The taste of copper filled his mouth. Kirk snarled at it, tried to spit it out, unable. Whether it was his blood - thin-fleshed lips scraping teeth on the inside as Ayel attacked him - or Ayel's he couldn't tell. He shoved back, trying to separate them.

The skin against his was burning hot, even through the thin material of his uniform. He could remember the same feeling around his throat just before he had killed Ayel. While Nero had held him down for hours on end.