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

the closet? What is this?”
    “I didn’t come out of the closet,” he said, putting his hands on his hips. “I came in through the door . . . obviously .”
    I sat up and woke my smartphone, rubbing my eyes to focus. “The hell’s wrong with you? Are you high?”
    1:09 a.m.
    In my periphery, he edged closer. Ah, he was up making his rounds. “So you checked on the demon?”
    “It’s Infernar—” Brad clamped his mouth shut.
    I peered sideways at him, my eyebrow notching up even higher.
    “Demon,” he agreed, nodding too enthusiastically. “Yep, she’s definitely a demon . . . a terrible, wretched demon.” He avoided my gaze.
    Now I started worrying. “Is this about her? She hex you?”
    “She doesn’t hex people,” he said hotly. “She’s a healer, and she’s completely innocent, and she’s actually a really caring, loyal creature, and you should go back to sleep . . . you monster.” Seeing my disbelieving look, he quickly added, “She didn’t hex me. You’re not a monster.”
    “Then snap the fuck out of it.” I seized my water cup and chucked it at him, dousing him in liquid.
    He flinched and covered his torso, breaking into a fit of shivering. Glaring at me, he resembled a dripping wet cat. Not my tough-as-nails best friend.
    Something was wrong with him.
    All down the back of my neck, the hairs were standing on end.
    I leapt to my feet, my heart thudding at the base of my throat. “Talk to me, Bradley. What’d she do to you?” I swiped a flashlight off the desk and aimed it in his eyes.
    For an instant, they flashed red . . . before he shrank back like a cornered animal.
    It could have been a trick of the light.
    “Shh, go back to sleep, Jame Asher.” He backed toward the door, gaze shifting from side to side. “I’m just going to go.”
    “Don’t you move a fucking inch,” I barked, shoving past him. The cage holding Lana came into view at the end of the corridor. “Whatever she did to you, she’s going to pay—”
    The words died in my throat.
    Inside the cell lay Brad’s naked, unconscious body, next to her discarded jumpsuit . . . shed like a snake skin.
    No Lana.
    “Shit,” I muttered.
    I felt the creature’s hot breath on the back of my neck. Before I could turn around, something heavy and blunt slammed into my head.
    Searing pain shot through my skull, then blackness.

Chapter 7
    Lana
    Asher’s body dropped to the ground with a dull thunk. I stood there for several seconds, shifting my weight.
    Now was when I killed him.
    A sick feeling curdled my stomach at the thought.
    Daggers. I needed my daggers. Forged from steel mined from the deepest of our caverns and crafted by a weapons master specifically for my grip, the knives were my weapon of choice. I scoured Asher’s room, pushing aside the scattered papers he had lying about.
    I didn’t see them anywhere.
    I did, however, find a gun. I turned the human weapon over and over in my hands, then looked uncertainly at Asher. Already, I could see him starting to stir.
    The gun felt foreign in my hand. Heavy. Dirty. Wrong .
    Do it.
    I hesitated. I didn’t even know how to use the weapon I held.
    Asher groaned.
    Do it now. Before he wakes.
    He spared my life once.
    It was the honorable thing, to reciprocate.
    Stop lying to yourself. This has nothing to do with honor and everything to do with your weak, weak heart.
    Still holding the gun, I rubbed my forehead.
    It was rare for an Infernarus to be reluctant to kill. Rare but not unheard of, and when it came to the art of death, I always choked. It made me weak. It had also saved my life.
    So many others like me had been put to the blade. I’d been spared.
    Spare the weak, kill the strong.
    I lowered myself until I straddled Asher’s back. I threaded my fingers through his hair. Everything about this was intimate. And Asher couldn’t fight back. There was no honor in that. It wouldn’t be a victory in the heat of battle, it would be a cold-blooded