Lucifer Reborn by Dante King (ebook reader play store .txt) 📕

“Oh geez! We should have warned you,” the succubus said, helping me to my feet. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, Luke. They’re not really demons—just night terrors.”

“Most new students find the spectacle amusing,” Xora added, watching the nightmares dance. “I’m going to go ahead and assume you won’t be interested in anything beyond the basic requirements in the Sloth school, then?”

Sloth school. That made a certain kind of sense. Those gorgeous women on the mats were certainly down for the count. The spirits flying around the air, making spooky faces and recharging themselves on clouds, must be some kind of nightmare forms they practiced making. Now that I knew what they were, most of their terror had fled.

It was the whole ‘forgotten childhood fears’ thing that threw me off my game. I resolved to not let that happen again.

“You assume correctly,” I said, wiping my forehead as I regained my feet. The only way out is through, I told myself, shaking off the last of my fear. Learning how to turn into a nightmare would be a surefire way to never be afraid of them again — as long as I had the guts to try. “Damn fine job,” I said in a louder voice, speaking to the instructor. “You really got me good!”

The instructor acknowledged my complement with a nod. “Return to your bodies now, students,” she intoned, picking up a large stick laying on the floor next to her and using it to ring a small silver bell. “You’ve done enough haunting for one class. Sink back into your physical bodies, and return to the classroom once more…”

Slowly, the whirling vortex of nightmare demons did just that. First one, then a group sank to the level of the classroom, diving into a demon laying inert on the mat. As each one disappeared into a demonic body, the person on the mat gave a start and shot into a sitting position, like someone snapped out of a nightmare.

The last two spun around each other longer than the others, clearly stronger. One waggled a long tongue at me, trying again to send me to my knees in horror. This time I wasn’t having it. I met the horror’s glare with one of my own, and the creature sank with disappointment into the body of a blue-skinned demon girl in a sweatshirt and jeans. When she rolled over, grinning at me, I saw the logo of the Infernal Academy on her back. A seven-pointed star stood out on the fabric, an arcane symbol at the tip of each representing one of the schools based around the deadly sins. The spokes of the star knotted together in the center, forming the backdrop to a demonic goat’s head with long, curling horns.

“Very good, class,” the instructor said, sounding like she meant it. “You’re really getting the hang of navigating in nightmare form. Next week, we’ll make our first attempts at entering the dreams of mortals.”

“This class is much better than the last one,” Xora said, nudging me. “This, as you’ve no doubt figured out, is the Sloth school: devoted to haunting the dreams of mortals and contacting them beyond the veil of night. Very fun stuff—it was always my favorite class to attend, personally.”

“Gee, I have no idea why,” I said sarcastically. The class filed out, though the blue-skinned demon girl lingered a moment, her eyes on me.

“Sorry to startle you,” she said, her voice surprisingly nice for someone who cut such a horrifying nightmare.

I shook my head. “No worries. All part of the learning process, right?”

She gave me a final, interested look, then followed the rest of the class out.

“Did you have night terrors when you were a kid or something?” Mareth asked, once we were alone. “You had a really strong reaction to that display—even for a mortal.”

I was about to tell her that was the exact truth. Before I could stop myself—after all, confessing my deepest fears to any demon was probably a very bad idea in this place—Xora cleared her throat, cutting me off. “It’s not his fault,” she said, pointing after the blue-skinned demon. “That particular student is extremely skilled. A prodigy, in fact.”

Mareth’s face lit up. “Oh, I’ve heard about that! Some really powerful nightmare demons can pull nearby humans into their created worlds. They call it a Vortex, and it’s apparently a real trip! Kind of like your subspace, Luke!” She giggled, no doubt recollecting both her and Christina kneeling across my bed, their asses and pussies in the air.

“I’ll have to be careful around that one, then,” I muttered, shaking my head. “How about you, Christina? You think this might be one of your specialties?”

Christina gave the roiling sky above us a final look, then sniffed loudly. “Nah, I don’t think so. This place stinks. Besides, I’d rather get up in somebody’s face than try and slip into their dreams. I saw that movie, and shit got weird for Leo. I’m still not sure what that ending was trying to say…”

With a laugh, I pulled her into a hug. “Nah—definitely simpler to keep things in the here and now. I’m sure it’s a very powerful ability, though, in the right hands.”

“It’s caused a lot of mayhem,” Mareth said with a secretive smile. “Both here and on Earth.”

We left the tower of Sloth behind, Xora leading the three of us through a beaded curtain hidden against a section of the sky. The sudden change in pressure made my ears pop—within a few steps, we’d gone from feeling high in the air to being deep underground. The air was cool and damp, smelling faintly of incense and earth.

“I’m sure you’ve been waiting for this one,” Xora said with a sharp look at Christina and me. “We save our Lord’s primary sin for last in these parts, and since there’s only two left, you can