Page 6 of Theirs to Crave

“You have something to say about my sister?” Mariano asked. The snarl in his voice told the other man that “yes” would be a very bad answer.

My gaze slipped to the last cell. It was packed. Four people stood within, staring at us. They weren’t human.

Boston showed his teeth in an insincere smile. “No, no, man. I didn’t mean anything by it. Just a joke, right?” He laughed like he was hilarious, and my brother clenched his fists.

These aliens were short. I was five foot three, and I was pretty sure I’d be taller than the tallest of them. They were huddled together, so it was hard to make out details, but they stood upright on two legs, had two arms each, and were completely hairless. Their skin was varying shades of blues and purples, their bodies compact and graceful, like gymnasts. Oh, and they had tails. Thick, muscular tails like a gecko or a lizard. I couldn’t look away from their large, unblinking silver eyes. Slit pupils were all that broke the argent field, splitting them vertically with no whites to be seen.

“Oh, shut the fuck up, Logan.” The redhead huffed, turning her back on the man’s cage and facing us. Behind her, Logan’s face reddened and he flipped her off, but the woman with him said something that had him hissing at her instead. The Amazon continued, her southern accented voice softening. “I’m Ria. What are your names?”

“I’m Estrella,” I said into the silence that followed. My brother was glaring even harder at Logan, and I kept being distracted by the four aliens in the corner. “This is Mariano, my brother.”

Ria nodded. “That’s Shane on the other side of you, and you’ve met Logan.” She sneered his name. “In there with him is Cassandra.”

“And them?” I asked, tilting my head towards the aliens I couldn’t stop staring at. They stared back, clear intelligence shining from their bright eyes.

“We’ve been calling them the Indigo Girls, for obvious reasons,” Shane said behind me. I shivered. His voice was delicious, velvety and rich. “They don’t speak any language we can understand, but as far as we’ve been able to figure, their names are Ilya,” the shortest one bobbed their delicate Tiffany blue head and made a trilling noise, “Salat,” another head bob and a coo from the deepest purple one, “Yin,” the indigo and gray alien inclined their head with dignity, “and Therry.” The final alien, whose coloring was a mix of lilac and mauve with touches of sapphire, gave us a little wave.

I waved back, and Mariano did too, finally distracted from his death glare by the opportunity to meet aliens. I stood up, tugging down my tunic. “I’d say it was nice to meet you, but...” I waved at the room of cages.

Shane’s lips curved appreciatively, a lock of hair falling over his forehead.

Someone that dirty had no right being so attractive. Everyone was visibly grungy, sporting bruises and cuts. Some of their bruises had faded to sickly greens and yellows, I noted, with a hitch in my breath.

“Yes, hi, hello.” Mariano cut in. “Not to be a dick, but does anyone know what the hell is going on here? Any plans to get free? ‘Cause I’d love to sit and bullshit with you all—seriously, I’llbring the tequila—but I’d really rather be wearing pants. And not in a cage,” he finished between gritted teeth.

“You’ve been here the longest,” Ria said, gesturing at Shane.

He shifted, crossing his arms over his chest. “Unfortunately, we don’t know much. We only see the bugs when they bring in new people. You two were in another room before this? Got injected with some stuff, then brought here a while later?” He thrust a hand through his hair with a sigh when we nodded. “Same story for all of us. I figure it was inoculations, trackers, or both.”

I winced at the possibilities those ideas conjured up, and he dropped his chin in grim agreement.

“Are we still on Earth?” Mariano asked.

I held my breath, fearing the answer.

“I think so,” Ria answered quickly. “It doesn’t feel like we’ve moved.”

Dizzy relief washed over me, and I swayed. I reached out a hand to Mariano, catching and holding his as he did the same. “H—how long have you all been here?” I managed. My voice was a whisper, but either the others had no problems hearing me over the uneven thrum of the engines, or they knew what we’d ask next.

“I’ve been here seven days,” said Shane. “Give or take. We don’t exactly have clocks. I don’t know how long the Indigo Girls were here before that. Ria’s been here five, and Cassandra and Logan just got here yesterday.”

“That’s since we were thrown in these cages,” Ria added, her voice dry and tense. “So, add a day for the full abduction experience.”

“Fuck.” Mariano said what we were all thinking. He dropped my hand and paced, a frustrated grunt bursting from him when the cage wall brought him up short. “But they have to let us out sometimes, right? Take us somewhere to shit, at least?”

My empty stomach cramped. “Or feed us?”

“Of course, she asks about the food.” Logan muttered, his voice dripping with disgust.

Mariano whipped around to face him, but I tapped his arm and shook my head. There was nothing either of them could do except yell, and that wasn’t going to do any of us any good. If we got out of this, I’d happily cheer my brother on as he kicked the pathetic fucker’s ass. Not that anything Logan said could really hurt me. I didn’t give two shits what some random white boy thought of me. That didn’t mean I’d let it slide.

Shane flicked a glare at Logan but didn’t give him any more energy than that. “Ah, no.” His expression grew uncomfortable, and he rubbed the back of his neck. “See the two bowl-shaped things on the back wall?”

I hadn’t, and I turned, my stomach sinking as I took in the vaguely urinal-esque protrusions.

“The one on the left with the nozzle above it is where they feed us.”

Wait, what? I stared at the crusty basin. It rose a foot and a half above the floor, with a stubby L-shaped pipe about two feet above that. Its end flared into a kind of nozzle. There was a drain in the basin too small to fit a finger in. It didn’t look clean. At all.

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