Page 54 of Rifted Hearts
Remi straightened then addressed her fluently in the air drakone language, rather than English. “His half-human one, yes.”
Kaveh dropped the arm he had around Remi’s shoulder. Even after the revelation that Lyall was a hellhound, some part of Kaveh had wanted to believe that Remi had been caught up in the Colony’s plot by accident or through pressure on their part.
Instead, he was the closest they had to a crown prince.
“Remigio Gatti is also the ratkind involved in the attack on Ceto’s human husband.” Xiang Jao caught Kaveh’s gaze and held it. “Do you still want to protect him now that you know he targeted your Matchmaker-chosen human as well?”
“Ceto’s ‘human’ has a name.” Remi’s knees were trembling, which Kaveh could tell only because he hadn’t moved far from Remi’s side, as horrified as he was by these revelations. Remi’s voice didn’t reflect the fear Kaveh could tell he was hiding. “It’s Jal, by the way. And the other human you’re referring to is called Kat. Nice, short names. Maybe you should try using them.”
“How do you know this?” Kaveh wanted this all to be a mistake, not a devastating betrayal that kept getting worse by the minute.
“Ceto told me.” Xiang Jao came closer to all three of them. In a way, there was more tension in the air now than when the phantoms had been attacking. “Remi has a powerful psychic seduction ability, which he used to manipulate Ceto’s human, much as he has manipulated you and your intended spouse.”
Xiang Jao gestured behind them at Kat, and Kaveh turned to check on him. He had stayed in the enclosure, one arm around each child. He flushed at her words, confirming every damning fact.
“I’m surprised Ceto let you live.” The matriarch gave Remi an assessing look. “She’s not known to be forgiving when her possessions are threatened.”
“Jalconvinced her to let me go.” Remi added more of a bite to his words, which Kaveh didn’t think was wise. “Or as you put it, her human possession.”
Kaveh thought back to all the times he had noticed other people’s fascination with Remi, which he had chalked up to Remi’s attractiveness and charm. There was also the odd behavior of people in the monstertown’s saloon when Remi had convinced everyone to try out the Matchmaker bracelet. All of the couples dancing, lovers kissing—none of that had been real. It had been mental manipulation on Remi’s part. It was no wonder Amanita had taken a liking to him. He used a psychic assault against others as she did, only focusing on lust, not fear.
Kaveh’s mental shields protected him against those types of attacks, so Remi had been forced to fall back on more traditional methods of seduction—gaining Kaveh’s trust by helping in the clinic and telling funny stories over dinner. Then there had been the picnic and the one night Remi wanted to spend in bed with Kaveh.
All part of the plan.
Nothing Kaveh had felt about the man over the past week had been real at all.
“If you know so much about the Colony, you must have heard my father trapped a hellhound under an indenture contract.” Remi avoided looking at Lyall as he spoke. “Lyall came to drakone territory only because I forced him to. And he kept Kat safe when my cousins tried to kidnap him. He’s free from that contract now. Let him leave. He didn’t come up with this plan. I did.”
“Now the little rat wants to order about the matriarch of our clan.” Rhys had stayed quiet longer than Kaveh expected, probably because the older Tarasque had put a large, green-scaled hand on his shoulder. Now Rhys’s temper flared out, even nastier than usual. “They both deserve to die, along with that foul repoequus and her spawn. Kaveh’s match needs to be taken to the keep immediately, whether he consents or not.”
Both children burst into tears and howls of protest, the girl yelling at Rhys not to hurt the demon unicorn baby and the boy shouting loudly that his father was a lawyer and would sue them. Kat managed to shush the two then stepped forward.
“I’m not going anywhere.” Kat turned to Kaveh, eyes blazing in anger. Kat never got angry, even when he should. “Kaveh, I’m sorry, but even if that bracelet changes when I touch it, I don’t feel that way about you. Also, I’m not going to stand by while your relatives murder Remi and Lyall, not to mention Amanita and her colt. They saved me and the kids and you as well.”
The matriarch gave Kat an exasperated look, but Rhys went further. He shoved forward and yanked at Kat’s arm.
Lyall must have been as exhausted as Kaveh felt after the battle, but he moved with lightning speed. He had rippedRhys’s hand off Kat and put himself between the vet assistant and the angry drakone before Rhys had a chance to react.
“Get your claws off him and leave Remi alone, or I’ll rip you into so many pieces even the phantoms won’t want to eat what’s left.” Lyall’s eyes glowed with the fires of a hellmouth.
Kaveh saw the situation crumbling into a blood bath if he didn’t do something. He stepped forward and physically pushed Lyall and Rhys apart, flaring out summ with both hands for emphasis.
Even Xiang Jao took a step back, and silence fell over the group.
“That’s enough.” Kaveh drew the fire back into his hands, hoping his clan would view it as a sign of control over the summ, rather than the limited power he had left after the battle with the phantoms. “No one is harming anyone unless they go through me first. I’m not forcing Kat to come to the keep or even to try on the bracelet to confirm he’s my match. It’s not what he wants, and I respect that. What’s important is that there are still phantoms out there and they are our clan’s responsibility. The humans here are in danger because the ranch was absorbed into our riftland without permission from its inhabitants.”
“The control object is gone,” Xiang Jao said. “The Colony sent Remi to steal it, and this precipitated the crisis with the phantoms. He and his hellhound have been inside the base. The sparkleflies observed this.”
“The phantoms broke out of the inner core before I arrived.” Remi wasn’t lying about that, Kaveh knew. Remi had gone there to find Kat and had met up with the three ratkind there. Had their kidnapping plan gone awry when Lyall decided to help Kat? “One of them almost ate me andmy cousins. I went in there to find Kat, not your glowing dildo thing.”
“Well, I went in there to steal it.” Lyall didn’t sound at all remorseful. “But it was gone by then, and Remi doesn’t have it. If he did, I would have slapped him upside the head, taken it from him, and destroyed it. I don’t want to see that technology in Arimanius’s greasy paws any more than I want the drakones to have it.”
“Lyall’s telling the truth.” Kat’s voice was shaky but firm. “He went in to check, and it was gone. Then he made sure I got safely back to the ranch.”
Kaveh wasn’t good at picking up on romantic vibes between people—in fact, he was awful at it—but Lyall’s and Kat’s body language was obvious enough even he could tell there was a mutual attraction. He felt nothing but relief that Kat had rejected their Matchmaker pairing, but Kat falling for a hellhound? Even given all the bad-boy types Kat had dated, Lyall was on a whole other level of dangerous.
But the hellhound had protected Kat from the ratkind and stayed to fight by Kaveh’s side.
