The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,141

blood quickly rushing to do her bidding.

"Thanks," I said, pushing myself into her palm. "Now, I get to walk around with a hard-on."

She just turned to face me, lifting her chin in the cutest defiance I'd ever seen. "Just trying to help you blend in." Then she tried to slip away into the crowd like she had at every other frat house we'd been to tonight.

But not this time. I caught her arm before she got more than half a step away and pulled her back. "I need you to stay close to me."

Because this house was packed. I'd been to clubs that had more space between people than the living room of this frat house had. It seemed that everyone who was anyone wanted to be right here. Most likely, there were laws and fire codes being violated, and probably a million underage drinking charges waiting to be handed out, but it wouldn’t happen. Not with angels so willing to mind-fuck anyone who got in their way.

A casual glance showed me malakim, seraphim, and more scattered amongst the humans around us. Some of them blended in well. Others were clearly new to this plane. Before I met Sia, I would've said their skins were perfect. Now, I realized just how much we stood out by cutting those little corners like not changing our eye color. It made me appreciate my pretty blue eyes a little bit more.

Like me, Sia looked around the room, but she didn't seem to care about the angels. Instead, she just threw an arm around my neck and leaned against me as if she really was the girlfriend she was pretending to be.

"I want to hear more about your needs," she teased as she stretched upward to reach my ear. Then she lowered her voice. "Luke, stop worrying. I can't die. If I get drained, you know where my body will go, and you'll handle it. I'm also stronger than all of them. If anything, I think you're the one who needs to stick close to me."

I wrapped one arm around her back and slowly shuffled both of us away from the main entrance. It wasn't something I could do quickly. Not with the amount of people in here. That gave me a little more time to enjoy the feeling of her hugging her body against mine.

"How much did you have to drink?" I asked her.

She leaned back and rolled her eyes, making sure I could see it. "Not much. I'm not drunk, if that's what you're asking."

"Tipsy?"

"Getting close to being warm," she said. "I'm just having fun. I dunno, it seems to happen a lot when you're around."

I glanced to either side of us, making sure no one was listening to our conversation. "In case you forgot, the last time you and I were alone, you died."

"Trust me, I know." And she dropped her arm from my neck and stepped back, but I didn’t let her go. "Luke," she said, "do you get this worried about Nick?"

"No, but I do get this worried about Ron," I countered.

"Huh." Catching my hand, she turned and started walking, towing me along behind her. "Guess that proves which one you love more."

I stopped, jerking her back around to face me. "Not a good joke," I warned her.

Sia just stepped into me and tapped my chest hard with one finger. "And now you see why I said it. You worry about me. You worry about Ron. You don't worry about Nick. Why not?"

"Because I’ve spent long enough with him to know exactly what he's going to do," I hissed.

She nodded once. "Because you trust him. That means you don't trust me. Pull your head out of your ass. We're here to figure out where these people are going. You are here to help me, not babysit me, and certainly not protect me."

"And that is where you're wrong," I told her. "I am definitely here to protect you. No. More. Dying."

She just smiled at me. "Can't. God says she fixed that. You have two options. You can flirt with me, or you can flirt with someone else. I don't care which, but the only reason anyone comes to a party like this is to get laid. So you need to figure out who you're going to be hitting on, because we're going to need some information."

Dammit, but she was right. She also had a point about trusting her. I wanted to, but I was too scared to just let her