The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,164

Bel asked. "I thought there was a way to keep demons out of those things."

Nick scoffed. "That was only the churches that angels made. Humans can't make wards, so there's no more instant fire stuff. Churches are just buildings like all the other buildings."

Ron's eyes sparkled brightly. "So I finally get to see one?" he asked.

Luke just lifted his hand with his finger raised. "Why are we going to church again?"

Nick leaned back in his chair looking rather smug. "Because if we take the slaves they've already gathered, they're just going to get more. If we want to stop this, then the first step is going to be to destroy the supply chain. Right now, that's this church group."

"How?" I asked. "Nick, it's a church. You know, the kind of thing that people have accepted as normal for a couple of thousand years now. Like multiple generations longer than most of us can imagine living kind of thing. Tearing one down isn't going to do much."

"Nope," he agreed, "but convincing the rest of the world that this one's a cult might just be enough to make them go to one of the safe ones."

I felt the smile spread across my face. "Missing people. Cults. Yeah, I'm going to need a little time to do some research on like that Jones guy, because I have a funny feeling that our angels are going to be parroting the same kind of thing as every insane cult leader ever has before."

"Like a weapon?" Bel asked.

I just nodded. "Exactly like a weapon, Bel. It's called information. There's no reason we can't use it to our own advantage."

37

Samyaza

Our legion had been away from the house for long enough that we needed to restock almost everything. So, after drinking a few cups of coffee with Sia, I volunteered to take her shopping. The excuse was that we would be going to church. The reality was that somebody needed to spoil this woman a little. Oh, I knew she could probably make herself anything she needed, but that wasn’t the point.

Nick, Luke, Bel, and I had all chipped in a nice amount of money to get accounts started for both her and Ronwe with the demons who managed our money. Right now, they both had somewhere around half a million. It was just enough to start their investments, but not as much as Sia thought. All of us agreed that if we could help it, she wouldn’t need to use any of it.

Ronwe was easier. He had no problem wrapping his mind around the length of his life. He also didn't have any preconceived notions about his legion spending money on him. When we offered to buy something, he simply accepted it. Sia, on the other hand, had this habit of feeling guilty. Today, though, I wasn’t going to let her get away with it.

"You need clothes for church," I explained. "Nice clothes, which will probably be out of date before you come back to this plane again, and I have every intention of helping you pick them out. So, in order to convince you to bring me along, that means I'm buying." I crossed my arms over my chest in an attempt to look stern.

She just grinned, seeing right through me. "Sam, you already gave me money. Luke gave me an entire house. Y'all can't just keep buying me everything for the rest of eternity!"

"Think of it as a legion thing," I countered.

She laughed and looked away. "Fine," she said.

Thankfully, that didn't sound like the sort of 'fine' that meant I was in trouble. It sounded like she was more amused than anything. Possibly even flattered. Offering to let her drive my Porsche was all it took to seal the deal.

What she didn't do was drive like a bat out of hell. Sia was a surprisingly cautious driver, and yet she still seemed to be having a lot of fun. Nick and I had picked our cars to be collector’s editions, with the intention of selling them once they become old and rare. This time, Luke was the one who got the utilitarian vehicle. We tried to keep it fair and trade out, but none of us had expected to have her fall into our laps. Meeting her changed everything.

She took us to an adorable little strip mall that had a set of boutique clothing stores. Nice ones, she insisted. Personally, I didn't really care. I was honestly more interested in simply spending time with her.