The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,146

fact that we were on the second floor of a fraternity house and no one else was around told me plenty. There was no way to keep that many drunk people out of here, not without mind-fucking them. But I could do this.

Trying to mimic the same adoration I'd seen everyone else giving the angels, I made my way closer. Uzziel simply smiled, looking like that cat who'd just caught his mouse. In my chest, I could feel my heart racing from fear. I wasn't supposed to be here. I shouldn't be here alone. Sadly, running away wouldn't help me find these people. So I walked right up to him.

"Do you have any idea where you are?" Uzziel asked.

Up and down the hall, the other angels turned, almost as if closing ranks. I noticed but pretended to ignore it. "Delta Phi's party?"

Faster than anything I'd ever seen before, the archangel's hand struck out, closing on my neck. "Hello, Muse. Did you think we wouldn't recognize you?"

I wanted to yelp. My body twitched, preparing to bolt. I fought it all so I could just look right into this man's eyes. "In all honesty, I was just hoping that I could get this close."

Then I attacked him before he could attack me. Not with sprites. Not with aether. I attacked him the same way an angel would: I grabbed the aether behind his eyes and twisted. The only problem was that he was trying to grab mine, and the other angels were getting closer in a hurry.

Uzziel struggled to close his eyes and break the connection, but I was better than that. I had the feel of him now. If I had to, I could even draw his seal. Yet for every move I made to get him under control, he did something to pull free somewhere else. Like some kind of six-way tug-of-war, the pair of us stood there hoping to one-up each other, and he had the advantage. He had backup.

Which left me only one option. Reaching out, I grabbed his arm and pulled. The pair of us stepped back and the veil washed over us. Immediately, we both threw up a shield to block the aethereal winds, but it didn't matter. I didn’t need to break my eye contact to know that wherever I was, this wasn't the normal corridor.

"And now, I have you right where I want you," Uzziel sneered.

"Keep telling yourself that," I grumbled around the hand on my throat.

The hand at my throat - that counted as contact. One that allowed me to start pulling his aether from him just as fast as I could. Never before had I met this guy, but clearly, he knew who I was. But he didn't know all my tricks. More than anything else, I was an aether vacuum, and I intended to drain this asshole dry.

I could feel him trying to throw up shields, but I shattered each one easily. In desperation, he squeezed my throat a little harder, hoping that if he could suffocate me, then I’d give up. I just pulled harder. This was a battle of strength, yet we were judging with two different measuring sticks. He thought manhandling me would be enough, but my power was manipulating aether. His aether, specifically.

His fingers began to loosen around my throat, and his body grew weak. Slowly, the archangel sagged towards the ground, yet I didn't stop. There was no way I was leaving this guy behind as a witness. It was bad enough that they knew we were here on Earth. Once Gabriel heard I'd been sniffing around his little party, someone would end up dying. Probably the humans who were being held for slaves.

Eventually, Uzziel lay at my feet, unconscious. Just for good measure, I used some of his life to shatter his body and turned it into dust, then I waved that away, hoping the winds would take it all. Only then did I stop to look around me.

I wasn't alone.

None of them were angels, but they were definitely people. For a split second, I wondered why they weren't blowing away, then I saw the shimmering line in the distance. It looked like the same kind of wards that Nick had put on my house. Probably the ones I’d walked through when we came into Delta Phi. That was why they hadn't stopped us! These wards weren't made to protect what was on Earth. They were meant to protect what was in the corridor!

And the