Author's Note: Oh, my god. You guys show so much love, so much appreciation for my little drabbles, my inept attempts to capture the power of Riddick...
Plus, none of you reported me for abuse because of the last chapter. LOL.
Anyway, here's Chapter Nine... Let's see if I can keep up with your expectations.
Oh, and if any of you can figure out what most of my chapter titles have in common, aside from the fact that they're all in this story, I'll give you Riddick tied to your bed for a whole night of whatever you want. Just take pictures for me. LMAO.
Chapter Nine: It Makes Me Sick
"Oh? Was I not supposed to know about you being Riddick's bitch?" Elizabeth queried, obviously amused. "Or how your son wasn't an insemination, but because Richard here fucked you seven ways to Sunday? The nose always knows, Jackie girl."
Jack's face colored angrily. No one was supposed to ever know about that afternoon. No one was supposed to realize that Alex wasn't what he seemed, that, even this young, the beast within Richard Riddick was beginning to plague his son. She wouldn't be able to train her son much more because he was getting to the point that even a light sparring session left Jack with bruises for a week.
"Mama? Why do you have your blade drawn?" came the voice of her son, her world.
"Oh, if it isn't the little bastard now. There are worlds that would pay their yearly gross income to get their hands on him. To trap the Riddick. Not very bright, are you, Jackie girl?"
"Mama, who's Jackie girl?"
"Alexi, go to your room!"
"But, Mama, she's scaring you."
"Alexi! Now!"
She was very careful to keep Alex from seeing where the blade was located. Richard could see it, could see her hesitation to kill in front of her son. God help her, she wanted more for her son, their son, than a life on the run, than a life of violence, bloodshed, and running.
"Alex, obey your mother," Riddick said in a voice that brooked no argument.
With the hated instinct of an eight-year-old, Alex put it all together, in his own way. "You're hurting her!"
Alex leapt forward in a catlike pounce, his fists balled up and ready to punch his own father. Jack shoved Elizabeth Citresse to the side, trying to land between her son and his father, certain that if Alex hit him, Riddick would retaliate and not pull his punch.
She was a moment too late.
Alex landed on Riddick, pummelling him with the power of an eight-year-old Furyan hybrid. Jack landed on Alex, pinning his arms as best she could, though he struggled to break free and nearly made her scream as the actions caused her to rip her shoulder from the socket. She wouldn't scream in front of Riddick. She had too much pride, too much strength. It may have been nearly a decade since she last saw him, but she wasn't going to let him think that the time had made her some kind of powder-puff.
"Jack, move."
She shook her head, the tears gathering. She wouldn't choose between the man she'd dreamed of her entire life and the son he had gifted her with. She couldn't. There wasn't a choice that she could live with.
"Fuck, Jack, I'm not going to strangle my own son. Move, damn you."
She rolled off them, cradling her arm and already considering what this injury would do to her concert circuit. She couldn't miss her next four dates, as all of them were on New Mecca and she desperately wanted the visit with the al-Walids. Ziza would be nearly ten by now and, for her birthday, Jack had sent forty tickets with a note for Ziza to invite her class and anyone else she wanted. She had specially arranged a space for the party, let Ziza help her choose the songs, and had even volunteered five backstage passes for the young girl and her closest friends. Of course, there was a surprise for Ziza, which involved being brought on stage and singing with Jack.
She couldn't disappoint Ziza or Alex, presuming Alex lived through his first fight with his father.
x-x-x-x-x-x-
Richard Riddick was both proud and disturbed when his son leapt to the defense of his mother. He knew that liquid grace, that animalistic growl, the feral expression. His son knew the beast, knew it's whispers, it's seductive promises. His son embraced the beast like a lover that he was too young to fully know about, too young to understand.
This wasn't just a fight to defend his mother, this was a fight to be Alpha, and Richard Riddick was always an Alpha. He was never a Beta.
Riddick rolled his son under him, hoping to end this bloodlessly and earn Jack's approval. He was disgusted that Jack thought he'd kill his own child for trying to defend her. He would have raised his child to defend her anyway, so why kill the child for something he approved of?
The boy fought, rolling with Riddick, his little fists hitting everywhere he could. This wasn't a beast fight, this was an anger fight, though fuelled by the beast. The beast understood mate, feed, fight, kill. To attack because of danger to the mother was a human trait.
They rolled, trying to best the other. Damned if he'd let some eight-year-old pampered snot be his Alpha.
Riddick pinned the boy and leaned down, his teeth dangerously close to the boy's neck. "Submit."
"No."
Riddick snapped his teeth in the boy's ear. "Submit or die is the law of the jungle. Submit, Alex."
The boy relaxed and nodded. "I'll submit."
It was now that Riddick heard Jack's pained gasps for breath. He had heard the sickening sound of her shoulder leaving the socket. The sound was something that Riddick had heard before, but this was something that Riddick would never forget. He'd never forget the thought that he had hurt Jack again, within twenty-four hours of reuniting with her.
He was destroying her. Again. All over again.
She was on her back, hand clutching her lower forearm in agony. She was pale, her eyes glazed, obvious signs of shock. "I fucked everything up again, didn't I, Riddick?"
"No, Jack. You never fucked up."
She smiled and closed her eyes as her grasped her arm to shove it back in the socket. She screamed when it was popped back in, breathless. He couldn't stop the guilt that coursed through him.
Less than ten hours and she was already injured.
Mother fuck.
x-x-x-x-x-x-
Elizabeth Citresse watched the fight between father and son with little interest. She'd seen it before. Before the Necromongers had come and wiped out the male population of Furya for being Furyan and refusing to submit. She wasn't surprised that Alexander Riddick's first instinct was to say 'no' when asked to submit. It was Furyan nature.
She was surprised by the care that Riddick took with the girl, Jacqueline. She'd not seen that kind of care, gentleness, tenderness, in a long time. Not since the last time a pair of freozkis had lived on the planet. Again, before the Necromongers, but it had been over a hundred years since the last freozkis had died. Lifemates, soulmates, telepathically connected for eternity, a ideal for every Furyan to wish to achieve.
How could a pair of freozki exist off of Furya? There had been so many prayers to Shirai for a set of Alpha lifemates, but the pair She chose to send had never been on Furya, where one was Terra human and the other was a Furyan nobleman that had never seen his home, never set foot on the soothing soil of his homeworld.
The House of Riddick had existed since the dawn of time on Furya. More Master Generals had come from that House, had died for the Royal Family, than all the other Houses combined. They were more attuned to the beast, to danger and dishonesty. The Riddicks had been the first ones in battle with the Necromongers and the last ones to fall. The thought that the House of Riddick was dead had greatly grieved Queen Tuaran, until word of Richard Riddick had reached Her Majesty's ears and Shirai had said to send Elizabeth Citresse to hunt for the man. The Lady Goddess was not a woman to be defied, nor lightly disregarded.
Elizabeth had been exiled from her homeworld, her home estate, her family, her friends, by Her. She'd been shoved into the prison system as a guard and had requested the Riddick files. After passing a background check, she was assigned as a permanent guard to Riddick.
She had often wondered why Riddick had never tried to escape on her shift. Why he had never killed her. Did his beast sense her's and instinctively desire to mate with her?
She had shuddered at the thought. To mate with a Riddick was not something to be taken lightly. To a woman like what Elizabeth used to be, pampered and never really expected to mate because males were too few and Terra humans broke too easily, mating with a Riddick male was unthinkable, though it had been highly desirable before the Necromongers. Riddick males were virile, powerful, influential, protective, and, if the stories that Elizabeth had read in the journal of a much older cousin many times removed, who had lived before the Fall, extremely sexual with the prowess of a kestra'che'arn, the Healers of Furya who treated any ailment, even impotence, never hesitating to share their body with a patient in need.
Elizabeth had longed to be a kestra'che'arn, but her abilities lay elsewhere, thus far unknown.
"Start talkin', Citresse. I want to know how you knew about the Hunter-Gratzner crash," Riddick growled.
"Because, you fuckin' moron, I was supposed to be on that damned flight to take you to the Trip-Max," she snarled back. "Just because I can change my scent doesn't mean I'm forgettable!"
Jack cursed tiredly. "Friend or foe?"
"Neither. All I want is to get back to Furya. I want to go fuckin' home."
Author's Note, Part Deux:
Okay, this is one of those chapters that came to me at two A.M. and I had to type it out before I went back to sleep. Sorry it's so short, but at least I didn't do another cliffie. And don't tempt me to.
The word kestra'che'arn is borrowed from the Heralds of Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey. (Yes, I have very diverse interests.) For more about what a kestra'chern (or kestra'che'arn) is and does, please read The Valdemar Companion. There's a full explanation about what a kestra'chern is in the 'K' section.