“Covor, stop!” Grace tried to walk out from behind Loyalty, but he didn’t let her. His arm keeping her back was not painful, but it was immovable. “What are you talking about?”
“Grace, get away from that thing!”
“Stop this!”
“You get out,” Covor’s glare tightened on Loyalty. “Or I deal with you here and now myself.”
Loyalty was unmoved. He stood tall and unafraid, staring Covor down like that plasma pistol was a toy gun and not capable of shooting a burning hole clean through his chest.
“I have already paid for my services, and I will have them. You are under contract.”
Covor laughed. “Do freaks like you even have contracts?”
Loyalty grinned. “Funny enough, no. We don’t need them. My people are trustworthy.”
Covor sneered, like the very idea was vile.
What the heck were they even talking about? Covor had done too many strange, random, scary things in the last few minutes. Why was he looking at Loyalty like that? Talking about him like he wasn’t even a person. It wasn’t a matter of prejudice against ratchi, as Reetak was also ratchi and Covor had never showed her any particular displeasure or annoyance that he didn’t share equally with everyone else. So, why…?
“Get away from my female,” Covor said, voice low and dangerous.
“It does not appear that she wanted to be your anything,” Loyalty said easily. “And you hurt her.”
“She belongs to me.”
“Her skin is damaged.”
“I can do whatever I want tomyfemale!”
Loyalty cast a look down at her. “Is that-”
“No!” She cut him off before he could even finish the question. “Absolutely not! Loyalty, please, let’s just go.”
Covor took a step their way. “You’re not going anywhere with her.”
“I’m not leaving at all,” Loyalty said evenly. “I paid for ship repairs, and they still haven’t been started. And I will not let you continue to try intimidating or threatening this female.”
“Covor, please,” Grace said, injecting her voice with as much calm as possible. Trying anything to sooth this situation before it got worse.
The pistol popped when it went off.
Grace saw the light. She felt Loyalty twitch. But it couldn’t be real. No part of her believed that Covor had actuallyshotsomeone.
Until, with a grunt, Loyalty fell back. He twisted as he dropped, making sure he didn’t land on her, though one of his quills scratched her leg on the way down. He hit the ground with a loud, pained grunt. The smell of burnt scales struck Grace’s nose as something dark, deep, and violet splattered on the rug.
Was that… Was that blood?
Grace was shaking. She was going to be sick. She’d never been exposed to violence before. She’d never witnessed someone bemurderedbefore!
Oh, god! That’s what she just saw, wasn’t it!? She just witnessed a murder!
She wasn’t even aware of Covor grabbing her arm, yanking her back to him. She was staring, wide eyed and horrified, at Loyalty’s body. His leg was twitching. Was that a death twitch? Did dead bodies twitch?!
Her stomach heaved and she turned, upending the contents all over the floor. Covor made a sound of disgust, shoving her away from him without letting go of the grip he had on her wrist. Making sure she couldn’t actually escape as she shuddered in horror.
She’d just watched someone get killed. She’s seen someone get shot! She-
The hum of the lift lowering was probably the loudest, most jarring sound in the world. The room, quiet and tense as though even the air was disturbed by the crime that had just been committed, was shattered by its gentle movement as it started moving up. Grace and Covor were both still. Frozen by the fact that they were standing at the scene of a murder with nowhere to go. A couple seconds later, the second lift underneath locked into place.
