"Dad." Rory sniffed in greeting that followed the soft whisper of wings.
"Starlight." Her father answers crossing quickly over to the sofa. It was only low rumbles that accompanied his softly given greeting that Rory notices the smartly dressed man now dropping a light kiss to the top of her head hadn't come alone to offer what he could on handling her girlfriend's disappearance but to also comfort his upset daughter as well.
To any other, the of the oncoming dog now making its way from the balcony into what passed for the living room of the penthouse apartment would have terrified any sensible human person as the hellfire eyed thing pads close enough to nudge her head against the smaller pup yet to move from Sammy's self-placed position across Rory's lap.
"Your mother insisted. Seeing as she can't very well come to visit herself." Lucifer shrugs thought the fondness in the Devil's gaze as he watched the reunion between mother and pup made the half-angel that was his own daughter think it wasn't just her mom's idea to let the elder hell hound out of her cage as it were as another soft curled of smoke lifts from the comforting licks the mother was giving leaving against the younger dog's face and neck. Sammy's tail thumps lightly against Rory's thigh in contentment at the show of affection as she gives a few returned flicks of her tongue as well. The pup's first emotion other than guilt since the attack happened.
"So, what's the latest?" Lucifer questioned from the direction of the bar.
Rory already feels her lip curling in a snicker at the sounds of liquor splashing into a tumbler before her father returned to take a seat a cushion over from the one Rory and Sammy were occupying. Thought Rory guessed his seating choices were more the low growl in warning Sammy gives at his returned approach the second glass he'd poured out outstretched in offering to his still seated daughter.
The loud ping of the elevator rings like cannon fire stalling any more conversation before Rory could do more than savor the flavor of rum on the air much less have a first sip of the offered drink as the elevator groans to life across from them.
"I swear to…to…..to whoever I think of first at the moment I'll hang that worm with his own weak-ass excuse for test…"
Eve's angered growling was quickly quieted the same moment the doors slid open relieving the reason being the addition of her smirking wife's lips, tongue, and teeth against the angered woman's mouth as Eve was pushed back against the sidewall of the waiting elevator.
"You know I love it when you talk sexy, kitten." Maze purred once the need for breath forced the kissing couple to separate.
"Time and place, Mazikeen." Lucifer reminds with a strained cough forcing the doors to open once again after they'd already started sliding closed once again as the two other penthouse occupants watched the make-out session from the sofa.
"Seems like as good of a time as any." Maze growls but she does rock back on her heels leaving Eve pouting backed up against the elevator wall.
"You talked to Logan." It wasn't interlay a question
Eve's answering remark wasn't a phrase Rory could easily translate but it did bring an awed "I didn't know you still had that kind of talk in you after all this time." From her father so she guessed it ran along the same angered comments as she was thinking in regard to her lover's current boss.
"Ass hat says this is nothing that warrants a full-scale search. That Kenzi is just…."
"Missing? Being tortured? Who knows what else?" Rory lists angry tears returning to her eyes as her mind spirals into all the stomach-turning possibilities that could be happening to the woman she loved.
"Acting out." Maze finishes forging a glass and drinking straight from one of the crystal decanters instead as she glared at nothing in particular after dropping onto the sofa with an angered huff. Eve mirroring her only she chose to lay down with her head pillowed against her wife's lap instead of prowling back and forth like the cadged animal she felt like.
"Acting out?" Lucifer echoes not even flinching when the sounds of breaking glass sound as Rory throws the glass in her hell pup free hand at the wall in her frustration.
"With all the pressure she's been feeling lately both in her professional and personal life its normal for those under stress to act out like this. I'm sure Miss St. James is perfectly fine wherever she is." Maze quotes between gulped sips from the bottle in her shaking grip. "Not that this disappearing act will reflect well on the already ongoing investigation onto her future position with the department." She adds
More old-world cursing follows that bit of repeated conversation. This time from the King of Hell himself as he drains his own glass down before following his daughter's lead and tossing the glass into the opposite wall in anger.
Again, the pinging groan of the penthouse elevator cuts into any further conversation as Rory carries Sammy over towards the piano and her father stalks back towards the bar for a fresh glass.
"Lucifer."
The sound of his name was quickly followed by the added weight of the speaker jumping onto the turned back of the King of Hell with an added "I missed you." As Trixie nuzzles her face against the taller man's shoulder as she hugs him tightly from behind.
"and I've missed you. Not so little human." Lucifer answers turning his head to press the softest of kisses against the young woman's temple in greeting.
Rory's lip curls into what could have been considered a half-smile at the reunion before her older sister untangles herself to join her at the piano bench. Trixie's chin hooks over the sulking half angel's shoulder as Rory herself lean back against her sister's offered support.
"We tracked the van as far as we could think the city cameras but whoever took her were smart enough to keep mostly to back roads." Charlie tells the group "Auntie El said the thing was stolen anyway but she still processed what she could from it before Logan came in and demanded to know what she was doing."
"First he threatened to shut down the STEM now he's questioning her in her own lab." Rory growled adding this to the growing list of reasons she hated the smug man making it his mission to undo all the good her mother had done in his current job.
"Why don't you let me have a chat with this man?"
"Because you meant to have disappeared years ago, Dad." Rory reminds "How's it going to look if you show up now looking like no time has passed?" she reasons
"A little trust please, starlight." Her father asks moving over to press another light kiss to his daughter's head. "Coco stay." He adds already seeing the elder hellhound following him over to the elevator. "for now that is, darling." He continues at the dog's grumpy huff as she sits back down as the elevator doors slide closed.
"I'm telling you I don't know." Kenzi wheezed after another hard punch to her ribs. Her arms were already burning painfully as she twists away from the attack but seeing as she was currently hanging like a slab of meat with her wrist bound and chained up over her head there wasn't far, she could go. They'd even chained her ankles together after she'd tried one too many times to kick out in defense.
"So, what you just woke up one day bound to a hell beast?" the one she knew only as Mikey sneered with another hard-punching jab to her ribs.
"Sammy's not…"
This time the punch was to her jaw a right hook that left her dazed and her ears ringing as her chin dropped against her chest from the pain.
The opening of a rusty door behind her back makes her wince as Kenzi struggles to raise her head once more.
"Where's the boss?" her tormentor asks his companion. His voice was now muffled as if Kenzi was listening to it underwater.
"On his way. Got delayed or something I didn't ask."
"Well, this one is no help at all." Mikey sighed
"Yeah, but she's a pretty thing."
Kenzi felt her stomach twist at the lusty tone as the two circle around her on the way to the two folded chairs and the card table they'd set up a few paces away. The clinking thump of a case of beer behind dropped onto its surface audible even over the ringing pain of her ears as Kenzi caught her breath after yet another round of punched questioning.
"Boss said we can't touch her like that." Mikey reminded now digging in the plain paper bag Kenzi assumed was either take out or what passed for snacks between second-rate hitmen.
"Yet."
At that Kenzi was glad she didn't have anything solid in her stomach considering she'd have thrown it up at the very idea her captors were talking about as the one she didn't know by name advanced on her.
"What the hell are you doing?" Mikey asks mirroring the panicked question now drifting through Kenzi's mind until she noticed the bottle of water in his hand.
"Don't want you passing out from lack of hydration now would we." He asks cracking the lid and dragging her head up by her hair.
Kenzi would have resisted the offer but at least it would get rid of some of it iron taste of her own blood in her mouth so grumpily she allowed a few mouth fulls to be poured into her blood-stained mouth. "Where's my dog?" she asked once she'd dulled the dry ache in her throat enough to speak.
As she'd expected her question goes unanswered as the man backs away from her heading back to the cards table where he sets down the water and picks up a beer as he sits down.
"You'll tell us what we want eventually, girly." He muses bringing the bottle to his lips. "one way." Kenzi's stomach drops as his eyes linger too long over the abundance of exposed albeit bruised and sweat-dampened skin her running clothes allowed him "or another."
