Predator

Chapter 16

*Author’s Note: When you picture Riddick’s son, imagine Dorian Gregory who plays Daryl Morris on Charmed.*

Ares had sunk to the ground in exhaustion and barely kept his upper body off the ground by hugging Alex’s leg to his chest. He wearily looked up at his mate’s concerned face. “What took you so long?” His strength gave out and his head slumped to rest against her thigh.

“I guess it’s pointless to ask if you can run.” She glanced at her beaten mate as he grasped her leg to his body like a lifeline and then turned to his assailants. ‘I need to buy us time for him to catch his breath.’

She swept her right arm out and one third of the approaching men flew back several hundred yards out of sight. ‘This is gonna suck.’ She braced herself as the use of her telekinetic abilities was redirected back at her body. It slammed into her with tremendous force but her strength allowed her to withstand it with a shudder.

She swept her left arm in a wide arc to clear the rest of the field of men. A larger telekinetic push was used and the resulting backlash doubled her over in pain. She pulled herself together when she heard Ares gasp out her name.

“Alex.”

He still held tight to her right leg so she knelt down on her left knee and held his face gently in her hands. “I’m here, love.”

“I thought I’d never see you again.” His eyes glistened with unshed tears and he drew in a hitched breath. “I was lost and…shit, Alex, I was scared.”

Her own black eyes shone with tears when the War God admitted his fear. “It’s okay now, baby.” She pulled his head to her shoulder and hugged him to her tenderly. “I’ve got you and I’m never letting go.”

He took a moment to compose himself in his lover’s embrace before he pulled back slightly and looked at her with desolate eyes. “Alex, I’m dead. How can everything be okay?”

She smiled warmly with a look of mischief in her eyes. “Have you forgotten who you’re married to? I’ll take care of everything.” She glanced back in the direction she had sent her enemies with a serious expression on her face and in her tone. “I just need to get you out of here and quickly.”

“Is he okay?”

Her head snapped around towards the sound of the familiar deep voice and her temper skyrocketed. “Richard! Tyr! What the fuck…”

Tyr held his hand up and stopped his mate’s tirade. “Alexandra, it is done and the only way we go back is together.” His wife glared at him as he continued. “The best way to accomplish that is if Riddick protects and helps Ares to the portal while you and I cover them.”

“Excuse me, Nietzchean, but what makes you think you are better equipped to team with our woman than me?” Alex arched an eyebrow and looked at her two mates incredulously. “I am a hell of a lot stronger than your Uber ass!”

“She told you if your power emerges here it will turn against you. We can’t risk you getting injured as well…”

“Are you two fucking kidding me?” Riddick and Tyr turned at Alex’s booming voice. “You are actually working together now to be one big pain in my ass instead of two and you are still in a pissing contest!” She shook her head in disbelief while helping Ares to his feet. “You both are going to be the death of me…literally.”

“Riddick, shut up. Just so we’re clear, that plan of yours, Tyr, is rejected. The two of you will guard Ares and I will take point. Are we clear?” Both of them nodded their heads and flanked her injured mate. “I can’t believe this shit. We are in hell and you two are still acting like fucking…oh shit.”

Riddick turned to see what stopped his mate’s rant and could only say the obvious. “Oh shit.”

Tyr and Ares followed suit and Ares slumped heavily against the Nietzchean. “The fucking portal moved again.”

“Again?” Tyr asked. “It moves?”

“This complicates things a bit, doesn’t it?” Riddick growled in frustration as he surveyed the red horizon. “Where the fuck is it?”

“It’s over there.” They turned to face the direction Alex was looking and their blood ran cold when they saw what was in their path. “Remember the plan, gentlemen. Keep about 10 yards between us.”

She stalked confidently up to the first wave of opposition and slid an indifferent gaze over the faces of 50 or so men that she had killed at some point in her long life. When she saw the spark of recognition in the closest man’s eyes, she smirked and swiftly threw a right uppercut to his chin that sent him flying up into the air.

The remaining men converged on her in a rush. Her 3 mates stood at the appropriate distance behind her and watched as she dispatched them with ease. An assortment of kicks, flips, punches and chops dropped her adversaries temporarily but did not kill them. Nobody dies in Kortoth if death by her hands delivered them here.

Riddick pulled his shiv from his belt and yelled out to Tyr. “Arm yourself! If you have an extra blade, give it to Ares!”

Tyr pulled two long knives from his boots and handed one to the War God. “What do you have in mind?”

“In case you didn’t notice, Mr. Superior Genes, these fuckers don’t die but; if we fuck ‘em up enough; they’ll remain incapacitated long enough for us to get by.”

“As I understand it, Riddick, you are more genetically enhanced than I and I did notice this is the realm of the walking dead.”

“Would you two shut up? We have a long way to go and a big fight ahead of us so; since I don’t want to stay amongst the ranks of the walking dead; dismember every one of them that gets by her!”

The three men turned to the sound of their wife yelling out in anger. Twenty men rushed her at once and she disappeared under a growing pile of bodies. When Riddick started to go to her aid, Tyr grabbed his arm. “Wait! Give her a minute!”

“She is overrun!”

“No. She increased her strength to its highest level before we came here. Just wait!” They impatiently watched the stirring mass of bodies for a sign and; a minute later; they weren’t disappointed. Alex forced herself to her feet with one man across her shoulders and the others flying in every direction. “I told you!” She grabbed the legs of the man she had in a fireman’s carry, swung him around in several circles to gain momentum, and sent him sailing into the last few who regained their footing. “Our woman is a miracle.”

Alex glanced over the unconscious men and dusted off her hands. “Let’s move it, gentlemen.” She caught Riddick’s stunned expression and smirked before she turned to walk on.

A grin broke out on his face as he nodded in agreement of Tyr’s assessment. “She sure is.”

Her mates moved on and Tyr made a point to make a humming sound loud enough to get Riddick’s attention. “You just agreed for the second time that she is OUR woman.”

“I know.” Riddick fell silent for several paces before he spoke again. “I’ve come to learn a few things about you recently that have changed my opinion about your place in her life.”

“What would that be?”

“I didn’t say I would share that information.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t like you.”

Ares shook his head in frustration. “I don’t like either of you and; for two supposed warriors; you don’t know a damn thing about war.”

“Why don’t you enlighten us, God boy?”

“Oh, I don’t know, how about keeping your fucking mouth shut when we are trying to avoid a legion of the enemy?” Ares picked up his pace to catch up to his mate and left Riddick and Tyr behind.

“I know you’ve been through a lot, husband, but don’t you think you’re being hard on them? They did come here to help rescue you.”

“Please, Alexandra. They are here to protect you. They don’t give a damn about me.”

“They care enough knowing your death drove me mad with grief and insane with pain.” She grabbed his arm and they both stopped walking. “They disobeyed my rule and followed me in here. They are walking through a hell that I created and making light of it in an effort to deal with an impossible situation. So do me a favor and cut them some slack.” She stared into his worried eyes with a reassuring glance. “They are 2 of the best fighters in the known worlds and I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side in battle. Do you understand?”

He sighed and nodded his head. “I understand, love, but they are not acting like the most notorious killer of the universe and the former Alpha of the Nietzchean Empire. They are…bonding.”

“I couldn’t be happier.” She looked back at her beloved mates and smiled. They were following at the ordered distance and talking amongst themselves. “Their constant fighting was wearing me down and we really can’t afford that right now, can we?”

“No. Now would be a bad time to be off your game.”

“Most definitely.” Her head snapped back in the direction of the portal and she drew both swords from their sheaths. “Move back to the others, my love. I have some work to do.”

Ares looked at the next wave of the dead before them. His heart clinched with dread at the sheer number. “I’ve only fought as a mortal once. I didn’t like it.”

“I don’t either. Not against these odds.” She held one sword; blade out; in her right and the other; blade back; in her left preparing for the next battle. “Especially when I need to protect my mates and unborn son. Fall back and get ready.”

He halted in his tracks to wait for Riddick and Tyr while he watched his wife stride forward. When the other 2 reached his side, she had already deflected one man’s blade with her steel in her right and drove her left across his midsection. Her right blade threw his back for one of her mates’ to use.

Riddick snatched the short sword from the air and followed his mate through the center of the field. Shiv in his left hand and sword in his right, he disemboweled one of the dead with the shiv and drove the steel through the heart of one behind him.

Ares moved to pick up the sword of one of Riddick’s fallen and threw Tyr his borrowed knife. The 2 of them cut through the ones who flanked them while Riddick guarded their wife’s back.

They were all on the receiving end of some vicious injuries but not as bad as Alex; who was slicing her way through the mob; and they were dealing out far worse than they received. Riddick saw Alex flip over the head of one of the last and; while she upside down; slice clean through his neck. He watched the head roll off and looked at her as she landed squarely on her feet. “Nice.”

She spun around to face him and sent a knife flying over his shoulder. He glanced back and saw the blade embedded in the forehead of a falling foe. He turned to her smiling face and heard her gasp. “Thanks.” They had been fighting for well over 3 hours and were all winded.

He pulled an acquired blade from his belt, threw it over her head, and struck another between the eyes. “You’re welcome.” She didn’t need to look to know he covered her back. He grinned lasciviously at his wife. “I have to protect my interests and your beautiful ass-ets.”

“Likewise, my love.” She drove her blades into the ground on either side of her, pulled 2 more knives while holding his gaze, and threw them into the hearts of 2 men rushing him from both sides. “Are we done here?”

Ares cut through one assailant from his right shoulder to his left hip. “I’m finished.”

Tyr took a knee between his 2 attackers. “Give me a second.” He drove his right blade into the abdomen of one and; as he rose; pulled the steel up through his torso. He drove his left knife through the skull of the other, pulled them free, and turned to his wife. “I’m ready to go.”

“Good. I’m getting tired and want to go home.” Riddick’s eyes ran the length of his mate’s body. She was bleeding badly from a couple of her more serious wounds but her inner light worried him more.

She was burning through her elevated endorphins quickly from the hours of constant battle. She had covered their progress in the fight and took it upon herself to intercede when she thought they needed help. Of the four hundred or more men they encountered so far, she fought about three quarters of them. She was indeed tiring but worse than that; if Riddick calculated Kortoth’s faster time progression correctly; she was due to give birth to their son soon. He suspected that she was trying to delay that from occurring and the strain was burning her out faster.

She sheathed her swords, met his penetrating gaze for a moment and turned to descend a hill. Before he or the others could take a step to follow, Alex was sent flying back over their heads and crashed to the ground sliding several feet before she stopped.

“Alex!” Riddick and the others ran to her side as she struggled to rise up on to her elbows. “Baby, are you okay?”

She began to cough up a substantial amount of blood as she struggled with no success to get to her feet. “Get…me…up.” Riddick and Tyr each grabbed an arm, helped her up, and held on while she swayed unsteadily. Blood flowed from her gasping mouth and ran down her throat. “Get…back.”

“Baby, there’s no way I’m leaving your side!”

“Richard, do you…remember…what Ian…told you about…my strength?”

“Yes, but…”

“That man…” She pointed ahead at a large man that just came into view by ascending the hill. “He is the…strongest being…I’ve ever…fought. The three of…you don’t…stand a chance together against…him. Please stay away from him.”

They took in the desperation in her eyes and moved away from her shaking body. She summoned her waning strength and directed it into her weakened limbs. The Phoenix was struggling to free itself but she fought it back with a promise. ‘Soon.’

Momentarily revitalized, she took the few steps that brought her toe to toe with her most powerful foe. Taking the initiative and hopefully the upper hand, Alex struck first with a right and left cross to the jaw. As he reeled from her assault, she drove her right fist into his gut and doubled him over.

He recovered quickly and brought his head up catching her under the chin. He repeated her punches to her jaw and a fist to her chest left her gasping for air. He stepped up his assault on her body with no resistance from Alex. She gave herself up to the pain and punishment while her body assimilated his kinetic energy.

With bleary eyes, she peered past her tormentor and saw the largest group of undead they’ve come across so far standing before the portal. ‘Almost.’ She stopped the fist coming at her face with her palm and crushed it in her grip. A sharp kick to the inside of his knee broke one leg and another broke its twin. On his knees in agony, he looked up at her bloody face with hatred in his eyes. Showing no emotion in hers, she grabbed his head in her hands and; with a quick twist; snapped his neck. “Richard?”

He ran forward as she dropped to her knees and took her in his arms. “I’m here, baby.”

“So is our son. He’s coming and I’m running out of time on both of my promises to you.” She took a couple of deep breaths and blinked rapidly to clear her vision. Tyr and Ares knelt in front of her with absolute terror in their eyes. “There are a thousand men between us and the portal. None of you are going to like this but I don’t have a choice.”

Tyr adamantly shook his head and tears welled in his eyes. “No! You’ll burn! You’re on the verge of death already! You’ll kill his son!”

“Baby, calm down.” She spoke in a soothing tone and stroked his cheek with a shaky hand. “I’ll make it, Tyr. I swear to you that I’ll make it to the other side.”

“Baby…”

“Richard, there is no other way. Do you trust me?” He nodded his head. “I’ll clear the way.” She rose to her feet and looked over their faces. “Be careful and stay clear of the flames. I love you all.”

They walked to the edge of the hill and stared at the sea of bodies that stood in their path to freedom. The Phoenix pushed beneath the surface of her skin and cried for release. Her hands began to glow as she ran ahead of her mates down the hill and threw 2 energy balls into the crowd. Flames engulfed her hands and for the first time it burned her flesh.

Her men followed behind her as she blasted a path up the middle. After the obstacles to the portal had been cleared, she turned her attention to the walls of flesh that poured in from the sides. ‘Now!’ She released waves of cosmic flame from her outstretched arms as she ran to the portal. Her mates ran behind her and had to steel themselves from the horror of smelling her burning skin.

The portal was twenty feet ahead so she marshaled all her strength into her right arm, ran forward, and drove her burning limb through the barrier. “Move it!” She turned to cover them while Riddick threw Ares through the gaping hole. He disappeared from sight as soon as he crossed the barrier.

Riddick and Tyr jumped through together and turned to see Alex throw another wave of flames at her enemies. Her injuries took their toll and she faltered as the portal began to close. “NO!” Tyr jumped back through the barrier, gathered his wife’s burning body in his arms, and threw her to Riddick. His burning arms overwhelmed him with pain and he began to fall before he was pulled through by Riddick just before the portal sealed.

Ian rushed forward and took Alex’s smoldering form from Riddick and looked at the Nietzchean’s burnt arms. “You need healing, Tyr. Riddick, take care of his arms!” He lowered his mate to the grass and turned to the confused Furyan. “You have the ability to heal him. Now do it while I prepare her for the birth of your child!”

“Don’t bother, Riddick.” Tyr sank to his knees and held his damaged arms away from his body. “My nanobots will take care of it.”

Riddick knelt in front of the injured Nietzchean and read his pained eyes. “Don’t be an idiot. Your thoughts were focused on the well-being of our wife and my son the whole time we were in there. You were prepared to sacrifice yourself for both of them.” His hands began to glow softly and he held them out in front of the Nietzchean. “Either you accept my help or you prove you’re the asshole I thought you were.”

Tyr shook his head and smirked. He placed his arms under the glow of energy emanating from Riddick’s hands and felt his burns fade to scars which faded to smooth flesh. “Thank you.”

“No, man. Thank you.”

“Well it looks like you two have officially bonded.” Ares; with his life essence back in place within his newly reconstructed body; came forward to stand beside the 2 men who risked everything to help him. “Nothing good can come from this.”

“Something did.” Riddick and Tyr rose to their feet and all 3 men turned to Ian. A large man stood before another closing portal and stared right at Riddick. “Dorian.” He looked at Ian with confusion in his eyes and back to Riddick. “Dorian, it is okay. That is your father.” When her son tried to look at his mother’s prone form, Ian blocked his view and directed him by his shoulder towards Riddick. “Go to your father, son. You can see your mother in a few days.”

Dorian’s eyes widened and he pulled away from Ian’s touch. “A few days? I want to see my mother now!”

Riddick grabbed his arm and spun him around to face him. “That isn’t the way it works, son.” He looked solemnly at his son’s hurt expression and his eyes welled with tears as he looked proudly at his son. “We have rules here and you need to be with me for a few days before you see your mom.”

“Like father like son.” Ares mumbled.

Riddick glared at him before he looked back at his child. “Your mother has just been through an ordeal and she needs some time to rest. Am I clear, Dorian?”

“Yes, father.”

“Will the three of you come here please?”

“Sure, Ian. Dorian, wait here for me. I’ll be right back, son.”

“Okay, father.”

Riddick’s heart constricted with emotion when his son looked to him for counsel and he turned to go kneel beside his fallen wife with the others. “He’s beautiful, isn’t he, Richard?”

“Yeah, baby. Next to you, he is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“She’s fading fast.” Ian whispered.

“I won’t go. I cannot…I will not allow his first day of life to be wracked with the pain of my power transference. I’ll hold on and I’ll heal.”

Riddick stroked her hair and smiled at his mate’s stubbornness. If she allowed herself to pass away and was reborn, she would heal faster but her concern was only for their child. “Alex, it will take you days to heal from this.”

“Doesn’t matter…” She began to slur her words and her eyes began to drift closed. “Lucky for me you’ll be busy with our son. Go be with him, my love.” She fell into blessed unconsciousness and Riddick placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and looked at Tyr. “I want you to take care of her.” The Nietzchean’s startled eyes met his and Riddick placed his hand on Tyr’s shoulder. “I trust you to take care of OUR mate while I’m with my son. She needs you to be with her. Don’t let her out of your sight for one second.”

“I promise.”

Riddick lifted Alex off of the ground and gently placed her in Tyr’s arms. “I love you, baby.” He whispered in her ear before he nodded at Tyr to take her into the palace. He watched him until he disappeared from sight and turned to his son. “I have a lot to tell you, Dorian. Your mother told me that I’m supposed to tell you the story of my life so you can learn from me.” He thought to himself for a moment before he wrapped an arm around his son’s shoulders. “I’ll keep my word to her and tell you all of that. After that, I’ll tell you about your mother and how 2 people who thought they didn’t deserve to live found each other, saved each other, and fell in love.”