XVII
Dark twitched as Gus and Orion cleaned his cage. With brooms they swept up hunks of meat. Dark could have crushed them both with a swipe of his tail, but he was helplessly immobile.
The two men were quiet this time, working quickly. They threw buckets of water and soap across the floor and mopped blood from underneath Dark’s feet. Soon the cage floor was covered in suds that they pushed toward a drain in the corner. The drain gurgled as it accepted the water, and a clean, antiseptic scent filled the room.
The whole routine had made him numb. The taunts, for the most part, had stopped, and Dark was glad for it. Now they just grumbled as they went about their routine.
Dark closed his eyes and tried to ignore the binding pain that constricted his scales. He had learned to dull it by
