Page 38 of On A Rift’s Edge (Riftworld #2)
K at hated seeing panic on Lyall’s face, but it was the irritated glance Giana shot him as she put the alien plant back in her expensive handbag that sent his heart plummeting.
The plan hadn’t worked, and all he had done was make Lyall’s bad situation even worse.
“Hello again, Kat.” Arimanius was less creepy in his true form, even though he towered over Kat and had clawed hands that could tear him apart.
Intimidating for sure, but at least the plastic fakeness of Paul Cicero was no longer on display.
“I’m afraid I missed your first text asking to meet with me. ”
The mafia boss turned his smug grin on Lyall, who looked stricken—and maybe a little guilty?
“Your Matchmaker-chosen partner doesn’t seem to trust your judgment in wanting to meet with me.
” Arimanius tapped his watch, the same ostentatious time piece he had worn in his human disguise.
“Lyall deleted your initial message from my device and told you to meet me at the art gallery, instead of your more straightforward offer to come here. An assassination attempt, perhaps?”
Kat would have slapped his forehead in frustration if his hands hadn’t been tied behind his back.
Lyall had sabotaged the plan and sent a fake invitation for a meeting at the wrong place.
Arimanius had found out and sent the Pouch Twins out to grab Kat and now thought this had all been a convoluted plan to kill him.
Giana began laughing. “Please. Even if Lyall could set up a hit on you with the indenture contract in place, he wouldn’t send this clueless boy to carry it out.”
Kat didn’t mind that insult as long it meant that the mafia boss didn’t believe he had set up an ambush for him. He had set up a trap of sorts, but not a contract killing.
“I’m not a violent person.” Kat did his best to sound calm and not murderous.
The latter wasn’t as difficult as the former.
“My initial offer was to meet you here, in your place of business, for your convenience.” ‘Evil lair’ or ‘mobster’s den’ might be more accurate, but not as diplomatic.
“I want you to release Lyall from his contract, and I’m prepared to make you an attractive offer in exchange. ”
“Other than whatever value you have as hostage, you’re of no use to me.” Arimanius gave Kat a dismissive shrug and turned to Fable. “Go and bring the hopper out here.”
Fable scrambled to obey, but Kat forced his fear down and spoke up again. “I know you want the control object more than anything else. That’s what I’m offering.”
“You can help me steal the device with your Azdaha friend standing guard over it?” Arimanius chuckled. “I don’t think that’s likely.”
The mob boss turned away from him as Fable returned with Teo. The hopper’s face was green—literally, as his human alterform now included patches of frog-skin on his face and arms. He swayed on his feet as he stared up at the mafia boss.
“I hear Lyall’s efforts to teach you how to shoot whiskey didn’t pan out.
” The mafia boss’s words had an undercurrent of anger beneath his joking tone.
“Trying to drink a hellhound under the table is highly inadvisable. I told you to learn how to utilize the cyberbug, since you seem to have an affinity for human technology. Let’s see the work you’ve done. All of it.”
Teo, who didn’t have a poker face, turned a paler shade of green. Lyall remained silent and impassive, but there was a tension in his posture Kat recognized. Lyall must have convinced the hopper to help him in his misguided plan to stop Kat from rescuing him.
This was getting worse by the minute.
The cyberbug “Paul” had shown Kat in the art gallery rose up from a watch on Teo’s wrist, expanded in size, and flew over to land on Giana’s shoulder, ignoring Arimanius.
“Evangeline has always preferred me to you.” Giana pulled a vintage plastic pen from her purse and gave it to the ladybug alien to snack on.
“You can hardly be surprised that Lyall would try to keep his human sweetheart out of your clutches. I came here to set up a meeting with our son, not watch you play scary monster with a young dupe and a lovestruck hellhound stuck in a servant contract.”
“You didn’t come here so the two of us could have a chat with Remi.
” Arimanius sounded truly angry now, and Kat didn’t like the way he spoke to Giana.
Not only had he put himself and Lyall in danger from the mafia boss, he had endangered Remi’s mom as well.
“This story that Remi wanted a parlay here protected by a seymour contract is a lie.”
Remi’s mother rolled her eyes. Kat wished he could have a drop of her confidence. “I certainly didn’t travel to Arizona in the middle of summer to keep you company.”
“This gullible fool didn’t come up with this plan by himself.” Arimanius shoved a clawed finger at Kat’s chest, and despite his best efforts, Kat flinched. Mabel tightened her grip on his arm. There was no getting away with her holding him.
“Boss.” Lyall spoke for the first time. His voice was flat, and he didn’t look at Kat at all. “The wards have triggered again. Do you want me to let our next guest join this party?”
“If that fool Zale thinks I’ll let him crawl back into my good graces, he’s mistaken.
” Arimanius moved his sharpened claw up to Kat’s neck and flicked off the shirt’s top button to expose the necklace Kat had hidden underneath it.
“Living leathers on a human? Lyall must be truly smitten. They’re not impenetrable, of course, and your lover can’t attack me to save you.
Tell me all about this plan to kill me, and I’ll consider not murdering you. ”
“It’s not Zale, it’s Remi.” Lyall sounded infuriatingly calm as he dropped that bombshell. Arimanius spun around, and Giana sucked in a breath of surprise.
Lyall cocked his head at Remi’s parents. “You and your wife can keep arguing about meeting with your son or lower the wards and actually talk to him.”
The door to the suite banged open at that moment, and Remi stormed in. The mischievous grin he wore as a default expression was nowhere to be seen, and when he locked eyes with Kat, there was no mistaking the anger there.
“I see no one reset the blood-relative exception to the wards in my absence.” Lyall crossed his arms. “My contract specifically prevents me from harming anyone in this cozy little family unit, including Remi, so he can cause as much trouble as he wants.”
“So not nice to see both of you again.” Remi gave his parents a sarcastic smile before turning his attention to the hopper. “Oh, look, a new team member. You must be Teo. I’m Remi.”
Kat had fallen victim to Remi’s psychic powers of seduction before and had limited immunity to them.
The form of mind control the half-ratkind used was more effective if it wasn’t expected, and an existing crush on someone else—in Kat’s case, Lyall—also weakened their effect.
But Kat could sense the flood of lust Remi was directing at the hopper, and it was overwhelming.
All Kat could think about was Lyall, how hot the sex had been and how badly he wanted to jump him right now.
He bit his inner lip and tried to focus on what Remi was doing to Teo.
Some riftpeople had strong mental shields. Hellhounds like Lyall and drakones like Kaveh could block Remi’s powers fairly easily.
Teo, as it turned out, could not.
“Mi amor.” Teo rushed over to Remi and scooped his hand up to plant a kiss on it. “You have such beautiful eyes. Like the ocean on a stormy day.”
“Cut it out.” Mabel’s snarling voice behind Kat made him jump. “Stop messing with the don’s new enforcer, Remi, or I’ll give you two not-so-beautiful black eyes.”
“Teo.” Remi smiled at the hopper and batted his eyelashes. “Mabel and Fable are so annoying. Get rid of them for me, please.”
The hopper moved so fast, Kat barely caught his movements. He went after Fable first, doubling him over with a punch to the gut. The hand clutching Kat’s arm released, and Mabel growled and moved over to help her brother.
The female ratkind had a knife in one hand, but Teo produced a sword the length of Kat’s arm from a rivulet of ooze that dripped down into his hand.
Unlike Lyall’s bone-like weapons that came from his living leathers, the blade appeared crystalline, with a gray-green color that reminded Kat of pond scum.
The Pouch Twins gave simultaneous squeaks of alarm and fled.
“That’s enough.” Arimanius barked the order in Teo’s direction.
The hopper ignored him and rushed back to Remi’s side, the translucent sword disappearing into his body.
He had partially transformed into his Riftworld form, his eyes now oversized with brilliant copper sclera, and his fingers ending in bulbous pads.
“So annoying, I agree.” Teo’s eyes bulged with adoration as he gazed at Remi. “But they are gone now, and I am enchanted by you, carino mio. Perhaps we could go for a stroll together. I want to learn everything about you.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know the ugly details.
” Lyall moved to stand in front of Arimanius, and Kat felt a pang of betrayal at the sight.
Intellectually, he knew the hellhound had no choice but to protect the mafia boss from any threat, but watching him guard Arimanius as Kat stood with his hands tied behind his back still hurt.
“Remi, darling, stop playing with the frog man.” Giana took a few steps closer to her son, and Teo narrowed his eyes at her.
The hopper had met Remi seconds ago but was already jealous of everyone—even Remi’s mother.
“You haven’t responded to any of my messages.” Giana sounded more petulant than upset, but her gold-digger facade slipped again as she reached out a hand to her son, only to pull it back when he ignored her.