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

she’ll fucking bewitch you.”
    “Oh, this is just giving me warm fuzzies.”
    I straightened up. “Did you forget what these animals are? Two years is a long time to be out of the business.”
    “No, actually, I was hoping for a lifetime, you douchebag—”
    A chittering sound cut him off.
    We shared an uh-oh look, and then our gazes swiveled as one to the air vent, where it had come from.
    “Knife,” I said, holding out my hand. Brad whacked the hilt into my palm.
    Ducking under the desk, I tossed the weapon and caught it with a better grip, then stabbed it behind the air vent, prying it loose.
    Inside, something skittered away.
    I plunged my arm in, caught a fistful of claws and leathery wings before it could get away, and yanked the creature out.
    It was the size of a rat, its mottled skin the exact gray of my concrete floors, blending in perfectly. As it writhed in my hand, squealing and sinking its claws into my wrist, I made out a hideous, horned face, a sinewy humanoid torso, a scaly serpentine tail.
    A gargoyle.
    Grimacing, I pinned it under my boot and cut off its head, leaving a smear of black blood.
    While I sucked on my own cuts, I motioned for Brad to hand me the acetylene blowtorch at the foot of my bed. The body continued to wiggle under my boot.
    I ignited the torch and lit the creature up, sweeping the blue-white flame across its carcass until it bubbled and turned to a puff of white ash.
    I cut the flame and sat on my haunches for a moment, breathing heavily. “Trackling,” I muttered. “Let’s pray this was the only one . . . or we’re in for a rough night.”
    Brad eyed the pile of ashes. “They knew to look here? I thought this was your safe house?”
    “They know. They always know.” With my heel, I ground the ash into the concrete and swept it under the desk. “Don’t tell Lana.”

Chapter 6
    Lana
    I shivered on the cot, my body curled into a tight ball.
    The thin mattress was devoid of even a blanket, and here the air was bone-chillingly cold.
    Made to make an Infernarus suffer.
    Heavy footfalls sounded down the hall. I’d listened to them for several hours, pacing as I had paced. It had been a long time since Brad had talked to me. I knew he told Asher everything I said.
    I wondered if they got the answers they needed.
    Once they did, I was expendable. That’s how these fickle humans worked.
    The footsteps stilled, and that was all I heard before my eyes fluttered closed and I drifted off.
    The creak of a door woke me.
    I sat up, pulling my legs close to my chest.
    A light flicked on down the hall that branched off this common area, and the footsteps came closer, thumping against the cement floor, footsteps that could only belong to one human.
    “Could you be any louder?” I said.
    “Hate to break it to you, demon, but your precious beauty sleep is not my number one concern right now.”
    I narrowed my eyes just as Asher stepped out of the hall and into the main room. He flipped on the lights.
    I shielded my eyes with my forearm, squinting against the glare to get a good look at my captor.
    His gaze fell heavy on me as he grabbed a chair, dragging it forward and stopping only a couple feet short of the bars. Just outside of my reach. He sat backwards in it, resting his forearms on the top of the seatback.
    I dropped my arm to wrap it back around my body. I tried to control my shivering, but it was impossible.
    “You’re going to kill me?” I said.
    He nodded. “Eventually.”
    I rested my chin on my legs. “I will fight you,” I said.
    “I know. Every demon I’ve killed has.”
    And unlike other Infernari, I wasn’t one of the true warriors.
    “Get on with it then,” I said.
    “Why did you save the portal master? Could have saved a hundred demons back at home with the amount of blood you wasted.”
    I rubbed my arms. Asher’s eyes dipped to the action.
    “If you saw an Infernarus killing a human, you would do the same,” I said. “It’s instinct.”
    His jaw