A/N: Thank you so very much for your reviews! I'm really glad you like the story so far.

And of course another thank you also to Sop12345d for beta reading.

Chapter 3

It took her less than three minutes to scan through the few lines the Officer had written down about this case. The way he'd practically fled the scene spoke volumes but he also hadn't cared to look into anything so far.

"At least we know who owns this place," Choe murmured when she walked over to Ella who was already carefully bagging what had appeared to be a human heart.

Ella frowned and closed the cooling box after putting the organ inside.

"Who'd do such a thing? And what for?"

"A call to the Devil, I suspect," Lucifer answered quickly, disdain clear in his voice. "Foolish humans…"

Chloe stared at the large pentagram they were standing at. "You think this is some act of satanism or such?" Lucifer merely looked at her, daring her to contradict him. "Right. You're the expert here."

"I don't know about this," Ella said, still frowning. "Something's off."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for starters, the heart was surgically removed. The cuts are too precise. It wasn't just… ripped out of somebody's chest or something."

Lucifer huffed. "So somebody tried to avoid being messy."

"And I'm not sure about all this blood. The large pentagram here is drawn in human blood, they already tested it. But all the rest…?" She gestured at the cryptic lines that were drawn all over the rest of the floor.

"It's too much to be from one body," Chloe agreed, sighing.

Ella nodded. "The human body holds about… five litres, maybe six… Not enough to draw all that."

Shaking her head, Chloe stood up and walked around the hall, avoiding the lines of blood she had to pass at almost every step. What were those people thinking? Calling the Devil? For real? She glanced at Lucifer, who was looking rather uncomfortable while scanning the area. Actually, he looked tired once again. She'd seen it the day before when they had been at the other scene, but even if he tried to look as if everything was normal, she'd say he looked even more fatigued today.

"Why do you think this is some kind of… call to the Devil?" she suddenly asked her partner.

Lucifer looked a bit startled when he turned to her, before sighing "Well, it's not the first time somebody has drawn a pentagram and thought I'll come forth just because of it."

Chloe shook her head and tried to put the thought out of her head again. He might like to play the Devil, but he wasn't, and sometimes she wished he'd stop talking like that. Even if she knew it was just an act, the thought of the Devil being real was giving her the creeps. She'd never been very religious, even less so after her dad had been killed, but still… No! Definitely not going there!

Lucifer was not the Devil, he was merely playing one.

"Does it really work?" Ella asked, excitement resonating in her voice.

"Ella, please," Chloe huffed, but stopped when she saw Lucifer's icy glance at her.

"It's nonsense," he admitted though. "Not to mention that whoever did this had it all wrong anyway."

Well, maybe they were getting somewhere now. Although she didn't like his Devil's act - especially not right here and now - but he did know a lot about this kind of stuff, so maybe she should just put up with it and see where it would lead them.

So she played along and asked, "What is wrong about it?"

"Well, whatever they had wanted to write down there, it's… just gibberish."

"Gibberish?" Ella laughed, but still looked at the strange characters on the floor.

"They do look like Celtic, but none of them would make any sense." He cocked his head to the side as if trying to read them once again.

"You can read Celtic," Chloe laughed, but stopped immediately when Lucifer glared at her once again. "Of course you can read Celtic."

"Well, I'm not really that good at reading it," he admitted. "I might speak all languages but I always found it rather boring to actually learn how to write them."

"Sure…"

"You don't believe me, Detective?"

She frowned, but finally shook her head. They were getting off topic here and it was time for them to get back to the case.

"So, you say somebody tried to call forth the Devil here," she stated. "So, we're looking for some Satanists?"

"There are all kinds of people who try to call me. You'd be surprised how many of them are rather very God-fearing."

Now Ella's interest was piqued as well. "Why would they call the Devil?"

Lucifer shrugged. "Curiosity, I guess."

"Could we get back to the case?" Chloe finally interrupted them. "Ella, take the evidence back to the lab and see if you can find anything. We have a heart here and I want to know who it belonged to. So, see if you can find anything."

Ella nodded and picked the cooler up. "I'll see what else they already bagged. They can surely give me a ride back."

Chloe agreed and then turned back to her partner. "So, we're looking for somebody who's curious to meet the Devil."

"This time, I might be interested to grant them the favor."

She had to laugh when she saw his patented smirk return.

"What is it, Detective?"

"Well, you take this very seriously, do you?"

He huffed and pushed the small wrinkles out of his suit. "Of course I do. You heard the Officer! Somebody kills for this… stupidity and I am the one who gets blamed."

"Lucifer… this is not your fault."

"Of course it isn't!"

Nodding, she sighed and pulled him back towards the large doors that would lead them back outside. "Come on," she said, her voice soft to calm him down again. "Let's see what the owner of this place has to say to all this."

Exiting the building, they were confronted with what seemed to be a rather unwelcoming crowd of bystanders. Chloe couldn't remember having this many Officers around, but she was glad they were here because the looks they received were rather... uncomfortable. Some of them were ranting about "The Devils Work" in there and she could feel Lucifer tense beside her.

"Don't," she whispered and guided him towards their vehicles. "Let's get out of here."

"I refuse to be blamed for this atrocity," Lucifer replied, indignance more than obvious in his voice.

When Chloe glanced at the crowd, she could already see people pointing towards them. One of those being the Officer they'd met at the building before. What was the guy thinking, aggravating a crowd like this?! She'd have a talk with his superior later. But for now, she just wanted to get out of this place. To be precise, she wanted Lucifer out of here. Those people didn't look very friendly right now.

"Get back to where you belong!" somebody screamed out of the crowd and Lucifer stopped in front of her - making Chloe walk right into him.

"I will not tolerate..." he hissed but she shoved him forward.

"Just go. Please!"

He took a deep breath, but did as she'd told him. Her feelings about this kept getting worse and the pit in her stomach deepened. Chloe could feel the icy looks on the people burning into her and her partner. She really didn't understand how people could actually blame him for anything. He might not be the nicest guy around and she suspected he did ask for serious IOUs in return for his favors, but he wasn't a bad guy.

While she was still thinking about the stupidity of the crowd around them, she was suddenly swept off her feet and twirled around. She could hear a rather uncomfortable sounding thump but all she could see was Lucifer's chest now facing her.

"What happened?" she asked, worried, but he just bit his lip before he straightened again.

This time it was him shoving her forward. "Go," he commanded, voice somewhat strained. And since she had wanted to leave anyway, she quickly strode towards her car.

Looking back one more time, she saw a stone flying towards them, but he easily caught it this time. Suddenly, she felt sick to her stomach that somebody would actually throw stones at them over this. Was the whole town going crazy?!

Lucifer stopped, the stone still in his hand, and turned towards the crowd, his eyes probably glaring at them because she could feel the anger oozing off him. And frankly, she could see fear in the eyes of some of the bystanders. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. There was no need to be afraid of him - at least, not for whatever had happened inside there. He was surely not responsible for any of this.

When she thought he would throw the stone back at the crowd, he merely dropped it and turned back towards her. Instead of calming them down, this seemed to only aggravate the crowd even further. Quickly, other things started flying their way and she barely made it inside her car before the first tomato hit the side window.

Lucifer obviously wasn't as lucky, but he didn't wait for anything else to hit him, instead starting the car and driving off the scene.

She had to remind herself that he wasn't fleeing but it sure as hell looked like he ran away this time.

"Probably better, that he did," she murmured.

Chloe neither wanted him to get hurt nor have anybody in the crowd face him. Although she'd never say he was evil or actually admit that he could be the Devil… well, she had seen a dark side to him - him throwing people around as if it was nothing. But he'd only ever did this to what he called "bad" people, and even if one might think otherwise, those people weren't really bad. They were just scared - and Lucifer knew that, as did she.

Another tomato hit her window and she sighed. Well, she'd known this wouldn't be her favorite case. So she sighed and started the engine.

Lucifer wouldn't go to the precinct right now, and while she knew the name of the owner of their crime scene, she didn't know where to find him yet. But she knew where she would find her wayward partner. The one place he would feel safe.

Lux.

A/N: Please leave a review on your way out. Thanks!