Page 25 of Sway’s Peace (Delivery Service #2)

Grace

What…

What just happened?!

The last few minutes were running riot in Grace’s brain. She couldn’t slow down her thoughts enough to even make sense of them, much less understand what she’d just witnessed.

She saw someone get murdered right in front of her eyes.

She saw someone miraculously come back to life like nothing happened.

She saw Sway – a farasie! – crack someone’s rib cage like it was a hardboiled egg.

And she was pretty sure they were now fleeing the scene of a crime. Though what crime, she wasn’t even sure anymore!

It was too much. Way too much for her brain. She needed everything to slow down for just a second and give her a moment to process.

She was given no such second. Sway led her by the hand, Loyalty walking calmly beside them, down through the lobby and out into the station proper.

The station connected to the repair docks was shaped like a long tube – the stem of the flower shape that was Hir-Fallow.

There were multiple floors, all connected by a series of lifts in the open center.

Individual rooms and short halls came off the central circles, each leading to either stores, restaurants, entertainment sectors, and all sorts of other things.

Sway walked them right to one of the waiting lifts and stepped on.

Loyalty followed, but no one else did. The lifts usually held around fifteen or so people.

So, it was strange that it was only the three of them.

Especially when Grace saw a group of people standing right there at the edge, shifting backwards uneasily, giving them odd, frightened looks.

Could they see the violence on them? Did they know what they just did?

Loyalty wasn’t covered in blood, like he should be, but there was an obvious hole in his shirt.

Grace honestly looked worse than the two of them.

Oh, maybe that’s why people were looking.

Maybe they were concerned that Grace was being taken by these two.

But no one stopped them as the lift began to shoot downward. Though there were no obvious walls, there was shielding in place that would keep them from falling off and stopped the rushing of wind from disturbing them.

“Why are you following us?” Sway asked, giving Loyalty a look. Grace wouldn’t describe his voice as hostile, but she wouldn’t say it was friendly either. Loyalty gave him a look and smirked.

“Don’t got many other options. He wasn’t willing to fix my ship even before he shot me and I bit him. I highly doubt he’d fix it now. Besides, like I said, she was nice to me. And I don’t know who you are. Your scent on her isn’t strong, so I don’t think your claim is either.”

“The strength of my claim is irrelevant. She is not yours.”

Loyalty held up a hand. “I have my own mate waiting for me back home. I’m not interested in her that way. There are few who are kind to my people. When I find one who is, I make sure to repay that kindness by orders of magnitude. I rather hope it will encourage more kindness in the future.”

“Again, I don’t think she knows what you are.”

“Even better. I leave a favorable impression before a negative one.”

“Erm…” Grace’s voice was weak and shaky as she finally managed to speak up.

Both males turned and looked at her at the same time, making her freeze up. Her sudden startlement must have been obvious, because their expressions softened at the same time as they faced her fully, slowly, like they were guarding her on either side.

“Are you alright?” Sway asked, using the grip he had on her hand to lift her arm so he could investigate the bruises throbbing there. Handprints in the shape of Covor’s fists already discoloring. Grace winced when she looked at them.

Sway looked so sweetly concerned. It was strange. The stark difference between the ruthless coldness she’d witnessed before and this warm affection was startling.

“I’m fine…” She mumbled, not entirely sure it was true. At the least, though, she didn’t think that her arms were broken. Lifting her eyes from her bruises, she looked between them. “What’s going on? What just… What just happened?”

Loyalty gave her a soft smile. “I think you know that better than us.”

“I really… I don’t know though. He was getting mad at me because I went out with Sway.

And I was telling him it wasn’t his business.

He started going on this rant about me being his mate and he wasn’t listening when I told him no.

He wouldn’t stop yelling and grabbing me.

He just… He wouldn’t stop . Then you were there and I don’t… I don’t…”

“We had a meeting,” Loyalty said, reminding her softly, like he knew her brain was completely scrambled from being tossed around. “Your dock crew refuses to go near my ship. I’m not altogether surprised, but you and I did agree on repairs.”

Grace frowned. “I know. I don’t understand why. I swear, the dock crews normally aren’t like this. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. Nor is it entirely unexpected. I am what I am, and I’m aware that it makes people very uncomfortable.”

Grace frowned. “What do you mean? Like, a ratchi? I’ve never heard of a ratchi prejudice around here before. I mean, maybe as individuals, but not as, like, a general thing.”

Loyalty chuckled and Sway gave her a soft smile as he pushed her hair back over her shoulder. They were both giving her such indulgent looks. Like you would towards a child that had said something particularly endearing.

The lift finally came to a halt and Sway stepped off, once again lacing their fingers together.

This part of the ring was somewhere between the far basement and the middle of the station.

This level in particular held some decent hotels.

Sway took them down one of the many turn offs into an area owned by one such hotel.

A large place, just on the higher end of middle class.

It was beautiful, with its own restaurant and gardens filled with dimly glowing yellow plants.

He didn’t attempt to go into the front, however.

He stepped off the path, into the darker shadows between the wall of the station and the back of the pretty inn that took up the majority this space.

It was filled with soft, romantic lighting, the tinkling of a fountain somewhere nearby, and the faint scent of fresh flowers.

There, where the three of them stood in the shadows, hidden behind a pale, yellow and orange bush, they couldn’t really see the building beyond the one wall.

And no one could see them either. It was just her and these two guys.

One who had just been shot then nearly gnawed off someone’s arm, and one that tried tap dancing on his rib cage while he was down.

Strangely enough, Grace wasn’t afraid of them. This didn’t feel like she’d been forced into a corner by someone who was about to threaten her. It felt more like she was hiding away with her friends under the bleachers to get away from the teachers. She wasn’t a target; she was part of the crew.

A crew who had just run from a crime scene! Oh, my gosh, they were all criminals!

Sway touched her shoulder gently, focusing her back on him before she could spiral into panic. “I’m sorry. I think I’ve probably cost you your job.”

“No, you didn’t.” She offered him a weak smile, trying to get herself back under control. “There’s no way I would have gone back there after that. Th-Thank you for coming to save me. Both of you.”

Sway gave her that simple, easy going smile of his, but Loyalty chuckled shyly.

“I’m starting to feel a bit guilty now,” he admitted. “You’re being too nice to someone like me.”

“What are you talking about?” Grace frowned. “I’ve known lots of ratchi. Reetak worked with me in the office. She’s a ratchi, and I love her.”

“Ah, yes, but I am not a ratchi,” he said with a hint of sheepish sadness. Like he was admitting to something he’d rather have kept hidden.

“You are a ratchi. I know what a ratchi looks like. You’re just a purple one. Which is weird, okay, but there are color variations in every species, right? Who cares?”

He chuckled, but there was no real humor in the sound. “I’m not a ratchi. I’m a 108.”

“Huh?”

“His species,” Sway said gently, his gaze fixed tenderly on her. “Every species in the Coalition has a number assigned to it, based on the order they joined the Coalition. His is species 108.”

“Technically, we are called xenom, but no one ever uses the proper name,” Loyalty said, laughing it off like it was no big deal.

“I’d say it’s because they like to strip away our very personhood, but, to be fair, for a while, my species didn’t have a proper name.

We were named after we were numbered. It took us a while to develop anything similar to a verbal language. ”

“That’s not being fair, it’s being na?ve,” Sway said, his kind smile and tone not doing anything to take away from the sting of the words. “They could have changed to using your name if they really cared. It’s the personhood thing.”

“You’re rather ruthless, you know that?” Loyalty chuckled, this time sounding genuinely amused.

“I don’t get it,” Grace cut in, looking him up and down. “Your species just happens to look exactly like a ratchi?”

Loyalty didn’t answer immediately. He looked uncomfortable, his gaze turning to the side. Sway, however, had no qualms about speaking.

“His species is parasitic.”

“Huh?”

“They’re the only known sapient parasites. That body isn’t his. He took it from its true owner, killing him in the process.”

Grace’s eyes widened. She whipped her head around to look at Loyalty again. He was making a face.

“I didn’t kill him,” he muttered defensively.

“He killed himself. And it was a mutually beneficial deal. I paid him many credz for years for the right to claim his body. Besides, he didn’t want to live anymore after his mate and young died anyway.

We both got something out of it. Don’t frame it like I murdered the guy. ”