A Thousand Shades Of Black

Chapter 20 – Pack Rules





The other Alphas were as different from Faille as night and day. Sitting around the large table, well, the large flat section of wall that had been tossed across a makeshift framework to serve as a table, looking at these people was like looking in a mirror, but a distorted one.



Li was seated beside him, looking as cool and remote as a statue, but he could feel her excitement as his own and he shared it.



“It’s a pity Faille had to be so stupid,” Cody commented with a groan as he ran a hand through his graying hair. Cody and his mate, Georgina, were sitting directly across from Riddick and Li and he seemed to sort of be the de facto leader of the Alphas. Cody was much like the Purifier in looks, tall, lean, blonde with blue eyes silvered and shiny.



He had a grave countenance, there was something solemn and sad about him, and he was also the oldest of the assembled Alphas. He was nearing sixty now, which meant that he had seen the destruction of Furya thirty years ago and the memory of it obviously still haunted him. His mate was the same age as he was, with a similar leanness to her, but with hair a dark blood red, streaked now with silver, her face was angular and sharp, but there was a dignity about Georgina that gave her a certain sort of beauty.



“Yes, we had hoped that he could breed a few more times before he did something that got him killed.” That was Trevor with his mate, Sylvia beside him. The two of them were like cookie cutters, both short and broad, with black hair, rounded features, and an almost plump look about them. That they were both deadly and swift in action was clear, if somewhat surprising. They had to have been mere children when the Necros came through, since they couldn’t have topped Riddick’s own age by more than a decade.



“Alphas do seem to breed true, other pairings can occasionally throw out an Alpha, but Alphas themselves always seem to breed more Alphas,” came the rueful comment from Dane, he and his mate Mia, were on the other side of Trevor. Dane was as gruff and brusque as Mia was sweetly polite and here it really was like looking in a mirror. Dane was built much like Riddick himself and even his features were somewhat similar. His own hair was black and curly and cropped close to the scalp, but other than that he could have been Riddick’s brother. Mia was so thin and delicate looking that it was hard to believe that she was Furyan, but her golden skin, and the deadly intensity of her gaze belied her fragile appearance.



“At least we got one from him,” shrugged Rhea, Ventras’s mate. Ventras himself seemed not to speak at all, a grizzled brunette with masses of scars across his face and body; he was still and silent as a stone, his slender, red headed mate doing all the talking. He had ropey muscles and a prizefighter’s build, his silvered eyes peering out from a long lowered brow and his hair was brutally short. The scars covered most of his features so it was hard to know what he must have looked like before, but he probably hadn’t been all that pretty to start with. Rhea was like a goddess beside him, tall, elegant, beautiful and voluptuous, it was an interesting contrast, but Riddick wasn’t at all tempted to laugh. It was obvious that their bonding was at least as close as his to Alia’s.



“Indeed, the baby shows all the hallmarks of a future Alpha and for that we can be grateful,” Cody nodded. His glance at Riddick was more rueful than condemning, so no offence was taken from his next comment. “I don’t suppose you could have avoided killing him?”



“He made it impossible,” Riddick grumbled and the other Alphas shot him knowing glances, filled with a sort of grim amusement.



“We’d have killed him long ago, if there hadn’t been so few of us,” Rhea admitted and Ventras nodded beside her. The others looked somewhat uncomfortable about the admission, but no one disagreed, which amused Riddick no end. He felt as though he had rid them of a persistent problem, but they were reluctant to openly thank him. After all, whatever his many faults, Faille had been one of them.



“So how is rebuilding going?” Mia asked, with her soft sweet voice and Alia launched into a description of their efforts that carried the conversation along for some time. Questions, answers and more questions kept them all talking long into the night.



Through the whole conversation, Riddick was acutely aware of just how lonely it had been to be the only Alpha around. Surrounded by his peers, by people with the same problems and the same responsibilities as he had shouldered was both a great relief and completely surreal.



They weren’t alone any more.





Toombs slung the huge rifle over his shoulder and grinned at the gathering darkness. Behind him his crew finished gathering up their gear and moved into position, ready to head out into the Furyan night. Revenge, sweet revenge, was going to be his and it would be so very good.





Vaako stared out sightlessly at the gathering darkness. He was feeling a sense of loneliness and isolation that grew as the night flowed in and the lights started to be extinguished one by one.



Behind him, inside the clan house, he could hear the murmurs of the children protesting bedtimes, the soft sounds of couples drifting to their bed chambers, all the noises of his pack, his family, as they prepared for sleep. Yet, here he was alone on the porch, no lover beside him, no child of his own, and the feeling of being an alien was strong tonight.



The Furyans accepted him, he knew that, but still he wasn’t a Furyan himself. There was no getting around that fact. He wasn’t as strong and as tough as they were, which was a novel sensation for him. He was used to being one of the strongest among the strong, to feel like a child in comparison with the Furyans that surrounded him was strange and oftimes uncomfortable.



A noise in the night made him twitch and he frowned.



“Something smells wrong.” Riddick’s voice made him startle, for such a big man he moved with a preternatural quiet that was decidedly unnerving. Vaako hadn’t even heard him come up onto the porch.



“I think the sewers may be backing up again. We keep having to clear out dens the Cougars made in the pipes,” he responded, but the way that Riddick was scanning the darkness, his nostrils flared and his eyes searching the darkness was somewhat unnerving.



“No, this is something else,” he rumbled back and Vaako stood up and headed into the Clan house. “Where are you going?” Riddick asked in surprise.



“To get some guns,” Vaako tossed back over his shoulder, he wasn’t stupid enough to question Riddick’s instincts and he wasn’t well armed enough to take on anything really dangerous. Time to get bigger weapons.





Alia woke from sleep feeling Riddick’s intense concentration. He was in hunting mode, which alerted her to a change in the night air, a subtle pressure that informed them both of danger. She slipped from the bed and pulled on her pants. Still listening intently, she grabbed her utility belt and slung it over her hips, checking by feel for her blades and gun. She ghosted from the room and noted the other members of the pack moving with equal silence through the house.



Riddick’s mind was focused intently on listening to the darkness, seeking the source of the threat they could all feel. Alia was enveloped in the pack, they moved with lethal purpose, fanning out through the house and into the grounds. Tara was herding the children down the hall and towards the safety of the basement area and Alia nodded to herself.



Furyan children, especially ones that had already survived the Necromonger attempts at exterminating them, were quiet, controlled, and far less likely to panic than the human children she had dealt with in the past.



“Alia?” Freet and Joisa had also woken, alerted by the sudden disappearance of the other Furyan women who shared their dorm room, no doubt. Being a Necromonger had brought with it an institutionalized sense of paranoia, which still served the women well.



“Grab your weapons, something is stirring in the forest to the east of us,” she answered, as Riddick fed her his impressions and feelings.





Toombs crept forward, the team behind him, a smile stretching his mouth and a feeling of grim satisfaction in his heart.



The woman who materialized before him was lethal and quick and his shot missed her as she darted back into the forest. He had a fleeting impression of feral dark eyes and blonde short cropped hair before she was gone again. Her speed was nearly as fast as Riddick’s and he swallowed hard.



“I’m here to talk to Riddick!” he shouted out. “No one else needs to get hurt!” Including himself and his team, he realized as a dozen or more of the locals faded into view, only to vanish again as quickly.



There was a long pause and then He was there and it was all Toombs could do not to pull the trigger. The only thing that stayed his hand was the bounty. It was three times as big if He was brought in alive. Riddick grinned at him and Toombs smiled back.



“Toombs,” Riddick’s voice drew his name out and put all of his contempt into every syllable.



“You are going to surrender and come quietly, Riddick,” He informed the escaped convict and Riddick laughed, just as Toombs had known he would.



“And why would I do that?” came the question he’d been waiting for and with a smile he displayed the holo to Riddick, whose smile vanished instantly.



“Funny story, Riddick, this little girl gets herself on board my ship while we are on Helion Prime, looking for you. She demands that I take her to you immediately. So, I says yes, and here we are, me, you, and that kid all trussed up and out of your reach.”



Riddick growled and the watching folk all echoed that growl in a way that made Toombs skin crawl. He kept his mind on revenge and the money though. Another nightmare from his past eased up behind Riddick and he found his face twisting into a snarl.



“Alia Sturm,” he spat out and she grinned at him.



“Alia Riddick, these days, Toombs,” she informed him and he felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. His two least favorite people were married? Part of him wanted to apologize, walk away and pretend this never happened, Riddick on his own was someone Toombs knew he would have trouble controlling on the flight back to the Zone Five Slam, but having that bitch coming up behind him the whole way trying to save her scumbag husband was something he hadn’t counted on. Not to mention the way the whole bunch of villagers, or whatever they were was staring at him, like he was dead and just didn’t know it yet.



The amount of money on the wanted bulletin called him back to reality though and he shrugged.



“The choice is yours Riddick, you for the kid,” he replied, sticking to the plan. It was always when he detoured from the plan that things went bad, this time he would stick to it and be done.





Riddick had felt his heart lift a little when Alia had corrected Toombs. They were what they were, but to hear her acknowledge it openly made him feel good. Toombs was holding the holopic of Ziza though, bound and gagged and looking mad as hell. He did not feel good about that.



“If you hurt the kid…” he left the threat unspoken mostly because what he wanted to do to Toombs just then was something that would take a long time to explain in detail. Alia’s thoughts echoed his own with a few inventive twists.



“Right now she’s fine, but its up to you if she stays that way,” Toombs warned and the cocky grin was back, the one that made Riddick want to knock his teeth out.



He did not want to go with the Mercs, he saw a future of pain, and being tied up again and he hated that, but he had promised Imam he would take care of her, the man’s last living child. Lajjun would be distraught and hysterical somewhere in terror for her child.



“Fine.” He answered and felt Alia there supporting him. He knew that no matter where the Mercs took him, she would follow and get him back. The fierceness of her agreement with that thought steadied him. The others set up growling and some of them moved forward. He waved them back.



“You come up with me and I will send the kid down,” Toombs told him and Riddick frowned.



“How do I know you will release the girl?” he asked next and Toombs grimaced.



“Because I will be very glad to see the backside of that kid, she is fucking annoying!” The answer was both sincere and heartfelt; Riddick could smell the truth on the man.



“Done.”



He grabbed his wife and kissed her hard before he stepped away from her. She simply nodded at him, her face mask-like, but her heart filled with both fear for him and anger at the Mercs. He could feel her distress in his mind and as it mirrored his own he couldn’t soothe it.



They clamped cuffs on him immediately and he submitted to it, his face still and composed, he had to look like he was still in control, especially in front of the pack. If he showed his real anger and upset, they would surge forward and tear Toombs and his people apart and then what would happen to Ziza? He knew Toombs was dumb, but not so dumb as to not make sure that someone was there who could kill the girl if things went wrong.



The white-hot anger he felt at the thought of Ziza in danger filled him and he felt his distress receded. Alia called it ‘hunting mode’, where his mind went when he had a job to do. Right now he needed to see to it that Ziza was safe and then he needed to kill off Toombs and his entire crew so that the little girl was never threatened again.



“And you have to stay alive until I can come for you,” Alia added in his thoughts. It was as clear as if she had spoken aloud and he turned his eyes on her as they gagged him. They had never exchanged such clear thoughts before and he wasn’t sure if their bond had deepened further still or if the shared fear made the connection clearer and he didn’t really care just then.



“I love you,” he thought to her and she looked at him with such a fierce possessiveness that it took his breath away.



“I love you too,” she replied and he was marched back through the forest and away from her. Watching her vanish behind him was horrible, almost as bad as watching Carolyn snatched from him. Even feeling her there in his heart and mind, wasn’t enough to make him feel better.





Alia watched them march away her mate and then turned and ran for Vaako and the other Necros.



“Alia?” Vaako’s voice was steady but questioning.



“Prep the ship, we’re going after them,” she responded and he gave her a nod and ran for the ship while she went to get what they would need to go after the Mercs.





Riddick jerked at the restraints irritably and sighed. He hated being tied up, and he especially hated being at anyone’s mercy. He was splayed against a wall, with chains holding him down, a bit in his mouth, and cuffs securing him to the bulkheads. How did he keep ending up in this position, he asked himself, feeling angry and out of sorts.



At least Toombs had kept his word, dumping Ziza into a life pod and dropping her off the ship as soon as Riddick was pinned and secured.



Ziza had cried, realizing that he had traded himself for her. She had wanted to get back to him, but hadn’t reckoned the cost of her actions. He had wanted to be mad at her, but found that he couldn’t. She had lost so much and then he had gone and she had felt as though she had lost him as well.



He had looked at her for as long as he could, she was inches taller than the last time he had seen her and her face had matured a little, giving him a glimpse of the woman she could yet become. He tried to reassure her silently, being gagged he couldn’t offer her the comfort that he would have liked to. She had cried even harder when they stuck her in the life pod and he had watched her press her face against the window to stare at him in dismay before she was blasted away from the ship and was gone once more. He knew his pack would protect her and care for her, but he ached inside for how frightened and lost she had looked.



He glared at Toombs and imagined carving him up and letting him slowly bleed out.



He watched the team of Mercs move around, prepping the ship to leave orbit and he frowned. They were grizzled mercenaries, all of them, alert, confident, wary, and with easy competent demeanors. They were a better crew than Toombs’ old one and he would have a harder time fucking with their minds.



A squat woman, with a bristled brown buzz cut and hard brown eyes walked over to him and stuck a hypo in his neck. He flinched at the sharp pain and groaned inwardly. Toombs wasn’t talking any chances with him this time.



“Goodnight, Mr. Riddick,” she snarled and he found himself fading to black.