8
It was two days before they came for me. The door crashed open, startling me out of the hazy dreamland I had been in and out of for hours. I felt weak. It had been too long since I’d eaten or drank anything, and I wasn’t surprised that the first thing Derrial did was force water down my throat.
“You need to do it slowly,” came a voice that I recognized as Corran’s.
“She hasn’t had anything for too long,” snapped Derrial, cursing as he continued to force me to drink water. Two days. I had no idea it had been that long. No wonder I felt so weak.
“Humans shouldn’t go without water this long,” chided Corran. “Were you trying to kill her?” he asked.
Derrial cursed again. “Would you fucking shut up and get an IV or something,” he snapped. “We’ve all been distracted with pressing shit.”
Corran’s footsteps sounded as he hurried out of the room. Derrial continued to have me sip water, a look that almost seemed concerned in his too green to be human eyes. My stomach rolled, the water too much for my empty stomach. I began to heave, and he hurriedly turned me over on my side as I threw up the water he had just given me.
Corran appeared at that moment holding an IV kit. “Do you know how to do this?” he asked Derrial.
“Get Thane,” Derrial snapped, making Corran give him a curious look before he jogged out of the room.
I threw up some more water, soaking the beautiful bed. Derrial softly stroked my hair, pulling it back from my face. “I’m so sorry, beautiful,” he whispered, so softly that I could have imagined it.
Thane appeared in the room in what seemed like only a second later. “Is she okay?” he asked in a worried voice.
“I need you to give her this IV,” Derrial said in a terse voice that left no room for arguments.
I felt Thane fiddling with my arm, and then a quick prick of pain. “It’s in there.”
There was silence for a few minutes, then I jumped when there was a crash of glass against the wall.
“She’s not to be left alone,” cursed Derrial. He then stormed out of the room. I could hear the sound of other pieces of glass breaking somewhere else in the house.
“Stupid, stupid girl,” sighed Thane, taking a seat next to me on the bed and absentmindedly stroking my arm. He looked down at me with a pained expression. “Are we really that awful that you would rather give up on life than be with us?”
In all honesty, I didn’t know the answer to that because I’d felt so many emotions these past couple of days, I was struggling to wrangle and understand them. How I so easily fell under Darrial’s spell, how much I still craved him. I was their prisoner. None of that made sense.
When I didn’t answer, he pulled out what looked like a more high-tech version of the iPhone and started to fiddle with it. I already felt more energized from the IV, yet I struggled to sit up.
“Stay there until the IV is done,” Thane barked. “You look like you’ve somehow managed to lose ten pounds in just the few days you’ve been up here.”
Before I could respond, Corran appeared. He hovered by the door as if he wasn’t sure what to do with himself. I watched him for a moment before he seemed to come to a decision. He walked over to the bed and took out a small silver device out of his pocket. When he started to move it slowly along my body, I began to struggle to get away, not sure what alien technology he’d use on me.
“Please, no.” I found my voice.
“Calm down,” said Thane, putting a little pressure on my arm to still me. “It’s just a device that makes sure all of your insides are operating normally.”
“You should probably run it over her head too to make sure she doesn’t have brain damage,” he mused to Corran.
I made a sound of displeasure, and Thane grinned at me.
Corran stepped back after he had run the device all over my body. “She appears to be fine besides being starved and still dehydrated. I’ll go get her food,” he said, practically fleeing the room as if he couldn’t stand to be in my presence for any longer. For some absurd reason, my feelings were a bit hurt at his reaction.
Thane must have seen something on my face. “Don’t mind Corran,” he said in what I considered a soft voice for him. “He’s not that great with your kind, or our kind to think of it. He’s more of an observe kind of person. It’s actually been shocking at how interested he’s seemed in you.”
For one stupid moment my mind wandered down the path of how far Corran’s preference for watching went. I quickly shut down that thought when Darrial entered the room carrying the tray of food that I was certain Corran had gone downstairs to get.
Derrial sat on the bed next to me, the mattress dipping under me, and held out what looked like a grilled cheese sandwich. With the energy that the IV gave me, the full brunt of my hunger struck, and I grabbed the grilled cheese out of his hand, practically stuffing it into my mouth.
“Hey...slow down.” Derrial dragged the tray out of my reach since I was already reaching for the other half of the sandwich. “You’re going to get sick if you eat too fast.”
I nodded, forcing myself to slow down. To my disappointment, Derrial set the tray down where I still couldn’t reach it and turned to face me. I was suddenly very aware of just how close in proximity Derrial and Thane sat next to me. I’d never had one guy in my bed let alone two aliens. I was reminded as I watched Derrial’s eyes glow just who these two were. They may be sweetly taking care of me at the moment, but I couldn’t forget that in this situation they were the predators...and I remained the prey.