(author's note - for those who read the previous 40 chapters a decade ago, thank you! I significantly re-wrote and reposted them during the Coronapocolypse.)

Chapter 41: Itches We Should Not Scratch)

Don't wanna open the fucking door. Make myself do it. Logan's standing there, gun on her hip and coffee on her breath. "Comms still down" she says. "Dahl's almost got breakfast ready. Came to get you two."

Give her a nod. Step back and jerk my head towards Jack strapped to the diagnostic bed in the corner. "Gonna have another seizure soon. Gonna wait it out."

Logan pushes past me like I'm not a sociopathic serial killer obsessing on the girl she kidnapped and plans to use as monster bait. Squints at the readouts. "Huh. She up and about since we left?"

Lock the door again. "Yeah. Let her up after the seizure risk dropped. Just strapped her down a few minutes ago."

"Don't tell the Doc. She'll be mad you didn't come get her." She's looking down at Jack thoughtfully. Jack hasn't opened her eyes. She seems to be concentrating on keeping her breathing steady. "You fucked her again, didn't you? She awake?"

"Yeah," I say, softly.

"She into it?"

"Seemed to be."

"Good. She deserves a little fun. But -" Logan sits down heavily in my chair, looks at me hard. "You know it's just temporary, right? Just until we're done here?"

I shrug. "She told me not to get attached because you're giving her to an asshole serial killer."

"Yeah. If she's lucky." Logan fingers her gun. Looks down at Jack. "Sorry about that, kid." Jack's eyes open and she looks at Logan, really looks at her. Like she's asking for help. Logan looks away. Gives me a look that gets my back up.

"She didn't wanna be strapped back down," I mutter. "Guess it's not her thing. I was gentle. Didn't do it until I had too. She's still not happy with me. You ever meet the asshole?"

Logan stares at me a whole lot longer than she should, then gives me a nod. Like she's strapped down people who didn't wanna be strapped and knows what it's like. "Nope. Read his dossier. Studied some vid of his kills. Makes more sense now that we know he's not human."

I grunt. "Not human?"

She shrugs elaborately. "Furyan."

Not the first time someone's called me that. "What's Furyan?"

"Genetically engineered super soldiers for the old empire. Made recent and very brief re-contact with the allied worlds before the Necros took most of them out." She smiles one of those mirthless smiles she likes. "Galaxy didn't mourn much."

"That's why you want him to be the delivery device?"

Logan snorts. Still rubbin' the gun. "Not me, bro. Aereon's in love with some prophecy about him. And his supposed 'certain eldritch powers.'" She shakes her head. "Annoyingly, she don't elaborate on any of that. But she's rich and pays a retainer, so that's enough for me."

I have eldritch powers? What are eldritch powers? "What else did she tell you about Furyans?"

Logan looks down at Jack pityingly. Looks sideways at me. "I'll tell you later." Jack's steady breathing stumbles. Probably thinking awful thoughts about her future in-laws.

Or could be she's thinking awful thoughts about my little meltdown a minute ago. When I punched her mirror and threatened to kill her. Probably should not have done that. Or about the fact I strapped her down and fucked her without first making sure she'd like to do that. Probably should not have done that either. Force my hands not to clench into fists. Try to think what a normal guy would ask. Settle on "Does Aereon think he'll hurt her?"

Logan rolls her eyes. "She said he wouldn't. She said he loves her. She said he'd storm the gates of hell for her. Her da nodded right along."

"You think she was just sayin' things to make her father happy?" I hear myself say.

Logan snorts again. "Maybe. But he seemed pretty reconciled to the fact Riddick is gonna do bad things to her even if he is sweet on her." I stare at Jack, wishin' she'd open her eyes. Wishin' she'd ask me to kill all these assholes and take her away from all this. "Just don't make sense to me that he'd stay away for 13 years if he's that into her. He seems like the type to take what he wants."

"What if he doesn't?"

"She goes to Chillingsworth's people."

"Will they hurt her?"

"Oh yeah. They're into some kinky shit."

Jack starts seizing. Someone else starts banging on the door. Because of course Jack having a seizure is the bat-signal for assholes. Logan opens it and Toombs stomps in, smelling of last night's booze and at least a couple of jerk-off sessions since he last washed his hands or changed his panties.

He slams the door behind him making the necklaces clatter together merrily. "Just wondering what was keeping you all. Oh, will you look at that!" He grins down at the bed where Jack is seizing like it's a show just for him. Wish I'd tucked a blanket over her. Wish her legs weren't bare under that girly green dress she wore to her kidnapping. I force myself not to look.

Glare at Toombs instead. "Turn some kinda crank for you?" I ask. The necklaces are still banging together from how hard he slammed the door I untangle them carefully and put them into different pockets.

Toombs laughs. "I do like me a cattle prod. Girl twitching reminds me of that. Puts me in a cheery state of mind." Now I can't fucking look at him either because I will fucking kill him.

"Shut up, Toombs," Logan says, exasperated. "You'll scare her. We are not going to hurt her as long as she cooperates."

He laughs again. "Oh, like you don't like to see a bounty squirmin'. Hey, Mountain Man, you thinking on my offer?"

"Huh?"

"Help us bag and tag the little girl's boyfriend?"

Oh, right. Send Riddick to catch Riddick. The thing Jack told me not to do. "How much?"

"How's a hundred thousand sound?"

I laugh. "What are you getting?"

"Aereon says she'll pay us a million credits."

Abu offered me five mil to kill a guy. Buy a planet for that. She is hosing creds around. If she's telling the truth. Five mil and Jack, anyway I want her. But playing along with this could be fun. Shake myself. "My part's a little shy."

"Two hundred thousand. Unless we gotta pick up a couple more guys, so you gotta pull your own weight."

"Cash up front?"

"Hell no." What I'm hopin' is the last seizure goes through Jack. If it is, it's a lot better than last time. She collapses against the bed like she's spent. The diagnostics start spooling out data. Toombs moves over to squint at it. "Think she's about done. Hey, New Mecca. Dahl's making more of that squashed tofu you like. Think he's forgiven you for getting his brother killed." He unbuckles her head strap. She seizes again. He keeps his hand on her head, holding her down. I fucking hate that. But do I get why he likes her bucking against him. "Jesus. Guess we need to wait a minute." He looks at me slyly. "You fuck her again?"

I glare at him. One thing to tell Logan. Another to tell some guy who jerkin' off thinking about me on her.

"I'm happy for you crazy kids, but don't get attached. She ain't for you." A shudder goes through Jack's body. Hope it's a seizure.

"Tell me about Riddick," I say. I shouldn't, not with Jack here. But it's like an itch I gotta scratch.

"Freaking sociopath," he says it like it tastes good. "Orphan. Foster kid. Military took him in, trained him up, and sent him to kill a lot of people. In thanks he slaughtered his own fuckin' squad and went AWOL on an epic scale. His death count just at Butcher Bay makes me wanna stand up and salute."

"What're his weaknesses?"

"Bright lights, big guns, and her," he bounces Jack's head on the pillow. She opens her eyes and glares at him. He grins down at her. "Aereon says they bonded when she was a little girl." He makes the word "bonded" sound like "fucked." I grind my teeth. "She says when Furyans get bonded, they stay bonded." Now he grins at Logan. "Went back and checked the briefing packet after New Mecca's little heart to heart about him yesterday."

Logan snorts. "I get why you'd want your supersoldiers to bond. Good unit cohesion. But I've watched that vid where kills over and over. He didn't seem too bonded to them."

"Well, he is crazy," Toombs says.

I force my jaw to relax. "She's Colchis. Do they stay bonded?"

"Hell if I know." He squints back up at the diagnostic display. "Profiler says she won't voluntarily help us trap him." He rolls his eyes. "As a point of personal morality." He singsongs the last sentence as if it was ridiculous. "Told us not to waste time trying to persuade her. Might try anyway. I can be pretty persuasive. Think it's safe to cut her loose?"

"How the fuck should I know?" I say. "You figure out where he is?"

He snorts. "That's the turd in the punchbowl. Her old man swears he went to Audhumla and Aereon thinks he's right but fuck me if I can figure out where he could have been hiding." Jack closes her eyes again. She looks nauseous. "The Elementals sent survey teams to scour that place for years for him. Dragging the little girl around there hoping he'd come to us was a Hail Mary pass he did not catch." Last we know for sure he got off at Helion Secundus wearing a perversely ridiculous Hawaiian shirt."

"You don't think he's still there?"

"Nah. Place is crawling with surveillance. No way he could hide this long. My guess is he got snuck onto a ship and killed the crew when they got to the dark. Elementals are crunching through which ships never got where they were goin'. That'll give us bread crumbs to follow. If we're really lucky he's been sleepin' in cryo this whole time and we just gotta figure out where."

Well, fuck me, Toombs ain't a complete idiot. I give him a slow nod. "You're smarter than you look."

He laughs, delighted. "You in?"

What the hell. Could be fun. "Sure." Look over at Jack. She's staring at the ceiling with glassy eyes. "Barrin' a better offer."

He barks a laugh.

Toombs unbuckled the straps and took the bit out fairly gently. She sat up. "Thank you," she said. Her voice cracked. "I've learned something about myself because of you. I really hate being tied up."

He nodded. "No problem, darlin'." But as she tried to get off the bed, he stopped her with a strong grip on her shoulder. "Hold up." He pulled the control collar out of his jacket and snapped it around her neck in one smooth gesture.

"Jesus" she said, recoiling away. "You don't need to do that."

He smiled at her, almost cherishingly. "Get used to it. You're wearing it for the foreseeable. Been thinkin' on the fact you can talk to the system computer without any of us knowing what you're saying. I need a little bit more control over that to feel good about it. Love you, kid, but I do not trust you." It took everything she had not to look at Riddick. Instead she stared down hard at the floor, rubbing her eyes. If I beg him to take it off me, Riddick might kill them. Or he might not. I hate both of those options. Toombs punched her shoulder. "Buck up! It's better than the control chip your da signed off on."