Sing To Me Your Darkest Secrets
Chapter Five:
I'm Living in Lack of the Blood Sent From Your Heartbeat

Now if we were in a court room, the little chunk right here would be heresy. What with me not really being there and all. But whatever, I'll tell you what I heard about what came next. And it wasn't pretty either…I was sorta glad the line broke that night, we avoided this mess.

"What do you mean it broke!" Mikey's voice cried over the crackling fire, piercing through the night. It was loud enough to be heard if someone looked for it; certainly loud enough to worry about. Raph immediately clamped a hand over Mikey's mouth, pushing him to kneel to the ground, out of site of the trucks that were starting to pull up. The line had brought them just before the roof, so that they could climb up and over to hide around the brick until they all came together. It was the red clad turtle that had watched the rope fall away and their brothers drop down to their deaths. He had, the second his eyes watched Donnie fall, jumped to ledge and looked for a way to get to them; fast. Raph would leap from the roof if necessary, but he saw Donnie had caught them on the escape and Leo followed. It was only when he knew that they were safe that he mentioned anything to Mikey, though it didn't stop him from crying out at the first sign of trouble.

"Shhh! Are you that crazy, Mikey! They're gonna hear ya, that's the last thing we need. A bunch of brown-nosing cops on us. They're fine, okay. They're just not getting' over here any time soon. Would you quit it?" He hissed at Mikey who, with wide eyes, nodded a little in agreement. Mikey wasn't weak in the least; he handle his own in a tough situation. It was the fact that his brothers were gone, they were split up in that moment, that scared him to no end. Enough that he was looking blindly to Raph for help. Raph, who wanted this nightmare to just end; catching that robber right now seemed pretty useless considering their punishment. Raph figured they were always being punished for something they didn't know was wrong; in fact, half the time it felt like they were being scolded for things that were right.

"We need to stay away from the edge, at least until this settles down." Ash urged them. He was clearly uncomfortable by the grittiness of the roof top, rarely seen by maintenance staff. "We can't just walk off the roof now, they'll spot us…and well, you'll definitely raise questions we can't answer." He went to smoothing out his vest and the fronts of his pants relentlessly as his eyes settled on his apartment, the one he shared with Payton, that was now mostly a flaming hole in the wall.

"This is [i]your[/i] fault!" Raph growled at Ash. In an instant, the sound of metal scraping was heard as one of his weapons was pointed under Ash's chin. The taller, lean man took a small step back. It was clear where Raph was ready to fight with fists, Ash had other things in mind as he hardly was a fighter. Mikey, however, had taken the cue to stop Raph as the last thing that needed to happen was his attacking the man that had the answer. He was the only one there level headed enough to handle Raph, which was sort of an oddity in and of itself.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there Raph, down boy...Remember the whole be quiet thing? Well fighting Ash isn't exactly going to keep us under the radar, is it?" Mikey reached up and pushed Raph's hand down, pushing him back just a little. Mikey wasn't sure if Raph was going to pounce on him or not, though the way he was staring at Ash still proved that he probably wasn't going to hurt Mikey. In fact, both Raph and Ash were watching each other cautiously. Despite Mikey's efforts to get him to withdraw his sai, Raph held it still in his hand, even if left against his side.

"Indeed it is. I hadn't thought far enough ahead to consider how quickly the building would actaully catch fire. It's old, prime for ignition. But the fact remains, without the fire, your brother and the rest of us would be dead because of him. He's blindly dangerous in his craving to fight that which he doesn't know. With these creatures, asking questions later is never a successful tactic. I wouldn't have had to do it if he would have just gotten down like Joey said." Ash explained simply, logically, and Raph seemed to simmer, as if agreeing with the man about Leo's demeanor. In fact, they almost seemed to bond for their agreement in Leo's folly.

As a result, Raph sheathed his sai once more and moved to follow Ash and Payton more towards the middle of the roof. Mikey, however, seemed to go in a different direction now that he was free of his brother's behavior and hold. He peeked over the edge, looking down to where flames were now licking up the side of the adjacent building, to find his brothers. "LEO!" He shouted over the edge, jumping up straight in his spot when he saw Leo, Donnie, Casey and Joey all racing down to the manhole cover. They might as well have been little bugs for how tiny they were some dozens of stories down. "LEO! DONNIE! Hey!" Mikey called out to them excitedly, glad he had found them - glad to see them alive as he couldn't trust Raph unless he actually witnessed it with his own eyes. Mikey wasn't sure if they could even hear him, in fact in his naivety he assumed they could, as a result he waved frantically to get their attention.

A second later, an onlooker below might have managed to catch a glimpse of orange and green as Mikey was jerked backwards by Raph's stronger hand. Fortunately for all of them no one was in the alley below, the other four had vanished below the street line. "I swear to God, Mikey! Come on!" Raph hissed, pulling him roughly with him in clear frustration and impatience.

"The sewer, bro! We gotta get down to the sewer, that's where Leo and Donnie went. We are bogusly high when we mean to be excellently low. You know, underground low, where it's safe. Everyone knows cops can't fit down the hole anyway, they eat too many of those donuts. Besides, they won't see us - we're ninjas. Its perfect." Mikey explained as he ducked down to them, kneeling where the other three were bent below the rooftop's ledge. "You dudes are gonna dig it down there - we got food and games and maybe if you ask nice, Don'll let you play with his hitchy-doo jiggers."

Mikey rounded on the two human brothers, excited to show them his home, but his face seemed to fall as did his shoulders when he caught sight of them. The exuberance that seemed to fill him prior to that moment was doused entirely, as if his best friend said he didn't want to spend the night as his place that weekend. Ash's color had completely drained from his face, stark white against the inky back drop of the night. Payton was holding him by the shoulder lightly, almost as if he was afraid Ash might bolt or fall over in his spot. "You're joking. This, it must be a joke with a punchline I've clearly missed. You don't really live in the sewers. Not...with the expectation that we - Payton and I - might go there."

"Oh and I'm the princess, huh? You got a better idea..." Raph chuckled, seemingly amused by Ash's discomfort and seemingly delicate nature. Ash, however, cut him off before he could mock more. It was clear, by Raph's face, that he had a full arsenal left.

"In fact, I do. One that includes much less dirt." Ash said plainly. It was clear, by his delayed response, that his thought processes had been gummed up. The possibility that he, the overly neat, to the point of obsessive, man would have to sink below the street line and enter the dark underbelly of the city was too overwhelming. Raph's eyes settled on Ash and it was as he actually watched him that he noticed he was shaking ever so slightly. It almost made Raph feel guilty for teasing, though he made no indication of taking those words back as he couldn't bring himself to find them in the first place. He felt bad, but expressing that empathy was hard for Raph as he didn't often show it properly. It usually just came out either awkwardly or aggressive when he meant neither. Payton whispered something to Ash, something that clearly seemed to calm him down as he nodded his head a few times.

"Well, it's fantastic to know where we'll need to look next.I hadn't thought of the sewers." The voice was sweet, overly so - sickly so - with a feminine airiness. Raph swung around and Mikey stepped up next to his brother, both on alert for the intruder. "My, my Ash, Payton - look at the new meat you've brought me. What good little Lionels you are." When her pale, perfect red lips peeled back, they revealed two extended canine teeth in her porcelain face. Oddly, they didn't look out of place. She was, as Raph had heard in half the stories, strikingly beautiful. In fact, the features of her face were meant to look so obviously perfect, she was ideal in her beauty. In those alluring qualities came that which brought in each and every victim. A game of cat and mouse was played with all the people she hunted; and it was clearly, with her silky voice, she was in the midst of a game they didn't realize they were playing. "I suppose it would be the pot calling the kettle black if I asked how...exactly you're here. Like something out of a fairy tale - tell me, if I kiss you, do you become a prince? Or is that only for your amphibian brethren? Because I very much enjoy royalty." She ran her tongue along her upper lip in a coy manner, teasing the plump succulent flesh.

"Finally! You're the one I got to thank for this?" Raph gestured to his shoulder and almost laughed at her, mocking and gruff. She was lean and looked fragile as she carefully paced her length of roof some yards away. All of her just seemed so delicate, incapable of causing much harm. Certainly not as much harm as Raph had experienced from the Screamer. "I thought you said they don't come in ones. Looks like we found the dumb one." Raph sounded cocky, even the Lionel brothers - who didn't fully know him - could tell. He was certain he, massive and thick in his muscles while protected by a shell, could surely destroy her, a thin and fragile looking woman. He was taunted by the smile she offered him, slim and sexy, as he was lured into the game she was playing. "This stand-off ain't gonna last long." Raph muttered and Mikey's nunchucks came out instantly, reading Raph's meaning.

He was ready to fight.

"NO!" Ash howled, but Raph had already shot forward. He had heard Joey before; he was arrogant enough to know it was the head he needed to go for. With that, Raph's sais cut the air in a quick succession of swipes before he even got to her. He was aiming for her pale flesh, just above her collar bone. He was up in the air, having moved quick and easily on his feet, in a flash. It didn't matter, however, how fast or strong he was, she was stronger - shockingly so. One moment he was in the air and the next, he was on his back before he even knew what had happened. His shell hit the roof top hard, making the vibrations sting throughout his entire body as the wind was literally knocked from his chest. Furthermore the small spider web cracks in his shell from where the Screamer had entered him stung. It hurt in a way Raph wasn't prepared for, certainly not from this woman, and that alone made him hesitant in his defense. Not only was she bizarrely strong, she was fast too as he didn't have much time to really think about how to buck her off of him.

Raph felt her teeth sink into the flesh of his bicep, cutting through the meat like a knife meant to slice through butter. She had bit into him before he could protest, or even see it coming. The sensation initially caused pain to shoot through the muscle her teeth ripped through. It was like nothing Raph had ever felt before. He had been hurt many times, suffered many horrendous wounds. But he often stuck it out as he was tough enough to bite his tongue and keep quiet. This, however, was different as his body quivered from the pain that spiked across the surface of his skin. It took a mere second, after the tidal wave of agony, before that sensation turned into something much less painful. In fact, it harbored on pleasurable for how much ecstasy replaced his discomfort. Nothing had ever hurt so bad before, but nothing had felt so good either. It was like he was floating on a cloud, a sudden high from the lowest low, as his entire body relaxed at her bite.

For a beat, Raph was helpless to her mouth. He was laying under the sweet rapture of her teeth boring into him, like an addict forgotten in an alley way. He stared up at the sky, forgetting for a moment all the sensations around him, as he focused solely on that of the calming rush. In fact, he would have remained that way forever, until he had no blood left in his body to give, had Mikey not jumped on her back. The boisterous turtle hooked his nunchucks around her neck, pulling tight and jerking her backwards. What Mikey didn't know, at least not yet, was that it did nothing to slow her down as the living dead hardly needed air to live. They played by rules all their own.

They rolled end over end. Mikey's shell smacked against the roof every time he was pressed down by the vampire. It sounded like a firecracker with every movement, their tussle intense. "Oh, I'm plenty hungry - there's time for you yet." She told Mikey as she came up on top, pinning him to the rooftop like a wild vixen. Her legs were straddled over his body as he struggled to get out from underneath her, wiggling and writhing. The vampire gave a flick of her neck, as the nunchucks hung uselessly there, and managed to toss them across the roof, far beyond Mikey's reach. With his hands now free she was able to pin him fully down, by his wrists. Her jaws snapped at him, toying with him like food to play with before eating. That was when it happened, when she stopped and lost all interest in Mikey.

"Let them go." It was Ash's voice that called her attention. The woman seemed curious about his words, but only in a humored way. Like a parent considering the words of a child, only to expect to dismiss them in the end for something so outlandish and silly.

"Oh Ash honey, why should I! I like this one...they're both so feisty. If he tastes as good as that one over there, I might just take them both with me." She snapped at Mikey again, her teeth chomping together with a sharp snap. Her strength was crushing his wrists as she bore down on him, pinning him hard against the roof. Mikey gave a whimper as pain accompanied her brutal treatment.

"I'll go with you." Ash offered, swallowing hard. His face had not regained color since Mikey's comment earlier, though it was hard to tell what was causing his paleness now. He had reached down and tugged at the sleeve of his shirt, still rolled up from when he had gathered the blood on the ascot. "I'll go with you, if you let them go. But only if they go free...that's the deal."

"ASH!" Payton hissed, but the lanky brother held up a hand to stop him from further protest.

The words seemed to work on the vampire; neither Raph nor Mikey could explain why, though there wasn't might time for discussion then. She looked back down at Mikey as if considering his worth when posed with this offer. "Sorry pretty, I'll be back for you though - someday. It's not everyday I get an offer like this. Once in a life time...even when a life time is forever." She stroked his cheek, almost lovingly though Mikey squirmed under her, doing his best to jerk his head to the side, away from her cold fingers. She climbed up off from him, letting him free. In an instant, Mikey had scrambled up to meet Raph just as Ash knelt next beside Raph too, helping him to his feet. The turtle shrugged Ash's help off, clearly offended by it.

"Don't be a moron. That's reserved for Mikey." Raph's pride was wounded, it was part of what kept him grounded as Mikey was attacked. Though it was only he who had felt the sweet, unabridged ecstasy he had experienced, it haunted him in the most violent of ways just then. It was enough that, for a second, he craved it again. He had sat in a sort of stupor, wishing that it was he in Mikey's spot as he wanted just a second longer of her bite. That thought disgusted and shamed him to no end; he wasn't meant to be that weak. The others might not know it, but he was certainly judging himself on that fact and taking it out on Ash as a byproduct. Because, to Raph, this was Ash's fault. As much as he knew it was more complicated than that, he wanted to blame Ash for this whole ordeal, and therefore blame him for the pleasure he had felt at the vampire's bite.

"You started it. I told you no. That meant stop." Ash offered Raph a lazy smirk in his deadpan voice, familiar of the snarky brother. For a second, Raph understood him, truly understood Ash's meaning. His words were hardly meant in the fashion they could have been taken in; instead, it was a silent plea for Raph to take over in leadership. He had sympathy for Ash's doings right then, his sacrifice, but it didn't show on his clearly annoyed face. Instead, he seemed even more angered by Ash's very existence. "Do what he says next time. If you get another chance." Ash warned, his elusive 'he' in regards to Payton, but it was in honesty.

"Ash, please..." Payton begged, but Ash glanced over his shoulder at his brother. He shook his head lightly and it was as if another moment of unspoken communication passed between them just by the way they looked at each other. It was uncanny to Raph as he had sat, many times before, with his eyes boring into Leo the same way. Despite their differences, he understood him in the moments it was necessary and he watched that too pass between the Lionel brothers. Payton took a small step back, offering no more fight on the matter.

The vampire woman had moved with her sly footwork, slipping an arm through the crook of Ash's and tugged him a little ways away from Raph. The red clad turtle watched them with keen eyes, his heart pounding wildly. "I've been waiting a long time for this..." She cooed, stroking Ash's arm where the tattoo ringed his wrist. It worried Raph more than anything as he had no clue what she had in store for Ash - but it clearly wasn't be good.

"You're not going to just let her take him!" Mikey protested to Payton, sitting up and wringing out his wrists as he scrambled to look back at Raph and Payton. "Ash-" Mikey started to say, whipping around, but he and the woman were already gone. It was, instead, just the three of them left on the lonely and quiet roof top; the only noise in the air was that of the fire forgotten down below and the wail of the emergency vehicles. "Whoa...what just happened? Was it a dream? Sort of felt like an nightmare..." Mikey shook his head, confused for a moment as he was confused that maybe, just maybe, this was a part of his unconscious sleep and he had imagined it all. He was sure he wasn't truly processing anything right then.

"Elisabeth Penn happened! And we let her do it. No no...I let him do it. DAMN IT!" Payton kicked the side wall and clenched his fist. It was explosive in a way that neither had seen before from the previously soft spoken, kind doctor. "You're not worth it. None of us are. I swear to God, If Ash dies because of this..."

"He's not going to die." Raph was staring where the woman had been a moment before, his hand lightly pressed over his bleeding arm. "We'll get him back."

Now when Raph gets determined, he get determined. Like Leo. See how that works? Have I mentioned lately I'm not crazy. I guess it was sort of better that Ash wasn't there. I mean I'm pretty sure they couldn't have ever gotten him to go in the sewer - not even kicking and screaming. They would have had to sedate him.

Raph, he got a taste though, of something real dangerous and it wasn't even the half of what he could have become. One of the things that I had to learn was that they didn't want to kill - they tried not to in fact, but what they did instead was worse.

Worse than death...imagine that...