“The legend?” Manu asked.
“No more. You must go. You’ve placed us in danger by coming here. Go and never return.”
Jessalyn flinched and closed her fingers over the pendant. Without another word, she stood on shaky legs and tottered toward the door. She refused to outstay her welcome. Her thoughts leap-frogged each other, collided, scrambled into mental soup.
Rejection.
Her legs synced with her brain. Her steps lengthened. Flee. She had to leave before she howled.
No. Jessalyn forced her shoulders to straighten. She forced her steps to slow. She forced her chin to raise and spun to face the woman who had given birth to her. “Thank you for speaking with us.”
“Good girl. Don’t let her know she has upset you.” The words filled her mind. Manu’s words. She hadn’t realized mental communication was possible although they had spoken when he’d shifted to his taniwha.
Jessalyn marched to the door with Manu and Karen at her back. Questions still ricocheted around her mind—pinballs in a gaming machine. Faster and faster, they whirled. Questions about Karen, her siblings. Questions about Manu, the Waaka family. So many questions.
Outside, one final issue occurred to Jessalyn. Karen had almost shut the door when Jessalyn darted back.
“Wait. Please.”
The door stopped closing. “What?”
“I found a key in the box with the pendant. Do you have any idea what it might be for?”
“Describe it.”
“It’s silver and has a number on it. 712.”
“James kept a locker at the storage place in Botany. He left tools there.”
Jessalyn’s gaze met her mother’s, and for a fleeting second, she thought Karen might say more. Instead, the woman’s expression grew icier, the slamming of the wooden door cutting their connection.
“Come on, Jess. We’d better go,” Manu said.
He was right, but she still hesitated, her mind crying out for the comfort of a mother.
The lost years.
A car pulled up, and a young girl of around fifteen jumped out. Still wearing a school uniform, she waved to her friends and skipped toward Jessalyn. When she spotted Jessalyn, her steps slowed.
Behind them, the door opened. “Rachel, good. You’re home. Dinner is almost ready.”
Her sister edged past her and seconds later, the door shut.
The final rejection.
Manu took Jess’s arm and propelled her to his truck. Her face was pale, and she trembled, upset. Hell, anyone would be distraught to discover the parent they’d believed dead was healthy and very alive. Add to that, the lies from her father, his continued marriage to Humarie, and the news of two siblings, it was a wonder she wasn’t pitching a fit.
Jess sat in the passenger seat, unmoving. Manu reached over and clicked her seatbelt into position. He started his truck and pulled away from the house.
“Did you kill your mother?”
“Yes,” Manu said, his heart stuttering at the confession. While he’d done the right thing, saving many, his act still stunk of betrayal. It was why he suffered his father’s abuse.
“Why aren’t you in jail?”
She didn’t sound frightened, merely curious. Didn’t mean his explanation wouldn’t break the fragile trust he’d carved out with her to date.
He moistened his dry mouth with a hasty swallow. “My mother led our tribe and held the sacred sword. Toward the end, she became unstable. She fixated on me and my two middle brothers marrying and having children. My mother lost the plot when Hone paid attention to Cassie since she thought Cassie was the perfect woman for me. She flew to Clevedon where Cassie and Hone now live and attempted to kill them for their betrayal.
“Cassie and I were never more than friends, but Ma refused to listen. Emma still bears the burn scars from my mother’s attack. Along with the attempted murder, she risked outing us to humans by flying in her dragon form. Our tribe has a sacred sword, and it chooses which taniwha it resides with. The chosen one leads the tribe. The sword transferred to me that morning.” He risked a glance at Jess before turning his attention back to the road. “I had no option. Ma wouldn’t back down. She refused to listen. Not even Dad could talk sense into her.” Manu paused, the knife-edge of pain still sharp and pointy. Debilitating. “I beheaded her to save Jack and Emma. Hone and Cassie. Humans spotted her, and the police turned up, but I burned her body before they arrived. Do you understand?”
Half a year seemed to pass while he waited for her reply. It was important she understood—this impossible dilemma and his struggle since the act.
“You sacrificed one person to save many,” she said finally. “I get it. In Karen’s mind, she did the same. Manu, what happens if I can’t control my taniwha?”
He flinched, his hands clenching the steering wheel to still his taniwha’s silent roar of protest.
“You’d execute me?”
“It’s my job. Sweetheart.” His voice cracked, and he coughed to clear his throat, the excess emotion screwing up his speech. “I’d never do this willingly. Even thinking it upsets my taniwha, but I bear the sword and have a responsibility to my people.”
“It’s late. Will this storage place still be open? I have the key with me.”
Changing the subject. Manu didn’t blame her. “We’ll drive to Papakura via Botany. If the relic is as powerful as Karen indicated, you’d better return it to the box and hope it didn’t set off alarms with the Waaka tribe.”
She scowled. “Every part of me, every instinct, is screeching to wear it. Having the skin contact soothes my stress.”
“From what I’ve heard—snippets picked up over the years—your mother running away with another man still aggrieves the Waakas. They’ll be wanting to put that right, and if you don’t hand over the relic, they’ll take you any way they can. Kicking and screaming if need be. Dead would be better, and that’s the likely outcome given you can’t shift.”
Her posture went rigid. “Why do the Waaka family want the relic so much?”
“All I have is hearsay since this happened hundreds of years ago. No one is still alive to back this up one way or the other. The relic is a part of the jawbone of the original taniwha. He chose a Kupe—someone in your mother’s line—to receive the relic after he died. This decision upset the other tribes, so he used the last of his magic to bespell the relic. The pendant chooses its favored candidate, much like the sacred sword of my tribe. A Waaka man wore the pendant for a short time. He fell in love with a beautiful maiden from the Kupe family. After their marriage ceremony, the pendant showed a preference for his wife. I think—and this is my opinion—the Waaka family are hoping if they marry into the family, the pendant will return to them.”
“And with my mother, they were willing to commit murder and force her to marry into the tribe,” Jess said.
“Yes,” Manu said simply. “It looks as if the storage place is closed.”
“Is this the only one in the area?”
“I’m not sure. We’ll do an internet search.”
Jess fondled the pendant. “Why aren’t you after the pendant?”
Manu stopped at a set of traffic lights and caught the distrust that flickered across her face.
“Do you want the pendant too?”
“Use your brain, Jess.” A honk from the car behind forced his concentration back on the road. “I didn’t know you had the pendant. I learned about it at the same time as your mother.”
“She’s not my mother,” Jess spat. “She’s the woman who gave birth to me and discarded me.”
“Jess, she wanted to save you and your father. She’s right. The Waaka tribe would’ve killed you both without a second thought. It’s a matter of prestige.”
“What about the other tribes? There must be more than two.”
“Stories handed down say warriors from other tribes attempted to woo the Kupe maiden. She married a southern warrior on the condition they stayed in the north with her people. T
he pendant stayed with the women in her line until it passed—briefly—to a Waaka. Legend says he abused his power, which is why the pendant returned to the Kupe line.”
“What powers does the relic give the holder? I have it in my possession and nothing has happened.”
“Legend says the holder is a peacemaker or they can go to the opposite spectrum and create war to make peace from the resulting chaos. It’s said the relic allows the holder to put taniwha to rest. If your siblings or your mother had a taniwha, I couldn’t sense them.”
“Do you think she did that to my taniwha?”
“Your father was of European blood. I’m not sure if your taniwha is weak because of the diluted blood and your contact with the pendant is giving you power or if your mother did her magic and forced your dragon to sleep. You’ll have to ask her.”
“You heard her. She wants nothing to do with me.”
“Perhaps she’ll change her mind.”
As they neared the outskirts of Papakura, Manu pulled over. “Would you mind driving again? I’d prefer to remain under the radar at the Red Hill property.”
Without replying, Jess got out of his truck and rounded the hood, ready to trade places. Once he’d settled in the passenger seat, he pressed a button on his stealth gadget. Jess still hadn’t taken off the pendant, but he hated to harp on about the relic.
It was too late anyway. If the magic in the relic was as strong as the legends indicated, members of the Waaka tribe had likely already arrived in Auckland or were making plans to launch an attack.
They’d want the relic and would lay claim, by force if necessary.
11 – An Intimate Encounter
Once she arrived at Manu’s house, she exited the truck and opened the garage.
“Who are you?” an elderly man demanded.
Jessalyn started at his abrupt appearance. He walked toward her, limping a fraction as he left the deep shadows cast by a pohutukawa tree.
“Well?”
“I am Jessalyn Brown. I’m staying here.”
“Where is Manu?”
“Who?”
“My son.”
“I don’t know any Manu. I’m a friend of Cassie’s and she suggested I stay here.” Manu’s father was tall, but his shoulders slumped and fatigue emanated from him. A surreptitious sniff told her he was a taniwha, which she knew already, but discerning this herself meant her own dragon was growing in skill set.
“You’re lying, girl. I catch a trace of him on you.”
Jessalyn shrugged. “Believe what you want. Doesn’t make it true.”
“You’re driving his truck.”
“Is it? Cassie lent me the truck for the few days I’m here. She said her friend wouldn’t mind.”
“You’re lying.”
Anger flared in Jessalyn. People kept bossing her around, accusing her of things she hadn’t done, and she was tired of it. “Go away. I don’t know your son.”
Manu’s father leaned closer and inhaled. He shook his head. “There is something wrong with your scent.”
Jessalyn grabbed her phone from her pocket and brandished it like a weapon. “I’m calling the police.”
“I’m going.” He stomped down the driveway and disappeared. A few minutes later, a car started, the engine discernable for three or four beats before it faded.
“Thanks,” Manu said. “Dad wants me to kill him so he can rejoin my mother. I refused, of course, and he’s harassing me. He’s hoping to prod my temper and snap my control.”
“That’s terrible. I-I’ll meet you inside.” The truth—she needed a moment away from Manu. So much info churning through her mind. Her mother. His mother’s death. Manu admitting he’d kill Jessalyn if she failed to control her taniwha. At present, she was too numb to panic about something that might happen.
As she climbed into the truck to park it in the garage, the moon peeked from behind a bank of clouds. Immediately, her taniwha stirred, her contented purr echoing through Jessalyn’s mind.
“Well, hello,” Jessalyn said, not even trying to hide her sarcasm. “You couldn’t help me while my mother was on the attack?”
“She made me sleep. I had no wish to anger her,” her taniwha pushed the words through Jessalyn’s mind.
“Understood. She scared me too.”
“You were horrible to Manu. I like him.”
“Can you confirm what she told me?”
“I was asleep.”
Jessalyn maneuvered the vehicle into position and switched off the ignition. What the hell did she do now?
“You should have sex,” the taniwha said, her tone firmly in sly territory. “That way Manu will know you’ve forgiven him.”
Jessalyn snorted, and after closing the garage door, stomped inside, purposely not sending her gaze skyward to the moon again. She would not imagine sexual hijinks with Manu Taniwha.
She would not.
Her life was complicated enough without adding sex to the equation, and with the man who might execute her at that.
“How do I shut up my taniwha?” she demanded after following a rattling noise to the kitchen.
“Do you want a beer?”
“As long as the alcohol doesn’t lessen my control. My taniwha is adamant I should sleep with you tonight.”
Manu’s eyes glowed with a blaze of gold before returning to his normal brown, but he didn’t smile, didn’t make a smartarse comment. Instead, the silence stretched unbearably long. Jessalyn nibbled on her bottom lip and chided herself for not censoring her words.
Manu closed the space between them and took her hands in his. They stood, hands clasped while Jessalyn’s heart raced. Thankfully, her taniwha remained quiet, rather than splitting her concentration.
“There is nothing I’d enjoy more than having you share my bed but I’m not going to drag you there. Given everything we’ve learned today, you need to decide if you trust me. Sleep in the spare room if you have the slightest hesitation. It won’t take me long to reassemble the bed for you.”
Not what she’d expected, yet she should have if she’d considered the matter instead of focusing on her own problems. All along, Manu had behaved with generosity and decency. He hadn’t taken advantage and had gone out of his way to help her. Yes, he’d admitted her mother—Karen—had spoken the truth when she’d accused him of killing his mother. He’d explained the facts, and despite her newness to the taniwha world, she understood the difficult position he’d found himself in because of his parent. Then, there was Jessalyn’s inability to control her fire. If she’d didn’t correct this, he’d take her life too…
She swallowed hard, promising herself to follow every bit of advice regarding taniwha.
She had to remember. Not everything was black or white or a lie.
Apart from her life.
Her mother had deserted her when she was a baby.
Her parents had lied to her.
Her life was one big fabrication.
Manu separated their hands, and if her lack of response disappointed him, he didn’t show his displeasure. He walked to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of beer. “Here, take this and sit outside on the deck. I’ll have dinner ready in half an hour.”
Jessalyn took the beer but remained in place. “I should cook dinner.”
“You can cook on your day off. When is that?”
“Monday and Tuesday.”
“Cook our dinner on Monday.”
Jessalyn drifted outside and dropped onto a seat at a wooden table. The garden was larger than she’d expected. Along with the fire pit, there was a barbecue area and a spa pool, currently covered. The wind played a musical song in the large trees while in the distance, the lights of Papakura and the suburbs closer to central Auckland twinkled—a myriad of tiny stars.
“Pretty moon.”
“I wondered when you’d decide to press your case,” Jessalyn murmured.
“You should be inside with Manu. We like Manu.”
“We do,” Jessalyn said, no
t bothering to argue because her taniwha spoke the truth. Despite everything she’d learned since arriving in Auckland, Manu had stood at her side and offered advice. If it wasn’t for him, she’d never have learned of her siblings, the lies and half-truths regarding her background. The man had honor and integrity. He’d executed his own mother to save many, and now that she’d learned this, it was easy to see the act gnawed at him.
“He’ll kill us if you can’t control our fire.”
“Thank you for the reminder,” Jessalyn snapped.
“He would not do this lightly. He tries to aid us.”
The abbreviated truth. The real truth held many nuances.
Jessalyn frowned and sipped her beer straight from the bottle. “He might turn on us, yet you want to have sex with him.”
“Manu and his taniwha are strong and powerful, yet they have a kind heart. We need them.”
Also a fact.
“And I believe the sex would be spectacular. I wish to make beautiful music with his taniwha.”
“Ugh!” Jessalyn groaned. “That was the line the rugby captain used on me, apart from the taniwha part. Are you trying to make me crazy?”
“We will make adorable babies with them.”
“What? No! No babies,” Jessalyn spluttered and pictured images of icy lakes and snow. White-clad mountain ranges. But despite her attempt to cool her taniwha’s jets, sensual heat roared through her body, frisking her breasts and settling in a volcanic ball low in her belly. She made the mistake of casting her glance skyward and the moon snagged her attention.
“Pretty. So pretty. I want sex now.”
“No!” Jessalyn leaped to her feet, appalled at the surge of lust that almost took her out at the knees. But the truth was she craved Manu’s touch, his comfort, and the incredible pleasure she already knew their physical contact would bring.
Jessalyn sucked in a deep breath, admitting her needs going some way to decreasing her panic. The rich scents of plants, flowers, the steak Manu had dropped on the griddle, and the foreign drift of curry spices from nearby filled her lungs.
Black Moon Dragon Page 14