Page 47 of On A Rift's Edge
“Maybe it’s a good thing those little furballs jumped me.” Lyall glanced over at the two feline offenders, who appeared fascinated by the chaos they had unleashed. “I have to take Kat away, for his own safety.”
“What?” Kat asked. He had thought Lyall wanted to break to him that they could be fuck buddies but not anything more than that. All of a sudden, he was talking about making him leave his family. “No, you’re not kidnapping me again. I’m fine with keeping you or Kaveh with me to make sure I’m safe, but that doesn’t mean I agree to go to a safe house or whatever.”
Naomi held her hand up, as if she was a student in a classroom. “He’s already kidnapped you once?”
“Paul Cicero is Arimanius.” Lyall ignored Naomi’s question and met Kat’s eyes before continuing to explain himself to the rest of the family. He was serious, then. This wasn’t a joke.
“He’s the head of the ratkind mafia in Boston, and I was his indentured servant until six months ago. Arimanius wants revenge on me, his son Remi, and the Saguaro Rift drakones, especially Kaveh Salehi. Kat was targeted by him because of me.”
“That can’t be true.” Kat felt anger rising up inside him, like acid bubbling into his chest. He pushed it down, like he always did. It didn’t go away as easily as it should have. “I’ve met him, Naomi and Jenny have met him, and he looks nothing like a humanoid rat monster. Remi told me he’s the only one in his family who can hold a full human form, and that’s because he’s mixed.”
“Arimanius has tech that allows him to hold a human form if he’s away from Riftworld effects.” Lyall shook his head. “I’d say I’m surprised he could pull this type of con off, but he has a lot of connections and power. I can’t protect you in this environment, and that’s why I need you to come with me to my clan’s territory.”
He was talking about taking Kat to the hellmouth in Oregon. There was no monstertown near Mt. Hood. Most of the riftpeople there were hostile to humans, and none more so than the hellhounds. Plus, Lyall had been exiled from his family. They would hardly welcome Kat with puppy dog kisses. Not to mention that Kat couldn’t leave work, his studies, and his family behind.
“How do you know Paul is Arimanius?” Kat thought back to his interactions with the venture capitalist. He had been annoying, but nothing else about him stood out. “That makes no sense. He was at the ranch when Teo and the ratkind attacked and ending up hiding in the sauna.”
Lyall paused, and Kat had a sinking feeling there was more to this story. “Teo told me. He came to your apartment early this morning and asked for a parlay—a type of protected negotiation Riftworld enemies use.”
Kat couldn’t believe Lyall hadn’t told him he had talked to the hopper. How could they trust anything Teo said? If Lyall was wrong and Paul wasn’t a rat mafia boss in disguise, the hellhound might try to hurt or kill him. Maybe that was what Teo intended to have happen.
“You didn’t tell me about any of this.” Winkie took the words out of Kat’s mouth. She would have shaken her spoon at Kat, but his father had already taken the utensil away. “You need to move back into your old room. Away from all the monsters.”
“That won’t work.” Lyall’s voice was flat. “I’m sorry, Ms. Nakamura, but Arimanius and the ratkind have no trouble carrying out criminal activities in human communities, even far from a rift. He knows he can get to me if he grabs Kat. That’s why he approached Naomi and Jenny in the first place. This was all a setup.”
“There’s no reason for Arimanius to come after me.” Kat knew Lyall wanted to protect him, but if the hellhound was the target, he might be making Kat less safe by staying with him. Maybe that would be the argument which would calm Lyall down. Then they could think things through, get Kaveh and Remi’s opinion, and not let Lyall merc a relatively innocent venture capitalist.
“There’s a reason, believe me,” Lyall said, clearly frustrated. Then he stopped, and swallowed hard as he avoided Kat’s eyes.
There was more that Lyall had been keeping from him. Something that felt awful and familiar at the same time.
“Kat’s your Matchmaker mate, isn’t he?” George, as much a fan of sensationalized Riftworld docudramas as his wife, broke into the conversation. “That’s why my son is in danger.”
“What?” Kat turned to Lyall, his pulse pounding in his ears. This felt like when Kaveh had told him the Matchmaker might have selected Kat to be his partner.
It felt awful.
He wasn’t going to accept that this Matchmaker insanity had spared him from being Kaveh’s partner so it could bind him together with Lyall.
“That’s why I wanted to talk to you alone.” Lyall looked and sounded guilty. “Kaveh was going to help me tell you yesterday at lunch, but?—”
“Kaveh knows about the Matchmaker thing?” Something inside Kat broke. He was angry, and for once he was going to show it. “I bet Remi’s in on it as well. This is as bad as it was the first time. I’m not a child, and you shouldn’t have kept this from me. You told me you could only do casual relationships the first time we slept together, remember? And there was plenty of time to tell me last night after we had sex again. I want to be with a person who loves me because I’m me, not because an alien force has taken over his mind.”
That was wrong, and he shouldn’t have said it, but the words kept coming, boiling out of him. It was also a shocking thing to say in front of his parents, but he didn’t care. “Of course you hate Paul. You’d be jealous of anyone who wanted to date me. That doesn’t mean he’s the ratkind mafia leader you used to work for. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Kat, please.” Lyall held up his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry, and I should have told you sooner, but even if you don’t want to be with me, I need to protect you. I can’t take Arimanius and his enforcers on in a fight and keep you safe at the same time. He’ll use you to get to me.”
“Then you need to leave.” Kat pointed at the door. “I can’t stop you from dragging me off any more than Remi could have stopped Kaveh from doing that. But I won’t let you tell yourself I consented to it.”
Tears stung Kat’s eyes, and the hand he pointed at Lyall trembled. This was worse than how he had felt with Kaveh. He had fallen in love with Lyall, even though he shouldn’t have. Lyall was being forced into a relationship with him because of the Matchmaker, and Kat couldn’t accept that. He wouldn’t accept that.
Lyall stared down at the floor. Kat waited for him to blow up and yell at him or maybe reach out and grab him, but the hellhound was silent for a long moment.
“You’ll need to stay close to Kaveh, then.” Lyall sounded defeated, not angry. It was as if he had expected Kat’s rejection. “I’ll see if the Colony will back off when I leave. Be safe.”
A mini-hellmouth opened up behind him, dripping with hot lava and sending out plumes of sulfur clouds into the room. Lyall stepped back through it, and then he was gone.
About thirty minutesor a lifetime later, Kat finished telling his family the whole story, from when he found out that Remi’s cute Scottish terrier was a hellhound, to all of the near misses and danger. His father had gasped a few times, and Jenny blinked away tears. Naomi kept sending messages to the ranch to see if Kaveh could be reached. At least his family accepted his mentor as someone they could trust, even if he was a riftperson.
