11. The First Assassin Descends: Before I'm Dead

Kimera was slumped against the door to Riddick's room with her head in her hands bawling her eyes out. Tears were a new thing for her. That had to have been the biggest act she had played on Riddick back there. Whatever had happened to her four days ago had changed her on so many different levels. Dragging her nails down her face, she wasn't surprised to feel a different type of liquid falling down her cheeks. Blood tears. Her wounds healed a few seconds later. She did this for half an hour. She needed to gain back a part of herself and pain was the only way she knew how to grasp it.

Rocking back against the door, she started humming an old song she had heard one day while back on her home planet. The words came from deep inside and she knew what it meant.

moon hangs around
a blade over my head
reminds me
what to do before I'm dead
night consumes light
and all I dread
reminds me what to do before I'm dead

She didn't have much time left before the assassin came looking for her. She could see him in her minds eye. It found them through the blood. The blood that had changed her.

sun reclines, heats my mind
reminds me what to leave behind
light eats night and all I never said
reminds me what to do before I'm

to see you
to touch you
to see you
to touch you

She wanted to see Riddick again.

She wanted to touch him and so much more.

What if she didn't get to see Riddick again?

What if she never got to kiss him or feel his presence again?

epochs fly, reminds me
what I hide, reminds me
desert skies cracks the spies
reminds me what I never tried
the ocean wide salted red
reminds me what to do before I'm

to see you
to touch you
to feel you
to tell you

She wiped the blood off her face and licked it off her hands. After she had cleaned her hands of the blood she noticed that she was shaking. "I won't be afraid." Grasping her shaking hand with her steady one; she pushed her left sleeve up and bit into her wrist. Standing up and facing Riddick's door she took her two fingers and smeared them in the blood before applying it to the door. She drew the symbol for protection on the door and whispered a chant on the binding spell she placed on it. She pressed her lips to the door and inhaled a shaky breath before making her way down the hall towards the first of many assassins to come.

the sun reclines
the desert skies
the ocean wide salted red
reminds me what to do before I'm

to see you
to touch you
to feel you
to tell you

The lights were flickering in the hall towards to the western shower room. The walls were burnt and melted in several different spots. Stopping half way, she tilted her head up and sniffed the air. "Sulfur, soot, and burnt flesh…," her mouth opened and her fangs grew longer in length. Snaking her tongue out to wet her lips, she snarled. "'He' sent a fucking fire summoner. The nerve of 'him'." Her fists were clenched at her sides. Moving her head side to side to crack her neck, her eyes changed to an aqua blue. She rolled her wrists to crack the bones there. As her hands opened her nails changed to a light blue color. Lifting her hands up running them through her hair turning the black stands to a striking Aqua blue. Hands left her hair to run down her chest changing her top to the same aqua blue. Her pants and shoes came next. By the time she reached the shower room entrance, she was ready.

Without hesitation she stepped into the room, scanning for her opponent. She saw him at the far end of the room sitting on the sink staring at himself in the mirror. It seemed as if he had no idea of her presence, but the sudden stiffing of his shoulders said otherwise. He was inspecting the large piece of charred flesh on the left side of his face. The long blade he held in his hand came up and cut into his face, as he began peeling the burnt flesh away. Holding the discarded clump of flesh in his free hand, she heard him hiss as the wound sizzled. The wound was re-burning itself. "You're marked aren't you?"

He turned his head towards her slowly. She watched as he took the burnt and discarded flesh and stuffed it in his mouth, chewing the tough flesh and then swallowed it. Her mouth turned up to show her disgust.

He licked his fingers. "You know you mother's work, don't you child?"

"I know a cursed creature when I see one. A person only gets 'The Burning Touch' when they threaten our family. You haven't had it long either. How did she do it? A fingertip to the cheek or was it on your chin?" She barely had time to react as an orb of fire was launched in her direction.

"Bite your tongue girl, before I rip it out and eat it! I received this little gift from your mother when you were only a few hours old. I was sent by the Demonicos to kill you before you could be marked as air to her throne. But some how that witch of a woman had foreseen my arrival and grabbed me while I was by your crib. I was so close, that I could have singed your little face off. How can a woman be that strong after just giving birth? Tell me that. Fucking demons all of you! All she did was touch my cheek, THAT'S ALL, and look what she did to me!" He turned his scared side to her and pointed at it. "No matter what I did, no matter how many times I tried to douse it with water and ice, it kept on burning. Every time I cut it from me it comes back with a burning vengeance. An everlasting burning that will one day cover my whole body, forcing me to live as a burnt man for all of time!"

Kimera looked at him with pity in her eyes. He was this way because of her, because of what her mother had done. He had tried to kill her when she was only a new born. The pity was replaced with anger. "She should have killed you when she had the chance." Her voice vibrated the walls in the room. The burnt man faltered and stepped back to lean against the sink. "Now I'll have to clean up her mess. Figures." She ran towards him to make the first strike.

"What about your precious mortal?" She stopped in her tracks and glared at him.

"I have no mortal. Mortals are only good for food. Nothing more and Nothing less. Now prepare yourself, I would hate for this to be a quick fight." She drew the daggers from her hands and lunged at him head on. Her left one made contact with his stomach while the right was lodged in his neck. He struggled beneath her on the ground. Reaching up, he slammed the palm of his hand up under her chin. He succeeded in dismounting from his body. Get up slowly, the burnt man grabbed both of the daggers, yanked them out, and through them on the floor.

Kimera looked down at the useless weapons as they sizzled and melted from his blood. "What the Fuck?"

"Steel, such a weak metal to use for blades. Why do you think I carry a sword made of Black Ore." As his wounds healed, he pounced on her, pinning her to the ground. Leaning in towards her face with his sword at her throat, she could see the red smoke that seeped from his mouth. "Surrender Priestess of Death, and perhaps my master will make your mortals death a swift one." He was smiling above her breathing his hot breath right onto her face. As soon as he had mentioned Riddick she snapped.

Pulling her head back, she bared her fangs and sunk them into his neck. She could hear him screaming as she yanked her head to the side taking a huge chunk out of his neck with it. Rolled off of her as fast as he could and scrambled on the floor to the closet wall. Pulling herself up, Kimera grabbed his leg and dragged him back to her, and pinned him beneath her. He was gasping for air as the blood gushed from his wound. Slapping his hand away, she replaced it with hers and squeezed. His eyes bulged at the searing pain.

His vision was graying. Looking at her face as best he could, they locked eyes. 'Oh Dear Goddess Help Me!" his mind screamed. Her eyes were a glowing inferno of blue flames. A sick smile was across her face as she squeezed the life out of him. 'The Bringer of Death. That witch gave birth to a devil.' His burnt face turned pale at her deep, dark laugh. With her head back and cackling like a mad woman.

"My mother gave birth to a god." She leaned over him and applied more pressure to his neck forcing him to open his mouth even wider. Kimera opened her mouth, as a flow of water started to rush out and into the burnt assassins' mouth. More and more water came out. She was drowning him. His gurgled screams went unheard as he twitched under her. He stopped moving a few seconds later.

Kimera clamped her mouth shut and wiped the excess droplets off her mouth. Steam rose off the dead body. She had extinguished the burning flesh. She got up and looked down at the cursed man. His flesh started to melt off his face and bones. All that was left behind was a small red stone. Kimera picked it up and swallowed it without a second thought. Shaking her hair out, it turned back to the black that she was born with. She looked around the room, remembering what had made her into a killer. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out. When her eyes opened, the shower room was void of any scorch marks, the walls were metal again and the floor was covered in a plain black rug. Even the soaps on the sink were neat and in order. The room was back to the way it was before she came in there. "If only everything were that simple."

She dusted off her pants and left the room to wake Riddick and hopefully have long talk with him.

A/N: The song that I used is Before I'm Dead by Kidneythieves.