his body heavy on top of her.
"Ooh, you smell so good," he growled, his hands gripping her wrists tight, "I know it's impolite to play with my food but for you, I might make an exception."
Erena screamed, kicking at him with all her strength, but it only seemed to amuse him as he wrapped his dripping jaws around her throat.
Suddenly, she heard a snarl, which escalated to a roar as someone grabbed Rin'rokir and dragged him off of her. Shang, his face a mask of rage, flung the other man into the wall so hard a dozen of the little secret compartments sprang open around him.
Rin'rokir was back on his feet a second later, hissing like an angry cockroach as Shang, claws and fangs bared, stood between him and Erena.
Erena, too stunned to fully comprehend what was going on here, could only stare as the two men flung themselves at each other without weapons or the pretense of skill, just tearing at each other in animalistic rage.
Despite Rin'rokir's advantage in size, both wider and taller than Shang, it was all over in a matter of seconds. Shang used the other man's weight against him to flip them so that he was on top, and then tore at Rin'rokir's throat until bright cyan colored fluid gushed out over his claws, spreading over the floor.
As Rin'rokir's last, wet gasps for life sputtered and faded, Shang's heavy, panting breaths were all that disturbed the eerie silence.
"Shang?" Erena asked, quiet and nervous.
His head snapped towards her, his teeth still bared, blue blood on his face, and Erena flinched back, horrified. Slowly, he came back to himself, shaking his head and looking away from her as he recollected his senses.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, his voice rough, unable to look at her.
"I'm fine," she whispered, too afraid to say anything else.
"You're not fine," he corrected, "What can I do?"
"Are you okay?" she asked it before she could think about it.
He was silent for a moment, obviously caught off guard by her concern.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he promised, instead of answering, "I just need a minute to pull myself together."
A few seconds of silence ticked past. Erena stayed where she was, still staring at Shang warily. Shang, with distracted, fumbling motions, tried to scrub the blood from his face.
"I could use a shower," Erena broke the silence at last, her skin still crawling where Rin'rokir had touched her.
"Yeah," Shang agreed with a sigh, "Me too."
He stood suddenly and Erena flinched. She shifted to stand as well, hoping he hadn't seen it. He went to the wall with the secret cupboards, many of their doors still swinging open forlornly.
He ignored them, touching a different spot instead. A larger door opened on a small room like a walk in closet. He looked back to beckon her closer with an impatient gesture. Still cautious, she moved slowly closer.
"Settings are there," he said, pointing at a panel, "Take your time. I'm going to deal with him."
He looked back at the still bleeding corpse in the center of his apartment. Erena stepped into the closet/bathroom space and jumped when he closed the door behind her. It was a little claustrophobic, with a tiled floor and no fixtures or furniture that she could see, just plain pale yellow walls and the panel Shang had indicated.
The buttons didn't appear to be labeled in any way that was meaningful to her, though each one was a different color. She pressed a blue button, figuring it might be cold water and then at least she'd have a point of reference.
Instead, a low hum filled the small room, vibrating in her bones. Her dress began to ripple like a liquid at once and abruptly dropped off of her, dissolving into the floor.
Erena slammed the blue button again to shut the hum off before anything else could dissolve off of her. She tried a pink one more hopefully, and a basin slid out of the floor.
A little experimenting led her to conclude she'd found a toilet, or something very like it, which was a relief if not the one she was looking for. Further