Pitch Black and Ultraviolet


Chapter Eleven

Riddick

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Eventually, we started to move again, but this time in a circle. I needed time to think.

"Want to tell me what the hell's going on?" Johns snapped when they found out I'd led them in a circle. I murmured,

"Shut up."

"Riddick, why did you circle us? What's wrong?" Angel whispered in my ear, low and soft, worried. "I don't sense anything, really. What is it?"

"Do you know how close we are?" Imam snapped at me. It was the first time I'd heard him use that kind of voice. I merely replied, "Listen," but he continued with, "Do you even know where we're going?!"

"Listen!"

When Angel inhaled sharply, I knew she'd heard the cooing, yowling cries of the creatures and how they echoed.

"Canyon's up ahead. I circled once to give myself some time to think. Angel, do you think anyone knows why it'd be a bad idea to go in there?"

She nodded, glancing at the girl, Jack, then looked over her shoulders.

"Angel?"

"Angie, what is it?" Johns snapped.

"Nothing."

She was lying. She was bleeding, I realized. One of those things had, in the fight in the air, snapped of some of the jellyfish spines on her back, and scratched her. They were bleeding badly.

"We should go on through." Imam said, sounding firm. I didn't hear even a slight tremor of fear in his voice. He was brave. Must have had something to do with his faith in Allah.

"I wouldn't advise it. That's death row up there. Especially with the girl bleeding like she is." I said, without even thinking. I had forgotten they didn't know anything about Jack being a girl.

I heard Johns say, "What are you talking about, neither one of them are cut!" I shook my head at Johns' total stupidity.

"Yeah, Johns, Angel's hurt, but not her. Not Caroline. Her." I pointed at Jack, and everyone turned to look at her.

"You have got to be shitting me." Johns said with a bit of anger.

Jack looked around at all of us. Seeing Angel smile at her in understanding, she nearly broke into tears.

"I thought it would be better if everyone thought I was a guy, I thought they wouldn't mess with me, and that they wouldn't always be testing me!"

Caroline went to her side, murmuring soothingly, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Sweetheart. Are you really bleeding?" She nodded. Imam came over to Angel and me. When he put his hand on her shoulder, she winced and stiffened.

"How long have you two known about this?"

"I smelled it back when we were getting the lights together. She's got a slice on her back from the crash. Don't ask me why I didn't notice it before. They've had a nose open for her ever since we left the ship."

Imam turned to Angel, who slipped into my grasp. She pressed her face against my chest, inhaling my scent.

"I knew because Riddick carries a faint whiff of everyone he's around. I smelled her blood on him. When Jack was moving, blood was misting from that cut, and some of it hit Riddick. He's the only one I let that close to me, besides my brother. I knew before we left."

Imam nodded.

"While I was dealing with those fuckers up in the air, I had one of them snap of some of my marine appendages. They're bleeding, too, but it's not that big of a deal. I can take care of myself. As for what we should do right now, as far as the canyon goes, I think we should go through the bone yard, and depending on who's left, then decide how to get through the canyon." Her voice was cold and detached, even as she was hot and sensual in my arms.

When Imam turned away from us, she pressed her body against me.

As everyone was discussing what happened, and what to do, I let the shadows envelop us enough to hide us from sight. We kissed, that was all, and briefly, but it was enough. Just brushes of her lips against mine, the faint touch of my mouth on hers. We were chaste, but passionate. I could sense the burning need in her, even in the midst of this slaughter, the desire to be claimed. I would claim her, like the beast I was, like the raging animal. Soon, I would feel her tight little body beneath and around me, and I would take her.

I would make her burn.

"Come on, let's go. Riddick, I wanna talk to you. Where are you?" Johns snapped.

Angel and I emerged from the shadows and I went and took my place up ahead. Angel went back to be with the other girls, and Johns came up to be with me. I heard Angel whisper softly to me, "Keep your mind open." If Johns was planning anything, she wanted to know. I listened distractedly to the conversation Angel and the other two women held.

"What do you guys do every time you disappear?" Caroline asked.

"Do you guys screw like a couple of horny teenage rabbits?" Jack asked eagerly.

Imam gave her a startled look, and Caroline and Angel both laughed. How had she known, I wondered, how I'd described Angel and myself only a little while ago?

Angel shook her head.

"No. I'm still a virgin, and we're gonna wait for the horny teenage rabbit fuck-fest until we get off this rock. Why?"

I didn't pay attention to what Jack replied, because at that moment, Johns started talking. And I didn't like the fact that, a) he was depriving me of my entertainment, and b) was talking to me about murdering one of the girls. I liked those girls. Angel was, well, my angel, and Jack was my groupie. And Caroline... unlike Jack, whose kindness was attributed to teen fascination with a psychotic killer, not to mention the cute, innocent love for all humans, not just the good ones, and unlike Angel, who loved me and had grown up with me, and had gotten to know me, Caroline was kind to me because I was a human being. Even though I was a murderer, to her I was still human. Imam was kind to me, too, but it was different. He did it because he was a good Muslim, who believed in God's love, as opposed to a woman who treated me with dignity because I'd proven I deserved it.

"Hang on a sec, Riddick. We need to give them something to chew on, you know. I say we give them some bait. Battlefield doctors decide who lives or dies, and it's called triage."

"Kept calling it murder when I did it."

"I just figured it was something besides my sister's ass to grab on to."

"Your sister has a nice ass, you know that, Johns. You've fucked her enough times."

"I say we drag the body fifty to sixty feet behind us," he replied, ignoring my accusation. I'd thought that, since John had a thing about violating her, he would've tried vanilla flavors on her at least once. That's why I hadn't known she was a virgin.

"Nice embellishment."

"I don't wanna feed 'em, I just wanna keep 'em off our asses. So let's cut to the chase, eh?"

I heard Angel whisper ever so softly to the others, "Get back a little, you lot. Riddick's gonna do me a huge favor in a minute. You all back up, stay back by at least twenty paces, and don't go anywhere."

Angel jogged up behind us. "Hey. How are we gonna do this, Mike?"

"Yeah, which one's caught your eye?" I asked quietly. I turned back to regard the four others.

"Don't look back at them! Christ, what's the matter with you?"

I was giving them a warning to back up, and I do believe that Caroline caught it.

"Enough of this shit. Here's the deal, Angie. Riddick, you do the girl, and I'll keep the others off your back." My girl and I exchanged a glance. Angel knew what I would say, what I would do. She wouldn't stop me, either. "Not too big of a job for you is it?"

"Nope. Not for me. I just figured... maybe we need a bigger piece of bait." I motioned Angel away, but she shook her head. I went for Johns. I didn't even think, I knew and did what I had to do. I knocked the flare from his hand, fought to hamper him from firing the goddamn big gage gun.

"One rule. Stay in the light."

"Remember that moment, Michael. I love you, I do, but I love Riddick more."

I froze.

"And he'd never hurt me. You would. So, goodbye, Big Brother."

I unfroze.

"They always go for blood."

Johns rushed at me. I dodged. The shiv flashed as I brought my arm in for the slice.

The blade hit John at the top of the back of his shoulder, running from his shoulder to the very center of his back.

"Should have never taken the chains off, Johns. You were a pretty brave fucker with them. Billy Bad-ass. Big chains. Big guns. Big, shiny badge. I told you to ghost me. You should've listened to me." I walked away as the flare died out, leaving us in total darkness. I took Angel's hand and we began to run after the others.

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"Blind spot." I whispered, trying to ignore Angel. She was quietly sobbing off by herself, tying the knots on the harness for the power cells. She hadn't wanted to let her brother die. But she'd had to. Even though she loved Johns, she had to let him die.

I was prepared to do the same for her, if it was necessary.

I just prayed it wouldn't be necessary.

"Angel?" I murmured, trying to get her attention. She sniffed, trying to dry her tears. I knew she was listening. "I'm sorry we had to do that to Johns. Don't cry for him, though. You know we had to do it."

She nodded, not looking at me.

"Did you mean it?"

She knew what I meant.

"Yes," she affirmed sadly.

I went to sit beside her and put my arm around her shoulder.

"Kiss me, Angel."

She kissed me once, gentle, loving. My hands fisted in her hair as I pressed her closer, so I could kiss her as passionately as I dared. Her lips were so very soft, and as I had since our first kiss back when she'd been unconscious, I adored the satin softness of her mouth. I kissed her hungrily, my tongue dancing with hers in a fiery tango.

We broke apart for air a few moments later.

"Imam's coming," she whispered. "He wants to pray with us."

"It is painless, Mr. Riddick." Imam said, coming up on us. I snorted with contempt, muttering, "It's pointless." He shot back, "Because you do not believe in God. But I assure you, he believes in both of you."

"You think someone can spend half of his life in the Slam, a horse bit in his mouth, and not believe? Do you think a man can start out in the trash bin of a liquor store with an umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, and not believe?"

I looked at Angel. I knew she wanted to say something.

"Do you think a girl can spend her entire life being raped and beaten, and not believe in God? Do you think that a woman can spend almost her entire life watching... watching the man she loves being tortured, yet still have the grace to be able to go to his embrace at night, and yet still not believe? You got it wrong, Imam. Riddick and I absolutely believe in God."

"Yeah, and we absolutely hate the fucker." I said, caressing Angel's cheek. There were tears running down her cheeks, but I brushed them away.

"He is with us nonetheless."

"Two of the children are already dead. How much faith do you have, Imam?" Angel asked incredulously.

"I have enough."

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Author's Note: Just messed with the grammar and formatted the chapter. Reviews?