Lessons

[Lovely]

December 21, 2008


They'd dragged her out of the apartment, already bleeding a little, she didn't scream though she knew what they were going to do to her. Ice had heard her mother cry out and the thump as she hit the floor, the promise of what they'd do to her mom had kept her from making a scene as they took her out. She knew Damien would be back soon and that he could at least call for help for her mom, she didn't know if she'd see either of them again.. but she hoped they would both be safe. The car ride to his place was torturous, his goons had tied her hands behind her back and shoved her in with him -they rode in the front and a seperate car. When they reached his place, he pulled himself off her and loosely rebuckled his belt, not planning for it to be on long once they got her inside. He'd been as rough as he could be, nearly brutal and her legs shook as they pulled her to her feet. His place, his rules -so it didn't matter to anyone that the blonde was carried in over a goon's shoulder. Inside he'd smacked her around and whipped her with his belt -stories of the male model, a cart ride, dancing, and that she was 'replacing him' with a boy toy had gotten back to him and he was very unhappy. She was actaully surprised it had taken this long -but he'd been wrapped up in business. He'd finally left her alone to go 'gloat' with his boys in the other room about the lesson he'd taught her. She wasn't leaving him -he laughed and shared some drinks. Ice was crying softly, trying to curl for some sort of comfort. It was bad enough the times she'd laid there and took it, she hadn't known how much worse it would be to try to fight back. Well she knew now, evidence of that in bruises and swelling, she could hardly bring her thighs together as she lay on her side. Her blood and tears dampened the bed, her clothes were torn and she could see his belt resting on the cushion not far from her -left as a reminder that more was coming and that she needed to learn her lesson about wanting to 'get out'.

Raiche was gone no more than twenty minutes. The door was open and the bag he carried was dropped off to the side on the floor as he stepped in, eyes turning a coral red and his senses sharpening as he looked around for the heat signatures of anyone still in the apartment. Rings of blue and green and faint yellow formed the lines of the room he was used to seeing as fabric and wood and metal. He stepped carefully between the furnishings looking for new and unexpected forms of flesh. If Ice was here, he didn't 'see' her and didn't see mom on the bed either. He came into her room to look around more closely, only to find the woman on the floor. "Mom? What happened?" He sounded concerned, naive, forcably panicked enough to match her pains and fear as he helped the woman up. "I'm going to call someone. Are you okay?"

The woman mumbled, not very coherently though words would be clear here and there in the sounds. They had pulled her from the bed, slapped her a few times, threw her on the floor and kicked her. The corner of her mouth bled and she was confused, terrified and looking at him with all of that in her eyes.

"It's okay Mom. You're going to be fine." He didn't lift her far. Her already-frail frame was probably more damaged than he could tell, but he didn't want her to panic. "Did you just fall? I told you I was coming right back." Anything she could tell him to the contrary would help.

"n-n-n-n-no.." She shook, her body sort of twitching as she tried to tell him, to shake her head, but instead her hand bounced. "T-t-t-t-oo.. to.. too.. k.. her."

He understood. He didn't see Ice anywhere, but maybe it would ease her some. "No, I didn't take Ice with me. I'm going to call someone. Can you get back in the bed to stay warm?" He was already pulling her comforter down to her instead to wrap around her. As he reached for the phone, he took a tissue and dabbed in her water glass meant for her medicines to wipe the blood from her lip.

[Lovely]

She tried to tell him that 'they' had taken Ice, but it came out as a low moaning. "Noooooooooo." Tears slipped from her eyes as she tried to understand, control herself and make him understand. "They took her." The words came out in a clear sentence but it had taken alot of effort. Half of her mouth smiled as he tended to her. "..nice boy.."

He dabbed gently and listened. "They will have to bring her back then, won't they? I brought us dinner. You need to take your medicine. Can you do that for me?" The tissue was wadded up and forgotten as he dialed emergency. The look on his face shifted as he spoke to the operator. He should have expected as much... what help could they bring at this hour with all the real crime going on in the city? The operator agreed they'd send someone when they could, but there was no sincerity in the promise. He was already disgusted and the trail was getting cold.

The tears slid down one side of her face and she lay her head on the floor. "Medicine." She whispered the word brokenly and closed her eyes. "Fine... get... Ice.." She was trying to tell him to go get Ice but forming longer statements was hard for her.

He'd told the operator someone had broken in. It wouldn't do him any good to be seen running moments before the ambulance arrived. "I'll get her, Mom. Don't worry. Your medicine is here and someone will be here soon, okay?" He hoped the sirens he heard were on their way here. Raiche kissed her forehead and squeezed her hand gently making sure her pills were in reach where the medic could find them. He slipped out of the room, still looking for heat if he could find anything. The bag he'd tossed to the side was picked up and shoved in the refrigerator for another time. Mom would need the fixings if he didn't come back soon enough... or at all. He didn't see anyone in the hall but steps other than his and a handprint on the wall gave him a better idea of how long they'd been gone. The print was fading from a warmer yellow and whose ever it was had tried hard not to get past the doorway. That was all he needed, that and the direction, though he had a fairly good idea already. A shift to scales and from scales to camoflauge, Raiche himself was not seen running, skittering and clawing rapidly down the street, headed for kingpin's home turf.

He'd come back in and had a second or third round with her if you counted the car as the first. More bruises and welts adorned her, though not many on her face -he liked her pretty and didn't want to mess up her face permanently. A cut along her eyebrow, a swollen cut lip and a bruise on her cheek were enough of a mar to her face for him, though he let into the rest of her. She hadn't been dressed up to go out but had dressed nicely for a simple dinner at home with Damien, the outfit was ruined now. Her felt like she'd been jack hammered, her inner thighs badly bruised, she was missing a shoe and her lace had been torn away. The shreds of lace now rested beside the belt -to torment her as he went out of the room again to have another drink and work himself up for another round. She distantly wondered how many he'd go for and if she'd last through it. Her cheeks were tear stained and her throat hurt from screaming and crying out in pain, she tried not to give him such satisfaction but there were times when she couldn't help it and by now she just hurt without him laying a hand on her again. She cried quietly while he was out in the other room, her body ached, stung and throbbed in varying degrees.

Going on foot was more successful than navigating the streets at this time of night and the checkpoints were flaring up all over from what he could see. There must have been a bust, or some big celebration that pulled all posts alive this early. He scaled around them unseen, undetected, one of Badger's scramblers keeping their sensers off his tail for now. The road wasn't a short one regardless and his strength was giving out. Hopefully he could simply get in and get out with her.

In the outer room the boss was joined by two of his goons, the rest off to other tasks. There were only five in and around his home at the moment. He sat sipping his drink, his anger slowly easing now that he'd spent some time taking out that aggression on Ice. He was thinking in long term solutions to keeping her in line. "Maybe I'll get her a nice collar and leash.. on of those shock collars, where she can't go over fifty feet or something without getting zapped."