Page 18 of On A Rift’s Edge (Riftworld #2)

Kat rushed up the ladder and helped pull the man onto the narrow platform that ran along the edge of the stasis container. The glass-like covering had shattered into chunks that rested on the viscous liquid like ice floes on a warming ocean.

“Are you okay?” Kat belatedly remembered the captive had spoken in Spanish and switched languages. “?Estás bien?”

“I’m fine now, chico.” The man switched easily to Spanglish and wiped more of the gelatinous material he had been suspended in off his face. He turned to Lyall, giving him a wide smile. “You’re not human.”

“No, I’m not.” Lyall had a grip on the guy’s arm, and his tone was sharp. “Whether you’re human or not, you’d better tell me how you ended up in a hopper stasis container and if any of those fucking frogs are around here.”

“He needs to lie down.” Kat couldn’t believe Lyall was adding to the emotional trauma the freed prisoner must be experiencing. “I can do a quick medical assessment here, but we need to bring him to a hospital.”

“Fucking frogs.” The man repeated Lyall’s phrase and broke down laughing. “That’s hilarious. Especially coming from a fucking dog.”

He punched Lyall in the stomach, grabbed him with both hands, and threw him into the pool.

Kat gave a strangled scream and might have had tried to protest if the man hadn’t swung at him next.

The blow connected against an invisible barrier that dropped down over Kat’s face, and he fell off the ladder, landing on his back on the floor.

He had a few seconds to realize that the living leather armor Lyall had given him covered his entire body under his clothes, including a translucent shield that protected his face. Then the prisoner sprang into the air, landed in a crouch before Kat, and transformed.

His overall shape remained humanoid, but his hands now ended in four webbed digits. Amphibian eyes with oval pupils rimmed in gold regarded Kat, and his smile grew wider until it took up most of his face.

Lyall had been right. Hoppers looked a lot like killer frogs.

Kat tried to scramble away, his movements awkward in the restrictive armor he was wearing. The hopper darted forward and grabbed him with his clubbed fingers.

He lifted Kat in the air, blinking his golden eyes at him as if trying to figure out if Kat would fit in his mouth.

“We were trying to rescue you.” Kat struggled, but given that his feet were dangling in the air and his attempts to break out of the hopper’s sticky grasp were failing miserably, he couldn’t do much to escape.

There was a loud thump, and the entire stasis container vibrated with the impact of something large against the inside wall.

Great. Kat had insisted on going into the abandoned military base because an alien crab had told him a human was trapped there. Now Lyall was the one trapped, and Kat was about to be eaten by a frog monster.

“What are you, chico?” The hopper cocked his head at Kat. Then he switched to one hand, holding Kat a meter off the floor with ease. He extended the clubbed four digits on his other hand, and the air rippled in front of him.

Nothing felt different to Kat, but something had changed. The living armor encasing his body retracted, pulling back over his skin until he felt only a cord twining around his neck.

His watch buzzed, and Naomi’s voice came through a voice text.

“Kat, Mom’s been trying to reach you, but you have your notifications silenced. Call her about the family dinner on Sunday, okay? Thanks, bye.”

That was impossible. He was inside a riftland, and his watch shouldn’t be working.

It didn’t matter. He had been captured by a killer frog, and he needed to focus on staying alive.

“You’re human.” The hopper lowered Kat to the ground and rearranged the grip on his shirt. The toe pads on his hands left gooey spots on Kat’s torn clothing. “Why are you wearing living leathers and working with a hellhound?”

The frog man tilted his head toward the stasis container, which continued to shudder violently from Lyall’s attempts to free himself.

“Yes, I’m human, and my name is Kat.” He got those words out, trying to sound calm and nonthreatening.

“Cats and dogs, living together.” The hopper burst into laughter again, this time with a distinctive bubbling sound. “You look more like a gatito than a tomcat. You know that word?”

Kat nodded. His Spanish was better than his Japanese, to his parents’ despair, and he knew the word meant kitten. He didn’t appreciate the joke at his expense, but this wasn’t a good time to complain. He needed to form a connection with the hopper so he didn’t end up dead. “What’s your name?”

“Earth creatures are so odd.” The hopper released his hold on Kat, acting like a mere human wasn’t much of a threat. Which was, unfortunately, true. “My human name is Teo. Do you like it?”

“It’s a very nice name,” Kat said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. “My friend’s name is Lyall, and I’m sure if you let him out of that giant bowl of jelly we could all talk reasonably about this.”

Teo apparently found that even more amusing because he laughed harder. Then he changed again, his face morphing back into a smiling human. His body was totally nude, and only the hand holding Kat continued to be frog-like.

“I don’t think your friend would be happy I took away his human pet.” Teo turned to look back, but the banging noises from the pool had stopped. His already too-wide smile grew larger. “Anyway, the stasis jelly must be working on him now. He can stay in there for a long time. I certainly was.”

“How long were you imprisoned here?” Kat strained his ears, but he couldn’t hear any movement in the stasis container. It didn’t sound like the jelly material would kill Lyall, but if he had been put into suspended animation, Kat had no idea how to get him out.

He also had no idea how to avoid being eaten by Teo.

“Not sure how much time in Earth years.” Teo scrunched up his face as if thinking hard. “I made a deal with my new capitán Arimanius before I deserted my cadre, but he might have left me in there for a while. Rats, you know?”

Kat knew a lot about the ratkind and their leader Arimanius, aka Remi’s father. This could be an opportunity to deescalate this situation. If Teo was working for the Riftworld mafia boss, he might respond to a few partial truths.

“Lyall knows Arimanius very well.” Kat chose his words carefully. Maybe Teo would release Lyall if he thought the hellhound was in the same monster mafia he was. “He’s worked with him for a long time.”

“Oh, he’s that hellhound.” Teo nodded. “Did the capitán send him here to get me out?”

“Lyall and I came here help you, yes.” Not under orders from Arimanius, but Teo didn’t need to know that. “Like I said, if you let him out we can all talk about what Arimanius’s plans are.”

“No, I don’t think so.” Teo sounded far too cheerful. “I’m stuck with a new capitán for a while, so why would I want to compete with a hellhound? I’ll leave the dog here and take you with me. That way you can help me find the ratkind and give me pointers on acting human.”

“Arimanius might get angry with you for that.” Kat didn’t want to be kidnapped again by a hot guy who was actually an alien monster. One abduction for his own good by Lyall was enough. “I mean, Lyall and I are close friends with the capitán’s son Remi, and we’re expected back soon.”

“You and the hellhound like each other?” Teo sounded downright scandalized. “The dogs hate humans even more than my familia . I can’t believe this Lyall gave you living leathers and lets you tag along after him.”

Kat didn’t say anything, but he could feel his cheeks heat up.

Teo’s eyes widened—actually they bulged out of their sockets, which was frankly disturbing. “Oh. You’re not his pet, you’re his novio .”

“He’s not my boyfriend.” Kat had been thinking the day couldn’t get any worse, but in addition to being attacked by a killer frog monster, he was now being reminded by said monster of his unrequited crush on Lyall. “You can’t force me to go with you.”

Teo transformed back, his webbed fingers tightening on Kat’s arms. “I have news for you, little gatito. I most certainly can.”

The stasis chamber exploded. Kat caught a glimpse of fire and burning jelly as a blast of searing heat roared around him.

Teo swore in Spanish and English and dropped his hold on Kat.

Lyall was on the hopper a moment later. He was back in his hellhound form, scarier than Kat had ever seen him.

Which was saying a lot.

His massive jaws stretched over Teo, who was forced to use his frog-like hands to hold the hellhound at bay.

The hopper landed a kick on Lyall’s side, knocking him off for a moment with the force of the blow.

Teo was unbelievably strong, but so was Lyall. The hellhound scrambled upright and lunged toward the hopper.

Teo crouched and shot into the air. The jump was astounding, as was the sight of the hopper clinging to the wall far above them, his bulbous fingers and toes adhering to the flat surface.

“Not your boyfriend? I doubt that.” Teo’s laugh echoed throughout the warehouse-like space. “Nice talking to you, Kat. I think we’ll be seeing each other soon.”

Lyall snarled, leaping up on the wall, but he wasn’t fast enough. Teo pulled off another amazing jump, clung to the ceiling, then vanished through a broken window a moment later.

The stasis container was now a smoking heap of twisted metal and melted jelly. The trash scorpions, who had wisely faded into the background during the fight, came scurrying out. Their leader came up to Kat, and with a flourish of his claw, held up the thong.

Not knowing what else to do at this point, Kat took it.

Lyall altered himself back to human form, chest heaving. His eyes glowed an unholy red, and he raised his hand to sketch his sigils. The air next to them ripped open as if slashed by a knife, and a mini-hellmouth opened up.

Lyall seized Kat’s arm and pulled him toward the portal. “I’m getting you out of here. Now.”