24. Riddick: A Glimpse Of Things To Come

Still laughing, he sat up and gathered her into his arms, pulling her back down with him. He kissed her forehead, then each of her eyelids.

"You are truly amazing, Fiona," he growled. "I'll get you for that."

"I suppose you can try," she answered teasingly. He could smell his semen on her breath and felt his arousal swiftly returning. If this was the quiet twin, her sister must have been a dangerous force of nature. Scenarios played out in his head, each more exciting than the last. They'd play them all out for real, he decided.

"Speaking of fluids... how have you been doing with food?"

"I drank all of the broth. Jack and Imam made sure of it. And I ate dinner last night. Well, if you can call it night. Before I went to bed, anyway. We found some cans of vegetable soup in one of the family units, so I had that. I was able to keep it down just fine." She rested her head on one hand, propped up on her elbow so she could meet his eyes. Most women he'd met were unnerved by them, but she seemed to enjoy looking at them. "I feel good, Richard."

"Twenty-two-year-old vegetable soup? And it was still good?"

"It was delicious." The impish smile was back on her face.

"You know what I mean," he answered sternly. "Old canned foods can be dangerous."

"Ah. Botulism. No, the cans were fine, Richard, we checked."

"I am starting to really like hearing you call me that," he murmured, stroking her hair. "Nobody's called me anything but 'Riddick' since I was twelve. Makes me feel like a real person."

She leaned over and kissed his temple, making him shiver. Amazing. She's discovering new erogenous zones all over me. Hell, maybe she's creating them.

"So what else happened while I was gone?"

"Imam finished his calculations in the orrery. He says that the eclipse is due in about six months' time, perhaps a little longer. We'll be long gone by then, won't we?"

He could hear the soft worry in her voice. Good. She's starting to think about living, about surviving. For a while he'd been worried that her survival instincts had been killed in the crash along with her family.

"Yes," he answered. "It won't take nearly that long to get the skiff up and running." He let his eyes run over her body. "Take off your clothes."

"So soon?" She looked surprised, but very excited.

"That's right. I'm up and running even faster. Now get undressed, girl. Fast. You haven't had your chance to come yet."

He watched her as she stripped, studying the curves of her body with almost-predatory fascination. Her movements were pure sensuality now, as if some primal force had been released.

"Why the hell did you wait so long to lose your virginity, anyway? What were you waiting for?"

She dropped her clothing to the floor, then turned to him, face abruptly very serious. "Someone I could trust."

The sudden ache in his throat overwhelmed him. "Oh, Fee," he sighed. "You sure made a hell of a pick, didn't you?"

"I'm happy about it." She leaned down and rested her head on his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his waist and twining her legs with his.

"Fiona, by the time we get off this place, you'll probably hate me," he sighed.

"No."

"Yes." He lifted her chin and locked eyes with her. "Listen to me. You need to know this now. Don't think you can somehow change what I am, babe. That'd take more magic than any human being could manage. I'm still a killer. And before we leave this rock, I'm going to kill Johns."

She shivered in his arms despite the heat.

25. Fiona: Bonding

"Do you have to?" she finally asked.

An unidentifiable time had passed while the two of them lay quietly together, almost unmoving. Riddick had never stopped stroking her hair, but that was the extent of their motion.

"Yes. I do."

She raised her head from his chest. "Is it because he won't let you go?

He blinked, and awe appeared on his face. "Yes. I didn't think anybody else knew."

"We all know, I think. Most of the others won't admit it to themselves, though. But Jack and I were talking and sh--" She stopped herself quickly and tried to slur the sh sound into a j sound as nonchalantly as she could. "Jack... he thinks--"

"Stop right there, Fee," he ruumbled. "I don't like people trying to keep secrets from me. Don't do it again. I already know Jack's a girl."

"You do?" It didn't really surprise her, somehow. Riddick's perceptions seemed to move through spaces and around corners that others couldn't even intuit. "How?"

"She's menstruating. I could smell it on her."

"Good Lord. Do you think anyone else has figured out--"

"Probably not. Most people aren't very good at seeing beyond surfaces."

"True. Most of the others are still convinced that you're raping me." She deliberately ran her hand down his chest and abdomen and felt the muscles twitch as she passed over them.

"They think Johns is their protector, too. Fucking blind." He grasped her wrist before her hand finished making its way down, then drew her hand back up to rest on his cheek.

"He plans to take you back no matter what, doesn't he? And if any of us stood in his way I don't think he'd have any qualms about shooting us." It hurt to think about it, but she had to. A bleak possible future loomed before her. And the most horrible aspect of it that she could see was Riddick's absence from her life.

"So I'm going to kill him first," he finished gently. She could hear something in his voice that spoke of odd regret. Not for Johns' death, she decided, but for the continued alienation from humanity that the killing would give him.

"You are," she agreed softly. "But I won't hate you for it."

His eyes had been closed. Now they flew back open. "You can't know that."

"Don't believe me, then. But it's the truth." She sat up. Maybe if she couldn't prove herself with words, she could do so with actions. "Now, wasn't there something you were going to do for me?"

"Are you sure you were 'the quiet one?'" he asked in amused wonder.

"Not within my own family, I wasn't," she answered proudly. "We were all equally insane."

"And I'm family?" A slight smile touched his lips again.

"All the family I have," she replied, and felt her voice break. His answering embrace was fierce.

He lifted her up against the wall so that her throat was leveled with his face, and tilted her head back. His mouth came to rest on the very spot where her throat was aching, enveloping it and drawing out the pain as if it were venom from a bite wound. Amazing that he would know exactly where it hurt. Amazing how adept he was at making the pain stop.

She sighed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, just enjoying the way he was holding her. She could feel her body relaxing, softening against his. When he finally slid inside her, she was completely at peace, and he was able to carry her away into a bliss beyond measure.

26. Riddick: Accusations

Everyone else was long done with breakfast by the time they emerged from their quarters. He watched Fiona eat, reassuring himself that she really was well, before they headed off to their respective tasks. She was doing scavenging work with Jack, Imam, and his boys, hunting for useful things throughout the settlement's buildings. He had been instructed by Johns to start looking into something else altogether.

The blue sun was dropping toward the horizon and the twin suns had just appeared when he decided it was time to take a water break. He'd been modifying some of the miners' gas units so they would work with the skiff's O2 system and it was hard, tedious work that had the sweat dripping from pores he hadn't even known he had. It might have been easier if they'd let him take a look at the skiff's actual system, but they were still extremely leery of doing that.

He figured that Fry was working out worst-case scenarios and trying to prepare for them. Ten of them crammed into the tiny ship were going to eat up the air at a record pace. Hence the need for additional resources hooked into the regular system.

He headed over to the party room, still calculating the feasibility of various ideas he had, and poured himself a glass of water from the carafe. He sipped it slowly, enjoying the fact that the bit-sores in his mouth were now almost completely healed. Fry entered the room while he was still drinking.

He smiled over at her. "I was just thinking about you."

She stopped, staring at him. She studied his face for a long moment, searching for some clue as to how he'd meant his remark, before she answered. "Were you?"

"Yeah. I wanted to suggest that we check and see if any of the cryo-lockers in the crash ship are still functional. Maybe see if we can hook them into the skiff. People in cryo-sleep don't need food or nearly as much oxygen. Might make the trip easier." He took another sip of his water.

She seemed surprised, and he amused himself for a moment by puzzling out what she'd expected him to say. Johns really has these ladies running scared from me. As if they have anything to worry about.

"That's a pretty good idea," she answered slowly. "It could save us a bunch of trouble. Thanks."

"Any time."

"Riddick, I..." She stopped and looked down at her feet. She seemed very uncomfortable, suddenly.

"What?"

Her eyes rose to meet his. She'd toughened up her face a bit. "I want you to leave Paris' things alone."

Huh?

"I don't know what you mean, Fry. Something goin' on?"

"You don't have to pretend. You've been taking his alcohol. He asked me to tell you to stop. So I'm telling you."

"Too bad I'm not the one stealing it, Carolyn. That was a pretty good tough-girl act you just did. Coulda thrown a scare in me if I'd really been your thief."

She watched him gravely, still almost-successfully hiding her fear of him.

"You checked with our band of kids? I know, Imam's boys are on Hajj." He indulged himself with a quick and accurate mimicry of Imam's accent. "'It is not permitted.' But when has that ever stopped teenagers? Unless they changed

that much while I was in Slam?"

She stood her ground, silent.

"How about Jack?" Privately, he knew that the girl wasn't behind the thefts, but the point had to be made. "You know, it sounds like somebody is just drowning their sorrows and doesn't want anybody to know about it. Blowing off steam by getting drunk. But it ain't me. I've got my own therapy going and alcohol has no part in it."

Her mouth flattened with distaste at his words.

He leaned back and put his feet up on the table, considering her. She thought he was blowing off his steam by raping Fiona. Well, this morning wouldn't have done anything to disillusion her. Fee had noisy climaxes. Not that anybody, in his opinion, should have any trouble telling the difference between screams of pleasure and ones of pain... Fry'd better start looking past the surfaces of things soon if she wanted to pull this little gang off the planet in one piece.

"Tell Paris that the only alcohol of his I've had are a few sips of that 'Shiraz' or whatever he said it was on our way here, and a bit of vodka that Fee used to clean my cuts. And I know he took that bottle back, because I saw him with it later."

He took his feet back off the table, and stood slowly, emptying his water glass. He walked toward Fry, until she finally took a few steps back so he could pass her. He kept their eyes locked the whole time.

"I'm not your problem here, Carolyn. I'm not drinking it, and I can tell you for damned sure Fee isn't. You'd better keep looking."

The expressions on her face were interesting. Fear warred with anger; both warred with curiosity. Some part of her believed him, at least, but it was having a hard time coming to the fore.

He left her in the party room and headed back to his work. He already knew who the thief was. She'd figure it all out eventually; he knew she was smart enough.