Autumn's Blood: The Spirit Shifters, Book One (11 page)

He shoved the glass at her. “Just take
it.”

“I said I don’t want a
drink.”

“Goddamnit, woman.” He
downed his own bourbon and then hers. “We don’t have long. Dumas is
going to realize you’re missing soon enough and it will only take a
quick review of the security cameras to not only see you’re with
me, but also that you managed to achieve what he wanted and
how
you achieved what he
wanted.”

“But isn’t it a good thing? I mean, I
have no idea how my blood managed to change the human DNA, but
isn’t that what everyone wanted?”

“Everyone on Dumas’ side,
perhaps.”

She frowned. “Aren’t you on Dumas’
side? What sides are there?”

His face hardened. “No, I’m certainly
not on Dumas’ side. All he wants is to harness shifters’ powers to
use them for his own purposes.”

Autumn pointed a finger.
“There! You used that word again,
shifter
. Are you going to explain to
me what a shifter is?”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “I
thought you would have worked that one out for yourself. Aren’t you
supposed to have an IQ of 140 or something?”

She cocked her head to one side.
“Well, at least I use my brain instead of relying on my muscle.”
She fell silent, thinking. “Okay, so a shifter is whatever the
species is that my blood changes human DNA into.”

“Correct.”

“I still don’t know what a shifter is;
only what its DNA looks like.”

He locked her eyes with his. “It looks
like me.”

She blinked in surprise.
“What?”

“A shifter is a human who is able to
change from their human form into that of an animal spirit guide
which has attached themselves to the human spirit at some point in
their lives. When the animal spirit and the human spirit merge as
one to inhabit the same body, the human shifts into the form of the
animal.”

Autumn stared at him and then snorted
in laughter. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

His face hardened. “Does it seem like
I’m kidding?”

“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.”