Page 12 of On A Rift’s Edge (Riftworld #2)
L yall stood by as Kat gave Remi a full account of the circumstances that had led to him being left alone with a potentially dangerous Riftworld invertebrate, after not one but two men had hit on him.
Kat stood silhouetted in the light of a summer sunset, the sky purple and orange behind him.
As always, the young human was beautiful, with his black hair falling to shoulder length under a cowboy hat, his body slender but muscular in a white shirt and dark pants.
Lyall wasn’t good at picking up the subtleties of human fashion like Remi was, but Kat appeared to have dressed more formally than usual for the art gallery event.
Or perhaps for the man his family had wanted him to meet.
Lyall tried to tamp down a flood of furious jealousy.
Kat wasn’t from the Riftworld and understood the Matchmaker only as a strange alien force that made riftpeople abduct humans and carry them off.
He had every right to date another person, even if the thought made Lyall want to break something.
A random guy with a thong on public transportation was bad enough.
A potential romantic partner hand-picked by Kat’s family was far worse.
Remi nodded along to Kat’s story, then gave Kat multiple reassurances that the police were not likely to go looking for Riftworld-type trouble, and if they did, he would handle it.
Then the half-ratkind psychically projected a verbal message through Lyall’s mental shields.
Tell him he’s your Matchmaker match, dipshit.
To Kat, Remi smiled and said, “I’m going to see if Kaveh’s in the main building. I’ll chat with him about what to do with the trash scorpion while you two get caught up.”
He succeeded in getting the Riftworld arthropod to follow him by showing the creature his Rolex, as Snow encouraged the crab-like animal with a series of whistles.
That left Lyall alone with Kat, with no idea what to say.
He would have preferred that Remi stick around, because as much as he enjoyed ogling Kat, he didn’t want to have this conversation.
He also knew he couldn’t get out of it. Arimanius had too many ways of getting information for Lyall to be confident the ratkind boss wouldn’t find out the Matchmaker had chosen Kat for him.
Remi was right. He had to tell Kat the truth, if only so the human could watch out for himself.
“Kaveh has given me his permission to visit both the ranch and monstertown.” Lyall began with that, hoping to reassure Kat that he hadn’t just walked back onto drakone turf without an invitation.
Even if Kaveh was on the outs with his family, the Saguaro Rift drakone clan had formally agreed to extend their protection to the ranch and the humans who lived and worked there.
“Remi also said I should check up on you.”
Kat straightened his shoulders. “I don’t need Kaveh’s permission to talk to anyone.”
Lyall mulled over those words. Kat was annoyed by the mention of Lyall following clan protocols, for some reason.
“Also, I don’t need a check-up from you, no matter what Remi thinks.” Kat wasn’t bristling, exactly, but he didn’t act happy to see Lyall, either. “I’ve decided I’m not wearing a heart on my sleeve anymore.”
Lyall hadn’t heard of that custom, but humans did tend to try out new fads all the time. “I’d recommend putting a fresh heart in a box with revive jelly rather than tying it to your clothing. Less messy that way.”
“It’s a metaphorical heart.” Kat had two spots of color on his cheeks, and he enunciated each word with a good deal of force.
This wasn’t going well. He had to tell Kat about the whole Matchmaker thing, but somehow the conversation had detoured into organ meats.
Why the hell had Remi left, anyway? This was hard.
“We think the control object opened up the hybrid portal.” Lyall changed topics out of sheer desperation. “Remi’s father might be causing trouble as well. Since I’m staying here for a while, I was wondering if you wanted to spend time together.”
“I’m busy with work and studying.” Kat shifted his feet. “Plus, I’m seeing someone. Paul Cicero. He’s the venture capitalist who sponsored the art gallery show.”
Lyall wanted to find Paul, pin him under one paw, and threaten to eat his head if he didn’t back off from trying to get into Kat’s pants.
No, that was unreasonable. He was in his human alterform and thinking those thoughts tempted him to transform, which wouldn’t help this situation.
“What’s a venture capitalist?” That was a silly question and Lyall couldn’t care less about the answer. He asked it anyway.
“They give money to new businesses and then get part of the profits.” Kat didn’t sound confident about the definition, but it wasn’t like Lyall could correct him. Besides, it was a familiar hustle.
“Arimanius did stuff like that.” Lyall didn’t know how this conversation had gone so far off the rails, so he kept talking about things that didn’t matter. “He’d give people start-up money, and then if they didn’t pay him back with interest he’d send in the Pouch Twins to bust a few heads.”
“Paul isn’t doing anything illegal.” Kat paused. “Probably. He supported an art gallery exhibit, which was a good thing. But one of the art pieces was an actual Riftworld animal, and I helped the trash scorpion escape. So I might have done something illegal.”
On the scale of criminal activity Lyall was familiar with, this didn’t sound like proper larceny, but Kat was a by-the-rules type. “Not your fault if the crab liked you and followed you out.”
He had made no progress in telling Kat the truth, and now that Kat had a boyfriend who was a loan shark, bringing up the topic seemed like a terrible idea.
After all, Kat deserved to be happy with someone.
Someone who would be a much better partner than Lyall.
Not this Paul guy, though. “I understand you’re busy, but if you have time to help me with the investigation into the portal that brought me and Zale here, I’d appreciate it.
Plus we could ask the guardians about returning the trash scorpion while we’re at the monstertown. ”
That sounded desperate and ridiculous, but Lyall was out of other conversational gambits.
“We could take a ride out there Wednesday morning, I guess.” Kat was biting his lower lip, which was a huge distraction. Lyall couldn’t think about much else other than how nice it would be to be the one biting, then kissing, those lips.
“After all, we’re friends, right?” Kat kept nodding his head, as if willing Lyall to agree.
“Friends.” Lyall tried not to let any disappointment seep into his voice and instead came closer and offered Kat a handshake. Human customs were weird. “That sounds great.”