Chapter 9 : Not another one !

Chloe and Maze headed towards their hotel room. She was clearly still shocked at what went down a few seconds earlier. Maze was slowly becoming herself again. Chloe had seen Lucifer loose his temper a few times, but never enough to kill someone. She had always been able to somehow get through to him, but this time was a short call. Chloe, still lost in thoughts, heard Maze call her :

"Decker! " She says "Snap out of it!"

"Hum. What? Did you say something?"

"Are you allright ? You seem a bit lost"

"It's a lot to process. I mean, He is the Devil, You are a demon and He almost killed you. So I'm as good as anyone could be in my situation." She answers, a bit harsher than she intented.

"Hey! Easy Decker! None of this is my fault either! Well I guess the part about us fighting yes, but the rest is on him you know."

"I knew he could be intense, but I never thought he could be this violent. That rage he had in his eyes. I believe he would have killed you…"

"Don't worry. It takes more than a few punches to end me. Trust me. I've been through worse. And, should he have continued, he would have had the fight of his life."

"Still." Chloe replies not convinced by Maze's answer.

"He might be an asshole sometimes, but you do know that he would never hurt you."

"How can you still defend him after this morning!"Chloe could not believe it.

"We all have our buttons and issues. And clearly dealing with emotional stuff about Mommy and Daddy is bit hard for him."

"How can you not be pissed at him? Hell, he did not attack me and I'm pissed!"

Maze laughs before answering "Don't get me wrong Decker. I'm pissed at him and there will be payback for what happened. Just not for now. Things are way too complicated and it would not be smart of me to get him back for what he did. But trust me, this is not over!" She smiles wickedly.

"OK." She says looking at her. "Soooo, I heard you're some sort of demon forged in the depth of Hell. How did that happen?"

"What do you mean "How did that happen ?". I was created in Hell, by him, to serve him and I followed him when he decided to leave Hell for Earth. And now, just like he is, I'm stuck here. Although, I have to admit, it's not as bad as it used to be."

"What was your role down there. You're a good bartender but I'm pretty sure you don't have those in Hell."

Maze couldn't help but laugh at the idea of bartending in Hell. Although she hated doing it at Lux, she somehow grew to like it. "I was one of his commanders a bit before we left, but I was originally created to be his bodyguard. Since he made me,and up until recently, I was linked to him with an oath, and my sole mission used to be to obey and protect him, no matter what. He released me from my oath a few days after God sent him back to Earth, after the Malcolm incident".

"He mentioned something about you being some sort of enforcer for his punishments? What does it imply?"

"Hell can be very boring and eternity is a long time. So I added a few skills to my resumé. I used to torture the most unbreakable souls and I was in charge of enforcing his decision for the VIPs in Hell. You wouldn't imagine how many showbiz stars and politicians we get down there" She adds smiling "I found torturing the guilty and looking for their weak spots before breaking them is exhilarating." She finishes.

Chloe looks back at Maze before answering:

"I knew you were a crazy person. If I had any doubts left, you just shattered them to pieces. Are you sure you're fit to look after Trixie. She's a very impressionable young lady."

"Come on, you know I like Trixie. Beside, with all the skills I have, don't you think she's like super safe with me?"

"You did try to give her alcohol the first time you saw her."

"That was one time. Are you really going to hold that against me. It's not my fault you Humans have weird rules about having fun! Besides I tried to kill you once, and now we're friends, so what's the big deal!"

"Wait! You try to do what?"

"Well I stopped Charlotte from blowing you up, so I guess we're even. I try to kill you, I save you. Case closed."

"Just watch it around Trixie and try not to mention the torturing, bounty hunting or alcohol related things around her."

"OK. I won't anymore." She adds smiling.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear your last answer."

"You should really give more credit to your daughter. She saw my real face at Halloween and the only thing she said was "Cool". So I think we are going to be just fine. By the way, we really had some balls standing up to him back there."

"You're welcome." Chloe replies, knowing this would be as close as she would get to a thank you.

Suddenly the door opens. Linda and Ella come in.

"Hey Girls!" Ella says cheerfully. She then looks at Chloe. "How was your night with the Devil? I did not think you'd be up so early. Maybe he is not as good as he says" She finishes joking. Then Linda answers, before realizing what she just said. "Oh trust me, he IS that good! But you so didn't need to know that" She completes, blushing. The sting of jealousy was hard on Chloe. She however keeps her face neutral and simply says:

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Was it that good or bad?" Ella says smirking.

"You could say that. But like I said I don't wanna talk about it." Before Ella could say anything else, Chloe completes her sentence. "How about we all go down and have breakfast. I'm famished." With that she exits the room. The three others follow suit.

The hotel restaurant

The four women were sitted at a table having breakfast. Chloe chose to have black coffee with toast, just like Linda did. Ella was having a tea with bacon and eggs. Whereas Maze was enjoying her bowl of cereals. Then a cheerful voice filled the restaurant.

"Hello ladies. Up so early! How was your night? Did anything not boring happen to you?"

Ella and Linda, still unaware of what had taken place a few minutes earlier between the three others, say amused:

"Actually, last night was quite fun!" says Ella "We had lovely drinks. Kudos to your bartender. He makes some mean Pina Coladas. We got lucky with the slot machines at the casino, and then Linda bought us tickets to go see some magician at the casino."

"Well except Maze. I mean she literally nearly broke down one of the slot machine, because she wasn't winning anything. But thanks to my very good knowledge in psychology, I managed to convince the security guard not to throw us out." Linda cuts in.

"A magician?" Lucifer asks "I hate those guys. They're just a bunch of frauds using the human's naïveté for their own entertainement." He says, clearly appalled by them.

"Come on, everyone loves magician. Even the Devil. I mean, when he pulled out that rabbit out of his hat, and then the rabbit escaped the stage. It was hilarious!" Ella answers.

As Linda is about to continue and give more details about the anecdote Ella mentioned, she notices the tension between Chloe, Lucifer and Maze. She looks at them, the psychiatrist in her taking over:

"Did something happen last night? Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No need to talk about it. Lucifer's an ass, as always I'd say" Maze says bitterly.

Lucifer picks up after Maze. "What Mazekeen is trying to say is that we had a small disagreement this morning and I might have temporarily lost my temper. But as she said, it's not much to talk about." He finishes, his trademark grin on his face.

Chloe cannot take it anymore. She stares at him in disbelief and almost yells:

"A loss of temper? Is that how you call it Lucifer?"

"And how would you call it then Chloe?" Mirroring her tone.

"Oh I don't know, how about madness, insanity, mental breakdown? You threw Maze across the room and you nearly killed her, for God's sake!" She answers, lowering her voice when she said "kill".

"A detail, my Dear" he answers dismissing her last comment and wincing slightly at the mention of his father's name. "So any news on the case?"

Ella and Linda were agape. Linda never thought she would get this answer when she asked her question. Boy was she glad Lucifer asked about news on the case, because right now, she could not deal with that. Chloe gave Lucifer a look, saying they were not done talking about the "incident". Ella tries to diffuse the tension between the five of them and resumes the story of their night.

"And I met a lovely bartender, not the one who made the awesome cocktails, but the younger one. He was lovely. I think I'll see him again later…"

Lucifer cuts Ella's story short "As much as I enjoy your little story telling time, I did not come down here at this god forsaken hour to hear about your boring girl's night out, at my expenses, if I might add! We have a case to solve and a murderer to catch. So chop chop!" Without waiting for a reply, he produces a folder and puts it down on the table. "I took the liberty of stopping by your room Detective to retrieve those".

Chloe looked at him, dumbfounded. "You did what? These were in my suitcase. You searched my stuff!" She could not believe her ears.

"Well after last night, I figured a little peaking in your undies wouldn't hurt. Beside it's nothing I have not seen before" He continues smiling "And your taste in undergarments is lovely. I even found something quite interesting. You see it's the little thing that's…"

Chloe feels her cheeks redden and before Lucifer can finish his sentence, Chloe interrupts him:

"The case Lucifer!" God, how can he be so annoying and so charming and sexy at the same time. I'll explore that thought later, she thinks. "That's why you came down here for, right?"

Lucifer pouts a little and answers. "Fine. I'll guess we'll explore that subject later then" He grins. Chloe rolls her eyes turns her attention back to the file on the table. She sprawls out the different pictures.

The first picture shows the body of Amelia on the floor in the alley where they found her. Ella show the rest of them the marks on her neck.

"So this is the cause of death."

"Yeah right!" Lucifer says skeptical.

"No I'm serious. Her neck was snapped like a twig!"

"So the stab wounds are like some sort of set up? Given the numerous traces on her body, I'd say she bled out!"

"Hey. You might be the Devil, but I'm the forensic tech here. And I'm telling you. She was strangled, and then stabbed post-mortem."

Lucifer looses his smile for a brief second, surprised at the response from Ella. He keeps up the appearances by adding "At least she did not suffer! Poor Amelia!"

"Maybe. Doesn't change the fact that she is now in a body bag." Chloe cuts in.

"Don't get me wrong Detective. I'm going to enjoy tracking and punishing the manipulative bastard. He went to great lengths to cover up the real cause of death. I wonder why?"

"You are not going to punish anyone Lucifer. For the 100th time, we are doing this by the book. So that means no dangling anyone from roof tops, or scaring anyone to death. Whoever did this is going to pay and get a trial." Chloe tells him sternly, leaving no room for any argument.

"You're no fun. You're not even here on official police business anyway." He pouts lightly adding "But, we'll do it your way, even if it's the boring one."

"If we can find him/her" Ella adds. "All I have so far on him/her is a bit of red dirt, that may or may not come from around here, and some sort of negative print left on the victim's skin. Apparently, our killer was wearing some sort of silver ring."

"A ring?" Lucider asks

"Yeah. I managed to partly isolate the shape of it, but it's not enough to identify it. I'm still waiting for the lab results to identify the purity and kind of silver that imprinted on the neck."

Lucifer snags the picture from Ella's hand, looks at it and then throws it back on the table.

"Of all the technologies you have at your disposal, this is all you found!" He says angrily.

"Hey! Take it easy Lucifer!" Chloe jumps to Ella's defense. "She's doing her best here!"

"Well clearly, it's not enough! A bastard wearing a silver ring is running free, brutally murdering young women, and all you have is this" He answers showing the pictures on the table.

Everyone stare at him, clearly surprised by his sudden outburst. Linda looks at him, trying to read his face. She can see he's hiding something. And apparently, she's not the only one to think this way. She gently says:

"Is everything all right Lucifer? Last time you were this "disturbed", someone had stolen your wings. You know we can schedule something if you want."

"I'm fine, Doctor! Maybe your insights would be useful. What do you think of this?"

"Well, from what I just saw on the report, the murderer is clearly calculating his every move. He left a trail of bread crumbs to follow, and my opinion is, it's for you Lucifer. As for the rest, I'll need more time to establish a complete psychological profile."

"A trail for me to follow? How nice of him, or her! What makes you say that Doctor?" Lucifer is clearly trying to hide some sort of discomfort. Chloe catches up on this change of behavior.

"What are you hiding Lucifer. You're not telling us everything… I can feel it!" Chloe stares at him and Lucifer has a bit of trouble, despite his composure, to look back into her eyes.

Suddenly her phone rings and they can hear the theme song of The Dukes of Hazzard. They can't help but smile at the music. "What?" Chloe says. "I love this show. I used to watch it with my Dad all the time!" She looks back at Lucifer.

"Oh goodie, that bloody device is useful for once! If you'll excuse me, I'll take my leave." Lucifer starts to leave but Chloe grabs her arm.

"You're not going anywhere! We are not done talking about this!" Then she brings the phone to her ear and says "Decker". Her features change and a few minutes pass before she speaks again "OK. Send the info with an email." She waits a few more moments "No it's fine, I'm already on the scene. I was on vacation there. Long story! I'll tell you some time. Thanks for the info!" She says before hanging up. She turns towards the group and says sadly:

"They found another body. Same MO according to the Vegas' medical examiner. The vic seems to be about the same age, height and weight as the first girl."

When Lucifer hears there is another body, he stops dead in his track and makes his way back to the group. Chloe goes on with her story.

"Apparently, they found your card on her body again. They did not find any ID though. You're still doubting he left this trail for someone else?"

"Well what can I say, everyone loves me!"

"I have to call this in Lucifer. I have to get a team over there."

"That includes the Douche I guess!"

"Yes. I'll have to check with the Lieutenant if she can see with the local police to let us take over. I hope they, at least allow us to assist them on the case. Since the body was found in LA, it should be OK. And the Sheriff is an old friend of the Lieutenant."

"Well I could try to talk to that sheriff. You know, work my magic on her or him!" The glare he gets from Chloe makes him chuckle lightly "I'm kidding! Sort of…" he adds before starting to walk away. He brushes past Chloe and whispers to her:

"That was fun while it lasted. But don't worry, I'm sure we'll still find some quality time to enjoy together. I mean, despite the Douche's presence."

"We'll see about that Lucifer." She answers

"Oh, I'll make sure of it "Chloe" he replies his voice almost a purr "We have a lot to catch up on", his breath sending shivers down her body.

As Lucifer heads for the elevator Chloe watches him leave and she allows her mind to wander back to this morning and the night before. She takes a deep breath trying to stop the images invading her mind. Ironically, Lucifer's voice pulls her out of her trance. Before the doors close, he says:

"I'll meet you all back here in thirty minutes and we can all go have some and catch ourselves a killer!"

To be continued.

This chapter is bit longer than the others, but I'm starting to put into place some events :). Luckily Lucifer is a bit more back to himself again.

Soon Dan will be here, and things are going to be fun ;).

Reviews are always welcome!