Chapter 6

Riddick closed the door and sighed, rubbing his eyes with the back of a hand. She watched him carefully, taking in every movement he made as though storing them for later use. She was, actually. Being just a call girl to everyone around her made it simple for her to be calculating, and that was a strong point for her. But she'd never let Riddick know just how strong it was or he'd use it to his advantage and that was a risk she wasn't yet willing to take. He may have showed the first signs of trying to protect her but she still didn't trust him any farther than she could throw him. And that wasn't very far.

"You're sure you're not hungry," he said again, disbelieving.

"I'm fine." He nodded with a slight shrug and tried a few dishes. It became obvious early on he'd not known what he'd ordered, and she found it hard to choke down a laugh at some of the faces he made when he found an item he didn't like. "Why are you so interested in me?" she asked suddenly. He paused, food poised in front of his mouth.

"What do you mean?" he asked, confusion showing through his mask. He had few expressions, but she was starting to pin them down now.

"It would seem to me that it would be more rewarding for you to get in with some of the Commanders and their associates instead of a whore," she said openly. His eyebrows furled at her choice of word for herself, but she just looked up at him expectantly, still wearing her cloak, hands still folded in her lap.

"The people that know the most are the people everyone else least suspects," he said with a shrug.

"And you learned that where?" He cleared his throat, casting her a glance that should have been a warning, but it failed. She just watched him take another drink from his glass.

"I didn't exactly have an easy life," he said gruffly.

"Neither have I," she retorted. He cocked his head to the side, granting her point, but said no more. "If I was supposed to have been enlightened by that little revelation of yours, you failed miserably." His eyes narrowed, but the tug of a smirk at the corner of his lips gave him away. So he likes a smartass, huh? she thought. Mental note.

"I'm the one seeking enlightenment here," he said slowly. She was beginning to like his voice. Most of the pipsqueaks running around this place didn't have near the intrigue to them as he did.

"Too bad both of us are overly suspicious," she said with a small shrug. His laugh surprised her; it was unnatural to her ears being so open and unabashed, but she found herself smiling.

"There's no such thing as overly suspicious, doll." Her smile instantly fell at the nickname, and he noticed but didn't press. "Better to be paranoid than unprepared."

"Good call," she granted with a small nod.

"I heard an ugly rumor that most of you in that hallway were married to men who refused to convert." Her eyes closed, and he wished he'd found a more roundabout way of saying it. "Shit. That didn't come out right," he mumbled.

"It's not a rumor," she responded, her voice small and timid. "Most of us were."

"And you?"

"It doesn't matter, Riddick." She suddenly looked tired, and he mentally kicked himself. "What's done is done, and all that matters is what happens next."

"I've got a tech doing some digging," he admitted quietly.

"May I ask who?"

"Daniel." She nodded, smiling slightly at his answer.

"You're a good judge of character then," she commented.

"Good choice then?"

"From what I understand he's gotten into quite a bit of trouble for sneaking around places he shouldn't be."

"I told him not to get caught."

"He hasn't in a while," she assured him. "They think he's straightened up since his last reprimand, but it's not the case." Riddick nodded in satisfaction. "May I ask what you're planning?"

"An escape." His eyes met hers, searching for any reaction, but got only the cold, emotionless exterior she'd gotten so good at keeping in place.

"You just got here."

"And they're already driving me out of my fucking mind," he said with a snicker. She smiled as well, but it didn't linger.

"She didn't make it, did she?" Sevic avoided his eyes, but her voice told him all he needed to know. She'd been there, somewhere in the crowd looking on. His jaw set, and that picture flashed in his memory again. He felt her glance at him, but didn't look her way. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. She wasn't apologizing for asking, but for his loss.

"You've got nothing to lose, huh?" his voice was strained, and she looked up at him again. "You said not to underestimate a woman with nothing to lose. I'm assuming that's you." She nodded. "That makes two of us then." An awkward silence settled over them for a while; she fidgeted with her fingers in her lap, and he swirled the dark liquid in his glass. Finally, he cleared his throat. "I'm going to give you clearance to enter this room," he said slowly. "You come here if you need to." She looked up at him.

"I have a room of my own," she insisted.

"It's not as safe," he insisted. She shrugged. "I mean it, Sevic. You come here if anything happens."

"Why?"

"Because I let you in." Her eyebrow rose in confusion, and he sighed, sitting wearily onto the bench at the foot of his bed again, his head dropping between his shoulders. "I swore to myself after Kyra died that I'd never let anyone else in. Everyone who gets close to me dies." Sevic was touched, but still utterly confused.

"You didn't let me in," she said quietly. He nodded. "I don't know anything about you, Riddick. You've not let me in."

"Yes I have." His head came up, his eyes holding hers steadily with the admission, and she swallowed nervously.

"Look, if this is about last night, it's not a big-"

"It's not." Her brows furled, and he shook his head. "It has nothing to do with you." She just stared at him as he chuckled lightly. "Man, Johns was right. Only around humans."

"Care to let me in on the joke?" Her voice held a slight touch of agitation, but he only chuckled again.

"I'm a murderer, Sevic. Twenty something bodies at my hands." Her eyebrows rose. "Spent half my life in a slam and they always said I was only dangerous around humans."

"And why is that?"

"Because I have a soft spot, believe it or not." She shook her head, not following. "Women and kids." Her lips formed a silent 'oh.' "It's a god forsaken duty of mine to protect women and kids in trouble, and it always fucking backfires." He sighed, leaning back against the footboard of the bed. "It takes them nearly nothing but one god damn act of kindness to break through my thick skull and I just have to make sure they're okay." She smiled slightly. "Shitty thing is, in the process they always end up on the hot end of the stun gun, if you catch my drift."

"So why not isolate yourself?" she asked, now completely intrigued.

"I did." His jovial mood changed to bitterness, and she began to wonder if she should have asked. "Mercs tracked me down, found out Kyra was in a slam, and had to rescue her. And the shit hit the fan," he finished, punctuating the confession by draining the last of his drink. "And you're right." Her eyebrow arched. "I definitely shouldn't drink around them." She smiled and took a breath, focusing on an intricate design in the rug between them.

"I was married," she admitted quietly. Riddick leaned forward, setting his glass on the floor under the bench he occupied. "The Necros invaded, did their usual spiel. Granted, I didn't know what was going on. We were one of the first planets on their list." His eyebrows rose. "Seleron." He nodded. "Anyway, they rounded us up – you saw that part." She shook her head, her eyebrows now quivering. "Jason promised me everything would be fine, just do what I had to do. He was on the planetary council, so he thought it was his duty to try to protect the people." Riddick noticed her hands were now trembling noticeably. "Since I was his wife, I wasn't considered for a breeder. They just hauled me off to the Hallway and locked me up." He sighed. Worse than I thought. "The first few times I was a little more feisty than they anticipated, so I was put in my place –"

"You mean beat into submission," he interjected. She nodded.

"It got to the point where it was easier to deal with when I didn't fight it, so I gave in as much as I had to." She was quiet for a while, and he didn't know what to say so he didn't. "It never gets easy when there's a knock at the door," she continued. "You always know what happens next and that no matter what you do it's inevitable. So you give them just as much as they want to keep yourself intact without losing yourself. Some of the women, though," she said, shaking her head. "Some of them have gotten to where they couldn't be happier anywhere else." Riddick sighed. "And the day I get to that point is the day I'll take my own life." He just stared at her, understanding. He was now at the point where he'd take his own life if he was forced to go back to slam.

"You don't have to worry about that now," he said quietly.

"And for that I'm endlessly grateful to you," she said with a small smile, meeting his eyes once more. They shimmered with tears that didn't fall. At that moment, she because beautiful to him. "I can't help you Riddick," she stated, somewhat sadly. "I don't have access to anything or anyone. All I know is what I hear and there's no way I can verify it."

"I'm not asking you to help me," he insisted equally as quietly. "I'm asking you to be the one that doesn't die because they got too close." She smiled slightly.

"I'm not as close as you'd like me to be, and I don't think I'll ever reach that point."

"You got me all wrong, doll." That look again. "I don't want you to be close. That's a risk no one should have to take." She nodded. "But you're in now," she looked up at him, and he pointed to his head. "And that's a risk I made you take, and I'm going to do everything I can to keep you safe."

"Don't make promises, Riddick," she returned. "They only get broken." He smiled genuinely this time, and she figured it was because he agreed. "If I can ask, how did I get in in the first place?"

"You found me in the hallway." Her forehead crinkled in confusion, and he chuckled. "You treated me like a human instead of an animal like everyone else."

"Well, in reality you're both a human and an animal, since a human is a type of animal," she quipped.

"Smartass." She shrugged. "Is Vaako a threat?"

"I thought we already went through this," she said with a sigh.

"No, the Commander."

"I doubt it," she said slowly. "He's got a strong sense of honor and duty – crock of shit if you ask me – so I doubt he'd try to take you on."

"He distracted the recently departed Lord Marshall and gave me the opportunity to avenge Kyra's death," Riddick said plainly.

"Like I said, he'll be more wary of his wife's plotting now that he was foiled," she said plainly. "Dame Snake probably pushed the duty and honor buttons to get him to do it in the first place. She's a conniving, evil bitch of a woman, let me tell you," Sevic continued with a snicker. "The power itch is much stronger than the desire for a spotless reputation, as I'm sure you've noticed. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to crawl into your bed to feed her power addiction."

"She's not my type," Riddick scoffed. Sevic's eyebrow cocked. "I'd worry that she'd kill me to take my place as Lord Marshall if that happened." Sevic laughed herself, a lilting sound that danced on Riddick's ears. He decided he liked it and planned on drawing that sound out of her again. "I want you to stay here from now on," he said suddenly.

"What?"

"I'm serious. I don't want you out there where Dame Vaako can get to you."

"Why would she in the first place?"

"Because as long as you're reserved for the Lord Marshall she thinks I'm taken with someone, and that means you're a threat to her power hunt," Riddick said matter-of-factly.

"I told you not to underestimate me."

"I don't. But it's a chance I don't want you to have to take just because of my god damn urge to look after you." She just stared at him. "Christ. Just fucking humor me."

"Can I get my things?" she asked in exasperation after a moment of thought.

"I'll have them brought up," Riddick said with a nod.

"No. I want to get them myself. There are things there I don't need and other things I couldn't live without." He sighed, finally giving in with a single nod.

"Take one of the monkeys outside with you," he commanded. "If you're not back in an hour I'm coming down there to get you myself." She rolled her eyes, throwing her hands in the air. "Is that really too much to ask?" he barked.

"Fine. An hour." She stood and walked to the door, glancing at him over her shoulder before addressing one of the servants standing outside. He glanced in at Riddick, who nodded with a stern look on his face, and then agreed to accompany her. What the hell are you doing? the voice in Riddick's head demanded.