Academy of the Devi- the Complete Collection

by Eva Brandt

  Granted, I didn’t have a lot of experience with such creatures. The second serpent I’d run into at the academy had bitten me and transported my mind to The Heavens. I didn’t remember much about the white reptile that had temporarily killed me, but I did recall its venom and hostility.

  Fern was quiet. She didn’t hiss at all, not like TB did. Her body also felt far warmer to the touch. I wondered if it was a side effect of Lucifer’s magic or if it was just her nature.

  Was she even Lucifer’s familiar at all, or something else entirely?

  Sighing, I petted Fern’s head and handed her back over to her partner. As I did so, I met Lucifer’s eyes again. “Lucian,” I said, stressing the latter syllable even if we all knew it was a falsehood, “why did you come here? What is it that you want?”

  “I want what everybody wants. A little happiness. And I think I can find it here.”

  It was exactly what he’d told me when I’d been in a coma. Ironically, I believed him. But that didn’t matter, because Mikael wasn’t willing to accept that reply.

  “The Academy of the Devil has a limited supply of happiness,” he said between gritted teeth. “You won’t be included on the list of people who have access to it.”

  “We’ll see.” The mask of Lucian Starr slid off Lucifer and the shadow of four, glowing bright wings manifested behind him. “Don’t play games with me, nephilim,” he snarled. “You won’t win. I was fighting wars against your father before the desire to have you was even born in his heart. If you dare to stand against me, I will do far worse to you than I did to him. And I’ll make sure a host of archangels isn’t around to reattach your head.”

  “Do you think I care about that?” Mikael rolled his eyes. “Go ahead and kill me if you want. But if you do that, you’ll never be able to fulfill your goal.

  “I might have disappointed Lyssa. I might have lied to her. But we have a bond now and no matter how bright you shine, Morning Star, you can’t overcome that.”

  “You’re a fool, Mikael Lost. I don’t have to overcome a thing. The bond between Alyssa and me is already far stronger than anything you can ever hope to create. Or have you forgotten?”

  Doing my best to not let my temper get away from me, I stepped between the two of them. “A contract isn’t a relationship, Mr. Starr,” I told him. “I still don’t understand you, and until you decide to be honest with me, I won’t trust you.

  “You owe me an explanation. Someone’s after me because of you. Someone killed Shiro, because of you. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate your help. But that doesn’t mean I’ll let you get away with every single thing.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to, dearest,” Lucifer said. “That would be boring. Ah, look. It’s our turn to meet the school dragon.”

  The sudden non sequitur took me by surprise. I threw a glance over my shoulder and realized he was right. At one point during our conversation, Lilith had turned her attention toward us.

  Lilith was a very passionate person, in everything she did. For as long as I’d known her, she’d always been an explosion of emotion. Even when she was furious, she emanated an intensity that almost rivaled Redrum’s fire.

  She didn’t have that intensity now. No, she did, but it was muted and cold, icier than Professor Grim’s domain.

  “Mr. Starr,” she said blandly as she made her way to our side, “I see you’ve finally decided to grace us with your presence. I must point out that tardiness and rude behavior will not be tolerated in my class.”

  That was utter bullshit on the level of ‘we don’t allow epilepsy medicine at The Academy of the Devil’. Lucifer wasn’t as taken aback as I’d been. “Come now, Lady Lilith,” he said. “Is that any way to talk to an old friend?”

  “I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she replied. I wondered if she realized she’d just echoed Lucifer’s earlier words.

  “Of course you don’t,” he answered. “My mistake.”

  He’d just repeated the sentence I’d said a few minutes earlier, but coming from his lips it sounded different, like a threat.

  I watched as he approached Redrum. The dragon was noticeably restless, but didn’t try to make his escape.

  Instead, he stoically accepted to be petted by Lucifer and touched Fern with a claw. All the while, everyone on the cliff was perfectly silent.

  There was something about the exchange that struck me as wrong, and not for the first time, I was struck by a haunting thought.

  Lucifer might have come here for me, but his presence would affect far more people. Even assuming he didn’t hurt me and my lovers, everyone else wasn’t as safe.

  Where did that leave me? I had no idea, but somehow, I needed to find out.

  * * *

  As soon as we finished classes for the day, Mikael, Callum, Stefan, and I all headed toward the dean’s office. We didn’t find him there, so Stefan said, “We have no choice. We need to go to his place.”

  “To his place? Where is that?”

  “Somewhere you shouldn’t go alone, Lyssa,” Mikael replied.

  Ironically, despite my relationship with Meph, I’d never been anywhere near his private quarters. It was a little humbling to realize that and I felt awkward and uncomfortable about it. Every time Meph and I had had sex in the past, it had been in his office, in a classroom, in another type of public space, or in my dorm. It had never occurred to me to ask him where he slept.

  Meph’s quarters were only reachable through one of those spatial anomalies that my lovers liked to use so much. He lived on a floating platform so high above the school that it wasn’t even visible from the ground.

  We arrived there through a portal that Mikael summoned. As soon as I stepped out of the gateway, I almost stumbled into a pit of molten lava. I only managed to not turn myself to ash because Callum grabbed my elbow and kept me from slipping.

  From the pit in question, Meph waved at me. “Hello, Lyssa. Come in. Make yourself comfortable.”

  He seemed to be taking a bath in the lava. He looked a little pale, insofar as anyone with his complexion could ever be pale, at least. His skin had gone from its regular crimson to a lighter hue, not pinkish, but definitely not as fiery as it had been before. “Is everything okay?” I asked him, alarmed.

  “I suppose it depends on your definition of okay. I’m not having the best week and I think you know why.” With a sigh, he emerged from the pool of lava, completely naked. “How bad is it so far? With our new… exchange student?”

  I tried very hard to not get distracted by his nudity, or by the fact that he still had the molten fluid flowing over his skin. “He hasn’t done anything major so far. Mostly, he’s approached us for conversations. And he had an argument with Lilith earlier.”

  Meph grimaced. “That’s to be expected. Lilith doesn’t like Lucifer much. I’ll have to talk to her soon, to make sure she doesn’t do anything regrettable. The last thing we need right now is an actual fight between those two.”

  He waved a hand, and the volcanic rock morphed into a comfortable-looking sofa. By now, I was accustomed to Meph’s peculiarities, so I sat down. Callum, Mikael, and Stefan joined me.

  “Sir, why is she so angry with him?” Callum asked. “I mean, I know she begrudged him a little for that whole business with the Original Sin, but I didn’t realize it was a real conflict.”

  “It’s a bit of a sensitive topic in your clan, Callum,” Meph replied.

  “Right, Lilith is distantly related to you,” I mused out loud. “I’d forgotten.” Meph had told me a few bits and pieces about Lilith’s background, although he hadn’t gone into detail. At the time, I’d had other concerns and I hadn’t looked into it further.

  “Sort of,” Callum offered. “Not really. She’s Adam’s first wife, and I’m his descendant, from his marriage with his second one. Anyway, it’s all pretty complicated and I don’t think you want to hear about my family tree. The gist of it is that she’s always had a bit of an indirect bond with the Adamson cl
an and sort of took us under her wing whenever we came to The Academy of the Devil.”

  “That’s kind of surprising,” I replied. “I mean, if Adam dumped her for another woman, wouldn’t she be glad Lucifer got him and his new wife in trouble?”

  “That would be the case, yes, but he did sort of end up starting a war between demons and angels,” Meph said. “It wasn’t nearly so bad before the Original Sin. A lot of demons died, and some people still blame Lucifer for it.”

  He sounded tired and his words reminded me of Lucifer’s comment about ‘the culling of his people’. I shuddered. “I take it she’s one of them.”

  “Yes, but if he’s here, she has no power to send him away. Neither do I, for that matter. The only one who might be able to—other than The Supreme Being—is another Prince of Hell, perhaps the current Satan, although even that is doubtful.”

  The current Satan. We were back to that.

  Seriously, why hadn’t Lucifer stayed on as Satan? That way, I would’ve never been in this situation in the first place.

  It was useless to focus on such thoughts, so instead, I directed my attention to finding a solution. “Did you manage to find anything out about what Leviathan said?” I asked Meph.

  Meph shook his head. “Nothing beyond what he already said. The Seven Circles of Hell are… agitated and not as open to me as I’d like.”

  “So Leviathan was telling the truth about that,” Mikael mused. “I’d hoped he was wrong, but that would’ve been a little too good to be true.”

  “Indeed,” Meph answered. “I’m still looking into what I can do about Satan. In the meantime, I did come up with an idea, a backup plan of sorts.”

  He knelt next to the pool and buried his fingers in the molten liquid. “I bet you’re wondering what this is, right?”

  “Not really,” I admitted. “I thought it was your jacuzzi or your spa. You seem stressed enough to need it.”

  Meph chuckled. “That’s true, but if I ever went to a spa, I’d bring you along. No, this is a special brand of lava I imported from The Infernal Realm, and it has some additional properties that I think we could use.”

  As he spoke, a glowing object manifested from the depths of the pool. It looked a little like a potion flask and it seemed to contain some lava, mixed up with silver particles of an unidentifiable substance.

  “This flask contains the essence of my magic,” Meph explained as the item floated toward me and the others. “Keep it on your person at all times.”

  I took the flask and cradled it in my palms. It felt warm against my skin, but pleasantly so. It also pulsed steadily, almost as if it had a heartbeat of its own.

  “What does it do?” I inquired.

  “It should provide you with a shield of protection, should Satan come at you when no one is around. And hopefully—although this is a bit of a long shot—it might anchor your magic and help you learn to wield your powers.”

  If the flask could do that, why hadn’t he given it to me before? It could’ve come in handy throughout these past months, while I’d been struggling to learn magic.

  Meph almost seemed to guess my mind. “It’s not something you should rely on for day-to-day use. The power of a High Lord of Hell isn’t compatible with that of a human. Like I said, it’s a backup plan, in case anything goes sideways and I’m unable to come up with a better alternative.”

  “I take it you’re not feeling very optimistic, are you?”

  “Not really, no. But that won’t keep me from trying.” He got up and made his way to my side. “Alyssa, I’m very old. So old you should probably not be sleeping with me at all. But if there’s anything I’ve learned in all the years I’ve lived, it’s that some things are worth fighting for. I promised I’d protect you and I will. No matter what.”

  I looked at the flask in my hand and took in the pallor of his skin once again. The ‘no matter what’ made anxiety swirl in my gut. As much as I appreciated the offer, it also scared me.

  “Just as long as it doesn’t endanger you. I don’t want anyone to get hurt for my sake.”

  He said nothing, and that didn’t reassure me in the slightest. I knew better than to call him out on it, though. He was stubborn and he’d always do whatever he thought was best.

  Unfortunately, I suspected that might involve stashing me somewhere safe while he and the others faced something they weren’t ready for.

  At that moment, a decision settled in my heart. Lucifer had come to this school looking for me, because he wanted me. He was the only person capable of fighting off the current Lord of Wrath and ruler of Hell.

  There was only one way out of this seemingly inescapable situation, and that was through another deal with the devil. The mere thought terrified me, but my first pact with him had been to rescue my loved ones. Maybe it was fair that I’d make another one, for similar purposes.

  Manipulation

  As much as I enjoyed having four hot demons as my lovers, it came with some downsides. They’d been overprotective before, but with Lucifer’s presence and the news of Satan being after me, they became almost unbearable.

  There was never a time when I wasn’t guarded and it grated on me. I wanted to tell them to stop hovering, but I couldn’t do that either. I still remembered the incident with Shiro and, as much as I hated being limited so much, I had to admit my irritation was a small price to pay to prevent further disaster.

  Unfortunately, that also meant I couldn’t approach Lucifer about the private conversation I wanted to have with him. My chance came one week after classes began, when Mikael, Callum, Stefan and I joined the Psyche Manipulation elective.

  Stefan’s presence wasn’t actually necessary since, unlike the others, he didn’t have any psychic powers. But he had insisted to join us anyway, and Meph had granted him special permission.

  Lucifer was, of course, present, surrounded by members of the other houses. Gemma clung to his arm like a limpet and several students from The House of Lust seemed seconds away from jumping him. Samuel Byte, also present, repeatedly licked his lips in a way that soon became disturbing.

  My lovers and I kept our distance, with Callum and Mikael flanking me and glaring at anyone who dared to approach. Shiro was following their example and had taken up post in front of me, with a watchful TB on his back.

  “This will be a tense lesson,” Mikael commented as we waited for the professor to arrive. “In the past, Lilith always used to show up before we did.”

  “Unless she had sex magic lessons, but I’m pretty sure it’s too early in the year for that,” Callum added.

  “I guess she wants to avoid him as much as she can.” Stefan made no attempt to hide his resentment and glowered openly at Lucifer. “Not that I can blame her.”

  I placed my hand on his arm, willing him to calm down. “It’s fine. He hasn’t done anything so far, remember? We’re safe for now.”

  Stefan rumbled in his throat, a sound that reminded me an awful lot of his shifted form. Still, he followed my suggestion and turned away from Lucifer.

  It was just as well, because the door finally opened and our teacher stepped inside. Much to my surprise, it wasn’t Lilith. Instead, the new arrival was a man, one who reminded me a lot of Callum. They had the same dark hair and facial structure, the same nose and cheekbones. Callum’s lips were a little fuller and the other man’s eyes were gray instead of green, but the similarity was still there.

  Judging by the way Callum’s breath caught, this was no coincidence. “What the fuck is he doing here?” he hissed under his breath.

  “Lilith must’ve gotten him to come or something,” Mikael replied. “What a mess.”

  “Who’s that?” I asked, already dreading the response.

  My lovers didn’t get the chance to reply. The new teacher did it in their stead. “Hello, students. My name is Cain Adamson and I’ll be taking over Psyche Manipulation this year.”

  Cain? As in the famous sinner who’d killed his brother and had presumably been
punished to eternal damnation for his crime? Shit. If Lilith didn’t like Lucifer, I couldn’t imagine Eve’s son was a big fan.

  In the beginning, my fears proved to be unfounded. Cain threw himself into the lesson and seemed determined to educate us.

  “Before we start, I must warn you that this is a delicate subject of study. If you do not have what it takes and aren’t prepared for the strain it’ll put on your mind, I advise you to take it easy. Don’t force yourself. There’s no shame in mastering this magic at your own pace. When it comes to mind magic, rushing things could result in disaster. Come to me if you have any concerns and don’t try things you aren’t ready for.”

  That was pretty encouraging. It was nice to see a teacher at The Academy of the Devil show concern for the well-being of his students.

  This first impression proved to be inaccurate when, two minutes later, Cain turned toward Lucifer. “Mr. Starr, I understand that you’ve received prior lessons in such magic. Would you mind acting as our target for a small demonstration?”

  “Not at all,” Lucifer replied, “although with your permission, I’d like to pick the student who will be attempting to cast something on me. It’s safer.”

  Cain narrowed his eyes, and I got the feeling he’d wanted to be the one to do mind magic on Lucifer. The way Lucifer had phrased his reply made that impossible. “By all means,” Cain answered. “Make your choice.”

  Lucifer didn’t need to be told twice. Smirking, he looked straight at me. “I’ll choose Ms. Michaelis.”

  I wasn’t surprised, but at the same time, I didn’t want to be involved in something so risky. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I’ve just started training in mind magic. I wouldn’t want to hurt you by accident.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Lucifer replied. “Not to worry. If something does go wrong, I’ll be able to stop it.”

  No one, not even my lovers, could question that. The only person who could’ve prevented this insanity–the teacher—chose not to. “Very well,” he said. “Ms. Michaelis, if you’ll join us, we can begin.”