Autumn Rising (10 page)

Blake didn’t argue.

“Okay, so that’s settled it,” said Rhys. “We’ll render her unconscious, and then I’ll carry her.”

Chogan shook his head.
“I still don’t think it should be you. You’re one of our strongest fighters. We need you to be able to fight.”

“So I’ll carry her as far as I can, hide her behind a tree or something when the fight starts, and then pick her back up when we’re done.”

“How can you carry her as a tiger?” Blake said. “It’s not like she can hold onto your back.”

“I’ll go as a man. I might not be tiger-strong as a human, but I’m still a damn good figh
ter. And I’m fast. I can run seven minute miles over a distance.”

Chogan eyed the bulging muscles, the shaved head,
the numerous bad tattoos. There was no denying that Rhys looked like he could hold his own.

He
glanced over at Blake for the final decision. Even though he was mad at Tala right now, the two of them had grown up together, and he hated the idea of leaving her behind just as much as Blake did. Blake gave the smallest nod of confirmation.

“Okay,” Chogan relented. “You carry her. But you keep her safe, got it?”

Rhys did a mock salute. “Loud and clear.”

Chapter Thirteen

PETER CROSSED THE city’s outskirts with his stomach in knots. He’d driven the route back to Chicago with only one rest stop, his foot heavy on the accelerator. He was aware of time passing in a way he hadn’t before, how every minute that went by was another minute he was apart from Mia.

At least when they were together, if something were to happen, he would be able to physically protect her. Right now,
he had no way of keeping her safe.

Lakota
Wolfcollar has strengths of his own
, Peter reminded himself. And Mia was now a long way from the troubles occurring in the city. The reservation was the safest place he could think of for her to be.

Now he had a challenge of his own. He needed to make contact with someone he’d not spoken to in over
five years. He didn’t know if he would be given the time of day, never mind any useful information. The man he was after worked for a division kept secret from the rest of the government. Peter himself shouldn’t even know about it—the department was a joke, a rumor. Only because of Peter’s association with this particular man, did he know with certainty that it existed.

He drove across the city, leaning forward over the steering wheel, his whole body tense. The streets remained quiet as he entered the residential area where he needed to be.  He pulled the car over, switched off the engine, and climbed out, heading toward the
smart, two story townhouse. He prayed his contact still lived here. Peter had been here a couple of times for cook-outs and drinks during the time they’d been working together, but his colleague could easily have moved.

With his heart pounding, he clenched his fists
, lifted one hand and rapped his knuckles on the front door. Even if he did still live here, he might not even be in, but that did nothing to quell Peter’s nerves. He waited, and the thud of footsteps came from inside. There was a pause. Peter would have sworn he felt someone watching him. He looked around and then noticed the small peephole in the door. He lifted his hand in a self-conscious wave. There were a number of clicks and bangs of what sounded like several locks being unlocked, and the door swung open.

He had a little less hair than when Peter had last seen him, the chestnut strands creeping back from his temples, and perhaps a few more lines spanning from the corners of his light blue eyes, but otherwise he looked the same.

The older man scowled, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses. “I thought it was you, but I had to see it with my own God damn eyes. Now get the hell off my property.” He began to slam the door shut again.

Peter jammed his foot in the way, and was rewarde
d with a bruised ankle. “David, please, wait.”

“No way, Peter. And get your damn foot out of my door.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. I need your help.”

“You lost any chance of asking me for help five years ago.”

“You betrayed me too, in a way.”

“No, P
eter, I didn’t. I might have betrayed what you are, but I never betrayed you.”

Peter hung his head, knowing the other man’s words were true.

“I’d come to think of you like a son, Peter.”

He
forced a smile. “You’re nowhere near old enough to be my father.” David was perhaps ten years older than him at the most.

“It didn’t matter. I took you under my wing, and you lied to me. The biggest lie imaginable.”

“It wasn’t a lie. I just didn’t tell you the truth.”

“
Don’t be pedantic.”

Peter sighed.
“We can’t talk about this on your doorstep. It’s dangerous for me in the city. You know why. I’m surprised I didn’t see you at the ‘undisclosed location’ they’re talking about on the news.”

David’s eyebrows lifted. “You know where that is?”

“I was there. I got caught up in it all, but managed to talk my way out of it. Are you still involved in that department?”

“The Paranormal
Defense Unit? No. I was ousted by a new recruit, a bitch called Vivian Winters. Her father is high up, one of the President’s right hand men, apparently, so she managed to wrangle her way into my job. Not that she isn’t good at what she does, but I guess that’s a conversation for another day.”

“So, you’re willing to talk to me then?”

David’s eyes flicked over Peter’s shoulder to the street beyond. Despite it being early evening, the street was deserted. People were staying inside their homes for two reasons. They had learned a supernatural being existed, and they were terrified either themselves, or someone they loved, would be mistaken or exposed as one of those beings and taken away to a secret compound.

With a grim sigh,
David let go of the door, allowing it to swing open. He stepped back, and Peter slipped through the gap, closing the door behind him. He hadn’t liked standing out on the doorstep like that, he felt too exposed. Anyone could be watching.

“I suppose
you’d better come through,” David said, gesturing down the hallway toward a kitchen at the end. Peter started to walk, but David didn’t follow initially. Instead, he stood at the now shut door, and began to slide a number of deadbolts back into place.

When David
was finished, he followed Peter down into the kitchen. He swung open the refrigerator and took out a couple of beers. “What the hell. It’s past six p.m., right?” He didn’t wait for an answer, but threw one to Peter.

Peter
snatched the bottle out of the air. Following David’s lead, he cracked open the top. After being on the road for almost an entire day, he didn’t exactly feel like drinking, but this was an extension of friendship from his old colleague and friend, and he had no intention of turning it down.

He took a swig, the cool liquid and bubble
s surprisingly refreshing.

“So
,” said David. “I’m going to assume you’re here because of all this shifter business I’m hearing about on the news.”

“You assume right.”

“I don’t know what you think I can do to help. Like I said, I don’t work for that department anymore. Hell, I don’t work anymore, period.”

“How did this woman—
Winters—get you out of your job?”

“There was
an ... incident. I got managed out on a psychological report. Apparently, I couldn’t handle the stress of the job.”

“That’s bullshit. You’ve got the strongest psyche of anyone I know. So what are you doing now?”

He shrugged. “Not much. I was discharged on a full pension.”

Peter could barely believe that the man who once ran the whole research department now sat at home, doing crosswords and playing the occasional game of golf.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he told his ex-colleague. “I know how much you loved your job.” Even as he said the words, he experienced a pang of guilt.

“I loved my job
before
you came into my life, Peter. I loved it when things were simple, when I was still able to put my faith in science.”

Peter took another swig of beer, swallowed, and then said,
“After you found out about me, about what I was, you could have kept quiet. You didn’t need to tell anyone.”

David shook his head.
“I never wanted to get involved with any of this shit. You think I wanted to know that freaking werewolves walked the streets with us? I loved my country, I still do. I had to report it.”

“What about the research we were already working on? When I first started, you were already working on combining human and animal genes. You were okay with that, but you weren’t okay with the existence of shifters?”

“That’s different. What we were doing was science. What you’re able to do—what I caught you doing that day—is more like magic.”

Peter sighed, shifting his weight against the counter he was leaning on.
“I never meant for you to see me. I was young, and the animal sometimes felt more powerful than the man back then.”

“You put
me in an impossible position, Peter. I didn’t want to lie to anyone, but I did, for you. And what happened? I get moved to a God-damned Paranormal Unit, and you get my job.”

“I’m sorry. I considered turning it down, but when I found out the research was now being directed toward the existence of shifters and being able to use our powers, I just couldn’t. I needed to know exactly what was being discovered and when.”

“I could have told them at any time what you were.”

“I know, and I’m thankful you didn’t. But if you’d never told them a
bout the existence of my kind, we wouldn’t be in the position we are now.”

He sighed. “It was a game-changer, Peter. We could have stronger armies than anyone else in the world. A super-army.
” He paused. “I love my country,” he said, again. “I couldn’t
not
tell them.”

Tension simmered in the room. Both men took swigs of their beer, Peter trying to align his thoughts so he could continue. They couldn’t remain delving into the past. What was done was done.

David placed his now almost empty beer bottle onto the kitchen counter. “So what do you need from me now?”

“There’s a woman, Doctor Autumn Anderson, who came to work at the research facility for
Operation Pursuit
.”

David nodded. “I know the name.”

“It turns out that not only is she a brilliant geneticist, she also comes from the original line of those who first created spirit shifters. It seems her blood contains the element needed to change ordinary men and women into shifters.”

David
’s eyes lit up. “It’s been done?”

“Not fully. Not that I’m aware of. There’s a woman who tried to experiment on herself, but the change has
n’t been completed. She appears to be stuck mid-change.”

“Why would anyone do that to themselves?”

“In many places, shifters are revered, not feared or experimented on. That’s why one of their kind appeared on television, and sent out the video footage of himself shifting. He wanted to change things ...” Peter shook his head. “But that’s off the subject.” Peter still hadn’t decided if what Chogan did was right or wrong.

“You remember Calvin Thorne?”
he said.

“Of course. If there was a bigger asshole around, I never met one.”

“Well, he’s got hold of Autumn Anderson and has taken her somewhere. That’s where you come in. I need to know what other facilities are around the area—secret facilities that were part of your team—that she might have been taken to.”

David frowne
d. “Why would I tell you that, Peter?”

“To help.”

“But it sounds like we’re not far away from achieving what we’d planned all along. Why would I give you information that might put a stop to it?”

“Not ‘we
.’ They managed you out, remember?”

“That might be the case, but I still support my country.”

“But it’s wrong! It’s kidnapping and torture!” Peter tried hard to keep a hold on his temper.

David frowned.
“Don’t try to act like you didn’t know this kind of thing was going on before. Why the moral conscience all of a sudden?”

“Autumn is my girl’s best friend. I’ve promised I’ll help her. Please, David. I’m not asking you to come with me. Just give me some idea of location.”

From somewhere in the house, the low wail of an alarm sounded. In the corner of the room, a light began to flash in a strobe.

David sat upright. “Shit!” H
e jumped to his feet and ran over to the window, using his index finger to pull the blind down so he could peer out. Peter realized all the blinds in the house were drawn.

“What is it? What’s happening?”

“Someone is here. Were you followed?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Well, someone knows you’re here, and I don’t fancy being questioned by them. You need to follow me.”

Cautiously
, Peter followed David back into the hall. Other than the low siren and the flashing lights, nothing else had changed for him—well, other than his old colleague’s sudden paranoia, of course, but he guessed he couldn’t blame him for that.

David
pulled open a door beneath the stairs which, Peter assumed, led to the cellar. He turned back to Peter. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

Peter had no idea.

A crash at the front door made him jump, and he had a sudden feeling David was right.

“Quick,” David hissed. “Move, now!”

Peter did as he was told, hauling himself through the door and down the staircase beyond. David pulled the door closed behind them and set to work pushing more deadbolts into place. Peter took a moment to survey the room he’d ended up in. A single bulb hung from the low ceiling above his head. The floor was concrete, the staircase leading down, wooden. A couple of items of old furniture were dotted around the room, but so was something else. Peter frowned, just as David ran down the stairs and headed to the things Peter had been frowning at. Canisters were placed strategically around the room, and David finished fiddling with one, only to move onto the next.