by Dante King
Idiot, I told myself. How many people throughout history fell for that shit? You really thought you could trust the LITERAL Devil?
“You said I represent humanity,” I told Xora, thinking through her words. “Does that mean that the other candidates for Archlord are all demons, like you?”
She looked a little put out. “They’re demons,” the rusalka growled. “But not like me. There are no demons like me, Luke.”
A hulking demon with the head of a goat trundled up the steps, nodded toward Xora, and made his way into the admissions office. The doors swung open automatically as he approached, revealing a lobby packed full of every kind of demon imaginable. Even in Hell, it seemed, people had to wait in line. The more I thought about it, the more I realized waiting in line was probably a natural part of Hell, the same as flames and torture. A multi-armed demon who resembled an Indian war goddess sat behind the desk, stamping admissions papers in a flurry of motion.
The hulking demon looked eager to get his classes approved—and more than a little irritated at the length of the line. Like several of the demons I’d seen on the way in, he wore loose-fitting track pants and a casual top, though the v-neck tank top that stretched across his torso had clearly been chosen to emphasize his muscles. This guy was ripped, like a champion weightlifter without the steroids. Strange runes covered his arms and legs, and as he stepped through the doors into the office, I could’ve sworn they were glowing, too. Enchantments? Some kind of protection spell, similar to the blessings Lucifer laid down on me? I had no idea, and I wasn’t eager to tap him on the shoulder and find out.
Maybe those runes were like my earring, or the bracelet Lucifer put around my wrist. A focus for his powers. Did that mean Lucifer gave the goat guy his tattoos? A disturbing possibility occurred to me: maybe my story wasn’t as extraordinary as I’d thought. How many of these demons had gotten the fatherly pep-talk from the Prince of Darkness before making their way to the Academy?
Fuck, I thought, looking the big goat-headed man up and down. If that guy’s one of my rivals, I’m in serious trouble.
“Healthy competition is a wonderful thing,” Xora was in the middle of saying to Christina. “Down here in Hell, we work on the principle known as ‘survival of the fittest.’ Those who deserve to rise in the ranks will, and those who do not. . . well. They are not worth thinking about.”
“Sounds like Earth,” I grunted, thinking of the rat race I’d just escaped from.
“Just so,” Xora agreed, a strange smile on her face. “We try our best to make the mortal realm just like home, after all.”
“We’re very good at it,” Mareth agreed, brushing up against me. I’d almost forgotten the succubus was still with us, she’d been so quiet during Xora’s speech. “Tempting humans into lust is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, Luke. A barrel where the fish are clustered at the top, begging to be shot…”
I had to suppress a shudder. “You didn’t answer my question,” I told Xura, circling back to her. “These other candidates—none of them are like me, are they? Humans chosen by Lucifer?”
“You’ll meet them all soon enough,” the rusalka assured me. “But. . . no. You’re the only human candidate, Luke. In fact, a human attending the Infernal Academy is an extremely rare event. Our list of human alumni is extremely short—though it comprises a true elite, some of the most important figures in your history.”
“Oh really?”
“Ghengis Khan,” the rusalka said, counting on a pale, slender figure. “Vlad the Impaler. Elizabeth Bathory—a very rare co-educational transfer student! Only the best and brightest emerge from these halls, Luke.”
“Though not in a while,” Mareth added. “I can’t remember the last time the Academy had a human student. You’re the most recent one by at least a century, I believe.”
I glanced over at Christina, taking her emotional temperature. Somehow that was even easier to do now that she was a demon. Maybe the bond the two of us formed in bed together had something to do with it: all I knew was that one look at her gorgeous pale skin, her winding horns and the sinuous, fishnet stocking scales working up and down her long legs and I could see exactly what she was thinking. Worried, hungry, horny—they all lit up behind her still-human eyes like signal flares, cluing me in to her innermost thoughts with the merest gesture. The curves and the long blonde hair she’d had as a human woman remained, but the rest of her couldn’t have been more different. Her long tail clenched around her taut tummy as she watched Xora hungrily, evidently sharing my thoughts about her suitability for our cause. Christina used her tail like it was a part of her she’d had her whole life, not something she’d sprouted a few hours ago. Hell, she wore her demonic form like she’d been born to it—like being human was the costume, not her ordinary state. It suited her so well.
A strange feeling stole over me. Any of these demons I ran into at the Academy could be looking to shank me in the back. They’d be more than willing to step over my corpse if it got them another rung up the ladder toward being in Lucifer’s shoes.
I should have realized the truth. Nothing in Hell would be handed to me—I was going to have to take it. The Academy was a grounds for learning and scholarship, sure, but it was also a nest of vipers.
Now I understood why the Prince of Darkness had cautioned me to be choosy with the women I surrounded myself with. A demon bound to me was the only kind of demon I could fully trust. They were my confidants, my eyes and ears—and potentially my protection.
Which made me think all the more that Xora would make a hell of an addition to my team. She definitely seemed open to the idea, in any case.
I snaked a possessive hand around Christina’s waist. “Technically, two humans,” I said, pressing the demoness’s body against mine. “Christina only recently underwent her demonic transformation. Until last night, she was just as human as me…”
“Transformed demons—like your friend, Christina—are less rare, but still uncommon.” The emphasis Xora put on the word ‘friend’ told me she was thinking of an entirely different word. “In fact, if all of you on campus got together, you’d barely fill a single table at the cafeteria. Not that you would—most humans transformed into demons are Mogs like Christina, the thrall of some more-powerful demon.”
Christina let out a scoff. “I’m not Luke’s thrall,” she said, stamping a foot. “I’m my own person—an independent woman!”
“Of course,” Xora said smoothly. “You merely make love to Luke whenever he wishes, feel irresistibly attracted to him, and will perform any request he makes of you without complaint. But you’re not a thrall! What a thing to say!”
Her voice dripped with sarcasm, and I just had to join in. “Scratch the ‘without complaint’ part,” I said, giving Christina a good-natured chuckle. “I’ve heard plenty of it since I showed up at this girl’s doorstep…”
“Human girls complain about everything,” Mareth said with a wicked grin. Even she joined in on the fun, sensing Christina’s weakness. “It’s so important to go with the flow at the Academy.” She bit her lip, rubbing one stocking-covered leg against mine. “Us demon girls know that’s what a guy really wants…”
Christina looked like she wanted to say something cutting. Before she could, I reached down and gave her a smart little smack on her round demon booty. It jiggled invitingly beneath my fingers, and for a moment, the demoness’s eyes rolled back in her head, her long tongue lolling from the side of her mouth. The glazed expression lasted only a second before her cooler persona reasserted itself.
“Asshole,” Christina muttered—yet she was grinning. “Why do I always end up falling for jerks?”
“Because you like it,” I growled, giving the still-jiggling flesh a squeeze. “Why don’t we get this show on the road?” I asked, turning my attention back to Xora while Christina gasped. “I’d love to see the grounds, get a feel for the place so I can start making my way around unaccompanied. Maybe we could end the tour with a look at the dorms?
”
It was an open invitation, and Xora took it for exactly that. She glanced from me to Christina, the word threesome practically flashing behind those dark eyes of hers, and licked her lips.
“We’ll see,” she purred, twirling a lock of long blonde hair around her finger. “We have quite a bit of ground to cover, first. The Academy is...larger than it appears from the outside. It may look quite manageable from the grounds, but demonic architecture tends to take certain shortcuts when it comes to geometry…”
I thought of the too-tall ceiling in Christina’s house and nodded. “Cool,” I said, gesturing for Xora to lead the way. “So what are we hitting first?”
Xora turned around to tell me—then frowned at a point over my shoulder. “I think there must be a problem with your vehicle,” the rusalka muttered, gesturing with her chin. “Desdemona looks extremely upset…”
I turned around to see the demon from the parking circle, double-timing it across the Academy grounds. The demons she passed took one look at her face and parted around her like a wave, giving her the space to approach us. Her maroon uniform looked as crisp and official as ever, but the look on her face was anything but.
She stopped in front of me with a quick, cursory bow, her expression tightening. “I apologize for the intrusion, sir,” her face telling me she wasn’t apologetic in the least, “but we weren’t warned prior to your valet service that you were storing a familiar in your vehicle. It’s causing some trouble.”
Xora looked poleaxed. “You brought a familiar to the Academy, too? Goodness, we may have to put you directly in the advanced classes…”
“I haven’t,” I said, frowning in confusion. “At least, I don’t think so. What are you talking about?”
Desdemona the valet gave our group an awkward look. “The, ah, creature in your trunk,” she explained, dancing around the substance of the question. I wondered if a demon’s familiars were part of some kind of privacy agreement—naming one out loud might be as big of a faux pas as sharing someone’s medical information back on Earth. “It’s obviously alive, as it’s making quite a bit of noise. We didn’t know if you wanted us to store it in your vehicle, or if you’d merely forgotten it…”
I had no idea what Desdemona meant. Had the valet found something in our trunk? Dimly, I wondered if we had a stowaway—maybe a cat or a squirrel hanging out in the back of the van, who’d been extremely surprised to find their hiding space transformed into a hot rod. Only wouldn’t Christina and I have noticed a thing like that while we were having sex?
Well, maybe not. It was hard to focus on anything but her body when the two of us were together.
Focus, I thought. Everyone’s staring at you.
“I’m not aware of any...familiar,” I said, ignoring the valet’s look. “Let’s check it out.”
Together, Mareth, Christina, and I made our way back to the car. Xora followed at a short distance, playing with the long hair wrapped around her waist like someone waiting for a juicy drama bomb to go off. The valet had helpfully brought my demonic ride back to the parking circle, leaving it roughly the same spot I’d dropped it off.
As I got closer, I heard what had set the valet on edge. The back end of the hot rod shook, muffled cries escaping the trunk. Someone in there was yelling for help, and kicking the shit out of the interior at the same time.
That definitely wasn’t an animal. It was a person. And I thought I recognized that voice.
A small crowd gathered around at the noise. A ravishing demoness in a cheerleading uniform and a buff demon with horns in a varsity tracksuit—probably her boyfriend—were trying to get my trunk open, evidently moved by the plight of whatever was inside. Even the hacky-sack kids had stopped playing and watched the scene with looks of bemusement.
“Excuse me,” I said, pushing through the crowd. “That’s my ride.”
Awkward, I thought, shaking my head. They all think I tried to smuggle something into the Academy. Meanwhile, if I’d known we had someone in our trunk, I’d have dropped them off in the parking lot…
I felt for my keys, but it turned out I didn’t need them. The trunk responded to my touch, like a beast that recognized its Master. It popped open with a squeak, revealing a gorgeous young brunette who’d been in the middle of kicking the cushions separating her from the backseat. I recognized her instantly—it was our waitress from the diner. The one whose panties were in my jacket pocket.
“Maddie!?” I cried, pulling the name out of my memory. “What the hell are you doing here?”
She blew a lock of hair out of her face, her expression brightening as she saw me. Then she noticed the looming Gothic castle of the Academy behind me and the demons crowded around the back of the hot rod, and let out a bloodcurdling scream.
“What the fuck!?” Maddie shrieked, tucking herself deeper into the trunk. “There are monsters behind you, Luke! Look out!”
I wanted to tell her that these weren’t monsters—that these people were my fellow students. Only I realized a second later that they were anything but. The moment the trunk opened to reveal Maddie hiding inside, every demon within smelling distance of my car froze in place, sniffing the air. A rich, feral scent filled the parking circle as necks snapped, the attention of everyone in the area focused solely on Maddie. The cheerleader, the valet—even Xora—stared straight at the trunk, their expressions filling with an utterly terrifying hunger.
“Fuck,” I growled, putting myself between the brunette and the crowd. “Mareth, why’s everyone gone all scary all of a sudden?”
Even Mareth was affected by whatever was going on. The succubus’s voice trembled with something dark and hungry as she spoke. “You shouldn’t have let her come here,” Mareth whispered, terror cutting through the hunger. “Oh shit, you really should not have let her come here…”
“I didn’t do anything!” I protested, holding up my hands. “She snuck in the fucking trunk! It’s not like I gave her permission!”
The crowd advanced slowly, as if they were a little frightened of me, but it was clear that fear would only last a few more moments at most. Whatever chain reaction I’d set off by letting these people see and smell Maddie, it was taking control of these people.
“You let a mortal enter the Infernal Academy,” Mareth whispered, ignoring my protests.
“I’m a mortal,” I growled, putting my hands on the cheerleader’s shoulders and pushing her away. She stuttered and missed a step, moving like a zombie. The glazed expression in her eyes faded somewhat as she picked herself up, growling. “They didn’t do this to me—”
“You’ve got Lucifer’s favor,” Mareth said. “This girl doesn’t even have so much as a contract binding her to a demon! She’s totally helpless!”
In other words, I’d just thrown a hunk of meat into the lion’s den. With no demonic power to protect her, there’d be a free-for-all to claim Maddie. These demons were about to eat her alive.
Literally.
“Step the fuck back!” I roared, reaching for my powers. Next to me, Christina did the same, extending her claws and hissing at the approaching horde of demons. I still didn’t understand exactly how they worked, but there was no reason for these demons to know that. Intimidating the hell out of them just might work. “I’m an Archlord candidate—a favorite of Lucifer himself! I claim this mortal—”
It wasn’t working. The crowd surged forward, grins stretching to demonic proportions as they tried to shove me over. A feeding frenzy ensued. Within the space of a single heartbeat, all the pretensions of the Infernal Academy fell away. This place had seemed almost civilized when I first set foot here—a real institute of higher learning. Ten seconds of Maddie in their midst cured me of all that.
These people were savages. And despite all appearances to the contrary, this was indeed Hell.
As the demons piled in, climbing over top of each other in their zeal to devour Maddie, something inside of me reacted. A red film spread over my vision, the world blurring and going d
im as I reached for something deep down inside my soul. I’d felt this before —the familiar rush in my veins reminded me of the way I’d charmed everyone around me in the diner —but where that had been tinged with fun, this was filled with anger.
How dare they try and harm her, I thought, seething with rage. Just let them try!
Something black wriggled at the edges of my vision, like dark tendrils. I tensed, fearing an attack. When the tendrils of darkness failed to strike, I realized the truth: they hadn’t been summoned by one of the attacking demons. They’d come from me. I’d summoned them somehow. Another one of my powers?
No time to think. More demons closed in, bearing slavering fangs as they closed in on their prize.
I slugged the demon in the varsity jacket in the face as he tried to rush past me, hissing like a snake as he reached out for Maddie. Hitting his face felt like punching a concrete block, but he staggered backward into the two demons behind him, knocking both off their feet.
The tendrils moved like an extension of my will. They reached out and grabbed the nearest demon—with the body of an utterly gorgeous woman and the head of an elk—and did the same with her, lifting her off the ground and pushing her into the crowd. The elk demon let out a surprised yell as she flew through the crowd, as if she hadn’t seen the attack coming.
The crowd reared back, startled by the appearance of the tendrils. They’d smelled easy meat, but they hadn’t expected this. Pressing the advantage, I sent the tendrils into the crowd, scattering bodies and knocking the nearest demons off their feet. I had to create some distance, open up space for us to...what, exactly? Drive out of here?
We were surrounded by Hell. Demons as far as the eye could see.
The demon in the cheerleader outfit jumped into the trunk, reaching for Maddie. Maddie let out another one of those horror-movie shrieks and dug into the seat cushions, moving like an animal caught in a trap. Claws ripped through the demon’s fingers, extending like Freddy Kreuger’s knives as the cheerleader’s jaw unlatched and expanded.