Lucifer followed Maze's directions and found himself in an underground parking lot. In one corner, elevators led up to the main building, which from the outside looked miserable and run down. He tucked the detective's car into a dark corner. There were a lot of those; the place was decidedly gloomy. A bit like the darker regions of Hell, Lucifer mused. He glanced over at the detective. "Stay in the car, please."
"Lucifer, I'm not staying in the car," she protested.
He gave an exaggerated sigh. "Detective, you can't deal with this one," he reminded her. "This is my case."
She opened her mouth to argue, but he flashed his eyes at her just enough to remind her of who he really was. "Stay here." He could really do without having to worry about her as well as himself. He still wasn't used to this vulnerability thing cramping his style.
Reluctantly, she settled back into her seat and nodded. After he got out, she locked the car doors, much to his relief. He looked around for Maze; she had traveled separately, and had probably positioned herself in another corner somewhere.
All was quiet. Behind him, he could hear the car ticking as the engine cooled. Somewhere outside, he could hear a child shouting. And somewhere in the parking lot…
He tilted his head to one side, concentrating. There were voices somewhere in the distance. He moved towards them, senses on the alert. And so he turned immediately he heard the familiar whumph! that indicated one of his siblings had arrived.
"Azrael? What are you doing here?" he asked as his sister appeared beside him. He was starting to redevelop that sense he had always had, when she was nearby but not visible. She had loved hiding, playing tricks on him, but he had learned the technique and she had rarely managed to catch him out. A sudden thought struck him and his stomach gave a strange twist. "You're not here for Chloe! I won't let you take her!"
Azrael gave that small sigh that meant she was disappointed in him. "I'm not here to take Chloe. I'm here for you."
Lucifer winced. Did she have so little faith in his ability to stay safe?
"Not like that, Lu. Why won't you accept that I care about you and want to help you?"
"Because you stayed away for so long." Lucifer turned away from her, senses again on the alert. He couldn't afford to be distracted right now.
"Lu come on, that was in the past."
"The past can be closer than you think," he retorted. Was that Maze's voice? "Azrael, are you going to help me or not?"
At her hesitation, he turned away in disgust. "Then please let me get on with my job."
"Why?" she demanded. "You complain that I'm still following Dad's rules, but here you are doing what he set you to doing. Hell's not your place anymore, Lu. Why are you still concerned?"
This time he let his anger blaze out through his eyes. "Because he's killing humans, Azrael. And I won't have that. I brought him here, and I have to deal with him. Before anyone else gets hurt." He fought the urge to glance back over his shoulder towards the car where the detective sat.
Azrael held up her hands. "All right, I'm sorry. I'll help if I can. But I have no power over demons. You're right, that is your domain."
Lucifer turned his attention back to the voices. He could hear Maze arguing with a man. Stepping around the nearest corner, he saw them, standing next to Maze's car. He silently moved closer and studied the man's face, recognizing him from the photo as Henry Davrell. But could he really be Damasos?
The man took his glasses off, and glared at Maze, and at last Lucifer saw it. It was the set of his jaw, the expression in his eyes. "Damasos!"
Both of them turned to face him, and Lucifer took advantage of the momentary hesitation to hurl himself forward, aiming a fist squarely at Damasos' nose. The demon staggered back, caught off-balance, and then raised his arm to strike back. Maze caught his wrist and twisted it, and the three of them struggled for a few minutes.
Damasos was strong, but so was Maze, and Lucifer was stronger. As they fought, Lucifer remembered fighting against Maze, and as he saw the damage she inflicted on Damasos's face he was grateful she was on his side this time.
Maze held Damasos in a headlock, and he squirmed underneath her, struggling to get free, as Lucifer adjusted his cuffs, giving himself time to catch his breath. Damn this vulnerability! And then Damasos's eyes shifted to a position just behind his shoulder and he heard Azrael cry out a warning. He glanced back, to see Chloe standing there.
"Detective, what are you doing here? I told you—"
"Argh!" Somehow, Damasos managed to break Maze's grip and throw her towards Lucifer, who caught her and steadied her. Hearing a cry behind him, he turned to see that Damasos had grabbed Chloe by the arm and was holding her as a shield.
Lucifer stepped backwards, holding his hands up. "Leave her," he said. "If you hurt her, I'll—"
"You'll what, kill me?" Damasos snarled. "You were going to do that anyway."
Lucifer watched warily, glancing from Damasos to Chloe to Maze. For a few seconds, no one moved.
Chloe forced herself to remain calm. She had thought it was all under control. It had looked like Maze and Lucifer had this guy - demon - whatever he was - captured, and she had come to see what would happen.
What a stupid idea that had been!
A voice spoke in her ear. "When I say duck, duck." Azrael's voice, she realized. She looked around, but saw no one. But a glance at Lucifer's face told her that he had heard it too. She tensed, waiting for the signal, in whatever form it might take.
"Duck!"
The yell echoed off the walls, and Chloe instinctively threw herself to the ground. Caught off guard, Damasos staggered as she shoved him, and Lucifer sprang forward.
Chloe felt herself pulled behind a pillar, and she hid there, next to Azrael, as they watched the fight. Lucifer swung at Damasos, but the demon ducked and caught Lucifer off balance. Maze bowled in from nowhere and knocked Damasos off his feet. She pulled a knife and tried to stab him, but he entangled his fingers in Maze's hair, bashing her head back onto the concrete. She howled and dropped the knife and he pushed her away, using the momentum to propel himself to his feet and toward the exit.
And then Lucifer let out a mighty roar. Chloe jumped, caught off guard as Lucifer sprouted a pair of wings - huge, white, glowing wings that stretched half the width of the parking lot. She had seen them before - or had seen what he claimed was a knockoff version of them, and had been impressed then, but these were beyond even that - the word divine suddenly seemed to fit. She had known, objectively, that something like that must have been involved when she thought about how she had ended up on the roof of that building, but actually seeing them took her breath away.
Lucifer flew - flew! - toward Damasos, knocking the demon to his back on the hard ground, and then grabbed him by the neck, holding him in the air as he tucked his wings away. Chloe felt a twinge of regret as they disappeared, inexplicably, leaving no mark on his jacket.
"How dare you disobey me!" Lucifer roared, and his face shifted into that distorted devil face that Chloe recognized and yet which hit her anew with its ferocity. His eyes were like flaming coals as he stared at the demon squirming in his grip.
"Let me go!"
"I'm taking you back to Hell where you belong."
Chloe swallowed hard. It suddenly hit her all over again that this was the real Lucifer. Not the playboy, not the fun-loving man she thought she had fallen in love with. This was the devil himself. And this was a case well beyond her experience.
"You belong there too!" Damasos protested.
"Not anymore." Lucifer lowered him, but still kept a tight grip. Maze had recovered her senses and stood next to the two of them, her face glowering. For just a moment, Chloe felt scared of her, but then she remembered seeing the same expression when Chloe had offered her hot chocolate rather than vodka as a bedtime drink, and couldn't suppress a smile at the thought. Maze was - well, Maze was Maze. And whatever she was like in a fight, Chloe knew that Maze would protect her, or Trixie, or Lucifer, to the death if necessary.
And Lucifer was Lucifer. That thought reassured her, as he shifted back to his normal face. He was still the man - the devil - she loved. She was just seeing the whole of him now. And while the truth scared her, it did not repel her as once it might have done.
"Put me in charge down there, then," Damasos offered. "Like I was before."
"Before I got there, you mean?" Lucifer scoffed.
"Before you ruined it all."
"I ruined it? I made sure people were tortured and punished according to their crimes. You just did it because you enjoyed it. And you've done the same up here. What did your human victims ever do to you? What made them deserve death?"
"It's what they believed," he protested weakly, trying to pull Lucifer's hand from his neck. "I only amplified that belief."
"You distorted it. You made them kill themselves. They didn't deserve that. And you expect me to put you back in charge of Hell? You must be joking! I'll put you in a cell of your own, where you can live out your life in misery."
Chloe couldn't take her gaze off Lucifer. He looked so intense, so in charge here. In his element. For the first time, she really started to understand what it meant to him, to be the Lord of Hell.
And then he seemed to remember she was there. He glanced over in her direction, and as he did so, Damasos twisted in his grasp and escaped. He whirled and suddenly he had Maze's blade in his hand and he slashed towards Lucifer, who ducked and twisted and stepped all in one graceful movement, and he had the blade in his hand and he threw it toward Damasos.
The demon staggered and fell, clutching the blade that was embedded in his chest, and Chloe wondered if this is what that fight with Pierce had been like.
And then Damasos was lying on the floor in a pool of blood, and Lucifer bent over him to check his condition. Chloe's mind flashed back to that moment. That dreadful moment, when she had seen Pierce on the floor, Lucifer bent over him. Lucifer had stood and turned, and she had seen…
Her legs gave way and she sagged to the floor, clinging to the pillar for support. And then Lucifer was holding her, cradling her head, and the last thing she saw before she passed out was his familiar face peering down at her, looking worried.
