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Detective Chloe Decker was walking over a study set. She pursed her lips together: a study set. Lucifer was coming with her, looking around and smiling. They were on their way to the crime scene: a woman found dead in a Mary-go-round.
“Is it good to be back at your roots, Detective?” Lucifer asked.
“Not really.” She took a deep breath. Yes, he had saved her life, he had saved Trixie, only she was confused: he had lain in his blood, not breathing… and two days later he…
Lucifer chuckled. “It's bringing back memories of your acting days? If you're feeling nostalgic, sure I can find some horny teenagers and a hot tub. 'Cause the movie you were in was...”
“Yeah, I got it,” she interrupted him.
“Is everything all right, Detective?” Lucifer frowned. “You seem distracted. Usually I get at least a glimmer of a smile from my remarks, the occasional eye roll. I think I got a snort once.”
He was shot point-blank. She wanted an explanation. Of course it was a trick. A magician’s trick. How had he survived? She grabbed his arm and stopped, but before she could ask anything a man bumped into her and made her stumble. Lucifer did caught her arm and kept her standing.
“Stupid bitch,” the guy cursed. “Get the bloody hell out of…”
Before the man was finished Lucifer turned to him, reached out with a single hand, grabbed the man’s shirt and with a stretched arm lifted him as if he was weightless. “Don’t dare to use such words to the detective.”
He shook the guy and next threw him some yards away.
Chloe looked at the man who, after struggling to his feet, ran away. She slowly turned to Lucifer, swallowed and nodded. “Thanks, let’s move on.”
They turned a corner and reached the yellow tape marking the crime scene. Chloe hesitated, then decided she needed to know. “Two days ago, you were shot point-blank.”
“Ah, well, no need to thank me for my heroism.” Lucifer chuckled. “Well, maybe just a little. No one's stopping you.”
“There was blood all over you. You should be dead.”
“Well, par for the course for our adventures, Detective. What's new?”
Chloe gritted her teeth. “You’re not going to explain? I have a sample of your blood and I'm gonna take it and test it.”
“Oh.”
“And I'm gonna find out exactly what you are once and for all.”
“Yeah. Oh.” Lucifer winked. “The Devil himself?”
“No.” She shook her head furiously. “I'm guessing Larry Morningstar, the son of a plumber in Connecticut.”
“Right, well, wrap that up, would you? 'Cause I could use your help on my end. I'm on a bit of a manhunt. Well, woman-hunt, and I need to find her before…” Lucifer stopped talking; they had reached the victim and he was interrupted by a Latino woman, almost a girl.
“Hi, Decker. You said you have blood to test? Of this poor lady?”
“No, Ella. Hi. No that’s private. I will explain later. Have the two of you met?”
“You're a newbie, aren't you?” Lucifer said with a smile.
“Oh, hey, yeah. Ella Lopez. I just transferred in a couple days ago. You must be Detective Decker's civilian consultant.”
“Lucifer Morningstar.”
“Cool,” Ella said.
“I was expecting a different reaction considering your choice of bling,” he said, pointing at the cross she was wearing.
“Oh. Dude, I just think the Devil gets a bad rap,” the girl said.
“Oh. You do, do you?”
“Sure. I mean, what did he really do that was so bad?” Ella asked. “What, rebel against his dad? Ask some naked lady if she wanted an apple?
“Be still my heart,” Lucifer said, pressing his hands against his chest, while Chloe sighed and rolled her eyes. “Do go on,” Lucifer invited Ella.
Ella tilted her head. “I suppose he does run Hell. That's not so great, you know, with the torture and eternal damnation.”
“I'm retired,” Lucifer told her. “And besides, I didn't create Hell. I just worked there.”
“And now you're talking in the first person. Wait. Are you...”
“The Devil,” Lucifer added.
“...a method actor?”
“What?” Lucifer sighed and lowered his shoulders.
Chloe grinned. “See? Everyone figures that out. You can just drop the character. Enough. Ella, what do we have?”
Ella turned to the dead woman in the Mary-go-round. “Victim's name is Gillian Taylor. She was a stand-in for – ”
Chloe was searching the police files for anything that was known about Amy Dodd or Gillian Taylor, but there was nothing apart from drug use and alcohol abuse, things al too common for Hollywood. She just closed the files when Ella dropped in the second chair at her desk.
“Decker, you wanted something with a blood test?”
“O, yeah.” Chloe hesitated for some seconds. “Yes. Lucifer’s…”
“What do you want to test? Sexual diseases before you get laid again?” Ella grinned.
“We never slept together.”
Ella raised her brows. “Really. Everyone in the precinct is sure you did.”
“Are they?” Chloe felt her face reddening and looked around, but at the moment no-one payed attention at her and Ella.
“He is handsome, nice and charming,” Ella mused. “Why not?”
“Two reasons. He only is looking for a one-night stand and always he keeps up that devil character.”
“What if he would drop that devil character for one night?” Ella asked.
“Only if he would want to…”
“Want what? A serious relation,” Ella added.
Chloe shrugged. “I… I don’t know. Maybe. But I first want to know who he really is.”
“So you want to test his blood to find his parents or relatives.”
“Yes.” Chloe nodded. “So we will also prove that, despite his strange powers, he is not the devil.”
“Strange powers?”
Chloe took a deep breath and told Ella about Lucifer being shot by Jimmy Barnes, throwing Joe Hanson single handed through a glass wall, his mojo and him being shot by Malcolm.
“Ok.” Ella thought some seconds. “But he is human?”
“Of course.”
“So you want to prove he is human. And not something… super natural, the devil.”
“Well, the blood test will show.”
Ella shook her head. “There is no the blood test, as a single test. I can test blood on many things, but only a few in one test and you need to specify what you want to tackle. I can test on diseases, on blood type, on DNA sequence. But no test does that all. If you want to see whether blood is human, you have to do really different tests than if you want to find his relatives.”
Chloe scoffed. “He is human. What else?”
“Yeah…. But you want to prove he is human, meaning I have to compare with… With what? I can test blood for being dog blood, ape blood, pig blood. But no test exists to show the difference between human and… angel blood?”
“So you can’t test that?”
Ella thought it over. “Not with any standard test. I will have to look for details that distinguish human blood from different animals…. And hope that I find anything non-human.”
“But… And if you don’t find anything non-human?”
“Then we still know nothing. I have no idea how angel blood differs from human blood.”
Chloe sighed. “Go back to my original idea: just find his parents?”
“Of less than ten percent of the population the DNA profile is known,” Ella explained. “If his parents have never been suspects in a policy investigation, changes their DNA profiles are in a database are almost zero percent.”
Chloe leaned back and thought it over.
“How much blood do you have?” Ella asked.
Chloe showed her the test tube.
“Mm. Not much. I see what I can do. Ok? O, But I came for something else. Lucifer didn’t wear gloves at the crime scene.”
“No,” Chloe grumbled. “I told him dozens of times, but he simply refuses that.”
“At least I need his fingerprints so I can ignore them if I find those on evidence.”
“They are not in his file?” Chloe sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Can you give him a call? Tell him I come over to his place to collect them,” Ella said.
“Why not tell him to come over to the precinct!”
“Are you kidding?” Ella grinned. “My change to see the Lux and that famous penthouse everybody is talking about.”
The penthouse above the Lux was almost dark, only a few lights were turned on. Lucifer poured himself a new drink and chuckled while looking at his brother. “Oh. Look at you, all broody. Suits you. Well, don't worry. Maze always turns up eventually. She's like a bad penny... in tight leather pants.”
Amenadiel sighed and gave him an angry look.
“Unless, of course, you scared her away for good,” Lucifer added
“I scared her away?” Amenadiel tried to laugh.
“Well.” Lucifer shrugged. “Everything was fine until you went all lovey-dovey on her.”
“Really? Because I seem to remember her telling both of us where to shove it.” Amenadiel pursed his lips and stared for some moments at his brother. “Luci, you don't think she helped Mom escape, do you?”
“Well, that doesn't sound like the kind of evil, duplicitous thing a demon would do.” Lucifer was sure Maze didn’t help mum to escape: how could she while she was on the Earthy plane. Enough about Maze. Telling Amenadiel the detective plans to test his blood would irritate his brother and he already enjoyed the look that would bring on Amenadiel’s face, when his bell of the elevator rang. He looked and immediate forgot about telling Amenadiel. “Sorry, big boy. I have an important visitor. Hello, miss Lopez. I was expecting you. Care for a drink?”
He turned to Ella. Behind him his brother mumbled something that sounded as a curse and left.
Chloe’s phone rang. “Hi, Ella.”
“Decker, are you…” Ella’s voice was hardly more than a whisper. “Can you come to the lab?”
“Sure. What’s wro…” Chloe raised her brows, since Ella had already finished the call. So Chloe made the sixteen steps to the door of the lab and went in. “What’s wrong?”
“He is not human.”
“What? How do you mean?”
Ella looked pale. She was sitting at the table in the middle of the lab, wiggling her fingers. “I looked at the blood and at skin cells that I collected while I took his fingerprints. I found some skin cells who were in the cell division phase. That is when a cell splits in two. It is the moment to easy see the chromosomes.”
“Yes,” Chloe said, looking at Ella for more.
“Human cells have twenty-three pairs of chromosomes. I found three skin cells dividing. He has twenty-seven pairs of chromosomes. I looked at the blood. It has of no type, meaning it does not have any antigens on the red blood cells, but also does not have any antibodies in the blood serum.”
Chloe and Ella looked for some seconds at each other.
“Meaning?” Chloe whispered.
“As I said: he is not human.”
“Is he the devil?”
“I don’t know. What else? An alien? How should I see the difference between an alien, an angel or one of Tolkien’s elves?”
Chloe thought that over. “He never lies. He often doesn’t tell you everything and he… sometimes says something he knows you will misinterpret, but what he says is true.”
“So he is the devil,” Ella whispered.
“Yes.”
Again they looked for some time at each other in silence.
“And what now?” Ella asked. “Is he after our souls?”
“He once said he is not interested in souls.” Chloe frowned. “He said there were too many souls in hell already.”
“Tempt us to the deadly sins?” Ella mused.
“What exactly are the deadly sins?” Chloe asked.
“Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride,” Ella summed up. “I learned that at Sunday school.
They both gave it a thought. Chloe shrugged. Again they went silent for minutes.
“There is only one person that can tell us what he is after,” Ella finally said.
“Oh? Who?”
“Lucifer. You said he doesn’t lie and it is not that he wants to keep secret he is the devil.”
“Talk with Lucifer?” Chloe blinked her eyes. “Telling him we know?”
“He saved your life. He likes you. He never lies,” Ella whispered. “And remember your had two reasons not to sleep with him? One of those was he had to tell you who he really is… Well, forget that one. He did.”
Chloe and Ella decided that go around noon was the best timing – that is: Chloe suggested it, based on what she knew of Lucifer and changes to find him in the penthouse. It appeared she was right: the Lux was almost empty, less that a dozen visitors and no Lucifer. “Boss is in the penthouse,” a bartender told them. As Chloe had expected.
During the elevator’s ride up, Chloe and Ella looked nervously at each other and repeated the questions they had prepared. “Is this safe?” Chloe whispered.
“You said yourself it is,” Ella answered. “He is retired he said, he just worked there...”
“Detective, miss Lopez, welcome.” Lucifer laughed when they entered and he grabbed a bottle from the bar. “Can I serve you a...” Probably he noted the tension on Chloe’s face, for he stopped with the invitation. “Detective?”
“Can we talk?” Chloe swallowed.
“Yes, of course.” He gestured at the couch.
“I tested your blood,” Ella said before they were seated.
“Ah? Yes? And what did you find?”
“You don’t know?” Ella asked.
“Miss Lopez, I have really no idea how angel blood – for biologically I’m an angel – differs from human blood.” His eyes flashed from Ella to Chloe and back, before he frowned and said: “I guess it does or else you wouldn’t look so stressed.”
“So you really are an angel?” Chloe whispered. Silently she cursed herself: that was not the question she and Ella had planned to ask first.
“I was, detective. Now I’m the devil, as I have told you every day.”
He had. Indeed he had never tried to hide that. And he had saved her life twice, three times. And he still looked friendly, not a trace of anger.
“Why are you here?” Chloe groaned, again not the question they had planned first.
“Here?” Lucifer looked around, then raised his brows. “I do live here… This is my home.”
“I mean on Earth.”
“Do you want our souls?” Ella added. Again not yet the question they should ask, but Ella seemed relaxed and ok to go this way first.
“Ah… You…” Lucifer frowned and hesitated. “No. I do not want your soul, nor the detective’s soul, nor anyone’s soul. I just wanna have fun. Please don’t tell me you are afraid of me. Detective…” He turned to Chloe. “I never wanted to hide I’m the devil. I asked you to test my blood. I have always told you what I am.”
“You did,” she acknowledged.
“And you’re not afraid? Please?”
She looked at the tension on his face and shook her head. “I’m not. But why do you insist to work with me?”
“To help you solve cases.”
“Why with me?”
He looked at her, opened and closed his mouth a few times and then took a deep breath. “I like working with you. I like…”
“… Chloe?” Ella suggested.
“I’m the devil, miss Lopez. I don’t like people.”
Ella looked at him eyes half closed. “Do you like to see Chloe smile?”
“Of course.”
“Do you like hearing her voice?”
He hesitated, gave it a thought and shrugged. “Yes, very much.”
Even more than his words, the warmth in his voice made Chloe held her breath.
“Do you enjoy siting next to her in a car driving to a crime scene?” Ella continued.
“Always.” He looked a bit uncertain at Chloe.
“And you don’t want to take her to hell?”
“Never! How can you even think so!”
Ella nodded. “And do you feel the same with other people?”
“The devil doesn’t feel for…” He frowned. “I mean, how could… I only came to Earth to…” He went silent and stared ahead.
“Lucifer?” Ella smiled at him. “What more is needed before you say you like someone? Or even more than like?”
Stop this conversation, Chloe thought, but – for whatever reason – she couldn’t say it.
“But…” Lucifer gave Chloe a shy look. Than he shook his head and turned back to Ella. “The detective is not interested in me, miss Lopez. I have offered her the best night of her life numerous times, but she always said no.”
Chloe raised and turned away. “I need to go to the bathroom.” Both Lucifer and Ella were silent while she walked away. She opened the door to his bathroom, but then closed it without entering. She was still outside, leaning against the door, her eyes closed.
“Maybe you offered the wrong thing,” she heard Ella say.
“What do you mean?” was Lucifer’s reaction.
“You offered a one-night stand.”
“What else, miss Lopez? But the detective is clearly not interested in sex, not interested in being more than friends.”
Chloe felt all her muscles tense. He is not human she reminded herself. He doesn’t understand us.
“You never considered she is looking for a long-term relation? Exclusive. Just she and the man she loves. The man who loves her.”
“Miss Lopez…” Lucifer went silent again.
Chloe put her hands against her ears. Why did Ella discuss this? Lucifer was not interested is such relations. Never. He only wanted to brag about how many sex partners he had the previous night. They had planned to talk about why he was on Earth, did he want to tempt people to sin… With hands on her ears and eyes closed she thought that over. The seven deadly sins as Ella had said: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. She realized she knew the answer: he most certainly was interested in lust, but the other six? He would just roll his eyes if one would ask… And did he tempt people to lust? Almost all his sex partner came to him and asked for a one-night stand. Here in the Lux she had never seen him approaching someone that was not already looking for him… Well, apart from herself.
She took a deep breath, lowered her hands and listened. No voices any more, both Ella and Lucifer were silent. She turned and walked back.
Lucifer looked at her the moment she entered. Tension on his face. “Detective…”
She nodded, planning to say it was better they would leave now.
“Detective, may I ask you on a date?”
“Lucifer, you know I don’t do one-…”
“To see whether we can work to a long term relation, monogamous, just you and me”