I can't escape myself

I can't escape this hell

So many times I've tried

But I'm still caged inside

There's still rage inside

Chapter 8

It had been many weeks since her return and Riddick was beyond frustrated. He had yet to get her to tell him who had taken them to Furya, if they been there this entire time, or what had happened there.

He wanted to know why their daughter was just now beginning to laugh and play and making attempts to talk. Just now letting them put her to bed by herself in her own room and bed. Why it didn't bother her to be left in the care of a Nanny

When he tried to question Carolyn, her voice went flat and she got an expressionless look upon her face telling him she wasn't ready to talk about it yet. She simply wanted to enjoy her freedom. Which only lead to more frustration and more questions on his part. He hadn't dared to touch her since that first day. He was afraid she would shatter when he did.

Carolyn was having a hard time adjusting to being able to come and go as she pleased sometimes disappearing in the ship for hours when she knew that Riddick would be preoccupied with Rhiannon. Sometimes she would become so lost she'd finally have to ask her guard to lead her back worried Riddick would set off an alarm at her absence.

And every day when Rhiannon was down for her nap she bullied her guards into sparring with her, Vaako even joining in on occasion. Riddick would simply look at her nicks and scratches with a raised eyebrow.

Carolyn knew his patience was nearing an end. But how did you tell your child's father that you hadn't been strong enough to protect that child. That you had let him be killed before your very eyes.

She had truly missed spending time with him. Not that he had always been around, popping in and out on a regular basis, but she had had someone to share her highs and lows with, her joys and her sorrows.

This time around she felt she understood him better than he understood himself, understood his actions and decisions and she found herself no longer taking things he did or said so personally.

He found it amusing that everyone assumed she was his wife based on one lone mans comments but had never pushed the issue to find out the truth of the matter.

Carolyn figured that he wouldn't be happy to know that by their law the Furyans considered them married the moment she had conceived Rhiannon. Simple enough for them since they kept to themselves but it was the very thing that would finish them off unless Raynor stepped up and led them the way that Rainier had wanted to if it hadn't been for Bellona.

Carolyn also found that she wasn't quite ready to give up the illusion of them being married as Dame Vaako was. Some how, the woman knew that she and Riddick hadn't had sex even though they were sleeping in the same bed and made sure that everyone else did as well. She was quickly becoming a thorn in Carolyn's side. She had been biting her tongue but the day was coming when she wouldn't have any tongue left.

Vaako had watched the Lord Marshall and his wife dance around each other for weeks now. He wasn't quiet sure what Riddick's strategy was only that it was slow. He knew that the Lord Marshall watched her spar everyday since he had found out. Also knew that he hadn't said anything and that Carolyn didn't know. He personally found the human woman desirable on many levels. He had begun to slowly step back when he realized what was happening and when his wife blatantly accused him of wanting her. And he knew his wife. For both his and Carolyn's sake he had to distance himself.

It was all Vaako's fault that things weren't going as they should, Dame Vaako fumed as she watched Carolyn enter the throne room where the rest of the commander's wives had gathered. He had become enamored of the little chit since he had found her. Dame Vaako turned up her nose. Even the Lord Marshall had stopped sniffing around since she had been back, but she was about to put an end to that. By the time she was done with her Lady Riddick would be begging her husband to send her back from where she had come.

Riddick knew that she had changed on a fundamental level. She was much more like him now, more animal than human. At times he thought she knew what he was thinking just by looking at him, even answering questions before he had asked them. He had seen the various scars on the parts of her body that were visible and knew they could be no less than battle scars. It was merely confirmed for him the day that he had stumbled across the room in which she spared with her ever present guard. He had just happened to be passing by and stuck his head in when he heard the fighting. She had an animal grace to her movements and there was a look in her eyes. A look that said you should prepare to die because she wasn't.

He made a habit of making sure he watched every day. And every day he was so stiff with wanting her that he could barely walk out of the room. His patience was coming to an end. He would have his answers and he would have his wife.