Autumn's Blood: The Spirit Shifters, Book One (19 page)

Tears welled in the older man’s eyes
and he walked past Chogan, arms outstretched. He reached Blake and
enveloped the much bigger man in a bear hug. He let go and stepped
away, then reached out and took Blake’s cheeks and pulled his son’s
face down toward him. He stared at him, eyes sparkling with
amazement, and planted kisses on both of his cheeks.

“My son. The spirits always told me
you’d come back to me again.” He looked over his shoulder toward
Chogan. “Thank you for bringing my boy back to me.”

Blake pulled Autumn toward him. She
shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, uncomfortable at being
literally dragged into such an intimate moment. “Autumn, let me
introduce Lakota Wolfcollar, my father.” He turned to the man in
question. “Father, this is Doctor Autumn Anderson. She’s the reason
I’m back.”

His father’s eyes lit up. Blake must
have quickly realized the misunderstanding. “Oh, no. Not like that.
We’re not together.”

Autumn tried to ignore the
sinking sensation in her stomach. Did she actually want to mean
something more to him? No, of course not. He was not her type in
the slightest. She almost laughed out loud at the thought. She’d
barely dated, never mind had a
type
.

“Whatever reason brought you home to
me, I am thankful for it.” Lakota Wolfcollar turned to Autumn and
nodded slowly at her. “So I thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said with a shy
smile, though she wondered if he’d think differently after he’d
heard their crazy story.

BLAKE TOOK A deep breath. Stepping
into this house was like stepping back in time. Almost ten years
had passed since he’d been back here, and the place didn’t look
much different. Fading family photographs in wooden frames that had
been in the same positions years before, still covered the walls.
His mother—noticeable among them because of her pale skin—him
sitting on his father’s knee, and his sister, Tala, not much more
than a toddler, held in their mother’s arms.

His gut clenched. However forgiving
his father might be about him walking out on all of their lives,
his sister would not be so lenient. She’d only been fifteen when he
left—already fiery and strong-willed—and he knew his abandonment
had left her bitter. He’d tried to stay in contact, sent her
letters and presents from wherever in the world he’d been
stationed, but if she’d even opened them, he would have been
surprised.

“How is Tala?” he asked.

His father smiled. “Same as ever.
She’s a qualified nurse now, you know?”

Blake smiled ruefully and shook his
head. “No, I didn’t. She never answered any of my
letters.”

“She took it hard when you
left.”

“I figured she must have.”

“You could have come back to visit
us.”

He shook his head. “No, I
couldn’t.”

He felt Autumn’s eyes on him, a
curious glance. But he couldn’t go into that now. Especially not
with Chogan sitting in the room with him. His cousin played a big
part in him needing to leave the reservation. After what happened,
he knew he’d not be able to continue any kind of day-to-day life
with his cousin around. He was sure if he’d had to see Chogan every
day, the day would have come when he’d snap and kill his cousin.
And what would have happened then? A rift in the family that would
have never healed.

It had been either him or
Chogan.

“So speak to me now. Tell me what’s
brought my only son home to me after all this time.” Then he seemed
to remember himself. “But of course, you all must be thirsty.
Hungry?” He eyed Blake’s ridiculously small clothing. “I assume you
came here by wolf.”

“Yes. We had no choice.”

The older man motioned with his hand
toward Chogan. “Go, make some tea and food for our guests.” Without
a word, Chogan got to his feet and disappeared from the room,
heading in the direction of the kitchen.

Lakota leaned in and took
both of Blake’s hands. How strange how he remembered his father to
be such a big man, a man who would pick him up and swing him
around. It made him sad to feel his touch, now leathery with older
skin, though there was still strength to his hands.
His father’s hair was much shorter, the gray that
had previously only flicked at the temples now spread across eighty
percent of his head. The thin-rimmed glasses were also a new
addition. His face seemed slimmer, his cheekbones hollowed. Blake
hoped he was taking things easy. Lakota Wolfcollar had been Tribal
President when Blake had been a boy, but surely he must have
retired by now?

Blake’s feet were planted on the floor
and he looked down at their clasped hands. “I barely know where to
start.”

“Just start at the beginning, my son.
I assume the reason for you being here has to do with the
disappearance of the other shifters. The reason we sent Chogan to
find you.”

He nodded and took a deep breath.
“I’ve been working for the US government, though not quite in the
capacity I told you. I’ve been working kind of off-the-record for a
man called General Maxim Dumas. Dumas has somehow got wind of the
existence of spirit shifters and has been trying to figure out a
way of applying the strengths of a shifter to the normal human
population.”

“My gods.”

“That’s not all. Autumn here was
brought in to try to replicate the genetics of a shifter in human
DNA.”

He looked at Autumn and smiled. “A
smart one.”

She smiled back. “So they keep telling
me.”

His father chuckled and Blake wanted
to kiss her for lightening the tension in the room. He continued,
“She discovered something she wasn’t expecting. A drop of her blood
was able to change human DNA into shifter DNA.”

His father turned to her, the
expression in his eyes one of awe. “So you’re one of
them?”

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
“I’m sorry, what?”

“I wasn’t aware any of your kind was
still around. You must be from a line of the originals, the people
who first created our kind.”

Blake frowned. “I didn’t know such
people existed.”

“They don’t. Or at least I didn’t
think they did until now.”

“I’m sorry,” said Autumn. “But I
really have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Lakota dropped one of his son’s hands
and reached out to hers, so all three were joined in a circle. He
focused on her with intelligent brown eyes. “The story goes that
thousands of years ago, people wanted to commune with the spirits.
They strove to find ways in which to create a greater connection
with the spirit world around us. In the end, a shaman was brought
in. He conducted a spell using black magic, which gave certain
individuals the ability to give others a gift, or a curse, however
you want to look at it. The blood of those individuals gave others
the ability to make a permanent connection with a spirit of an
animal. Over hundreds of years, the ability of a spirit to connect
to a human, so creating a spirit shifter, evolved. The spirits grew
stronger and learned how to make their own connection to human
souls willing to share their lives. The line of people who had
originally been changed through the alteration of their blood could
no longer shift themselves, but within their blood they still held
the secret to creating those who could.”

Autumn stared at him and then lifted
her hand, touching her blond curls. “But ... look at me. I’m ...”
She stumbled awkwardly over her words.

“White?” the older man
offered.

Her cheeks flushed. “Yes. I don’t have
any Native American background, so how can I have this bloodline
you’re talking of?”

“You’re a scientist, is that right?”
he asked. Autumn nodded. “Then you must know that it is believed in
your scientific world that we all originated from one blood line.
White, black, brown, it’s all the same. Once upon a time, we were
all one people.”

“I still just find this so hard to
comprehend.”

His brown palm covered the
back of her hand. “I understand, child. But it is not a matter of
you needing to believe. You don’t need to try to
believe
what is right in
front of your eyes. You simply must accept it.”

Chogan appeared in the doorway,
carrying a tray of cups and toast—a strange sight to see the
powerful, long-haired man doing such normal, homely
task.

“Blake hasn’t told you the full story
yet, Uncle.”

Blake lifted his head. “No, I haven’t.
General Dumas is after Autumn now. He wants her blood and what she
can do for himself. Not only that … In the laboratories where
Autumn and I worked, Dumas has three shifters captive.”

“One of those is from Big Lake
Reservation,” Chogan added.

The older man nodded slowly, then
helped himself to tea, adding milk and sugar. “I’m sorry, where are
my manners? Please, how do you take yours?” He addressed
Autumn.

“Oh, no, I’ll do it.” She lifted the
pot and poured tea.

“So these men are after us, Father.
They know I took Autumn, got her out of the laboratory, and that I
betrayed them. I doubt they’ve figured out that I’m a shifter yet,
which is why we came here in wolf form. So they wouldn’t be able to
track us—they’d be looking for two men and a woman. But we can’t
hide out here forever. We need to go back and save those other
people and try to figure out a way to shut down Dumas and his team
for good.”

His father nodded. “I understand.” He
turned to Autumn. “And what about you? What do you want from all of
this?”

She looked bewildered. “Nothing. I
don’t want anything, only to go back to my old life and not be
chased around by guys with guns!”

“But what about your gift? You’re the
first of your line I’ve ever come across. Don’t you want to see
what your gift can do?”

“I ... I ... hadn’t really thought
about it. I guess, scientifically, it’s fascinating to me, but at
the same time it scares the hell out of me. I don’t want to change
people. I don’t want to hold any kind of powers. I just want to be
me. I want to be able to get up and go to work in the morning
without worrying that someone is going to try to shoot
me.”

Chogan spoke up. “You could make us
more prevalent than human kind.”

“And why would I want to do
that?”

“Because you’re more one of us than
you are one of them.”

She got to her feet. “I don’t want to
be on any sides!”

Blake reached out and took hold of her
hand, pulling her back down beside him, centering her. “It’s okay.
There aren’t human and shifter sides; that’s just Chogan’s way of
thinking.” He glared at his cousin.

Chogan lifted his hands in defense.
“It isn’t just my way of thinking, there are plenty of others.
Think how people are going to treat her when news gets out about
what she’s able to do. Plenty of people will want her to try and
change them.”

“And plenty of others will want her
dead because of it. Most of society views us as something out of
horror story—werewolves, beasts, shape-shifters. That Autumn has
the ability to create more of us will only make people want to get
rid of her.”

“Err … neither of you are making me
feel any better here,” she said.

Chogan ignored her. “What about your
sister, Cuz? How do you think she’s going to react?”

The spirits never blessed Tala with
the ability to shift, even though the concentration of shifters on
the reservation was high compared to the rest of society. Her lack
of abilities had eaten into her as a teenager. He’d hoped she’d
come to terms with it, but he imagined if she found out about
Autumn’s ability she would probably be one of the first in line
demanding to be turned by Autumn’s blood.

Chapter
Seventeen

LAKOTA WOLFCOLLAR ROSE to his feet.
“Speaking of your sister, I think now is a reasonable enough hour
to go and let her know you’re home. She deserves to find out direct
from us, not from word getting around town. You know what the
reservation’s grapevine can be like.”

Blake gave a grim smile. “Yes, I
know.”

“Afterward, you can rest. I’m sure you
must all be exhausted.”

At his words, Autumn gave a wide yawn.
Blake had been aware that she’d slept part of the way here, her
soft body embedded against his fur and muscle, but the brief rest
clearly hadn’t been enough to stave off her tiredness.

“Where is Tala living now?” Blake
asked.

“Not far,” said Chogan. “Only a couple
of blocks over.”

“So you see her often?” He directed
the question to both his father and cousin, but Chogan was the one
to answer.

“Yes, practically every
day.”

His heart tightened in his chest. “I
don’t know how she’s going to react to me being back.”

Chogan chuckled. “I’m looking forward
to seeing it.”

They got to their feet. His father
gave Blake another appraisal, his eyebrows raised. “On second
thought, I think you should change first.”