Page 164

I touched the fabric near the wound, careful, keeping my fingers light. No silver-white flash this time. Good—though maybe that was premature, since my pulse was still going too fast to decide whether I was relieved or just shaken.

“You need this cleaned,” I said.

“It can wait.”

“No.”

His mouth tightened, and he didn’t answer.

I looked over at Darev. “Tell him.”

Darev leaned against the side of the building, arms folded. “He will ignore me.”

“Wonderful.”

Veyr almost smiled at that. I saw it—a single flicker at the corner of his mouth—before his face closed again.

A scrape of metal on concrete echoed from the far side of the yard. We turned as one.

One of the attackers from inside was dragging himself around the corner—the pale green one. His ŭre flickered like a failing bulb beneath his jaw, casting sickly light across the sweat on his throat. Each movement was a ragged effort, his boots scuffing against the rough ground. He managed three stumbling steps before his legs gave out, collapsing him against the side of a coolant pipe.

Alive. Still conscious.

Veyr moved toward him without sound. The male tried to push himself backward, hands scrambling against the grit.

“Do not.”

He froze.

Veyr crouched, bringing them eye to eye. “Who sent you?”

The male said nothing. His breathing remained rough, but his gaze dropped immediately when silver-white current sparked along Veyr’s knuckles.

So did mine.

“No,” I said quietly.

Veyr turned his head slightly without taking his attention from the male.

“I’m not saying let him go. Search him.”

For a second, he remained perfectly still. Then the current faded, and he motioned Darev closer.

They searched the attacker quickly, Veyr working through his gear while Darev covered him. A compact energy pistol. A slim communicator. An ID chip embedded in the wristguard. A folded strip of authorization codes.

Then I saw the narrow black band clipped beneath a fold of fabric at his belt.

My stomach tightened.

“Wait.”

Veyr’s hand stopped.

I crouched and pointed. “That.”

He unclipped it. “Standard restraint.”

“I've seen one before.”