Lucifer exited his car in front of a large house that almost seemed mansion like. His demon, Maze, did the same and they walked towards the entrance.
"You've never made a house call to grant a favor before," Maze commented.
"Yes, well, I was promised that this would be worth my while," Lucifer said as they walked to the front door. He rang the doorbell and waited.
The door was answered by a man in an Armani suit. "You must be Mr. Morningstar. I'm Matthew Davis. Please come in," the man said before ushering them inside.
They both stepped inside. "Well, Mr. Davis, you said meeting you here would be worth my while. You'd better be right."
"Yes, of course. I apologize for the inconvenience, but this is a very sensitive matter," Matthew said as he led them into the living room. "In fact, I didn't realize you'd be bringing anyone with you."
"This is Maze. She knows to be discrete," Lucifer said.
"Good. Can I offer you both a drink," he asked as he went over to the minibar.
"Naturally. Scotch," Lucifer said before he and Maze made themselves comfortable on the black leather sectional couch. There was a matching loveseat across from them. In between the two couches was a large, glass coffee table with a folder on it.
Matthew came over and handed them each a drink before sitting down on the loveseat across from them. "I assume you'll want to get right down to business."
"If you please. I can guess that this has something to do with money," Lucifer said. In the two years that he'd been on Earth permanently, he'd dealt in a lot of favors, and many of them involved money in some way.
Matthew smirked. "Look around, Mr. Morningstar. Do I look like I need money?"
Lucifer smirked back. "Looks can be deceiving. I've done my research on you. You've made some very bad investments lately. Your fortune has taken a hit."
"Well, I suppose you're right in part to my motivations. Money is a factor. Mostly though, I have a problem I need solved," Matthew said before sliding the folder that was on the table towards Lucifer. "That's everything you need to know."
Lucifer picked the folder up and opened it. The first thing he saw as picture of a little girl. It was all he needed to see. He didn't do this type of favor. He sighed in irritation and put the folder back on the table. "You've waisted my time and your own. I don't do favors involving child custody. Contact a lawyer."
"Yes, I understand. A custody situation would be way under your skill set. It would probably seem like an insult to ask such a thing. This isn't a custody dispute. I need you to make my problem go away."
Lucifer looked between the man in front of him and the folder still laying on the table. He had an inkling of what this man wanted from him, which was why the next thing he said was spoken in a dangerous tone. "What?"
"Everything you need is in there. Medical and birth records," he said. Well, the birth records were falsified, but Morningstar didn't need to know that. "Of course, you'll need to make them disappear, but I figured you might need the information on them to get rid of her."
Lucifer leaned forward to get a bit closer to the man. "Let me see if I understand this correctly. You want me to make your child disappear."
Maze began to smile as she watched Lucifer. He was pissed. This was not the kind of thing Lucifer did. In fact, this was the kind of thing Lucifer tortured souls in Hell for personally. Guys like Davis didn't punish themselves. They were handled on a more personal level. Maze was going to enjoy seeing what the Devil did to this guy.
"Yes. Now, I don't want you to kill her. There's too much of a chance that that could come back to bite us all. Besides, the amount of money we could get for her would be enormous. We would split it fifty-fifty, of course. You don't need to worry about much of a cover up, either. The kid doesn't go to school and has never left the property. All her medical needs are handled by house calls. As long as you can make the birth records, disappear, it shouldn't be a problem," Matthew said. The birth records shouldn't be a big deal at all since they were a very good forgery. He wished he hadn't gotten involved in this at all, but his wife had wanted a kid. Now that she was gone, he wanted the kid gone.
Lucifer was dangerously close to breaking his father's biggest rule. The more this vermin spoke, the more Lucifer wanted to end him and send him to Hell where he belonged. Lucifer wasn't a child person by any stretch of the imagination. They unnerved him, not that he would ever admit that. But he absolutely despised humans who set out to harm children, who treated them like property like this filth across from him planned to do.
Lucifer was ready to make example of the human for even daring to believe that Lucifer would not only condone, but take part in this atrocity, however, before he had a chance, there was a loud crash in the next room.
"Excuse me," Matthew said with an irritated look on his face.
"Well, obviously, this is one deal you won't be making," Maze said.
"Yes, obviously!" Lucifer said in a furious tone.
They both suddenly heard a thud and a cry.
Lucifer was out of his seat in moments. He ran towards the cries into the kitchen. When he got there he saw a small child, the same one in the photo he'd seen, on the floor backing up in fear. She had a large bruise on her face. Matthew was looming over her grabbed her by the arm roughly, bringing out another cry from the child.
"I told you to stay upstairs, you little brat. Why can't you follow the simplest directions!" Matthew yelled.
"I'm sorry. I was thirsty," the girl cried.
Matthew raised his free hand to strike her, but he didn't get the chance.
Lucifer grabbed the man before he could hit the child. He took him by the neck and slammed him into the kitchen table. His eyes were blazing red and he barely noticed as the girl hid behind the counter.
Matthew gasped in fear and spoke as well as he could with the pressure on his throat. "What are you?"
Lucifer smiled maliciously at the man. "You tried to make a deal with the Devil, Davis. This is the result!"
Matthew trembled in fear as he was picked up off the table and punched repeatedly in the stomach.
"Maze," Lucifer called as he gestured to the slime on the ground.
Maze went over and slammed her foot down on his stomach, causing the man yell out in pain.
"Let me go!" Matthew yelled.
"You reached out to the wrong man. I don't deal with child abusers. I am going to personally see to it that you never harm another child again!" Lucifer said. His eyes then reached the child's, who was still hiding. His eyes were still red, so he expected the child would run when she saw him. She didn't.
The girl looked at the man who'd just helped her. His eyes made him look like a monster, but she knew he couldn't be. A monster wouldn't have helped her. He had to be a hero. Heroes helped people. All she knew was that she was safe with this man around, and she wanted to feel safe.
Lucifer watched both in shock and horror as the child ran up to him and hugged his legs. He just stood there for a minute, unsure how to react. He expected fear, but what he got was this child attaching herself to him. He soon went from shocked to unnerved. He was extremely uncomfortable with this small person touching him the way she was. "Um, you can let go now, okay?"
She didn't let him go. She only hugged him tighter.
Maze snickered as she watched Lucifer. He just stood there awkwardly as this little person hugged him. He didn't touch her or even move. He seemed afraid to. The Devil himself was scared of a kid.
"Do you have a name or anything?" Lucifer asked.
"B…Beatrice," the girl said shakily.
"Very well, Beatrice. Will you let go of me now?" Lucifer asked.
Beatrice shook her head and kept a firm grip on his leg.
"As hilarious as this is, what do you intend to do about this?" Maze asked Lucifer.
Lucifer wasn't entirely sure about that himself. He wanted to murder Davis, but he also wanted him to suffer first. Oh, he'd suffer in Hell, but it wasn't quite enough. "This vermin is yours, Mazikeen, but do not kill him. When you're done, I will find a particularly miserable place for him to live out his days. Then I will personally arrange the worst Hell possible."
Maze rubbed her hands together and smirked as if it was Christmas. The only parameter she was given was not to kill him. She could have so much fun. "And what about the kid?"
That, Lucifer had no idea about. All he did know was that he was not leaving the child where she was. Very awkwardly, Lucifer reached down and lifted the young girl into his arms. The child immediately latched onto him and buried her face in his shoulders. The awkwardness that Lucifer felt only got worse.
Lucifer looked back down at Davis maliciously. "I have decided to take care of your… problem after all. I do hope you're happy with the results," he snarled before carrying the child out of the room.
