The Heart Moon: The Amaki #1

CHAPTER ONE

Damn. The one interview Laine really cared about, and it had gone south already. She could tell the interviewer didn’t like her, though they’d only met a few minutes ago.

Never going to happen.

The phrase slid from the interviewer’s mind and into Laine’s consciousness, leaving a trace of psychic slime in its wake. The woman smiled stiffly at Laine and pushed a strand of artfully highlighted blond hair away from her face. Her contempt flowed from her like an icy breeze, making Laine shiver. The cold of it crept through her business suit and into her skin, her muscles, her bones.

Come on, Laine, you know that woo-woo stuff isn’t real. You’re just nervous.

Well, the interviewer said. Hmm. So, tell me about your strengths and weaknesses and how you think they might affect your work here at Price and Campbell.

Laine returned the smile with what she hoped was sincerity. Strengths. Strengths. I learn quickly. And, um, I really care about the quality of my work. It’s important to me to do a good job. Great. That sounded stupid. Like anyone would tell an interviewer it was important to do a bad job. I’m hardly ever sick, she added with false cheer.

Well, that’s certainly important. The interviewer folded her hands and adopted an interested expression.

Weaknesses, right. What could she say that wouldn’t be lying, but wouldn’t exactly be true either? I have a tendency to work so hard that I get a little burned out.

According to your application, you were fired from your last job. Can you tell me a little about that?

Familiar heat crept up her neck and over her face. It failed to dispel the ice that had already invaded her. She’d known this question was coming. Any prospective employer would want to know why she’d been fired. The interviewer asked the same thing at every interview she’d had, and it was foolish to hope that this one would be any different.

She lifted her chin and met the woman’s eyes. My boss and I had a difference of opinion about how the work should be organized. We, uh, both decided it would be best for me to find a job that was a better fit for me.

The blonde’s smile turned downright brittle. I see.

The woman’s judgment and disdain filled her mind just as vividly as if it came from within her own being.

Don’t be silly. You can’t possibly know what she’s thinking.

It was very disappointing for me. I enjoyed my work there. Now that was a lie. She hoped that the twinge of guilt she felt didn’t show on her face.

Well, you certainly are qualified for this position, Laine. Thank you for coming in today. We’ll let you know as soon as we’ve made a decision.

They shook hands amicably. Laine collected her umbrella and her portfolio with her resume and meager references and left the office with her head high. She wouldn’t get the job. No-one had called her back after an interview. Nobody wanted to hire someone who’d been fired for insubordination, no matter how well-qualified she was.

When she emerged from the office building, it was drizzling. Laine walked through the mist to her car without bothering to put up the umbrella. Right now she didn’t care much about her hair style being ruined anyway. She was done with interviewing for the day.

God damn it. How many of these little torture sessions would she have to endure before someone hired her? She was running out of money. And she’d had enough of explaining herself to unsympathetic strangers who probably wouldn’t understand even if she told them the truth about what had happened between her and her boss. She wasn’t sure she understood it herself.

Laine got in the car, drove out of the business-park lot and onto the street. Insubordination. Seemed like she had trouble with it in every job she took, although she’d only been fired for it once.

It wasn’t as if she decided to be insubordinate. She just didn’t relate well to authority figures. Her lips crimped at the corners. Yeah, that was a little bit of an understatement. Laine Hamilton and The Boss didn’t mix well, never had.

She drove aimlessly, heading back to Portland without thinking about where she intended to go. Home seemed a pale destination, insufficient to drive the interview and all its cousins from her mind. She needed something else, a release of some kind.

Cornell Road took her on a winding route into the heavily wooded West Hills, past the Audubon Bird Sanctuary and along the edge of Macleay Park, which was a small projection of the enormous Forest Park. She’d been there a few times. Ancient firs and spruces loomed over dirt trails crowded with sword fern, Oregon grape and salmon berry. Not a place to walk in high heels. But when Laine reached a residential area at Macleay’s border, she turned onto one of the side streets and drove until she reached a playground that seemed to be connected to the larger park.

An older play structure and swingset sat on a lawn dotted with huge maples, oaks and firs that had obviously been there for decades. A handful of kids ran around screeching and giggling while their mothers watched and smiled. This was what she needed to get the awful interview out of her mind. She pulled up at the curb and killed the engine.

***

Roan McAllister—also known as Roan Tanais—removed his leather jacket and his shirt, and settled his bare back against the maple’s rough trunk. He closed his eyes, turning his face to the Oregon sky. Weak January sun filtered through the bare branches. Up here in the tree, he could almost forget about the human world, forget about Barrett and the Unseelies and the accursed Shield, and imagine himself home again.

A flock of chickadees, unsettled by his climbing, fluttered down to land on the twigs all around him. If he sat still enough, they would eventually land on him.

The shouts and laughter of a handful of human children carried to him from the other side of the park. He opened his eyes briefly. The kids clambered over the playground equipment, almost as gracefully as Amaki children would, while their blue-jeaned mothers watched from benches and chatted.

He observed as another woman, dressed in a boxy dark-blue skirt suit, walked across the bark chips and sat in one of the swings. The clothes she wore dwarfed her small frame. She gave herself a push, glancing at the children with a smile. Odd. He’d been here many times over the past month, and he’d never seen an adult human on the swings.

He closed his eyes again and let some of the old maple’s energy seep into him. She was still dozing in her winter sleep and didn’t have much to spare, so he only took a little. His people needed the energy of the green world to sustain them. Without it, they lost their mental stability and turned vicious. Like the Unseelies.

His maple grew on the far side of the park from the little playground, where civilization edged into the mini-wilderness of Forest Park, and he liked it that way. It amused him to observe the humans going about their business, completely unaware of the magic in their midst. However, he didn’t need interference.

Mothers didn’t look over here very often, didn’t seem to notice the shirtless man sitting in a tree, and people rarely walked into this end of the grassy space. Their ignorant and noisy blundering stayed on their side of the park where it belonged.

The children’s voices and the birdsong blended together like background music as he settled more deeply into the peaceful aura of the tree. The harshness and anger slowly drained out of him. In its place came the quiet green that his Amaki soul craved.

Barrett had the Tanais Shield. Roan just had to find out where he was hiding it, and steal it back. As soon as he acquired it, he could use it to cure his brother, bring him out of his coma. If he wanted to help Tam, he needed to get his mind off his problems, let the tree fill him with the peace that would keep him strong.

A woman’s heels clicked rhythmically on the concrete path that wound through the park. While children in the playground didn’t bother him, it was disruptive to have humans bumbling around directly under his tree. Roan swore silently. Confound it; she ought to have stayed next to the benches where she belonged. Peering down through the branches, he saw the drab woman from the swings. She had an open cell phone held to her ear.

Yes, I know that, she said into the phone. She paused, frowning. He could see the tension in her hand as she clutched the cell.

She had a beautiful young face that didn’t match the outfit she wore. Her dark hair was scraped back into a knot so tight it looked painful. He willed her to go away. She didn’t.

I don’t have the money right now, she said. Can’t you give me an extension?

Go away, he thought at her.

Where am I going to go, then? Her voice took on a harsh note. Yeah, thanks a lot. That’s real generous of you.

She snapped the cell closed and shoved it into a shapeless black purse. Then she raised her head. A pair of extraordinary green eyes stared straight at him and widened. The woman backed up a step. As they looked at each other, Roan felt a shock of connection form between their two energies, something he’d never experienced with a human.

His energy centers expanded without his conscious volition, making him wide open and vulnerable to her. Instant lust flared inside him. Damn it – he didn’t have the time for this.

He tried to squelch his reaction to her. With a wrenching act of will, Roan closed down his centers to stop the flow of energies.

Her gaze flicked over his bare torso and then away, as if she were embarrassed by his lack of a shirt. Just what I need. An eavesdropper, she said in a tone of disgust.

Roan shrugged and tried to relax the tightness in his jaw. It was hard not to, with you barking into your phone like that.

I was not barking.

It sounded like barking to me.

Asshole. She turned on her heel and stalked back the way she’d come.

What a bitch. As if he was deliberately listening to her precious conversation. It was a good thing she was leaving. Roan frowned at her retreating back for an instant and then threw on his shirt and jacket.

If he were wise, he would let her go. He wanted her to go, so he could get on with what he’d been doing before she interrupted. But that energy connection was still there, nagging at him like an itch he couldn’t scratch. Roan jumped out of the tree, catching up with her in a couple of quick strides.

She visibly started when she noticed him beside her. He’d forgotten to move slowly, like a human would have. Gentling his pace to match hers, Roan looked down at her, caught between inexplicable lust and irritation at her behavior.

Leave me alone, she said.

Do you always attack innocent bystanders? Maybe I should warn those kids that it’s not safe with you around.

She glared at him. What is your problem?

I have no problem. I was peacefully enjoying my tree when you came along. The question is - why are you so angry that I overheard you?

She clutched her purse more tightly to her side and walked faster, as if she thought she could outrun him. It was a private conversation.

She could have stayed in her car if she had wanted keep others from overhearing her. Maybe you shouldn’t have your private conversations in the park, he said.

The human walked a little faster, her heels clacking on the pavement. She wanted him. She was afraid of him. He could smell it. The combination of fear, desire and bitchy attitude brought out the predator in him, made him want to take her down a notch.

She was highly unsuitable as a partner, even for a single encounter. But, Earth’s bones, he’d like to teach her a lesson.

***

Laine forced herself to look straight ahead. She could no longer hear the children playing. Why was this man following her? Surely he could see that she didn’t want to have anything to do with him. If he wanted to have his tree to himself, he ought to be happy, because she was obviously leaving.

Who sat half-naked in a tree in winter, anyway? She sneaked a sideways glance at him. He’d put on a worn black leather motorcycle jacket, complete with chains and a red knotwork design on the sleeves. Long black hair fell over his collar and around his face. He was tall enough to tower over her. He gave her a knowing smile, as if he were aware that she wanted to look without being seen looking.

Her face burned. She was not attracted to him, even if he did move with the sensuous ease of a panther. Even if he did have lips that tempted her with fantasies of kissing him. He was not her type. Couldn’t he see that he wasn’t her type? She looked normal. He looked like he belonged in a biker gang.

Besides, there was something off about him. He exuded an energy that she couldn’t quite describe, not even to herself. Something almost . . . otherworldly.

Oh, for crying out loud, Laine. You need your head examined. There’s nothing otherworldly here, just a strange guy at the end of a really bad day.

Laine rounded the play area and noticed, for the first time, the black motorcycle parked behind her old blue sedan. It must belong to him. Thank God that she was almost to her car. She glanced over at the benches, thinking that she might ask one of the other women for help, but they and the children had all gone. Laine rummaged in her purse for her cell phone. If she had to, she would call the police.

He was no longer beside her. Should she look back to see where he’d gone? But that would tell him just how scared he made her, and he’d probably think she was looking because she found him sexy, too. A jerk like him didn’t need the ego boost. After a moment’s hesitation, she looked anyway and saw him standing on the path a few yards back, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched her.

The pointed toe of her left shoe caught in a crack in the pavement. Her right foot twisted underneath her and pain stabbed up through her ankle. She stumbled. Throwing her hands out to catch herself, she tumbled awkwardly to the concrete and landed on her hands and knees. Oh, damn. It hurt like hell. She must have sprained her ankle.

Laine pinched her eyes shut and clenched her teeth, fighting the agony in her joint. Her heart pounded frantically as she thought of the man behind her. She wanted to get away from him, but she couldn’t escape with her ankle in so much pain.

Here, let me help you.

Laine gave a startled gasp, her eyes popping open at the sound of his voice. He’d gotten to her much more quickly than she had expected. She took a breath and tried to calm herself before she responded. He wasn’t a monster. Everything would be alright, as long as she could send him away.

No, I’ll be fine, she said in a surprisingly normal voice. Thank you. She tried to rise, but her injured ankle refused to bear any weight at all and she wobbled, bent over and supporting herself on her hands.

Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t walk like that. He crouched next to her, looking concerned. He had mismatched gray eyes, one an unearthly pale silver and the other a slightly darker blue-gray, both surrounded by a smudge of black lashes. He reached out and scooped her into his arms, standing up in one graceful movement before she had time to protest. Her heart began to race even faster as she found herself held against his body.

What are you doing? she squeaked.

Is that your car? He nodded his head toward her sedan.

Put me down. I’ll be alright, just put me down.

I’m not going to hurt you, I promise. I’ll just get you to your car. It’s partly my fault that you twisted your ankle, so it’s the least I can do.

Who did he think he was fooling? He was no Good Samaritan. I don’t have any money, if that’s what you want, she said.

He gave her a startled frown. I don’t want your money. I’m trying to help you.

Why would he want to help her? She didn’t trust strangers who said they wanted to help her. No-one had ever aided her for free; they always wanted something in return, something she wasn’t willing to give. She didn’t trust this guy, and she didn’t like the fact that he wasn’t listening to her.

Put me down right now, she said.

No. Get out your keys and open the car.

Laine bit back the furious scream that threatened to erupt from her. Maybe cooperation would get rid of him faster. She thrust her hand into her purse and produced her keys, clicking the remote as she did.

His arms and chest felt like solid rock against her body, and she knew that her heart was pounding from more than fear. The heat of him came to her through their clothes, along with a spicy masculine scent that reminded her of raw sex and made her core warm and achy. She hated her response to him. It was all wrong. She was in so much pain that it should be impossible to be turned on.

Somehow he balanced her in one arm while he reached down to open the car door. The strength it took to do that amazed her at the same time as she wished desperately to get away from him. He crouched down again, still holding her, and set her gently in the passenger seat with her legs sticking out the door. He covered her exposed knee with one large hand. The warmth of it seemed unbearably intimate. Laine stared at him in alarm.

I’m going to look at your ankle now.

Oh, you must be a doctor. It was all the leather that tipped me off, she said waspishly. As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted the remark. It probably wasn’t wise to provoke this man when she was at his mercy.

He raised his eyebrows but said nothing. Instead he cradled her injured ankle in one hand and laid the other hand over the top of it. She flinched, hissing at the pain.

Sorry. Just relax for me now. His voice sounded even deeper and more velvety than before, and Laine found herself unaccountably drowsy, the tension leaving her as quickly as if he’d given her some kind of tranquilizer. She seemed almost to be floating, though her limbs were heavy. Everything felt very far away.

The peacefulness suddenly pervading her was wonderful, something she hadn’t experienced in a very long time. Maybe never. In fact, now that she thought of it, she was sure that she had never felt anything like this sense of pure safety and relaxation before in her life. Laine sighed. Nothing could hurt her when she felt this good.

She looked down at his striking features, the thick black eyelashes, black hair sliding into his face, long fingers wrapped around her ankle. His lips were just full enough. Full enough to bite. She wondered if his hair felt as soft as it looked. She would like to find out.

Why had she been so afraid? There was no danger, nothing to be afraid of. This man wanted to help her, and she wanted to let him. He was so beautiful, so beautiful that he didn’t look real. She wanted to kiss him.

Would you let me kiss you? she said.

He smiled, still focused on her ankle. Not right now, Laine. Let me fix you first.

CHAPTER TWO

He began to speak in some foreign language that she didn’t recognize, but which seemed vaguely familiar, as if she’d heard it all her life without ever learning what the words meant. He chanted them softly, rhythmically, and heat came out of his hands and into her joint. As the chant continued the heat built and built inside her flesh.

Maybe the heat would become unbearable. Maybe it would set her on fire and her ankle would start smoking. At some other time that thought would have alarmed her, but now it made her smile a little. Even unbearable heat wouldn’t truly hurt, not when she was floating this way.

What would her rescuer do if he accidentally set her on fire? She pictured a wisp of smoke curling up from her skin and the man staring at it with open mouth, and stifled a giggle at the image.

The chant stopped and he removed his hands. Damn. She’d liked the way they felt on her skin. Laine sighed again.

How is it now?

She struggled to bring herself back to normal consciousness. Hmmm? she said dreamily.

How is your ankle?

Oh, yeah, the ankle. Laine wiggled her foot. The pain is completely gone. How did you do that?

Magic. He winked at her.

Magic? She blinked. Frowned. What a smart-ass. The floating sensation drained out of her, and all the tension returned as swiftly as it had left, bringing her down with a jolt. I am not disappointed at losing my high. I’m just glad I can get out of here.

Frowning again, she got to her feet. Her benefactor moved back and she walked around the car to the driver’s side, hoping that he couldn’t see her blush. She refused to look at him as she slid behind the wheel. Had she really asked to kiss him?

You’re welcome, he said. She knew without looking that he was smiling.

Thank you, Laine replied stiffly.

Still want that kiss?

No. I have to go now. If he were a gentleman, he wouldn’t have mentioned her silly request, but obviously he was no gentleman. She had to get out of here, and she couldn’t simply drive away because the sidewalk curved around in front of her space, forcing her to back up before she could leave. She started the car, threw it into reverse and began to pull out of her parking spot. Something behind the sedan crunched loudly and Laine slammed on the brakes.

I was planning on riding that bike today, the man said dryly.

Laine closed her eyes and dropped her head to the steering wheel. This was the worst day of her life. First she’d had the job interview from hell, then her landlord threatened her with eviction, and now this guy and his infernal bike. She took a deep breath, lifted her head and rolled down her window. He had the oddest expression on his face. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was struggling to keep from laughing.

I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking, she said.

The corners of his lips twitched and he pressed them together tightly. You need driving lessons.

I don’t need driving lessons, I need a drink.

He grinned. What the heck was he grinning about? She’d just run over his bike.

Let me give you my phone number and the name of my insurance company, she said.

That won’t be necessary. It’s not badly damaged and I can fix it myself. I’m a pretty good mechanic.

The last thing she needed was for him to come back later and claim that she had done a hit and run on him. On the other hand, she didn’t have any money to spare and she couldn’t afford for her rates to increase. Are you sure?

I’m sure. But I advise you to look into the lessons, Laine. I know they’ll tell you it’s not safe to drink and drive.

Oh, yeah? You have any other advice you’d like to give me while you’re at it?

Yeah. You shouldn’t wear that kind of suit. It looks like something you borrowed from your grandma.

She stared at him for a moment, completely at a loss for a response. So first you’re a doctor and now you’re a fashion consultant. What a versatile guy, she said finally.

She put the car into drive and pulled away without looking back at him. What a jerk. What