Deserter: Chapter Four-The Thrill Game Begins

     Walker looked around the circle of passengers and crew and noticed the big guy was gone. He disappeared a lot, and that made Walker nervous. A man that size, that quiet, and that prone to disappearance was something to worry about.

  Rick, the merc, had vanished without a trace while they’d been hiking, and everyone suspected his prisoner. There was no way the girl could have lived though, not after being tossed out the back of the Ring Cruiser during the crash.

  Walker found himself being nervous all the same though, and scanned the trees for either the big guy, who called himself Richards, or the woman prisoner.

  He felt she was out there, and it scared him.

  ~~~

  Rain crouched low just outside the range of firelight, the curved blade drawn. Walker was looking suddenly nervous and shifty, his eyes blazing a path back and forth across the other people scattered around the fire.

  She grinned and felt Riddick approach from behind, his face turned slightly away from the light.

  ‘You gonna kill him?’ he asked. He didn’t care one way or another, but he was curious.

  ‘No. . . Not yet anyways. You better make yourself scarce. They might blame anything I do on you, and since you’re such interesting conversation, I’d hate for that to happen.’ Her sarcastic tone wasn’t lost on him, but he didn’t care.

  He was going to say something else when she slid away silently, not making a sound in the brush. She crept up behind Walker, and Riddick climbed back up into the tree, watching curiously.

  She was directly behind Walker now and Riddick locked his eyes on her as she wrapped one arm around the man’s neck and pulled him back. He let out a choked yelp before he was suddenly silenced.

  Max and Clyde leapt towards the place Walker had been in but he was gone, and so was Rain.

  Riddick decided this was when he should make an appearance and leapt from the tree silently. He pulled his goggles tight over his eyes and slid into the circle.

  “What’s happening?” he called out to Max and Clyde.

  They shot him matching, frightened looks.

  “Walker!” Max squeaked. “He’s gone! It must be that merc’s prisoner!”

  Riddick new damn well what was happening, but he knew they wouldn’t suspect him of anything since he’d appeared from the other side of the fire.

  “Help us find ‘em!” Clyde called.

  Riddick shrugged and figured he’d make a show of looking for the man. They crept into the dense foliage, Max and Clyde trying to look like they knew what they were doing, but making a heap of noise.

  A sneer twisted Riddick’s lips as he slid along silently beside them. Rain was close. She wasn’t hiding herself from him now, and he felt her excitement, smelled the pheromones surging inside her. She liked the thrill.

  At that same time, Rain had Walker on his back in the bushes. She was straddling his chest, flashing the blade wickedly. She drew an imaginary line across his throat.

  “I could kill you so easily,” she whispered, leaning in close so her hot breath brushed against his ear. She lifted her face away from him and then slid close again, bringing her mouth close to his other ear. “Are you afraid of me?”

  Walker shook beneath her and nodded sharply. Her throaty laugh filled his ears as he felt the knife, the one he recognized as the merc’s, drift threateningly across his skin. He stared up at her, paralyzed. He could feel an unbridled fear searing his mind. He could hear her in his head, laughing at him, threatening him, showing him things that scared him shitless.

  Riddick had slid away from the other’s, claiming that if he split up from them, they would find Walker faster. They’d agreed readily and he’d headed in Rain’s direction.

  He watched her toy with Walker, letting the blade glide along his flesh. The man looked like he wanted to wet himself for fear of her.

  ‘I’m in his head.’ Her mental voice crept into his thoughts.

  ‘What are you doing to him?’ he asked. The man was shaking so hard the brush about him was shuddering.

  Suddenly images of all sorts of freaky looking things flooded his head. He saw endomorphs, like the ones from the crash, blood, death, heard screaming in his ears. The sound of tearing flesh ripped through his mind and he felt fear, sharp and biting, grab his chest in its hands and squeeze. Then the images stopped.

  Walker screamed, but Rain muffled it with her hand. “Shhh. . .” she breathed against him. “Do I seem helpless now?” she asked.

  “God no! No! Please, no more!” he cried, weeping like a small, frightened child.

  A disgusted look crossed Rain’s beautiful features and she pressed the blade against Walker’s cheek. “Now, keep this is mind. I could end you, right here and right now. I want you to remember this moment,” she growled into his ear. Then she slid the blade, fast and hard, along his cheek, slicing it wide open. It bit into his flesh from just below his left eye to the edge of his jaw.

  Walker yelped and screamed as she cut him, and then she was gone, bringing the knife with her.

  Her words, “I want you to remember this moment,” echoed through Riddick’s mind. He’d said that same thing to Johns when he’d ripped the shotgun from the man’s hands and held it on him, staring down at him.

  The images she’d sent him haunted his mind. He could feel a trickle of sweat racing down the center of his back as he remembered the terrible things she flooded his head with. He wondered if she’d seen all those things, all those people, heard all those screams. It was enough to make anyone break out into a cold sweat. Even a bad ass con like himself.

  Walker still lay silent on the ground, his breathing labored. Blood streamed down his face in rivulets and Riddick stalked over to him, pretending to have just found him.

  He helped the shaking man to his feet. “Walker,” he barked sharply, shaking the man.

  Walker blinked at him stupidly and lifted his hand to his face, touching the blood. He brought his fingers away from his cheek and stared at the dark crimson staining his fingers.

  “I’m bleeding,” he mumbled dazedly.

  “What happened?” Clyde called as him and Max came crashing through the brush towards them.

  “We heard Walker scream and came running,” Max panted, bending double and resting his hands on his knees.

  Riddick stepped away from Walker and let the other two men help him back to camp. Rain had dragged him out quite a ways before giving him the scare of his existence.

  Anne rushed over to them when they got close to the fire and made a fuss over Walker, cleaning his wound and dressing it.

  The bandages made his face bulky and he sat, slight shudders still racking his body. The cut had been made very deep, clear to the bone, and Riddick knew Walker would see Rain’s emerald eyes every time he looked in the mirror.

  She’d been an animal, he thought. She’d slid her face in and out, teasing the man with her closeness, intimidating him.

  He’d liked it. She’d moved with an animalistic grace, and she’d been careful with her cut. While Walker would bare an ugly scar for the rest of his life, she hadn’t hit anything that wouldn’t heal. He wouldn’t be blinded, and she hadn’t cut his mouth. But he would be scared of her forever for it.

  She was back. Riddick felt her closeness fill his senses and the scent of Walker’s blood clung to her.

  They didn’t project anything to each other, but he felt her satisfaction at the groups reaction. They were all glancing around nervously, all reluctant to step outside the light, or even turn their backs to the dark.

He felt her search his feelings, skimming over his mind. He wondered if she could read his thoughts, or if she could merely communicate images and words. She was empathic, he knew that. He could feel it. He was empathic and noticed it in others. Her ability was stronger than his though, and he realized she must use it for seeing in the dark as well. Almost like echolocation techniques. Interesting.

  He let her see that he’d liked what she’d done.  Riddick could almost feel her grin. Then she was gone, slipping out of range. He could distinguish between range and clouding now, and he knew she’d run off to hide somewhere away from the others. Away from him.

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