At first, Lucifer thought the roughness on his inner wrist was an abrasion or an allergic reaction to an expensive body wash, manifesting in a form of swirling designs across the skin just beneath his palm. Carefully, he ran his thumb over it, feeling the raised sigils and, somehow, their dimensions evoked a vague memory, but it was lost in the annuals of time. As he finished dressing to go downstairs to Lux for the evening, he thought nothing more of it.
A few days later, Lucifer noticed that the roughness no longer looked like a rash, but distinctly appeared as some sort of pattern. He studied the sigils in the bright vanity lights of his bathroom, trying to remember where he had seen something similar. The memory evaded him, but a feeling of uncertainty accompanied that elusive recollection. Again, he pushed the vague dread aside to concentrate on his nightclub. Concentrating on good whiskey, music and beautiful women, he lost himself in the seduction of Lux, trying not to think of heaven and Hell combined into one woman: Chloe.
After returning to Hell, finding Mummy Dearest running amok in a stolen human body causing chaos and disorder at her whim, he thought it best to keep Chloe and her spawn as close a possible. He had briefly entertained the notion of calling in favors to have Chloe transplanted to another side of the country, but thought better of it. At least in L.A., Amenadiel and Maze were trustworthy frenemies in his quest to return Charlotte to her prison in Hell. Better to keep his psychotic Mum under close surveillance and his beloved Chloe closer, protected by his power.
Whether by coincidence or fate, Penelope Decker had soon returned after the entire Malcolm fiasco with a new husband in tow and saying she wanted back her house where Chloe had lived rent-free for the past three years. Of course, Lucifer saw the opportunity to have Chloe under his protective eye and offered two of his spare bedrooms of his penthouse to her and Trixie for a nominal monthly rent. She resisted, but she couldn't resist the Devil AND Trixie for long.
Chloe had abruptly halted their burgeoning romance, staunchly insisting that if they were living and working together, it was best to cool the infatuation between them. For the sake of keeping her safe, he agreed and boded his time for when he'd court Chloe properly and make her weep and scream atop of the baby grand piano downstairs in Lux. He gave a small shrug as he fastened his cuff links when he studied the strange sigils on the inside of his wrists, now there for over a week. Lucifer stared in abject astonishment at the intricate, swirling script adorning the pale skin of his right inner wrist. Nearly six years on Earth without repercussion or consequence and now his personal Armageddon had just announced its arrival upon his skin. An Enochian sigil marked him as property.
"Oh, bloody hell, no!"
Lucifer found comfort that Chloe had made no mention of similar sigils appearing mysteriously upon her person, which meant that her heart was having still free and untethered. When an angel fell to Earth, that angel eventually became human, but in the process, created monsters in their wake. That was, unless, Father, had blessed union and the angel's presence upon Earth. Somehow, in His sense of humor which some called higher purpose, He deemed it appropriate for Lucifer to be enslaved no longer in the pits of Hell, but the pit of Despair known as unrequited love. Lucifer scoffed at the dark irony. Love was truly Hell.
Chloe made him vulnerable: mind, body and soul. He knew he would do anything to keep her and Trixie safe, even if it meant ending his corporeal existence and returning to Hell. Lucifer felt rather smug until that week knowing that he had escaped his encroaching humanity and falling in love, but on his wrist was the irrefutable evidence that he no longer was the archangel he once was. This meant he was no longer the Lord of Hell. That meant he no longer had the means to protect Chloe from Charlotte if she found out about the Detective.
"Oh, Father, no. Not like this."
The more ornate the sigil, the deeper the love the angel felt for the human who consumed said angel. Over time, the longer any divine being spent on Earth, the more "human" one became. If only Humanity had known that original sin wasn't his doing, but the one crimp of his Divine plan of checks and balances. If Adam and Eve hadn't bitten off more than they could chew, Humanity's divinity would have remained intact. He scoffed at the irony, finding that not only had he fallen by his own choice, his humanization made him as a target and made Chloe vulnerable.
He looked skyward. "It's one thing to punish me, I get it. But, why do you have to drag Chloe into this? What has she ever done to You? You promised me that you would protect her and keep her safe if I were the son you wanted. Instead, I'm weakened and you want me to bring Mum back in designer chains."
If the love remained unrequited, he'd slowly fade into the ether and return to divine essence from which he came. Lucifer pondered the fate and supposed there could be worse ones. Living with her was pleasure and pain combined into one potent, bittersweet sensation and she was the only one in all of his existence that had touched the depths of his heart and had given him a soul.
Lucifer went to the kitchen, finding Chloe sitting at the table at the start of the evening, reading the news on her phone and drinking a steaming cup of coffee as was her nightly ritual. His dark eyes instantly glances at the wrist of her hand holding the coffee mug, but a long shirt sleeve and a watch band covered her skin and revealed nothing.
He still remembered the minor scandal that erupted at the precinct when Chloe and Trixie had moved into the Penthouse with him. Already ostracized for the Palmetto incident and not yet redeemed by Detective Douche's confession of his participation with Malcolm, their cohabitation had caused more disdain among the ranks in the department. More than one cop had insulted the good Detective and more than one had seen Lucifer's darker side, sending several cops into hysterics or catatonia. Chloe had no friends to speak of, save for the waitresses at Lux and the cloyingly sweet forensic scientist, Ella Lopez.
"Hey," said Chloe, looking up to smile at Lucifer. "I just made a fresh pot if you want some before work."
Love burned bright and painfully in Lucifer at that moment when he looked at Chloe. All he wanted to do was to get her as far away from L.A. as possible, send Charlotte back to Hell and resume loving Chloe with everything in his being, but she was his reason for existing now and not the existence he had led for the past five years. The sigils on his wrist throbbed painfully as they moved beneath his skin, growing in strength as he fought down the emotions that he denied for Chloe's sake. How he wanted to show her with body and his new soul of a love so vast and endless that it knew no end and nothing in Heaven or Hell could extinguish it.
Lucifer tugged at his shirt cuff, covering the sigils as he turned his back to her. He felt the scalding trail of liquid burn a path down his check as frustration mounted within him. At least when he made a deal, he kept his end of it. He glared upwards for a moment, gathered his composure and turned to flash a charming grin toward the Detective.
"Thank you, but no, Detective, must run!" he grinned.
"Lucifer, your eyes-" Chloe stopped mid-sentence, her jaw slack with shock. "They're glowing."
"Trick of the light," he rolled his eyes pointing upward toward the light fixture. "I never did like these lights. I'll change them out one of these days. Must be going and perhaps, we'll see you downstairs this evening."
"No, I think I'll just curl up on the sofa with a good book."
"But, isn't your spawn at a sleepover with a group of her little friends?" he asked, turning away from her to get his baser emotions under control.
"Yes, which gives me the perfect chance to defrag from the week," she took another sip of her coffee.
A burning heat coursed through his body as he felt the darker self within him rise. He would learn to govern his emotions better than he had, he had already lost the chance of Chloe loving him and vowed not to lose her presence in his life as well.
Lucifer never learned that lesson well. Within three weeks, his Enochian's sigils were complex spirals and swirls consuming his entire right forearm in a sleeve of black and scarlet. He had given up all hope of burying his emotions for Chloe and decided distraction seemed the best solution. No woman gave him the satisfaction he craved and liquor never erased her presence from his mind. Worse yet, Chloe had met someone and had started dating. While not serious, jealously burned brightly within him, reminding him why his name was Morningstar. he could just ignore it. He just had to get the chap alone long enough to stare him down and sending him running away in hysterics.
When Lucifer returned from Lux in the wee hours of the morning, he found Chloe sitting on the sofa with crumpled tissues scattered around her, red-rimmed eyes and, once again, single. Lucifer saw her heart breaking in front of him as she did her best to gain her composure.
"You know, Detective, I do have friends everywhere," he gave her a knowing glance. "I can make it were Robert mysteriously disappear and make it look like a painful accident."
"No thanks," she sniffed, wiping her nose and making a perfect shot with her crumpled tissue into the waste basket only a few feet away. "I think you've done enough damage."
"Detective, whatever do you mean?" Lucifer gave her an innocent glance. "Surely, you're not blaming me for your fizzling love life?"
"And why not?" she demanded. "He told me there was another woman that had come back into his life and felt compelled to tell me. Then, you interrupted us every time we had se-"
"You two….had sex?" Lucifer felt the inner fires rising and the heat behind his eyes wanting to flame. He breathed deeply, willing the heat to dissipate.
"Yeah, for the first time in two years, I had sex, Lucifer!" Chloe bellowed. "Why do you give a damn what I do?"
"Because," interrupted Lucifer before Chloe could continue her rant, "he hurt you, Chloe, and wanted only what he could get from you and not what he could give you. He only wanted you for the orgasm, Love, and not for the love you had to offer. You are too good for a sod like that."
Chloe froze, hand raised and drawn back as if ready to slap him. Dark eyes met light blue and neither backed down nor looked away. Slowly, she lowered her hand and Lucifer's stern gaze softened. Before he could stop himself, he gently cupped her check and wiped away fresh tears with the pad of his thumb.
"I think that's the nicest thing you've said to me in a long time."
"Oh, Chloe," said Lucifer. "Why did you bother with Robert when you truly didn't care for him?"a
"Because I'm tired of being alone," she sighed, looking away. "What I want, but can't have, it hurts too much."
Lucifer swallowed the lump in his throat, feeling the sigil contract painfully around his forearm and he fought down the urge to clear the table and show her how much she was loved right on the table. "Well, Detective," he said with a glibness he didn't feel. "There are always more fish to be caught, right? Well, I really must be off to Lux! Money to make and clients to charm."
With that, he left Chloe alone in the kitchen.
Neither man nor woman squelched the need in Lucifer's body yearning for Chloe. Sometimes, in the late of night, the liquid pearly silk clung to his fingers as a constant reminder of thirst that refused to quenched. Each day, the Enochian sigil burned deeper into his skin had edged up past his elbow and up to his shoulder. For the first time in his ten billion years of existence, he felt shame at his actions in somehow betraying Chloe.
Chloe wouldn't act as he was, she was too pure and loyal to seek out a man for pleasure's sake alone. The thought of her integrity sent another arc through his body, but Lucifer welcomed it. Her desire to for something better than what she was, something better for Trixie, inspired Lucifer to want to do better, to be better, for Chloe and Trixie.
The thought baffled Lucifer that he had no affect at all upon Chloe. While her feelings for him had abated, Lucifer thought it unfair that their friendship left no sigil upon her in return. While Father thought it amusing to curse him with an eternal bout of unrequited love, he thought that friendship should be represented in a sigil of its own, considering how much importance Chloe gave theirs.
A week later while on the roof of Lux, Lucifer wondered how much Charlotte knew of his encroaching humanity. The sigil under his sleeve was embossed with liquid gold, flowing around the sigils in a way symbolic of a union having lasted centuries. Only Chloe had the ability to cause an archangel to fall in love with her so deeply that he'd step fall to the ground below if only to end the ache within him.
In the middle of stand-off with a criminal holding terrorists, Chloe had offered herself in place of the hostages currently being held, telling the criminal that a cop as hostage held more clout that a mere civilian. She and the hostage started walking toward each other slowly to complete the exchange while Lucifer stood on the sidelines, watching Chloe give her life over to someone who didn't value it. Lucifer watched an officer quickly aim her firearm at the perpetrator, saw watch the perpetrator squeeze the trigger of his own weapon and a stray bullet course through the air straight for Chloe.
Lucifer knew he was vulnerable around Chloe and enjoyed life too much to casually discard it, but he'd die for Chloe because she was the reason he lived at all. With speed that defied human ability, he intercepted the bullet as it was only inches away from the detective and he felt it bury itself deep within his chest.
"Damn it, Lucifer! What the hell were you thinking?" Lucifer heard her bellow in his ear as he crumpled to the ground. In and out of consciousness, he felt her firm grip around his wrist and Lucifer heard her shocked gasp. She didn't know what she was seeing, he told himself as he bled out on the sidewalk, but the last words he heard Chloe gasp caused cold fear to grip his heart. "Holy shit!"
After the ambulance ride and his mysterious, miraculous recovery, Maze brought a fresh change of clothes to him at the hospital. As he dressed, Maze sat on the hospital bed, staring appreciatively at her boss's physique with unabashed admiration when he heard several blue epitaphs escape her.
She gawked at the angelic sigils that clearly now spelled Chloe's name. There was no sense in trying to hid it any longer. There was a jagged laceration cutting the sigils in half as if Lucifer had tried slitting his wrists.
"Symbolic of a broken heart, I suppose," he scoffed. "Who knew the Devil had enough of a heart to shatter?"
"Lucifer," said Maze in a hushed voice. "I've never seen one that broken. It's for her, the Detective?"
Lucifer glared at Maze, unrolling the sleeves of his shirt and fastening his cuff links to conceal the gory wound. "It's none of your concern, Maze."
"It's unreturned," she said. "And it's killing you by degrees. Have you even told her?"
Lucifer glared at her. "No, Father is just trying to bring me into like the good prodigal son."
"She's only a human. She isn't worth it," said Maze. Lucifer's darker side flared, staring at Maze which made her think better of finishing her sentence.
"Chloe is worth everything."
The next several weeks were tense between Chloe and Lucifer. Before, they shared an open and flowing report that was intimate and special as only close friends knew, but since he'd taken a bullet, Chloe's demeanor around him had closed to one of formal congeniality. Rarely were she and Trixie at the penthouse and were out more often for weekend vacations with Penelope and her new husband or visiting friends in Fresno. He missed their late night talks and friendly banter and that horrible tar Chloe claimed was coffee.
Lucifer admitted that he needed another perspective outside his own to figure out the perplexing situation between them and went to Dr. Linda for help. After relating in great detail the developments of the past few months, Linda nodded slowly, pursing her lips in contemplation. "Chloe is dealing with the fact she almost lost you, Lucifer."
"She bloody hides it well," Lucifer's scorn tasted bitter on his tongue.
"Not really," Dr. Linda replied. "I am not so sure. She is in obvious denial and using coping mechanisms to deal with the pain and loss of your near death."
The idea of Chloe of suffering, of experiencing any kind of pain on his pain, washed Lucifer like a tsunami of tears. He felt a twisting on his right arm, meaning his sigil agreed with that assessment.
"All I need is access to your advice, not your opinions, Doctor," he said.
"Well, you're going to get both," said Dr. Linda. "Do you know what grief does to someone like Chloe, who feels so much with her whole heart? People like her are very rare."
"What do I do, Doctor?" Lucifer asked in a ragged, quiet voice.
"Help her heal. The human heart is quite resilient when love fills it. You should remember that when you see Chloe again."
"I have to go, now." Lucifer threw on his coat and tossed two hundred dollar bills on her desk. "I know what I need to do."
The door slammed behind him and Linda let a grin spread across her lips "Go get her, Luci."
Even with Amenadiel's aid, hunting down Charlotte's minions and capturing them was more difficult than Lucifer anticipated. Thinking about Chloe was a liability during the chase and capture phase. The blow to his plan of capturing Charlotte was when he'd found a check on the table for the next month's rent and all of Chloe and Trixie's belongings gone from the Penthouse after a week-long hunt of finding Charlotte's lair.
This infuriated him because he knew the longer he hunted his mother to return her to Hell as promised, the more likely Chloe had found a new life and love without Lucifer. Still, if she were happy and safe, then wasn't it worth it? He knew Chloe's romantic feelings had died for him long ago while his for her had grown into a life of their own. Cohabitation, friendship and his assistance on cases had moved him beyond his own ego and into an emotion he'd never fathomed.
He looked at the sigil that now sprawled onto his back. It no longer was vibrantly black, gold and scarlet. Instead, it looked faded and gray, as if dying as he was by degrees. Being around Chloe when she didn't love him was torture, but being without her was unbearable.
Finally, after a bloody battle that left several city blocks of L.A. level, disheveled and bruised, Amenadiel and Lucifer captured Charlotte in chains specifically designed for her and returned her to where she belonged.
****
Using his abilities that had returned without Chloe's presence in his life, Lucifer charmed her new address upstate from one of her associates in the precinct. He just wanted to get this reunion over with so he could see Chloe and Trixie were happy and safe and he could move on with his existence.
Without his wings, it was a long drive to Oregon where he knew Chloe now lived in a small town. Through his contact, he heard that she had opened up a small shop selling hand-made soaps, jams, jellies and candles to tourist passing through the sleepy little hollow.
Lucifer made his way up the sidewalk to the small dusky blue cape code house at the end of the street. Nervously, he tugged at his cuff links and straightened his collar before knocking on the door. Soon it opened and Chloe stood only inches away from him. Her face went ashen as though she saw a ghost standing in front of her."
"Lucifer," Chloe whispered, staring at Lucifer as if he'd thrown a third eye in the middle of his forehead. "What are you doing here?"
"To make things right, Detective," said Lucifer. He wanted to close the final few feet between them, pull her into his embrace and simply hold her close, feeling her warmth and love for the first time in nearly a year.
"I'm not a Detective anymore," she stuttered, leaning against the door frame for support. "Why are you here now?"
"To make things right, Chloe."
"Damn it, Lucifer!" said Chloe. "I'm just starting to put my life back together and you show up just to break my heart again. I can't take it." She shrugged helplessly.
"Your heart is breaking, Chloe?" Lucifer stood still, not wanting to lose his first moment with Chloe in months. "You're the one who said you no longer felt anything for me."
"Your emotional swings were giving me whiplash," she retorted. "You made me vulnerable and I could let my guard down with you, but I wasn't expecting that we'd become roommates. I needed time to figure things out. Then, I found out that you really are the Devil and I make you mortal and -and I almost killed you-"
"One sodding moment, Chloe!" Lucifer stopped her mid-sentence. "Since when did you finally decide to believe me?"
"That night when I saw your Fire and Brimstone, hellacious barbecue side, complete with eyeballs of fire!" Chloe shuddered. "Then, Maze told me the deal you'd made with God to protect me and that you'd been given the responsibility of taking your psychotic mother back to Hell. Then you started man-whoring with anything with a dick or a vagina and coming home smelling like liquor all hours of the morning. I couldn't let Trixie be around that. The final straw was when you took a bullet for me and I just couldn't take it anymore, knowing that I could get you killed-"
"Breathe, Love, breathe. You're rambling," Lucifer pulled her close and held her as she inhaled deeply his scent of expensive body wash and designer aftershave. Nothing felt better to him that to feel her warmth against him, hearing her heart beating strongly and her breathing calm to a slow, steady pace. "I'm here, Chloe and I'm sorry for being such a sodding git."
"I don't know what you've done to me, but look at this!" Chloe pushed up her sleeve, revealing a dingy gray series of scrolling script that started at her inner wrist, making its way all the way up her arm. "I didn't have a fucking clue what this was until your brother clued me in after Maze dropped the Hell bomb on me. I have been a wreck for months, trying to hold everything together for Trixie's sake. Then, you show up as if nothing's happened and expect everything to go fairy tale side up."
Chloe's Enochian's sigil looked nearly gangrenous Murky green bled into faded gray and red with a jagged gash running across her inner wrist. He also saw the scar tissue, meaning that she had begun the healing process. He thought to himself, Oh, Father, what have I done?
Chloe loved him, so much it had scarred her. His own sigil burned, but Lucifer ignored her. Chloe was the only person that mattered in the universe at that moment. "Oh, my Darling, forgive me."
Lucifer placed his lips to the scar running across the sigil.
"Lucifer?" Chloe gave him a questioning look. At that moment, he tore off the cuff link, shoving up his own sleeve, holding up his forearm for her to see. "I didn't know,"
"Of course, you didn't, Love," he pulled her close, murmuring into her hair. "Maze neglected to tell you that part. But, I met you and that was that."
Enough pretending this wasn't happening. Lucifer pulled Chloe to him and kissed her deeply, inhaling the sweet perfume that was uniquely Chloe. When Chloe made a tiny noise, returning his kiss with equal passion, their kiss tasted sweet and the pain in his arm vanished.
"I love you, Lucifer," Chloe said plainly and without hesitation. "But, we can't pretend that nothing has happened these past few months. Trixie and I have a good life here and Trixie doesn't have nightmares anymore. I have some peace for the first time in a long time that doesn't involve bullets and corpses. I don't know if I want to return to L.A. or that life. I like it here in Kennewick."
They looked down to see the Enochian sigils vanish as soon as she said the words. Lucifer finally realized why Father had imbued him with the Enochian Sigils of love for a human. Without them, Lucifer wouldn't have ever reached a level of selflessness outside of himself to defeat his greatest enemy. He knew, in that moment, it wasn't fear or hatred that was Father's most power and glorious creation, but Love. Now, Lucifer knew the depths of Chloe's emotions and his own, along with his ability to feel things of which the universe thought Lucifer incapable, now he knew he was no longer the Lord of Hell or the Morningstar, but something in between, something. . .else. He knew that he was allowed to love and Father blessed this union.
"What now?" said Chloe, and Lucifer shrugged.
"Only Father knows," he said, truthfully, then placed a gentle kiss on Chloe's brow as he held her. Perhaps, he imagined but he thought he saw Amenadiel and Maze at the end of the street nodding in satisfaction. He didn't care and put all of his mind, heart and soul into loving Chloe. He didn't know how this tale would end, he was glad that he was with Chloe.