Nothing to Lose, Chapter 6
Title: Nothing to Lose
Chapter: The Outsider, 6/?
Rating: NC-17 for language.
Fandom: Riddick
Summary: Riddick crashes the party.
She was numb. As soon as the hatch closed on her ship she leaned back against it, brought her hands up to rub her eyes, and let out a deep breath. He was here. He. Was. Here. How the hell did he find me? What does he want? How long will he stay, and was he always that HOT?
She mad her way into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. She took a sip and replayed the last few minutes in her head. She caught herself thinking of the time she spent with him before he left. The training, her trying to make dinner for the three of them (and then setting off the smoke detectors), the nights when she couldn’t sleep and he’d sit up and talk with her. Well, she’d talk to him. He would sharpen his knives and give the occasional grunt to let her know he was listening.
She thought about how safe she felt with him and how the happiest she’d ever been was simply being around him; and then she remembered how much it hurt when he just left. She knew he did it because he thought he was protecting her, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. Besides, it not like the mercs hadn’t found her anyways and tried to use her to flush him out, so his leaving was all for nothing. She once heard that the road to hell was paved with good intentions. In her case, it couldn’t have been any more true.
As all these thoughts started running through her head, she started to make her way to the shower, only it took about twenty minutes longer than it should have. She would start on her way to the bathroom only to remember something else about him, and she would completely forget what she was supposed to be doing. She eventually ended up in the engine room, and the only thing that brought her out of her reverie was stubbing her toe on one of the tools she left on the floor.
“Christ,” she bellowed as she grabbed her injured foot. “Even thinking about him is a hazard to my health!”
She finally made it to the shower; it was normally one of her more calming rituals. Mags was right, she couldn’t go to sleep unless she had one. It was her way of ‘washing the day away’ so she could go to bed clean and unburdened. Of course, she didn’t always sleep, but it helped to calm her nonetheless. It did not, however, work out for her this time.
She managed to knick herself shaving twice, got water up her nose, and shampoo in her eyes. When she was finished with her shower from hell, she made her way to the mirror above the sink. She swiped her hand across it to clear the fog away and got a good look at herself. The circles under her eyes were more pronounced, her cheeks looked hollow, and her skin had taken on a sallow hue.
And that’s when she made a resolution to herself, it didn’t matter if or how Riddick tracked her down or if he cared about her or why he suddenly wanted to see her; she knew that after he found what he was looking for, he’d just leave without a word. Again.
It nearly broke her the first time, and she didn’t think she could handle that again. So, she’d tolerate his presence, acknowledge his existence, and occasionally talk to the fucker, but that would be it. She couldn’t let herself get attached to him again. She couldn’t get used to him, or his smile, or his scent, or the way his pants hugged that perfect ass…Okay, stop it right there, if you’re even gonna hope to pull this off, you cannot think about him like that. No matter delicious he looked while he was trying to be intimidating.
She growled and stormed into her room, disgusted with her lack of focus and began to throw on her clothes haphazardly. It’s not like they wouldn’t match, she made it a point to buy all her clothes in colors that would go together. Which means, most of what she owned was black, a dark hunter green, and the occasional brown; but now, she was all in black. Black fitted t-shirt, tight fitting black pants with plenty of pockets (not too tight, she found that if they, were you could see the outline of the weapons the carried), and her black steel-toed boots. She took a quick peek in the mirror and scoffed. “Black, to match my mood.”
Once she was dressed, she strapped on every knife she could find; one in each boot, two at the small of her back, two on her hips, and at least three more concealed in her pants pockets. She should feel safe, but she didn’t. She then pulled her hair into a very tight braid and went through her mental checklist to see if she had everything she needed. Knives, check. Hair out of the way, check. Cigarettes, check (she sure as hell would need them tonight). Ass-kicking boots, check. Common sense, I’ll have to get back to you on that. She let out a sigh and looked at the clock. It was 4:00 a.m., but she knew Durjaya would be awake. She needed to talk to him and let him know she had a tail for the remainder of her time here. She knew Riddick could take care of himself, but she’d rather not be put into the awkward position of having to explain to Durjaya why Riddick had injured some of his men if push came to shove.
Once she was outside, she did a quick sweep of the area with her eyes and lit a smoke. She looked over at the ship across from hers. That wasn’t here yesterday. She started towards Durjaya’s but got closer to the ship as she did. The Morning Star, huh. She smiled as she read the name. Yep, that is definitely the ship of Big Bad. She let out a small chuckle and continued on her way.
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He saw her walk out of her ship and glanced at the clock. Where the hell is she going at this time? He watched her smile as she read the name of his ship and then headed into town. He quickly got out of the pilot’s chair where he had been watching for her and made his way off the ship. He didn’t bother to grab any of his shivs; he always kept them on him, and stepped out into the night.
He caught the smell of heavily spiced smoke and saw the glow of a cigarette as Jack walked away. Never figured her as smoker. Sure, he smelled smoke on her earlier, but he thought it must have been from one of the guys in town. He made sure to stay well away from Jack as he followed her, but close enough to use the ember of her cig as his beacon.
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She knocked on Durjaya’s door and expected one of his flunkies or floozies to answer, only to be greeted by the fearless leader himself. His coal black hair was long for a man’s and reached just down to the nape of his neck. He his bronzed skin always looked warm to the touch. He had dark brown eyes that crinkled when he laughed, a smooth wide mouth, a dimple in his chin, and a slight scar over his left eyebrow. He smiled when he saw who it was and invited her inside, only to find his smile turn into a frown as he took in her appearance.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“What, I can’t come and see my friend at this Gods-forsaken hour without something being wrong,” she asked as she made her way into his den.
He eyed her warily as she took a seat on his couch. “No, you’ve been to see me plenty of times before at stranger hours than this.”
He sat down on the chair facing her.
“So then why do you automatically assume there’s something wrong?”
“Because,” he let out a deep sigh, “your hair is braided, and you only ever braid your hair when something big is about to go down.”
She stared at him open-mouthed in disbelief. “You think just because I have my hair in a braid that means there’s something wrong? How do you know I didn’t just braid it because it wasn’t cooperating and I didn’t want to mess with it?”
He rolled his eyes and smiled at her. “It’s true. Everyone here’s noticed it. It’s like you have a sixth sense or something.”
“What do you mean everyone’s noticed it? It’s not true. Name one time when you could use my hair style as warning against danger.”
He smiled at her and then spoke as if he was indulging a petulant child. “Okay, how about the one time we were on a simple recon mission and the building collapsed on us.”
She scowled and seemed to mull that over. “Fine, name two.”
“Then there was the time that Abhay got totally trashed and decided to take on five of my best fighters, including you,” he ticked each event off a finger as he named them. “Then there was the time when we were pulling that bank job in New New Delhi when Nachiketa tripped the alarm and we had to haul ass out of there, the time we knocked over the viceroy’s house, then there was the heist in Kashmere…”
“Okay, okay, I get it. When Bhakti’s hair is braided be on your toes.”
He walked over and sat down on the couch next to her. “So Bhakti,” he placed a hand on her knee, “what’s wrong?”
She took out two smokes and lit them, handing one to Durjaya. “Look, an old friend of mine-I knew him before I came here-he’s tracked me down and will probably be playing the part of an over-protective shadow while I’m here. He doesn’t want any trouble, and honestly, I’m not sure why he’s here, but I can pretty much guarantee he’ll be following me around. I’d leave if I could, ‘cause I’m not sure how this’ll play out, but I’m still waiting on that catalyzer from Kaushal, and I can’t leave until I get it. So I just thought I’d warn you, that if you see a big mean-looking-bald-man with goggles, he’s with me. So don’t kill him,” she managed to say this all in one breath, and then looked up to see a frown marring his handsome features. “What?” she asked.
“This friend of yours, is he the reason you came here five years ago?”
She considered this a moment before answering. “Yes and no. Look, I’ll try to level with you. I met the guy seven years ago and we sorta became friends. Then one day, he had to leave and I thought I’d never see him again. Some bad shit went down and I came here. Now, out of the blue, here he is.”
He turned on the couch so he could look at her better. “You couldn’t have been more than thirteen when you met him. What would a man want with a thirteen year old, B?”
“Hey-hey-whoa-whoa-hey, it wasn’t even like that.” She turned towards him and pulled up her knees so she was sitting on them. “I was on my own and so was he and we just sort of started to look after each other. He would NEVER, EVER, try anything like that.”
He gave her a smile and patted her hand. “Of course not. I’m sorry to imply anything like that B, but I have to make sure to protect my people, and if this guy-friend or not-has you this worried, then I’m definitely concerned for them.”
She leaned back and propped her feet onto his lap. “I know you didn’t mean anything by it, and I’d probably be just as concerned if I heard about a grown man and a young girl traipsing around the galaxy together. He might have done some bad stuff in his life, but he would never hurt a kid.”
“Then he truly must be a saint to have never harmed you,” he put a hand on her calf and began to rub small circles on it with his thumb. “Because when you got here, I was ready to strangle you within the first fifteen minutes of meeting you.”
She pulled the pillow that she had been leaning on from out behind her and hit him upside the head. “Asshole, you wanted to strangle a defenseless girl and you’re questioning his motives?”
“What can I say,” he lifted a hand to smooth his hair back down from where the pillow hit him, “you bring out the worst in me B.”
“Yeah, sure. Blame poor-little-ole-me,” she threw a hand to her forehead in a dramatic fashion and nudged his ribs with her boots.
“Do you have any idea why he would hunt you down after all these years?”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “No, I really don’t, and I’m not sure I want to know either.”
She felt him looking at her so she opened her eyes and returned his stare. “He hurt you bad didn’t he B?”
She gave what she hoped was an innocent shrug. “Yeah, he did; but that’s not gonna happen again.”
“How do you know?”
“Because,” she said, “a person can’t hurt you unless you let them.” Durjaya nodded, then decided it was a good idea to change topics and brought up jobs they pulled together in the past. After a few minutes was laughing and started to relax against him. When she next looked out the window she saw the first rays of light streaming through and swung her legs off his lap. “Well, that’s my cue. I should go and see Mags or I’ll be late for breakfast.”
“You and that crazy old man, what a pair.” He followed her to the door and stopped her as she opened it. “Listen; about what Rochen said the other day, it’s not true you know.” He put his hands on her shoulders, “The old man’s not the only one who cares about you.”
She gave him a quiet, “I know,” as he pulled her into a hug. She hugged him back and took what comfort he offered. Aside from Mags, Durjaya was the only other person who came even close to understanding her.
She pulled back first and gave him a dazzling smile. “You’re not getting soft on me are ya D?”
He gave her a playful chuck on her chin. “Nah, I’m just trying to lull you into a false sense of security so that maybe one day, I can actually win a fight.”
She stepped out into the street. “So, I’ll see you at dinner?”
“Count on it. And B, thanks for the heads up on your mysterious friend. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure none of my guys think he’s a spy and takes a shot at him.”
“I’d appreciate that.” She gave him a final wave and headed to the old man’s house.
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Just who the hell is this guy, Riddick thought to himself. He followed Jack to his house and she went in when it was dark, and came out after the sun was up. Who was he to her, and why did she run to him as soon as she had the opportunity? Why did he care? Then he saw him hug her as she was walking out the door, and it infuriated him. But it shouldn’t, right? Jack didn’t mean anything to him-at least not like that. She was…hell; he didn’t know what she was at his point. Friend? Enemy? Some kid he saved so many years ago and now felt somewhat responsible for? A chronic pain in the ass? Who knows, but why did he feel like snapping the fool’s neck when he touched Jack?
His eyes tracked the woman in question and he got up to follow her. She’d been missing the last five years of his life, and he’d be damned if he lost sight of her again.
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Jack felt his eyes on her all day, and try as she might, she still didn’t know where the hell he was. She didn’t stray much from her routine; in fact, the only thing she did differently was talk with Durjaya that morning instead of her usual run. She didn’t tell Kaushal or anyone else that she had a mysterious stalker; she figured Riddick would just stick to the shadows and not try to interact with her or anyone else in there. Boy was she proved wrong at the end of the day.
Everything was going fine, until Kaushal reminded her that today was the first day of Holi. Which meant that she would be expected to partake in the merriment and festivities at the bonfire (and she wasn’t exactly in the mood for a party). However, after dinner with Durjaya, she went back to her ship to take a shower and put on some clean clothes; and since Holi was a spring festival, she decided to break out of her black clothes and do something daring, her khaki cargos and her only white shirt. It was still a t-shirt, but it was clean and “brighter” than her other ones.
Once she got to the bonfire, which was in the center of the town, she met up with her guys, had a few drinks, and was starting to unwind and enjoy herself, when she heard a commotion on her right and got a sinking feeling in her stomach. She caught Durjaya’s eye, and together they made their way to the disturbance. It seems Riddick decided to make an appearance after all.
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When they reached him, there were five sentinels all pointing their guns at him. He saw Jack walk up with the man she was with this morning. He told the men with the guns to stand down, which they did, albeit somewhat reluctantly. He must be in charge around here.
“I didn’t realize gate crashing was punishable by death here,” he looked up at Jack and smirked. “If I’d a known it was, I would’ve worn my good pants.”
Jack bit back a smile and glanced out of the corner of her eye at Durjaya who was frowning at Riddick. “You have interrupted our festivities; please tell me, what is your purpose here?”
“Me,” he shrugged, “I heard there was a party, and I never could resist.” He noticed that the man Jack was with kept his eyes on him, but would periodically glance at her. He didn’t like that, so he tried a different tactic. “Easy there chief, tell your dogs to back off. I’m not here to cause any trouble. Besides,” with a nod at Jack, “she’ll vouch for me.”
All eyes turned towards Jack, but it was Durjaya who asked what everyone was thinking. “Well, Bhakti,” Riddick grinned like a cat who’d gotten away with eating all the cream while Jack bristled, incensed that her supposed ally let slip what ‘B’ stood for. “What do say? Is he okay to let in?”
She looked Riddick up and down and he could see that she was vibrating with barely controlled anger. She walked over, stood next to him, and answered, “Yeah, he’s cool.”
Durjaya let out a breath of relief and gave Riddick a dazzling smile. “Well any friend of Bhakti’s is a friend of mine.” He motioned for the guards to go back to their posts and approached the duo. “I am Durjaya.” He held his hand out for Riddick to shake, “and you are…”
Jack looked nervously between the two men and quickly put her hand on Riddick’s shoulder. “This is my old friend,” she wildly searched her brain for a suitable name, and then it hit her, “Dick.”
Riddick wanted to whip his head around and stare her into an explanation, but didn’t want to give either of them away. He grasped Durjaya’s outstretched hand and squeezed. “Good to meet you, chief.”
Jack could practically smell the testosterone in the air. She looked at their hands and could see the veins sticking out of them from the pressure they were exerting on each other. Great, just what I need. A pissing contest. She realized she needed to end this so they could both save face when she heard the music start. “Durjaya, didn’t you promise me a dance?”
Durjaya looked over at her pleading eyes and when he realized what she was doing a smile lit up his face. “Yes, I did, Bhakti,” and pulled his hand from Riddick’s crushing grip. He held his arm out for Jack to take. “Shall we?”
She gave him a look of pure gratitude, “I’ll be right there, I just want to make sure Dick here understands about the festival.”
“Alright, but don’t be too long,” and with a final nod at Riddick, walked back to the party.
Riddick turned his body so that his face was inches away from hers and she could feel the full force of his anger. “Dick?” he growled.
She didn’t back down and inch, and damned if she didn’t smile back at him, “Well, A) I know ‘Dick’ is a nickname for ‘Richard’-though I’m not quite sure how that worked out-B) ‘Dick’ is also the last syllable of your last name, C) that’s what you’re acting like, and D) that’s what you get for calling me ‘Buttercup’.”
“So B stands for Bhakti, does that mean something?”
“You’ll never know will you? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have someone waiting to dance with me.”
He loved the fire he saw in her eyes when she was trying to be defiant and called out as she was walking away, “You still look more like a Buttercup to me.”
Her only response was to flip him off behind her back.
As she re-entered the pulse of the party she saw Durjaya patiently awaiting her. She walked up to him and he led her into the throng of people to begin their dance around the fire. He put his hands on he hips and pulled her close, and began to sway their hips to the music. (insert R. Kelly’s Thoia Thoing here)
“So, that’s your long lost friend?”
“Yeah, that’s him. Sorry about the misunderstanding. I knew he was following me all day, but I had no idea he’d crash the party.”
He waved off her apology before speaking again. “Don’t trouble yourself, B. At least now I know what the behemoth looks like.”
She turned around so that her back was against his front and wrapped her arms around his neck behind her, his hands still gripping her hips. “Yeah, behemoth is a pretty accurate word.” She looked around nervously to see that Riddick had made his way over to Kaushal and some of her other friends and her heart leapt into her throat.
Durjaya saw what she was looking at and with his mouth by her ear whispered soothingly, “Don’t think about it. What’s the worst that could happen? Bhuvan tells him how he sprayed you with the hose the other day and you walked around town looking like you pissed your pants?”
Jack groaned and started to pull away from him to intercept her “friends” before they could tell any embarrassing stories, but Durjaya’s strong hands stopped her. “What was that you told me earlier B, they can’t hurt you unless you let them.” Which only caused her to groan again. “Hey,” he snapped to get her attention; she turned her head slightly to look at his face. “Last I checked I was the leader of this little troupe of thieves and I herby order you to relax and have fun tonight.”
She held his eyes and begrudgingly nodded. As soon as the song ended, however, she made a beeline towards Riddick.
She never did learn patience Durjaya mused at her retreating figure.
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As soon as she left to dance with “the chief”, he made his way over to one of her other friends he recognized from his two days of stalking. He learned the man’s name was Kaushal and he was a mechanic. The other men with him were Bhuvan and Nachiketa, both fighters, Bansi, a gadget and music man, Abhay, weapons master, and Manohar, a demolition man.
They all seemed friendly enough, but Riddick was sure they were more interested in finding out about Jack before her time here. He turned his head to see Jack and Durjaya dancing-or more accurately, he saw how they were dancing-and felt his inner beast awaken. The light and shadows of the fire danced over her skin as she moved, and Riddick suddenly felt a tightening in his pants. He casually turned back to group when he realized they were still talking to him.
“So,” he interrupted, “anyone wanna tell me what exactly a ‘Bhakti’ is?”
The one named Bhuvan laughed. “She didn’t tell you?” Riddick stared the man down, until he cleared his throat nervously and began to answer, “Well, a long time ago, Bhakti was…”
“BHUVAN!” All six men jumped at her outraged cry, while Riddick just casually turned to see her marching towards them. As soon as she got there she started rattling something off in what he could only assume was Hindi, but if he had to guess what she was saying, it was something along the lines of, “If any of you even think about telling him what that means, I will personally slit you from gullet to groin.” He was pretty sure there was something in there about the groin part because at once all six of them moved their hand into a protective gesture in front of said anatomy.
When she was finished raging, all six men nodded emphatically that they understood her. “Good,” she replied. She looked over at Riddick to see his shoulders moving at his barely contained laughter. “Ugh. I need a smoke and a drink,” and walked off.
Riddick turned back to the now slightly green men. “Now, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of men so afraid of one woman before.”
The one named Abhay let out a mirthless laugh. “Let me tell you one thing, Dick. I don’t know who she was when you met her, but I know who she is now and what she can do. I’ve seen some terrible stuff in my life, wars, famine, disease, bombings, you name it, I’ve seen it; and with everything I’ve seen, I can honestly say that I fear no man.” He looked over to the direction Jack was last seen. “But there is something about that woman that terrifies the hell outta me.”
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Jack spent the next hour asking everyone not to tell her “long-lost-friend” what her name meant, which means she wasn’t enjoying herself and disobeying a direct order from the “high commander.” She smiled at the last bit. Oh shit, there goes Leela and Ekta, and they were headed strait towards Riddick! I haven’t warned them yet!
She started towards the two women when a hand grabbed her arm; she turned around to see Durjaya smiling at her and tried to shrug free. “Look, now’s really not a good time. I have to go and tell Leela and Ekta not to tell the bastard what my name means.”
“Relax, Bhakti. I made sure to let everyone know that under no circumstances were they to reveal the meaning of your name to your dangerous friend.”
“But…”
“I told you not to worry; I already spoke to them both.” He offered her his drink with his other hand and Jack grabbed it from him taking two large gulps.
“I bet they were just thrilled that you were ordering them not to reveal anything about me. You know they hate me, right?”
Durjaya reached for drink and took a long draught as his hand on her arm moved down to grasp hers. “Yeah, I know they’re not that fond of you.”
Jack let out a snort. “They see you as competition,” he continued. “Every man here would like nothing more than to be with you, but they know if they even so much as dared to touch you, you’d break off their hand and feed it to the dogs.”
“What can I say,” she replied with a laugh, “pure animal magnetism.” She looked over to see the two women all but throwing themselves at Riddick and felt bile begin to rise in her throat. If she was honest with herself, she’d admit that she was feeling jealous and territorial, but Jack was a graduate from the ostrich school of thinking: if you can’t see it or hear it, it didn’t happen.
She turned towards Durjaya as she remembered the promise she made to herself earlier that day. “I believe you ordered me to have some fun.”
He looked down at her and was relieved to see her smiling at him. “I normally don’t take orders so well, but in this case, I’ll make an exception. Care to join me in a dance and show these other poor schlubs what they’re missing?”
He downed the rest of his drink, threw the now empty cup on the ground and slung an arm around her shoulders. “I’d love to.”
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Jack spent the rest of the night dancing with Durjaya and thoroughly enjoying herself. As the party came to a close, she wondered why she hadn’t seen any more of Riddick. Not my problem, she thought to herself. She made her final goodbyes to everyone and gave Durjaya one last hug before she went back to her ship. She was exhausted; it had been four days since she’d gotten any sleep.
One she got back to the Ishtar she set alarms on her ship, took a quick shower to wash the sweat and dirt off her and promptly collapsed on her bed and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
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Riddick watched her dance the rest of the night with “the chief” as he now called him, and felt his beast trying to claw its way out. He didn’t dwell too much on it. Little did he know that he and Jack haled from the same alma mater. The two women who had been throwing themselves at him held no interest to him, but they couldn’t take a hint to save their lives.
Three minutes into their incessant chattering he abruptly left them without a word and returned to the shadows that had been his friends for most of his life-the better to watch Jack.
After the party had ended, he followed Jack back to her ship to make sure she got there unmolested. Once he was sure she was safe inside, he returned to The morning Star. He and Jack had a lot of things to talk about, but he wanted to make sure he was properly rested and was at full strength. Something told him he would need it.
Holi-annual Hindu spring festival. It takes place over two days in the later part of February or early March. It is also known as the festival of colors. On the first day, a bonfire is lit at night. On the second day, people go around throwing colored powder and water at each other. A special drink, thandai, is prepeared sometimes containing hemp. People invite each other to their houses for feasts and celebrations later in the evening. For full details about Holi, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi
Chapter 7
Chapter: The Outsider, 6/?
Rating: NC-17 for language.
Fandom: Riddick
Summary: Riddick crashes the party.
She was numb. As soon as the hatch closed on her ship she leaned back against it, brought her hands up to rub her eyes, and let out a deep breath. He was here. He. Was. Here. How the hell did he find me? What does he want? How long will he stay, and was he always that HOT?
She mad her way into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. She took a sip and replayed the last few minutes in her head. She caught herself thinking of the time she spent with him before he left. The training, her trying to make dinner for the three of them (and then setting off the smoke detectors), the nights when she couldn’t sleep and he’d sit up and talk with her. Well, she’d talk to him. He would sharpen his knives and give the occasional grunt to let her know he was listening.
She thought about how safe she felt with him and how the happiest she’d ever been was simply being around him; and then she remembered how much it hurt when he just left. She knew he did it because he thought he was protecting her, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. Besides, it not like the mercs hadn’t found her anyways and tried to use her to flush him out, so his leaving was all for nothing. She once heard that the road to hell was paved with good intentions. In her case, it couldn’t have been any more true.
As all these thoughts started running through her head, she started to make her way to the shower, only it took about twenty minutes longer than it should have. She would start on her way to the bathroom only to remember something else about him, and she would completely forget what she was supposed to be doing. She eventually ended up in the engine room, and the only thing that brought her out of her reverie was stubbing her toe on one of the tools she left on the floor.
“Christ,” she bellowed as she grabbed her injured foot. “Even thinking about him is a hazard to my health!”
She finally made it to the shower; it was normally one of her more calming rituals. Mags was right, she couldn’t go to sleep unless she had one. It was her way of ‘washing the day away’ so she could go to bed clean and unburdened. Of course, she didn’t always sleep, but it helped to calm her nonetheless. It did not, however, work out for her this time.
She managed to knick herself shaving twice, got water up her nose, and shampoo in her eyes. When she was finished with her shower from hell, she made her way to the mirror above the sink. She swiped her hand across it to clear the fog away and got a good look at herself. The circles under her eyes were more pronounced, her cheeks looked hollow, and her skin had taken on a sallow hue.
And that’s when she made a resolution to herself, it didn’t matter if or how Riddick tracked her down or if he cared about her or why he suddenly wanted to see her; she knew that after he found what he was looking for, he’d just leave without a word. Again.
It nearly broke her the first time, and she didn’t think she could handle that again. So, she’d tolerate his presence, acknowledge his existence, and occasionally talk to the fucker, but that would be it. She couldn’t let herself get attached to him again. She couldn’t get used to him, or his smile, or his scent, or the way his pants hugged that perfect ass…Okay, stop it right there, if you’re even gonna hope to pull this off, you cannot think about him like that. No matter delicious he looked while he was trying to be intimidating.
She growled and stormed into her room, disgusted with her lack of focus and began to throw on her clothes haphazardly. It’s not like they wouldn’t match, she made it a point to buy all her clothes in colors that would go together. Which means, most of what she owned was black, a dark hunter green, and the occasional brown; but now, she was all in black. Black fitted t-shirt, tight fitting black pants with plenty of pockets (not too tight, she found that if they, were you could see the outline of the weapons the carried), and her black steel-toed boots. She took a quick peek in the mirror and scoffed. “Black, to match my mood.”
Once she was dressed, she strapped on every knife she could find; one in each boot, two at the small of her back, two on her hips, and at least three more concealed in her pants pockets. She should feel safe, but she didn’t. She then pulled her hair into a very tight braid and went through her mental checklist to see if she had everything she needed. Knives, check. Hair out of the way, check. Cigarettes, check (she sure as hell would need them tonight). Ass-kicking boots, check. Common sense, I’ll have to get back to you on that. She let out a sigh and looked at the clock. It was 4:00 a.m., but she knew Durjaya would be awake. She needed to talk to him and let him know she had a tail for the remainder of her time here. She knew Riddick could take care of himself, but she’d rather not be put into the awkward position of having to explain to Durjaya why Riddick had injured some of his men if push came to shove.
Once she was outside, she did a quick sweep of the area with her eyes and lit a smoke. She looked over at the ship across from hers. That wasn’t here yesterday. She started towards Durjaya’s but got closer to the ship as she did. The Morning Star, huh. She smiled as she read the name. Yep, that is definitely the ship of Big Bad. She let out a small chuckle and continued on her way.
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He saw her walk out of her ship and glanced at the clock. Where the hell is she going at this time? He watched her smile as she read the name of his ship and then headed into town. He quickly got out of the pilot’s chair where he had been watching for her and made his way off the ship. He didn’t bother to grab any of his shivs; he always kept them on him, and stepped out into the night.
He caught the smell of heavily spiced smoke and saw the glow of a cigarette as Jack walked away. Never figured her as smoker. Sure, he smelled smoke on her earlier, but he thought it must have been from one of the guys in town. He made sure to stay well away from Jack as he followed her, but close enough to use the ember of her cig as his beacon.
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She knocked on Durjaya’s door and expected one of his flunkies or floozies to answer, only to be greeted by the fearless leader himself. His coal black hair was long for a man’s and reached just down to the nape of his neck. He his bronzed skin always looked warm to the touch. He had dark brown eyes that crinkled when he laughed, a smooth wide mouth, a dimple in his chin, and a slight scar over his left eyebrow. He smiled when he saw who it was and invited her inside, only to find his smile turn into a frown as he took in her appearance.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“What, I can’t come and see my friend at this Gods-forsaken hour without something being wrong,” she asked as she made her way into his den.
He eyed her warily as she took a seat on his couch. “No, you’ve been to see me plenty of times before at stranger hours than this.”
He sat down on the chair facing her.
“So then why do you automatically assume there’s something wrong?”
“Because,” he let out a deep sigh, “your hair is braided, and you only ever braid your hair when something big is about to go down.”
She stared at him open-mouthed in disbelief. “You think just because I have my hair in a braid that means there’s something wrong? How do you know I didn’t just braid it because it wasn’t cooperating and I didn’t want to mess with it?”
He rolled his eyes and smiled at her. “It’s true. Everyone here’s noticed it. It’s like you have a sixth sense or something.”
“What do you mean everyone’s noticed it? It’s not true. Name one time when you could use my hair style as warning against danger.”
He smiled at her and then spoke as if he was indulging a petulant child. “Okay, how about the one time we were on a simple recon mission and the building collapsed on us.”
She scowled and seemed to mull that over. “Fine, name two.”
“Then there was the time that Abhay got totally trashed and decided to take on five of my best fighters, including you,” he ticked each event off a finger as he named them. “Then there was the time when we were pulling that bank job in New New Delhi when Nachiketa tripped the alarm and we had to haul ass out of there, the time we knocked over the viceroy’s house, then there was the heist in Kashmere…”
“Okay, okay, I get it. When Bhakti’s hair is braided be on your toes.”
He walked over and sat down on the couch next to her. “So Bhakti,” he placed a hand on her knee, “what’s wrong?”
She took out two smokes and lit them, handing one to Durjaya. “Look, an old friend of mine-I knew him before I came here-he’s tracked me down and will probably be playing the part of an over-protective shadow while I’m here. He doesn’t want any trouble, and honestly, I’m not sure why he’s here, but I can pretty much guarantee he’ll be following me around. I’d leave if I could, ‘cause I’m not sure how this’ll play out, but I’m still waiting on that catalyzer from Kaushal, and I can’t leave until I get it. So I just thought I’d warn you, that if you see a big mean-looking-bald-man with goggles, he’s with me. So don’t kill him,” she managed to say this all in one breath, and then looked up to see a frown marring his handsome features. “What?” she asked.
“This friend of yours, is he the reason you came here five years ago?”
She considered this a moment before answering. “Yes and no. Look, I’ll try to level with you. I met the guy seven years ago and we sorta became friends. Then one day, he had to leave and I thought I’d never see him again. Some bad shit went down and I came here. Now, out of the blue, here he is.”
He turned on the couch so he could look at her better. “You couldn’t have been more than thirteen when you met him. What would a man want with a thirteen year old, B?”
“Hey-hey-whoa-whoa-hey, it wasn’t even like that.” She turned towards him and pulled up her knees so she was sitting on them. “I was on my own and so was he and we just sort of started to look after each other. He would NEVER, EVER, try anything like that.”
He gave her a smile and patted her hand. “Of course not. I’m sorry to imply anything like that B, but I have to make sure to protect my people, and if this guy-friend or not-has you this worried, then I’m definitely concerned for them.”
She leaned back and propped her feet onto his lap. “I know you didn’t mean anything by it, and I’d probably be just as concerned if I heard about a grown man and a young girl traipsing around the galaxy together. He might have done some bad stuff in his life, but he would never hurt a kid.”
“Then he truly must be a saint to have never harmed you,” he put a hand on her calf and began to rub small circles on it with his thumb. “Because when you got here, I was ready to strangle you within the first fifteen minutes of meeting you.”
She pulled the pillow that she had been leaning on from out behind her and hit him upside the head. “Asshole, you wanted to strangle a defenseless girl and you’re questioning his motives?”
“What can I say,” he lifted a hand to smooth his hair back down from where the pillow hit him, “you bring out the worst in me B.”
“Yeah, sure. Blame poor-little-ole-me,” she threw a hand to her forehead in a dramatic fashion and nudged his ribs with her boots.
“Do you have any idea why he would hunt you down after all these years?”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “No, I really don’t, and I’m not sure I want to know either.”
She felt him looking at her so she opened her eyes and returned his stare. “He hurt you bad didn’t he B?”
She gave what she hoped was an innocent shrug. “Yeah, he did; but that’s not gonna happen again.”
“How do you know?”
“Because,” she said, “a person can’t hurt you unless you let them.” Durjaya nodded, then decided it was a good idea to change topics and brought up jobs they pulled together in the past. After a few minutes was laughing and started to relax against him. When she next looked out the window she saw the first rays of light streaming through and swung her legs off his lap. “Well, that’s my cue. I should go and see Mags or I’ll be late for breakfast.”
“You and that crazy old man, what a pair.” He followed her to the door and stopped her as she opened it. “Listen; about what Rochen said the other day, it’s not true you know.” He put his hands on her shoulders, “The old man’s not the only one who cares about you.”
She gave him a quiet, “I know,” as he pulled her into a hug. She hugged him back and took what comfort he offered. Aside from Mags, Durjaya was the only other person who came even close to understanding her.
She pulled back first and gave him a dazzling smile. “You’re not getting soft on me are ya D?”
He gave her a playful chuck on her chin. “Nah, I’m just trying to lull you into a false sense of security so that maybe one day, I can actually win a fight.”
She stepped out into the street. “So, I’ll see you at dinner?”
“Count on it. And B, thanks for the heads up on your mysterious friend. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure none of my guys think he’s a spy and takes a shot at him.”
“I’d appreciate that.” She gave him a final wave and headed to the old man’s house.
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Just who the hell is this guy, Riddick thought to himself. He followed Jack to his house and she went in when it was dark, and came out after the sun was up. Who was he to her, and why did she run to him as soon as she had the opportunity? Why did he care? Then he saw him hug her as she was walking out the door, and it infuriated him. But it shouldn’t, right? Jack didn’t mean anything to him-at least not like that. She was…hell; he didn’t know what she was at his point. Friend? Enemy? Some kid he saved so many years ago and now felt somewhat responsible for? A chronic pain in the ass? Who knows, but why did he feel like snapping the fool’s neck when he touched Jack?
His eyes tracked the woman in question and he got up to follow her. She’d been missing the last five years of his life, and he’d be damned if he lost sight of her again.
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Jack felt his eyes on her all day, and try as she might, she still didn’t know where the hell he was. She didn’t stray much from her routine; in fact, the only thing she did differently was talk with Durjaya that morning instead of her usual run. She didn’t tell Kaushal or anyone else that she had a mysterious stalker; she figured Riddick would just stick to the shadows and not try to interact with her or anyone else in there. Boy was she proved wrong at the end of the day.
Everything was going fine, until Kaushal reminded her that today was the first day of Holi. Which meant that she would be expected to partake in the merriment and festivities at the bonfire (and she wasn’t exactly in the mood for a party). However, after dinner with Durjaya, she went back to her ship to take a shower and put on some clean clothes; and since Holi was a spring festival, she decided to break out of her black clothes and do something daring, her khaki cargos and her only white shirt. It was still a t-shirt, but it was clean and “brighter” than her other ones.
Once she got to the bonfire, which was in the center of the town, she met up with her guys, had a few drinks, and was starting to unwind and enjoy herself, when she heard a commotion on her right and got a sinking feeling in her stomach. She caught Durjaya’s eye, and together they made their way to the disturbance. It seems Riddick decided to make an appearance after all.
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When they reached him, there were five sentinels all pointing their guns at him. He saw Jack walk up with the man she was with this morning. He told the men with the guns to stand down, which they did, albeit somewhat reluctantly. He must be in charge around here.
“I didn’t realize gate crashing was punishable by death here,” he looked up at Jack and smirked. “If I’d a known it was, I would’ve worn my good pants.”
Jack bit back a smile and glanced out of the corner of her eye at Durjaya who was frowning at Riddick. “You have interrupted our festivities; please tell me, what is your purpose here?”
“Me,” he shrugged, “I heard there was a party, and I never could resist.” He noticed that the man Jack was with kept his eyes on him, but would periodically glance at her. He didn’t like that, so he tried a different tactic. “Easy there chief, tell your dogs to back off. I’m not here to cause any trouble. Besides,” with a nod at Jack, “she’ll vouch for me.”
All eyes turned towards Jack, but it was Durjaya who asked what everyone was thinking. “Well, Bhakti,” Riddick grinned like a cat who’d gotten away with eating all the cream while Jack bristled, incensed that her supposed ally let slip what ‘B’ stood for. “What do say? Is he okay to let in?”
She looked Riddick up and down and he could see that she was vibrating with barely controlled anger. She walked over, stood next to him, and answered, “Yeah, he’s cool.”
Durjaya let out a breath of relief and gave Riddick a dazzling smile. “Well any friend of Bhakti’s is a friend of mine.” He motioned for the guards to go back to their posts and approached the duo. “I am Durjaya.” He held his hand out for Riddick to shake, “and you are…”
Jack looked nervously between the two men and quickly put her hand on Riddick’s shoulder. “This is my old friend,” she wildly searched her brain for a suitable name, and then it hit her, “Dick.”
Riddick wanted to whip his head around and stare her into an explanation, but didn’t want to give either of them away. He grasped Durjaya’s outstretched hand and squeezed. “Good to meet you, chief.”
Jack could practically smell the testosterone in the air. She looked at their hands and could see the veins sticking out of them from the pressure they were exerting on each other. Great, just what I need. A pissing contest. She realized she needed to end this so they could both save face when she heard the music start. “Durjaya, didn’t you promise me a dance?”
Durjaya looked over at her pleading eyes and when he realized what she was doing a smile lit up his face. “Yes, I did, Bhakti,” and pulled his hand from Riddick’s crushing grip. He held his arm out for Jack to take. “Shall we?”
She gave him a look of pure gratitude, “I’ll be right there, I just want to make sure Dick here understands about the festival.”
“Alright, but don’t be too long,” and with a final nod at Riddick, walked back to the party.
Riddick turned his body so that his face was inches away from hers and she could feel the full force of his anger. “Dick?” he growled.
She didn’t back down and inch, and damned if she didn’t smile back at him, “Well, A) I know ‘Dick’ is a nickname for ‘Richard’-though I’m not quite sure how that worked out-B) ‘Dick’ is also the last syllable of your last name, C) that’s what you’re acting like, and D) that’s what you get for calling me ‘Buttercup’.”
“So B stands for Bhakti, does that mean something?”
“You’ll never know will you? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have someone waiting to dance with me.”
He loved the fire he saw in her eyes when she was trying to be defiant and called out as she was walking away, “You still look more like a Buttercup to me.”
Her only response was to flip him off behind her back.
As she re-entered the pulse of the party she saw Durjaya patiently awaiting her. She walked up to him and he led her into the throng of people to begin their dance around the fire. He put his hands on he hips and pulled her close, and began to sway their hips to the music. (insert R. Kelly’s Thoia Thoing here)
“So, that’s your long lost friend?”
“Yeah, that’s him. Sorry about the misunderstanding. I knew he was following me all day, but I had no idea he’d crash the party.”
He waved off her apology before speaking again. “Don’t trouble yourself, B. At least now I know what the behemoth looks like.”
She turned around so that her back was against his front and wrapped her arms around his neck behind her, his hands still gripping her hips. “Yeah, behemoth is a pretty accurate word.” She looked around nervously to see that Riddick had made his way over to Kaushal and some of her other friends and her heart leapt into her throat.
Durjaya saw what she was looking at and with his mouth by her ear whispered soothingly, “Don’t think about it. What’s the worst that could happen? Bhuvan tells him how he sprayed you with the hose the other day and you walked around town looking like you pissed your pants?”
Jack groaned and started to pull away from him to intercept her “friends” before they could tell any embarrassing stories, but Durjaya’s strong hands stopped her. “What was that you told me earlier B, they can’t hurt you unless you let them.” Which only caused her to groan again. “Hey,” he snapped to get her attention; she turned her head slightly to look at his face. “Last I checked I was the leader of this little troupe of thieves and I herby order you to relax and have fun tonight.”
She held his eyes and begrudgingly nodded. As soon as the song ended, however, she made a beeline towards Riddick.
She never did learn patience Durjaya mused at her retreating figure.
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As soon as she left to dance with “the chief”, he made his way over to one of her other friends he recognized from his two days of stalking. He learned the man’s name was Kaushal and he was a mechanic. The other men with him were Bhuvan and Nachiketa, both fighters, Bansi, a gadget and music man, Abhay, weapons master, and Manohar, a demolition man.
They all seemed friendly enough, but Riddick was sure they were more interested in finding out about Jack before her time here. He turned his head to see Jack and Durjaya dancing-or more accurately, he saw how they were dancing-and felt his inner beast awaken. The light and shadows of the fire danced over her skin as she moved, and Riddick suddenly felt a tightening in his pants. He casually turned back to group when he realized they were still talking to him.
“So,” he interrupted, “anyone wanna tell me what exactly a ‘Bhakti’ is?”
The one named Bhuvan laughed. “She didn’t tell you?” Riddick stared the man down, until he cleared his throat nervously and began to answer, “Well, a long time ago, Bhakti was…”
“BHUVAN!” All six men jumped at her outraged cry, while Riddick just casually turned to see her marching towards them. As soon as she got there she started rattling something off in what he could only assume was Hindi, but if he had to guess what she was saying, it was something along the lines of, “If any of you even think about telling him what that means, I will personally slit you from gullet to groin.” He was pretty sure there was something in there about the groin part because at once all six of them moved their hand into a protective gesture in front of said anatomy.
When she was finished raging, all six men nodded emphatically that they understood her. “Good,” she replied. She looked over at Riddick to see his shoulders moving at his barely contained laughter. “Ugh. I need a smoke and a drink,” and walked off.
Riddick turned back to the now slightly green men. “Now, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of men so afraid of one woman before.”
The one named Abhay let out a mirthless laugh. “Let me tell you one thing, Dick. I don’t know who she was when you met her, but I know who she is now and what she can do. I’ve seen some terrible stuff in my life, wars, famine, disease, bombings, you name it, I’ve seen it; and with everything I’ve seen, I can honestly say that I fear no man.” He looked over to the direction Jack was last seen. “But there is something about that woman that terrifies the hell outta me.”
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Jack spent the next hour asking everyone not to tell her “long-lost-friend” what her name meant, which means she wasn’t enjoying herself and disobeying a direct order from the “high commander.” She smiled at the last bit. Oh shit, there goes Leela and Ekta, and they were headed strait towards Riddick! I haven’t warned them yet!
She started towards the two women when a hand grabbed her arm; she turned around to see Durjaya smiling at her and tried to shrug free. “Look, now’s really not a good time. I have to go and tell Leela and Ekta not to tell the bastard what my name means.”
“Relax, Bhakti. I made sure to let everyone know that under no circumstances were they to reveal the meaning of your name to your dangerous friend.”
“But…”
“I told you not to worry; I already spoke to them both.” He offered her his drink with his other hand and Jack grabbed it from him taking two large gulps.
“I bet they were just thrilled that you were ordering them not to reveal anything about me. You know they hate me, right?”
Durjaya reached for drink and took a long draught as his hand on her arm moved down to grasp hers. “Yeah, I know they’re not that fond of you.”
Jack let out a snort. “They see you as competition,” he continued. “Every man here would like nothing more than to be with you, but they know if they even so much as dared to touch you, you’d break off their hand and feed it to the dogs.”
“What can I say,” she replied with a laugh, “pure animal magnetism.” She looked over to see the two women all but throwing themselves at Riddick and felt bile begin to rise in her throat. If she was honest with herself, she’d admit that she was feeling jealous and territorial, but Jack was a graduate from the ostrich school of thinking: if you can’t see it or hear it, it didn’t happen.
She turned towards Durjaya as she remembered the promise she made to herself earlier that day. “I believe you ordered me to have some fun.”
He looked down at her and was relieved to see her smiling at him. “I normally don’t take orders so well, but in this case, I’ll make an exception. Care to join me in a dance and show these other poor schlubs what they’re missing?”
He downed the rest of his drink, threw the now empty cup on the ground and slung an arm around her shoulders. “I’d love to.”
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Jack spent the rest of the night dancing with Durjaya and thoroughly enjoying herself. As the party came to a close, she wondered why she hadn’t seen any more of Riddick. Not my problem, she thought to herself. She made her final goodbyes to everyone and gave Durjaya one last hug before she went back to her ship. She was exhausted; it had been four days since she’d gotten any sleep.
One she got back to the Ishtar she set alarms on her ship, took a quick shower to wash the sweat and dirt off her and promptly collapsed on her bed and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
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Riddick watched her dance the rest of the night with “the chief” as he now called him, and felt his beast trying to claw its way out. He didn’t dwell too much on it. Little did he know that he and Jack haled from the same alma mater. The two women who had been throwing themselves at him held no interest to him, but they couldn’t take a hint to save their lives.
Three minutes into their incessant chattering he abruptly left them without a word and returned to the shadows that had been his friends for most of his life-the better to watch Jack.
After the party had ended, he followed Jack back to her ship to make sure she got there unmolested. Once he was sure she was safe inside, he returned to The morning Star. He and Jack had a lot of things to talk about, but he wanted to make sure he was properly rested and was at full strength. Something told him he would need it.
Holi-annual Hindu spring festival. It takes place over two days in the later part of February or early March. It is also known as the festival of colors. On the first day, a bonfire is lit at night. On the second day, people go around throwing colored powder and water at each other. A special drink, thandai, is prepeared sometimes containing hemp. People invite each other to their houses for feasts and celebrations later in the evening. For full details about Holi, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi
Chapter 7