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“But no one’s ever tried to...courtyou?” Asher seem to be grappling with this idea.

There had been a soldier, Figulus, who had given me a starflower the day before he went into battle. I threw his flower away in a fit of grief when I felt his death. That was the closest I’d ever come to a mate, though I’d felt the weighty, wanton gazes of many Infernari over the years. Nothing ever came of those looks. Once I was under the tutelage and protection of the primus dominus, no one wanted to pursue me, not when that would bring them under the close scrutiny of the primus.

“Some have tried,” I said. “None have gotten very far. Why do you care?”

Asher shook his head. “I just find it hard to believe that you’ve gone this long without being snatched up.”

“If things were different, would you snatch me up, Jame Asher?”

His gaze focused on the road, no longer playful, but brooding. “If things were different, someone better than me would snatch you up,” he admitted.

That made me sad. “I don’t know why you think you’re a bad person.”

“There’s no thinking about it—IknowI’m a bad person. But I’m a bad person that hunts worse people, so I’ve made peace with what I am.”

“Almost every Infernarus kills,” I say. “Most well before the age of twenty.”

Asher flashed me a disbelieving look. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Yes,” I said simply. Just because one killed didn’t mean they enjoyed it. Often it was duty, loyalty, love that drove my kind to end a life.

“You’re comparing me to demons,” Asher said. “Of course I don’t seem bad—the last one we came across tried to drown us both in glass jugs. And the one before that snuck into my room and put leeches on my chest. Your kind is all sorts of fucked up. Now, compare me to an average human—”

“Your kind refrains from killing because there’s no need to. But the moment humans start to get a bit desperate... we have records detailing the carnage they’ve wrought. Carnage that we played no part in. Don’t act like your kind is any better or worse than mine.”

“You’re right, we’re a bunch of douchebags... but at least we don’t feed off others’ misfortune.”

“Every creature alive feeds on anoth—” My spine stiffened as a thick, cloying sensation washed over me.

I sat up straighter, glancing at the land around us. The thick, green landscape was giving way to buildings as we entered a crumbling town.

I felt Asher’s eyes on me. “What is it?” His tone had completely changed.

I shook my head, the tips of my hair flaring red. “Something is amiss.”

Our car slowed as we entered the town.

Alpatlahuác, a sign read.

Nothing stirred, nothing but that feeling, which mounted the deeper in we drove into the city.

Black birds—crows—perched on the edges of buildings, cawing as we passed. Lines of them watched us, but others... they seemed to fight each other, clawing at one another with their talons.

The grisly sensation closed up my windpipe. Sometimes I felt this way, but only after... only after...

“Asher,” I whispered. “Pull over.”

Whatever he saw when he looked at me, he didn’t question my request or my motives. Our car pulled to the side of the road.

Dread filled me.

“We need to check on the townspeople.” I said, my voice hushed.

His brows knitted as he took me in. “What’s out there?”

I swallowed. “I don’t know.”

But we’d find out soon enough.