Page 6 of On A Rift's Edge
Remi began shouting for someone or possibly everyone to stop, and the monster on top of him shifted his form.
Kat was on his back, arms splayed out, but now Lyall, clad in skin-tight leather armor, was lying directly on top of him.
Lyall was a little shorter than Kat, totally jacked, and had the most arresting face Kat had ever seen, with silver-white hair and amber eyes when he was fully transformed. Right now, he had a human body, but the eyes locked on Kat’s face glowed an angry red.
It was as if all of Kat’s sexual fantasies for the past several months had come true, except for the parts with uncomfortable wet clothing and public humiliation.
Lyall rolled off him and helped him to his feet but continued to grip Kat’s arm.
Kaveh stood several meters away with Remi behind him and two fireballs in each hand. “Both of you have arrived uninvited onto drakone lands.” Kaveh’s tone was sharp. “I want an explanation.”
“I’ve got no fucking clue.” Zale pulled himself out of the pool in an alarming tangle of suckered appendages, then transformed into a more or less human body, aside from tentacles that sprang out of his back. He approached Kaveh cautiously, his hands raised.
“I apologize for the intrusion.” Lyall turned toward Kaveh and tilted his chin up to expose his neck.
It was a gesture Kat recognized as a sign of submission. It was also the most formal act of apology Kat had ever seen from Lyall. Kat wanted an apology too, or at least an explanation of why he had been left confused and miserable for months. Sure, Lyall was a hellhound, but Kat had seen him use human technology. A text or two would have been nice.
The hellhound glared at Zale as he continued to respond to Kaveh. “I’d be happy to tell you what little I know about how I got here, but the kraken needs to explain why he attacked Kat.”
Lyall turned to face Kat. His handsome face was furious, but his tone was soft and concerned. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay.” Kat had practiced what he might say to Lyall if the hellhound returned or even called him. “Why did you ghost me?” or “Just so you know, I’ve moved on, and I’m totally over you.” But with Lyall standing in front of him, panting with exertion and clearly worried about him, all Kat could come up with was, “How are you?”
“Sorry, I was aiming for Remi.” Zale looked Kat up and down, not bothering to hide his interest. With his massive chest and a pair of wet and far-too-tight trousers, he was the type of bad boy Kat would usually find attractive, minus the tentacles.
But the only thing Kat could focus on now was that Lyall was back.
Zale jabbed a finger at his half-ratkind cousin and continued his rambling non-apology. “Thought it would be funny. Didn’t mean to snatch Lyall’s side piece by mistake.”
“I’m not his side piece.” Kat might not know how to talk to Lyall after months of pining for him, but he had plenty to say to Zale, who had been one of the three Riftworld criminals sent to abduct him when everyone thought the Matchmaker had chosen him, not Remi, as Kaveh’s future spouse.
Remi walked over and slapped his cousin on the head. Zale had the gall to look wounded. “Don’t even think about Kat that way, or Lyall will turn you into kraken calamari, and I’ll let Kaveh grill the leftovers. Start talking. Did my father send you?”
“I went for a swim, and the portal opened up.” Zale threw up both arms and a few tentacles. “Out of nowhere. Anyway, this wasn’t the plan for me to get here. I was going to be discreet.”
That sounded like Zale had admitted to being a spy whose travel plans had gone in an unexpected direction. Kat was no expert, but the tentacled biker dude didn’t seem to be a good choice for espionage.
Remi spread his own arms to indicate the bubbling water and eerie red glow of the monstertown’s new water feature. “Does this look discreet to you?”
“Something similar happened to me.” Lyall let out a disgusted sigh, perhaps because he hated having anything in common with Zale. “I was inside the Mt. Hood earth rift visiting my clan. I walked by one of our onsens, saw a portal open, and heard Kat scream.”
“It was more of a yelp.” Kat felt embarrassed enough about being grabbed by a half-naked tentacled man. Hopefully Bug hadn’t caught that humiliation with his visual apparatus. Even if it would be edited out anyway, Kat didn’t want to relive it.
“This transported you here from Oregon and Zale from Massachusetts?” Kaveh frowned. “You’re the expert on portals, Lyall, but I didn’t think that was possible.”
“That’s not even the most disturbing thing about it.” Lyall released Kat’s arm, walked over to one of the rocks that encircled the water, and kicked it. The rock began to glow with a soft orange light. Then multiple jointed legs popped out from underneath it, and it scuttled away. “That’s a glow crab, and most of the rest of this is made of living rock. It should be a mini-hellmouth, if not for the fact that both Zale and I came through the wet part, making it a water portal.”
“A hybrid earth and water portal isn’t something Ari could pull off.” Remi looked worried, a concerning change from his usual breezy confidence. Bug flew over to him, letting out a string of trills and chirps. “Not now, Bug. The video issues can wait.”
“I think I know who did this.” Lyall locked eyes with Kaveh. “It’s not something I want to discuss here.”
Did that mean he didn’t want to talk in front of Kat or because Zale was around? Kat hated to feel he was in the way, as much as he wanted an explanation from Lyall. “Kaveh, if there’s no immediate danger, I’d like to leave and change out of my wet clothes. Plus, the people in the park might want to know what’s going on.”
“Of course.” Kaveh nodded at Kat before turning back to Lyall. “You have my permission to visit the drakone-protected territories of the monstertown and the ranch. I’d ask that if you need to go through the rift, though, you let me or the guardians know.”
Bug, seemingly tired of trying to get Remi’s attention, buzzed in a circle around Zale’s head. The cyberbug could communicate by merging with most human technology, but he usually preferred Remi’s gold Matchmaker Rolex.
Zale tried to grab the cyberbug, which easily dodged him and flew back to land on Remi’s wrist, its chirps growing louder. “I see you kept the don’s expensive tech, little cousin. What are you using Bug for here?”
