The case had hit another slow point, and Lucifer was back in his club waiting to hear if the Detective got a hit on those names. Maze was being her usual annoying self, and giving him heck for spending so much time with a human. He couldn't quite explain it to himself, but there was no doubt in his mind about where he wanted to be.
Maze walked away and Lucifer returned to his piano. There was something so relaxing about pressing on those ivory keys, not that his piano keys were made of actual ivory; that would be cruel even for the Devil. Still he did love to play. Looking up from his piano to reach for his glass, Lucifer saw someone unexpected walk into Lux.
"Pretty sure your name's not on the list," Lucifer said to the newcomer.
"It should be," Dan replied. "Considering I've just spent the last couple of hours convincing Anthony Paolucci not to press charges."
"What if I want to press charges?" Lucifer replied. "A drunk on duty cop, surely that's a no no."
"I don't do favours for guys like you," Dan continued. "I did this for Chloe."
"And I'm sure she didn't ask you to," Lucifer added.
"Do you have any idea how easily a gang vendetta can spiral out of control?" Dan asked.
"You worry too much Daniel," Lucifer smiled back. "Or haven't I told you, I'm immortal."
"Yeah that's exactly why I'm here," Dan said definitely. "You seem to have Chloe convinced that she shot you and you didn't bleed. Now I have nothing against pranks generally, but that one could get her killed."
"It's not a prank Daniel," Lucifer said. "Do you want to shoot me too?"
"Chloe is the mother of my child you imbecile," Dan said firmly. "You want to work this case. Take care of her."
"On that we can agree," Lucifer replied, cheekily. "Consider me her guardian devil."
"No more jokes, Lucifer!" Dan snapped. "I can't change my boss's ruling to let you work with us, but you have to take this seriously."
"The last thing I want is for the Detective to get hurt," Lucifer said in a more serious voice. This seemed to have more of an impact on Dan, and he left with a slight nod of the head.
So Chloe told her ex about their little shooting incident did she? Not that Dan believed it. Still, an interesting development. Lucifer sat back down at his piano. He hadn't been playing long, however, when his phone rang. Picking it up he saw a text from Chloe. Looks like they'd gotten a lead on those names.
She picked him up and was oddly quiet as they drove.
"We should take my car next time," Lucifer said into the silence.
"I'd rather drive," Chloe replied calmly.
"I never said you couldn't drive my car," Lucifer smiled.
"Really? You'd let me drive your car?" Chloe laughed. Lucifer shrugged. "Your Chevrolet Corvette?"
"Why not?" Lucifer replied easily. "I have lots of cars."
"That car is worth more than I make in a year," Chloe scoffed.
"It's a '62 so I suspect that's true, Detective," Lucifer replied.
"Crazy," Chloe sighed. Despite his attempts to make conversation, she didn't talk much more until they reached their destination. Parking the car she turned to talk to him.
"No matter what else is true you decided to work with me, and if that's really what you want I need you to back me up here," the Detective said. "This could turn ugly fast."
"Yes, yes, dangerous. I know," Lucifer sighed. "You sound just like your ex."
"You talked to Dan?"
"He came by Lux," Lucifer answered. "All worried. He doesn't feel you are safe with me, and my pranks."
After an eye roll, she gave him a quick briefing on the two people they were going to see, a hot headed couple married right out of juvie.
"We have to be smart about this Lucifer," Chloe continued. "Just because you are invulnerable doesn't mean we all are."
"Well that's just it isn't it, Detective?" Lucifer replied. "Consider me your human shield, or well, I guess devilish shield but either way."
Chloe gave him a look that he couldn't quite interpret before getting out of the car. Lucifer followed behind her. He watched as she knocked on the door, announced she was LAPD, and got completely ignored.
"Allow me, Detective," Lucifer said, but she held up a hand to stop him.
"You are not knocking down the door," Chloe told him firmly.
"They are clearly not going to come out and talk to us," Lucifer replied.
"And they don't have to," Chloe explained. "We don't have a warrant and no one is in immediate danger so we can't knock down the door."
"Well I can fix that," Lucifer said and quickly moved away around the left side of the house. He could hear her calling as he found an open window. Sneaking in, Lucifer found the crazy guilty couple laying in bed together.
Just seeing him had the desired effort. The girl screamed and Lucifer heard the Detective break down the door. Perfect.
The first thing the Detective did when entering the room was point her gun at him.
"Now, now, Detective," Lucifer sighed. "We've played this game before. No point wasting bullets on me, remember?"
"Has he hurt you?" Chloe asked, turning to the couple in the bed.
"He just sat in the chair smiling," she said. "It was creepy."
"Yeah that about sums him up," Chloe sighed, putting her gun away. Lucifer tried not to take that personally.
After a quick interrogation that didn't even require his devilish powers they had all they needed. They only wanted Benny's shoes and it was his cousin who died. Another dead end. This 'finding a murderer' thing was turning out to be far more difficult than Lucifer had expected. Chloe seemed to be rather against his trying to put all the pieces together in front of these hotheads, but at least they got a new one: Yellow Viper. Rather than hunt that guy down though, Lucifer found himself at a pig murder scene. Despite all the mortal's worries, this case was turning out to be quite the opposite of a gang war.
They eventually found Yellow Viper teaching art to youngsters. He didn't seem to be in a chatty mood, and again, she wouldn't let Lucifer scare the guy into talking, so they were back at square one.
"Now what, Detective?" Lucifer asked.
"Back to the start," Chloe replied. "Go over everything again to see if we missed something."
"Well that sounds positively boring!" Lucifer exclaimed.
"You don't have to come!" Chloe said. "In fact, you don't have to be here at all."
Before Lucifer could reply three cars drove up and out of them came, humans. Many humans, all carrying guns. Looks like Lucifer's speculations in front of those hotheads had led them to hunt down Yellow Viper themselves. Chloe tried to talk them down, but Lucifer was quite thrilled with this outcome. Even with all guns pointed at him and the Detective.
This was his chance.
Moving forward to engage the leader in conversation, Lucifer indicated to the kids behind him to run. The distraction worked. The kids were out of the firefight. Now just to get the Detective to safety then he could really have some fun.
"Where'd they go?" one of the hotheads said, looking for the Viper.
"Don't matter," the other hothead said. "We'll kill him first." And then the gun was pointed right at Lucifer's head. He couldn't help but smile.
The gun went off and Lucifer felt the pressure of the impact on his forehead, before reaching forward and crushing the gun with his bare hand.
"Who is next?" Lucifer asked, holding up the destroyed weapon.
Suddenly there was chaos. Some of the gang members were scrambling to get back into their cars while others were frozen where they stood, guns still pointing forward.
Lucifer moved quickly, using his superior strength and speed to take them all down one by one. He started with the ones fleeing the scene. They couldn't be allowed to escape. Then once they were on the ground moaning and unable to move, he focused on the others. Crushing their guns seemed to snap them out of their trances. Some of them just fell down in fear while others he had to knock down. He even flashed his devil eyes at one particularly tough looking fella, then watched as he sank to his knees in fear. In just seconds Lucifer had the chaos handled.
There was, however, an exception. He'd missed one of the frozen ones in the back. He wouldn't have cared if the guy had been aiming his gun at Lucifer again, but this guy had his weapon pointed at Chloe. Lucifer hadn't noticed fast enough. There wasn't time now to stop the gun from going off. That left only one option. Lucifer acted without thinking, moving his body to intercept the bullet headed for the Detective's head.
He felt the bullet hit him instead of her and for a split second he was relieved, but then, rather than the usual moment's pressure, Lucifer felt a sudden and sharp pain erupt in his right shoulder.
Lucifer fell to the ground in front of Chloe. The rest of the gang members were all unconscious or otherwise disabled around them with the exception of the one who'd just shot him. Without missing a beat the Detective got out her gun and shot the guy in the leg, immobilizing him.
This was silly. He couldn't possibly be hurt. Lucifer tried to get up, but failed. The pain in his shoulder was too intense.
"What the hell, Lucifer?" the Detective yelled. She was at his side now bent over his right shoulder.
"It's strange, Detective," Lucifer said. "Why does it hurt?"
"You're bleeding!"
"I'm what?" Lucifer didn't quite believe it. He lifted his left arm to touch the spot that hurt and sure enough when he looked there was blood on his hand.
"I'm bleeding," Lucifer said, stunned beyond belief as he looked at his hand. "But I don't bleed."
"It doesn't make any sense," Chloe said desperately. "I saw him shoot you in the head, you crushed that gun like it was butter and now you're bleeding!"
"What's happening to me?" Lucifer asked, with fear in his voice. He was feeling very strange, almost like he was drunk but much less pleasant. Might be from the blood loss. His shoulder hurt. Like really hurt. Lucifer had never experienced pain like this before once in his life.
"Have you ever bled before?" she asked.
"I don't suppose that bullet was made of an ancient demon blade forged in the fires of hell itself?" he asked, knowing that was the only thing that should be able to pierce his skin. She just looked at him like he was nuts. "Didn't think so."
Lucifer looked up at Chloe though as she fumbled with her phone and Lucifer listened as she called for backup. Next he felt intense pressure on his already painful shoulder. He cried out in pain. Dazed, he looked to see Chloe pushing a piece of cloth against his wound.
She stayed like that, pressing against his shoulder until the backup arrived. Lucifer was lifted onto a gurney and a parametric took over with his wounds. Chloe was still standing near him however and Lucifer couldn't help staring at her. He didn't understand what the expression on her face meant.
"What's wrong, Detective?" he asked, but she didn't speak at once, and they were interrupted by Detective Douche.
"What did I tell you," Dan said to Chloe. "It was a prank. Look, he's bleeding just like anybody else." Dan patted Chloe on the back before he continued. "Oh and we found a gun matching the one fired into the crowd in Viper's bag."
"Yeah," Chloe said, but her voice was empty. Lucifer's eyes were still fixed on her face. There was something there that Dan wasn't seeing.
"So, gonna tell me what happened here?" Dan asked.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Chloe replied.
"At least we caught the bad guys," Dan said before walking away to help another officer arrest a semi-conscious gang member.
Lucifer still wanted an answer to his question. There was something bothering the Detective which for some inexplicable reason bothered him, but before he could do anything he was wheeled away by the paramedics.
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What does everyone think of Lucifer's getting shot this time?
Yes I know this story is getting updated way too fast... sorry not sorry. It's like it's writing itself! I am currently working on chapter six! And I just couldn't let chapter 3 sit there all edited and lonely when it could be online. ^_^
This writing speed is giving me 2016 flashbacks! Damn! Anyway hope you enjoy. Please review!
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Sneak Peek Chapter 4
"What's so funny?"
"Just everything," Chloe said, breathless from laughter. "The Devil solving crimes. It's just so ridiculous. Wouldn't even make a good tv show and yet now it's my life."
"Who says it wouldn't make a good tv show," Lucifer said almost defensively.
"I mean please," Chloe replied, putting on her best skeptical look.
"I think the concept has marret," Lucifer said cheerfully. "Could be fun with the right producer."
"If you say so," Chloe chuckled.
"Ooh oh and I already have a theme song, you wanna hear it?"
"If I say no you are just gonna sing it anyway aren't you?" Chloe sighed. Sometimes his man acted more like a child than Satan himself.