A pouch.
He stretches it toward me, his gaze studying my face as if he’s watching for my reaction—no, as if he’s afraid I will scream and run if he comes closer.
Watching me, he moves closer and his suit retracts.
Sam gasps.
It’s the first time she’s seeing one of them without the dark suit covering the entirety of their body.
He doesn’t take his eyes off me but his gaze is earnest, if I could call it that.
Clicking at me, he stops mid-click then speaks so I can understand.
“Sustenance,” he says.
My gaze falls back to the pouch in his hand.
The pouch wriggles and my stomach immediately turns.
Pulling it back toward himself, he raises the pouch toward his mouth and nips the side with his sharp teeth.
Whatever is inside begins wriggling even more.
I watch him as his mouth opens and, for the first time, I see his tongue.
I don’t know whether it is me that gasps or Sam.
“Fuck…me…” Sam mutters.
Indeed.
Fer’ro’s tongue sweeps across his lips before he dips it into the pouch.
It is so long and thick, I can only stare at it with wide eyes.
I’m transfixed as his tongue retreats from the pouch’s entrance with long strings of dark spaghetti in its grasp.
For the tip of it has curled around them, holding them as he pulls them into his mouth.
“Did you just see that?” Sam grips my shoulder, her eyes also wide. “Tell me that’s not his tongue.”
I gulp as I stare. I don’t fucking know what the hell that thing was but it has got to be his tongue.
What else?
Fer’ro closes his mouth, his gaze on me as he chews.
There. Are. Popping. Sounds.
Like something fluid-filled being crushed by those sharp teeth of his.
Spaghetti doesn’t pop and as he chews, a dark line of fluid appears just at the edge of his lips.
Stomach acid comes up into my throat and I force it back down.
Once more, he stretches the pouch toward me again.
“Looks like spaghetti,” Sam whispers.
She obviously hadn’t seen the pouch wriggle.
“That,” my stomach lurches again, “that isn’t spaghetti.”
As if to prove that it’s edible, Burgundy-Eyes makes a click and reaches for the pouch. He dips a sharp claw inside and takes out the black “spaghetti.”
It wriggles between his fingers and I definitely puke into my mouth as he throws his head back and drops the thing in his mouth.
“Oh…God,” Sam groans. “That’s disgusting.”
Both aliens’ ears twitch at her words and I stiffen, bracing myself if they retaliate at her offensive words.
But all Fer’ro and Burgundy Eyes do is glance at each other, their ears twitching as they look at the pouch.
He gestures to me again but I swallow hard, pulling on the little bravery that I have left, and I shake my head.
“We can’t eat that,” I say.
Well…we technically could but no matter how hungry, I don’t think I can eat alien worms.
Fer’ro looks at the pouch.
“I can find us food if you allow me to.”
My suggestion makes the large alien stiffen. I can almost see his muscles harden in his shoulders.
He knows it’s a test.
Are we prisoners here? Or are we free to go?
“I won’t run again.” I do not know why I say that. Desperation maybe.
I couldn’t run even if I wanted to. I’m too weak and the bruises I’ve suffered are very much still there.
Fer’ro studies me for a moment. “Where will you hunt?”
Hunt?
Surely, I don’t look like I’m any good at doing such a thing. Do I?
But maybe this is the first time they’re encountering our kind. Maybe we’re just as strange to them as they are to us.
I don’t know about hunting, but I can think of something.
If humans aren’t good at anything else, we’re good with adapting…coming up with ideas.
“I can find us food,” I repeat, surer this time.
“Where?” he repeats. “Where will you hunt?”
I lick my lips.
Is this a test for me now?
Jerking my chin toward the water, I swallow hard. “There. In the water.”
Fer’ro studies me for a few moments before he glances at Burgundy-Eyes.
There’s a click and a thrum between them.
He looks back at me and clicks as well. Then, as if realizing I have no idea what he just said, he speaks. “Come. Show me how.”
Sam grips my arm, her voice low and insistent. “You can’t go off with him.”
I don’t know if she realizes, but even though she just whispered those words, I’m pretty sure the aliens heard what she said.
But I force a brave smile at her.
I’m not scared.
I’m trusting my instincts here. Leaning on them.
And I…
I trust him.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend…right.
Right?
Chapter Twelve
ADIRA
My steps are shaky as I rise. I’m much weaker than I thought.
So much so that I almost stumble. But I catch myself in time.
I dart a glance at Fer’ro and he pulls his arm back.
He’d been about to touch me. To stop my fall, perhaps.
Those intent eyes of his are on me now, they never left, and I have to pull my gaze away as I face the water.
He’s not the only one watching me either.
They all are and I feel like some sort of spectacle as I walk on shaky legs toward the lake.
I stare out across it.
The surface glistens in the sunlight and you wouldn’t know what lies beneath.
The wreckage…the bodies…what’s left of the Feeders.
My lungs constrict at that thought and I glance behind me.
A chill goes through me at the many eyes directed my way.
At Fer’ro.
He’s still watching me too.
He’s so focused on me, I don’t know if he is aware of anything else around him.
This is a test.
He is testing me as much as I am testing him right now.
My so-called “hunting” skills are about to be graded. A sure indicator of my species’ strength—of what we’re capable of.
If I appear too weak…will they turn against us?
Will they judge us as unfit for…whatever they are here for?
I gulp at the thought and put one foot in front of the other and then another.
It’s silent as I walk. Eerily so.
Those of his kind along the shore stop to watch us go and the silence is unnerving.
There are no birds in the small amount of trees nearby. No signs of life anywhere.
Still, I continue on, my gaze averted as I keep my focus in front of me.
If the fate of humanity really depends on my hunting skills…
We. Are. Fucked.
I’m walking, or rather, limping for maybe a few minutes when I glance behind me and I jerk a little.
Fer’ro’s eyes bore into mine.
He’s still following me.
How can someone so big be so quiet?
I glance away quickly, suddenly aware of his gaze on my back.
Did I say I trusted him? Cautiously so?
I’m not so sure what I feel anymore.
But I’m a rational woman…right?
They haven’t hurt us yet. They could have harmed us while we all slept.
I gulp as I turn my head to the side a little and catch Fer’ro’s huge form in the corner of my eye.