Faith in the Darkness

"You don't look like much. How did you get him in chains?"



Faith looked at the guard with one of her eyebrows raised. Definitely not the brightest crayon in the box.



"There are easier ways of getting a man where you want him, and not all of them involve chains. Although that's fun too," she said, almost as an afterthought. Riddick had told her to be distracting. She was rewarded with lascivious grins from the three guards.



They'd moved his restraints from behind his back to above his head and removed the bit, ankle chains and blindfold. He was being lowered slowly into a pit by a rope and the guards' attention was fully on Faith.



"About the bounty," she said. "I prefer hard currency."



The guards exchanged looks between themselves. The leader, the one with the heavy accent, stepped toward her.



"It will take some time to get final approval on the amount. A day, at least. You can stay here with us while you wait. We have other guests, waiting on their payment, as well, but there is plenty of room for one more."



She looked at him skeptically.



"Today. No longer or I take him and go somewhere else."



"You won't get as good a price anywhere else," the guard argued.



"Today. You'll have it for me today, within the hour, or we're gone." She said it loudly, hoping Riddick would hear her and know how much time he had to get Jack out. There was a thud from below and the rope went slack. Riddick was loose. She glanced at the pit, then the guard.



He nodded. "One hour."



~*~



Riddick knew there was someone behind him, knew it was her, but he didn't turn around. He waited until he felt her breath on his ear. Her voice was soft, almost a whisper.



"Where the hell can I get eyes like that?"



Riddick grinned. Jack.



"You gotta kill a few people," he said, as if following a script.



"Did that," she said. "Did a lot of that."



Riddick turned around to face her, lifting his goggles away from his eyes. She was beautiful. He'd known she would be. Her hair hung around her shoulders in dark curls, her eyes wide and clear. The belligerent tilt of her chin was the same as always.



She was no longer the skinny little kid he remembered. Very grown up curves filled out her clothing. She still dresses like a boy, though. Her shirt was gray, with long sleeves. Her pants were just a smaller version of his own, pockets down the sides of her legs and boots that laced up to her calves. She was watching him, carefully.



"Ready to get out of here?" he asked.



"Nobody gets out of here," she told him.



Riddick smirked. "Watch me."



~*~



Faith knew it was coming long before the guard made his move. The tension in the small room had been steadily increasing while the leader spoke quietly into a handheld comm unit. Presumably he was speaking to his superiors, getting final authorization to pay the bounty on Riddick, but she didn't think that was the case. More likely, they were planning on overpowering her, raping her and keeping the bounty themselves.



She had other ideas.



~*~



Riddick was looking at the rope, calculating how long he had left before Faith's hour was up. Wasn't long, maybe fifteen minutes. It would take him less than a minute to climb up, but if they noticed him before he reached the top, he'd be an easy target.



The sound of gunfire jolted him out of his thoughts and he looked up at the guard tower. The sounds of a fight drifted down to him and the other convicts began appearing from whatever dark holes they'd been sitting in. Taking two running steps, Riddick jumped and caught the rope in one hand. He pulled himself up, toward the guard tower and Faith.



~*~



They were cowards, but they were well armed. Faith rolled behind a table and felt the vibrations of a bullet hitting the other side of the metal surface. Two men had appeared from the hallway, the other guests, she assumed, but she had no way of knowing whose side they'd be on. She'd caught only the barest glimpse of them before she'd had to duck out of sight. She'd gotten a good swing in, bloodied the leader's nose before the other two had pulled their guns. The sound of a neck cracking had her peeking over the top of the table.



There was Riddick, his thick arm wrapped around the head guard's throat, his eyes shining in the semi-darkness. The other two men were finishing off the guards and Faith slowly rose to her feet, watching their silhouettes. Something about they way they moved was off. They weren't human.



"Riddick," she said, warningly and he stood, turning to face them. His nose wrinkled as if he smelled something bad.



"Vampires," he growled.



The two shadows were moving toward them and Faith hopped over the table, moving to stand beside Riddick, her entire body tense. The voice that came out of the darkness shook her to the core.



"How did I know we'd find you in a Slam, Faith?"



The shadow behind him flicked a lighter, casting a soft glow and she stared.



"But in the company of Richard Riddick, now that's a bit of a shock."



~*~