April awoke to the sound of dripping water on concrete, and the soft breathing from the body beside her. For a single fuzzy moment, she thought she had fallen asleep in the lair again — that would explain the hollow echo of the dripping water — but then she felt the three-fingered hand loosely twined with her own. Don's hand.
And then it all came flooding back.
"Don!" she gasped, scrambling up to her knees. He was lying where she had left him, back on his shell, with his head turned against his shoulder to look at her.
"I didn't want to wake you up," he said softly.
"I shouldn't have been asleep," April said, gripping his hand. Guilt flooded through her heart as she moved closer to him — she hadn't been able to protect him from Racer, and now she had fallen asleep rather than watching over him, trying to comfort him as best she could. "I'm sorry, Don…"
His only response was a gentle squeeze of her fingers, and a faint crooked smile that didn't reach his eyes. April felt a wrench inside her chest, and it took all of her self-control not to cry. She wanted to tell him that everything would be all right, that she wouldn't let that monster come near him a third time… but she knew that nothing was all right, and she wasn't strong enough to fight the Dragons on her own. Their only hope was that his brothers would find them, but she had the feeling that time was running out.
She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep, and suspected Don didn't know either — there was no way of telling time in this cell. They could have been trapped there for a few days, as far as she knew.
So she let her head rest against his shoulder again, and gently rubbed her thumb in circles against his hand. His warm, slightly spicy scent flooded her senses, and she could feel him moving his head to rest against hers, his breath stirring her hair as he exhaled. It made April shiver slightly, though she wasn't entirely sure why.
She wasn't sure how long they lay like that, but it seemed as though hours had passed when she heard a voice coming from outside the cell.
"He's coming tonight." It was Dragon Face.
April stiffened, and slipped her hand from Don's. Silently she crept to the end of the cell, close to the door, and listened as carefully as she could.
A cold prickle ran over her skin as she heard Racer chuckle. "Well, I guess he'll take the Turtle off our hands."
"We were supposed to have all four. Instead, the other three are beatin' up Purple Dragons all over the city."
"So what do you want me to do about it?"
"Get out there and find them before the client comes."
Racer scoffed. "You really expect me to know where they're gonna hit next? It took a tip-off and hours of surveillance to catch just one of 'em."
"Then you handle the transaction," Dragon Face said acidly. "Turn over the Turtle and explain that you didn't even try to capture the other three."
"I dunno why you're so uptight about this. The other three'll come here to us sooner or later. A little gas, and they'll be in the same boat with the one we already got."
"And what about the woman?"
"What about her?" Racer said. "We had to take her so she wouldn't alert the other freaks. I thought we'd keep her around for the boys. Some of 'em get real lonely."
April shuddered, her fingers gripping the bars tightly. Her heart was racing as she crept back to the wall, where Don was waiting for her. His expression showed that he had heard the conversation as well — his eyes were blazing with anger at what Racer had said about her, and she could see that he was trying to move his paralyzed limbs. She pressed her hands to his trembling arms, feeling the muscles bunching helplessly under her fingers.
"April…" he whispered.
"Yes, Don?"
"Help me sit up."
April's stomach lurched, and she glanced back at the open door that led to Racer and Dragon Face. The last time she had helped Don sit up, it had all gone wrong after that — Racer had found them, and then Don had attacked him to save her… and then the rape. "All right, but… don't get any ideas about fighting anyone," she said in a low voice.
"I couldn't if I tried," Don said darkly.
April knelt beside the mattress and wound her arms around Don's torso, digging her fingers into his hard, smooth shell. As she pulled him up, she felt his arms weakly moving against her back, an involuntary caress as he tried to hang on to her. She could feel his chest heaving with the effort, pressing gently against her breasts with every breath. Forcing herself to focus on what was going on, she grunted and pulled harder at him.
When she finally had him sitting upright, she let his shell rest against the rough cinder-block wall, allowing him to be propped up rather than having to support himself. Don let out a deep sigh of relief, his head falling back against the wall, his eyes looking down at her with a glimmer of their old warmth. April found her hand moving up to his face, stroking his cheek gently, wanting to comfort him as best she could, however she could…
Then she saw his eyes harden, and drew back in confusion. It took a few seconds for her to realize that he was looking over her shoulder.
"Ain't that cute?" Racer's voice sneered from behind her.
April stiffened, and felt a tremor pass through Don's body as he tried to move again, a faint gasp coming from him as he failed.
"You, the redhead," Racer called. "Come over here."
April huddled down beside Don, casting a look over her shoulder at the door of the cell. Racer was leaning against it, his eyes narrow and gleaming with malice. Behind him were more Purple Dragons — not only the three who had accompanied him before, but others that April hadn't seen before. All in all, perhaps a dozen of them clustered there — and every one was staring directly at her.
"I said come here," Racer said, his typical grin wavering.
April remained still.
"You come over here," Racer said, "or I come in there. Make your choice."
"April, don't—" Don breathed, panic in his voice.
But April rose silently to her feet, and turned away from her friend. There was a dull roaring in her ears as she slowly walked across the cell towards Racer, her bare feet almost silent on the concrete floor. But she could still hear Don scrabbling against the wall, his voice desperate as he called out, "April — don't go to him — please —"
She felt as though she was walking towards a man-eating tiger, but she had to. If nothing else, she might be able to keep him away from Don if she kept him out of the cell, even for a little while.
As she approached him, her head down and her eyes fixed on the floor, Racer's bony hand darted through the bars and seized her throat, pulling her close to the door. She gasped and her hands flew up to pull at his wrist, but his grasp didn't loosen; if anything, he held her tighter than before, his fingers digging into the soft skin of her neck.
"I hope you understand I was just jokin' before," he said in a diseased mockery of politeness.
Despite her fear, April stared at him in disbelief. He had raped her best friend twice, and now he called it a joke?
"You know, about you bein' the freak's girlfriend," Racer continued almost casually, his fingers tightening around her throat. "I know a woman like you wouldn't let an animal like that touch her, no matter how desperate he was."
He pulled April closer, until her cheek touched the iron bars. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Don, still crouched against the wall, his sides heaving and his limbs trembling. His eyes were fixed on her, desperate and burning with fear — not for himself, but for what he believed Racer was about to do to her if he didn't distract him. But April couldn't let him do that. Not again. Not knowing what Racer would do to him if he tried.
"So I was thinkin' you could keep me and the boys entertained with a little show," Racer said, his breath hot and stinking on her face. "Call it a performance."
Icy fear speared through April's blood, and she felt her hands begin to shake as she pulled against Racer's grip. Her breath came in gasps, and her eyes flew down to the lock on the cell door, expecting the Purple Dragons to unlock it so they could try to rape her again. And this time, she knew, they wouldn't let Don fight back.
"Oh, not that, not yet," Racer laughed, roughly running his hand over her hair. "No, I've got somethin' a little more exotic in mind. You're going to show us what you can do." His mouth moved closer to her face, and a cold whisper slithered into her ear. "You're going to fuck the freak."