“You think you’re one of these ... shifters?”
“I don’t think I am, I know I am. And don’t act so disbelieving. You’re a scientist and you’ve seen the proof yourself underneath a microscope. Can you doubt your own eyes?”
“I ... I ...” She faltered and shook her head. “This isn’t science. This is science fiction.”
“The other day, you told me that almost everything we now take for fact was once believed to be fiction.”
“I know, but this is taking things a step too far.” She pursed her lips. “I think I need that drink now.”
He went back to the kitchen and poured her a shot of bourbon and himself another. His fast metabolism processed the alcohol from his system too quickly. It took a lot for him to feel the effects, probably a good thing considering the circumstances. He carried the drink back to her and she took the glass and downed it in one shot, grimacing at the taste. He watched her in amusement. He hadn’t expected her to do that.
“Okay, so let me get this straight,” she said, taking a deep breath. “You’re telling me that not only are you one of these shifters, but that my blood has the ability to turn regular humans into animals?”
He shook his head. “Not animals. Spirit shifters.”
“Spirits?”
“Yes, this is what has me worried. What we are is chosen by our spirit guides. If your blood forces that to happen, an unnatural bond will occur. There’s no way of knowing how either the animal spirits or the people they bond to will react. It might send them crazy ... or mean.”
She laughed and ran a hand through her hair. “This whole thing sounds crazy to me. Maybe I’ve been asleep for the last three days and I’ve dreamed this whole thing.”
“I can promise you this is very real. Believing it’s a dream could endanger your life.”
“So show me,” she said, shrugging almost nonchalantly. He could tell she still didn’t believe a word he was saying. “Show me how you change.”
“We don’t have time for this,” he said in frustration. “Dumas will send people after us soon enough.”
“I won’t believe you unless I see it for myself.
“It will frighten you,” he said, thinking of the horrific change his body went through when he shifted. Did he really want her to see that? What if she ran, or puked and passed out? He’d have to shift back and haul her out of here over his shoulder. He gave the possibility a second thought. Perhaps that would be easier than trying to get her to behave fully conscious.
He stared at her, a muscle twitching in his jaw. She stared right back, holding his gaze.
“I’m tougher than I look,” she said eventually. “I’ve had to be.”
THE POWERFUL MAN stood before her, considering her demand. She’d never felt so torn. Part of her wanted to shake her head at this whole thing and get the hell out of there. This was nuts, people didn’t turn into animals! Yet she’d seen proof to a certain extent, the way the human DNA had restructured itself into something else. It was perfectly possible that the something else had been animal. But she had to know for sure. She had to witness it for herself.
“If you don’t show me, I’ll continue to doubt what you’re telling me. This whole thing will be a hell of a lot easier if you just show me what you’re talking about. I won’t have any way of not believing you then.”
“You don’t want to see this,” he warned. “It’s the stuff of nightmares.”
“I’m a big girl. It’s been a long time since bad dreams kept me awake at night.”
She couldn’t figure out if this guy had rescued her or kidnapped her. Even though part of her wanted to run, the other part wanted to move closer to him, to feel the heat she knew would be radiating off his big, strong body, to lose herself in the intensity of his dark eyes. Whatever was true, she didn’t doubt that he believed what he was telling her. Maybe he was crazy—out of his mind, bat-shit crazy—but she couldn’t pretend what she’d been working on in the lab didn’t exist. There must be a thread of truth in what he was telling her.
His shoulders sagged. “Okay, I’ll do it. But don’t say I didn’t warn you and don’t run, okay? I will catch you.”
She nodded, nervous. “I won’t run.”
Was she about to see something that would change her view of the world forever?
Blake turned his back to her and pulled his t-shirt over his head, revealing smooth, nut-brown skin over the bulk of well-defined muscle. Every muscle in his body contracted with his movements. Intricate tribal tattoos were etched into the skin of his upper back, curving around over his shoulders. Her breath caught in her chest, her heart tripping. He tossed the shirt to the floor and lowered his hands to flick open his belt.
“What are you doing?” she asked, suddenly panicked.
He glanced over his shoulder. “I get sick of having to replace my clothes.”
Her voice came out as a whisper. “Oh ...”
She felt she should avert her eyes, but couldn’t. She was fixated on this big, beautiful, intense man currently stripping in front of her. He unbuttoned his jeans and shrugged them from his slender hips, kicking them away to reveal a rock-hard ass and thick, lean thighs covered in a spattering of dark hair. Her mouth ran dry. Why wasn’t he wearing any underwear?
Naked, apart from his tattoos, he looked back at her from over his shoulder. “You promise not to run?”
“I promise,” she squeaked.
He lowered his head, the muscles in his back and shoulders straining. She heard him mutter words, but didn’t catch them.
His head snapped back up and he roared in pain. Autumn jumped in fright, her heart rate stepping up a notch. She clutched her hand to her chest, as though hoping to stop the organ from beating out of her rib cage.
What am I doing? I’m standing in an industrial building with a naked man I barely know who could quite easily be out of his mind. She realized if he decided to attack her, she wouldn’t stand a chance. While, at five-feet-eight, she hardly sported Mia’s petite stature, this guy was at least twice her body weight.
What the hell ...?
Something strange was happening to Blake’s skin. Red pinpricks appeared all over his previously flawless skin, and within seconds hairs appeared. He curled back over, his body wrenched one way and then the next. A sickening cracking echoed through the room and he howled.
Stop! She cried in her horrified mind. Stop, I believe you. Yet nothing would come out. Her mouth had run dry, her hands gripped into tight fists. Whatever was happening was clearly hurting him and she couldn’t bear to watch.
But she did.
The hairs thickened, a silvery-white coating now hiding his brown skin. His toes elongated, his fingers curling and growing. His blunt nails thickened and curled in on themselves ...
Claws, she realized.
His perfect rear melded into the backs of his now fur covered-thighs, and from his coccyx something began to unfurl …
A tail.
“Oh my God,” she gasped, her hand moving from her chest to her mouth. Surely she wasn’t really seeing this?
Blake—or what had been Blake—was on all fours now. He’s bigger, she realized, even bigger than he’d been. He swung his head to face her and she gasped and stumbled back. His face was no longer human, the last residues of humanity vanished from his features.
The biggest wolf she’d ever seen stood before her, black streaks through his silver fur. He regarded her with golden yellow eyes, a deep intelligence like nothing else she’d seen before. Her breath was caught, her heart pounding.
Her mouth opened, but she was unable to find the words.
Would he attack her?
But he made no move toward her. Instead, he lowered his massive head. Autumn forced her fear to the pit of her stomach and stepped forward, tentative, hardly able to believe what she was doing. She put out her hand and he nuzzled a wet nose into her palm. With a shaking hand, she reached out her other hand and ran her fingers through his coarse fur.
“I can’t believe it’s really you,” she whispered. He gave a low growl. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you before.”
His growled again, a low rumble from deep within his chest. But she didn’t find the sound to be threatening. She felt pretty sure that if he intended to be threatening, she wouldn’t have any doubt about his intentions.
He nudged her again, this time more forcefully, as though he wanted her to move away.
“Okay.” She did as he wanted and stepped back, giving him his space.
The growl turned into a howl, the reverberation echoing in the huge expanse of the industrial building. She heard bones cracking again and winced at the noise, hating this was hurting him.
I did that, she thought. He turned and put himself through this because of me. She corrected herself. For me.
The fur melted from his body, revealing skin. His feet and hands shrank back, the nails reducing and flattening. His pointed nose seemed to retract, the ears folding back against his head, the tail curling between his thighs and vanishing.
Blake, fully human and naked, knelt on the floor before her, panting.
She dropped to her knees before him and reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder. Heat burned though her palm, as though he was running a fever, but she knew he wasn’t. She’d touched him before and he’d been burning hot then.
He lifted his face to her, the last glow of yellow melting from the brown of his eyes.
“I believe you,” she said. “I’m sorry I didn’t before.”
Unable to speak for the moment, he simply nodded.
She put out a hand and helped him to his feet. Strangely, she no longer felt embarrassed about his nudity, as though watching such an intense, painful, unbelievable thing had somehow taken their intimacy to a new level.
Instead of being embarrassed, she reached out and placed her hands against his chest, the curve of his pectorals, just above his small, dusky-brown nipples. She ran her hands over his chest, his shoulders, down his arms, as though her body needed to confirm what her brain was telling her—that he was real.
Suddenly, he reached up and caught her wrists, stilling her hands.
“Stop!” His voice came out hoarse and he pushed her away, turning his body from her.
She realized what she’d been doing. “I’m sorry. I just needed to feel for myself that you’re real.”
He bent to retrieve his clothing, pulling on his jeans and t-shirt. “I’m real.”
Chapter Ten
FROM SOMEWHERE IN the building, the shrill ring of a phone cut through the air.
Now fully dressed, Blake strode across the apartment to where he had dumped his leather jacket. He fished his cell phone from the pocket, the events of the past few minutes played through his mind. How could he not be affected by Autumn’s hands running over his body like that? He’d wanted to reach out and free her hair from that prim and proper bun she wore, so the curls fell down her back. He’d wanted to lock his hand in her tresses, force her mouth to his, and kiss her hard. He’d wanted to scoop her slender body against his and press his need against her flat stomach.
That was one problem with spending so much time naked. Sometimes it was hard to hide exactly how you felt.
He hit the answer key and barked into the slender phone. “Wolfcollar.”
“Blake, it’s me.” His mind clicked into gear. Haverly! “Dumas has already figured out that you’ve taken off with Doctor Anderson. He doesn’t know the reason yet, but it won’t take him long. His team is already going through the computer records in the lab.”
“Shit.” He glanced back over at Autumn. She watched him with wide, worried eyes.
“Did you destroy the samples yet?”
Blake thought of the slivers of glass, still inside his jacket pocket. “Not properly, though I doubt they’ll be in any state considering I’ve been running around with them not even boxed.”
“Burn them as soon as you can. We don’t want Dumas getting hold of them and figuring out a way of replicating whatever is in Doctor Anderson’s blood that was able to cause the shift.”
“Sure.” He strode into his kitchen. “I’m doing it now.”
He flicked on the gas burner and then went and picked up his black leather jacket, delved in the pocket, and pulled out the two slides.
Autumn must have realized what he was about to do. “No! Stop! I need those.”
“Hang on,” he told Haverly, then turned to Autumn. “These things are dangerous.”
“But I might never be able to replicate the experiment fully.”
“Good.” He dropped both slides facedown into the flames. Autumn stared, dismay written all over her face.
“Okay, it’s done,” he said, speaking back into the phone. “Now what?”
“You need to get the doctor somewhere safe and get rid of this phone. They’re already—”
His words were cut off as the sound of shouting came in the background.
“Hang on just one minute!” Haverly yelled. Blake had the feeling he wasn’t talking to him. More shouts echoed down the line and then came a crash, muffled scrapes, banging, and more yelling.
A sharp crack made Blake yank his head away from the phone. “Shit!” He put the handset back to his ear. “Haverly? You still there? Can you hear me?”
But the line was dead.
“Damn it!” Blake hung up and dropped his own phone to the floor. He lifted one heavily-booted foot and brought it down hard, again and again, smashing the item into a dozen smaller pieces.
“What did you do that for?” Autumn asked, aghast.
“Dumas’ lot can track a cell. They’ll be here soon.”
Blake closed his eyes, focusing in on his wolf. Because of the recent shift, his guide was already near and answered him quickly. Guard, Blake told it. Watch out for enemies. He sensed his wolf’s understanding, and the animal took off, patrolling the perimeter of the building at a fast trot, its head held high. Its ears were pricked for sound, nostrils flared for the scent of danger.
Blake crossed the room and climbed the set of metal stairs to the raised level that served as his bedroom. He flung open the closet and pulled out a hold-all bag containing another gun, extra ammunition, a fake ID, and a wad of cash.
“What are you doing?” Autumn called up to him.
He hoisted the bag onto his shoulder and headed back down the steps. “We can’t stay here. I thought I’d kept this place a secret, but they’ve tracked my phone.” He looked at Autumn and noted that at least she didn’t have her purse with her. One less thing to worry about. “We need to get out of here.”
He took her by the elbow and pulled her along.
“Where are we going?” she asked, breaking into a trot to keep up with his long strides.
“I’m not sure yet.”
The image of a long black car with blacked out windows cruising by suddenly appeared in his head—his wolf warning him.
“Shit,” he swore, breaking into a run. “They’re already here.”
She ran with him now, no longer showing the resistance she had before witnessing his shift into wolf form. Together, they ran with Blake leading to the back of his apartment. Hidden in the back wall, a smaller door was cut into the brick.
“Come on.”
They ducked through and stepped out into a narrow alleyway. Industrial-sized trashcans lined the opposite wall. A couple of windows were positioned higher up, metal bars barring the way—they weren’t an option for escape.
In his head appeared the image of a man in a long, dark coat, a gun held close against its folds. The man stayed close to the wall, skirting the perimeter. At the intruder’s back, Blake’s wolf guide growled, but there was nothing it could do in spirit form except relay information back to Blake.
“Stay here,” he hissed at Autumn, pressing her against the wall. He put out a hand as though to steady her.
“Where are you going?” she hissed back.
He placed his finger a
gainst his lips. Be quiet.
Movement came from around the corner, the strange man moving like a cop, with his back to Blake’s building. As he rounded the bend, he began to turn, but he moved too late.
Blake grabbed the man, one arm wrapped around his throat, the other knocking the gun from his hand. The weapon hit the ground with a clatter, skidding across the concrete. The man didn’t even get the chance to shout out in surprise. Blake tightened his grip and a choked, strangling sound escaping from the man’s throat. His feet kicked, trying to find purchase, but Blake was easily six inches taller than the attacker—not to mention immensely stronger and faster—and he didn’t stand a chance. Blake knew from experience that the man’s lips would be turning blue by now, his eyes bulging.
He sent a thought out to his wolf: Are there any more? If he was found now, he’d be shot before he even got the chance to let go of the man he held captive. In his arms, the intruder went limp.
Blake wouldn’t kill the man, but he’d certainly leave him unconscious for an hour or more. He let go and the guy slumped to the floor.
His wolf sent him images, another two men around the other side of the building. But were there more on his side? He couldn’t imagine them splitting up in an uneven number, one would always plan on getting the other’s back.
As if Blake’s suspicion had conjured him, another man—a beanie hat pulled down over his head—appeared around the corner, a gun held in both hands and pointed directly at Blake.
Blake lifted his hands in surrender.
Behind him came movement as Autumn dived for the gun the other man had dropped. The new arrival swung his weapon in her direction.
“Autumn, no!” Blake yelled, his heart lurching with fear, certain she’d be killed. But she grabbed the weapon, rolled to one side, and sat up, aiming the gun in the other man’s direction. She didn’t get the chance to use it. Something launched at the man’s back, knocking him to the ground. His gun went off with a muffled pop—a silencer, Blake realized—the bullet streaking past Blake’s ear.
He looked back to find Chogan sitting on top of the other man. His cousin reached down, took the man’s head between both hands, and gave a hard wrench, snapping his neck.
Autumn's Blood: The Spirit Shifters, Book One Page 8