Page 30 of Rifted Hearts
Remi glanced over at his dog, who sat about a meter away, sitting stiffly as if at attention. “When I told you Ididn’t know what Riftworld clan my father was from, I wasn’t being entirely honest.”
Kaveh didn’t say anything, having figured out Remi found silence from him unnerving and often tried to fill it.
“My biological father’s one of the ratkind.” Remi twisted his fingers together, another sign of nervousness he rarely displayed. Kaveh tried not to think of those same deft fingers undoing his clothing only a few hours earlier. “My mother’s always been a free spirit, and she didn’t tell me I was part monster until I was a teenager. I didn’t want to tell you because I know the drakones and the ratkind…don’t get along.”
That was an understatement. “Are you one of the Colony’s enforcers?”
“I’m not an enforcer of anything except dress codes and happy hour.” Remi sighed. “I know this looks bad. Yes, I asked Garreth to set up a meeting with you because I wanted to find out more about the drakones. I thought you might help me convince one to appear on my live-stream.”
Kaveh thought back to their first date, when he had let Remi live-stream him at the farmers’ market. Remi had convinced a drakone to appear on his show and hadn’t even known it was happening.
It was hard to believe that was only a few days ago.
Remi looked at his terrier again, swallowed, then continued. “Lyall’s part fairy hound and part mothcat. He’s been my companion animal since I was a kid. He prefers his Earth shape, and it’s easier for him to maintain it with the collar on. Otherwise, the translocation thing tends to alarm people.”
“Lyall’s collar is a Riftworld containment device.” Kaveh should have recognized it earlier, when Remi had removed it from José’s neck. He pointed to Remi’s neck, where asingle fang hung from a rawhide string. It was hard to imagine a piece of jewelry less suited for Remi’s tastes in fashion. “That’s living leather armor. And you have a cyberbug in your watch. I don’t think there are too many human vid streamers with items like that.”
“Lyall has had that collar for years.” Remi tugged at the cord around his neck. “This thing was his idea to protect me because we were both worried about going into drakone territory. And I’ve used Bug to help with my streaming since I was in college.”
“You set your dog up in a fight against a cadejo.” Kaveh hated the brutality of animal fights, especially ones between part or full-blood Riftworld participants. “You placed bets on him. He could have been hurt.”
“José the cadejo had a few beers too many and picked an old-fashioned dog fight with Lyall.” Remi shook his head. “They met when I first arrived and became friends. Just ask José. Anyway, the two of them set it up, not me. The bet wasn’t for money. It was with the guardians to tell me what they knew about you and the Matchmaker. I was trying to help you.”
Kaveh wouldn’t have thought the two decorous komainu could be talked into a bet on a dog fight, but Remi certainly knew how to charm people into doing things they never thought they would try.
He was a prime example of that.
Remi continued, the words spilling out too quickly. “At one point I thought Lyall had been injured, and I freaked out. He was faking it to win the match against José. The only thing that got hurt in that match was my pride. I’m not used to being inside a rift, and I changed into my alter form without meaning to.”
Lyall beating José in a fight was a surprise, as was thedog’s ability to mimic every detail of a normal Scottish terrier. Kaveh could usually tell if someone from any species had Riftworld blood, and he had treated a number of mothcats and fairy hounds. He had never heard of a hybrid of the two species, and perhaps that odd background gave Lyall the ability to blend in with Earth animals.
Kaveh let himself relax a little. José might be scatterbrained, but he wouldn’t let a true threat to the town enter without notifying Kaveh or the guardians. Part-human Riftworld people like Remi often took mixed animals as pets, and fairy hounds, who could pass for dogs and sometimes talk, were often as friendly to humans as mothcats like Flutterberry were.
Finding out that Lyall was a fairy hound didn’t bother him too much. The species were nowhere near as dangerous as some cadejos who, unlike José, viewed humans as meals instead of marriage partners. Or something truly terrifying, like the Riftworld species known as hellhounds, who often worked as assassins or mercenaries.
Finding out Remi was ratkind was different.
“Did you hurt anyone when you were in your alter form?” Kaveh knew that transformation could be disorienting, especially for someone like Remi, who had fully integrated himself into the human world.
The ratkind often morphed into supersized rodent humanoids and were known for their violent dispositions. They lived in large groups and had adapted to the human criminal underworld with ease. Even if Remi hadn’t meant to cause any harm, he could have panicked. Many people in town, especially those who were Riftworld, were too proud to seek help when they should. He needed to know right away if someone in the town was injured and might need his help.
Remi began laughing, which wasn’t at all the reaction Kaveh expected. “Wait, you’re worried I attacked someone after I transformed?”
“The ratkind have many dangerous fighters.” Kaveh didn’t appreciate Remi taking this so lightly. He wished his new friend and now not-so-fake dating partner had told him about being ratkind earlier, but he had to admit Remi was right. His drakone clan would assume the worst if they knew. Maybe Kaveh would have as well.
“Trust me, no one would use ‘dangerous’ or ‘fighter’ as an adjective to describe my alter form.” Remi shuffled his feet, looking uncomfortable. “I only have a full animal manifestation. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Many people are frightened of rats, rightly or wrongly.” Kaveh tried to make eye contact with Remi, but the man wouldn’t meet his eyes. Also, was he blushing?
“My alter form is a chinchilla.” Remi buried his head in his hands. “It’s so embarrassing, and I did it in front of the whole town. José told me I smelled tasty. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, can we talk about finding your one true love again?”
Kaveh wasn’t sure he heard Remi correctly. Appearing as an Earth animal other than a human wasn’t rare among Riftworld people with human blood, although most had alien characteristics, or at least a larger size. The ratkind though—they didn’t do small and adorable. On the other hand, despite its rabbit-like appearance, the soft-furred chinchillawasin the rodent family.
He held his hands roughly thirty centimeters apart. “You’re only this big in your alter form?”
“Alargechinchilla.” Remi sighed. “Okay, not much bigger than Lyall is now. If I’m near a rift, I have abilities I share with the species. I have a craving for salad, as younoticed. I’m fast, and I can jump pretty high. But there isn’t anyone in the monstertown, including any random toddler, who couldn’t wipe the floor with me.”
Kaveh wasn’t sure what to do. Remi hadn’t been honest with him, but a half human whose only ratkind ability was transforming into a chinchilla wasn’t likely to appeal to Arimanius as a prize Colony recruit. Despite the chaos Remi had caused, it didn’t sound like anyone had come to harm, and Kaveh had asked him to help with finding his match.
