A Thousand Shades Of Black

Chapter 10 – Road Trip

Riddick woke but still felt like he wasn’t all there. It took him a moment to realize that he was feeling Alia, who was still sleeping, and the grogginess was just the echo of her dreams. Once he recognized it, he could separate himself from the sensation and was able to come all the way awake. It was a weird feeling though, and he had a moment’s uncertainty about the bonding before he shrugged. What’s done is done, he thought and pulling on his pants, padded out onto the balcony. Besides, he felt too good to worry about anything.

He could smell her on his skin and was warm and contented. He stretched, languorous and satisfied, and watched the early dawn begin to creep over the rooftops. He didn’t regret last night, not a bit. Whenever he had wanted something he had taken it and he wanted Alia. The only thing was that this time it had been given freely and he didn’t have to worry about getting slapped the next morning or having to leave money at the front desk. A broad grin split his face and he crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe feeling very smug indeed.

Alia stirred and he could tell she was waking up. The bond wasn’t like he had thought it would be. Human minds were more complex and unclear than he had imagined. He could tell what she was feeling in a general sense, where she was and when she was awake and asleep but not much more than that. What had really changed is that he didn’t feel alone anymore. She was lodged inside him, always present, and her concern and caring was no longer a theory but an unshakable reality.

“Riddick?” she murmured and reached for him sleepily. He padded back to the bed and looking into rich black eyes, he wondered how he had ever thought them flat and expressionless. She stretched, catlike, and his gaze was drawn down the length of her as she arched and yawned. His body reacted with a need so strong that he was out of his pants and back into the bed before his brain had caught up with his libido.

She smiled up at him and it was the sultry smile of a woman who was thoroughly enjoying the power she had over him. It was breathtaking seeing behind the wall to the real self inside. He had a feeling he was the first person ever to get this close to her, to see her this relaxed and happy and he kissed her with a gentle tenderness that he hadn’t known he was capable of.

“Say Richard,” he commanded huskily and she arched against him, stroking fingers against his scalp and nearly purring.

“Richard,” she drawled obediently and turned the hated first name into a sensual and arousing series of syllables. She kissed him lightly then nibbled at his lower lip and he groaned as she turned his insides to molten steel.

“Again,” he murmured and she obeyed, her voice gone throaty and rough as her own arousal began to wash through her. “Oh God,” he whispered, as his name became a prayer on her lips.

He dropped his mouth to her breasts and she sighed, pressing herself closer to him, urging him on.

“Again, Alia.” His own voice was hoarse with need and she seemed to understand what was required because she cried his name over and over as he moved his mouth across her breasts and then down her belly. He pushed tongue and fingers deep into her, working for her release and she erased every insult, every harsh mocking taunt that had haunted him for years.

His name was suddenly beautiful as she moaned it, transforming it into something to be cherished rather than despised. He felt the tightening spiral as she got nearer and nearer and then the sudden explosive release as she came hard against his mouth. She fell back against the bed, limp and sated, and he crawled up her body with a smirk.

“Wow.” She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him light as a feather. “Better?” she asked and he nodded silently, burying his head against her breasts.

“Do me a favor?” he asked suddenly.

“Anything.” She said it lightly but he knew that it was really true.

“Don’t ever call me Richard in front of anyone.”

“Why?” Her face was puzzled and he was glad that the bond still allowed him to surprise her.

“I don’t think I could keep myself from throwing you against a wall and fucking you senseless.” Her delighted laughter brought his attention back to a pressing need he had and he decided that it was his turn.

Alia woke again slowly, feeling sore between her legs but quite satisfied. Riddick was still asleep, wrapped around her like a cloak, and they were going to be late for breakfast if they didn’t get a move on. She slid his arm from around her waist and turned to prop herself on an elbow. She looked down on his face, relaxed and easy in sleep, and wondered what she had been afraid of.

For all her previous worry and concern, she had found it surprisingly easy to fall into him. Having chosen to make the plunge she did so now without further reservations, giving everything in an instant and she realized that she had no regrets. What’s done is done, she thought to herself and shrugged, leaving the future to mind itself.

Her stomach growled to remind her that she had been engaged in some rather physically draining activity all night and food might help a bit. She leaned down and nipped at Riddick’s shoulder. She had the urge to bite hard and leave marks all over him but she restrained herself. Not only would Ziza and Kyra be there, but Lajjun and Vaako and the others. She wasn’t sure she wanted the violence of passion she felt for him to be displayed quite so openly. He roused from sleep, there was a moment’s confusion in his eyes and then he grinned, lascivious and sexy. Heat flooded her at the direction his mind was taking.

“Breakfast, you insatiable creature,” she scolded but knew her own answering desire made the protest rather feeble. He pulled her down and she didn’t resist the inevitable. She had absolutely no willpower where he was concerned. The sculpted muscles of his chest drew her fingers to caress every inch and her mouth was soon following as he cradled a breast in one of his large warm hands and groaned.

“Breakfast!” Lajjun called from outside the door. “Sturm?” The door wasn’t locked, Alia realized, and she pushed away from him in haste and went scrambling for the discarded blanket. Riddick’s chuckle sent shivers down her spine, but she managed to force an answer past the breathless desire that was shooting through her.

“Be there in a minute, Lajjun.” The door had been starting to open and then shut again to Alia’s relief. Riddick shifted and came up behind her, hands roaming her body. He ran a finger along one of the many scars that traced her back and she stiffened.

“What’s this from?” he asked and she remembered why she rarely let anyone see her naked in the daylight. She pushed ruthlessly at the memories that came surging up and controlled her reaction with iron cruelty. She would not scream.

Riddick wrapped himself around her again, pulling her against his chest. “Never mind.” he apologized as he gathered that he had stepped on an emotional landmine. She wriggled backwards into his embrace and then twisted around and kissed his chin and throat, trying to reassure him that she was okay.

“I will tell you the story behind every scar someday, I promise.” She felt his mouth descending to cover hers and rose to meet him. His kiss was rough and demanding. She had worried him and he was seeking reassurance was what she picked up from the bond. She poured herself into the kiss and then gently withdrew. “But first – breakfast, or Lajjun will come in here to see what’s wrong.”

“Let her come in,” Riddick shrugged, supremely indifferent. Alia punched him lightly in the shoulder and wriggled free from him. He grabbed her ankle and began to drag her backwards and she twisted nimbly, extracting herself from his grasp and rolling to the floor. She pulled herself to her feet and grabbed her clothes up, looking soulfully at the shredded black tank top. “I’ll buy you another one,” he growled and began crawling across the bed towards her.

His resemblance to a large cat had never been more pronounced and she was mesmerized by the play of his muscles under his skin. The memory of him inside her, those muscles rippling under her hands as he thrust hard, turned her knees to jelly and she was heading towards him, breakfast forgotten, when the knock on the door came.

“Miss Sturm?” Ziza called. “Breakfast?” Riddick looked rather more taken aback at the idea of a six year old barging in than Lajjun catching them and was up and into his pants faster than she had thought possible. Trying to stifle her laughter at his expression, she called back a delaying response to the child.

They were both dressed and down to breakfast rather late but she had her game face on and no one but Kyra really seemed to notice. She was watching them both with a rather smug expression and it occurred to Alia to wonder how much the other girl had to do with Riddick’s decision..

He looked up at her, goggles back in place, but she didn’t need to see his eyes to read his mood now and his amusement was plain to her. It really didn’t matter how he had come to his decision anyway. The result was that they were bound and she was perfectly content with that.
So much for her stubborn refusal to give in, she thought wryly. She was both disgusted and amused at how easily she had succumbed to him. Her mother had been right: refusing an Alpha was damn near impossible. He had wanted and she had just given. Looking back, she couldn’t see how she could have resisted him, sooner or later he would have won. He gave her a very smug look from his spot at the table and she shook her head. He was going to be impossible to live with from now on. For some strange reason, Alia couldn’t work up the energy to care.

“So did you sleep well?” Kyra asked sweetly, her cat in the cream expression quite pronounced. Alia gave her the best of her cold-eyed killer faces and nodded.

“Yes.” She let fall the word with a quelling chill into the conversation but Kyra had never known when to drop it.

“Any interesting dreams?” Kyra teased and her wheedling tones made the others start to pay attention.

“Nothing special,” Alia retorted dryly and watched as Riddick winced. Lajjun caught on first and grinned, quickly hiding her mouth behind her hand. It took Vaako a beat or two to pick up but his wide-eyed puzzlement made Alia want to roll her eyes.

“Nothing special? Oh, now that’s got to hurt!” Kyra chuckled and Riddick glared at her. The rest of the table picked up on the innuendo then and the Necros all looked as confused as Vaako. They all still thought that Alia and Riddick had been together from the start and couldn’t understand why Kyra was only now choosing to tease the couple.

“So we were planning on going to Furya; anyone want to come?” Riddick changed the subject hurriedly before Kyra could laugh at him any more or start a discussion he didn’t want to have.

“Furya?” Lajjun had a panicked expression at the idea of her protectors decamping but she hid her alarm as best she could. She was a woman of courage but she wasn’t a killer like the two Furyans, or a fighter like the ex-Necros. She was smart, kind and utterly incapable of defending herself in a fight. Except for the one time in the catacombs, she had never even picked up a weapon.

Alia wished that the other woman had allowed her to teach her to knife fight the way she had been teaching Freet and Joisa, but Lajjun was a pacifist. Alia’s dictionary definition of “pacifist” pretty much translated out to “dead meat,” but she had never mentioned that to the dark-skinned woman. Why start an argument you can’t win?

Ziza looked up from her meal and raised a hand with an eager smile.

“I want to go!” she volunteered and Riddick grinned at her.

“You can come when you graduate from school.” Ziza’s face fell and she frowned furiously down at her eggs.

“I would be pleased to accompany you,” Vaako murmured with that diffident tone that he used when he was thinking “Lord Marshall” instead of “Riddick.”

“Great, we could use you.” One by one, the other Necros agreed and Vaako looked over at McCauley.

“I’ll stay and keep an eye on the home front.” Lajjun immediately looked relieved and Riddick nodded.

“I’d appreciate that.” He looked over at Kyra who hadn’t said anything. “Kyra?”

“What, like you could stop me? Of course I’m coming!” Alia could feel Riddick’s relief across the link between them and knew that he had hated the thought of leaving her behind where he couldn’t keep an eye on her. Alia snorted internally. Like Kyra said, he couldn’t get rid of her if he tried.

“If it would not inconvenience you, I would like to join you as well.” Aereon fluttered into solidity in the doorway and, nodding at the assembled party, advanced into the room.

“I figured you would be coming along.” Riddick felt relieved but sounded ungracious. Alia was amused by the difference between internal reality and external projection. She could feel how much he liked the Elemental and how unwilling he was for her to know it.

Her own deeply suspicious nature didn’t trust the meddlesome woman at all, but she could still feel the tug of her charisma. Elementals had a reputation for neutrality but Alia knew that there was no such thing, really. Everyone always made a choice at some point. Riddick raised an eyebrow at her and his questioning look made her shrug. She didn’t mind having the Elemental along. Better to keep her where you could watch her anyway. He nodded his understanding of her thought and they turned in unison to look at Aereon who had a startled look on her face.

“I’ll begin prepping the ship if you would like?” Vaako volunteered but Riddick shook his head.

“No, I have to show Kyra how to do it anyway,” he responded and Alia had never seen the girl’s head whip around so fast.

“What?”

“You said you wanted to learn to fly, right?” Alia suppressed a smile. That was certainly one way to keep the girl too busy to torment him.

“Hell, yeah!” Kyra shouted and let out a whoop. “I thought you’d forgotten.” Alia watched the play of emotions across her face and could see how much this meant to her.

“I remember everything,” Riddick replied and only her link to him let her see the sorrow and pain behind those words. Some extra sense allowed her to reach for him in her mind. She felt herself trying to smooth away the pain that was lodged in his heart. He gave her knee a gentle squeeze under the table but his face remained impassive, letting none of what passed between them be seen by the others.

“So when are we going?” Kyra was already on her feet, excited and ready to head to the spaceport right that instant. Riddick chuckled, a low sound that made Alia think of much better ways to spend their time than mucking about in the bowels of a spaceship.

“After breakfast.” Riddick’s sideways glance and palpable regret tickled in the back of Alia’s mind, but his need to be moving forward was as great as her own. She sighed internally and decided that she could always jump him on the ship later. Riddick choked on his orange juice as the image ran through her mind and she smothered a grin behind a forkful of eggs.

Aereon had been watching them and as the conversation progressed she had gone from initial puzzlement through deep thought and had now graduated to a sort of pleased smugness. Alia wondered why everyone was so damn self-congratulatory about the relationship. Riddick was the one who had made the decision and she was the one who had agreed to it; the others had nothing to do with it.

“When are we leaving for Furya?” Aereon asked, her dress fluttering behind her in an unfelt wind.

“Two days – it will take us that long to get supplies and prep the ship,” Riddick answered her. Alia looked around at the odd assortment of people they were dragging along with them.

“It will take me that long to get them all outfitted anyway,” Alia grumbled and they looked at her. “Furya isn’t a civilized world anymore.” Aereon snorted at the notion that it had ever been ‘civilized.’

“So?” Kyra was looking at her with intense interest.

“So, we’ll have to have survival gear, camping supplies, weaponry. The flora is dangerous and the fauna is worse.” Alia remembered the stories that her mother had told her, the legends and tales that were her bedtime stories. Furya was a world that tested its people as much as it was their home and refuge. She was looking forward to seeing it at last.

“Sounds charming.” Kyra made a face and the others looked rather taken aback.

“What did you expect of their home world?” Aereon asked gesturing at Riddick and Alia who replied with matching feral smiles. Vaako eyed them with resignation.

“Well, I was sort of hoping for a nice vacation planet.” The room erupted into laughter.

Kyra crawled out from under the board and rubbed at the grease stain on her forehead. Prepping a ship was much harder work than she had thought it would be. Of course, Riddick had her running around like a maniac, checking wiring and nano boards that had nothing wrong with them. She suspected it was his way of getting her familiar with everything on the ship. He had an odd way of teaching piloting, making her learn the mechanics of it first. He hadn’t even mentioned astrogation or lift techniques yet.

Alia was off to the markets shopping for survival gear and Riddick was working the astrogation computers setting their course to Furya. Kyra had watched them kiss and then part and had felt a tiny spike of jealousy. Not because she wanted Riddick, because she didn’t really, but because she wanted someone to look at her the way Riddick looked at Alia.

There had been a time when she had thought of Riddick as merely a cold-hearted survivor who had bent down from his mighty heights to rescue her, giving her a brief moment of hope, and then had abandoned her without a further thought. She had thought that making herself over into him would be the best course for survival. That if only she didn’t feel anything she would be okay.

Yet even in the worst moments, when she had hated him for making her care about him and then going away, she still remembered his smiling face framed by the cave opening five years ago, when he had come back for her. He had looked so happy, like a kid getting a gold star, and his grief for Carolyn Fry had been very real. The way he had said ‘Riddick was dead’ had made her believe that there had been a sea change down below on the harsh surface of that planet. It made her wonder if what she was trying to make herself over into was really the best choice.

Yesterday as they had talked she thought that she was beginning to understand what had changed him. Carolyn had challenged him to rejoin the human race and he had risen to meet her expectations of him. Someone had looked at him and seen not a convict or a murderer, but the potentiality of him. Someone had looked and seen the good and decent man that was hiding in the killer’s eyes, just as Imam had seen Kyra and tried to help her.

Kyra snapped the board shut and tracked the next line as Riddick had instructed her to. For the first time in years she let herself really think about Carolyn. What kind of woman had she been to really be able to see who Riddick was? Had she gone down as far as she could and seen him standing there in the darkness, a reflection of her own possible future? Had she seen how easy it was to become that person, to lose yourself in the day to day brutality of existence? Or was it more than that? Perhaps Carolyn had just been the sort of person who didn’t flinch from the dark but faced and owned it. Kyra wished they had had more time together, or that she had had these insights before and been able to ask the other woman during their time in the Underverse.

“You done yet?” Riddick called up to her and Kyra pulled her mind from her musing and went back to work. Her heart hurt from missing the others but also from all that she hadn’t seen until it was too late.

“Almost,” she called back and his affirmative grunt drifted up in answer. Her mind returned to its original musings, even as her fingers continued to work. How had Carolyn seen the true soul of the man when everyone else only saw the darkness? Kyra had thought that she was so smart, that she knew him better than anyone, but she had seen only what she wanted to see. That she had only seen the hero was no different from all those who only saw the killer. It was still a two dimensional view of a very complex person. What moment had given Carolyn that view into his soul? How had Sturm wormed her way in and found his heart?

She had no answers to her questions. She only knew that yesterday she had finally seen under the mask for a moment, seen the lonely man who was scared to connect with others for fear of betrayal. She had seen and been able to help for the first time. She was finally a true friend and not just a burden. The person she had been trying to become had died on the Basilica and she was a new person all over again.
“Get a move on, girl!” Riddick roared at her from the cockpit. “We haven’t got all day!” She stuck a tongue out at him, knowing he couldn’t see her do it. She scrambled to finish the job and then, being assured that all was sound, slid down the ladder from the engineering deck to the main concourse.

“I’m done, keep your shirt on!” she shot back, but there was no real venom in her tone. She realized again that she was only seventeen and just beginning to peek around the corner into full adulthood. There were all sorts of depths to the people around her that she had never seen before and it was strangely exciting. It was also sobering. These weren’t just the icons of her childhood, they were human beings who bled and wept.

Riddick came off of the bridge and she could see the emotions playing across his face. Irritation at some problem he had to solve, fondness for herself, a certain happy distraction from his newfound relationship with Sturm. It was a revelation to her. Had that stone face always been so expressive and she had just missed it or was this just an all-new Riddick here?

“Well, let’s see.” He took the check pad from her and began running down it. “Everything looks good.” He nodded. “Alia will be meeting us for lunch, so get washed up and let’s go.” He paused and handed the pad back to her. “Good work,” he added hastily and then was gone, headed aft.

Kyra grinned at his retreating back. She would never again accuse him of going soft. He was still the killer, still deadly dangerous. However, he had most certainly rejoined the human race. She resisted the urge to welcome him back. It would only piss him off. Chuckling to herself, she headed for the shower.

Alia flopped into the chair with a feeling of deep weariness. A full day of scavenging through the broken remains of the marketplace and through those houses that no longer had owners had been wearying. She had bought where one could buy and hunted up the rest. The ruin of the city was disheartening to her as well. The ragged people, shell-shocked and fearful, who were trying to rebuild yet again made her melancholy. She was looking forward to going away for a while.

She could feel Riddick’s presence approaching and smiled softly. Lunch with him and Kyra had been most amusing. Kyra had been as annoying a little sister as anyone could wish for, teasing and tormenting Riddick, but there had been a joyful sweetness under it all that had made Alia think. Kyra still adored Riddick but there was a touch more maturity in her regard these days. She was looking at a person not just her big brother and Alia was pleased. Riddick needed all the friends he could get.

Now if she could just figure out how to get Vaako to stop bowing and scraping to him.

“Never gonna happen,” Riddick answered the thought with an irritated tone that made her smile. He could go from sleek tiger to grumbling bear in a heartbeat. “I am not a bear or a tiger,” he muttered, short-tempered from the long day’s work, and she rose and crossed to where he was stripping off his filthy clothes.

“Richard,” she murmured seductively and his eyes went molten. He pushed her hard against the wall and leaned into her, his hands roaming hungrily.

“You want something, Li?” His face was full of need, but his voice was curiously tender. She nodded and pulled him into a kiss. Words became superfluous after that.

Riddick watched Ziza’s lip start to tremble and he sighed. He had known that this parting would be hard on her but the last thing he could do was take her to Furya with him. McCauley was a good fighter and more importantly knew full well what Riddick would do to him if anything happened to Lajjun and Ziza while he was off-planet.

“I’ll be back, kid,” he assured her and she wrapped her arms around his neck even more tightly.

“Promise?” Her voice was trembling on the brink of tears and he gave her a fierce hug.

“Promise,” he replied and set her down. Lajjun took the girl’s hand and Riddick was startled to see sorrow in her eyes as well. Watching Carolyn die had torn him up inside, leaving Jack behind had been agony and watching her die had nearly killed him, but those people were exceptions, weren’t they? He was Richard B. Riddick, murderer, escaped convict; he wasn’t someone most people missed when he was gone. In fact, they ought to be relieved to see the back of him. Yet, they weren’t.

Alia’s touch in his mind was loving and tender and he reached for her, confusion and yearning all mixed up inside of him. Was this what a family was?

He waved at the people he was leaving behind and moved out with Sturm, Kyra, Vaako, Joisa, Freet, Daikken and Auret. Aereon would meet them at the ship. He was greeted and waved at by people as he walked. Total strangers wished him well and hoped he would be back soon. Children smiled and waved as he passed. It hurt almost more than he could bear and part of him wanted to lash out at them all.
Where had these people been when he was a child?

“On another planet, Riddick,” Sturm answered his anguished heart and he released the grief that threatened to clog his throat. It didn’t matter anyway. He was who he was and they were here now. It would have to be enough. His new family, as strange an assortment of people as had ever gathered together in bonds of fellowship, was more than enough for one lone killer to deal with. He had an embarrassment of riches.

Alia watched the planet receding behind her and felt a twinge of sorrow despite her relief to be on her way. She had been happier on that world than she had ever been anywhere, but the regret was nothing compared to the raging hunger in her for home. Furya was where her soul ached to go. The need was so strong inside of her that she felt as though she could outfly the ship to get there. Riddick’s hands on her shoulders woke her to the external world and she leaned back against him reveling in his nearness.

“We’ll be back,” he assured her.

“We have to go back or Ziza will hire a Merc team and come after you,” Alia retorted only half joking.

“Damn, that little girl would too,” Riddick answered her with a laugh.

“Now why didn’t I think of that?” Kyra commented as she stepped onto the bridge.

“Cause you didn’t have shit for money?” Riddick turned and gave her the eyebrow.

“Oh right, now I remember.” Alia chuckled at the thoughtful tone of Kyra’s voice and turned back to the viewport as she continued. “I love this Necromonger ship. The fact that I don’t have to travel in Cryo makes me so happy.”

“Rewiring the communications system to not use a dead guy was a bitch though,” Riddick grumbled.

“No one said the Necros weren’t imaginative,” Alia pointed out serenely and the other two gave her sour looks. “Fucked in the head maybe, but imaginative.”

“Who’s fucked in the head?” Vaako asked, walking in with an armful of circuit nano chips.

“You are.” Riddick cocked a head at him and Vaako grinned back completely un-offended by the comment. “What is all that?”

“Upgrades for the sensors.” Vaako sank down under the sensor stations board and began swapping out nano chips. “I figure it might be important for us to be able to see anyone trying to sneak up on us. After all we’re going to Furya in a Necromonger ship and from what I have seen of Furyans the shoot first and ask questions later mentality might be a problem.”

Alia and Riddick stared at each other for a long time with matching expressions of chagrin.

“Had you considered that?” he asked her and she shook her head in negation. “Me neither,” he admitted.

“Let’s just hope we don’t get shot up by the very people we have come to help,” Kyra sighed. “Not that it would be the first time,” she added with a sardonic smirk.

On that cheerful note, Alia went to check out the weapons systems. This could be a really long trip.