False Dawn

As he held himself carefully above her, he felt the cool air dry the sweat on his skin. The musky scent of their bodies filled his nose and his muscles burned from the control he had used. He knew he was normally much rougher in bed, more demanding, a little of the beast, the wildness within unleashing on his partner. But for Jack he had controlled that, giving her the tenderness that she needed, though it had been difficult. All this faded in Riddick's mind as he just enjoyed being where he had wanted to be for so long. Her tight sheath still pulsed around him, lightly milking his semi-hard shaft buried inside her, though he knew she slept. He just watched her sleep, the tiny smile on her face causing one to appear on his.

A more beautiful and innocent and curious woman he'd never been with. Most of his relations were with women that accepted currency for their favors. After all, he was Richard B. Riddick. He'd never been on an honest to god date, he'd never really even cared about the women he was with. They found their pleasure as he found his, and that was the most consideration he'd ever given.

That Jack had been used so callously so many times truly shocked him. He'd seen women raped, men too, and most had seemed . . . different after, scarred. When Johns' sick ass had used him while he'd been restrained, he'd only been half-conscious, but he'd still felt the humiliation, the pain. He'd been able to move on, shrugging off any shame he'd felt, but had assumed it was just because of who he was. When survival was a way of life you had to just ignore the little shit, right?

But Jack had been subjected to such vile treatment at the age of thirteen. Merely a child. And she acted as if it was just a trial on the way to growing up, to being something better. Slight fears had stayed with her, but she'd overcome them with very little effort. She bore scars on her skin, but not anywhere else apparently. The strength and courage that it took to overcome such adversity astounded even him. He lay there looking at her and had to shake his head at how much he was impressed by her. If Jack were a man she would be a formidable and nearly indestructible force.

He smiled again as he eased off of her, a low sigh escaping him as he slid free of her, and already he missed being inside her. She was all woman, there was no doubt of that. His eyes roamed her lithe body, toned from their many workouts, wiry and strong from necessity. The clean scent of her thick wavy hair filled him as he lay among the soft honey curls. Her small breasts stood firm, her youth evident. He couldn't prevent his hand from cupping the soft mound, fitting it neatly into his palm. His rough thumb grazed over her silky skin, catching on the tight dark nipple and making her sigh softly in her sleep. Her narrow waist flared out into the soft roundness of her hips, then slender legs lay against his own, showing just the hint of the muscle beneath the velvety skin.

He knew he'd never get tired of looking at her. This woman lying beside him with her skin still flushed from their exertions, didn't even seem like the same kid who'd shaved her head to emulate him. The same strength was there, but little else. She'd grown, matured, and just simply changed. And for the first time he wondered which one of them needed the other more.

Hours later Jack stirred in his arms. He felt her tense as she became aware of his presence and then she was sighing and snuggling back against him. "Mmmm, can we do that again?"

He chuckled against her hair, feeling his body responding to her already. "Are you sure you're ready for more?"

She turned onto her back so she could look up at him. "Why wouldn't I be ready?"

Riddick wanted to thank whatever powers that were in control for leaving this woman innocent after all she'd been through. Her eagerness was refreshing. She had no pre-formed conceptions of how she was supposed to behave. He was the luckiest man alive. "You could be sore or something."

She made a face, looking almost petulant as she frowned, "So? I think it's worth it. Will it be like that all the time?" The excitement in her voice made him chuckle. She grinned up at him, her eyes shining in the low light, then her lashes lowered and he could see her skin warming before she whispered, "Can I kiss you there?"

Riddick covered her mouth in a hard kiss, searching her, nibbling and drawing on her until she was breathless beneath him. Finally he drew back to stare down at her, "Jackie, you amaze me. And I would be humbled to have you kiss me there."

She smiled up at him, and then was sitting up.

The next ten minutes of Riddick's life was worse than any torture that he'd ever been subjected to in Slam. And he loved every second of it.

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~

Jack tore into the food before her. She had prepared them both meals from the prep unit while Riddick had checked the navigation systems and the autopilot course.

It was already the middle of the 'day'. They had lain in bed for a long while after they had made love again. The shower had been another hour or more as they took turns washing each other and finding ways to make the chore take longer.

In the past couple hours Riddick had smiled more often than he probably had in the past year. Her inexperience and eagerness in everything had always seemed significant to him, but today it was damn near inspirational.

Watching her dig into her food like she hadn't eaten for days had him smiling again. Why hadn't he ever noticed how special she was? She did things her own way, with an enthusiasm that would shame most people. He knew it did him. Before her vigor had just made him feel old, not wishing to expend so much energy on something as trivial as eating or talking or whatever, but now it made him want to be a part of it. He could never behave with the ebullience that she did, but he could at least be present and enjoy her.

"What do you know about Chem Industries?" she suddenly asked around a mouthful of food.

Riddick was taken off guard by her question, so far from what he had been thinking, and he frowned at her, "What?"

She looked up at him and just stared as she swallowed her food and then took a long drink. "How were you involved with them?"

"Why? What does it matter?"

She sat back and took another bite of food, still looking at him thoughtfully as she chewed. For a moment he was actually nervous. Why was she questioning him? But he knew he'd never told her about ANY of his past, much less Chem Industries. She knew nothing.

"Who trained you to kill, Riddick?"

He stood from the table with a fluid motion, his body tensing as the anger swept through him. From relaxed casualness to firing questions at him in less than a minute, he couldn't believe it. Who the fuck was she to question him?

"I did," he growled.

She just looked up at him, her head cocked to one side as if she were studying a strange specimen. "Why are you pissed?"

"My past is none of your business, you can keep your little fucking questions to yourself."

She blinked at him in surprise and then stood to face him. He could see her face tightening with the anger to match his own. "Oh, I see. So I can fuck you but I can't help you."

"Help me?" he laughed, his head tilted back as laughter rolled out of him. "You're going to help me, little girl? I don't need your help."

She took a step closer to him, her eyes narrowing as she stared at him. No fear. He could see it, smell it, even taste it. She didn't fear him. The realization of the amount of power he had lost over her was nearly stunning.

"I didn't ask you for permission, Riddick!" She was shouting at him and even though he wanted to flatten her for her insolence he had to admire her. She was beautiful. "I asked you for information. I'm going to help you whether you like it or not. I don't know why Chem Industries wants you so bad, but if you're in danger, then I'm in danger. And I don't want to run for the rest of my life just waiting for the fuckers to catch us."

At the first shock of his anger and wariness the coiled beast within him had reared, wanting to take over from that point. But as he stood looking down at this woman who he had just spent the night fucking, and who's life he had virtually destroyed just by coming into contact with her, he let go of the anger and the unsettled feelings. She was right. They wouldn't be lucky forever. The bounty was too high. Someone would corner them eventually. He didn't know what they could possibly do to change any of it, but it was stupid not to try. For her. He couldn't let her be hurt or killed because of him.

"Okay, Jack. What information do you want?"

He could have laughed at the shock on her face. She had obviously been expecting little or no cooperation, and he secretly felt proud for catching her off guard.

"You're going to help me?"

He smiled, "Help you help me help us? Sure." He said it as if it were no big deal, as if he hadn't just been pissed at her for asking just that.

She just stared at him for a moment and then laughed, "Damn, Riddick." She snorted softly to herself as she turned and sat again at the table, digging into her food once again. "So talk."

He sat, but didn't talk. He wasn't proud of his involvement with Chem Industries. In his eyes, which had been the eyes of a child, they had saved him. They had taken him from a foster home where he'd been either ignored or beaten and given him everything. He took a deep breath and prepared to tell her what he had never told another living soul.

"I was eight when I was living in a shithole foster home with five other kids." He could hear the resentment in his own voice. "One day an older boy, Roger, hit me in the head with a rock and I fell fifteen feet to the concrete below. I cracked my skull and broke an arm and a leg and they put me in the hospital. I was only in for a couple days and before I was released they x-rayed my injuries again. My arm and head had completely healed. Only my leg was still fractured, but it was healing too."

Jack sat and watched him, her plate of food pushed to the side. He chewed the inside of his lip for a moment and then sat back, crossing his arms.

"Aurick Ndale came to visit me."

Jack gasped and sat up straighter. "Him?"

Riddick just continued, "He didn't give me any of the details, but said that I was being removed from my foster home and would be staying with him. I had no idea why. I was fuckin' eight! I got to move into his big house and play in his big yard and eat food that hadn't molded or wasn't trying to be taken from by plate. I thought it was the greatest. When he let me go to work with him it was just a neat thing to do. Over the years I stopped questioning why he wanted me to do the things they were asking. I just wanted to please him. The things I was learning were just fun to me, I never thought it would be used."

He stopped talking for several minutes, his thoughts circling. Jack remained silent.

"When I made my first kill I was applauded. You'da thought I'd fuckin' scored the winning touchdown. So when I was sent out again, of course I went. It just seemed like something to do to me, I never really thought about the people I was killing. I got a paper with a bit of information, nothing incriminating, and that's who I did. No questions, just take out the target.

"I was seventeen when I got caught. I'd been killing for three years. I kept my mouth shut like I'd been told. I never said a word. I was just waitin’ to be rescued." He snorted derisively. "Ndale showed up in court only once . . . on the day I was convicted. They were able to link me to at least a dozen murders and suspected me of another fifteen." He laughed then. "They could have doubled those numbers and never gotten close.

"Twelve life sentences to be served consecutively, an estimated 900 years. I actually laughed. I fuckin' sat there in the courtroom and laughed. They moved me through several prisons on Earth and Mars, racked up a few more years. A hundred and fifty, I think. Seems cons aren't worth as much as civi's. So with a thousand year sentence I got dumped in Slam. It was my 25th birthday. Seems there's an age limit. I killed twice that day."

Jack sat staring with wide eyes at the man sitting across from her, and then she stood up and walked away from the table. Away from the killer that had just callously described killing dozens, away from the abused child turned remorseless assassin, and from the man that had become her lover just the night before that realized she didn't know at all.