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THAT WOULD BE A FIRST
Blasphemy.
Heresy.
He couldn't tolerate such a vision. Such perversion.
It was unbearable.
These gaudy and aggressive lights. This continual noise. This ferment all around him...
All this chaos significantly increased his resolution to do something and also his aversion for this place. A place totally devoted to decline, to the immorality inside their flesh.
He'd let him do whatever he wanted far too long. He couldn't wait anymore. His clemency towards him, towards them ended right now.
An insignificant being, stumbling and loud, shoved him in the middle of all this unbearable hysterical frenzy. The man turned to him, eyes misted by some degrading terrestrial drinks or drugs. One single look between them got the better of this human's meager notions of bravado, who hurriedly went away to mingle with the timing masses of other creatures without further ado.
So weak. So easily influenced.
It saddened him to see His most beautiful creation thus tarnished. Thus belittled. They had lost their pride and their devotion to Him. It saddened him and outraged him. For far too long. He had to rectify this. He had to fulfill his duty. Purifying this growing corruption. Corruption with global consequences.
He finally saw him, fighting his way through this over-active crowd. Sharing and creating their depravity, biding them to corrupt their soul, their purity. Relishing their suffering and their sins. Sins resulting from his own harmful, despicable existence. An insult to the Light that had been offered to him, to the privileges that had been long ago granted to him.
He wasn't worthy of it. He had never been worthy of it.
He alone had always seen the darkness of his soul. The threat he was for all things. He alone could put an end to this ancient and odious decline.
He watched him approach the bar and enjoy the vile drinks given to the other libertine humans. He had always had an inclination to lust. To defiled pleasures.
So be it.
All this was finally coming to an end.
-XXX-
Lucifer raised his glass to his lips but stopped his gesture.
An uncomfortable and very distinctive shiver lashed the back of his neck, his whole body suddenly stopping to move at this sensation. All his muscles tensed with this gnawing threat, on the alert without knowing who or what was a threat. This sensation prompted an instinctive reaction inside him, unintendedly. Lucifer felt the Hellish Flames glow fiercely in his dark irises, unwittingly responding to this feeling of pending danger. Like a prey feeling with all its being its near death between the sharp teeth of a merciless predator.
Something he wasn't used to feel.
Indeed, the devil hardly had ever been a helpless prey.
He struggled fiercely against the desire to release his true form; a primary demon tendency to danger or a direct and strong defiance. Tendency all the more deep-rooted when you were the Lord of Hell: a position going hand in hand with a brutal tendency to destroy anyone who dared to challenge his authority and power.
Showing his true face to the humans around him was clearly not a good idea. It wasn't a good thing for his business.
This single rational thought helped him to calm down his demonic instincts, gently wiping away the flames in his eyes. The first sensation remained anyway, prompting inside Lucifer fear and rage profoundly nested together. These emotions still affected his body frozen and yet ready to leap on the unknown threat. He gently put his glass back on the counter and slowly turned his head, all his muscles still tightly tensed. This shiver had been prompted by something.
Something or someone. Behind him.
This someone who had so easily prompted a troubling warning signal inside him.
Lucifer scanned the crowd dancing around him, going from one to another, watching for a hint, a lead on this threat previously felt.
Nothing.
Now.
But there had been a real threat. A moment ago. Just for a moment. A threat so strong to make him react like this. With his primal instincts.
Who bloody was it? Or what?
He couldn't have imagined this. Lucifer could almost feel his demonic essence radiate from his body, which was still unintendedly on its guard. He couldn't control and even less feign a corporal reaction of that sort.
There was something.
Someone so disturbing and so dangerous to make the Devil himself being on edge. Lucifer kept watching for any suspicious sign around him, any unusual noise. Watching for this suffocating aura that was no longer there.
" Lucifer... You're becoming paranoid, now! "
There was nothing.
And he was more and more skeptical about his last sensation. He was in his club, surrounded by dozens of more or less drunk humans incredibly breezy. No troubling supernatural threat here. Not towards him. Never. And certainly not with Mazikeen around.
His miraculous Lazarene resurrection may have had more consequences on his health than he thought. Everything seemed significantly different since then. In a pleasant and also unpleasant way.
Lucifer closed his eyes: stupid gesture to get rid of these muggy and far too serious thoughts. First, he imagined an unknow and ludicrous threat to then torture his mind with pretty dark reflections! Okay, he usually liked the darkness and all that...but not as much as that! He hadn't come here to dwell on this bloody stuff-up.
That was his feathered brother's main attribute...
No, he'd come here for a drink and to mingle with this delightful nocturnal ferment. A corporal ferment that had always calmed down his mind. He hated the calm, the lack of noises around him. Hell was so quiet, unlike the absurd stories and myths that had been told for millennia. And he'd always hated that.
Lucifer sighed and drank one in one go his glass, then waving his hand to the bartender who immediately gave him another drink. He took it and drank it one in one go again. A faint heat awoke inside his throat and against his palate: nothing unpleasant. A delightful sensation provided by this nectar. However, even this drink couldn't get him rid of these endless waves of dark thoughts drowning his mind.
Either alcohol or music, or even the noisy crowd around him.
He just had to find something else to avoid all kind of preoccupations. Easy as pie... or as drink, it depends.
Find something that wasn't a thing. But rather someone. Someone like no other. Someone become important to him. Lucifer was the first to be surprised about that, actually.
Becoming attached to a human... He, the Devil.
It seemed impossible when you put it like that.
And yet, Lucifer felt oddly tempted by his dear enigmatic detective; Chloe.
An unfathomable and delightful enigma.
He still didn't bloody understand this. That was just... how it was.
Lucifer felt good by her side, when he could feel her gray eyes probing him without any fear, with this gleam of annoyance that frequently shining her eyes. Her smile hardly contained with each of his words or salacious hint, just to tease her, to see her smile. This smile in particular. Her single way of reacting to each of his actions...
Lucifer had never experienced anything similar.
It was unique.
It was scary and terribly exciting.
He didn't feel fundamentally evil with Chloe. Not through her eyes. He was just... him. It appeased him. And it disturbed him a lot. Lucifer kept asking questions about their relationship. He couldn't exactly define what they were experiencing together, now.
Was there a specific denomination for that?
Should they really define it now?
This significant step forwards was surprising given that the detective knew his true nature now. He hadn't expected that. For once, the devil was truly surprised by the events.
He didn't understand.
She should have run away. No longer coming closer to him. Hiding from him. From who he was, what he embodied.
But no.
She had decided to catch him on the hop and to accept him? What had she decided exactly? He didn't bloody know! Should he? Was it better to know it or...?
Lucifer never had thought to prefer to think about the problematical Michael instead of Chloe and her insane reactions!
He sighed and leaned against the bar, rubbing with the back of his hand his forehead while staring absent-mindedly at the orange reflections at the bottom of the glass. He stopped rubbing his forehead after a few seconds, lowering his hand before his eyes. Staring in turn at his newly tinted ring.
" Bloody Hell... "
It seemed he couldn't avoid this. He wouldn't have a single second without reflections as unpleasant as the Ten Commandments record.
One of the worst moments in his entire life, by the way.
Seeing this decrepit man trying to write ludicrous divine laws on a friable rock had been funny at first. A fun turned into frustration and a strong desire of destruction as the hours and days passed with each new broken rock.
Anyway. It was a different story.
Lucifer stroked the stone scattered with thin white grooves with his finger. Another thing he didn't understand. He seemed as cleaver as a fish right now, given all the things he wasn't able to understand.
What could these white grooves bloody mean?
It was like his original Light had gone through his demonic essence and had slightly taken the upper hand on it, disturbing thus the fragile balance established between these two essences for millennia.
Since his Fall.
His Light hadn't just slightly gone through him that night. That was an understatement! It had submerged everything. He had even lost himself in it, coming close to death. Of course, he hadn't release it without any reason. He had had to take care of Alastor. Destroy him for good. But only a slight part of his divine power should have been enough for this.
He was once the Light Bringer. Not a usual name, without any meaning.
Yet, that night, Lucifer had felt his Light radiating with an almost equal power than before. This parallel was in no case excessive. He usually liked this kind of overstatement in general, but here... it was only facts.
Facts.
No more no less.
What could have caused this explosion of power? And disrupt its balance?
Lucifer frowned, worried. He tried to remember what he had felt that time, remembering the words or actions that could explain everything. Or justify them, at least.
Alastar had threatened him and tried to kill him. Not enough for this, though.
Then what? What on earth d-…?
Lucifer frowned more, his mind stuck with a vision that he remembered. A memory that could explain this mess. A memory that frightened him.
Chloe.
The detective being hurt, unconscious. Alastor threatening her.
Lucifer couldn't lie. Truth was ruling his existence. So, he couldn't lie to himself either.
Chloe was responsible for this.
All these emotions, these sensations she prompted inside him were the reason of this excessive release of divine power. A pure and titanic Energy released just by seeing her in danger.
Why? Why now?
How far could it go?
Lucifer was there with his reflections when he saw at the top of the spiral staircase his lovely demonic bodyguard. A Mazikeen in all her predatory splendor who was intensely scanning the room. And Lucifer knew exactly what or rather who she was looking for.
Him.
Looking for trouble, then.
For both.
Trouble that the Devil didn't feel in the mood to experience. His thoughts wouldn't leave him alone. If he had to deal with Mazikeen and her boring plans to go back to Hell on top of that...
Hell, no.
Lucifer met the demon's gaze and smiled at her. He made his way quickly through the crowd to his private elevator while Mazikeen filled the distance between them at an impressive speed for the mortals around. A usual speed for a demon, though.
Not fast enough, sadly.
Lucifer went into the elevator without even speed up and put the button closing the doors as Mazikeen arrived in front of it, the doors closing gently on her surprised and frowning expression.
-XXX-
The doors finally opened to his penthouse and Lucifer walked quietly to the bar, smiling as he thought about Mazikeen's face. He took off his jacket and threw it on a chair before grabbing a bottle and a glass. He walked just as quietly to the couch and sat on it, pouring some alcohol in the glass on the table.
He heard the elevator doors open as he put the bottle on the table, too. Doors releasing a stunned demon beating the marble floor with her stiletto heels.
" Seriously?! ", she exclaimed, standing in front of him and blocking the space between his glass and himself.
Lucifer sighed and gave her a sincerely surprised look.
" I'm impressed, Maze! Really! I thought the complicated buttons in the elevator would get the better of your mind... You're a real clever devil, aren't you? ", he exclaimed in turn.
Lucifer pretended to take an imaginary voice recorder and bring it to his lips, whispering very seriously while the young woman was giving another dumbstruck and quite furious look:
" Note for myself: creating less clever demons in the future... or not demons at all. Or no more creations, in order to have some peace and quiet! "
Mazikeen tightly pinched her lips and let out an angry whistling as she placed her hands on her hips, a sign of increasing irritation. An irritation involving the very literal option: break the devil's balls. He tried to take his drink on the table but she quickly moved again, forcing him to look at her again and, unfortunately, to listen to her.
" You're really gonna play it like this, Lucifer?! ", she asked him, peeved. " Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised with this new change in you, should I? The Lord of Hell... A coward! "
Lucifer, hitherto busy to try to skirt the vicious little demon and get back his drink, suddenly froze. His muscles of his jaw tensed tightly as a strong rage overcame his body and mind. The flames glowed again inside his eyes, but he didn't do anything to contain them this time. On the contrary.
He jumped up, glaring at Mazikeen coldly and proclaiming with an hoarse and powerful voice that make the walls quake around them both:
" Don't you dare talking to me like this, Mazikeen! I am the Devil! You're well placed to know it! "
" Then act like the devil you're supposed to be! ", she replied, unimpressed by his anger. " Confront your enemies like you've always done! Destroy anyone who dares to flout your power! "
Lucifer felt the flames dying as a mocking smile – though slightly tensed with his previous rage – appeared on his lips.
" Ow? So, you won't mind if I destroy you, then? 'Good to know! ", he lost his temper as he quickly made his way to the bar.
He might have the opportunity to drink something this time.
" Don't pretend to not understand what I mean, Lucifer! Every day you spend avoiding the situation is a head start gracefully given to Michael! ", she continued by following him closely, her heels against hitting the ground and irritating more Lucifer.
He pretended to not hearing her and poured himself another drink, intentionally turning his back to her. He was tired of all these damn nuisances. being a moralizing angel underfoot and now his own right-hand demon?!
It became bloody unlivable!
Mazikeen didn't took his drink and that was a good thing. Especially for her.
His desire to kill her was pretty high right now, it wouldn't take long to turn his desire into reality. She knew that. And yet seemed unwilling to leave him alone. Maybe she was carried away by some suicidal drive, like his brother...
It was possible.
" Look, if you don't want to go back because of Chloe-… ", she began in a much softer tone.
" Careful, Mazikeen. ", he muttered calmly too. " You're on very thin ice here and maybe you shouldn't go further tonight: Devil's advice to an insignificant demon. "
He was still turning his back to her, leaning against the bar and sipping his drink. A silence settled between them. A silence that made Lucifer hope that the subject was closed for tonight. Pointless hope. Mazikeen was just looking for appropriate words.
" Time goes much slower down there-… ", she tried again.
A clumsy attempt. Lucifer straightened up and gave her a glare, a looked that silenced the demon.
" I'm perfectly well aware about how things work down there, Maze. ", he said coldly. " I've been in Hell long before you have. I even added my personal touch here and there, so... you don't need to repeat what I already know. "
Mazikeen hardly swallowed, suddenly fearful. She was finally aware of the line she was about to cross. She was dangerously closed of it. The young woman looked away, silent. Lucifer moved away from the counter, almost touching her, and went to the terrace. He put his hands inside his pockets and breathed in some fresh air. It would be better if he calmed down. Lucifer wanted to enjoy his evening, not moping around more about the dire future threatening them all.
He heard the noise from her heels heading towards him again, more slowly this time. Lucifer didn't care about it. He lighted a cigarette and took a deep puff of it, slowly exhaling the smoke through his nose while at the nocturnal landscape before him.
" Michael doesn't pay you a courtesy call, Lucifer. We have to go back down there... It's not a matter of choice anymore. "
Lucifer inhaled another puff of smoke while holding back a disdainful exclamation. He answered her without turning to her, still looking at the sleeping town:
" I just told you to stop repeating the obvious, Mazie. "
He bloody knew all that.
Could we stop, for once, to take him for a damn fool?!
He liked joking, taunting others, yes. But it had nothing to do with a low intellect. Far from it. Lucifer was perfectly well aware about the situation. Probably much more aware than Mazikeen and his brother.
A concept they all needed to accept right now: Devil didn't go with douche! Faked frivolity, maybe. And that was all.
" Use your coin to bring us back in Hell and get your wings back! ", she insisted.
He didn't reply. Was it such complicated to leave him alone? Really?! He didn't ask for the moon, though. He never would. He helped Him to create the skies, so... He didn't bloody care now. Manner of speaking. he only wanted to spend a night without childish and rather annoying reproach's.
He threw his butt over the barrier and leaned against it, unwilling to grant the request of the young woman. She came closer to him and also leaned against the barrier next to her master, staring at him intently. He kept pretending to not seeing her by his side, absorbed by the landscape below. The view was always beautiful here. Whatever the time, the month or the year. This view was always pleasant.
" Lucifer... ", the demon whispered.
Here we go again with the bloody Michael.
" You still have your coin, right? ", she almost begged him.
Lucifer didn't say anything. He stroked absent-mindedly the cold, glazed barrier with his palms before turning to Mazikeen, who was almost desperately looking for a positive answer to her last question.
" And how do you think I was able to send my bloody light-up wings to Hell, huh?! With the Holy-Spirit's help perhaps?! ", he replied, annoyed. " There is no Holy-Spirit, I can assure you! Just a Holy- Asshole... ", he muttered bitterly as he glared at the starry sky above him.
He saw from the corner of his eye the demon opening her mouth to deliver some other nonsense. He pulled the rug out from under her, more and more tired by this little game:
" I will not risk to die again, Maze! It didn't go well the last time I tried it, don't you remember? I should have to report this malfunction to Azrael, by the way... It's not like her. "
Lucifer left Mazikeen there and headed back inside, to the counter and his favorite drink.
What would he do without alcohol, right? He didn't even want to think about it...
Mazikeen was going to talk about the last option. The one she thought she'd hide it so well from him. An amused smile came on his face as he filled a new glass.
" We could-… ", she said from the balcony.
" Another dead-end, I'm afraid, darling! It's not a real feather you have. Just a banal copy completely made up by me to appease your melancholy. ", he confessed heartily.
He took his drink and turned to the balcony, meeting the young woman's irritated look. She seemed sincerely surprised by his trick. He took a long sip before exclaiming:
" Oh, come on, Maze! You forget who I am? I'm your Master. I know you as if I created you! Wait... I did, actually! Right? "
He took advantage of her surprise to sit comfortably on the couch, sipping quietly the contents of his glass.
A respite. Finally!
… Or not.
" Is that why you don't want to leave? ", she whispered more seriously.
Lucifer rolled his eyes, exasperated. He drank the rest of his glass before taking a look at the demon who was looking at him from the bar. She crossed her arms on her chest and didn't look away this time.
" You'll have to improve your vocabulary... I don't know what you're talking about. ", he sighed as he put his empty glass on the table.
It wasn't the truth. Not really.
Once again, he knew how to go back down there. And he didn't want to use the very sensitive option. For him and for-…
" You know what I mean! ", she said, coming near him. " Don't act more stupid than you actually are, Lucifer! There's only one option left to go back there! "
" This option is out of the question, Mazikeen. ", Lucifer said categorically, his jaw tensed with anger and other unpleasant emotions. " Out of the question... once and for good, you hear me? "
He couldn't. Not this...
Mazikeen stood before him, then kneeling at his height, trying to catch his look. Lucifer finally agreed to look at her. Quite submissively. It was the only option left. And the worst, according to him. Mazikeen was right: it was clearly no longer a matter of choice.
" We all have a choice, Lucifer "
Strange... he never seemed to have it!
" She'll do it, Lucifer... She'll do this for you! ", she whispered, absolutely convinced.
Lucifer smiled sadly.
" That's precisely what I'm worried about, Mazie... "
He was worried, indeed.
Hell wasn't really recommended for living beings. Especially for a stubborn detective.
A mortal being going for a ride in Hell with the Devil.
That would be a first.
TBC with... " Azrael's blade "
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