Saving Autumn

by Marissa Farrar

  “Hold still,” the woman’s voice came again. “If you don’t keep still, I’ll blow the vein.”

  Fresh alarm raced through her and she renewed her struggles, filled her lungs, and screamed as hard as she could. “Help me! Someone help!” She screamed even though her throat burned.

  Something elastic was stretched around her upper arm and tightened, snapping into place. A tourniquet. Deft fingers flicked at the crease where her upper arm met her lower arm, and then something pricked her skin, a sharp stabbing pushing inside her arm. She renewed her struggles and her screams.

  The woman spoke again, sounding irritated. “Help me out here, will you?”

  Man’s hands, rough and broad, grabbed her from behind, his palm cupping against her face in the same way it had done at the apartment. She remembered that she’d bitten him then, but no longer had the strength. Suddenly, all the fight drained out of her, what strength she’d had literally draining from her body. My blood, she realized. They’re taking my blood. Her ears had been sharpened by the lack of sight for so long and she thought she could hear the trickle of blood as it hit whatever vessel they were collecting it in.

  How much would they take? Enough to make her weak, she didn’t doubt. The more they took, the more compliant she would be, the easier it would be to take more.

  Autumn let out a sob, her head hanging forward. Her nose began to bleed again and blood from her wounds trickled down her face, dripping from her chin.

  In her dazed state, she was just aware of the sound of a door opening, the creak of wooden floor boards as more people entered the room.

  “Jesus!” A different voice.

  “Who the hell is that?” Another voice again.

  Now one older, as rich as velvet. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  The woman’s voice spoke up, “This is the one he was talking about, the one who has the power to change people into spirit shifters.”

  Autumn struggled to trace the number of different voices, which direction they came from and who said what. She felt as though she was surrounded.

  “Seriously?” The chocolaty tone again.

  The first different voice she’d originally heard spoke again. “How the hell do you know that?”

  “Of course I know! He’s my cousin, isn’t he? I’ve known him my entire life.”

  Another woman’s voice, younger this time. “But what are you doing to her? There’s so much … so much blood!”

  “The secret is in her blood. My uncle used to tell me stories about her kind all the time. I think he did it to make me feel better, perhaps keep my hopes up that one day it would be my turn.” Her voice took on a bitter tone. “Well, guess what, I’m all grown up and I’ve learned nothing comes to those who wait. You have to go out and grab what you want with both hands. That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

  “But he’s going to go nuts.”

  “Why should he? He says he wants shifters to rule humans. He might not realize it yet, but I’m helping him.”

  Autumn had a horrible feeling she knew exactly who they were talking about. Chogan. Surely Chogan wasn’t involved in this?

  But she called him her cousin, just like Blake was—

  The knowledge of who had taken her sprang into her head as if someone spoke the woman’s name in her ear. Tala! She didn’t want to believe Blake’s sister would do this to her, but she couldn’t deny what was right in front of her.

  “Tala?” Autumn called out, twisting her face in the direction she thought the woman might be standing. “Why are you doing this?”

  Tala laughed, cold. “I think I just explained why.”

  “You won’t get away with it. Blake will go crazy when he finds out.”

  “If he finds out, don’t you mean? And how is he going to do that?”

  “He’ll come looking for me.” Autumn blinked tears from her eyes, though the wetness only served to loosen the tape. But then she remembered their last conversation, how he’d told her that he didn’t want them to be together any more, how she’d basically walked out on him. How would he even learn about her abduction? Would he check up on her? He’d said he still wanted to protect her, he just didn't want them to be romantically involved. And what about Chogan? What would he do when he found Tala holding her captive, bleeding her out like this? Would he support Tala? Autumn didn’t think she’d been imagining things when she’d felt some kind of connection between her and Chogan. He cared for her safety. He wouldn’t let his cousin keep bleeding her in order to create a whole heap of shifters. In a way, what they were doing was no worse than what Dumas had been trying to achieve.

  “She’s right,” the older man’s voice said. “People will come looking for her.”

  “Not necessarily. Not if they think the government had something to do with her disappearance.”

  “Is that likely?” A different woman’s voice.

  “It’s possible. Let’s just say I have some inside information.”

  The combination of blood and tears started to loosen the tape across Autumn’s eyes. She managed to twist her neck, and, using her shoulder, rubbed at the edges, working them loose. Before anyone had noticed, she’d worked one side loose, so it hung from the side of her face. She blinked, her vision blurred by the blood and tears which, ironically, had also returned her sight.

  She blinked several times and her vision began to clear. She could make out the backs of several people standing talking animatedly to others. One glanced over their shoulder—a big man with a shaved head and tattoos running up his neck—and as soon as he spoke, she knew he was the one who’d hit her.

  “Oh shit. Now she’s seen us!”

  The back of a slender woman with long dark hair turned, and Autumn immediately recognized Tala. Her heart sank. She’d been right. Bizarrely, she was more upset for Blake than herself. He’d be so disappointed that his sister was involved in something like this.

  The other woman took several steps toward Autumn, and she cringed at the aggressive stride. Tala reached out a hand, and Autumn was sure she was about to hit her, but instead she gripped the loose end of the tape and tore off the rest. She took some of her eyebrow hair and eyelashes with it, leaving Autumn’s skin stinging. But Autumn was glad of the removal of the tape. She no longer felt so claustrophobic, even though she was still bound.

  “It doesn’t matter now. She knew who I was anyway, thanks to you and your big mouths,” Tala said. “We’ll just have to make sure she never gets the chance to report any of us.”

  Autumn looked between the different faces—an older black man, a young girl with a partially shaved head, a tall, beautiful, ebony-skinned woman. Some appeared nervous, others determined.

  She knew one thing. Apart from Tala, they were all shifters, and according to her father, shifters would want her dead.

  Chapter Twenty

  CHOGAN MADE HIS way through the woods. He had received a call from Tala asking him to meet her back at the ranch. Since then, he’d also gotten a couple of curious calls and texts from other shifters also asking why a human had called them to their meeting place.

  He’d not been able to give them an answer.

  He had been glad to slip between the trees, leaving the mayhem of the city far behind. Part of him could hardly believe the domino effect of his actions. He knew revealing the existence of shifters would have an impact on society, but he hadn't realized to what extent. However, he couldn't help his bemusement at the chaos he had created. Why did the humans feel the need to react by looting and rioting? Shifters were so few and far between, most of the people the humans ended up fighting were themselves.

  Now, he also had Tala to worry about. He’d grown up with his cousin, there was only a matter of months between them in age, and he knew her well enough to be concerned about this call to meet her. She wasn't even a shifter, yet she held herself as if she thought she was.

  How should he handle her? He loved her, she was family, yet deep down, he was concerned that sh
e may be a threat. The other thing worrying him about Tala was the closeness she seemed to have formed with the tiger-shifter, Rhys. The other shifter had done nothing to hide his dislike of Chogan.

  Through a gap in the trees, the wooden walls of the lodge appeared. The night was overcast, thick clouds hiding the moon, yet he didn’t struggle to make his way. His shifter eyesight allowed him to see in the dark. As he grew closer, he could make out the flicker of light behind the lodge’s dirty, cracked windows.

  Tala was already there. He wondered who else she had with her.

  He hesitated, wondering if he should send his wolf forward, get an idea of what his cousin might have called him for, but decided against it. He was only feet from the building now. He might as well face whatever waited for him.

  Chogan mounted the few steps leading to the old porch which ran around the building. The wooden planks creaked under his weight as he stepped on them and he sensed the presence of both humans and shifters inside.

  He took a deep breath and pushed his way through the door and into the large, open plan room.

  He’d not been prepared for what met him.

  Candles flickered and guttered in every corner, casting their dancing glow around the room. But the main thing they seemed to illuminate, the thing his eyes instantly focused upon, was the woman in a chair in the middle of the room.

  Autumn!

  She sat with her head hung, her arms strapped to the arm rests of the chair. He could make out the dark blood, both fresh and drying, on the back of the tape and on her skin. But the thing that drew his gaze the most, the thing that filled him with anger, both at himself and his cousin, was the sight of the tube threading beneath the delicate skin of the inside of her arm and the dark fluid which flowed down the tube and into a small, glass bottle on a metal trolley at her side. Several of the glass bottles had already been collected, sitting like a macabre collection of miniature drinks in a hotel mini-bar.

  Chogan turned his gaze to where Tala stood at Autumn’s side. Rhys stood just behind the two women, his arms folded like a bodyguard, trying to appear intimidating. It would take more than a bit of muscle and a few scary tattoos to frighten him.

  He forced a tight smile. “Well, well. What do we have here?”

  Tala pouted. “We have the person who can control the creation of shifters in our hands.”

  “And why wasn’t I notified about these plans?”

  “This isn’t just your revolution, Chogan. You’re not the boss of us.”

  He didn’t intend on getting into that argument again, but it sounded like Rhys’ opinions coming from her mouth. “How did you know?” he asked her.

  She shrugged. “I followed you. As soon as I saw her, I knew she was the one.”

  “You should have consulted me first. I told you it would all come in time. You didn’t need to go this far.” He struggled to control his emotions, but he needed to hold it together. To show emotion was to show weakness.

  “We need to have her in our control. If humans get wind of what she can do, they might kill her themselves.”

  He forced that smile again, though his face felt like rigor mortis. “It doesn’t look like you’re far off achieving that yourselves.”

  Others stood around on the periphery of the room, people he had trusted—Enyeto, Michael and Kasa—the very people he and Blake had helped—the Goth girl shifter who became a bird, Leah Phelps, and the leopard shifter, Mischa. Even the seemingly gentle older man, Harry Bernard, was standing at the sidelines. He could barely believe they’d all allowed Tala and Rhys to do this without stepping in.

  He surveyed them. Some met his eye, other stared at the ground, shuffling their feet. “So do you all back Tala, then?”

  Enyeto stepped forward, placing himself between Chogan and Autumn.

  “And you, Enyeto? How could you?”

  Enyeto shrugged. “Sorry, man. We need to do what’s best for our species.”

  He would get no support here. Fury tore through him, fury not only at the people he’d considered to be friends, but also at himself. He’d done this. He’d told them someone like Autumn existed. Of course, Tala would figure it out. She’d seen Blake with Autumn, had known she was involved. If only he’d kept his mouth shut and not gone running to Autumn the moment he’d felt lonely.

  But it was too late for if onlys. Now, he needed to get Autumn out of this situation. The sight of her sitting there, helpless, made him feel like someone was squeezing his heart with an iron fist.

  What he was about to do went against everything he'd been working toward his whole life, everything he believed in. He’d be turning against his own kind. And for a human! When he did this, he would be ostracizing himself from his own people, the people he’d believed to be his supporters. Yet, here they were, and not only had some of them gone behind his back, they were now taking someone else’s side.

  Whatever he thought, he had no control over what was about to happen. His anger sent a righteous fire through his wolf, the animal picking up on it immediately. He heard his wolf whine in his head and he sensed the animal’s hackles rising, sense on full alert. The wolf wanted to shift, wanted to fight and protect the shifter it had bound to, the shifter it had dedicated its afterlife to guiding. Chogan couldn’t stop this even if he wanted to.

  Chogan threw back his head with a roar and willed his wolf to come.

  The spirit dove toward him, moving like a gale in the ether. It hit him at full force and he reared back. He sensed the others around him realizing what was about to happen. They, too, began to shift, picking up on the fight about to occur.

  Pain ripped through his body, muscles tearing, bone snapping like brittle branches. He remained silent, though inside he howled in agony, screamed in his head. He'd had no time to discard his clothing. Instead, as his body began to change shape, his clothing ripped, the barrel chest of the wolf tearing through his t-shirt, the flanks of the animal busting out through his jeans. He’d just managed tokick off his shoes before his toes elongated, claws forming from the nail beds and curling around over his toes. His back arched forward, his hands now paws on the floor of the lodge. Around him others began to shift, too. Enyeto yanked off his shirt and managed to pop the button of his jeans to let them fall before his body began to change and grow. Thick, black fur spilled from his skin and his shoulders grew and swelled, becoming the massive form of the huge black bear that was his spirit guide.

  In front of Chogan, Rhys too, had begun to shift, his skin now covered in the thick stripes of a tiger. His eyes were golden amber as they stared back at Chogan with hostility, though Chogan couldn't help seeing something else behind them—perhaps an awkwardness he’d not seen before. The other shifter seemed just as uncomfortable at taking on his own kind. The growls and snarls of the animals filled the room as they paced around each other. The air suddenly exploded with the flapping of wings, and Chogan realized Leah had shifted, too. Except this time she was behind him, not standing at Rhys and Tala’s side. At least he had one person on his team, though he worried it would come out badly for her.

  He had to get Autumn out of here, but he was badly outnumbered. Not that something like numbers had ever stopped him entering a fight before.

  Chogan centered his energy in his haunches. With a snarl, he leapt forward, his sights set on the tiger’s throat. One of Enyeto’s huge bear paws came at a swing, clocking him midair. It hit him with force, sending him crashing to the floor, not far from Rhys’ feet. The tiger snarled, revealing white canines beneath his black lip. He and Chogan matched each other in size.

  The owl screeched from behind, launching herself toward Rhys with talons outstretched, huge white wings sweeping the air around them. Enyeto swiped for the bird, trying to keep her from Rhys, but only succeeded in knocking Autumn’s chair over. She hit the floor hard, the side of her head slamming against the wood. Chogan was thankful they were on wooden floors instead of concrete. If the surface had been harder, he figured she would be doing som
e serious hospital time if they ever got out of here.

  He didn’t have time to dwell on her injuries. Right now, he wondered how he ever thought he would win this.

  Tala had backed away from the fighting animals, her back edging against the log cabin walls. Chogan focused his sights on his cousin. Rhys was nothing, just a product of her manipulation. He needed to get past the shifters she had on her side and take her down. He didn’t intend on killing her, she was his kin, after all. But he did intend on teaching her a lesson. Not to mess with him. The rest of them needed to learn the same thing.

  The owl kept Enyeto busy, diving at his huge head, the beating of her feathery wings in the relatively small space confusing and disorienting. He growled and tried to bat her away, but she was more nimble, lifting higher then dropping down with a screech, only to rise again.

  Chogan and Rhys circled each other, the tiger all sleek muscle and powerful limbs, the wolf with his hackles raised and fangs bared in a snarl. Chogan bunched his muscles again and leapt, the tiger rising to meet him. They met in midair, rolling together in a bundle of fangs and fur. Chogan managed to get his teeth into Rhys’ shoulder, coarse fur meeting his tongue, the bloom of fresh blood against his taste buds. But the pain only seemed to give the tiger strength, for he whipped his head around and bit back, catching Chogan in the chest. The wolf fought back. He bundled Rhys over, rolling him onto his back so he stood over him, growling low and deep in his throat. He thought he had won, but commotion from behind caught his attention and he realized the owl had been hurt. Leah flapped along the ground with one wing at an uncomfortable angle, dragging it slightly. She moved into a corner and started to shudder, the quills of her feathers retracting back into her skin, the wings starting to shrink back into arms. The angle of her long bone in her arm was bent, a dent in her arm where the bone had broken. She cupped it protectively to her body as she rose, naked, clearly out of the fight.