Page 19 of On A Rift’s Edge (Riftworld #2)

L yall hated Remi’s suggestion to invite Zale to their crisis meeting about the hopper attack. Even worse, he had to admit they needed to do it.

Lyall, Kat, Remi, and Kaveh were all sitting in the living room of the renovated second floor of Kaveh’s clinic.

Lyall had dragged Kat into the hellmouth he had created and portaled both of them out of the military base and inside the monstertown’s outer defenses.

That hadn’t gone over well with the guardians or Kaveh at first, but when a shaky Kat walked out holding onto to Lyall’s arm, everyone had settled down.

Except Lyall. He was furious at himself for putting Kat in danger—from a hopper, no less.

The human had handled the situation well, granted, calmly distracting the killer frog and giving Lyall enough time to bust out of the stasis chamber.

But Kat shouldn’t ever have been in that precarious position. That was Lyall’s fault.

At least Kaveh was taking this seriously.

The Azdaha drakone sat across from Lyall on one of the vintage-trendy chairs Remi had bought for the apartment.

It was hard to believe the commitment-phobic Remi was keeping a separate room at Jesse and José’s place to make sure he didn’t rush Kaveh into a serious relationship.

Meanwhile, Kat had told Lyall that Kaveh was worried about the same thing.

If there was one thing the Matchmaker wasn’t, it was a casual dating service.

Not that Lyall was in any position to criticize how Remi and Kaveh were handling a haywire Matchmaker pairing that had set up a half-human ratkind from the Colony with a veterinarian who could turn into a killer dragon.

Lyall’s own wildly inappropriate Matchmaker pick was sitting on the sofa next to him, close enough to assuage Lyall’s out-of-control need to protect Kat, but not as close as he should be.

Lyall wanted Kat on his lap, preferably, but that wasn’t reasonable. Instead, he tried and failed to use a non-confrontational tone with Remi. “Tell me again why we should invite your fucking cousin Zale to this house party. He’s a spy for the Colony.”

Remi was currently busying himself pouring drinks for everyone while Kaveh reorganized the black doctor bag he had opened in order to treat the minor injuries Lyall had taken in the fight.

“Zale thinks he was sent here to spy on us.” Remi looked up from behind the bar as he set up the drinks.

“Knowing my father, Ari has a whole other ulterior motive for ordering my cousin to come here. Zale might have information about my father recruiting a hopper to take your place as his indentured servant, though. And I know how to get him to cooperate.”

“If the hoppers’ social structure revolves around military groups, why was Teo alone and desperate enough to agree to years of servitude to Arimanius?

” Kat, bless his clueless human heart, was concerned that the vicious killer frog might have hurt feelings.

Just thinking about Teo putting his slimy webbed hands on Kat made Lyall so furious he snarled without even realizing it.

The control object crackled in irritation, and Kaveh raised an eyebrow.

Right. Lyall was supposed to sit here next to Kat and pretend he wasn’t frantic for the young human’s safety. Part of him wanted to scoop Kat up and take him away whether he wanted to leave or not.

But he couldn’t. That was exactly the behavior Kat expected from a Riftworld person under the Matchmaker’s influence, and that was why Lyall couldn’t tell Kat the truth right now.

“It’s an interesting question, but I don’t know enough about hoppers to answer it.” Kaveh paused to give Remi a dazzling smile as the ratkind handed him a lemonade. That was cute and all, but Remi goddamn better be handing out a stronger drink than that to Lyall.

Remi gave Kat the other lemonade he had carried over before returning to the bar.

He made his way back with a margarita in one hand and a tumbler in the other, which Lyall was pleased to discover was filled with scotch.

He was even happier when Remi handed him a packet of the ranch’s famous beef jerky to go along with it.

Kaveh took a sip of his lemonade and continued. “I think we need to focus more on the connection to Arimanius, and Zale is our best option for information, as much as I dislike the idea.”

“I know Zale’s an idiot and a pain in the ass.” Remi perched on the arm of the chair Kaveh sat in, margarita in hand, and indicated the control object with a wave of his hand. “But he won’t pass up an invitation to come in here.”

The elongated egg gave a pulse of pink light in approval.

“Zale’s got a thing for the fucking control object?” Lyall asked. “Am I the only one they hate?”

“They dislike me as well.” Kaveh rested a hand on Remi’s thigh, a rather scandalous act of PDA given the drakone’s usual reserve. “I’m assuming Zale is able to join us on short notice?”

Remi tried to look abashed but couldn’t pull it off. “Okay, he’s waiting downstairs because I sent a message over as soon as we heard what happened. I can tell Bug to get him.”

“Fine.” Kaveh let out a sigh. “Let him know it’s okay to join us.”

Remi cocked his head at Lyall.

“I’ll try to restrain myself from throttling him.” Lyall knocked back a gulp of the scotch and turned to Kat. “Are you okay with this?”

“I’m here with you and Kaveh, so I know I’m safe.” Kat blushed for some reason.

Fucking hell he was gorgeous. Lyall needed to stop thinking about that.

Remi held up the Matchmaker Rolex on his wrist, and the cyberbug inside crawled out of the watch face and buzzed up into the air, expanding in size as it did. Bug zoomed out the door as soon as Remi opened it.

Zale arrived a few moments later.

Lyall had spent years during his indentured servitude to the Boston ratkind mafia known as the Colony drawing up lists of members of the crime family he wanted to kill slowly, and Zale was close to the top.

Half-ratkind and half-kraken, Remi’s cousin could hold a human form well, provided the knobs on either side of his spine containing his retractable tentacles were covered up.

His motorcycle jacket was up to that task, and also served to support the tough guy image he worked hard to maintain.

His long brown hair hung behind him in a braid, and he had acquired a scruffy beard since the last time Lyall had seen him.

He was one of the best fighters in the Colony but would be a much better one if he had any patience, strategic thinking, or even common sense.

Zale, for once, came in with more caution than bluster. His eyes flickered wary glances between Kaveh and Lyall as he addressed Remi. “What’s up, little cousin?”

“We want information, and if you want to keep hiding from Ari’s wrath you’d better deliver.” Remi went back to the bar and threw a beer at Zale. A tentacle shot out to catch the glass bottle.

Beside him, Kat gave a soft gasp of surprise but recovered quickly. “We want to know if Arimanius made a deal with a hopper to become an enforcer for the Colony.”

He sounded confident and calm, not like a human who had been attacked by a hopper because his hellhound bodyguard hadn’t been doing his job. It both surprised and impressed Lyall. A lot of Kat’s actions today had done that.

“Huh.” Zale focused on Kat for the first time, perhaps also not expecting to have the only human in the room leading the interrogation.

He sidled closer to the control object. Lyall waited, hopeful, for the glowing oval shape to send a crackle of electricity into Zale’s body.

All that happened was that rainbow colors shimmered over its translucent surface.

“I might know something, but how did you find out about it?”

It shouldn’t have pissed Lyall off that Zale was looking at Kat while he talked to him. Not to do so would have been rude.

But it did bother him.

“We went to the base to investigate a report of a human being held captive there.” Lyall didn’t bother to keep the fury out of his voice. “There was a stasis container holding a hopper inside.”

“Teo—that’s the hopper’s name—told me he made an arrangement with Remi’s father to become his indentured servant.

” Kat’s words led Remi to all but fall off the chair’s armrest as Kaveh’s face darkened.

Lyall hadn’t had time to get into the details of the incident, and he hadn’t heard Kat’s version of the story.

“I can’t believe you let your side piece chat with a hopper, dog.” Zale had the fucking nerve to get judgmental. “Those froggy fuckers are dangerous.”

“Lyall was trapped in the stasis container while I was talking to Teo.” Kat continued with more details of his interaction with the hopper, which sent a twist of guilt into Lyall’s gut. Kat not even sounding upset by Lyall’s failure to guard him properly made it worse.

“Teo said he wanted to leave his cadre so he made a deal with Remi’s father. He calls him his new captain.”

“I’ve never heard of a hopper who wanted to leave their military unit.” Kaveh shook his head. “The cadres are like family structures to hoppers. Exile is the worst thing imaginable for their clan.”

“Well, this one wanted out.” Zale flickered his fingers over the surface of the control object. A few teasing tendrils of electricity crackled close to his skin, but the creature inside didn’t blast him across the room, damn it.

“A hopper reached out to the don several years ago. It was all hush-hush, but I heard about it from one of the other wiseguys. The members of a cadre can track one of their own anywhere, so the boss came up with the idea to put the hopper in stasis, so the other hoppers would think he was dead.”

“Is my father seriously considering walking around Boston with a giant frog bodyguard?” Remi asked. “I thought hoppers couldn’t pass for human any more than drakones can.” He reached over to rub Kaveh’s shoulder. “Present company excluded, of course.”

“Teo or whatever he’s calling himself can.” Zale was so fascinated with the play of light on the control object, he wasn’t even drinking his beer, and his voice trailed off as the oval structure made a humming sound.

The tentacled son of a bitch had the attention span of a minnow.

“We need you to explain why and give us any other details that might help us.” Kaveh didn’t have much of an edge to his voice by most men’s standards, but the soft-spoken Azdaha drakone didn’t need one.

Zale straightened and regained his focus, such as it was. “Right. So, the hoppers bioengineer their best soldiers. This hopper was designed to infiltrate and kill humans. So he not only has human DNA, he was taught by the Earth people they took captive to teach him how to talk and act.”

“Teo wanted to take me with him for that exact reason.” Kat said that so calmly it took a second for the meaning of his words to hit Lyall.

He spat out part of his drink and felt his body convulse, trying to morph into his hellhound shape. It wasn’t easy to get himself under control, and he didn’t succeed in holding back his eye transformation.

“You didn’t tell me about that.” Lyall grabbed Kat’s arm, then remembered himself and released him.

Damn, he had to get himself under control.

“Well, there wasn’t much time for the two us to chat.” Kat glanced down at his arm where Lyall had touched him. Instead of looking offended, he gave Lyall’s arm a gentle pat back and turned to Kaveh. “It was terrifying talking to him, but fascinating too.”

There was nothing fascinating about a hopper who now knew the vet assistant was important to Lyall and would tell Arimanius as soon as he found the mob boss. It was terrifying, and yet another reason Lyall was too dangerous to be around Kat.

On the other hand, not being around Kat meant Lyall wouldn’t be able to fight off the hopper if he came back.

“Kat, it might be best for you to take extra precautions if a killer frog is on the loose and my father is involved.” Remi added a buzz of compulsion to that suggestion, which Lyall could sense with his mental shields.

Normally, he would have been angry if his ratkind friend used his psychic compulsions on Kat, since most of them were sexual.

But he was willing to lower his ethical standards if it kept Kat safe.

“Lyall’s been your bodyguard before,” Remi continued, “and he can help Kaveh and me keep you safe.”

Kat said nothing.

Lyall wanted to burst out that he was protecting Kat no matter what, because the Matchmaker had made its decision and Kat belonged to him, goddamn it.

He wanted to tell Kat the truth, even if the rejection would be devastating. But letting him know now might cause him to run away straight into danger, as he had when Kaveh had told him he might be his Matchmaker pick.

“If that’s okay with you.” Lyall forced that out as he turned to Kat. He hated sounding so wishy-washy, but the young human’s face had gone blank, and he couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“I’m not complaining that you’re offering to be my bodyguard again.” Kat squirmed in his seat. “But I have to make it to Sunday dinner with my family tomorrow. Are you okay with that?”

“Sure.” Lyall relaxed back into his seat. He was surprised Kat was so anxious about him meeting his parents. Compared to the hopper, it would be nothing. “I’ll pretend to be a normal human, and everything will be fine.”