CJ
The first blast rocked the building, shattering glass and making CJ’s ears ring. She struggled for breath, gasping. Domik’s bulk covered her where she lay on the floor, a big hand cradling her head close to his chest.
She squeezed her eyes shut, burying her face into his chest and holding her breath as glass shards rained down on them. Domik grunted as something slammed into him, but still he clung to her.
Please don’t let him be hurt!
Her ears rang from the blast, her hearing dulled. She felt, more than heard, the rain of chunks of brick and the creak of metal from the roof above them.
After a few heartbeats, Domik eased himself off her with a groan, flopping to one side and wheezing.
“Dom?” CJ sat up, running her hands over him to check for injuries. “Let me see your back.” He was lying on his side, so she stepped around him, almost losing her footing on a piece of brick in her haste.
His back was a bloody mess of torn skin. There was no way he hadn’t broken something.
The sound of creaking metal filtered through her dull hearing, and she turned to see what had been the glassed wall teeter before falling slowly toward them.
CJ cowered, throwing herself over Domik’s prone form as the frame crashed to the floor.
We will not die! I didn’t go through all this to die by being squashed in a falling building.
CJ gritted her teeth as the floor shook around her once more, blasting dust around them. She blinked, clearing her vision.
She was still lying over the prone form of Domik when she lifted her head. The sight that met her had her laughing almost hysterically.
The frame had missed them by mere inches. If they had been a little further to the right, they would have been crushed.
Don’t think about that. Just move.
CJ lifted herself off Domik and shook his shoulder. “Dom? We have to go. I can’t carry you.”
He groaned; one eye cracking open. “Leave me.”
“No.” She scowled at him. As if she would ever leave this great lump of a man. Alien. Whatever. It didn’t matter what he was. He was hers. And she was never letting him go.
“I can’t—”
She cut him off with a growl. “If you want me to live, you had better get your ass out of here. Because I’m staying right with you, whether you like it or not.”
Domik blinked at her, before breaking into a coughing fit and wincing. It was obvious he was in a lot of pain, and she wished she had something to help him. She hated to make him move, but it wasn’t safe.
She helped ease Domik to his hands and knees, blood running down his arms like a river. She winced, gripping him around the waist and taking as much of his weight as she could to help him to a kneeling position.
He braced his hands on his knee and panted, his deep eyes locked on hers.
“You can do this, Dom. Do it for me.” She hated manipulating him like this, hated seeing this strong, proud warrior look so vulnerable.
He was strong for me when I needed it. I can be strong for him. He needs me, and I won’t let him down.
He nodded and braced himself as he rose to his feet, CJ sliding an arm around his waist to steady him. She staggered slightly under his weight, and they almost crashed to the debris-strewn ground, but he caught himself with one hand against the remaining wall, hissing with pain.
CJ took one last look around what had been the pristine office of the general. The doorway they had entered was a pile of rubble, the window-filled wall now a gaping hole. CJ nodded toward the garden beyond.
“That way,” she said, and they staggered over the piles of bricks and glass.
As they stepped through the opening and into the garden, a wind picked up and, looking overhead, the underbody lights of a Taurean shuttle lit them up.
Domik grunted and staggered onto the lawn, falling to his knees, taking CJ with him. She ignored the noise of the shuttle overhead, not even noticing the Taurean warriors who descended until one tried to pull her away from Domik.
