Autumn's Blood: The Spirit Shifters, Book One (16 page)

He lifted his head and locked his dark
eyes on her. A shiver ran through her body. “I’ll know what
happened. And I won’t rest until you’re safe.”

Chapter
Fourteen

THE DOOR OF the hotel room burst open
and Autumn quelled a shriek of surprise. Chogan’s form filled the
gap. His eyes were hooded with anger, his forehead drawn down in a
frown. The other man took three long strides across the room and
caught his cousin by the material of his shirt, hoisting the bigger
man to his feet and propelling him backward. The two men hit the
hotel room wall, a picture knocking from a hook and falling to the
floor with a crash, and the scream finally escaped Autumn’s
throat.

“What the hell are you involved with?”
Chogan demanded.

Blake pushed back, the initial
advantage of surprise gone. Chogan stumbled briefly, but quickly
regained himself, leaping to his feet and squaring on Blake like
two men in a wrestling ring.

“I don’t know what you’re talking
about.”

“Bullshit! I saw those poor shifters,
what they’d done to them. How could you be involved with someone
who is doing that to your own kind? What the hell do those people
want from them?”

“They’re just trying to find out what
we are.”

Chogan snarled. “I don’t believe you.
There’s more to it.”

Terrified they’d hurt each other,
Autumn jumped to her feet. She positioned herself between the two
men, hands held out, placed against their chests to separate them.
The same heat which radiated from Blake also came from his cousin’s
skin.

She turned to Blake. “If he’s like
you, why don’t you tell him the whole story?”

“Damn it, Autumn!” Blake glared at
her.

Chogan leapt on their exchange. “So
I’m right. There is more to this.”

Blake paused and then grabbed Autumn’s
hand and dragged her outside into the corridor. A small Hispanic
woman wheeling a trolley of clean sheets and mini toiletries passed
them by. She gave them a sideways glance, but nothing
more.

Autumn snatched her hand from his and
put her hands on her hips. “So are you going to explain to me what
your beef is with your cousin? It seems to me like he only wants to
help, and we’re not exactly overwhelmed by people wanting to help
us right now.”

“You have no idea what he’s
like.”

“No, I don’t. So why don’t you tell
me?”

Blake turned from her slightly and ran
a hand across his buzz cut hair. He shook his head as though
fighting an inner battle, then opened his mouth to speak. “Chogan
doesn’t consider himself—or any of the shifters—on an equal level
with humans. He thinks our abilities make us a higher species. He
thinks humans should know about us, should bow down and worship us.
That’s part of the reason he’s so furious about the other shifters
being held captive. In his head, it’s like the masters being held
and tortured by the slaves.”

“Wow.”

He looked grim. “Yeah, wow. I don’t
know how he’s going to react to the news that you might be able to
change humans into shifters. It could go one of two ways—he sees
you as the messiah and wants to try to change as many people into
shifters as possible, or he’ll view you as the anti-Christ who is
about to reduce our kind to nothing.”

“Okay, neither of those are good
reactions,” she said, slowly. “But other than hoping he’ll help us,
what other options do we have?”

“We go it alone.”

“For how long? We barely know each
other. I can’t just go on the run with some strange man for
God-knows-how-long. I have a job! I have a life.”

Blake glanced away, as if suddenly
uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, but your life just changed.”

She stared at him, hardly able to
believe what he was saying. Had her old life really ended? It was
all too much to handle.

“I still don’t think we
can do this alone, whatever
this
is.” She remembered Chogan’s kindness upon
finding her crying in the street after her latest confrontation
with her father. “I want Chogan to know what’s going on. The full
story.”

“You don’t know what he’s like,” Blake
warned again.

“You said you’d not seen each other
for a long time. Maybe he’s changed?”

Blake gave a sigh, his huge shoulders
sagging, and Autumn knew she’d won this argument at
least.

“Anyway,” she said, looking around the
cramped corridor. “If he’s like you, can’t he just use his spirit
guide to listen in on this conversation?”

He shook his head. “It’s an unspoken
law between shifters that we don’t watch each other. Imagine the
total lack of privacy you’d go through your whole life otherwise.
Besides, my wolf would know if Chogan’s was here.”

“Okay, but I still think we need to
tell him.”

“Fine. But if this all goes horribly
wrong, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

They went back into the
room.

Chogan stood, his hands shoved into
the pockets of his jeans. He looked up at them as they walked in.
“You two finished your little mothers’ meeting?”

“Yeah,” said Blake. He motioned with
his head toward the bed. “And if you want to hear what we have to
say, I suggest you sit down and shut the hell up.”

Chogan gave them a tight smile. “I
guess I don’t have much choice in the matter.” He sat
down.

Blake stood above him, his arms folded
across the expanse of his chest, his biceps bulging. “You wanted to
know Autumn’s involvement in all this?”

He shrugged. “Sure.”

“The man I work for, General Dumas,
wants to figure out a way of turning regular humans into spirit
shifters. He wants to use them to create an army which will have an
advantage above all others.”

Chogan’s mouth fell open. “You have
got to be shitting me.”

Blake scowled. “Are you going to let
me talk?”

His cousin fell silent.

“Autumn, Doctor Anderson, was brought
in to try to replicate how a shifter’s genetics change when we
shift, and she was trying to do so with human DNA.”

Chogan shot her a look and she
shrugged in an apology. “I didn’t know what I was working with
then, only that I’d never seen it before.”

“Anyway,” Blake interrupted, “while
she was conducting her experiments, she cut her finger and some of
her blood contaminated the slides. The human DNA began to change,
just like shifter DNA.”

“You’re telling me she’s able to
change humans into shifters?”

“There’s a possibility,
yes.”

She held up her hands. “We don’t know
that yet. I wasn’t able to confirm the experiments properly. Your
cousin here got me out of there quicker than I had time to
think.”

“We had no choice. If Dumas had of
gotten there before me or Haverly, you’d be locked up beneath
ground right now. You were lucky Haverly was with you when the
accident happened.”

A thrumming from above their heads
caught everyone’s attention, causing them to simultaneously lift
their faces to the ceiling. The sound grew louder, a pulsing on
their ears.

“What the hell?” Blake went to the
window and peered out, before turning on Chogan. “Did anyone see
you? Follow you back?”

Chogan frowned. “I don’t think so.
There were a lot of people around.”

“Well an unmarked chopper is right
above the hotel. I’m going to guess it isn’t just
sightseeing.”

“Shit.”

Autumn turned from one man to the
other. “What’s happening?”

Blake picked up his leather jacket and
threw Autumn her coat. She snagged the item from the air and pulled
it on, though the thin suit jacket wouldn’t offer much protection
in the cool evening.

“Dumas must have had people positioned
outside the building to watch out for anything unusual. I’m
guessing Chogan’s appearance fell into that category and they’ve
sent someone after him, hoping to find us. We need to get out of
here.” His hand made contact with her lower back, hustling her out
of the room. “Let’s go!”

Though frightened, she couldn’t deny
the thrill she experienced at the sensation of his big, hot palm
pressed so close to her skin. The memory of the kiss they’d shared
was still at the forefront of her mind.

Together, they ran down
the corridor. The sound of the helicopter grew louder, the roar
quickly developing into a
thwop-thwop-thwop
which pounded on
their ear drums.

A window was positioned at the end of
the corridor. The previous view of the city was blocked as the
aircraft appeared, hovering just outside. The interior of the
helicopter was open to the air. Autumn caught a glimpse of a man in
protective gear crouched inside its body, something held between
his hands, before the window exploded inward and her senses were
overloaded by the shatter of glass and a rattle of automatic gun
fire.

She dived for the floor, helped in
part by Blake shoving her down from behind. The cheap hotel carpet
was suddenly far closer than she’d ever anticipated coming to it,
the garish colors and pattern vivid in her vision as she crawled,
commando style, to reach the nearest exit.

“Go!” Blake shouted.

Chogan was already ahead and he turned
to reach out to her, grabbing her hand so they rose to a crouch
together and scuttled toward the fire door.

Blake pulled his weapon and fired off
three shots in succession through the hole where the window had
been only moments before.

“Blake!”

Terrified for him, she glanced back to
make sure he was following. He fired off another shot before
spinning toward them and chasing them out into the
stairwell.

They ran down, Autumn’s heart
pounding. Her feet felt like they couldn’t move fast enough,
simultaneously wanting to get out of there, while worrying she was
going to stumble and pitch headfirst down the stairs. After the
deafening roar of the helicopter, the shattering glass and machine
gun fire, the slap of their feet against the treads sounded
strangely hollow.

Movement came from below, the sound of
people running up the stairs toward them.

“Shit!”

Blake’s fingers wrapped around her
wrist and he yanked her away from the stairwell and through another
door. He pushed her out onto another floor, hustling Chogan along
with her. The Hispanic woman who’d passed them earlier stood frozen
in the action of letting herself into a room on the second floor.
From her upturned face and wide eyes, she’d obviously noticed the
commotion from above.

Without pausing, Blake pushed past
her, dragging Autumn with him, Chogan following close behind. He
ran to the window and opened it, leaning out above the alleyway
below. On the opposite side of the alley stood an industrial
trashcan filled with black trash bags.

“You’re going to have to
jump.”

“What?” She stared at him in
alarm.

But Chogan was already climbing onto
the ledge. “Don’t worry, I’ll catch you.” Cat-like, he sprang from
the ledge, landing with a flurry of trash in the can. His head
popped back up and he held out his arms to her. “Come on,” he
yelled up, his fingers beckoning her toward him.

“Do it now!” Blake insisted, peering
over his shoulder, his gun still clutched in one hand and pointed
toward the hotel room door.

“
You have got to be
kidding me,” she muttered. She climbed onto the ledge, trying not
to look at the drop below. Even though they were only on the second
floor, the height was frightening from up here. Her legs trembled
beneath her and she closed her eyes briefly, willing herself to be
brave. She took a breath, gritted her teeth, and leapt.

Autumn fell through the air … and
straight into Chogan’s arms. He caught her and they rolled together
so she found herself tangled in his limbs, pressed against his
body. He reached out and pushed her hair from her face, her breath
catching as he focused his almost-black eyes on hers.

What’s happening to
me?
These men had a way of capturing her
attention.

“Come on.” He helped her climb from
the can. Moments later, another gunshot rang out.

“Blake!” she cried.

But he dropped from the window,
landing on his feet in a crouch on the ground.

“Well, what are you waiting
for?”

They ran, putting distance between
themselves and the hotel. They stayed close to the walls, keeping
out of sight of the chopper above. Quickly getting lost in the
bustle of the city, they left the helicopter and the men chasing
them far behind.

AUTUMN STOPPED AND bent over, her
hands placed on her knees as she gasped for breath, her lungs
burning. She tried to speak, but the effort only rasped her throat,
making her cough. Annoyingly, the two men seemed relatively
unaffected by the long run. At least she hadn’t been totally out of
shape and unable to run at all. She couldn’t imagine how
embarrassing that would have been. She’d often been jealous of her
roommate Mia’s small, curvy frame, but for once she was thankful
for her own tall, athletic figure. Plus, the running she liked to
do when she was trying to figure out a problem had also
helped.