Page 149 of Alien Burn

He hit the male hard enough to fold him against the hull, stripped the weapon from his hand, and pinned him there with an armored forearm.

Burk gasped. Dhomhes hit him again, shoulder first, crushing the reaching arm between them. The male's knees gave. Dhomhes hauled him upright.

He could break him.

The certainty was terrible and immediate.

Burk's throat was bare, his breath coming in short, frightened pulls.

Dhomhes had never hated anyone as much as he hated the male beneath his hands.

“Dhomhes.”

Sereya stood beyond his shoulder, blood on her fingers. She reached toward him, then braced herself against the container.

He turned Burk and forced him to his knees. His own breathing rasped through his teeth.

“Restrain him.”

The guard reached them with cuffs already open. Dhomhes held Burk pinned until he heard both restraints catch. Even then his fingers would not open easily. He peeled them out of the coat and stepped between Burk and Sereya.

“Sereya.” Her name came out rough. He tried again, reaching for her. “Sereya.”

She pointed upward.

Roemary was moving along the observation walk toward the far stair. Dhomhes signaled the guard beside Sereya and ran for it.

Roemary reached the bottom step as he turned the corner.

She stopped. Her expression changed before he'd taken his next breath.

“Gol-Vett. Thank the Light. I was trying to get help. They took us⁠—”

“Put your hands where I can see them.”

She looked at the armor along his shoulders. He could feel it straining higher as she tried to edge past him.

“You cannot possibly think⁠—”

He stepped into her path. “Your hands.”

She lifted them. Her right wrist was swollen. A cracked communicator protruded from her wrap.

He took it and passed it to the guard arriving behind him.

“Preserve it. No one opens or transmits anything until it's isolated.”

“That is my personal property.”

“Roemary, you are being detained for your part in these attacks. Speaker Fowles will hear about this within the hour.”

Her eyes moved past him.

He knew what she was looking at. Sereya beneath the floodlight, wrapped now in a guard's coat. The attackers on the ground. Burk struggling to draw a full breath with his hands bound behind him.

The things she could no longer arrange by choosing the right voice.

Roemary looked back at Dhomhes.