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

Ice filled my stomach. “Oh shit,” I muttered, putting my hand against my forehead. “I’m taking you away from working for your family? You’ve got a Mom Oni and a Pop Oni who are wondering where their oldest has run off to?”

Oni chuckled and shook his head. “No need to worry about them, Luke. They bet on Karl in the most recent high-stakes Archlord head-to-head. They won themselves more shards than they know what to do with. I’m not costing them anything by being here—they will be fine without me.”

That made me feel a little bit better. I would’ve hated to think there was some innocent family out there suffering because of me, even if they were demons.

“I guess you should just stick with us for now,” I said, staring up at the sleek obsidian building. The evening flames cast eerie shadows across its surface, making the whole thing look even more like a demonic fingernail than it did in the daytime. “We’ll see if we can’t hook you up with some quarters, along with the rest of us. Actually, something’s just occurred to me. Mareth, do I even need a dorm room?”

The succubus frowned. “Why would you not need a place to stay?” she asked. “Were you planning on bed hopping through your entire stay at the Academy?”

“He’d probably be able to do it, too,” Christina added, waggling her long tongue. “Every girl we’ve run into so far has been all over him. If I was still human, I might even be jealous.”

I ignored that for the moment, as well as the images the idea put in my head. “I have a subspace,” I said, thinking of the small but cozy apartment I’d created with my powers. Maddie was still inside, waiting for me. I wondered how many books she’d read while I was gone—and what she might be wearing when I popped back in to see her. “I get the impression most people use theirs as storage space, the way Lilith did, but I’ve built mine into a whole living space. Why not just hop in and out of my subspace whenever I need to?”

To Mareth’s credit, she took the question seriously. “Technically, you can,” she said, looking up at a high window in the building’s obsidian frame. “Most demon’s subspaces aren’t much bigger than a suitcase or a broom closet—they’re typically used for storage space, like Lilith did. Yours being big enough to have sex inside is something of an anomaly, and like most of your powers, it probably comes from Lucifer.”

I nodded to show I understood.

“You don’t have to stay at the dorms—although if you do, and you link your subspace to it, you’ll get a ton of extra benefits. Like more power to upgrade your subspace. And you can still keep the time difference, with time passing slower in your subspace. It’s pretty much one hour in Hell for every eight hours in your subspace. It’ll leave more time for study, sleeping, and. . . other things.”

“Understood.” Mareth was right—being able to spend a long period in subspace with only a short time passing in Hell was a useful trick. And more time for sex was never a bad thing. “What’s the other reason most people choose the dorms?”

To this, Mareth laughed. “Because they’re dorms. Half the fun of the Infernal Academy is getting the authentic college experience. Keggers, sneaking your girlfriend into your room past the RA—although you won’t have to do that, bound demons are always permitted to visit—and general chaos and mayhem. You know, the fun part of college!”

By the end of her spiel, I found myself grinning. “I do want that,” I told her, thinking of all the crazy memories I’d likely make during my time at the Academy. “I certainly don’t want to miss out on anything. But I also like using my subspace. I guess I’ll just flip between the two for now on while I figure things out.”

“Just remember to synchronize your watches,” Mareth said with a grin, watching a gorgeous demoness in gym clothes make her way down the stairs. “Passing out for eight hours in subspace to find only one has elapsed back on campus can be a... disorienting experience.”

“Gives a whole new meaning to the ‘walk of shame’,” I said with a smirk. “I need to check on Maddie in my subspace soon, Mareth—but first, you think you can get me and Christina a place to lay our heads?”

“Fuck yes,” Christina added, putting an arm over my shoulder. “I’m so looking forward to getting a bed underneath us, baby…”

Mareth’s grin widened. “I know the RA on the Eastern Wing of the 7th floor,” she said, glancing up toward that level of the building. “It’s one of the cooler places to hang out. I bet she can find a way to make it work for you—they’re always looking to give new students a leg up.”

We entered the lobby of the dormitory, Oni needing to duck low to avoid bumping his head on the top of the door frame. Mareth, Christina, and I paused before a circular desk at the room’s center, where a green-skinned imp in a security outfit checked residents in and out of the building.

“Got a couple newbies, Lou,” Mareth said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder as we approached. “I want to take them up to 7th, see if Sophe can get them situated.”

The imp peered over Mareth’s shoulders, its large wings flapping with irritation. Unlike most demons I’d seen, whose wings tended to be small and either batlike or insectoid, the imp’s wingspan looked to be several times larger than his own body. Bet it saves him money on blankets, I thought.

“The Mog and the Human are no problem,” he said, tapping a clipboard. “The big