Refuge- Part 4
Author: mirawesting@hotmail.com
Content/Safety level for children: CAUTION
The hours ticked by slowly during the day. Occasionally, Riddick could
smell Detri outside the room or even hear her voice but she stayed away
during the days. Even during her nightly visits, he kept her at a
distance.
After only a week, she and Jack had formed a clumsy kind of friendship
fused by mutual bad habits and little else. Riddick let himself regard her
only with disinterest or distaste. Safer that way. Especially when he
planned to dump her ass as soon as possible after they escaped. He already
had one more companion than he'd ever wanted; he was not running a halfway
house for youthful criminals. He just hoped that Jack did not become too
attached to the girl.
He'd even thought about dropping her from the plan before they landed.
She'd hidden her pass key within Jack's reach so they no longer needed her
for that. But her slicing abilities might be worth the trouble of keeping
her around for awhile.
Riddick was considering all the alternatives when Adams led Detri into the
compartment next to the holding room.
_________________________
"We're on my time now, Darling, just do as I say." The carefully modulated
tones of the synth's voice were sometimes more grating than any other sound
Detri could imagine.
"Don't you have enough data yet?"
Adams did not answer her, he simply attached the two small devices to her
temples. He called them 'stimulators' but Detri had a feeling that they
had
a more technical name. Adams often talked down to his charge although he
was quick to point out to anyone who would listen that she had a genius IQ.
When he reached for the cuff, Detri stopped him, "Please..."
"Darling," he pushed her gently back in the chair, "remember how you hurt
yourself last time? I hate this too but it is necessary." She let him
shackle her feet and hands to the chair. "Now don't be scared, this will
be
over very soon."
Taking a seat across the table from her, Adams pulled the small black
control box out of his medical kit. Detri tensened.
______________________
The screams started at 0945 hours. They continued for over five hours.
During that time every single crew member or passenger - minus the two
prisoners - paused outside the door behind which the hideous screams
persisted. Not one of them entered.
Riddick recognized the voice and he recognized the emotion but he'd never
thought he'd hear them together. Detri's terror sickened him; a physical
unease that he hated within himself.
"He's killing her," Jack muttered three hours into the torture.
Riddick could not disagree.
Detri was alive when Adams carried her from the room but Riddick smelled
blood and burnt flesh. When Detri failed to show up at her usual time that
night, there was no real doubt that something was drastically wrong.
"Jack, let me out," Riddick demanded.
Jack did as she was ordered, using the pass key that Detri had left in her
care. When free he took the device from her, silently thanking Lucas for
being so dumb as to use the same pass frequency for both the door and the
cuffs. When he left, he did not say where he was going and Jack did not
ask.
The ship was small and the halls narrow, thus, it took it took a mere
fifteen minutes for him to find Detri's quarters. The door was not locked
when he entered but he changed that once inside. Her quarters were small -
a bed, a trunk and a door that led to a bathroom. The full bed took up
most
of the room and in the directly in the middle lay Detri, balled up and
shaking. Someone, most likely Adams had stripped her down to her underwear
and a too-small tee shirt but no one had bothered to cover her with the
sheet crumpled at the end of the bed. He grabbed the sheet and wrapped her
in it while taking a seat on the bed. Turning her to face him, he
supported
her head, neck and back with one arm. He cradled her face against his
shoulder and checked for visible wounds.
Burn marks the size and shape of neurotransmitters marred each of her
temples. There were slashes on both of her wrists and ankles. Handcuffs.
Not pretty but not nearly as bad as he assumed.
But she was damned near comatosed. What the hell was that about?
"Detri?" He shook her gently. Her head careened into his chest. "Come
on,
bitch. I'm risking my ass her. Wake up."
Her eyes did open then and she gazed weakly at him. "Oh....Riddick...."
And
her eyelids fluttered closed again.
He cursed and squeezed her harder than he'd intended.
"Marlo!" The breath exploded out of her in a rush and she grabbed
Riddick's
shirt in one hand. "Don't leave me."
"Who's Marlo?" He pried her fingers loose.
"What?" Her voice was raspy but one look into her eyes convinced him that
she was back. He was talking to Detri now.
"Who's Marlo?"
She wrinkled her forehead. "My brother. What the hell are you doing
here?"
Heard the show this afternoon. It was hard to miss."
"Memory regressions. Adams uses them in his research." Detri relaxed in
his arms, as sure a sign of trust as he'd ever known.
"Your brother abandoned you, too?" He remembered the story of her parents,
so much like his own.
"No, Marlo would never have done that." Without prompting, she continued,
"He died while I was in the slam."
Almost unconsciously, he shifted her body closer to his. 'Playing with
fire', his mind chanted but he ignored it. He liked her warmth and her
stillness. The women he'd been with in the past had all been about
movement, action. Probably because most of them were being paid for their
time. He could not remember the last woman who had just lain beside him
and
let the passion grow. Maybe there had never been one.
Until now.
She turned her head, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder, leaving no
doubt that this was as much her seduction as it was his. "You don't have
to
leave me, Riddick." She'd read his mind, knowing he had no intention of
taking her with him and Jack. "I can earn my keep."
"Are you going to slice every lock between here and freedom?"
"Don't be obtuse. You're not here for a slicer. Not now." She rolled
into
his embrace and he pulled their bodies together.
It was a sensation he'd never experienced before. Detri was not perfect
but
she was better than most - smarter, prettier, cleaner, stronger. He'd
never
been offered something like that. It felt very, very good.
But something was missing.
Maybe if they moved a bit faster. Riddick wanted to savor the moment but
his body would not allow that kind of patience it had been too long. He
kissed her long a hard, pleased with how she could return his strength,
stand up to his power. There was something so right about this, something
but not everything. A first kiss....
....And a last. He pushed her away. "When I fuck you it won't be as a
payment. I don't come that cheap."
Detri said nothing as he walked out of the room. He had not expected she
would. Their worlds had converged and now Riddick knew that there would be
no getting rid of this woman any time in the near future. And even when he
did, he knew she would linger in his mind for a long time after.
He returned to the holding room, to dwell on the his own bad luck
End Part 4
go back to Part 1
go back to Part 2
go back to Part 3
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