Lucifer Reborn by Dante King (the reader ebook .TXT) 📗

her skirt and felt at the tears in her top. A shocked expression settled over her, one arm hiding the gouges in her shirt as best as she could. Then she gave a thoughtful look, and let the limb fall away.

“Am I dead?” Maddie asked, her bottom lip quivering as she scooted back to the headboard and rested her shoulders against it. “Tell me the truth, Luke.”

God, look at her, I thought, all of my protective instincts firing at once. She’s fucking terrified. Poor thing…

“Not at all,” I assured her, putting a hand on her thigh. “Although you almost were.”

And I hope now that you’re here, those demons have calmed down, I thought, watching her. Hopefully they’d go back to normal, now that there was no tasty mortal being dangled in front of their faces. Otherwise, Christina had a hell of a fight on her hands. She’ll be okay, I told myself, thinking of the unholy ballet she’d done in the crowd of attacking demons. Without Maddie there to amp them up, the demons should calm down.

But I wasn’t about to leave that to fate. Time worked differently in the subspace, so while minutes ticked over here, less than seconds would pass outside. Still, I had to make sure Maddie was all good, then I’d head back and check on Christina.

Maddie winced at my touch, still frightened from what she’d seen, then relaxed after a moment as she realized it was just me.

“You’re fine, Maddie,” I continued. “You’ve just been through a lot.”

She looked skeptical. “Really? Because with all those demons attacking us, that looked a lot like Hell back there. And this certainly seems to be Purgatory. Though you’re here, so Purgatory must be a whole lot nicer than I figured it would be…”

I had to smile at that. “I appreciate the compliment,” I told her, meaning it. “Hang on a second—let me see if I can do something about that top…”

There was no way for me to know I could do that for Maddie—I just did. The more I interacted with my subspace, the more I felt like I could tweak and edit it via muscle memory. It was just like riding a bike, only in this case the bike was its own pocket dimension.

The last time I’d been here, I’d created a bed. After I’d finished with Christina and Mareth, I’d wondered if I could do even more. There’d been no time then, but now, I could experiment. Besides, what an awesome thing it would be for Maddie. She deserved some decent clothes, especially after being set upon by vicious demons.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. I pictured Maddie in my head, the way she’d looked in the diner while she handed out our drinks and our appetizers, then twisted the image slightly. I kept the skirt and the heels, but replaced the torn blouse with a sleek gray camisole, cut low in front to show off her cleavage and tight enough to showcase her curves. Before the image faded completely, I added some lacy black stockings to her legs.

When my eyes opened, Maddie wore the exact outfit I’d pictured. She stared down at herself for a long moment, eyes watering as she tried to wrap her head around this.

After a moment, she swished her thighs together. “New outfit,” she said teasingly, “but I’m still not wearing panties.”

“Of course not,” I said. “You gave them to me, remember?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I did.”

“Sorry to leave you so soon, but I need to head back to the. . . uh school and make sure my friends are OK. Will you be alright in here?”

“That’s no problem,” Maddie said, but I could see she was still a little scared and putting on a brave face.

I closed my eyes and concentrated, picturing the battle near my car.

The next time I opened my eyes, I found myself sitting in the trunk of my car. My legs hung over the side, swaying back and forth over the concrete surface of the parking circle like a little kid’s. The crowd of demons had only just begun to disperse—most of them stood around with glazed expressions, like someone who’d walked into a room only to forget why they’d entered it in the first place.

Mareth lay on the grass, slumped over to the side. The dark-haired succubus stood up as the thunk of my weight against the trunk made the hot rod bounce; that sound told her I was back.

“Oh, thank Satan,” she panted, shaking her head to clear it. “That was a very, very close call, Luke.”

“Yeah, maybe a little too close…” I grunted, not looking at her. I was too busy staring at the pile of bodies on the grass, above which stood my beautiful blonde demon companion. Christina brushed her hands together, her tail flicking happily back and forth at the sight of the absolute mayhem she’d just thrown down. How many had she taken down single-handedly? A dozen?

I made a mental note to never, ever piss her off as I climbed out of the trunk. Smoothing down my robes, I raised my voice. “Alright, guys, the mortal is gone!” I roared, cupping my hands around my mouth. “Show’s over, go on home!”

It snapped the last few demons standing around out of their trances. They shuffled off, confused looks on their faces as they made their way back to whatever class or event they’d been on their way to before Maddie came to their attention. Christina watched them go, one flawless eyebrow raising at the sight of me in my fancy demonic robes.

“What did you do with the waitress?” she asked, landing next to me with a flutter of her wings. My heart skipped a beat—she’d just soared right from the bodies on the ground over to me, closing the distance like a long jumper. “Subspace?”

“Yeah,