Autumn's Blood: The Spirit Shifters, Book One Read Online Free PDF

frowned slightly, remembering.
“Well over six feet, and buff as well. His biceps were as big as my
head.”
    “Holy cow.” Mia grinned. “That’s
big.”
    Autumn wanted to tell Mia how it had
felt to have his finger press against her mouth, as though his skin
had literally burned hers, and she could still sense its presence.
She wanted to tell her how she couldn’t erase the memory of those
almost-black eyes piercing hers. Yet, somehow she couldn’t bring
herself to discuss those details over a girly chat, feeling as
though it would diminish their importance somehow.
    Important? I barely said
more than a few words to him. How could they have been
important?
    “Oh, it was nothing,” she said
dismissively. “Just a cute guy. So what’s for dinner? Can I
help?”
    Mia hopped off the stool, went to the
oven, and pulled out a dish of baked pasta. “Nope, you’re good. How
does Italian sound?”
    “Perfect. You know I’d marry you,
right?”
    Mia dropped the baking dish of
steaming pasta onto a mat on the counter. “As much as I love you,
honey, I’m afraid you just don’t do it for me.”
    Autumn let out an over-exaggerated
sigh. “Shame. Me neither.”
    Her friend spooned creamy pasta onto
both of their plates and sat back down. She lifted her wine glass
and clinked it against Autumn’s. “To hot guys, right? And not
needing to marry our girlfriends.”
    Autumn laughed. “I’ll drink to
that!”
     
     
    THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Autumn entered
the government building to find the same security staff waiting
behind the dark glass door. She looked around, hopeful to see Blake
Wolfcollar, but there was no sign of anyone else.
    One of the guards, a man
in his late thirties, stood as she walked in. “Ma’am,” he said with
a nod, handing her a security badge. This time, she noted, there
was no visitor under her name. It seemed she was now a full-fledged member
of staff. “General Dumas said to send you straight down to the
labs.”
    “Down?” She’d assumed she had entered
on the bottom floor.
    “Yes, minus one.” He nodded toward the
bank of elevators.
    Autumn repeated the paces of the
previous day and dropped her belongings into the tray. She walked
through the metal detector and waited for her purse and shoes to
come trundling through on the roller.
    The belt came to a stop, capturing her
stuff inside the metal block of the scanner. Autumn frowned and
tried to peer in, though the black rubber flaps which hung down
over the exit blocked her view.
    “Is something wrong?” she asked,
straightening to look at one of the guards. She was suddenly filled
with an irrational fear that some contraband had been planted in
either her suit jacket, which she’d run through the scanner, or her
purse.
    The guard frowned and stared at the
controls, his eyes flicking back up to the screen. He shook his
head. “Damn thing’s been acting up all morning.” He made his way to
the start of the belt, reached inside, and fiddled with something.
A few seconds later, the belt creaked and juddered and got moving
again.
    Autumn’s belongings appeared through
the rubber flaps.
    “Sorry about that,” the guard
said.
    Relieved she wasn’t going to be in
trouble for something she hadn’t done, she grabbed her things and
slipped her jacket and shoes back on. “No, problem,” she told him
and headed to the elevator. Inside the mirror-walled box, she
noticed what she hadn’t before—the minus number on the keypad.
Below it was another button that seemed to only allow access with a
pad, she assumed, for an authorized fingerprint. She shouldn’t be
surprised. This was a government facility; she almost expected them
to have secret floors.
    She hit minus one, the little light
behind the silver key illuminating in red. The doors closed and she
felt the downward motion of the equipment before coming to a
stop.
    The doors slid open and she stifled a
small cry of surprise. Dumas stood directly on the other side, a
mere foot