CHAPTER15COC

CHAPTER 15

The dead seemed to whisper to him. Floating and swirling around and around.
All his victims coming back to let him know he was going to die. Soon to be their companion. And their chance for revenge.
His eyelids felt almost too heavy to lift. Managing a slow raising of them, he saw only darkness with some blurs of pinkish light that seemed so very far away. Something was over his eyes.
He was cold. Whether from the effects of the drugs, the temperature of the room or the trauma to his body he wasn’t sure. He suspected it was a little of all three.
He’d never done well in the cold. The Profearaben making him sluggish and achy. They’d used that advantage in Slam when they felt he was getting a little too independent for his own good. Throwing him in the “freezer” then watching over the hours as his body slowly was sapped of its strength. His mind becoming foggy and dull. Making him relatively easy to handle.
Is that where he was now? He wasn’t sure. Everything seemed like he was dreaming. Oh the pain was real enough. But he wasn’t sure how he came to be in the state.
Had he been dreaming all this time? Was Zar real? Johns’ and Caroline’s death? The escape from that Hell-hole of a planet? Jack? Maybe they were. Maybe they weren’t. The whispers were telling him it wasn’t important anymore. Reality and dreams would soon have no significance to him. THEY would be his only concern.
Oblivion soon claimed him. He just couldn’t fight it anymore.
Consciousness reclaimed him it seemed only minutes later.
Someone was talking. In a hate filled, hushed tone. But it still seemed too far away for him to hear. They were sitting on his chest. Making it hard to breathe. Something cold was being run up and down his cheek.
“Wake up Riddick.” Sharp tug of the blindfold being ripped from his face.
The voice was different than the others. It had much more force and imperative behind it. Not only promising pain, but delivering it on its promise with an accompanying sting to his face.
“That’s it pretty boy. Open those shining eyes for me.”
Slowly he managed to lift his lids. He was in some sort of cargo hold. Light blazing pink and fuzzy white over head. The gloom surrounding it a shifting, thick gray.
The owner of the voice was on his chest. Knees on either side of his rib cage. Squeezing the air from this lungs. For a second he thought it was Zar. Then his eyes focused better. He knew this woman. Miri Lopresso.
“Enemy!” shouted across his hazy thoughts. Miri at the door of the dive he been using after the debacle with Zar. Flashes of Toni’s eviscerated body colliding with his. Unable to stop his head from hitting the floor as he went down. Precious seconds wasted trying to get the dead girls body off of him and get his bearings. Miri with a big gauge, hitting it across his face. Leaving his neck exposed to the piercing needle delivering a Mickey. Grogginess and involuntary cooperation. Bit in mouth, chains on wrists and ankles, hood on head.
She was staring at him with a small, evil smile.
“Welcome back lover. Missed you so much.” With an almost caressing movement she slowly edged the tip of a knife down his right cheek. Scoring little droplets of blood from underneath his bottom eyelashes down to his jaw bone.
Instinctively his body thrashed to escape the wet, burning pain. But his muscles weren’t listening to his brain. Or maybe they were. Considering only a half-awake mind would produce the jerky, ineffectual movements his made. Not that it would’ve helped a hell of a lot. He was very competently restrained. Tight chains chafing on his wrists and ankles, making a spread eagle of his naked body. The medi-band around his throat and waist. The latter ground into his stomach by the woman’s thighs and crotch.
Miri had no problem keeping her seat.
“What’s wrong Riddick? I thought you liked knives?” she said with a deceptively sweet questioning grin. “Oh, that’s right. You only like to be on the giving end of the blade. Not the receiving. I forgot about that. So sorry.”
Even with foggy brain and hampered eyes, he could see the light of sick humor change to deranged anger as she leaned to within an inch of his face.
“Is that how you killed Johns?”
Riddick?! Johns?! She knew his real name! How the hell did a greedy slut like Miri Lopresso know about a dirty mercenary like William Johns. Other than avarice, they didn’t seem the type to have much in common. And how did she know that he knew Johns? Much less killed him. It didn’t add up. Something wasn’t getting through to his drugged mind.
Then it hit him. She was a merc herself. He’d heard, during one of his escapes, that Johns was known to hang with a kick-ass looking female merc that could be even meaner than the both of them put together.
He’d been too stupid and too horny to see it for himself. His instincts had let him down. She’d run a game on him and Zar. A game he should’ve seen a mile away. If he hadn’t been thinking with his dumb lower head instead of instinctive top one.
Baby, his ass. But it had done the job. Separating him from everything he held dear and anyone likely to give a shit if he suddenly disappeared.
No, truth be told, he’d let his instincts down. Letting them rot away under the softness of Zar’s hands and her compassion. Becoming relaxed and forgetting the one never ending truth of his life.
He was the hunted.
He not only had let the merc capture him, he’d let her hurt Zar. Ruin the life of the one person in the galaxy he couldn’t abide to be in pain. Driving them apart and alone. Forever. God, he missed her so much. Regretted losing the most valuable thing he’d ever possessed. The love of a good woman.
He couldn’t blame Zar for letting the whole ugly episode taint her faith in him. Being basically honest with himself, he knew that faith would never have changed if he hadn’t let Miri in.
Self-loathing brought the bile up into his throat. Richard B. Riddick knew he was many detestable things. But he’d never counted stupid among them.
MY, MY, THE THINGS ONE LEARNS ABOUT ONESELF WHEN ONE IS ABOUT TO DIE.
Miriam had watched the play of emotions react across the killers face. Though she had to admit at that moment he didn’t look too dangerous. Oh, the huge muscles were still there. Straining under her body. But the Dormoxis had done the job well. All he’d been capable of was some useless jerking.
She relished the evident self-disgust he was experiencing in his realization that she was a merc. And that the woman he had unable to resist screwing was the same woman who destroyed his life and the life of the woman he cared for.
His worst nightmare come true. His body and life in the hands of a merc
after all this time free. And this time there was no escaping. Vengeance was hers.
“Well? Is it? Did you cut him? I’m betting you did. It being your modus
operandi and all.”
The woman had a jones and a half for finding out about how Johns died. Maybe he could use that against her. Because she obviously wasn’t the type to make mistakes on her own. She’d planned his downfall perfectly. Playing stupid with her would just make her laugh. He’d have to make her angry to the point of doing something foolish.
His baritone made even deeper by the enforced stupor, he spit at her face, “Fuck you Miri! What are you trying to do?! Talk me to death?”
Her eyes momentarily blazed white hot with rage then just as quickly calmed down.
“Wrong Riddick. The name’s not Miri. It’s Miriam. Gonzalez. And your little tactic of making the attacker make a mistake won’t work here. I’ve studied you too well and too long to let you get the upper hand that easy. How did you think I was able to get to you so easily? Poor Zar, not doing to well these days I hear. Looked real bad the last time I checked on her. Missing her piece of meat I’m sure. Maybe I should be merciful and put her out of misery.”
Miriam watched Riddick’s go blank. A sure indication that she had gotten to him. Only someone who had studied Richard B. Riddick would know that sign.
A small laugh accompanied the knowing taunt, “She’s still important to you. Even though she dropped you like you had the plague after hearing my joyous news. Seems like she didn’t believe in your ‘rehabilitation’ as much as the both of you thought, huh? But I don’t imagine you were too surprised. You and I both know you don’t deserve to have what other people do. You’re a piece of dog shit that God forgot to scrape off his shoe.
But don’t worry love, I don’t have the time to mess with ugly cows. But if I did it would be to show you that there’s nothing you can do to me that I can’t do double to you. Or yours.
So, once again. The question is how did you kill William Johns?”
He was beginning to respect the merc. She was much harder, and smarter, than Johns. Willing to do whatever was needed to get the job done. Including fucking the mark. Killing the innocent.
Much like himself actually. The old Riddick would’ve relished getting to “know” her better. The new one just wanted her to kill him and get it over with.
He was getting tired of it all.
Fate had finally won.
He’d always suspected that he’d cheated Fate the night he’d been found in the trash bin. He’d been cheating it ever since. He’d been meant to die. Some philosopher whose name he couldn’t remember, said that you couldn’t cheat Fate for long. It always caught up with you. Usually when you allowed yourself to hope and were least expecting it.
Riddick had lived his life with that advice in mind for most of his years. Then one small woman with a heart as large as a star had made him doubt all of his beliefs. Made him think that maybe Fate could be cheated.
Fate was a bitch named Miriam Gonzalez. And it was time to give Fate her due.
Slowly he let the old Riddick smile spread on his face. The one that initially pissed people off then made them seriously think about a change of location.
“I fucked his rank ass to death! Piece of shit didn’t have a lot of balls. It didn’t take much to make him squeal and beg. Had the nerve to bleed all over my dick. Wasn’t such a Billy Bad-ass after all was he? Kinda disappointed me, ya know?”
Nostrils flaring, face red with rage, Miriam screamed as she raised the knife above her head. Preparing to sink the six inch blade in between Riddick’s eyes.
But she saw the triumph in the silvery orbs. She would be giving him exactly what he wanted. Her out of control and him out of his misery. It wasn’t going to end that easily for him. Not by a long shot.
Gathering her strength and forcing calm over her furious mind she brought the knife down to his chest. Making small slices. Just deep enough to burn and bleed.
Raising her gaze to his face she wanted to see his pain. But all she saw was the triumph coming from his eyes. Those damnable eyes!
Those. Eyes.
Riddick had barely felt what amounted to pinpricks. He’d been through much worse. And he had felt triumph as he saw her raise the knife above her head. It would all be over in seconds.
The her face had changed dramatically as she had stared at his eyes.
Becoming as triumphant as his.
“You have the most extraordinary eyes Riddick. They really make you so much scarier looking. I wonder what you looked like before you had them ‘shined’?”
Something uneasy washed over him as she waved the blade dangerously close to his eyes. She had passed some threshold. Pushed over by his lying taunt about Johns’ demise.
Miriam Gonzalez smiled down into the face of the human she hated most in the known galaxy. He’d taken her man, her highly prized self-control, her sanity. He’d been living the fine life. Fucking some wimpy bitch and playing family man with two snot noses.
While she’d been forced to go on without Johns. Backing away from the edgy merc had only been temporary, she told herself. Riddick killing him had made her decision permanent.
He deserved to pay for making her the lonely, regretful, bitter woman she’d become.
But no matter what she did to him, he wouldn’t break.
He thought himself some sort of psychotic superman.
He needed to be taught a lesson.
He needed to see the error of his ways.
“I wonder what you’d look like without them?”
He watched helplessly as the blade whipped towards his left eye. A painful death was about to be visited on him. A death well deserved he felt. He knew.
Still his mind and heart cried out for his salvation. His unmerited, never ending river of peace and joy. To save his soul, if not his life.
ZAR!!!