Page 26 of On A Rift’s Edge (Riftworld #2)

L yall had found that long runs calmed him down. In his true form, he could lope for hours, working off the restless energy that built up when he had to keep himself in one of his two Earth forms.

Keeping a human shape took the most out of him, and Kaveh’s suggestion to enjoy the outdoors and then talk to Kat at lunch had made a lot of sense. He headed out from their meeting and transformed, enjoying the beauty of the saguaro forest that surrounded the ranch.

Eventually though, the exercise wasn’t enough. The sun was nowhere near its zenith, but his underlying anxiety about Kat’s safety had resurged. Lyall didn’t think of his different forms as separate entities. He was himself, no matter what he looked like.

There were times, though, when being in his Riftworld form opened his mind to other sensations and thoughts.

And Lyall felt something was wrong.

There was no rational reason for him to think so, but Lyall’s instincts had saved him more than once, and he wasn’t going to ignore them now.

He headed toward the outer boundary of the ranch, staying upwind of the tasty smell of the ranch’s small herd of cattle. Picking up Kat’s scent wasn’t difficult, and he sniffed around the older trail that began outside the main building before following it out toward the petting zoo.

The sight of a hellhound stalking the manicured grounds of the dude ranch stopped a number of humans in their tracks. He ignored them, tracking Kat’s entrancing scent. The nagging sense of wrongness kept growing, even though the ranch should be the safest place for the young human.

Then other odors came to him, familiar and unwelcome, and he broke into a run. He smelled ratkind, and not the pleasant scent reminiscent of fresh hay that Remi tried to cover up with cologne.

The Pouch Twins were back.

He charged toward the petting zoo where he had protected Kat and others against the phantoms once before and roared a challenge at the three enemies surrounding his human. Mabel had a rifle pointed at Kat, while Fable stood smacking a cudgel into his paw.

Worse yet, the hopper from the military base was there, and he was far more of a threat than the two ratkind enforcers.

Teo reacted first, leaping close to nine meters with no apparent effort and landing in front of him. He dodged Lyall’s savage attempt to bite him in two, landing a kick on Lyall’s flank hard enough to knock him off balance.

Lyall recovered and lunged at the hopper, but Teo jumped back out of range.

The few seconds of the skirmish were enough for Fable to react. He grabbed Kat from behind, using the bat to crush him against his furry chest.

Mabel pointed the rifle at Lyall. It was an empty threat. The weapon would work, given that they weren’t in a riftland, but Lyall could disrupt Earth tech weapons even outside of a rift.

The gun could kill Kat, though, so Lyall visualized a heat sigil in his mind. Mabel screamed as the rifle’s temperature shot up, burning her clawed hands, and dropped the weapon.

Lyall cast another sigil and left this one floating in the air. He needed an escape route, not for himself, but for his human. He stalked forward, growling, as Mabel cursed in pain and Fable tightened his hold on Kat.

“Don’t come any closer, dog.” Fable’s voice trembled, as it should. The two ratkind had dared to go after Kat a second time, and Lyall wanted to ensure it would be the last mistake the Pouch Twins ever made.

“Come as close as you want.” Teo’s eyes were bright with an emotion Lyall could identify easily. Anticipation. The hopper wanted this fight and thought he could win. “We’re taking your boyfriend to Arimanius. I’m sure he’ll be happy to have a chat with you as well.”

That sounded like the don was close by, which was worrisome. Lyall wasn’t going to let Teo take Kat anywhere, much less back to the mafia boss.

He feinted toward Fable, who shrieked and staggered backward, dragging Kat with him. Lyall twisted mid-air to slash at Teo instead.

The hopper was fast, but Lyall’s trick partially worked. One of his fangs slashed across Teo’s arm as he jumped out of reach.

Lyall’s priority was Kat, not fighting the hopper, so he whipped his head back toward Fable and was surprised to see the ratkind bent over in pain and Kat a few meters away.

The young human had Fable’s baseball bat in his hand, ready to strike. Lyall activated his sigil, and a hellmouth opened in front of Kat.

“Get out of here.” Lyall had sent Kat through a portal before, and he needed him to leave now.

Instead, Kat turned toward him and screamed, “Lyall, look out!”

Lyall felt a pressure on his back and around his neck. It wasn’t the first time an attacker had come up behind him and tried to garrote him, but most of his enemies weren’t stupid enough to try it when he was in his Riftworld form. A hellhound’s neck was nowhere near as vulnerable as a human’s.

He twisted his head around and snapped his jaws, catching a piece of fabric from Teo’s shirt before the hopper soared away in the air again. It was a dumb move on Teo’s part since the hopper hadn’t even made a serious attempt to throttle Lyall.

Then the pressure increased, and Lyall fell to the ground, thrashing. Whatever was around his neck had tightened of its own accord. His body shifted, despite Lyall fighting it with all his strength.

Then he was lying in the dust in front of the petting zoo, panting for air.

He was fully transformed—not into his human form, where he could do serious damage—but into the shape of a Scottish terrier.

“Hilarious.” Teo stood in front of him, right arm bloody, laughing so hard he could barely speak. “My capitán has the best tricks. Now I can bring him a new puppy and a kitten.”

Lyall snarled, rubbing his neck against the earth, but he had no way of removing the collar Arimanius had given his new hopper enforcer to use against him.

Panic surged through him. He would never go back to Arimanius and be his servant again.

He’d rather die. But even if this collar was better at keeping him in his small alterform than the last one, it couldn’t make him the don’s servant again.

Remi had released him from that, and Lyall would have to agree to an indenture contract for it to be binding.

Nothing could make him sign his life away again.

“Get away from him, right now.” Kat was approaching Teo, rather than jumping through a portal and escaping.

Even worse, he had the rifle in his hand.

Lyall wasn’t sure Kat knew how to handle the Earth weapon, and even if he did, a gun wasn’t going to scare off a hopper.

It would put Kat in serious danger, and that was unacceptable.

There was one thing that could force Lyall to submit to Arimanius again.

A threat to Kat’s life.

“Gatito.” Teo gave an amused shake of his head at Kat. “You’re not going to shoot me. Come along quietly, and I’ll let you hold Lyall’s leash. Maybe you’d both like that, no?”

Kat didn’t respond to the taunts, only lifted the rifle, sighted, and fired.

The sound of the shot reverberated through the air. Lyall blinked, so shocked he had trouble processing what he was seeing.

Teo stood unmoving as the bullet Kat had fired at his chest hung in the air in front of him, quivering as if torn between the laws of Earth physics and the alien reality of the Riftworld.

“Bad kitty.” Teo hissed the words out at Kat then moved forward to grab him.

Lyall growled, furious and desperate to help his human. What should have been a low sound from the throat of a small Earth animal morphed into a battle roar.

He had transformed back into his hellhound shape, and he wasted no time before launching himself at Teo.

This time the hopper was caught unawares, and Lyall landed on him with all his weight driving the hopper into the ground.

It should have broken a few bones, but Teo’s body had an annoying flexible quality.

He broke free as soon as Lyall tried to twist his jaws around him, then jumped through the air to land on the roof of the petting zoo’s clinic.

Lyall shot a quick glance around, but the Pouch Twins had abandoned Teo as soon as Lyall had transformed.

“Nice trick, gatito.” Teo threw Kat a mock salute. He had the collar in his good hand, as blood dripped down his right. Lyall rushed toward Kat, poised to fight if the hopper tried to attack again.

“To next time.” Teo sprang backward off the roof and disappeared.