The woods, of course, offer up enough coverage to run freely at Rākaunui, or Full Moon. Taniwhas, like any other shape shifter, are compelled to change in light of the Full Moon. They can change by desire at any other time of the month, but they cannot refuse the pull of the moon. The Hapū does venture further afield when the need arises, when they have to stretch their legs every now and then. But mainly those who work for a living in the city, like Rick, stay close to the land, the woods and their home. It takes Rick at least an hour, if not more, to get to the gym from home. I couldn't stand that. Why live in a city and travel like a country bumpkin? My work is five minutes away, if I take the car - which I don't, parking's a bitch in down town Auckland - but only ten or so if I jog.
Today, being a Sunday, the trip was much quicker. We turned off onto Hapū land after only 28 minutes on the road. I immediately rolled down my windows and inhaled the smell of the trees. It's always so peaceful to come here, not anything like my farm of course , but something akin to it. I figure it's all the trees and nature. You do miss that in the city if you're used to it. No lambs wagging their tails here though, they wouldn't last past the first Rākaunui.
The crunch of gravel under the tyres slowed as we rounded the final corner to the main houses. There's about a dozen or so in the centre of the land, a bit like a settlement. It used to be called a Pa, a Maori hill fort, but you can't make out the rise now with the woods so thick. Maori blood runs deep in Westside Hapū. It's not always obvious, they're not all brown skinned, but it's there, strong and true.
Celeste greeted us on the door step as soon as we arrived. Tall and thin, with waist length long brown hair and deeply tanned skin. She's beautiful in an exotic dancer kind of way. After a few hugs all round, bone crunching, bear hugs that is - they are very tactile Taniwhas, part of being in a Hapū I guess - and I was part of the gang again.
“It's been too long, Luce,” she squealed, actually squealed. I think I may have cringed.
“Leave off her, Cel.” Rick shoved at her in what seemed a gentle move, but she ended up spinning round like a top.
“Oi, creep! You're asking for it.”
Then it was on, just like that. You get used to it, well kind of. They play-fight a lot, the Taniwhas. It's just in their natures. They don't have to shift to do it, they tend to stay in human form, but it can be rough. I soon realised there was a lot they could teach me when I first visited their land. I've been a regular member of the fighting sessions since. You don't learn how to street fight dirty at Judo or Kick-Boxing lessons, but you sure pick up a few helpful hints from Taniwhas.
I took a resigned seat on the swing-bench on the veranda. I was still not up to a full-on fight after last night. The combination of lack of sleep, invaded dreams and you guessed it, three vampires in one night, one of them a level four master, had taken its toll. But, I didn't have to watch it alone for long. Mary slid into the seat next to me and started swinging her legs, while her twin brothers, Joe and Rocky - don't ask me where he got that name from, maybe he chewed on rocks when he was young - jumped into the fray.
I glanced at Mary, she's only 12. Not fully grown by Taniwha standards, but quite capable of holding her own in a fight, be it in human form or Shifter. Taniwhas are raised tough from birth, there's no namby pamby sit-on-the-sidelines characters in the Hapū. Each and every one of them is a fine tuned killing machine. Just because they look like you or me most of the time, does not mean they can't kick your arse when they feel the need.
Still, Mary didn't look like she was up for a demonstration on juvenile Taniwha prowess. “Not joining in, hun?” I asked.
“Naw, can't be bothered. They've been at it all weekend. It's Rākaunui tomorrow.”
Oh yeah, I'd forgotten. Not a good idea to be on Hapū land when it's Rākaunui. Even the days leading up to it can be a bit tetchy, but when that Full Moon rises, it's a different world altogether.
I'd never been near the guys at that time of month, but Rick's told me all about it. You know, no secrets and all that. The testosterone goes crazy, the urge to fight impossible to ignore. The only solution is to shift and run. Run with the wind and the Hapū and the moon, it seems to be their elixir. Without it, they'd all be homicidal maniacs I think. And I hang with them? Well, they're not always like that.
The group had moved the fight further from the house now, into a clearing in the middle of the settlement. The older Taniwhas were out doing whatever it is older Taniwhas do, but a few more of the younger guys came out to watch and egg them on.
I think Rick was winning, but I couldn't be sure. Even as humans these guys can move fast. Not vampire fast, but fast enough to cause a bit of a blur. After tumbling head over heels for several rotations, they'd settled into a bundle of limbs and fists and snapping mouths. Not Taniwha snapping, but cursing snapping. Taniwhas have no problem with swearing, I guess that's where I pick a lot of my language skills up from. I'm spending way too much time with the riff raff.
Finally Rick had Celeste pinned. She growled a little at the proximity of his face. I couldn't blame her, I'd be put out to be pinned by all that barely contained male strength and dominance. Like me, Celeste does not like being out of control.
He just smiled down at her, taunting her. “You give up?”
She bucked trying to move him. The other guys, Joe and Rocky, had backed off. They knew this was between Celeste and Rick, no one else. I noticed something then, that I hadn't noticed before. An electricity in the air between them. For some reason I felt something at that. It wasn't supernatural, just human in every way. I felt a little jealous.
Which was ridiculous. Rick is my mate, a friend, nothing more. But the look that passed between them in that instant should have been private, not on display for all this crowd to see. I didn't feel comfortable seeing it myself. But that's Taniwhas for you, affection, for want of a better word, in public, is the norm.
Celeste cleared her throat slightly, a blush slowly creeping up her delicate bronzed features, making her exotic dancer looks shine with a sensuality I hadn't noticed before. The slightly uncomfortable soft cough was enough to shake Rick out of the moment and he slowly rose up off her.
“You can never beat me and you know it,” he said with a lower voice than usual.
“In your dreams, deadbeat,” came her reply, as she dusted herself down and walked stiffly back towards me, shoulders back, head held high. I couldn't help smiling to myself, Celeste was, for all her shark-like characteristics, all woman. None of us liked being shown up.
“Come on,” she said as she climbed the veranda steps towards me, “we've laid a Hangi. We're feasting this arvo.”
A Hangi is a traditional Maori method of cooking. The food is wrapped in tin foil - it used to be big leaves, but modern technology has far reaches - and is laid on hot stones, then buried under dirt. It's left to cook for several hours. This one would have been started before dawn.
The food when retrieved is succulent and tender, like nothing you've experienced before. And there's usually heaps of it. Enough to feed an army, or in this case a ravenous pre-Rākaunui Hapū of Taniwhas. I love it. I can't deny, but I can never stomach as much as the others. I'm a bird in comparison.
“Need a hand?” I asked as I followed Celeste inside.
“Na, she's right mate. Just come and have a natter while I prep some salad.”
Celeste lives with her mum. Her dad died several years ago. Cancer I think. Even Taniwhas have to face mundane ailments. Her mum must have been out with the other elders, because the house was quiet. Bare wooden floors led into the kitchen, the heart of the home. The kitchen bench was covered with salad ingredients and cakes and Pavlova for dessert. It was going to be a feast all right.
“So, how's it going in the city?” Celeste refuses to believe she lives in the city. To her the small parcel of wooded land around her home was proof positive that she was a country girl. I didn't have the heart to correct her.
“Busy. Complicated. You know how it
is?” I replied, whilst slipping into a seat at the bench to watch her work.
“Complicated? That wouldn't have something to do with a particular Master of the City, would it?”
I don't usually go into much detail with Celeste. I consider her a friend, but we're not as close as Rick and I. Still, she is the only girlfriend I have and even hardened vampire hunters need to vent occasionally.
I let a frustrated breath out. “He's...” I paused trying to put into words the tumble of emotions Michel seemed to be able to elicit from me, “...persistent, aggravating, superior.” The list could go on, but I stopped before I got totally carried away and admitted more than just the negative emotions he managed to create in me.
She laughed. It seemed to be way more knowing and understanding than I had expected. “He's a male, Luce, they really can't help throwing their weight around. It's ingrained in them since birth. See a beautiful woman, make her yours. It's a compulsion they can't deny.”
“So, we should just accept it? Let them bang their fists against their chests and roar like Tarzan?” I asked, incredulously. No way would Celeste go for that. Shape shifter or not, she was a strong-minded twenty-first century woman.
“Hell no, mate! You use it to your advantage. You let them think they own you, but you defy them at every turn. My mum always says, a woman should play hard to get. No man wants an easy target.”
I wasn't so sure I could play anything with Michel. He was the enemy. The idea of getting close enough to play sent an unwanted shiver of pure terror, mixed with a smidgeon of excited anticipation, down my spine. It was probably all a game to him, but I liked to think that the attachment of my head to the rest of my body was something more serious than just a game. I could never forget he was a vampire, that evil lurked inside him, no matter what façade he chose to wear.
A couple of hours of casual girlie chatter had passed before Rick came in the house with some platters. I hadn't realised how much I had needed a girl-to-girl talk. Celeste was a breath of fresh air, even though Rick had won the battle, for all intents and purposes, fair and square, out in the yard, I was now beginning to think, that maybe Celeste had planned it that way. The way he looked at her now, as he walked into the kitchen, was one of pure possession. There was simply no other word for it, he thought he'd won a prize and yet I knew now that Celeste would be a prize that bit back. I had to admire her, she was reeling him in and he didn't even know it.
If only I had that kind of self confidence, that womanly awareness. I shook my head at that idiotic thought. Why on Earth would I want to seduce Michel? I might as well slit my wrists and wait for him to drain me dry.
“Here you go,” Rick said as he placed the platters in his hands on a spare space on the bench. “The others have arrived and they're all over at the Hangi.”
I helped them both pile the salads and desserts onto the platters and then carried them out to the picnic table in the shade of an old Pohutukawa tree. The Hangi was off to the side already getting unveiled, the heady smells of deeply cooked meat and vegetables wafting through the air. My stomach rumbled in anticipation. God, Hangis were the best! I said hello to Celeste's mum and to Rick's family, then I made my way over to the Hapū master. I was on his land, I needed to acknowledge the gift of his hospitality. It was never a good idea to ignore formalities around Taniwhas, they may fit in like normal people, but they were definitely not. Piss them off and they'd make sure you didn't live to regret it.
Jerome, Westside Hapū's Alpha, is built like a proverbial brick out-house, he's all muscle and bulk, with a little padding round the middle just because. With a slightly ragged, coarse brown beard and curly, grisly brown hair, you'd think him more a bear than a Taniwha. But those deep chocolate brown eyes held the wisdom of his lineage. Even in human form they looked a little shark-like. He's always been very friendly and polite to me though, but I wouldn't want to piss him off. He hadn't become Hapū master of the only shape shifter Hapū in Auckland by being weak.
“Hey, Jerome. Thanks for having me over for dinner.”
“No prob, mate. You know you're always welcome on our lands.” A very generous offer considering the Hapū 's desire for privacy and one I wouldn't forget to be thankful for when in his presence.
“I hear you've been having a busy time of it lately?” His gruff voice was quiet, just loud enough for only me to hear. He was a big guy, looked a bit of a brute from afar, but his voice would have you think of a gentle giant, rather than an outright ogre, if you didn't already know he was a Taniwha.
The question didn't surprise me though. Jerome knows what I am, or at least as much as I do, I think. As Hapū master not much gets past him. It occurred to me then, that maybe he knew a little more. I took a deep breath in and fortified my resolve. If I wanted answers, I would have to face the music first.
“Yeah, it's getting hot in town all of a sudden. Have you heard anything that might help explain it?”
He huffed a little and ran a big oversized hand though his beard. “Actually, I thought it was about time to tell the youngin's a story or two tonight. You might like what you hear.”
I wasn't sure if that was true. Hapū stories, or lore, were fascinating, but how anything to do with me could be wound up with shape shifter legends was a mystery. Still, if Jerome said it was worthwhile listening in, then I would.
A bonfire was lit. Even though it was almost full winter, it was still quite warm in Auckland. The bonfire was more for show and ambience, than necessity though, I think. We all grabbed plates, piled high with delicious pork and puha, salad and more veggies. Mine was enormous, brimming at the edges, but nowhere near as big as the others and I knew they'd go back for more.
I sat down next to Rick and we leaned into each other, a sense of familiarity and friendship settling between us. I slipped a glance at Celeste, she was watching us closely, but just offered a smile when my eyes met hers and then turned her attention to the rest of the Hapū. I wasn't sure how Celeste felt about me and Rick. I knew we were just friends, nothing more, but Celeste had obviously laid a claim on my best mate and I briefly wondered if I was now in the way. How do Taniwhas deal with unwanted opposition? It didn't really bear thinking about. I pushed those uncomfortable thoughts aside and settled in to enjoying the company, food and feeling of being with people you loved.
Jerome's voice started out quite deep and resonant, a little otherworldly too in the flickering light of the fire. After a plate that full, I almost wanted to drift off to sleep listening to it. A gruff, but warm bedside story voice, one made to ensure a sense of safety and peace. Not something you would expect a shape shifter to possess at all. But, I forced my eyes open and sat up a little straighter, in order to ward off sleep. I had a feeling, from what Jerome had said, that this bedside story would be significant. Besides, never miss a chance to educate myself, me.
“In the beginning there was only us. We were the chosen ones of the Long White Cloud. We roamed the land from the top of Te Ika-a Maui to the bottom of Te Wai Pounamu. The North Island and the South were our Hapū's right, our land. We shared that right with the people, we lived along side them as one, we fought with them when needed. We were blessed with such a beautiful and plentiful land.
“Then came the Nosferatu. They did not share the land as we did, they took it. But we endured, we hid, we took refuge in the forests, on the desolate plains, away from towns and villages. We made our life alone, without the people, without the Nosferatu.
“Finally, word reached us that another had arrived on our shores. A kindred spirit, a guardian of the people and places, a Kaitiaki, but not from our kind.”
He looked at me as he said this and I felt goose bumps rise along my arms. The crackling of the fire was the only sound of the night, the heat I felt in my face had nothing to do with the flames though and everything to do with the Taniwha who stared at me with deep brown, almost black, eyes. I had a feeling he could see right through to my core, to the deepest, darkest, most secret places with
in. To places I didn't even know existed, let alone knew what they hid.
“They were here to protect the innocent, their powers as great as those of the night. They fought hard and long and finally the night was ours again. All of ours.
“We returned to the towns and villages, to our fellow countrymen. We heeded their call. They had vanquished Nosferatu's hold on our land, but they could not stay.
“They left one of their kind behind. To safeguard against the creatures' return. The Nosferatu would come again they said and alone the Kaitiaki would fail. Too strong the pull of the Dark night. They asked for our allegiance in return for our land's freedom and a pact was sworn. Whenever the Kaitiaki should call on us, we will fight along their side. We would be proud to serve.”
He smiled at me then, a friendly smile laced with something else - a sadness. I tried to return the smile, but failed. Rick rubbed my arm, where the goose bumps had risen and one by one the Hapū began to stir and talk and laugh with one another. Life returned to normal, from the other plane of folklore fantasy.
My life, I felt, would never return to normal again.
Nosferatu were of course the vampires, then what did Nero mean when he started to call us Nos-?
Chapter 6
Gotcha!
No matter how I tried to make sense of it all, I still came up blank. It had been great catching up with Celeste. Having a girl-to-girl talk and seeing the cubs play fighting after the Hangi was entertainment plus, but my thoughts the next day were completely consumed with Jerome's story. There was no denying what he had been trying to convey to me through that tale. The Taniwhas and hunters like me, had worked side by side at one time fighting the Nosferatu, the vampires. And there still existed a treaty or pact, that Jerome believed bound the Hapū to me, to this day.
Kindred (Kindred, Book 1) Page 5
