Whenever Lucifer's primal instincts took over, all he was able to see was red. Like he was wearing sunglasses that were tinted, affecting everything he saw. This heat seemed to run throughout his entire body, and locate primarily in his head. It felt like power was running through his veins, being carried everywhere and radiating through his confidence. Only moments ago he had told Brent to go meet the police outside, giving him privacy to begin his attempts at getting in. Taking slow perfected steps backwards as a preparation, Lucifer thought to himself that the door was coming down one way or another, and he took his first steps towards ramming it. Knowing his effort was in vain before he even connected with the door, he accepted the anger that rushed through him as his shoulder hit the steel first and he felt it dislocate directly perpendicular from its socket. It didn't cause him any pain, it felt more like a prick.
In a blinding fixation, his transformation completes. Make no mistake that if anyone saw him now, their spine would be chilled to the bone. To say his skin was crimson would only just scratch the reality of the color surrounding and empowering him. His hand felt rigid as they made their way into a fist, and he could feel his toes curl. Something about the way he felt when he was like this, power rushing through him so fast that it was almost like a comfort to him. A reality that couldn't be escaped, but yet something he would never want to be rid of. Lucifer had fully welcomed this part of himself, accepting that there was no need to change his true identity because it made it who he was. Sure, he didn't want to look like this all the time which is why he covered it with his other persona and more pleasing face. But to him, even this hidden portion was beautiful. The red and black eyes resembling the very fires in which he calls home, and the horns of sorts in various ways on his skin.
It's like his brain had been at war with himself over this past month with Chloe. While a part of him wanted to just show Chloe his true self, another wanted to hide it from her. If he showed her, she might reject him, or be afraid. Normally when people stare at Lucifer in this form, the looks of their faces look like they are about to be hit by an oncoming train. Lucifer loves that reaction, it gives him a sense of entitlement and dominance. But Lucifer's dreams had been haunted with Chloe looking at him with the same expression, and it no longer felt empowering. It felt like an overwhelming sense of guilt, hurt, and regret. If there was one person he couldn't stand to let down or hurt...it was Chloe. Lucifer chuckled at the irony that in order to save Chloe he has to use the side of him that he never wanted to use around Chloe.
God works in mysterious ways...
Grabbing the handle on the door, he allows the heat within his body to flow into the steel knob. Closing his eyes, he give away everything he has within him and allows the sound of steel cackling and melting to fill his ears. The door also begins to heat and melt away, the drops creating a metallic puddle at the bottom frame. When Lucifer opens his eyes, nothing else stands before him. Relief washes over him as he quickly is returned to his regular self. Allowing his feet to carry him at the same pace as his heart, he races inside the frame. Along the way, he is ignoring all possible danger from the metal around him or what lies within the darkness, for at the bottom of the stairs lay his love.
Chloe was not as he had seen her only hours ago. Her face was bruised, her eye swollen beyond belief. Lucifer makes the quick assumption that someone must have hit her quite hard, and he can feel that rage creep back into him. She was no longer wearing her blouse he remembered, but rather a hospital gown of sort, the whole thing covered in sticky red blood. Her body is slump against the first step and Lucifer throws himself to the floor, snaking his arms around her waist. Pulling her close, his first instinct is to check for a pulse but he ignores it for his stronger instinct. Feeling reassurance at finding her, he places his lips upon her forehead. Lingering there for as long as he can, Lucifer shuts his eyes in the moment, he begins savoring it. Letting himself take in a breath he hadn't been able to in all his worry and fast paced investigating, it fills his lungs in contentment. Breathing out, he opens his eyes and tears himself away from her momentarily, immediately feeling the absence of her skin as he lifts his lips from her.
As his fingers find their way around her wrist and neck, her body temperature gives him a shock. The woman in his lap feels like a literal ice cube, and he now realizes why her lips look almost blue. As he tries to find her pulse, Lucifer can't tell if he is listening to her weak one or his powerful one. Examining her closer, he realizes there are claw marks down her face like someone had scratched her. Scanning downwards, he moves the gown ever so slightly and the sight before his makes him want to punch something while simultaneously throw up. A large and deep gash is spread across her abdomen, and is only barely held together by small staples, and not even medical ones at that. Actual metal staples protrude at sickening angles as the wound is still leaking blood, gushing out at a rapid rate. Her long legs have countless bruises upon them, leading down finally to an ankle looking twisted in a way out of Lucifer's imagination.
"Chloe? Chloe? C'mon Chloe?" Lucifer shakes her lightly, hoping to wake her from her unconscious state. Who knows how long she has been under, or why. Hoping it hasn't been long, he cries out "You can do this Chloe. Come back to me. Fight Chloe!" His own voice begins to break as he takes in all of her injury's as a whole. He can't tell if her chest is rising or falling, and he could be holding a dead body in his hands right now. She looks like most people would in their grave, like those girls before they were burned and left in an alleyway. Lucifer's father could very well already have her angelic soul, leaving him without his favorite Detective. Holding her like she is labelled as a fragile box, he looks up at the sky, cursing loudly. "Chloe..." Touching her lips with his fingers, he whispers a small "please," much like he had the night she touched his scars.
To his surprise, her eyelids just ever so slightly flutter.
"Chloe..." she can hear her name in the darkness, like it had latched onto her. A plea, telling her to come back. "Please," Chloe hears, the break at the end of the word sounding like shattering glass. Much like something falling apart with no chance of repair. Despite the pain, and every part of her telling her to slip back under, Chloe tries to force her eyes open. The effort feels useless but she continues anyway.
The sight before her reassures everything she has ever believed in. Lucifer is here, in this figurative hellhole. Just like she knew he would, Lucifer found her. It seemed like someway, somehow, he always found her.
"Chloe!" He cries at the sight of her, and a smile makes its way over both of their faces. All at once, it is his breath she can feel on her skin. It is his warmth she feels wrapped around her. Reaching up a weak, shaking and unstable hand towards Lucifer, all she wants is the taste of his lips on hers. Picking up on what she is trying to accomplish, Lucifer slowly leans in. There is hesitation in him, something unlike what Chloe has seen with Lucifer and other girls. With her, it is cautious. Both of their lips hang in the air without touching, both of them asking silently for permission to touch. As if something as simple as a kiss could change everything,
His eyes shine into hers, and her into his. Straining every remaining healthy muscle in her arm, Chloe extends her arm up through his shadowed chin, and into his silky hair. Spreading her fingers wise, she applies the lightest pressure downwards towards herself. "Kiss me," she whispers.
History of words strung together make kisses much like this sound explosive. What this really was would have been better described as magnetic. An attraction so strong, nothing could pull them apart once connected. Lucifer quickly lost all the restraint he had left, and Chloe had crashed into him. Eyes closed, and tongues swirling, his strong hands held her to him. Exploring the toned surface area of her back with his rough hands, Chloe used her other hand to blindly explore the area around his firm chest.
Lucifer made the first attempt to break free, but Chloe was desperately clung to him as if letting go meant falling. Something about this moment was making her forget about her pain and sadness. Something about this moment made it seem like light was finally found in the darkness. Something about this moment made it bearable to let go. The only uncontrolled factor was Lucifer, he was the something that was changing everything.
Lucifer manages to stop everything, his head snapping towards the top of the stairs. Chloe not only feels the absence of his lips, but the pain creeps back in as well. Stifling a cry in her throat, a sharp gasp manages to escape. A shudder takes over her body once again, shaking her wildly. Lucifer's attention snaps back to her, and his face changed into worry. His right hand finds the side of her face, cradling it softly.
"Chloe, help is here. Just hold on a little bit longer," Lucifer begs.
Suddenly, it feels like Chloe can't receive enough air. Like her lungs have lost the ability to function, and she begins hyperventilating. It's like someone is holding her tight around her throat, but the reality is that no one is doing anything of the sorts. Wheezing, almost as if she is choking on air, Lucifer's arms gently set her down. His face is morphed in horror, and he runs up the metal staircase. Leaving her momentarily, Chloe attempts to calm herself down despite the invisible blockage in her throat. Rejecting her efforts, Chloe begins coughing. Covering her mouth, she forcibly pushes oxygen out. Her lungs are like fire, and her body hates the jumping motion that comes with the cough. Covering her mouth, she tries to expel any leftover air within her. When her hand leaves her mouth, it is covered in wet crimson blood. It's almost as if this is the last straw, and Chloe begins crying out in pain and fear. Allowing another scream to happen, it isn't as frantic or loud but it still has power. It is quickly cut off by her already low supply of oxygen and her vision begins to cut out again.
Not again. Not again, she thinks to herself. How weak must I look right now? Also crosses her mind.
As her vision is blurring, she is met with the faces of three paramedics. Their lips are moving, yet it seems like she can't hear a word they say. Almost as if they are fading from everything. Coughing yet again, she can feel the blood and spit mixture on her cheek, and she can also feel hands grabbing her everywhere. Her back becomes supported by a stretcher, and they rush her up the stairs. It is by now she is only hanging onto small glimpses as her consciousness cuts in and out. The nausea is back, and Chloe's breath is beginning to slow, but not in a good way. If Chloe thought she was fading before, she had no idea what was coming.
Even with the feeling of overwhelming death looming over her, and black overcoming her vision, and her ears no longer able to hear anything, and her body speeding across a hallway, Chloe latches onto two simple feelings. One from only moments ago when her lips had locked with Lucifer, and how great it felt to have him near her yet again. The second was a feeling of warmth climbing up from the hand dangling from the stretcher. Struggling to stay awake, she sees Lucifer has her hand. Running alongside the paramedics is her hero, keeping great pace. She focuses on him as they dash her through the long hallway. When they exit the building she is greeted to the most wonderful of sights.
Chloe sees the sun beginning to rise and spread across an orange sky. Many would think the color orange is ugly, and on most days Chloe would have to agree. But considering that only moments before, as she was locked in that torture chamber, she couldn't even think of this being a sight she would ever see again...it was like suddenly the color was beautiful. As her stretcher rises into the ambulance, she looses Lucifer's hand. That feeling of panic arises again, the one always accompanying Lucifer's absence. Her hand begins to shake and she closes her eyes, a small tear leaking out yet again. Something yanking her arm makes Chloe open her eyes quickly. Lucifer hops into the ambulance with her, his hand never faltering from hers.
"I'm never letting go, so don't you dare do the same," Lucifer demands.
Her shutting down body forces her to close her eyes, and Lucifer's words stick with her. Chloe quickly wonders just who's hands she is really in.
The doctors? or God's? or Lucifer's?
