Hum

He didn’t know her name. It didn’t occur to him until he was already nestled in the soft underbrush surrounding her house. She knew his identity, that he was a wanted man and he—he was too stupid to even get her name.

Not my problem.

Not one of great magnitude, of course. He had killed plenty of people he never knew the names, or even faces to, and she would be no different. Right now he still had every intention of slitting the crazy bitch’s throat for daring to touch his blade. Insult him, hunt him, jail him, but don’t touch his blade.

Riddick touched his lips. They ached from where they had touched her hair when he had leaned in and taken a long drag on that spicy, smooth scent of hers. He had to admit, she did things to his body. Things that he hadn’t done in the three years he had been on the run. The last crew he had been with had a few lookers, but they all died before he could get to them. Oh, well.

But right now, no more than 50 meters away was a warm-blooded, curvy woman. And she was just as attracted to him as he was to her—he could smell it.

Then what’s the catch?

That humming, that’s for one. Whatever it was, it was like he was losing control, and he’d eat his own blade before he did that. They were almost drawn together like two magnets, and that was definitely something he’d never experienced before. He needed time to assess that before touching her with a ten-foot pole.

And then there was the growl.

It didn’t surprise him that he did it—it was an animal thing. But he was surprised that she responded.

And that it felt right.

Whatever it was, it wouldn’t matter since he was jetting tomorrow with new or without doing…something…to the amber-eyed bitch inside.

Waste of energy. Fuck it.

And with that, Riddick drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

***

“I have to order them. It’ll take a week and 500 credits.”

Riddick nodded. Kaeion had been up at dawn and cranky, but gotten dressed to go to town first thing and pick up the fuel cells and other provisions that he needed. She threw the burlap sack full of other supplies—light cells, compressed coolant gas, zenon filters—onto the floor and stretched her aching back. Kaeion didn’t believe in cars, and so walked to and from the village. Normally it wasn’t a problem, since she grew all of her food on her own compound, but it would help the times she had big things to do like this. But she didn’t trust any of the seedy-looking taxi drivers either, and so walked back home hunched over with fifty pounds of equipment.

And now she was wishing she had let Riddick ghost her.

“Hungry?”

Riddick looked at the woman who was still hunched over in pain. He wasn’t a gentleman and so felt no compulsion to help her with her heavy cargo, but he felt for her pain a little. Just a little.

“Yeah. I think I’ve still got the fish from last night.”

Riddick followed her with his eyes as she moved to the ice zone box and yelled “Open.”

Upon opening her ice zone, Kaeion’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. The box was stuffed with fruits and vegetables that has already been plucked and cleaned. All she had to do was smoke them and put them aside for the winter. Her entire harvest was done in one day by a single man.

“What the fuck did you do?!”

“You’ve been busy. I’ve been busy. I need food to travel with, right?”

She forgot. So that’s why he did it. He was going to leave her bare and penniless and allow her to starve to death.

“Oh. Right.”

Kaeion felt the tears spring up and couldn’t fight them. Just…if he had just killed her, she wouldn’t feel so…violated. All she had was her house, her land, and her life. And she had worked so hard…

Riddick could smell the salt in the air before he heard her sniffles. It occurred to him a bit belatedly that she thought he was going to leaver her to starve to death. While the thought had crossed his mind, he had no need to do that. He couldn’t take all of that food even if he wanted to—there’s no use for it in stasis. But all that useful, logical stuff was going out of the window as some inexplicable need to comfort the woman surged through his system and he found himself moving towards her, enveloping her body with his own.

“Shhhh, little girl. I’m a murderer, not a torturer.”

Kaeion didn’t know what to think when she felt strong arms wrap around her, and a deep hum, almost a purr, erupt from Riddick’s body. It was oddly…soothing.

“Kaeion.” She whispered.

She felt him lower his head until it was flush with her face, his cheek to hers, tickling her with his stubble and warm caramel skin.

“My name is Kaeion.”

“Kae…ion…” The words seemed to roll off of his lips like honey—tasting, teasing, testing for succulence. He lowered more and she could see him lick his lips and imagined those lips on hers doing forbidden things. They were almost touching…

The buzz of the alarm broke them out of their reverie, and Riddick recoiled into the shadows, his stance tense and threatening.

“Get rid of them.”

Kaeion nodded, rushing to the door, and groaned when she saw who it was.

“God Sethyr, can’t you give it a rest?”

The man at the door was her biggest pain in the ass. As the official “deputy” of the colony, Kaeion was convinced that Sethyr Grayhim was put onto the planet of Xanos III with the singular mission of making her life miserable. He was the low man on the totem pole in the planet he came from, and so sought out an outpost where he could shine with his shoddy merc capabilities.

“Sure, I’d love to give it a rest.” He leered, veering close to her frame over the doorway. “Do you have any good places that I can rest it in?”

Moving too quickly for him to follow, Kaeion retrieved her blade and held it close to Sethyr’s crotch in warning. “I certainly do, and if you come a millimeter closer, my blade will be more than happy to remove it and place it straight down your throat where it belongs.”

“Feisty, feisty. Exactly what I like in a woman.”

“Why are you here, Sethyr. I already told you, this is my land—I own it free and clear. There’s nothing you can do about it—”

“But you don’t own the land five kilometers from here. There’s a craft that’s been discovered. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, now would you?”

Kaeion’s heart dropped, but she didn’t allow it to show on her face. “No, I don’t know anything about that.”

Sethyr studied her, searching for lies and untruths. He couldn’t find any, but he’d be damned if he gave up the best reason for finally getting the little wench in bed. There weren’t many women in the settlement, and certainly none who looked like her with her darkly exotic looks and thick figure. With a woman like that on his arm, he could finally command the respect he deserved and help bring this little backwater of a planet into the limelight as a great trading post in the Nelonian quadrant. Not to mention, a wonderful roll in the hay…

“Sure ya don’t, and I’m a Xanthian feed mule. You may not want to tell me what’s going on little flower, but I’ll be back.”

Sethyr turned to leave, but then thought better of it and leaned in even closer to the young woman. “I’m going to enjoy finding out your little secret, and when I do…” A single digit came dangerously close to her collarbone, causing her hairs to stand on end “…I’ll take great pleasure in finally having the ammunition to make you mine.” His voice dropped a little lower for emphasis. “I’m sure you’ll taste really good…”

Kaeion couldn’t stop the growl that left her—but nearly fainted cold when she realized that there was another growl echoing from inside her house. She had to do something—fast.

“I’ll slit my own throat first, you unclean bastard of a Nelonian whore.” Kaeion said and slammed the door hard in his face. She whirled around, but was too late—Riddick was already at her throat with his blade pressed against the soft, fleshy artery on the left side of her neck.

“I…”

“SHUT UP!”

She said nothing and remained limp. He moved quickly and Kaeion thought that was it—goodbye Xanos, goodbye everything, but he simply moved to rip off the black goggles that he always wore. Staring back at her was a pair of cold silver eyes that spoke of pain and destruction, violence and promised death. He was fighting with himself, the vein in his head popping with sheer strain, and she knew better than to say or do anything more.

He dropped her and checked out of the windows to see if there were any more mercs. Seeing none, he moved back to the kitchen.

“It’s a trap.”

He ignored her.

“He’ll be back.”

He ignored her again.

“GODDAMMIT, WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!!”

Riddick turned to her once, venom lacing his voice.

“Right now I want you to shut—the fuck—up.”

Kaeion recoiled—angry beyond words. But she went silent and left him in the kitchen, deciding it was better for her health if she let him brood alone.

***