Ghost

Tomoe - Thanks as always, darl.

Kayla - lol, give it time. ;)

10. Riddick.

I sat against the wall with Jack cradled in my arms. Her tears had soaked into my shirt - into my skin - the salty scent of them heavy in the air. She’d fought me - fought me mentally and physically, but in the end her body had given out, and she’d fallen to her knees. Fallen to her knees while locked within my arms.

Her hands had been fisted in my shirt, and she’d cried like she had when she was still a child. Still a child and trapped within a nightmare about T2. I’d wake to her thrashing and crying, and haul her across my body. Hold her tightly and rub her back, while she cried into my shoulder. Tuck her into my side, and smell her tears in the air as she shuddered.

Five years later, and she had fought those tears - fought me. But her body had given in, and when she collapsed, I willingly fell to my knees with her. Held her tightly as she cried, and the scent of her tears was bitter. Her body had been wracked with the force of those tears, and I held her. Held her until she finally fell into exhaustion, her hands still fisted in my shirt, and her face streaked with tears.

The animal inside had paused at the sight of her pain. Eternal youth coupled with a sunny smile, and that memory of her had been shattered. What festered on the inside was anguish and fury and betrayal. It showed in her eyes. Eyes that had once looked up at me with complete and utter trust. Now they stared at me like I was a stranger. Someone who wasn’t privy to her private thoughts. Someone who couldn’t be trusted.

She’d asked me how could I not know. Not know that Kyra was an impostor. I hadn’t been able to answer her - not honestly; how was I meant to tell her? Tell her that Kyra’s arousal had distracted me? That I’d had a vague suspicion that Kyra wasn’t Jack before we’d even left? That my weakness in that moment had led us to this point.

She’d told me that she’d known I had to leave her behind on New Mecca. That she had been ok with it. But the light of betrayal and being left behind had still burned in her eyes. She knew I’d almost left her to die on T2. That I had left her behind on New Mecca. And five years later? I’d left her to die in slam. It left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I rose to my feet with Jack in my arms, and moved across to the bed. Laid down slowly, and tucked her into my side as I had once done in the past. And as I rolled onto my side, she turned to face me, her hands curled into fists under her chin. She rested her head against my chest and sighed, but stayed asleep.

I took the time to look at her - really look at her. To discover more changes. Jack - thirteen and a child in my head. And Jack - eighteen and a woman in my arms. Jack in my head - trusting me without question. And Jack in my arms - not trusting me at all. That stung more than I thought it would - knowing that the unwavering trust she had once had in me, was now gone.

Guilt warred with regret; what was it about this girl, that bought out every feeling, I’d ever buried? What was it about her, that made me open up to her? Made me run like hell to rescue her? Made the animal purr and snarl and strain at the leash? Made both man and beast want to hold her close, until she trusted us again?

She looked innocent as she laid sleeping in my arms. Her lashes were a dark smudge under her eyes, and her lower lip pillowed into a pout as she laid curled against me. Five years had passed, but the memories remained. The last time I had held her like this, she had been thirteen - only weeks shy of her fourteenth birthday. Now she was eighteen - and only weeks shy of her nineteenth birthday.

Hair that had felt as soft and as thick as an animal pelt, had grown to just under her shoulder blades. It was spread across the pillow, and spilled down across the arm that I used to cradle her neck. Still as thick and as soft as I remembered, even after all this time. It was a dark stain against the white of the pillow, and curled slightly on the ends.

Her skin was still pale - ivory against the darkness of my own. Not as satin smooth as it had once been, but still soft under the pads of my fingers. Slender lines that housed deceptively strong muscles - muscles, she had developed during her stay in slam. Scars she had gotten due to that hell hole. I ran my fingers over the bite mark again, and felt one of the scabs shift under my touch.

I ran my finger over it until it flaked away. The animal lifted its head and growled when the coppery scent of blood teased my nose, and I looked down at Jack’s skin. A slow trickle - not much at all - but it called to me like a siren’s song, and I licked the corner of my mouth slowly. I’d tasted Jack’s tears in the past - tasted her tears and tasted her blood. Her tears had run across my fingers numerous times, but her blood had been a one off.

She’d fainted in my arms on the skiff not long after take off, due to the morphine in her system, and I’d lowered us both to the floor. As I held her, I’d smelled the fresh blood on her. It had only been a small cut at the base of her neck, and she’d gotten it from being pinned under bone and the alien that had been trying to kill her. Her blood had been tacky under my questing fingers, and I’d licked them clean while staring down at the girl who would become everything to me.

Leaning into her, I breathed in deeply as my eyes slid shut; blood never lies. Jack - lying in my arms, and safe with me. Siren’s song - and the taste of copper exploded across the tip of my tongue. My eyes snapped open at the taste - I’d unintentionally lowered my head, while lost in my memories, and I’d licked that small trail of blood from the hollow of her shoulder. I jerked back from her shoulder, but the taste of her blood remained on my tongue.

I’d told Carolyn that you could cut the copperish taste in blood with peppermint schnapps. I’d been fuckin’ with her - twisting her mind, and getting off on her fear. I’d wanted to break her down almost as much as I’d wanted to fuck her, but her fear had been the bigger turn on. Nothing cut the metallic taste and scent out of blood - it was what the animal inside me savored the most.

That’s how I’d scented Jack for the first time. Had scented what her body would eventually betray her gender with - blood. I don’t know how high my kill count is - I truly don’t. If the animal escapes its cage, I could slaughter a whole settlement, and not even know it. But I could recall the scent and taste of Jack’s blood, even after five years of letting the animal run free on UV6. I know the taste of Jack’s blood, and it’s a fuckin’ delicacy.

The animal was straining under the surface of my skin - straining to get closer to her. To scent her and taste her and truly believe she was with us once more. Fear and blood and guilt, and I closed my eyes and lowered my face to her shoulder again. Let the taste of copper sing to the animal, and felt it relax and purr as I gave in to what it wanted.

Even as it sang, I could scent something else on her skin, and took a deeper breath. An image of Kain kissing Jack in the control room flickered through my head; the length of her body pressed tightly against his, his hand threaded through her hair and his eyes flicking to mine as he kissed her, and the animal snarled as I tightened my grip on it. I’d already scared her once in this room - I couldn’t stand the thought of scenting her fear again.

The need was strong - to roll her onto her stomach and strip her bare. To see the scars and stitches that littered her flesh. To trace each one with my fingers. To learn about this new Jack, in the most basic of ways - through touch. Even as I was thinking it, I was acting on it. Lifting her top - bunching the material in my hands, and pulling it up to her ribs. She didn’t even stir - exhaustion mated with her injuries, and she remained curled on her side; so still and silent under my curious touch.

I knelt up beside her, rested my hands against her stomach, and spread my fingers. With my thumbs touching in the centre, my hands spanned the width of her narrow hips. She was so skinny… I could still break her in half with my hands if I wanted too. She needed to eat - to be fed and looked after. I wondered briefly when the last time she had eaten a proper meal had been, and promptly wished I hadn’t.

Her stomach was marred by shallow cuts - tip of the shiv cuts, and they burned when they were inflicted. Similar to a paper cut, but worse - they bled freely, and ached for hours afterwards. A great way to torture a person, without killing them - and they were scattered hip to hip on Jack’s flat stomach. A deeper scar on her side, the skin slightly raised and rough under my fingers. A flesh wound - she’d been shot here. When had that happened?

I rolled her over onto her stomach, and stared down at her back. At the cuts that had been inflicted on her. And there - only an inch from the sweet spot, was the deepest cut of all. I growled at the sight of that cut, and smoothed her top down. My hands lingered on her back as I stared down at her, and when I blinked again, my fingers had curled around her hips.

I jerked back from her. From the simple action of holding her hips. But I couldn’t remove the image that simple move had bought forth from my head. Of holding her hips steady and drawing her up to her knees in a submissive pose. I growled as I left the bed, and bit my lower lip as hard as I could. The animal snickered as I rubbed my hands on my pants, and I glared down at my hands in disgust. This was Jack - not some whore.

An almost silent knock on the door distracted me, and I looked up as the door slid open and Vaako quietly entered the room. He held a small tool in his hand; it looked like a pen light, only bigger. He stared at me for a moment, before crossing to Jack’s side and sitting down on the edge of the bed. I growled when he reached out and touched her jaw, and his gaze flicked back towards me.

"This is a regain tool - it repairs injuries and scars - makes the skin new again," he said, and gestured to Jack.

I moved closer as he turned the tool on, and a red light came out the end of it. He ran in slowly over the black and blue bruise that marred her jaw, and I watched in silence as the damaged skin turned ivory as the light slowly crept over it. Renewing tissue and blood and skin. Repairing what I couldn’t see on the inside. Vaako took his time - and when he was finished with her jaw, he stood up.

"She will need to be perfectly healed when she is converted…" he began, and his hands rose to claw at my hand when I locked it around his neck.

"You stick those fuckin’ spikes in her neck, and I’ll remove your spine with a spoon," I said quietly, and he nodded as he face began to gain some colour.

I let him go and he coughed quietly into his hand. I looked down at Jack, but she remained asleep - just how badly was she hurt, that she could remain sleeping through me touching her, Vaako healing her, and me offering to introduce the animal to him?

"I asked you why we were going back. Now I understand," Vaako said quietly a moment later.

"Do you?" I asked, and he looked up at me slowly.

I held my hand out for the regain tool, and Vaako handed it over as he moved aside as I sat down beside Jack, and I glanced up at him as I ran the light across the back of my hand.

"Yes; she belongs to you, does she not?"

I looked back down at Jack, and Vaako spoke slowly.

"You killed the old Lord Marshal, for killing the other girl. A girl you believed to be her. You did that in front of the necromonger fleet. She is what we call a breeder, Riddick - if she does not belong to you, then who does she belong too?" Vaako asked again.

“What does her being a breeder have to do with who she belongs too?” I muttered, and narrowed my eyes as I stared up at him.

“Because she is warmth. She feels pain… She feels. She would make an interesting bed companion for one worthy man - that’s if you don’t turn her over to the men as a play thing. But if you do that, convert her - they’d break her within the first hour.”

“Break her? Rape her, you mean?” I said quietly.

Vaako sensed the danger behind the words, because he nodded slowly.

“The old… your predecessor’s visions on war were simple - convert or fall. But before the worlds were cleansed, many young breeders were given to his army as spoils of war. The hierarchy of the army had first choice - the rest were shared. If you plan on keeping her with you - make sure it is known she that belongs to you - or this trip will have been a waste of time.”

I stared at him as Vaako looked down at Jack silently, and tried to read the hidden warning behind his words.

“Do you want her for yourself, Vaako?”

His head came up sharply, and he shook it with a grave look on his face.

“My wife - for all her faults - is companion enough for any man, without adding a breeder to the mix. Riana would eat her alive.”

“You don’t agree with the old visions of war.”

It was a statement, not a question, and Vaako stared at me silently before answering.

“Do you know what it is like to see a woman fight for her life? To see her pinned down and repeatedly raped? To see that light in her eyes, the blush in her skin… slowly fade as she is brutalized?”

Vaako looked at me slowly, and managed a tight smile. I continued to stare at him as he looked back down at Jack, and a small look of remorse crossed his face.

“We all start out as something else, Riddick. Either you publicly claim her as your own - or you convert her, so that she has a fighting chance. The whole fleet will know she is the woman you crossed the galaxy for - she will be targeted by the men who want either your throne or her in their bed, and the woman who want a place by your side.”

"She belongs with me," I said finally, and Vaako tilted his head.

“When you are finished with her, Riddick, may I suggest we talk some more, so that you are aware of what you will be facing when we get back to the Necropolis?”

I nodded silently as I stared down at Jack and waved my hand in dismissal. Vaako bowed slightly before he left the room, the quiet swish of the door shutting behind him allowing me to finally relax and turn my full attentions back to Jack.

I rolled Jack back onto her back, and stared down at her in the dim light. Traced the edge of her jaw with my thumb, and felt the soft skin of her face. Lifting the light I worked slowly, removing each bruise from her face and revealing her to me properly for the first time in years. The angles of her jaw and her cheekbones. The sharp point of her chin, and the graceful slope of her neck.

The delicate bones of her clavicle, and the smooth skin in the dip of her throat. Moved to the bite mark, and watched as her skin knitted back together slowly where I had made the scab fall earlier. Pushed her top up under her breasts, and moved the slight slowly across her stomach and hips. Traced each cut with my finger before healing it with the light, and felt the play of muscle under her skin.

Concentrated on the scar that had come from a laser blast, and watched as it melted away under the warmth of this light. Ran it slowly over her arm until it came to the leather that protected her lower arms, and set the regain tool aside to unbuckle them. Peeled them away slowly and froze when I saw her wrists. The skin was abraded and badly bruised, and Kain’s voice echoed in my head.

"We found her hangin’ from the roof; hands dragged up over her head in old fashioned cuffs. She was facin’ away from us - and her feet barely touched the floor."

I could see the shape of fingers over the other bruises, and I knew they had come from me. I’d put them there when I had first pinned her to the wall, and she’d fought me. Put them there when I had pulled her arms above her head and left her dangling in mid air, hissing and spitting at me like a kitten. Bruised and hurt her and she’d kept silent about it. No wonder she didn’t fuckin’ trust me.

But even as Kain’s words echoed in my ears, Vaako’s joined them and made a lump of ice form in my stomach. She felt pain - she felt. An image of Jack being pinned to the floor by a faceless man had the animal howling and I shook my head to clear it as I stared down at her wrist. I’d pinned both of them under one hand, and she’d been unable to get free...

I healed those bruises slowly. Kept my touch as light as I could as I traced the fine bones in her hand and wrist, and when I peeled the other arm guard away, I found the same result. Healed the pain and removed the marks, and kept my touch light - was I trying to heal what I had done too? It felt like it. But the regain tool wouldn’t reach inside of her and heal the poison that bubbled there.

Ran my fingertips down her sides, and felt the slight hitch in her breathing when I touched a bruise on her hip. Pushed the waistband of her pants down slightly and ran the light over it. Watched as her skin became pure under the red light, and traced the now healed flesh. And when I looked up again, I found Jack watching me with her lower lip caught between her teeth.

I kept my gaze locked with hers as I pushed my fingertips under the waistband of her pants. When she flinched as I dragged them across a few inches, I looked down and lifted my hands towards the button of her pants. Her hands caught my wrists in a surprisingly tight grasp, and I lifted my eyes to hers. Saw the naked fear on her face and tilted my head.

"I don’t rape women, Jack."

I said it quietly, and got part of an answer to an unasked question as her hands tightened on mine for a moment, and then slid away. Either someone had raped her, or they had come uncomfortably close. I kept my eyes on hers as I unbuttoned her pants, and when I pushed them down to her pelvic line, she went rigid under my hands. Vaako’s words echoed in my head again and my jaw tightened - no fucking way.

Her pelvic bone was littered with fist shaped bruises, and I ran the light over them slowly. When her skin was perfect again, I set the light aside and did her pants back up. Looked up at her silently, and saw the internal war she was fighting with herself. I waited silently, and she finally sat up and looked at me for a long time.

Turning around slowly, she knelt up and then glanced at me over her shoulder. When she crossed her arms and slowly dragged her top up and over her head, I released a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. She pressed that stained and torn material against her chest like a shield - and then looked at me over her shoulder again. Only a flicker - but I saw the trust she was giving me, and I felt it burn like fire inside of me.

"Stitches have gotta come out," I said flatly, and she nodded as I withdrew a shiv from my boot.

Jack tensed up when I rested the tip of a shiv against that first line of stitches in her shoulder, and the stench of her fear was overwhelming. I palmed the shiv so that the point rested against my wrist, and shifted behind her so that I sat closer to her. Ran my fingers down over the line of stitches that marred her skin, and heard her breath hitch again.

"I slept with you in my arms and a shiv in my hand for three months, Jack. I didn’t hurt you then - why would I hurt you now?"

She turned her chin and glanced at me, before slowly nodding and closing her eyes. And when I dragged the tip of the shiv down that first line of stitches, and pulled each one free, she finally let go of the breath she had been holding. I took my time - traced each mark of pain, and then healed it, only to trace it once more. Learned the muscles and strength of her back, and finally began to know this new Jack.

Jack had to lean over so I could heal the final cut - the one by her spine. And when I rested the tip of the shiv against it, I heard a noise I’d never heard her make before. Her diaphragm hitched, and it was half gasp - half moan, and I paused as she started to shake violently. Slipped my arm around her ribs and pulled her upright and back against me, and felt her turn her face into my throat.

Her fear wasn’t directed towards me - I knew that now. Residual memories, spilling into reality, and tainting her. The sweet spot… this was my signature if you like, whenever I spilled the blood of someone who got between me and safety. And as I held her, the answer came to me as hot as her breath against my skin.

"Is this when she sucked me out of you, Jack?" I asked, and felt her nod. "Kyra inflicted this knife mark?" I asked to be sure, and felt her nod again.

I swore softly, and pushed her back down slowly. Snarled silently at the animal when it lifted it’s head again at the scent of her blood when I cut the stitches free. And healed her silently. Kept my hand on her back when she went to lift her head, and traced a new path along her spine with the shiv. Paused at the fourth lumbar, and pressed lightly against it.

"She got close, Jack. But not close enough."

Jack looked at me over the naked length of her back, and I felt my gut clench. She looked at me from under her lashes and bit her lip - on any other woman, this look would almost be coy. But on Jack, it was one of indecisiveness - I could almost see the wheels in her head turning. And when she knelt up again, I watched her muscles and bones in her back shift as she drew her shirt back on.

"Thank you."

She kept her eyes on the wall in front of her as she spoke, and I nodded as I put the shiv back in my boot.

"Where are you dropping me?" she asked quietly, and my head snapped up at her softly spoken words.

"I’m not," I said flatly, and she turned her chin slightly but didn’t look at me. "I told you in that cell, Jack - you’re comin’ with me. Your… family can go where they please, but you’re staying with me."

Jack’s jaw tightened, and I reached out and drew her into the circle of my arms. Tightened my arm around her waist, and cupped her chin in my other hand, forcing her to meet my eyes, when I felt her body clench in preparation for flight.

"I didn’t cross the ‘verse, Jack, only to then set you down on the first available planet. I’m headed back to New Mecca, where I’ve got business to take care of - and you’re staying with me, where I know you‘re safe."

Jack’s eyes burned with sudden anger, and she spoke slowly.

"I’m wanted on New Mecca for murder, Riddick. The man who wanted me as a fuck toy, the man whose son I killed, resides there. How does taking me back there, make me safe?"

I looked at her silently as I pondered her words - only to feel a dangerous sense of having had this conversation before.

"It makes you safe, because I’m there. Because I’m the biggest, nastiest fuck in the known ‘verse. And if one more person lays a hand on you, I swear, I’ll show them just how long pain can be made felt before death.”

Jack’s body was still tense, and I licked the corner of my mouth as she stared up at me.

“His name, Jack.”

Her eyes showed her confusion, and I shook her slightly.

“His name. The man who wanted you as a toy.”

The revulsion on her face was as clear as day.

“Aaban Khan. He holds a position of power on New Mecca, Riddick, and if he finds out I‘m back, he won‘t stop until I am in his possession.”

I grinned at that, and Jack’s eyes narrowed as I ran a hand over her jaw.

“How can he question my position of power, Jack, when I’m the only thing standing between New Mecca and the planet’s complete destruction?” I asked quietly, and her eyes showed her confusion.

“You ever heard of the Necromongers?” I asked, and she bit her lip.

“World Enders. Yes; they force entire planets to submit to their religion or they kill you. The guards were talking about it back on Crematoria - why?”

“They belong to me,” I said with a small smile and her eyes showed her sudden horror as she flinched away from me.

I narrowed my eyes at her as her lips parted on a silent question, and growled softly.

“They landed on New Mecca the same day I did, Jack. And I killed their old Lord Marshal, after I watched him throw a girl across the room and impale her on a fuckin’ spike - I thought that girl was you. Because I killed him, I inherited the man’s army, and all the pretties that went with it.”

Jack’s eyes went flat as I stared at her, and she slowly pulled away from me as she stood up and stared down at me. I stood up just as slowly, and when she went to speak, I held my hand up.

“This isn’t open for discussion, Jack. You’re staying with me, and that’s final.”

“And if I don’t want to?” she asked and I laughed softly.

“We can do it the easy way, where you just nod and agree, or we can do it the hard way, where I lug you on board over my shoulder.”

She finally nodded and I turned away from her and headed for the door. Time to talk with Vaako about what was expected of me in this new life that I didn’t want.