Page 27 of Rifted Hearts
Kaveh’s reaction to the startling movement of the riftsaid he knew a lot.
Remi couldn’t let his strange feelings for the man get in the way of doing the job the Colony had sent him to do. Sure, Kaveh was hot, and the sex had been incredible. Not that it shouldn’t have been—Kaveh was ace, not a virgin, but still—it had been so different. Pleasurable, yes, but also intimate in a way that Remi hadn’t experienced before. He never wanted to cuddle, for fuck’s sake, but somehow Kaveh was special in a way that was terrifying.
Remi couldn’t afford to think this way. As soon as he knew who the Matchmaker had chosen, he would let Zale know. His cousin would grab the hapless spouse-to-be before the drakones locked both Kaveh and the human into the safety of their keep. Remi and Lyall should be long gone by then.
Unless Arimanius ordered Remi to lure Kaveh’s future lover to an easier spot to grab them.
In addition to deceiving Kaveh, Remi would use his abilities to seduce the vet’s intended match and then kidnap the unfortunate human for good measure.
Why did this all feel so wrong? Kaveh was only another mark, and there was nothing remarkable about him. Except for his stunning good looks and amazing body. And his smile, which Remi had only seen a few times and wanted to see again, over and over. Then there was his intelligence, skill, and devotion to his work—none of which were qualities Remi had ever admired in the past.
Something was off about his emotional state, clearly. Maybe there was some malfunction with his seductive powers. It was like they had been turned against him, and he was falling for Kaveh and not the other way around.
There was a collective gasp, and Remi jerked his head to see the terrier lying in a heap on the ground. Lyall musthave cut it too close and got clipped by the cadejo’s lunges. He wasn’t moving.
Shit, was he even breathing?
Remi tried to think of something, anything he could do and came up with nothing. His powers didn’t work when another overwhelming emotion—in this case, demonic fury—had control of an individual. Running out to physically stop José wouldn’t do anything except get himself hurt.
Kaveh. That’s who he needed right now. The veterinarian could calm the crowd down and take Lyall away to his clinic and get him all fixed up. He would know what to do and take over, and everything would be okay.
Because Lyall had to be all right.
The cadejo pounced, jumping on the small dog with a howl of glee, and Remi’s paralysis broke. He screamed at the huge black dog to stop and charged forward, any flicker of common sense or survival instinct going out the window. All he knew was Lyall—his know-it-all, sarcastic childhood companion and probably the only one in Remi’s entire extended family he considered a friend—was hurt and he had to help him.
A hole in reality itself opened up in front of him, a mini-rift lined with dripping lava, smelling of sulfur and crackling with roaring flames.
Remi snapped. His human mind went blank, and his alter form rose to the surface. The chinchilla in him always chose the second option in the fight-or-flight reflex, and Remi hopped out of his pile of clothes in full furry form and ran straight into the hellmouth.
His momentum carried him through the small earth rift. Remi’s normally excellent chinchilla vision blurred, and after a few frantic blinks he realized nothing was wrong with his eyes. A dense fog had descended out of nowhere, sothick he couldn’t see more than a handsbreadth in front of him. It made no sense. Fog didn’t roll in this fast, especially on a sunny day in Arizona.
The mists parted, and an enormous creature moved toward him. Canine in shape, the monster had balls of flame for eyes and fangs like a saber-toothed tiger.
Remi had thought José was intimidating in his alter form. The nightmare that loomed before him made the cadejo look like a golden retriever puppy. He spun around on all fours and darted away.
He didn’t get far.
The beast came after him, making up the distance between them with no effort. A paw pinned Remi to the ground, and all he could smell was sulfur and wet fur.
Then Remi was lifted up in the air, and the part of his brain that wasn’t screaming in fear realized he was being held by a pair of hands, not crunched in the slavering jaws of a monster. He gathered enough courage to crack open his eyes.
Lyall, back in his human alter form and stark naked, held him at arm’s length, shaking his head. “For fuck’s sake, Remi. This was not the time for you to turn cute and cuddly.”
An unfamiliar fang necklace around Lyall’s neck came to life, slithering around his muscled torso and lower body and encasing the hellhound in new fighting armor. This reptilian living leather was black with a green iridescence on its scales, and various weapons made of bone—knives, daggers, and even a short sword—grew into strategic positions on Lyall’s short but powerful frame.
Remi tried to scream at Lyall that this was all his fault, since he had first worried the terrier was dead then fallen into a hellmouth and been chased by Lyall’s hellhound alterform. The only creature he had seen more terrifying than that was Ceto, Sea Queen of the Deep.
Unfortunately, Remi was still a chinchilla.
He kicked his legs and let out several angry squeaking noises, followed up with some spitting.
Lyall wasn’t impressed. “This is what happens when you suppress your alter form for years. Calm down, take some breaths, and you’ll change back.”
After some hyperventilation, Remi’s panic subsided enough to allow him to transform. It was awkward, painful, and embarrassing. Especially because he was naked, and Lyall was dressed like he had just walked out of a leather bar.
“Let go of me.” Remi backed away from Lyall.
Shit, he was actually blushing. That never happened. He spun around in confusion. They weren’t on the soccer field but were instead standing in a yard behind a McMansion-style suburban home draped in guardweed.
