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“Go to sleep,” I growled, getting up to turn out the lights.

But the last thing I saw before the light winked out was the hurt in her wounded violet eyes.

And the last thing I felt before I fell asleep was a pang of guilt.

Lana

I woke sometimelater, my gaze fixed upon the water-stained ceiling. Even in the dark I could see the discoloration, and the way it sagged. The whole place smelled like stale smoke, and in the bathroom I could hear the constant drip of a leaky faucet.

Abyssos didn’t have places like this. We had the timeworn bones of abandoned cities, and out in the wild and war-torn places, we had temporary huts and yurts. And then there was the capitol, our single surviving city state. But our buildings, none of them had this malaise that seemed to touch many human structures. I could smell the rot that was decaying this structure from the inside out.

I turned onto my side, gathering the threadbare blankets tightly around me, suppressing a shiver.

I tried to fall back asleep, I really did. I just... couldn’t. There were too many odd anxieties that came rushing in—my precarious situation, the hunter’s plans, another day spent trapped in a prison on wheels. My worries wouldn’t let me sleep.

Quietly, I pushed myself up.

Across from me, no longer separated by bars, Asher tossed about in bed.

He was a restless soul.

Beyond him, the first rays of dawn glowed beneath the curtain covering our window.

Careful not to wake Asher, I slipped out of bed, my movements utterly silent. I changed quietly in the bathroom, donning my gear, and then I slipped out of the room.

I took my first easy breath once I exited the building. I stretched, a yawn shaking my entire frame.

I got my first good look at the human city since we arrived. What I saw didn’t impress me. Weathered, faded signs, cracked asphalt, boarded up buildings.

I frowned. What was the point of creating a structure that you couldn’t move and wouldn’t last? It seemed a waste. But most of what these people did was a waste.

I rounded the hotel, heading to the back. The only other person out this early was a woman pushing a cart of linens.

A compulsion overtook me then, an uncomfortable craving. I could go up to this human female and force her to the ground. It wouldn’t be difficult; the natives didn’t teach most of their own to fight. I would cut her delicate skin and take all the blood I needed. Even a single human held so much of that precious liquid. There would be plenty for me and all the Infernari I’d funnel it to.

She headed inside the building, and the urge passed, evaporating away as though it had never existed to begin with.

I sagged a little. I was unused to going so long without blood.

This world was getting to my head.

I placed a hand against the motel’s dirty wall, then the other. I began crawling up, my hands seeking out what divots I could find. I climbed higher and higher until eventually my palms met the edge of the roof.

I hoisted myself up and over the lip of it. Foul, tainted puddles of water gathered in several places. No wonder our rooms had issues. The roof was rotting.

Humans and their rickety, eroding structures. I was glad all over again that I wasn’t one of them, even as I ate their food and slept in their beds and culled their blood.

I turned in a circle, surveying the land around me. The town we were in was nothing more than a strip of stores and establishments. Beyond that, the world was flat, spread out on all sides like some great sea of vegetation.

I sank down to a patch of roof that was dry and stretched out on my back, tucking my hands under my head.

High above me, great plumes of clouds rolled across the sky, the dawn casting them in shades of pinks and oranges.

Not so different from my world, I thought to myself. A pang of nostalgia hit me. I wanted to get back. I wanted to see the red, rising sun, and feel the sizzle of summer heat.

I would go back with Asher.

He would hate that. Infernari would hate that. Most of all, the primus dominus would hate that.