Forbidden Drink Read Free Page A

a lament on the night air, they mourned their leader, they cried through their howls and they said their goodbyes.
    I still couldn't move. I knew the predicament I was in. If someone found me here, it would not be pretty. Not only had I witnessed a private sacred Hapū rite, I had witnessed murder and on top of that, they were about to change and nothing could stop them now.
    I felt the power shift slightly around me, like a heatwave, shimmering in front of my eyes. Through the haze of power I saw Rick change; swift, smooth, nothing like they have you believe on TV. It's almost magical, something to marvel at, not be afraid of. But I knew I needed to be afraid, because as soon as they changed, they'd find me. In their Taniwha forms their sense of smell is so much greater and I'd been lying here for a while, sweating, crying, snivelling any number of smells they'd instantly home in on. I was a perfect prey to the predator awakening.
    One by one the Hapū followed suit, like a set of dominoes, unable to stop the force that topples the next. Just going with the flow from that first dominant push, from their now new Alpha, they began to change. Scales and claws, jaws full of serrated teeth, greys and whites flashed throughout the clearing before me. Although all basically the same shape and colour combination, each one looking distinctly different in their Taniwha skin. No two humans are ever the same, likewise no two Taniwhas.
    When the final member of the Hapū had changed I felt the power lift and I could move. The magic that had made them what they now were, dissipating into the night. I took a deep breath in, the first in over half an hour and I carefully sat myself up.
    That shift of my body was enough. Heads swivelled to where I had been lying hidden, noses sniffed the air, muzzles drew back exposing impossibly long Taniwha fangs and a low growl came from the closest of the Hapū, flowing out towards the rest until it reached Rick. His eyes bore into me, even though I knew he couldn't really see me through the thick foliage I was behind, but he knew it was me.
    I had a second to comprehend this. And then I ran.
    I'm faster than Taniwhas, since I joined with my kindred vampire and matured at the age of 25, I have come into some nifty powers, speed being one of them. But, this was rough terrain and I didn't know it. I'd only ever driven right up to the clearing where the houses are at, along a dirt road, I had never gone for walkies in their woods. All of it was unfamiliar, but to them, it was their home, they knew it blind.
    I fell over fallen logs, I scraped my knees on barely hidden rocks and smashed into low branches, scraping my cheeks, nearly piercing my eyes and still I could feel them on my heels. Their snapping and snarling and growling and baying to the moon. The hunt was on and I was the prey. My heart was in my throat, my breathing ragged. I'd been in tight situations before, some may even say I thrive on them, but having a Hapū of angry, hungry Taniwhas chasing you over rough and uneven, unfamiliar ground on the night of the Rākaunui is not my idea of a cup of tea.
    I thought I was heading in the right direction, back to the car on the other side of the fence, where I had cut a very small gap in the chain-link there. If I was wrong, things were going to get bad. I only had a silver knife on me, my stakes were still in the car, but a knife against one Taniwha could be useful, they don't do silver well, but against fifty, maybe more? I wasn't hopeful.
    I could tell they were flanking me, I could hear them fanning out around me, moving ahead and circling round. If they made a complete circle before I reached the fence, I was in trouble. I can't fly like a vampire, I can jump pretty high given the right circumstances, but not a 10 foot chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Even I can't do that.
    So, I just ran faster.
    Faster meant more branches, more scratches, but strangely enough less tripping, less falling,