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

box?”
    “Yeah, I cut them up and put them in my stew.” Seeing her aghast expression, I added, “It’s a joke, demon. Sarcasm.”
    “Every lie you tell carves out a piece of your soul,” she said.
    “What I got is frozen dinners.” Ignoring her, I picked one out—meatloaf and potatoes and corn—and popped it in the microwave. “You don’t like it, you starve.”
    “That would be the happiest thing that could happen to me in here.” Running her finger between perpendicular bars, she inspected her cage.
    “Those bars are an inch thick and welded together with tungsten,” I said. “Go ahead and bleed yourself dry trying to escape . . . it’s going to take a lot more magic than you got to get through those.”
    She flashed me a glare.
    “So how’d you heal that other demon?” I folded my arms and leaned on the couch. “You still haven’t told me.”
    “Ah, so that’s why you haven’t killed me.”
    I held her gaze. “Let me explain how this works, demon. I’m going to kill you unless you tell me. Then, if you tell me where the next portal is, I’ll let you go.”
    “Liar,” she hissed. “That’s exactly what you told Fidel.”
    “Yeah, well, I didn’t like the way he looked at me.”
    Her eyes narrowed.
    The microwave dinged, and I kicked the steaming tray toward her cage. “Eat.”
    She poked at it, frowning. “This isn’t food.”
    “Well, it’s not a dick.”
    She peeled up the plastic and sniffed the grayish slab of cardboardy meatloaf. I couldn’t read her expression, but I doubted it appealed to her.
    Why the fuck do you care what she thinks of your food, Asher? She’s your prisoner.
    She looked at me. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
    Her long, dark hair fell to her hips in loose waves. Like everything demon, it seemed to flow around her like smoke. These animals were more spirit than flesh.
    “Lana,” I said, testing her name on my tongue for the first time. It had a nice lilt to it.
    She chewed the inside of her lip, and I got the feeling she seriously regretted giving me her name. It gave me power over her.
    “Jame,” she said, staring right back at me.
    There.
    There it was, for a split-second.
    That glint in her eyes.
    I’d seen it before, too. When I could have sworn she was playing my mind games right back at me.
    Learning from me.
    Demons didn’t communicate on that level. They shouldn’t , at least. They talked straight. Deception and calculated psychological manipulation was a human thing; it boiled their blood.
    Then again, she was no ordinary demon.
    Clearly, much, much more went on behind that young, pretty face than I’d given her credit for. The spark of scary intelligence in her eyes worried me most. This demon would try to get under my skin.
    She already had.
    I had to remind her who had power here, or else I’d have a petulant and spiteful demon on my hands.
    “Eat,” I ordered, “or I will shove that meatloaf down your throat.”
    “Ugh, just fucking kill me.” She flung the tray aside, splattering the wall with gravy, and began to pace like a caged panther, her mane of hair sailing out behind her.
    “Fine. That’s the last food you get. Ever.” I continued to watch her, my fascination getting the better of my anger.
    Who was this demon and how come I’d never heard of her?
    I was still watching her when Brad rang the buzzer to be let downstairs, yanking me out of my trance.
    After I unlocked the blast door, his heavy footsteps clomped down the stairs into the basement.
    He halted in the doorway, his face two years wearier than I’d last seen it.
    We regarded each other, unsmiling.
    “You look like shit,” he said. “As usual.”
    “Ditto. How much weight you gain since I last saw you?” I asked. “You getting fat on me?”
    “It’s all muscle.”
    “Bullshit.”
    We stared each other down for another moment, then broke into a grin at the same time and collided in a great backslapping bear hug. Like no time at all had passed.
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