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I was getting impatient to fight him—impatient and cold.

I dropped my blanket and stood in one smooth motion. “Why don’t you come inside and we end this now, little man?”

“Little?” He raised an eyebrow. “Doesanythingabout me strike you as particularly little?”

My eyes dropped his midsection. “Nothing that I cansee.”

Now both eyebrows go up. “You’ve been topside more often than you let on.”

It was frightening that a native could tell that easily.

Without the blanket, I began shivering again.

“Why does the primus dominus like you so much?” he asked.

“Why does your mother like you so much?” I replied.

He narrowed his eyes.

I narrowed mine.

“Come kill me, little man,” I said. I was tired of cells and questions and staring and that gods-awful smell of car fumes that lingered in this place.

He leaned forward in his seat, a lock of his hair falling into his eye. “I bet you’d like that wouldn’t you? Dying honorably while trying to kill Asher, the last great threat to your people? It’s not going to go down like that, demon.” He rose from his chair and swiveled to go. But then he paused. “Enjoy the room,” he said over his shoulder. “We’ll see tomorrow if the chill has killed you.”

I glared at Asher’s back, fresh out of curses.

Halfway across the room Asher added, “Oh, and you remember how I said you’d know if I was tormenting you?

“Now you know.”

Brad was back.

I heard him long before I saw him, his bare feet padding against the cement floor. Not loud like Asher’s footfalls, which were sure and determined.

These were quiet. Sneaky.

I stiffened on the cot, where I lay with my back to him, still languishing. Infernari were hardy creatures, but we weren’t meant to be caged.

“Lana,” Brad whispered, “you awake?”

I didn’t answer him.

He flipped on the light.

Great Mother, that burned my eyes. I blinked several times, allowing my gaze to get used to it.

Moving slowly, I flipped over to face him. Even with the blanket Asher gave me, my joints hurt from the chill.

Brad stood on the other side of the bars, clad in nothing except a flimsy pair of boxers. I shivered on his behalf. My eyes trailed over his exposed skin.

A very human plan was forming.

I took my time perusing him over before my eyes found his. “Did you come to keep me company?” I asked, my voice lower, huskier this time around.

He swallowed. Brad was looking at me that way again. Like he wanted to be my lover.

How very foreign these natives’ customs were when it came to mates. How very dissimilar they were to ours.