Teaser: Love isn't always on time...


Captive

The sound of the metal bars of the cage's door creaking open and clanging shut heralded the arrival of her captor – Michael. She abandoned chipping away at the loose rock around the anchor point of one of the perpendicular bars that blocked her way out of another egress from the manufactured cave. She moved away from the window to avoid betraying her plan. He came into view carrying a cup of coffee. Chloe held her ground despite the overwhelming urge to back away from him. The look on his face was nothing short of predatory. Chloe had the distinct impression she was just the snack a great white shark was toying with before the main course – his brother.

"Something to take the edge off. Just the way you like it," Michael said, holding the made-to-order drink out to her. She hadn't had anything to eat or drink in far too long. Chloe accepted the coffee, taking a sip. Just the right temperature and exactly as she liked it – tall non-fat almond milk latte with sugar-free caramel drizzle. A fear seized Chloe's heart. She dropped the cup, splattering the drink on the cave floor. The scent of her favourite drink permeated the cave and being unable to drink anything in its presence was maddening.

"Hmm. A needless waste of seven dollars. It wasn't poisoned."

"You sadistic–"

"Sticks and stones, Detective," Michael cautioned her, his voice raised. "And, well, not even those." Michael stood silent, taking in her reaction.

"What am I doing here, Michael?" Chloe demanded, barely managing to keep her voice steady.

"You're part of a bigger plan. Don't worry. I won't spoil the ending for you," Michael said, finding a place to casually lean back against the wall.

"Then why are you here?" Chloe asked, a sickness starting to upset her stomach.

"That, Detective, is the right question," Michael began, pushing himself away from the wall with his good shoulder and closing in on her. "Quite a bit has happened since the last time we saw each other. I thought it might be nice..." Michael reached up to move a wayward strand of hair aside from her eyes. "to catch up." The sickness in her stomach became full-on nausea. What Michael wanted was not to 'catch up' and she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her back away or cower. Michael's fingertips had travelled from her brow, down her cheek and neck, coming to rest on the runoff to her shoulder, his thumb sitting heavily on her throat beneath her Adam's apple. The pressure was enough to force her to clear her throat in order to breathe and she was forced to inch backward.

"What do you want, Michael?" Chloe asked, done with being toyed with. If he was going to do what he seemed to intend... get it over with.

A snarl shattered Michael's placid expression the instant before he took her by the neck and brutally slammed her into the wall. "In short, vengeance." A fearful but stifled cry escaped her involuntarily. He held her up enough that even on her toe tips, the ground was just out of reach. Chloe took hold of Michael's forearm with both hands, lifting herself enough to take the downward pressure off her neck and lashed out with two savage kicks to the groin. Michael's laughter was vicious. Bullets couldn't hurt him and she thought that somehow that was going to be effective.

His laughter interwoven with his words, Michael snarled, "I'll never understand what my brother sees in you. What, exactly, do you think you're doing?"

"Looking for the off switch," Chloe spat back, enraged.

"Ironically, what you've found, is the 'on' button. If you're fighting that means you're genuinely, truly afraid. From what I hear, fear enhances the experience." Michael's tone had dropped to something nearly as sinister as his brother's dark side. "For all our differences, my brother and I are alike in some ways. Open yourself up to the idea, Chloe. You just might get something out of it."

"No. I won't. As similar as you look, you're not the same. And I'm not just talking about the scar."

"Hmm. Your call." Michael said, throwing her to the floor as one might a crumpled-up piece of paper, proceeding to remove his jacket, shirt and belt. The top of the shoulder blade on the side he favoured bore sizeable, angry, purple-black scar. Chloe stayed where she was relatively unmoving. Hands pocketed, Michael hooked the toe of his shoe under one ankle then the other, pushing each of her legs out to the sides with a flick of his foot. Kneeling over her, he pinned her wrists over her head with one hand. She knew perfectly well there was no way to escape. Her bones would break before she could wrest herself free if she fought as violently as she wanted to. She couldn't outrun someone who could fly even if she did get loose. Fighting back against someone strong enough to rip her arms and legs off with his bare hands was out of the question. The only thing left to hope to achieve was survival.

"There's one thing I've been wondering. How did you know I wasn't my brother so quickly?"

Chloe met his gaze and responded venomously. "He doesn't make my skin crawl. You always did." Michael responded by pulling her into a forced kiss and letting his full weight rest on her at the hip. Chloe shut down. Brought her shields up, tucking her self and everything about Lucifer she could manage to collect, away somewhere fortified inside her.

When Michael was finished with kissing her, Chloe spoke. "No matter what you do to me, Michael, I'm not letting you anywhere near me and Lucifer," Chloe said, both fury and sadness ruling over her voice. Between her and Lucifer, it certainly wasn't she who was the libertine. Now, even if it was against her will, it was her who would end up being unfaithful. Michael moved his hip against her, growing stiffer as he did and tears began falling down the side of her face toward her ears, her expression becoming vacant. Having consciously closed down nearly everything else, there was one thing she couldn't prevent: the way she involuntarily squirmed away from him wherever he touched her. With Michael busy elsewhere, she let her head fall to the side, looking away and retreating into herself as far from the sensation of what he was doing as she could.

Michael looked up to see the tears that had run from her eyes into her hairline. He brought his free hand up and smoothed them down, running his thumb from the corner of her eye to where the trails disappeared into her hair. A satisfied smile found its way onto his lips.

With that, his brother's favourite toy was broken. Placing a parting kiss on her jaw, Michael withdrew. Collecting his shed clothing from a rock by the window he stepped over Chloe and put himself back together before leaving and locking the cage behind him. From outside the door Michael left her with one last thought, his laughter subdued as he said it.

"What's coming, Detective, is going to be... epic."

#

Unable to remain at the house for fear of questions he might have to answer, Lucifer had hunkered down on the roof of an apartment building nearby Mama Decker's. The only reason he'd so much as blinked the entire time he spent watching over the house was to check his phone for a text from Ella. A metallic chime sounded from his pocket.

Taking it out, Lucifer took a relieved breath in as he read three magical words: Results are in.

#

Lucifer swung open the lab door moving at full tilt. If, for whatever reason, it hadn't opened as expected he'd have wound up walking clean through it instead.

"I could use some good news, right now, Miss Lopez," Lucifer said, very obviously winded and strung out.

"Our samples jumped the queue in light of the fact that they're for an active missing persons case and we're still, barely, inside two days missing. So, a bit of luck there," Ella said smiling as she looked over the results. A quick laugh and a strained smile showed up momentarily on Lucifer's face. "The dirt matched all of the samples you brought in but there were some pieces that proved completely different from anything you collected. So... let's see what was in there." She quickly scanned three pages or so of the report. "Looks like there was animal hair... exotic felines. Genus still non-specific. These results are just preliminary. Hay... animal excrement based on the nitrogen levels... so, we're looking for an animal sanctuary or a zoo... or a barn slash pen of a private collector on private property. That's a start but it's still way too damn many sites to search." Ella sighed. "Okay, what would he need out of a place he chose to hide her?"

It made Lucifer sick to his stomach to step inside his brother's head to try to plan out how to isolate Chloe. "Somewhere she couldn't be heard if she was in distress. He'd have to be able to come and go, certain she'd never be found. Somewhere constructed well enough to hold even the smartest animal on the planet captive." Ella raised an eyebrow Lucifer's way. Hearing him dissociate like that was frightening, but he wasn't wrong. "Somewhere he could come and go without being seen himself. It would have to be isolated or deserted... somewhere she wouldn't be at risk of dying before I found her."

"Wait. Someone's doing this to get at you?!"

"It seems that way, Miss Lopez."

"All right, man, look: if you are into some shady shit that's gotten my girl kidnapped, I am gonna kick your ass up and down the fucking precinct once she's safe and sound. I don't give two shits how... tall you are. The bigger they are the harder they fall," Ella threatened, advancing on him with an accusing finger pointed his way.

Taken badly aback, Lucifer frowned putting his hands up to indicate innocence. "No... no. Ella, it's nothing like that. You have my word," he said, injury plain in his voice.

Ella settled herself down quite a few notches and took an unsteady breath in. There were tears welling in her eyes. Nodding, she decided believed him. "It better not be. I... uh... I'm sorry, it's just... been stressful, you know? That was way out of line. I'm really sorry."

Lucifer half smiled and nodded. "It's all right, Miss Lopez. No harm done. But, if we could focus on what matters..." Nodding and doing her best to smile, Ella opened up the results file again looking for something that might give them more to go on as to what the place was like. At that moment the thought occurred to Lucifer: Maze.

The phone hardly had time to ring once before Maze picked up. "You got something?"

"We do. We think it's a zoo, barn, animal sanctuary or a private collector's pen for an exotic cat. Somewhere isolated, little or no human foot traffic. Somewhere that would be guaranteed to keep someone as smart as Chloe trapped."

"That rules out places with wire and mesh cages. It's still not narrow enough, but it's better than 'search all of LA'. I'll see what I can do," Maze promised.

"Thank you, Maze," Lucifer said gratefully, hanging up the call. While they'd been speaking Ella had dropped the report beside her PC terminal and begun frantically scrambling for information.

"What is it, Miss Lopez?" Lucifer asked.

Ella grimaced momentarily trying to wrangle the myriad bits of theory running around in her head into a coherent answer. "The inorganic and organic nitrogen compounds in animal excrement decay at fairly predictable rates and if I can find a baseline reference for what they should be, I can do some math and that will tell us how long ago the animals in question... did their business."

"Why would that–?"

"Because all the compounds to indicate animal excrement are there but they're dry as a bone. Whatever he stepped in wasn't fresh," she explained excitedly.

"Well, well, for once..." Lucifer bit down hard on the 'Detective Douche' that about to leave his mouth. He was fairly certain that marked the official retirement of the moniker. "For once, Daniel, stepping in it was the exact right thing to do. Bully for you."

"Oh my God," Ella backed away from her keyboard, hands out to the side, expression alight.

"Ella...?" Lucifer pressed, adjusting himself in his seat and leaning forward.

"Even with allowing for inaccuracy in the underlying values, whatever Dan stepped in is anywhere from five to eight months old! It's abandoned," Ella emphasized. Lucifer jumped up from his seat and placed a grateful kiss on her cheek.

"Text me if you find out anything else. I'm going to join Maze," Lucifer said, heading for the door.

"I'll have a look online and see if I can narrow it down."

"I have a feeling you will," he said as he passed through the door.

#

Chloe started fearfully from the sound the metal gate made when Michael opened it: it sounded like he was angry enough to rip it open. He was coming, in that state of mind, looking for her. Chloe shrunk back into the shadows. She'd only been able to get one bar out of the cage window. Not enough to squeeze out.

Seven straight years of playing hardball in her younger years was about to come in handy. Michael stormed in, dressed like Lucifer again. As he desperately looked over the empty space before him at a loss, she took two quick, silent steps out into the open and swung like she was trying to break the metal bar in her hands in half over his head. As he went to his knees and pitched over forward, Chloe sprinted for the gate. Lucifer caught himself with one hand on one of the window's remaining metal bars.

Chloe rounded the bend and saw he hadn't just ripped the gate open. He'd torn it clean off its frame and thrown it into the brush on the other side of the path outside. If he got his hands on her she was done for. She started driving herself to move even faster. Maze and Chloe nearly collided as Maze caught up with a panicked Lucifer.

"Maze!?" Chloe demanded, reeling.

"Yeah! Where's–"

"Lucifer!" Chloe shouted, breathlessly, reversing direction inside of two steps and running back into the cave. Lucifer came out of the offshoot tunnel, bringing his hand away from the back of his head as he did. Chloe short-stepped to a halt in front of him.

Showing her his blood-free open hand, he smiled warmly. "That's a pretty mighty swing you've got there."

"I'm so sorry! I thought you were Michael!" Laughing with her eyes starting to water up, Chloe needed nothing at that moment more than the kiss she pulled him into. Lucifer hadn't ever been more content to lose himself in a kiss. A subdued, pleasure-induced grunt sounded in his throat. It had never felt so good to simply hold someone close in his life. Maze walked in behind the two. Watching as the two moved into an embrace they didn't look like they wanted to let go of anytime soon, she smiled. At least she did at first, but a sudden twist of sadness affected her expression. She walked back out of the cave, leaning back against the wall outside to wait the lovers out.

"If it's what you need, Chloe, you can give me a good whack anytime," Lucifer said, pinching his lower lip between his teeth. She started laughing again, mixing a few overjoyed tears in for good measure.

Maze's lip twisted into a momentary snarl. Chloe had hit him with a blow that would have killed anyone else and he just shrugged it off like it was a playful tap on the head. They really are fucking soulmates, she thought bitterly. Something the soulless could never hope to experience. Now sickeningly infuriated, Maze left the two behind.

Chloe and Lucifer came out of the cave, each with one arm around the other. Confused, Lucifer quickly turned about with Mazikeen nowhere to be seen.

"Maze?" Chloe called out. "We've got to find her. If Michael has her..."

Lucifer grimaced and put his forehead into his palm, rubbing the tension out of his brow for a moment. "We can't worry about Mazikeen right now. She... she can take care of herself. There's something..." Lucifer trailed off unable to finish what he was saying without his voice breaking sadly. Chloe frowned. Something was very wrong.

"What is it...?" Chloe asked, fear plain in her voice.

A pained look took over Lucifer's face as he looked heavenward. He closed his eyes before meeting her gaze again and forcing himself to say it. "It's Daniel. Michael nearly killed him. He's in the ICU at the hospital. We need to..."

"Get there. Now. Trixie...!" Chloe said, instinctively wanting to have her there.

"Don't... no... don't bring her. Someone that young shouldn't have to see... It's that bad," Lucifer said still having difficulty even saying it.

"What?!"

Lucifer nodded. He reached out the moment her eyes glazed over, thinking he was going to have to catch her. Chloe wove but didn't fall.

"I'm... I'm not okay but I'll be fine. Can we take a cab? Another hit of adrenaline from flying and I might actually pass out in transit."

He nodded, smiling briefly in spite of the sadness on his face. It would cost them time Daniel very probably didn't have but, there was no other choice. "Keep an arm around me and hang on, all right? I need to know if you are going to go down." Chloe nodded and did as he asked. Lucifer got his phone out and called for a cab as the two made for the abandoned zoo's parking lot speed-walking.


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