Hum

Chpt 5. Promise

A/N: Not sure why I keep having one-word titles, but here is a new installment for your reading pleasure. Please read and review to let me know what you think of the story so far—I appreciate all the wonderful reviewers I've had. Many thanks to Amaranthaseven, Keen, scsu01, Raging Raven, redplanetes, Jospry, aquamum, Birdy Main, and eryn for keeping me going with this little ficcy. I appreciate it tremendously!

DISCLAIMER: I own no characters save for Kaeion. That's it.

***

“I’d love some chilled water.”

“Hm.”

Riddick wasn’t anyone’s servant, but he didn’t mind being alone for the next few minutes to sort through the things in his head. The mercs would come in three days time once the shipment of fuel cells came in, and he would need to get from the town to his ship and kill the bastard Sethyr before he left.

And things with Kaeion were moving…somewhere and fast. He didn’t know anything about love or relationships, but he did know about fucking. And he knew that what they were doing had more significance than just that. Not that anything was said, but it was just…a feeling. Mating came to mind—the raw animalistic bonding that took place with species on all planets. He had found a mate. A woman who was as much of a warrior as he, and made him…feel…Hell, he didn’t know what, but she did do it for him.

And he had screamed her name.

Goddamned fucking hell…

Riddick sprang from the bed, ripping the sheets off and bounded out of the room within a blink. He really did need some space.

The dark was his home, and Riddick reveled in it as he glided through the shadows, pacing himself down the smooth steps of Kaeion’s home. It was a cute place, he decided. Not such a bad little hovel even if the rest of the planet was still a piece of shit. If he were ever to settle down…

What the fuck?! Settle down?!

“Shit.”

She was affecting him in every goddamned sense of the word.

He was in the ice zone in a flash, looking for the pale green liquid that doubled for purified water, and silently strategized about his attack.

Best to go in the morning—they won’t be expecting that. Though the night would provide better coverage…the girl could be a distraction…

Moving silently across the room, Riddick noticed the floor creak.

Unusual…

Dropping on all fours, he lightly pressed into a slender board that groaned under his weight. It dipped in in response—no support underneath. Riddick used his blade to slide between the grooves of the wood and lift it slightly, revealing what looked almost like a time capsule underneath. It wasn’t his business, but hell, none of this was. He took the capsule and opened it—it could be good for something…

Or not.

Nothing much was there—mostly personal items from Kaeion’s past. An announcement of the Delani’s adoption of a baby girl telling him the kid was twelve years his junior, a few clippings from the Omnicrom General about the threat of outside invaders that he didn’t bother to read, a Bible, and two articles from what looked to be Gratev’s crude interpretation of a newspaper announcing the arrival of the missionaries and the opening of their new church. Something rustled and he opened it, reading some sort of medical file. Just something from some cargo ship that she must’ve hitched a ride on. A few contusions, some fractured ribs, some…tearing? What the fuck?

Filing that as a “to be asked” in the back of his mind, Riddick stuffed the random articles back into the bag. None of his business. None of it was. So why did he care? Just as he shunted the last of the pile into a wooden box, an ornate wooden cross fell out across his feet.

Not a very original place for jewelry...

Riddick held up the small object that had fallen from the capsule, eying its design. It was simple—had to be worth more in sentimental value than in actual monetary terms. The wood was smooth from oil and obviously sanded by hand. A leather strap held it together and tied a singluar piece of dark obsidian in its center, making it resemble a glowing eye within the forest. A beautiful, simple necklace hung on a solid gold chain for a beautiful, simple girl with golden eyes. Riddick fingered it and the jewel in the center—it would be breathtaking against Kaeion's luminescent skin.

“God. I can’t seem to get away from you, you sick motherfucker.”

It was too bad he hadn't given it to her himself—it was perfect and understated just the way he was.

Shit, now I'm buying her jewels?

Riddick shook his head as if to clear it and began shoving things back into the capsule as he had found them. The little girl would start asking for him if he didn't get back soon. Just as he was putting everything away, the jewel popped out of its setting on the cross and rolled on the floor. He picked it up to throw it back with the remainder of the stuff, when it began to glow brightly and pulse with a low hum.

“Shit, does everything here hum?”

The jewel burned brighter until a concentrated beam of light extended upwards in the palm of his hand. Riddick sheltered his eyes, squinting against the light until it dimmed into the figure of an older man with white hair and laugh wrinkles. His piercing blue eyes were somber, but soft, and Riddick could immediately tell who he was though he had never seen him before, or would hence.

“The old man…”

An older man with piercing blue eyes and gently wavy white hair came into view. He was fifty-ish, sixtyish and seemed to be in good shape for his age. He turned in the light gently, shifting to find a comfortable spot from which he could deliver what was, quite obviously, a final message for a child he would not see reach adulthood. This wasn't his fucking business, but hell, nothing with Kaeion was so...

The light beamed and crackled before finally settling into a smooth stream of wispy particles that made the old man seem ethereal, like God himself. His voice when he began was not much higher than a whisper, but not a thousand explosions or the sound of dropping bombs could keep Riddick from hearing what was said...

“Kaeion, my dear. You are the light in my life and the most beautiful and wonderful daughter any man could ask for. Your mother and I, Maggie, have been blessed to have been chosen by God to care for you, and I hope that you will never have to receive this message, for it will mean that I have failed to be there to care for you as a father should...”

The old man's voice broke and he looked away for a moment as he regained his composure. And though such displays were beyond him, Riddick felt some...empathy...for what the old man must have been going through to know that he would have to make a message like this, to know that his days with his daughter and wife were numbered like the final hours of dwindling daylight.

It must have been...hard.

“Kaeion, when Maggie and I found you you were in a dumpster, abandoned the way we always told you. But what we didn’t tell you is that we found you with your umbilical cord wrapped tightly around your chest. You were nearly blue in the face and gasping for air as you fought when Maggie found you—you almost died before we could unwind you properly. We knew then that you were special, far more special than a simple child that had come to us to ease our loneliness.

I do not have proof, but I believe that you may be one of the last of a very special people. It was said that these people were warriors—that the males were born with their umbilical cords wrapped around their necks and the females with them wrapped around their chests. They lived far in another galaxy and were destroyed by a war-hungry race called the Necromongers. It is also said that a male from their race will defeat the great Necromonger leader and usher in a new age behind him.

This man, the chosen one could be your son, your brother, your lover, your husband. I do not know. I do not know if he will ever come to cross your path. But as long as you are alive, you will need to find this one and follow him, help him when you can and do not leave his side.

Your people…It is said that when your people mate, they mate for life. That companion souls hum in perfect harmony, a physical confirmation of their compatibility. Your body will naturally react to his and his will react to yours. You will not be able to fight it and you will become one in every sense of the word…

Whatever you do, if you find the man who you react to, who begins the humming, do not let him go. It may be more important than either of you know.

I will miss seeing you grow and helping you with his, my daughter. My only regret is that we do not have more time together because in the short time I’ve known you, you have become dearer to me than life itself. I…I love you Kaeion. And so does your mother. We will pray for God to look over you and keep you well. Be strong, young one…”

BULLSHIT! FUCKING BULLSHIT!

Riddick would have smashed the tiny jewel if it didn’t disintegrate in the palm of his hand. No fucking way. It—this—she was a setup. Every part of his body had screamed that something wasn’t right and now he knew exactly what it was. Did she know? It didn’t matter. Everything—it was all artificial and fake.

He should slit the bitch’s throat now.

“Damn it!”

That’s it. She’d get the fuel cells, he’d get the ship, and he’d be gone in three days. Fuck her and this dusty asteroid of a planet.

“I think it’s time you found out why I’m so famous, little girl…”

***

It had been nearly a half an hour and still Riddick wasn't back.

Did he get lost?

Of course not. He wants you to seek him.

This did not sit well wit Kaeion at all. The only time that natural predators wanted to be followed was when they set traps—-for their prey.

Has he grown tired of me so quickly?

A certain part of Kaeion couldn't help but be crushed. She had liked the strange man who had shown up in her kitchen a few days ago. He was funny, a great sparring partner, and the best fuck that she had had in her entire life.

But it's not just fucking, and you know it.

No, it wasn't just fucking. The time that they had spent together had definitely solidified into something. She wasn't quite sure what that was, or even how it was possible given the fact that they had known each other for all of four days, but it felt as if she had known him her entire life. They didn't need words to communicate—from the inflections of his breath and his deep, guttural grunts, Kaeion implicitly understood whatever it was that Riddick wanted. And he seemed to be able to do the same.

Whatever. Who would miss you anyway?

Her inner voice was too fucking depressing. Culling a mental image in which she took a personification of the voice and disemboweled it very slowly, Kaeion scooted out of bed and padded slowly downstairs. She passed her blade, and then thinking better, deftly picked it up and hid it in the palm of her left hand. Since she was naked, a holster wouldn't work, and she decided that it may be the only thing that bought her enough time to figure out what the hell was going on with Riddick.

If he had really wanted her dead, he would simply have come back upstairs and slit her throat. There was a reason for this change—some catalyst. She just hoped she would stay alive to find out what it was.

“Riddick?”

Dark silence was all that greeted her as she descended down the stairs, and Kaeion paused to allow her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the first floor. She knew what others would see—the gold in her eyes flickering and waving for just a moment, seeming to widen into large orbs of molten amber, before settling back to their normal state.

“Riddick? Where are you?”

She passed over the floor of the entryway and noticed that the floorboard in the center of the room no longer squeaked.

That's odd.

But not enough to stop her from moving to her destination. She knew where he'd be. Back where it all began.

The kitchen floor was cold to the touch—as if it had not been walked across only twenty minutes ago. She edged her way to the island in the center of the kitchen and waited.

“Will you tell me what's wrong first? We can do this, but give me a moment to explain...”

Then the darkness moved and caught her in a bone crushing grip that took her breath away—literally. She swirled, lowering her upper body in a smooth arc and caught Riddick squarely in the jaw with a bruising kick. Any normal man would have had a broken jaw. Any normal man.

So much for talking about things.

Kaeion gripped her shiv tighter and deflected a blow from Riddick's blade. He lunged, and she flipped backwards, jumping clean over the island to the other side of the kitchen. He pursued—slowly, flipping his blade as he contemplated his next move.

Not good.

The staccato of her heartbeat pounded mercilessly in her ears. Dammit, if he would just say whatever it is he wanted to say...

“Riddick...just say what you want to say and stop playing games!”

Riddick's face clouded over with rage and he lunged again. Kaeion ducked, but not far enough—Riddick was a fast study and twirled in midair to grab her ankle as she propelled off of the far wall of the kitchen. She kicked again, but he caught her other ankle and flipped her face down onto the ground. Her elbow connected squarely with his face, and Riddick delivered a bruising blow to her left kidney.

“AGH!”

The universe consisted of pain—torrential, crippling pain that kept her from taking a proper breath. Riddick kicked her shiv across the floor before picking her up like a sack of potatoes and slinging her across the island facing the darkness of her backyard, the darkness of the unknown.

“...Riddick...please...”

Knocking his feet between her legs, Riddick crushed Kaeion’s hips in a merciless grip, pinning her to the smooth wood in her kitchen.

“You wanna talk?”

Taut muscles and sinewy arms closed on her before she could take in a second breath, and shook her once, hard enough to make her teeth chatter. The shaking intensified the pain in her left side, and Kaeion bit back the scream that crested from her throat.

“Here's what I have to say...”

Riddick shifted, and she could feel him press against her. His length was hard and long between the globes of her ass, and Kaeion ruthlessly stamped out the low moan of desire that threatened to erupt from her her.

For his part, Riddick couldn't think—couldn't see anything more than the blinding rage that he felt against the world—against the universe that seemed to be reflected in the small woman's eyes. She...she was part of some plan, some design to entrap him, and why didn't people understand that he just could not be caught?

“You—should never—have fucked—with me.”

Riddick moved forward suddenly, brutally at the same time he wrenched Kaeion’s small form backwards. Kaeion felt searing pain in her backside and clawed at the table, sharp splinters stabbing into the underside of her delicate nails. Funny how she thought she would scream, but all that came out was a pained croak that whistled higher as Riddick pushed himself deeper into her strained and rigid body.

“UP!”

The world exploded in pain again—Riddick yanked Kaeion back by her hair and ground her legs closed as he opened his stance wider to gain the greatest amount of friction on his member. Kaeion refused to scream, and instead bit back her hurt and indignation. This wasn't his style. What was it he said?

I'm a murderer, not a torturer.

Yeah right.

Kaeion couldn't breathe—Riddick's pelvis ground her into the hard wood of the island, while his other hand had her arched at an impossible angle into his chest. Even as he pounded into her, Kaeion could feel his right hand snake down to grip his blade, his arm twitching as he got ready for the kill.

Bastard. You bastard...

This was it. He’d kill her, but not before she’d get in a good shot of her own. Willing every ounce of strength that she had left, Kaeion tore her head backwards and sank her teeth deep into Riddick’s jugular, thick rivulets of blood coating her face and mouth.

He screamed. Not in pain, but in fury. Ripping himself from her battered rectum, Riddick twirled her to bite her himself, slightly elongated canines sinking deep into the fleshy column of her neck.

The predicament would have been laughable if members of their race still existed and could explain the ancient rituals to them. They would have told them of the ways of mating—the quickening that announced their compatibility, the chase that was often a fight to establish dominance and desire, the challenge and retreat of baited passion, the claiming between physical bodies, and finally the bonding through shared blood marks. But there were no more Furyans. No one to guide the two lost warriors in their pain and confusion—or tell them that they had just sealed their eternal connection.

Kaeion twitched in Riddick’s grasp as he drew deeply on her fountain of life, relishing her decreasing struggles and diminished breathing. The overwhelming desire to see her blood whooshed through him, his mind, his loins...But just as suddenly as her blood had poured forth, it stopped.

And so did the humming.

Riddick started a bit—complete and eerie silence now enveloped the house. He could hear his heart beat, and count the wild erratic fluttering of Kaeion’s heart deep in his chest. No…he could feel his heart quickening to meet hers and hers slowing to meet his…No…he could only hear as single strong heart that sounded alien—neither hers nor his, and both of their’s at once.

What the fuck?!

Riddick began to feel warm and flushed, his skin pulling taut against his muscles as they tingled and flexed reflexively, and realized that Kaeion felt it too.

“Kaeion, what—”

Suddenly, images came to him, flooding is mind so fast that he thought he would gag from the onslaught of imagery. He saw a small brown girl in a pretty summer dress walking hand in hand with her mother down a crowded metropolitan road. He saw the same girl as a pre-teen, setting the table and joking with guests. He saw the girl walking down a dirt road home, a carful of men making lewd noises and gestures at her as she fastidiously tuned them out on her way home. He saw...he saw...

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Kaeion was silent for a long moment, not wanting to go into it—not again. Riddick was still slumped over and inside of her, neither wanting to move a muscle—not yet. She wanted everything to just stand still. She didn't want to move forward, or move backward—right now Kaeion wanted nothing more than to stay absolutely, perfectly still and not disturb anything that should be left dead and buried.

“I…I’m tired of it, Riddick. Each time I tell it, I have to relive it.”

“You haven’t told anyone.”

“Exactly.”

More silence. It was like a thick blanket that kept them warm. It would be so comfortable to just leave it, so easy to get up and leave. He didn’t want this—thing that was happening. But he had to hear it. More importantly, she needed to say it.

“Tell me.”

Kaeion’s breathing became erratic. She was crying, and his heart twisted—actually fucking twisted—for causing her pain.

“They came on a Tuesday night. Mondays we had a devotional and Wednesdays we had a mid-week mass. Tuesdays we were always home so that daddy could prepare…Anyway, they came and Dad went to the door to see what was wrong…”

She paused to gulp in air, her voice shaking lightly.

“They took him first—straight shot to the head. He had only one chance to tell us to run, and then he was gone. Mom was close enough that she got sprayed with his brains—she started screaming that I wasn’t there, and I knew that was my cue to hide. I was still only a kid—15, 16 or so. I mean, I wasn’t stupid, but I was naïve. I never told my parents about the men who would follow me from in town because they didn’t do anything, but I guess they knew anyway. They made a little space for me to hide in case anything happened. So I ran and went to that space under the floor in their bedroom, and I would have been OK, but…”

Kaeion went silent. Riddick knew what had happened. Had seen it through frightened chestnut eyes in a memory etched in pain.

“But they raped your mother. On the floor of the bedroom. And you watched right through it, biting on your hand to keep from screaming. And then…”

“…then they killed her. A hatchet to the head. That’s when I screamed…”

“...and that’s when they came for you. When they were done, you had five broken ribs, a broken pelvis, a shattered cheek, and…

“...and I was pregnant.”

There was a comforting silence for a moment. Riddick felt his heart speed as Kaeion struggled to gain control of herself, the emotions, the trauma, the loneliness, the...everything of the past few years catching up with her.

“Some of the locals—an older couple who loved my father—found me the next morning and put me on a cargo ship to the Rengar galaxy. I woke up halfway, worked to pay my debt on the ship. I slipped off on Eryx and hopped another cargo ship here. I didn’t have much—the money I had was stolen by someone along the way, but I worked to get this land and buy the seeds to plant my garden. And I’ve been here ever since.”

“And your child?”

Kaeion was silent for a long moment. He knew what she was feeling. Loss and regret beyond measure.

“Dead. At the hands of some merc. I was in a coma for two months, and in and out of consciousness for another three before I was well enough to walk around. One of the mercs on the ship claimed he was my husband and got the med ward to put me in his room. Well, pregnant girls don’t sell well. That’s what he said—what I remembered he said. I was too far along to abort, but he gave it to me anyway. I bled for damned near a month—a med dog finally sniffed me out and he was put in the brig but escaped three weeks later. I never got a good look at him. To this day I don’t know what my child’s murderer looks like.”

A thin white piece of paper flashed in Riddick’s mind, a name under the partner field sparking in his mind. Ryh Tesmihrag. A Jungroian. A soon-to-be-dead Jungronian.

Kaeion couldn’t cry anymore—she had been through it in her head and cried her eyes a thousand times. Riddick turned to her and spooned her slowly, admiring the trembling being for her strength and courage. His life wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination, and he had been through places that were darker than the furthest reaches of hell. But he had always escaped the slams, the mercs, the torture. She hadn’t. She’d been tortured every day since she lost her family. Kaeion was worse off than he was because since she was a child, she had never known freedom.

Riddick...felt.

He felt as if he would drown in her sorrow and pain, and for the first time in his life he felt regret. He should not have done what he did—it wasn't his style. Riddick picked Kaeion up and looked into her eyes, red and swollen from crying. He needed to do something to...atone for his actions. She looked back at him with a mixture of fear, pain, and regret etched on her face.

“I didn't know, Riddick. I wasn't trying to fool you.”

Riddick drew a blank for a moment, and then an image of a wooden cross with a black jewel flashed in his mind.

“I made a mistake.”

She went silent and then slowly tested the waters between them.

“You used my name...earlier...”

He had indeed. It was the first time he had said her name since she had whispered it to him and he had tested it experimentally. Since he had cum screaming her name to the high heavens. He didn't want to say her name. Last female's name he said virtually cursed him when he dropped her off on Helion Prime. Names made people important, made things complicated.

“Yeah, I did.”

And now Riddick wanted nothing more than to say Kaeion's name for the rest of his days.

He made a silent pledge then. He really didn't know if a real life was in his future, if it would ever be in his future, and he knew he couldn't promise that even if he wanted to. But whatever he could do for her, Riddick swore on the fires of Hell itself, he would.

“Kaeion...I'm trouble. Too much trouble to stick around forever. But I swear—if anyone ever touches you against your will, I will personally feed them their own intestines. I promise you Kaeion...

You will never—be alone—again.”

Riddick felt Kaeion relax into his arms as he said this, as if a tremendous weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. Her response was soft, so soft that he almost strained to hear.

“Just remember...I will hold you to your promise, Richard B. Riddick.”

A deep purr was his only response. The odds were stacked against him, as they always were, but he didn't mind, because it wouldn't be a problem. Kaeion snuggled closer to him, and he shifted her in his arms and an ethereal warmth of contentment spread through his body. Yes, somehow keeping that promise didn't feel like it would be such a problem at all.

***