Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Ice watched Elle insert a device into the side of the car. She held it there, waiting, not unlike the fuel dock worker refueling a spaceship. The distinct smell of a ship’s engine room combined with the stench of the vehicle. This was not the kind of place he wanted his woman to be in.
Girlfriend. That was the pairing word to boyfriend. Elle was his girlfriend.
The thought gave him pleasure. He had thought her behavior strange at the facility when she came to watch him, pressing herself to the glass and taunting him, had been designed to torture him. How wrong he had been. It must be an Earth woman dating custom. She had been trying to pair with him.
Earth women decided fast, and without any of the formal, traditional Sintazian fighting and hunting rituals.
Though, there was that brief fight when he’d first landed.
That must have been when she’d made up her mind.
This was probably why Galaxy Brides had been so confident in their abilities to find wives on this world.
Concern over Frost and Snow kept him from suggesting that she stop driving so they could further the Earth dating custom that Galaxy Brides had explained to him of eating in a restaurant which led to kissing, which led to mating.
But such things would have to wait. As soon as he found his brothers, they’d find a way to go home.
He couldn’t wait to show Elle her new home.
The gas station was not busy. A car was parked by the wide glass doors. Another vehicle had been leaving as they’d pulled up. Elle disappeared from view and he got out of the car for a better angle. He still couldn’t see her.
Without much thought, he shut the door and walked toward the windows.
A car pulled into the lot. The woman driver stared at him, her face pursed as if he had personally offended her.
In the back seat, two small humans laughed.
One waved his hand in the air. Instead of stopping, the woman looped around the lot and kept going.
Ice continued toward the building. The doors jingled when he pushed them open. The noise caused the man behind the counter to glance up from a small box. It took Ice a moment to think of the word—television.
Two women—one with dark hair, one blonde—paused, their hands resting on a container filled with brightly colored sticks. The distinct smell of the fueling ports didn’t continue into the building. Instead, there was the hint of cooking meat.
When the man and two women continued to stare, he said, “Costume party in the desert.”
The man nodded a few times and then turned his eyes back to the television. The women laughed and glanced at each other.
“Trick or Treat,” the blonde whispered.
“I wouldn’t mind a trick if the treat looked like that,” the other answered.
They again laughed. Ice didn’t bother addressing them further.
“Elle,” he stated. “Elle.”
“Ice?” She appeared from an aisle. “I told you to wait in the car. What are you doing in here?”
“I could not see you through the glass.” He glanced around, relieved that he could perceive no threat.
“Dude,” the guy behind the counter said. He was staring at the television, shaking his head.
“I managed to get cash from the ATM,” Elle said. “Pick out something to eat and we’ll get on the road. I don’t want to stay here too long.”
He looked around. “I do not know what is food.”
She gestured to the aisles. “All of this—chips, candy, nuts.”
“Meat?”
“You want a hot dog? All right.” She led the way down the aisle and stopped at a strange contraption that rolled meat tubes up and down a flat platform.
“Some fucking crackheads robbed Junior’s Pharmacy near Denver,” the man at the counter said, though it wasn’t apparent who he talked to as he stared at the box.
Snickering as if it was the funniest thing he’d ever witnessed, he continued, “They manage to get away and the pharmacist dude is all ‘they were very polite for criminals robbing me,’ but they fucking took nothing but a few crates of baby aspirin, boxes of candy bars, but left the money in the register.”
“Anything else?” Elle asked Ice.
“Baby aspirin,” Ice stated.
“You do know that you can’t get high off it…” She eyed his face. “I don’t think.”
“What is high?”
“Never mind. Is it the scratches? Are you in pain?”
“They will heal once I am colder.”
“There are stronger medicines, though I don’t know if they’ll mess with your biology. They might be toxic. Are you sick?” Elle touched his forehead, and he jerked away in surprise.
“This does not seem like the place.” Ice tried to stop his body’s vibrations. It was difficult around her.
“The place to find baby aspirin?” She glanced around. “Hold on.”
As Elle disappeared, he went toward the counter man. “Where is this Denver where the fucking crackheads are?”
The guy looked at him and smirked. “Are you serious, man? Denver? The capital of Colorado? Everyone knows Denver.”
Colorado. That is where Elle said the men had been hunting his brothers.
“Is it far?”
“Not very,” the man said.
The idea brought Ice more hope than he had dared to feel for a while. His brothers were close.
“Got the baby aspirin.” Elle slid a bottle on the counter before unburdening her arms of the other items she carried.
The counter man laughed and began scanning the items so that his machine beeped. “Good one. Better be careful. Someone might try to jack you in the parking lot.”
“What is jack?” Ice asked, confused.
“Where did you find this one?” The counter man shook his head. He stuck the items in a bag and then lifted it.
“Spaceship,” Elle quipped. She took the bag and smiled.
The man laughed. Elle’s smile deepened. Ice frowned.
“Why would you tell him that?” Ice grabbed her arm, ready to run.
The man laughed harder. “I don’t know what he’s on, but I want some. Have fun at your desert rave.”
Elle said something, but Ice was too busy looking around to see if anyone was coming for them. She pushed at his back, moving him toward the door. He walked in front of her like a shield, keeping her from outside harm.
When they were on the sidewalk, she said, “I told him you were from space because he’d never think I was serious, and I needed to say something to lighten the mood. You looked as if you wanted to bite the man’s head off.”
“Ew.” He recoiled at the thought. “Why does everyone keep trying to get us to eat people? I do not dine on humans. Though Galaxy Brides did say that was an option. I will not eat you.”
She pressed her lips together as if suppressing laughter. “That’s too bad. Guess I’ll be making other plans for the night.”
“You wish for me to eat you?”
“Come on, lover boy, let’s go.” She strode away from him toward the car. “We need to get on the road.”
“I am a man, or a boyfriend, but not a boy,” he stated.
“Just get in the car, Ice,” she said.
He glanced around the parking lot to make sure there was no danger before obeying the command.