Hello all my pretties! My updates may get fewer and farther between since I'm having computer issues at the moment! Never fear, the story will goon! As always MUCH LOVE to all my reviewers! Keep it up PLEASE!
Also there's an interesting topic on my 'Big Evil' forum entitled 'here's a doozey'. Stop by and say HI!
Disclaimer: We all know I don't own anything but the plot and Jonas, he's all mine!
Later, Riddick sat in the pilot's seat staring out into the unending night that is space. It put him at ease somehow to be surrounded by so much darkness. Kyra was sleeping and he was immersed in silence and lost in his own thoughts. Thoughts of Carolyn Fry. He wasn't sure what prompted him to think of her, he hadn't for quite some time, but there she was inside his head; all sweat, boots and tool belt leather. He thought of her standing at the end of the gangway on the little emergency skiff, soaking wet and desperate for his help. Her words repeated over and over inside his head.
"There must be some part of you that wants to rejoin the human race."
He hadn't lied when he answered her, he really didn't know how. Lately it had been bothering him though. The only reason he even cared now at all, he felt, was Kyra. Jack. He hated calling her Kyra. She wasn't Kyra to him. But maybe, just maybe, if he could bring back his Jack. Maybe then she could help bring back his humanity, what little there was. The look in Carolyn's eyes before she was pulled from his grip still shook him from time to time. It was the look of absolute understanding that she was going to die. For him.
Suddenly, screaming from the back of the skiff shattered his calm. He ran to the back to check on Kyra. He'd been so absorbed in his own contemplations that he hadn't noticed the scent of her sweat had become tainted with adrenaline, or the sound of her heart pounding madly in her chest.
Hearing Jonas' story got Kyra thinking about her own troubled past. The juvi centers and group homes that she'd been through, the few friends she'd made and lost. She had fallen into a uneasy sleep without even really trying.
Gotta hide, gotta hide… there! She found a place in a bush nearby, hoping and wishing and praying that she wouldn't be seen. She wouldn't go back to that hellhole, not again. She would die first, every cell in her tiny eight-year-old body believed that. There were flashlight beams floating around her and voices calling out to her with false kindness.
"Where are you? We want to help."
HA! There was no kindness in juvi, no help. The girls that she roomed with beat her almost nightly, the guards didn't care, and most of them would have raped her given the chance anyway. Two of them eventually would. Now she heard dogs barking, she should have known they'd use the dogs. The barking was coming closer. Dammit dammit dammit…RUN! She bolted from the bush only to make it ten strides and be pounced upon by a hundred and twenty pound snarling and slobbering beast.
"NOOOO!" She screamed as hands grabbed her, pulling her to her feet and dragging her back to the group home, kicking and screaming.
She flashed forward to later that night. That night she found out what pain really was. The girls she roomed with were particularly cruel to pussies that tried to escape. They beat her head against the floor, cut her, ripped her hair out. She screamed until she could taste blood in her breath from her raw throat, still no one came. But she kept screaming, she had to keep screaming. She was being shaken, and yelled at.
"Kyra! Kyra, wake up!" Wait. That's not right. That wasn't the same voice that had been yelling at her before. She knew this voice and had trusted it with her life. The smell of him filled her nostrils and quieted her.
She stopped thrashing and opened her eyes. She found herself staring into two shining silvery pools. She could barely see the rest of him in the darkness. But his eyes were glimmering at her with …concern? She sat up staring at him as though entranced.
"Are you with me, Kyra?" His voice was filled with unexpected worry. She liked the thought that he worried for her.
She nodded, and Riddick's expression became steely once again.
"Hell of a nightmare, huh?" he asked quietly, but she was thinking to herself and didn't hear him. He rose to leave. Kyra snapped her head up.
"Riddick wait!" He stopped and turned. She lowered her eyes feeling ashamed at what she was about to ask.
"Will you … stay?" Three little that words that melted away his most severe response. He couldn't deny her. It took him a moment, but he walked slowly to her cot and slid in next to her on top of the blanket noticing that she was still trembling from her nightmare.
They adjusted until both were comfortable. She pulled his arm around her and he stiffened a little behind her and then relaxed against her back. They lay in silence for a moment, and then came Riddick's voice vibrating beside her ear. The tingles that she'd almost felt the last time they'd been so close took her by surprise now.
"You want to talk?" he asked softly, referring to her nightmare. It was a rare mild moment for him but Kyra had already proven herself vulnerable by asking him to stay and it comforted her just as much to know that he cared at all.
"Not tonight," was her answer and he left it at that. She huddled up to him taking comfort in his warmth at her back, and easily drifted back off.
Riddick, on the other hand, lie awake listening to her breathing and absorbing the quiet energy she emanated. The animal in him was purring and growling at the same time. Purring because he had the one and only woman he'd ever come remotely close to loving in his arms, and growling because he could feel himself weakening because of her.
The next day was spent in a strained silence; it blanketed the entire skiff. Jonas felt choked by it as it radiated from Kyra and Riddick, and Jonas wondered what the hell was going on. When they decided Toombs' men probably wouldn't be close behind, they stopped at a tiny pit stop planet just to the side of commercial lane IP3 to refuel and restock.
Kyra had decided that even though it might be a rip off, a shower would be worth the hundred creds it would cost her. There was nothing wrong with getting dirty, but there was something to be said for getting clean as well. She grabbed clean clothes and the cleanest looking towel out of a pile next to the shower rooms and went in.
The room was tiny and simple; four walls, a shower stall (with no curtain mind you) and a chair where she could put her clothes without getting them wet. Kyra stripped and stepped under the warm water, not as hot as she would have had it, but there was only so much hot water and she didn't want to use it all too quickly. Her muscles ached from hanging in Toombs' 'white room' for so long. It turned out they had hung there for almost ten hours, and now her shoulders felt as though they could turn to stone at any moment. She let the water flow over her, taking her troubles down the drain with it. She couldn't feel the eyes on her.
Riddick stood just inside the cracked door having originally intended only to bring her towel in that she had forgotten outside. But he now found himself transfixed, his inner animal purring once again from the sight before him. The water that flowed over her formed tiny rivulets that guided the eyes easily over her body. She was beautiful, and it had been a long time since he'd seen anything genuinely beautiful. He found he couldn't look away, no matter how he wanted to. There were tiny dark scars scattered over her skin, evidence of her rough past. Her fair skin was a sharp contrast to her almost black hair as it spilled down to the middle of her back. She turned a little to the side and it took him a moment but finally he averted his eyes, laying the towel on the bench and leaving the room. Watching anymore would be his undoing and he couldn't afford to come undone now. He leaned back against the wall outside the tiny room taking a deep breath, considering what he'd just seen and the things that were stirring in him now.
She got out and dressed in a black long sleeved shirt and black cargo pants, all to soon for her liking, but she came out feeling like almost a new woman. When she stepped outside the shower room door she was surprised to find Riddick standing there, towel in hand.
He breathed her in as she brushed by him. She smelled clean, the shampoo masking but not completely obliterating her own scent. He let out a small grin as he stepped inside and shut the door.
"Never pictured you as much of the showering type. I guess every animal needs a bath now and then, huh?" Kyra smirked as she heard him grunt through the door. She began brushing out her hair. She heard the water come on.
'Mmm,' she thought musingly, 'he's naked in there.' Just then, Jonas came running up and informed her that their faces were becoming public knowledge. She turned to put the brush down and bang on the door of the shower but her eye caught movement. She looked up before she could think about it and straight through a gap in the door she saw Riddick's very naked body under streams of hot water. She looked away at first, then back up as though her eyes had a mind of their own. She could only stand speechless as she watched him move under the water, her eyes roaming over him like a connoisseur might look at a bottle of fine wine. His back was smoother than she'd imagined it and the way the water coursed over each muscle was stunning. A thought crossed her mind then. A thought of going back into the little room, stripping off her clothes again and joining him under the water. Hell, he probably wouldn't mind. Her feather light touches might even go unnoticed since he had to keep his eyes closed. She just wanted to feel him a little, after all. Maybe lick up a droplet from his skin. He turned unknowingly to face her and she turned away, anymore might negate her better judgment. Taking a deep breath she turned back and banged on the shower room door.
"He big guy, make it quick! We gotta jet before we get seen!" She left to find Jonas and finish prepping the skiff. Little did she know he had felt her eyes on him and he liked it. Knowing she watched him with the same hunger that he had for her somehow made his pulse quicken more than when he had actually been watching her. This was going to be interesting.
Jonas thought of changing forms when they reached the tiny planet and later he wished he'd taken the time to do it. Pictures of the three of them were splayed across vid screens everywhere he turned. Not very flattering pictures but enough to get them noticed if they stuck around much longer. He heard whispers from other patrons that the bounty for Riddick had been doubled to one mil, and the other two were at 100k a piece. Toombs' hand, no doubt. The only good news was they were all wanted alive. Someone thought they'd seen the girl by the showers, but couldn't be sure. All the more reason to expedite their departure, Jonas figured. Showered, refueled and rationed they set off, keeping off the marked lanes as much as possible to avoid unwanted attention.
Riddick rested on the cot toward the back of the skiff since he'd been awake all night, and he needed to sleep while he could. Jonas piloted and Kyra sat up front with him in case he needed backup. Things were quiet, and each of them was lost in their own thoughts.
"Are you okay?" Kyra asked, not taking her eyes off the controls, "You went off by yourself for so long last night and got me worried and shit."
"Huh? Yeah, I guess. I gotta figure out what I'm going to do now though." Jonas answered.
"Well, we all seem to be in the same boat right now anyway so you can stick with us until you figure it out, alright?"
Jonas nodded. There was another period of silence. This time Jonas was the first to break it.
"So what's with you and the killer?" he asked nonchalantly.
"We have… history." Jonas looked at her questioningly, "He saved my life, got me and a holy man named Imam off this nightmare rock we crash landed on." Memories threatened to butt their way into her mind, but she forced them back with great effort. Jonas spoke again.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but why don't you two just fuck and get it over with?" Kyra thought surely she'd heard him wrong.
"Huh?" she asked, momentarily flustered
"He wants you, you know?" Still she looked at him quizzically. "Riddick, he wants you. I can see it when he looks at you, even behind the goggles. It's written all over his face. I'm surprised you haven't noticed." He said it so lightly, as though it wouldn't mean the world to her to know.
"No way, he still thinks of me as a kid," she said as apathetically as she could manage. Jonas only grinned.
"You didn't see the way he looked at you in the shower earlier, did you? He definitely wasn't seeing a kid." Kyra's eyes shot up from the controls.
"How do you know he was watching me in the shower?" she asked skeptically.
"When I came looking for you guys to let you know that our pictures were all over the place. I came around the corner and he was just standing in the door admiring the view."
Kyra thought on it for a minute. He'd been watching her in the shower? How had she not felt it? What the fuck? The thought both offended and excited her. Mostly excited.
"So what? So he wants my body, what man wouldn't?" She was trying desperately to sound indifferent, though she was far from it.
"It's not just that. I can't explain it, but I can tell there's more to it than just your body."
Suddenly, Kyra sprung out of her seat.
"Something I said?" Jonas asked as she took off to the back of the skiff where Riddick was sleeping. She stood in the door of the small and darkened room letting her eyes adjust. Once her eyes attuned she saw him lying on the cot face up, arms up and hands behind his head. She walked purposefully forward and punched him hard in the chest, then quickly stepped back expecting him to swing at her. He didn't. He only turned his head and looked at her, shinned eyes gleaming up at her.
"Yes?" His voice was low and resounded in the tiny room. It made her shudder a little.
"What the fuck! Jonas said he saw you watching me in the shower!" Riddick sat up on the cot and looked at her.
"The way I see it, we're even. You watched me, too."
Her eyes widened, she was caught. As she fumbled with her words Riddick stood from the cot and moved in front of her. Though she couldn't see well, his presence alone silenced her. She stared into his eyes seeing a hunger reflected there. She heard a noise rumble from his chest and couldn't decide if it was a growl or a purr.
He expected her to back away, to break his stare, to see fear in her eyes. There was only fascination and daring. He moved closer. There was electricity between them, both of them felt it. He was debating inside himself what to do next. He remembered her taste on the transport shuttle and imagined his senses being inundated by that essence. It gave him chills.
Suddenly she pushed herself forward, crushing his mouth to her own. Everything in him screamed to pull away but he wrapped his arms around her instead, lifting her off the deck and heightening their kiss. His tongue explored her velvet mouth and found the same rich and dark taste he had before. 'Must just be her.'
She could almost feel his inner animal roaring with pleasure as she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, pulling him even closer. The heat between them was intense. She felt his hands move along her thighs then wrap around her lower back, pressing their bodies painfully closer. All the years of wondering and craving and aching were released as their tongues danced. She felt primal, base. Like her own inner animal had taken over.
Suddenly, the skiff jolted violently and they were thrown against the bulkhead. Then Jonas' voice crackled over the intercom.
"Hey kids, I hate to break up whatever little party is going on back there, but we're being shot at and I could use some backup!"
