Read Online Blood and Sin (The Infernari Book 1) by Laura Thalassa, Dan Rix - Free Book Online

help your people out. I know what that’s like,” Brad said.
    I actually laughed at that. “I doubt it, Brad.”
    His eyes fixated on my lips.
    Lustful human.
    “You know, you fit in pretty well. How long you been coming here?”
    I pressed my lips together and peered at my nails.
    “Lana, I’m going to get you out of here, I promise . . . but I need your help, alright?”
    For one brief moment, hope bubbled up. If I could get out, I could find another portal . . .
    Don’t trust them.
    Hadn’t I been told that a thousand times?
    “You should let me go because it’s the right thing to do,” I said. “I can’t help Asher. Once my people learn of his existence, and they will, he will die.”
    Brad folded his arms and leaned back on his heels, regarding me with raised eyebrows. “I think you can do better than that, Lana. See, that man is the closest thing I have to a brother—”
    “I’m sorry for your choice of family,” I said.
    The corner of his mouth lifted. “Is that a joke?”
    “No.”
    Brad ruffled his hair. “My point is, him dying . . . not an option. So right now, you and I need to work together to keep him alive. You give me your word you can talk to some people, you can make that happen, then you can go free. Simple as that.”
    “I will never make that oath,” I spat, revolted at the mere idea of arguing for Asher’s mercy.
    Brad went back to studying me. “Are things still bad there? In Abyssos?”
    I nodded before I realized I was doing so.
    “And you still want to help your people?”
    I gave him a scathing look. I wouldn’t risk this very situation if I didn’t need to.
    “Just asking, just asking,” he said, holding his hands up, his palms flashing at me.
    I bristled at the aggressive gesture before I remembered— human . He couldn’t attack me with magic. Brad seemed to notice the faux pas then, because he quickly dropped his hands.
    Then he went back to staring at me.
    “Ask your questions, Brad.”
    “What kind of name is Malesuis?”
    I walked up to the bars and pressed my body against them, wrapping my hands around the poles.
    His eyes flitted up and down my torso, and I saw his subtle swallow.
    “It means badlands . I am Lana of the Badlands.” The red, craggy earth, the dozens of sand-worn castles long since abandoned. These were the first sights I took in when I entered the world.
    “Aren’t the Badlands abandoned?”
    He shouldn’t know all this. The primus dominus had made sure to exterminate the humans that knew too much.
    It would be a shame to end one war only to begin another, he’d said.
    “My parents were on military tour at the time.”
    “And you’re named for the land you were born in,” he finished, a smile blooming along his face as he put it together.
    “I have many names. Malesuis is just one.”
    I was also Lana Skinwalker and Lana Lifebreather.
    Brad’s grin still hadn’t disappeared, and it reminded me of slippery things.
    I needed to stop talking. I also needed to release this hope I was clinging desperately to. I wouldn’t be making it out of here alive; it was foolish to believe otherwise.
    “Where’s your family now?” he asked.
    “Some are in the ground, and some still breathe,” I said, shifting my weight. “But all of them are on the other side of the portal your friend destroyed.”
    I could tell that wasn’t the answer he wanted.
    I was getting better at reading the natives.
    “How many blood bags did you take?”
    “Ask Asher,” I said.
    “Dozens?” he guessed.
    I didn’t bother answering. Wisps of smoke curled off my hair as I paced.
    “That’s a lot of blood magic,” he said. “That, and the fact that you’re fairly well adapted to human culture . . . You’re not just saving a few people, are you?”
    I didn’t respond.
    “Could you save a human?”
    I huffed out a laugh. “As if I would save a human.”
    “But if you wanted to?”
    My gaze pulled to Brad. “No.”
    “Can you heal multiple