The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,194

beside him. Aaron, I remembered. Sia's ex-boyfriend. He'd been given clothes that were filthy and torn, which would make them fit right in with everybody else. And then Uriel simply stepped back, vanishing from sight and leaving Aaron here to play his part.

"It's time to go," Ron said softly. "We don't have a car, and we don't really want to be talking to the police. The last thing we need is to be remembered fifty years from now."

"Yeah, but?? I said, looking at the desperate faces before me.

"They'll be fine," Ron assured me. "We can watch from the other side."

That was when I heard the first sirens. They were still far away, but getting closer quickly. He was right, we all knew it, but when I looked up, I realized that Sam and Bel had already walked over to Nick. I was the last, and if anyone said anything, I was going to blame the aether burn for this. After all, I didn't want them to think I was becoming a nice guy.

"We good?" Nick asked, reaching a hand to me.

Ron gave me a little push towards him. "He probably needs you to drive," he teased.

Then Bel grabbed my boyfriend, pulling him against his side. "Then I'll take care of you, since you did a little heavy lifting too. Sam?" he asked, offering a hand.

Sam just grinned and stepped back, proving that he was doing just fine. The rest of us followed only a moment later, landing in the corridor to catch our breath after all of that. And if we happened to stay long enough to see at least ten first responders rush into the building, it was just because we wanted to make sure our plan worked. It had nothing at all to do with the relieved looks on all of our faces.

Who was I kidding? No, we all stood there with satisfied smiles, watching as people who'd been about to become slaves were given back the lives they deserved. If this was evil, we were clearly doing it wrong.

44

Sienna

When I left the church, I slipped back to my house, but no one else was there. Not even God. Ever since she'd trotted her little lamb butt out of the building, I hadn't seen or heard a thing from her. The guys should still be at the warehouse, but the storm would be dissipating any second. They wouldn't stay long after that.

But I was freezing. It might not get as cold in the southern part of the United States as it did in other places, but January rain was still miserable. Standing in the middle of it, trying to look defiant while I taunted Gabriel, meant that I was soaked to my skin. I wasn't shivering, but it wasn't far off. The only thing that would make it better was a very long soak under some scalding hot water.

Heading upstairs, I turned into the first door on the right and then paused. This was my room. The one Nick had said they wanted to decorate for me, and the last time I'd been in here there had been a few stacks of boxes and nothing else. Now, it was empty. The boxes were long gone and drop cloths had been taped to the floor. Almost three complete walls had been painted in a warm pastel-yellow color. It was just a little too vibrant to be considered bland, but not so bold as to be blinding.

I had no idea when the guys had started working on this, but they hadn't said a thing. Biting my lip to hold in the smile, I backed out and closed the door again. If they wanted to surprise me, then I was definitely going to let them. That didn't help my shower situation, though, so - on a whim - I decided to head to Luke's room. Mostly because I could now, and partly because I just wanted to heat up my skin. Since I didn't need any special soap or shampoo, it technically didn't matter which room I used, right?

I took my time about letting the hot water thaw out my cold bones. Somewhere in the middle, I heard the guys return. Part of me hoped that Luke would catch me in here. Maybe he'd even ask me what I was doing so we could finally have a chance to talk about what had happened the other night. If nothing else, I wanted him to know that, at least for me, the