn’t want the attention of more armed men.

They were getting close now, having to negotiate muddy trails, sometimes heading off the trail to get around fallen tree trunks. His ears met the sound of water trickling, and the bike broke through some trees. Chogan found himself at the edge of the gorge he’d run through when he was being chased. Moonlight lit the water, casting shimmering reflections from the ripples.

They were close.

His heart picked up its pace, his breath growing shallower. He gripped his hands into fists. He didn’t want to be here. When he’d been running before, with everyone chasing him and his cousin dying on his back, he’d sworn to himself that he’d never return to this part of the forest. And yet here he was, back again.

He wouldn’t let the panic overtake him. He tried not to imagine the sound of shots, of numerous feet pounding through the undergrowth, chasing him down like a pack of dogs hunting a fox.

His heart beat harder in his chest, and he bit down on his lower lip, tasting blood. He didn’t want to see Blake’s body; the guilt was overwhelming. What if animals had gotten to him? He hoped Blake’s wolf had hung around long enough to scare any scavengers off.

They reached the spot. Even in the dark, Chogan recognized it. How could he not? The indent in the bottom of the tree trunk where some animal had hollowed it out. The clump of bushes. The small clearing with the rocks. But there was no sign of Blake’s body.

He stopped the bike, and both he and Nadie climbed off. They left the headlights of the bike on, lighting the area, though with their shifter eyesight they were able to see in the dark better than any human.

Chogan walked around, his hand knotted in his hair. “What the hell?”

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” asked Peter. “This is a big area.”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

He dropped to his knees in the spot where he’d last seen his cousin’s body. He touched the ground. “Look. The grass and weeds are crushed here, flattened where his body was.” He lifted his head to look at Peter. “Someone has already moved his body.”

Peter frowned. “Why would someone do that?”

“I don’t know.” Thoughts of autopsies ran through his head, but he couldn’t even bring himself to give voice to the terrible images. Quickly, he checked the ground to see if any of the surrounding area had drag marks or other areas of crushed undergrowth where an animal, or pack of animals, may have dragged Blake’s body. But there was none. Blake had been a big man. Nothing could have dragged him off without making at least a bit of a mess of the foliage.

Unless he’d been carried.

He thought back to the soldiers. Would they really have bothered carrying Blake’s body all that way back? What reason would they have for doing so? Maybe they’d thought they could learn more about shifter biology from his body, but it wasn’t as if they didn’t have access to hundreds of shifters now. Shifters were out in force. He doubted Blake was the only one they had access too. It didn’t make sense.

“Why would anyone want his body?” Chogan wondered out loud.

“Unless he wasn’t dead,” Peter suggested.

Chogan shook his head. “No, he had been. I sensed death from Blake’s body.” With his senses, he couldn’t be wrong about such a thing.

“How close behind were the soldiers when you ran?” Peter asked.

“Real close. I could practically smell them.”

“Is it possible that they revived Blake? Maybe one of them had medical training and they brought him back.”

A tiny spark of hope flared in Chogan’s heart. Was it possible his cousin was still alive?

Chapter Six

THE OUTSIDE WORLD no longer existed.

Caught, suspended, floating in a black sea, he had no understanding of anything anymore. He was vaguely aware that he once knew something else, something unreachable, but no part of him was able to put the thoughts into any kind of structure. They were like dreams fading the moment he woke. He reached for the ideas, to grasp them and construct them into something understandable, but before he could they were gone.

He remembered pain, an overwhelming pain, but he no longer felt it. For that he was thankful. He believed there were details about himself he should know, his name or where he came from, but there was only the darkness.

Was he dead?

Surely if he was dead, other dead would be here with him? Yet he was completely alone, not a single sound, or shade of light, or faint voice in the distance. There was nothing, and it was a nothingness he couldn’t decide if he should be frightened of or not. Yet he felt calm, peaceful. He no longer understood the concept of time. Hours could have passed or it could have been years.

He had no way of knowing.

Chapter Seven

ONE BY ONE, people were brought in to Autumn and Lakota, and one by one, they were connected to their spirit guides and turned by Autumn’s blood.

The more connections they did, the faster the process got, until a veritable conveyor belt of shifters flooded in and out of the tourist building. Outside, the number of impossibly large, predatory animals continued to grow. A few took themselves off into the surrounding forest, while the aerial shifters lifted into the sky, trying out their newfound wings. The screeches, howls, and roars of the animals filled the air.

Most of the volunteers came in excited but nervous, and eager to get on with things. A few changed their minds at the last minute, and backed out of the cabin to rejoin their friends or family members. Autumn didn’t think any less of those people. She couldn’t imagine how terrifying it would be to change who you were forever.

Finally, they were done.

Mia stepped forward. “Now it’s my turn.”

Autumn turned to her friend. She was exhausted from the process, the taking of her blood, and everything else that had happened. She shook her head. “Please, Mia. Not now. I don’t have the energy to argue with you.”

“Why do you need to argue? Just do it.”

She put her head in her hands. “Please, Mia. Have you not seen the sort of pain those people went through to make themselves shifters? I can’t put you through that kind of pain. You’re like a sister to me.”

“If you see me as your sister, you should respect my choice.”

“What about Peter? Don’t you think you should talk to him first?”

She sighed. “We’ve already gone over this. Neither of us believes in asking a man’s permission to do anything.”

“Not permission, no. But surely it’s worth a conversation. You love him, don’t you?”

Mia’s eyes flicked down to the floor, her cheeks turning a shade of pink. Then she lifted her gaze back to Autumn. “Yes, I love him. I love him with all my heart. That’s why I want you to change me. I want to be like him. I want to be able to understand everything he goes through and help him.”

“How would you feel if he made such a huge decision without discussing it with you? What if he came back and told you he’d been able to make himself fully human again, and so he’d just done it?”

Mia bit her lower lip, and nodded. “Okay, you’re right. I’d be furious.”

Autumn relaxed inside. She didn’t want to turn her friend at all. At least now she’d bought herself a bit more time. She’d just have to hope that when Peter came back, he was completely against the idea and able to change her mind.

“What now?” she asked Lakota. “Do we keep moving?”

He shook his head. “We should get some rest. It’s going to be getting dark soon. And you look exhausted. You need some sleep.”

Mia reached out and rubbed Autumn’s arm. “Are you feeling okay? I’m so sorry. I’ve only been thinking about myself. I never thought about how you were doing.”

Autumn gave a half smile. “I’m okay. Lakota’s right, though. I could do with some sleep.”

“Take the couch,” the older man said. “The rest of us will make ourselves comfortable on the chairs.”

“What about Chogan and the others?” she asked. “Will they be able to find us here?”

“They’ve traveled hours past where we are now. They still need to search the area where Chogan left Blake, and then start heading back to us. At first light, we’ll get back onto the freeway. They’ll find us there.” He glanced out of the floor-to-ceiling windows, at the huge animals prowling between the bikes and vehicles, the people who sat within them showing no sign of fear at the enormous beasts. “We’re a bit hard to miss,” added Lakota.

It was true. It looked like some kind of freakish safari park out there.

“Okay,” she relented. She was too tired to argue about others being more needful of the couch. All she wanted to do was curl up and close her eyes, and try to forget this crazy world existed for a few hours.

With nothing else she could do, she took herself off to the couch and lay curled up on her side, with her back to the madness she’d at least in part been responsible for creating. She let out a deep sigh and some of the tension in her body ebbed away.

Seconds after closing her eyes, Autumn slept.

Chapter Eight

LEAVING THE BIKES and progressing on foot, Chogan, Peter, Nadie, and Sahale followed the route Chogan had taken when he had been chased by the soldiers a couple of days earlier. When he’d been running with Blake on his shoulders, the time had simultaneously gone quickly while he’d felt every step. Retracing the route made him realize what a huge distance he’d managed to travel, especially carrying someone the size of Blake.

The shifters sent their animal guides ahead as far as they could while still maintaining contact.

Finally, Chogan put out a hand to halt the others. His wolf had gotten far enough to catch a scent of human movement and the chemical tang of oil from a number of large vehicles. Even though he and the other shifters kept at the cabin had escaped, it didn’t appear as though the army had given up on this particular area as a compound.

He didn’t want to get too close, not wanting to risk getting either himself or his companions in trouble. He’d learned his lesson about taking too many risks, and he didn’t intend on repeating his mistakes.

Instead, he focused in on his wolf, sending him, with his nose to the ground, toward the clearing the group had run across, where he’d found Blake shot in the center, and toward the clump of bushes where he’d left Tala. As he’d expected, there was no sign of his cousin. His wolf picked up her faint, strange scent—part human, part bird. With it was mixed the smell of several men. But one thing he didn’t pick up on was the distinctive aroma of death, as he had with Blake. He didn’t know if Blake was alive or dead now, but he was sure Tala was still alive, and wherever they’d taken Tala, they’d also taken Blake.

He called his wolf back to him, and sensed the other shifters do the same for their guides. They needed to get away from here.

Together, they retreated, heading quickly and silently back the way they’d come, making sure there was enough distance between them and the soldiers before they dared speak again.

Eventually, they reached the spot where they’d left the bikes.

Peter turned to him. “So what are you thinking?”

“Same as you, I’d imagine. That they’ve taken Tala. Probably to the same place where they kept Autumn.”

“And what about Blake?”

“I can’t deny the possibility that he might still be alive. He’s a shifter, and we heal, though I thought he was beyond that point. But if he is alive, they’ll have taken him to the same place they’ve taken Tala. I guess we just have to hope they’re both still alive when we get to them.”

“What about Autumn? Are you going to tell her?”

“I don’t want to give her any misplaced hope, but I owe it to her to tell her the truth.” The thought of telling Autumn that Blake might still be alive made his insides twist in a way he didn’t want to examine too deeply. Had he really harbored the idea that with his cousin out of the way, Autumn would now be his for the taking? He didn’t like to think about what kind of twisted person that made him.

She will never know how rotten my soul is
, he swore to himself. However bad things got, he wouldn’t let her learn just how wicked he was inside.

The bikes roared back through the forest, back to the car where he’d left Madison and Billy. Autumn wasn’t the only one he wanted to hide the real Chogan from, he realized. He didn’t want his new friends to see him as he really was either.

Part of him wondered if Madison would still be waiting with Billy—hell, if the car would be there at all. He knew nothing about the woman, except that she was running from an ex and she loved her son—but otherwise she could be anyone. They’d left her with the keys to the vehicle for safety, so what was there to stop her driving the car off to wherever she wanted?

They got closer to the place where they’d left the car. Though the roar of the motorbike engines was loud, another commotion filtered through to Chogan’s sensitive ears. He frowned and increased the throttle, speeding up the bike, despite the hazardous trail and the poor light. On the back, Nadie was forced to wrap her arms around his waist to hold on. He swerved around fallen tree trunks and branches. Splashing through muddy puddles so the water sprayed up and soaked his jeans.

They broke through the trees and Chogan spotted the car.

The sky was beginning to lighten now, the sun not yet over the horizon, but the dark fading enough to see the scene before them.

They weren’t alone. Two massive wolves bounded around the car, jumping up at the windows like vicious dogs, snapping and growling at the people beyond the glass.

Chogan frowned in confusion. Could this be the ex-boyfriend, Billy’s father? Was there a possibility Madison had hooked up with another shifter and not realized it? But he detected a playfulness about the wolves’ behavior, despite the overt aggressiveness. They switched positions, leaping around each other as they did so, before jumping back up at the windows to continue the snarling. One of the wolves, a gray-furred brute with a scarred muzzle, dropped back down onto all fours and then leaped on to the hood of the car. Even with all the noise, Chogan heard the frightened screams of Madison and her son as they huddled together in the center of the vehicle, Madison with her arms wrapped tight around Billy, holding him to her chest.

Anger built up inside him. What the hell did the wolves think they were doing? Shifters didn’t go around tormenting innocent people—at least none of the good ones did.

He stopped the bike and backed up to stay hidden between some trees. Nadie’s arms loosened from around his waist where she’d been forced to cling to him. He cut the engine and the lights. Peter pulled up beside him, Sahale on the back, leaning backward to hold onto the back of the seat.

“What are we going to do?” said Peter, keeping his voice low. The wolves were caught up in their game, so much so they hadn’t noticed the roar of the approaching bikes, so Chogan doubted they’d hear their voices.

He climbed from the bike and shrugged his leather jacket from his shoulders, letting it drop to the ground. “We’re going to show them that you don’t pick on women and children.”

Peter nodded his agreement.

“Hell, yeah,” said Sahale.

Chogan realized he had a woman with him, one who had said her ability to shift wasn’t always as in control as she needed it to be. “You can hang back if you want, Nadie.”

“No way. I’m a woman and a shifter. I plan on teaching these guys some manners.”

Chogan grinned. “Let’s do it.
”

A car drove past on the opposite side of the road, but offered no assistance, despite seeing the trapped woman and child. They were afraid, Chogan realized. Even though he’d wanted to show the public that shifters were nothing to be feared, scenes like this only served to embed the stories of terrifying monsters that they were told as children into their heads.

Just as he was about to call his wolf guide, movement came from the other side of the freeway. A massive, spotted leopard came prowling out from the forest bordering that side of the road. The animal seemed in no way concerned about the two wolves, who continued to yelp and snarl, tumbling with each other like two overzealous teenagers. Instead, the leopard strolled over and stalked around the vehicle.

“I guess our numbers just evened out a little,” said Peter, keeping his voice low.

Chogan lifted his eyebrows. “Is that a problem?”

“Not for me. Let’s get those sons of bitches.”

Chogan gritted his teeth and nodded. With all thoughts of modesty not even entering his head, he reached down to unbutton his jeans and kick off his boots. When this was over, he intended on having some clothes to wear. He closed his eyes briefly and focused in on his wolf. The animal was close, drawn nearer by the ruckus. Chogan sensed it lift its head in response to his call, and then its energy burst toward him like an explosion. The spirit hit his body, making him take a step backward. The pain began instantly. No matter how many times he shifted, he would never get used to the red hot agony of the change. His muscles tore, his bones snapping. The skin on his face wrenched in one direction and then another as it took the shape of a muzzle. Knives speared behind his eyes, pain shattering through his skull.

He was only vaguely aware of his companions shifting around him, and he willed his change to complete faster. The other wolves had not been far away, and the distinctive sound of a number of shifters turning was bound to get their attention. He couldn’t afford for them to be noticed and attacked mid-shift. They were weak and helpless while they were changing form.

His shift was complete.

In wolf form, Chogan shook out his fur and stretched, releasing his new muscles. The world was clearer now, his sense of smell and hearing sharp and focused. He also found it easier to read the wolves’ body language. From where he stood, partially hidden between the trees, he understood now that the wolves were playing a game. Though they might have hurt Madison and Billy if they could have gotten into the vehicle, they were having more fun just inciting fear. The leopard who watched was harder to read. The animal was restrained, observing or perhaps overseeing as opposed to joining in. It was a solid ball of muscle, every inch tensed.

He hoped Peter would have more insight into the big cat.

He turned to his companions. Peter had finished his shift, his fur a sleek gold, his coal ringed amber eyes wise.

Despite her words, Nadie hadn’t managed her shift. She mouthed, “Sorry,” at Chogan before stepping back and melting into the forest. It was best she stayed out of the way. He figured this thing might get messy.

His attention moved to Sahale. The young man was now a striking gold and black striped tiger. Powerfully muscled and fearsome to behold. If Chogan had still been a man, he would have smiled. The wolves and the strange leopard who seemed to watch over them didn’t stand a chance.

He hated that he’d left Madison and Billy as long as he had. There was no more time to waste.

Chogan lifted his head to the sky and let out a long, mournful howl.

The two young wolves immediately stopped their antics and faced the forest, their hackles raised.

Centering the strength in his muscles, Chogan bounded forward, Peter and Sahale at each shoulder. The wolves saw them coming, but the leopard held back.

Chogan caught sight of Madison’s eyes widening in terror. His heart sank. Of course, she didn’t know he was a shifter. In her mind, this was simply more giant predators coming to tear her and her son limb from limb. He wished he had some way of reassuring her, but he had more immediate problems to deal with.

The gray wolf with the scar snarled at Chogan. He didn’t give the other wolf time to attack. Instead, he leaped, crashing into the wolf with a tumble of fur and snapping teeth. Their growls echoed around the deserted freeway.

They rolled on the asphalt, snapping and snarling. The other wolf was weaker than he was; he sensed it in every movement the animal made. The scarred wolf fought back, but Chogan was a dominant creature and he would make the younger animal submit.

He pinned him down on his back. His jaw opened and he locked his teeth around the other animal’s throat, fur thick against his tongue. He growled a low, threatening growl and the other wolf whimpered.

Chogan didn’t want to kill any more. There had been too much death, and the thought of killing one of his own—a wolf like Blake—made his stomach turn. He allowed his focus to turn to the others for the briefest of moments, making sure they didn’t need any help. Peter and Sahale circled the other wolf with the stealth and magnificence of the two big cats, making the wolf appear no more than a naughty puppy in their center.

He checked for the leopard, but saw no sign of the other big cat. It must have slunk off into the forest when they attacked. Chogan didn’t like it. What was the other shifter up to?

But he didn’t want the wolves to slink off to wherever they had come from. He wanted answers from them, and more than that, he wanted them to apologize to Madison.

He released the young wolf’s throat, allowing him to roll back to his feet, and then shoved him with his shoulder, pushing the other wolf toward his buddy. Peter and Sahale made way, allowing the gray wolf to join his friend. Chogan joined Peter and Sahale in surrounding the two trouble makers.

He let out a yap, lifting his nose to signal the wolves’ bodies. They exchanged a glance. Still held within the circle of Chogan, Peter and Sahale, the wolves began to shift back. Chogan waited until the shift was complete.

Two teenage boys huddled on the asphalt, their hands held self-consciously over their dicks as they shivered in fear.

Chogan shifted back, his teeth clamped down against the agony. Though vulnerable, he knew Peter and Sahale had his back. Within minutes, he stood before them as a man. He was only vaguely aware of Madison staring in fascinated horror from the car window.

“Who the hell are you guys?” he demanded. “And more importantly, who was the leopard?”

One of the young men sobbed. “We’re no one, man. We were just having a bit of fun.”

Chogan aimed a kick at him. “By tormenting a woman and child? Who the hell are you?”

“No one.” He squealed like a pig as Chogan kicked him again.

“Bullshit.”