Blood and Sin (The Infernari Book 1) by Laura Thalassa, Dan Rix

his eyes.
    I narrowed mine.
    “Come kill me, little man,” I said. I was tired of cells and questions and staring and that gods-awful smell of car fumes that lingered in this place.
    He leaned forward in his seat, a lock of his hair falling into his eye. “I bet you’d like that wouldn’t you? Dying honorably while trying to kill Asher, the last great threat to your people? It’s not going to go down like that, demon.” He rose from his chair and swiveled to go. But then he paused. “Enjoy the room,” he said over his shoulder. “We’ll see tomorrow if the chill has killed you.”
    I glared at Asher’s back, fresh out of curses.
    Halfway across the room Asher added, “Oh, and you remember how I said you’d know if I was tormenting you?
    “Now you know.”
    Brad was back.
    I heard him long before I saw him, his bare feet padding against the cement floor. Not loud like Asher’s footfalls, which were sure and determined.
    These were quiet. Sneaky.
    I stiffened on the cot, where I lay with my back to him, still languishing. Infernari were hardy creatures, but we weren’t meant to be caged.
    “Lana,” Brad whispered, “you awake?”
    I didn’t answer him.
    He flipped on the light.
    Great Mother, that burned my eyes. I blinked several times, allowing my gaze to get used to it.
    Moving slowly, I flipped over to face him. Even with the blanket Asher gave me, my joints hurt from the chill.
    Brad stood on the other side of the bars, clad in nothing except a flimsy pair of boxers. I shivered on his behalf. My eyes trailed over his exposed skin.
    A very human plan was forming.
    I took my time perusing him over before my eyes found his. “Did you come to keep me company?” I asked, my voice lower, huskier this time around.
    He swallowed. Brad was looking at me that way again. Like he wanted to be my lover.
    How very foreign these natives’ customs were when it came to mates. How very dissimilar they were to ours.
    “Why are you here?” I asked. “Did Asher send you to kill me?” The coward.
    Brad rubbed his palms against his eyes and nodded, then shook his head. “No—no. I just . . . I don’t know. Fuck.”
    He began to leave.
    “Wait.”
    He paused.
    I sat up and wrapped the blanket around me. “Don’t go.”
    He swallowed.
    I leaned my head back against the wall, eyeing Brad. I let my gaze drift over him once more. “Not all humans look like you,” I said. “You look like a warrior.”
    Male egos seem to be the same both in my world and in this one because Brad rubbed the back of his neck and said with false modesty, “Yeah, well, it used to be my job to stay in shape . . .” He flexed as he spoke.
    “I’ve always wanted to touch a human male,” I mused. “I’ve wondered just how similar our two species really are . . .” I let my gaze drift where it may.
    Too overdone.
    I knew it immediately when Brad’s hands came up.
    “Whoa,” he said while I stifled a flinch at the sight of his raised palms. “Look, you’re really pretty, and I’m sure you’re a nice girl and all, and it’s nothing personal, but you hit the sack with an Infernarus chick once and the next thing you know, she wants to be mates, wants you to move worlds when it was just supposed to be a good lay, and when you politely decline, she sics her hundred brothers on you—”
    Halfway through his words I began to frown, and when he kept speaking, my annoyance only deepened.
    “—and then people die, and the whole thing’s messy—”
    I stood, which seemed to cut off his words, and I let the blanket fall from me. Ignoring the cold, I paced to the bars. “I’m going to die, then Asher’s going to die and you’re going to die,” I said. “We’re all going to die, and until then we’re just killing time.”
    I let him consider that.
    “So you can come in here and keep me warm for a few hours, or you can enjoy your cold, lonely bed. Alone.”
    “Jesus, woman,” he said, backing away.
    I’d overdone it