Grace and Shadow Read Online Free

headgear.
    Shadow’s matte-black suit gave him away, but the bronze skin and dancing blue eyes made him look like the handsome poster boy for the Guardians that he was. Across the world, young men lined up to be tested and to go into law enforcement with only a handful each decade moving into Guardian status.
    Shatter had a slightly darker complexion with eyes a deep amber that sparked with good humour. “Good morning, Imgrace.”
    “Good morning, Shatter. Good morning, Shadow.”
    Shadow opened his mouth, closed it and smiled. “Good morning, Imgrace.”
    Shatter asked, “What was so funny?”
    She grinned, “Early to rise gets the joke. If you want to laugh, get here first.”
    Link snickered as the bots set the table for four. Breakfast was served, and Imgrace was starving. She attacked the food with enough ferocity to kill it again and realised that she had not only missed lunch the day before, but dinner as well.
    When her plate was empty, she was scanned and it was filled again.
    She paused and looked at Link. “What was that?”
    “They are assessing your caloric need based on the schedule for the day.” Shatter answered for him.
    As she watched, the bots scanned the others as they finished their plates.
    She shrugged and kept going. When she was done, she groaned and drank the sharp tea that the bots had served her. She loved sharp tea in the mornings.
    When Link finished his meal, he blotted his lips with his napkin and her suspicion was confirmed. Her cousin Argus was sitting next to her with the same friendly smile he always had when he was talking to her.
    “We will take you to medical, do some scans and draw some blood and tissue samples. Shatter and Shadow will then take the samples out of orbit and try to activate them or use them as batteries. If you can activate the blood or tissue from here, we will determine that as well.”
    She nodded and smiled. “And if I can do that, it will mean that I can just turn it on and I don’t have to be there.”
    “Precisely. Shall we?”
    She followed him to medical, and he settled her on a tall chair with a wide back.
    “Sorry about the equipment, it is all gauged for us. You are more petite.”
    Imgrace smiled. “It is fine, Argus. I can get along anywhere.”
    He smiled. “You recognized me.”
    “At breakfast. I had to watch you eat to be sure.” She chuckled as he set the scanner over her and it took a baseline.
    He set vials out and lifted an extractor. She had engaged in this procedure with her physician several times since her diagnosis, just to be sure.
    He withdrew vial after vial until a dozen were set in the rack. The rack was in a heated unit, and each tube contained an anticoagulant. They would be as fresh as they could be.
    “For tissue, we can use a scraping from the inside of your mouth. I just need a little, and then, I can use a regenerator on you.”
    Imgrace nodded and opened her mouth so he could rub the brush across the inside of her cheek.
    After half an hour, he had samples of everything and her scraped bits had gotten medical treatment. Her arm had also suffered a core puncture that had taken a full charge to heal. She was fine, and he had a box full of her genetic material. She was really hoping that they could find a way to make it work.
    Shadow and Shatter took the box from Link, and everyone did a com check. Imgrace had to go back to her room to get hers, but the bots had put it on the bedside table when they had made her bed.
    They launched without incident, and Imgrace sat and played with puzzle dice while they waited. She wanted to ask Link a thousand things, but she didn’t want the other two to know what she knew about Argus.
    Link kept busy during the flight by catching up on paperwork. He fussed with budgets and recruitment letters while she sat and made patterns with the dice and their carved surfaces.
    When they reached weightlessness, the men announced it and Shadow started to experiment with her blood.
    Imgrace