Chapter 25
Riddick reached the spot that Jack normally met him and immediately he knew something was wrong. With his duffel bag thrown over his shoulder, he started to run, I'm coming Jack, he thought while he maneuvered down the empty streets of town.
Riddick was used to sometimes coming back from a shipment in the middle of the night like this, although Jack was always waiting for him. There wasn't need for his goggles once he reached the edge of town since there were no street lights to blind him; ripping them off his head he shoved them into his pants pocket.
As if his strong legs ran this dirt road many times before, they carried Riddick effortlessly towards his destination that was about two miles from town.
For Riddick, time seemed to pass very slowly when he flew his ship back to the planet and now time went slower. Was that even possible? Images of what he might find at the farmhouse raced through Riddick's head, the more the pictures came the faster his legs moved.
After what seemed like an hour to Riddick, which in normal time was only a few minutes, he jumped the fence that led to his and Jack's fields. Quickly he walked through the field, once he came to the other side he dropped his bag; he would have to come back for that later.
Riddick made a point to step into the woods as he neared the clearing in front of the house. As he walked quietly through the woods along the side of the house he was thankful that he didn't need to stay in the shadows, since the moon was hiding behind clouds. Standing still, he listened as he looked at the house.
Their truck was parked at the start of the driveway, nothing out of the ordinary there. His eyes scanned the ground as he looked around. The light in his and Jack's bedroom was on and he faintly heard the murmur of Jack's music floating through the air. Everything seemed normal, until the breeze brought something to Riddick's attention.
It had been years and years since Riddick had the desire to kill, but since Jack told him that Connor Ford came and threatened her, killing was the only thing Riddick wanted to do.
His blood seemed to boil as he smelled the merc everywhere around his house. You have the nerve to spread your rancid smell around what is mine? he thought as he worked his way through the woods so he could see the back of the house too.
The back door came into his line of sight. "Miss me?" he asked out loud and headed towards the opened door.
It suddenly became clear to Riddick that the scent of the merc wasn't the only thing he could smell. Blood and there was lots of it. By the time he walked up the steps and looked into the kitchen, he knew that there had to be a body waiting for him.
The mess in the kitchen had Riddick reaching for his shivs. Canisters that held Jack's flour and sugar were now laying on their sides, the contents blanketed the counter and floor. The table, once in the center of the kitchen, was now pushed awkwardly against the sink.
Taking a silent step inside of the house Riddick, observed what looked like water droplets on the floor. But he knew better; it was blood. Walking closer to where the trail of blood started, he looked at how some of the drops were smeared. It was almost as if someone had walked behind the person that was losing the blood.
He walked silently even through the clutter on the floor. A booted foot caught his attention as he came to the doorway leading into the living room. His eyes quickly followed the pant leg up to the long trench coat and further up to the knife that was sticking out of the person's upper back.
Riddick used his own foot to gently kick a leg. When the person didn't move, Riddick slipped his shivs back into their hiding spots as he moved over to look at the merc that lay dead on his floor.
"So, you must be Connor Ford," he stated while he grasped the back of the merc's hair into his fist and lifted the head from the floor. "Looks like you fucked up this time, huh?" he said and with a thud he let the head drop back to the floor.
"Jack?" he finally called out, while standing up. "Jack, where are you?" he asked when he started down the hallway towards the downstairs rooms.
Not finding her downstairs he hurried up the steps, his heart racing like it had when he found that Jack wasn't waiting for him. He couldn't help but to think she was hurt somewhere.
Each door upstairs slammed into the wall behind it as he opened them to search for his Jack. Not finding her in the house he raced back downstairs and headed outside. Running a hand over his sweaty head he tried to imagine where she would be hiding.
Off in the distance a quiet bark was heard. "Cole," he said out loud as he raced in the direction of the barn.
As he approached the closed up barn, he could hear the horses moving in their stalls. Opening the door he stepped inside, his eyes scanning the large dark room.
"Jack?" he questioned as he tried to see if she was in there.
Finally picking up her scent, he turned and headed to the small work room at the end of the barn.
"Jack? You in here?" Riddick questioned as he slowly opened the door to the room.
Jack's eyes flickered from her shiv to Riddick when he stepped into the room. Her lips parted to answer him, but no sounds came out.
"Jack," he said as he rushed over to her. "Are you okay? I've been looking everywhere for you." He had been so angry when he reached the house, but that anger soon turned to desperation as he tried to find Jack.
Kneeling down next to her he put a gentle hand on her cheek, "Jack, are you okay?" he questioned again, needing to make sure she was truly alright.
A small nod answered him. Cole, who had been lying so quietly on her lap now sat on her legs and tried to lick Riddick's hand that was still cupping Jack's cheek.
"Did he hurt you?" he asked while searching her practically glazed over eyes.
As if she hadn't heard his question, Jack's head turned away from Riddick and her hand slowly moved down to pick up her shiv. "I," she started to speak in a normal voice, but found that it was too hoarse. "I couldn't get my other one back," she whispered while picking up the bloody shiv to show him that she only had one shiv with her.
Riddick looked at the blood on it and knew it was Connor's blood just from the scent. His mind thought back to the scene in the kitchen and living room. "Don't worry, I'll make you a new one, baby," he said as he reached over and took the bloody shiv from her trembling hand.
It was at that moment that Riddick noticed all of the blood on Jack's shirt sleeve. With his shined eyes he could clearly see that her sleeve had a major rip in it. Placing the shiv up onto the shelves that Jack was leaning against, Riddick moved his now free hands to her arm and saw that it was her blood seeping from the wound.
"Oh God, Jack," he growled as he stood to grab the first aid kit that he had in the room.
As soon as Riddick stood Jack snapped out of her daze and practically flew at her lover's legs. "No! Don't leave me, Riddick," she tried to scream, even though it came out as a cracked whisper. "Please don't leave me alone," she begged and hugged his legs.
Cole had yelped as he tumbled off Jack's lap. The puppy quickly ran into a dark corner and sat still as if waiting to be punished.
Riddick noticed all of this as he was already trying to pull Jack off of his legs. He wanted to fully embrace her. "Baby, it's okay," he tried to reassure her as he sank down to her level and hugged her tightly. "I'm not going to leave you," he said as he kissed her head. "I need to bandage your arm before you loose any more blood or it gets infected."
Jack's tears were soaking Riddick's shirt, but he didn't care about that. What he worried about was getting Jack's wound fixed up and then there was the matter of getting rid of Connor Ford's body.
Seeing his owners now sitting back down on the floor, Cole quietly snuck out of the corner and crept his way over to Jack and Riddick. As he got close to them his head snaked its way under Jack's arm and in between their warm bodies.
Holding Jack as tight as he could he kissed the top of her head right before she started to speak through her sobs. "Don't let them take me, Riddick," she pleaded with him.
"Take you where, baby? No one is taking you anywhere," he said and thought about how as long as he was breathing he wouldn't let anyone take her away from him.
"I killed him, Riddick. I killed a merc!" she said and looked up at him with fear filled eyes. "They'll know I did it. They'll send me to slam," she managed to get out before she buried her head into his shoulder again.
Riddick's hands stopped their loving movements on her back when he heard her words. No wonder she's so terrified, she thinks she's heading to slam. His hands started to gently rub her trembling back again.
It was when Jack begged him again not to let them send her to slam that Riddick grasped her by the shoulders and held her out from him. "Listen to me, Jack," he tried to sound serious, but was failing miserably. "No one is going to come and take you away from me," he said and watched as her body seemed to relax as if she really did believe him. "You remember the day I picked you up from Imam's?" he asked and paused momentarily. "Do you, Jack?"
Her head nodded and her tongue snaked out to lick her dry lips.
Normally his own tongue would wet his lips when seeing her do that, but instead he spoke again. "I promised you that you were going to be with me forever. You remember that, baby?" his eyes watched as she blinked and she nodded again. "I think my words were you're stuck with me," a small smirk came over his features, since he was trying to get her to smile a little for him.
Riddick soon frowned when she only blinked in response. "You are mine, Jack. No one is going to take you from me," this time as he spoke his words were softer.
"You, you won't let them take me away?" she quietly asked while her eyes still searched to make sure he was being truthful.
He shook his head as he spoke, "There is no way in hell I would let them take you away, Jack." Riddick's eyes and voice were honest with her.
Finally, even though her eyes still held a slight empty look, she sighed and moved forward to hug him again. "I didn't know what was happening, Riddick," she said in her crackly voice. "It was like I woke up and I was standing over his, his dead body."
Riddick nodded as he felt her move back from their embrace. He took the chance to move slowly away from her to grab the first aid kit from the shelf and a cold bottle of water from the small fridge. Keeping his body turned towards Jack the entire time he quickly returned to her side. Kneeling down again he handed her the now opened water, before he opened the medical kit. "We can talk about that later, Jack," he said while taking out the med wipes to clean off her wounded arm. "Did he hurt you anywhere else?"
From his experience with Jack, he knew she would want to talk about what had happened, and he truly wanted to know how she managed to kill him without being more hurt; but right now he needed to bandage her up and figure out how to clean up the mess she had made in the house.
The way she flinched as she swallowed the cool liquid told Riddick that her throat was very sore. It made him wonder if the dead man had managed to choke her at one point. This thought forced him to crane his neck to the side as he tried to see if there was bruising on her neck.
After drinking a couple of small swallows Jack looked up at him. "No, he only managed to cut me once," she said, her voice sounding a little stronger already. She looked down at Cole who was lying on her lap while looking up at Riddick. Every time Riddick moved his hands, the pup's tail would wag a little.
Riddick quietly cleaned the wound; he could see that it was going to need a few stitches. He sighed as he eyed the stitching tool and thread in the kit. "Jack," he started, "You are going to need some stitches."
She looked at him before she slowly looked down at her arm, "Use the butterfly bandages." It came out sounding like a demand; maybe it was since her arm was already hurting badly and she didn't want anymore pain.
Shaking his head he quickly stood and took three large strides to a shelf above the one where Jack's bloody shiv lay. "Can't, it's too deep. If I don't stitch it, it won't close on its own."
Jack watched him closely in the dim light of her flashlight, trying to figure out what he was searching for on the shelf. To her surprise he pulled out a bottle of tequila. Granted it was only about half full, but Riddick knew it would help mellow her out for what he had to do.
"Drink this," he stated as he handed her the bottle. "It will help you with the pain since I don't have anything in the med kit that takes affect quickly.
Taking the bottle from his hand she looked at it for a moment as she grimaced in pain from her shoulder being sore. Jack took a drink from the bottle and let out a pain filled groan as the warm liquid burned her throat going down. "Shit that hurts," she groaned again, feeling as if she could breathe fire at that point.
Riddick tried not to smirk as he looked at her, "But it distracted you from the pain of the first stitch," he said and readied the needle to stitch again as soon as she was ready to drink some more.
She looked down at her arm and saw that he had indeed already put one stitch into her arm. "Oh," was all she said before she brought the bottle to her lips again.
"Take small swallows, Jack. Don't need to be worrying about you running off drunk while I go take care of our friend in the house," he said, quickly adding two more stitches to her arm.
It wasn't the best patch up job he had done, but with his shaky hands it was the best he could do at the moment. Putting a fresh bandage over her arm, he looked at her. Taking the bottle from her now very relaxed hand, he finished the last fourth of the bottle before he talked to her. "You gonna be okay staying in here for a minute while I go take care of the house?"
He wasn't really surprised when Jack shook her head no. "You, you can't leave me, Riddick." Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks as her breathing became faster.
Sighing, he set the empty bottle on the floor and moved his hand to her cheek. "The sun's gonna come up soon, baby. I gotta clean everything up while I'm still covered by the night," he stated quietly as he caressed her cheek.
Jack leaned heavily into his hand, for a brief second her eyes drifted closed just wanting him to stay so she could feel if the connection they shared was still there.
Riddick watched her face as he caressed her cheek. He didn't want to leave her, but at the moment he needed to think about covering up what had happened. Taking his shiv from his waist band he pressed it into her hand. When he did this he could see her eyes open and look down at the weapon now in her possession. "That's the one you got me two years ago; it's my favorite shiv. You have to understand that I'm only leaving for a few minutes and I'll be back to get you." This time as he spoke, his words were confident. He had to go; he had to keep them safe and with that shiv in her hands, he hoped it would give her the strength to see that.
Slowly leaning down, his lips touched hers. At first her lips didn't move, but after a few seconds of Riddick pressing his lips against hers, he felt her finally kiss him back. He hadn't wanted the kiss to turn as passionate as it did, but her need for his touch felt strong to him. Both pulled away at the same time, panting.
"I'll be back soon," he whispered as he stood up. He looked at her as she held his shiv to her chest and watched him back away from her. "I promise, Jack," he said a little louder.
Quickly he turned, shutting the door behind him as he headed back through the barn. When his feet touched the dirt outside he pulled that door shut too, wanting to keep her as safe as he could.
To Be Continued…