Here is the new chapter.

Sorry for the long time, the current lockdown in France has kinda stopped my muse for a moment, but now I'm back and full of ideas. I'll try to update soon :).

HUGE thanks to ManuHerz79 for the beta :).


CHAPTER 6

***
Previously in One Hell of a Sting :
Mics have been installed and Jet's dead…
***

After the group fills Dan in on what had happened while he was out playing sound technician, he becomes worried but decides - after many arguing - to continue his interrogation of the neighbourhood as planned to keep up appearances for this case. Once Lucifer is certain Dan is far away enough, he turns towards Ella.

"So, Miss Lopez, how long do you need to deactivate the little buggers? I mean..."

Chloe jumps in before neither Ella nor Lucifer can speak. "We can't turn them off." Her tone is final.

"But…," yet Lucifer tries.

"No buts," Chloe replies. However, she feels the need to justify her refusal as she sees his puppy-dog eyes. "As much as I want to get rid of these," she starts, casting a stern look at Ella as she sees her knowing smile. "For various reasons," she completes and emphasizes this part. "We can't just remove or mute them unless you want an entire squad to break down our door, and potentially explode our cover. And trust me when I say that the minute these devices stop working, Dan will be the first rush in," she finishes, slightly annoyed at the protectiveness of her ex-companion.

"It could always be a malfunction," Lucifer starts. "This way, we neither have to mute nor remove them," he tries, quite proud of the loophole he found.

Chloe rolls her eyes and Ella chuckles. The brunette finally decides to speak.

"Sorry Dude, but Chloe's right," she simply says as her eyes drift to the letter she still holds in her hand, seriousness settling back on her features. "We need to catch these guys. The sooner we do it, the better. And as much as I appreciate Dan, the lesser we have him around, the quicker we'll move forward with the Circle because I don't think they'll be very keen on a cop popping into the house regularly."

Lucifer finally yields to Ella's airtight argument. "Fine…," he replies, slouching a bit.

Ella takes a last look at the letter before she hands it over to Chloe so she can add it to the file kept upstairs in the safe. "I'm gonna try and get some more rest. I need to be on my own for a bit, I think," Ella says as she starts to head for her apartment, visibly unsure.

"Ella," Chloe quickly replies. "You know I'm here for you if you need to talk or anything, right?"

"Yeah, I know, Chlo'." She smiles at her friend. "But right now, I need to process all this on my own and figure things out. I promise I'll come to you if I want to talk." She winks at her. "Besides you and I have an overdue girl talk." She looks at Lucifer and Chloe. "Please let me know if anything new comes around."

Her friends simply nod and Ella walks towards her room to get some needed rest and quiet.

After a moment of silence, Lucifer finally speaks.

"So what's next?" he asks.

"Not sure," Chloe answers honestly. "I figured we could go and check the scene - like probably half of this residence already did - and see if we can gather anything that would help us lift some of the fog we're in at the moment." She grabs the letter to bring it upstairs. "Before anyone else gets hurt," she adds. She comes back a couple of minutes later and gets her purse from the kitchen counter. "Ready?"

"Lead the way, Darling," Lucifer simply says. He chuckles as he sees Chloe grab a bottle of water from the fridge before they leave.

"It's just a water bottle, Lucifer," she answers as she hears his chuckle, smiling herself as her mind drifts back to their short, but intense make-out by the vending machine, despite her best efforts. " Leave it to the Devil to change such a simple object to a hot memory, or in this case, leave it to me, " she thinks, as she reaches for the door.

It takes them good forty-five minutes to reach Jet's place and the many people packed behind the police line to spy on the scene. They get as close as they can until Chloe sees some of her colleagues in the background. She takes a quick look around and pulls Lucifer by his sleeve so they don't stay too long to avoid any of the uniforms recognising her and addressing her in front of the rest of the crowd.

As they both casually walk away from the group of bystanders, Lucifer suddenly freezes. It takes Chloe a couple of seconds to notice that the Devil isn't behind her anymore. She goes back a couple of steps to stand beside him.

"What is it?" she enquires as he remains silent.

"I'm not sure," he simply says, unable to word his thoughts yet. "Just an impression that something is lurking around here," he adds, looking into the alleyway to his right.

Chloe starts to walk into the alley to investigate his gut feeling, knowing by now to trust him on this. Lucifer grabs her arm.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"My job," she simply replies, her tone light. "You had a hunch and we follow it."

"Right, let's walk into this creepy alley unprepared after I just had a bad hunch…" he ironically says, but quickly takes hold of Chloe once again as she didn't get - or didn't want to hear - his irony. "You do know I'm mortal around you?"

Chloe turns to him, surprised. "No, I didn't."

"Oh…," Lucifer replies, almost positive he shared this with her in the past.

"What do you mean, you're mortal around me?" Chloe asks, truly curious.

"Well as you know, I'm the Devil," he winks at her. "And the Devil is immortal, except around you. Apparently, my mojo doesn't work on you and you make me vulnerable," he pauses for a moment. "In more ways than one."

"I…," the Detective starts, not sure what to say next as she understands, that despite the danger and uncomfortable situations she put him in over their time together, Lucifer still decided to stick around. Although, if she was honest, most of these sticky moments were his doing, to begin with. "Why did you stick around? I mean you could have died so many times… oh, my G…" Chloe stops before she finishes the G-word. "I shot you!" Her hand ghosts over where she shot him. "Lucifer, I'm so sorry…"

"It's quite alright, I assure you," he smiles. "I barely feel it nowadays." She frowns. "Kidding, Darling. I healed completely after you dropped me back at Lux." He takes a step closer to her, and into the alley. "You've made me feel more alive in a couple of months than I have in millennials in Hell AND in the Silver City." His eyes lock with hers. "It's well worth getting shot in the leg once or twice." He smiles at her. He sees Chloe's brain turning full speed to process all he said. "With you, everything is a new sensation, both a blessing and a curse." His eyes suddenly turn dark. "Getting shot may not have been the best experience, but when your nails raked my skin to mark me, that was new and very enjoyable," he adds, desire flashing in his eyes as they take a slight turn of red.

Chloe looks away, slightly blushing, and takes a look around before she kisses the Devil. Soon he finds himself backed against the brick wall, surprised by her boldness. She stops a split second before she takes hold of his lips once more. Lucifer automatically wraps his hands around her to bring her against him, truly enjoying this new side of Chloe, and one he never suspected, if he was honest. He deepens the kiss and smiles as he hears a moan at the back of her throat. Chloe starts to trail her lips along his jawline, grazing his stubble. Just as Lucifer is about to suggest they find a quieter place - or head back home - he hears the sound of footsteps approaching. Unfortunately because of the siren in his arm, he processes the information too late to react.

"What the Hell!" comes Dan's voice from the entry of the alley.

They both look towards the interrupting cop, not sure what to say. Chloe looks like a deer caught in the headlight of a car as she realises what she did was indeed rather irresponsible and out of character, and yet she can't bring herself to feel bad for finally taking something - or someone in this case - for herself and live a little as Maze tells her repeatedly. Is it her fault he was so enticing, and what that was supposed to be a simple peck turned into a bit more than what she has in mind?

Lucky for her, Lucifer speaks first in an attempt to break the hugely uncomfortable silence, as he can almost see smoke coming out of Dan's ears. This gives Chloe a couple of moments to think of any plausible reasons for this. He partly lets go of the Detective, his hands still lingering on her lower back, and positions himself slightly differently as to use Chloe to hide his now rather visible enjoyment of their previous position. He looks around to see if Dan was followed before he finally speaks.

"Hello Officer Espinoza," he starts, his tone very different from the one he usually uses when addressing Dan, but fully coherent with his cover in this sting operation. "Is there something we can help you with?"

Without noticing, the small group walks a bit further into the alley and out of view of the crowded street.

"What on Earth do you think you're doing? And Chloe, how could you let this happen?" Dan asks, as he walks closer to the two of them.

Chloe remains silent, still not sure what to say. Lucifer decides to answer Dan, even though the question was mostly directed at Chloe.

"Chloe and I were snooping around," he lowers his voice to barely a whisper, just in case. "You know because of what happened and Ella's thing …," he stops there, not sure how to continue without lying, but also not caring if Dan filled in the blank himself or not.

Chloe continues his sentence in an attempt to save appearances. "We heard footsteps coming our way and weren't sure who it was, and not sure how to explain our presence in an alley if we got caught, so…," she says, not convinced herself, but who knows maybe, it would trigger Dan into finishing the sentence himself, as her brain was still a bit short of her complete thinking abilities, so she worked with what she had.

"So you thought making out at the back of an alley was the solution?" Dan completes, clearly not persuaded by her explanation.

Lucifer smirks and Chloe elbows him to beckon him to keep any remark he might have had for himself. As usual, he simply looks at her, pretending to be hurt and proceeds with what he wanted to say anyway.

"Well we're a couple after all," he smiles. "I'm sure you know what young love is yourself, Officer," he finished, avoiding using Detective on purpose as he knows this pisses Dan off.

"It's Detective Espinoza," Dan replies. "Now get lost before I arrest you both for public indecency," he finishes, absolutely not convinced by their charade, but knows now is not the time to talk about this.

"Very well," Lucifer says as he watches Dan walk away from them. "Have a great day, Officer ," he finishes.

Once he's out of ear range, Chloe turns to Lucifer.

"Did you really have to do this?"

"What?" he replies innocently.

"Antagonize him like this? Now he's going to be a pain in the ass until the end of this."

"Remind me who attacked first, Darling?" he counters as Chloe blushes. "Besides, look me in the eye and tell me you didn't enjoy seeing him squirm with anger there?" he winks, daring Chloe to contradict him. When she doesn't reply, he continues. "Nice save there by the way. I'm pretty sure he nearly bought it," he teases her.

"Shut up!" Chloe says, her tone not so angry as one would expect, out of concrete elements to prove him wrong. She looks back into his eyes. "But back to the "being mortal around me" business, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes," he answers. "As long as you don't shoot me by mistake, we'll be fine. We've been just perfect until now, haven't we?"

Chloe understands the joke in his words, but his tone doesn't match it. She feels it's not - once again - the appropriate time to push the issue, but she adds to the list of topics she will discuss with him at some point, once she cleared some of the previous questions she had.

They walk into the alley until they reach the corner and turn to the left. They find a wall and a service door a couple of feet away. They head back to their previous spot and turn to the other side, surprised when they see that the alley continues and narrows until the two walls meet to form a triangle. They both look surprised at the unusual shape of the construction and decide to investigate a bit further until Lucifer freezes once more.

"What is it?" Chloe asks as her fingers reach for her LAPD issued purse gun - a Taurus 738 TCP - given to her just in case. She doesn't take it out yet but gets ready to shoot if necessary.

"I'm not sure," Lucifer replies, glancing around a bit nervously. "Someone's here, or at least it feels this way."

Chloe carefully peeks around the corner and towards the street to check if anyone is heading towards them but doesn't see anything. She also controls the opposite side and the metal door -just in case - but nothing's here as well. "I can't see anything or anyone," she finally says, once she's finished looking at the only possible entryway.

Lucifer suddenly locates the two dumpsters at the far end of the alley, and close to the walls. He grabs Chloe by the arm and walks them toward the fortunate hiding place before Chloe can say anything. However, once they're behind the big dumpsters, they lose sight of the street of the weird triangle-shaped end of the alley.

"What do you think you're…," Chloe starts.

Lucifer puts his hand to her mouth and makes a shush sign. Once Chloe nods her understanding, he removes his hands from her mouth. Chloe starts to open her mouth to whisper and scold him to not shush her like this again, but then she hears footsteps coming their way. They both crouch a bit further behind the dumpsters and remain very still.

Lucifer silently checks at the side of their hiding place to try and catch a glance at the intruder once he's certain he now has his back to them. He hears the echo of his footsteps in the alley go weak and barely has the time to catch a glance at his hair as he disappears from his sight and into the triangle. Lucifer gives it a couple more moments before he finally looks back to Chloe to let her know it was safe to come out as she had no view of the situation from where she stood. She slowly stands up, gun in hand and ready to shoot.

"How is this possible?" she asks, not understanding how someone could just disappear into thin air. She quickly walks to the corner to check the street but nothing has changed. She looks back at Lucifer, and then proceeds to check every wall in the alley for any kind of hidden door - or mechanism - but doesn't find any. "How is this possible?" she repeats as she makes her way to the Devil. "Did you see where he went? Were you able to see who it was?"

Lucifer lets her calm down before he speaks. "I didn't see where he went. All I saw was red hair turning after this corner," he replies as he shows the beginning of the dead-end. "And yes, I've seen him before, or at least I think I did," he completes before she can voice her question. "He's the guy that interrupted us back at the common room."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I sensed him there, and here just now as well."

Chloe wants to challenge his answer that doesn't make sense to her, but then she sees the resolve in his face and remembers he is the Devil after all. She decides to take his words for it. "How did you know he was coming?" she requires instead. "Do you have some sort of a magical sense that we, Humans, don't have?"

"I don't have a magical anything. Although some have considered some part of me divine," he jokes, slightly bothered by the use of magical. "But I can sense non-human beings." Chloe doesn't reply yet, not sure what to say. "Which is what I don't get."

"Why?"

"What I sensed when he approached us is very unusual," he completes. "The same thing happened the first time we saw him, but it was lighter, almost as if it had worn off him. But it's also possible I toned the feeling down. I guess my mind was otherwise occupied, and my Devil side tends to numb some parts of myself," he finishes.

"Non-human?" Chloe asks, not bothering to make a complete sentence, being too new to this new concept.

"We, Celestials can identify each other," he starts. "For example, if any of my siblings show up on Earth, I can feel them - or rather their essence," he pauses to let her catch up. "My Father made sure we could identify ourselves to avoid any duplicitous plans," he thinks for a moment to find the right words that would carry what he meant understandably. "But during the time I spent in Hell, I taught myself to recognize other types of supernatural beings," he frowns a bit as he mentions the supernatural term. "I will regroup them in the demon category."

"Okay," Chloe simply replies.

"Back in the days, possession by a demon of a human body was still allowed and some of them used this opportunity to escape my realm by jumping into a freshly dead human body and live their best life until the body gave out and they returned to me." His eyes glow a faint red, but very different from the one Chloe already saw. This shade was full of anger and disgust towards these creatures. "Each time a demon escaped, I was in charge of bringing it back down, and Hellhounds are efficient, but not very discreet, so over the years I've realised that a demon possessing a human body has no soul and smelt different compared to another living human, or my siblings." He checks if Chloe is still with him before he continues. When she nods, he starts again. "I mastered this skill and in less than a century I was able to seek them out without the help of my Hellhounds. I finally banned possession. Anyone risking it would face a punishment worse than Hell itself," he finishes, not willing to share any details on this part, looking a bit away from Chloe, as he lets his darkest past show up.

"Okay," Chloe repeats. "So what's the issue with our mystery suspect?"

"That's the thing," Lucifer says. "I feel some celestial vibes coming from him, which is why I was able to sense him, but he doesn't smell like a demon - or any other hellish being - and I was able to sense a soul in him, which is only present in your species."

"Species? Really?" Chloe jokes and Lucifer chuckles in response. "So our mystery guy is human?"

"It would appear so," Lucifer replies, still unconvinced and puzzled by how he felt.

"So he can't have, like, crossed through a wall or something," Chloe asks. "What?" she says as Lucifer chuckles.

"It's not Harry Potter, Love," he jokes. "More seriously though, even I can't do that and I created the stars, and I used to travel in-between planes."

"You created the stars?" Chloe replies. "Never mind," she says as she realised her question would have brought more questions than answers, and now wasn't exactly the best of places to have this discussion. She walks back until she reaches the end of the alley. "So this means there has to be a secret door somewhere." She trails her fingers along the brick wall one last time in search of anything that could explain what happened but lets out a frustrated groan as she finds nothing. "I think we should come back later, maybe with Ella. It's going to be dark soon, and he could come out any minute, and I don't think us making out again would sell it this time."

Lucifer simply nods and follows behind her as she walks towards the busy street, still stuck on his unfamiliar sensation. He finds a bit of appeasement as he places his hands on her lower back and feels Chloe lean into his touch. How she manages to ground him remains a mystery to him - not that he had any complaint. They quickly look around to make sure they wouldn't be noticed too much before they join the rest of the bypassers and head for their house, not sure how many minutes passed since they stepped into the alley.

They walk in silence for a couple of minutes and away from the agitated crime scene before Chloe finally - after much hesitation - decides to ask him.

"Lucifer?" her voice is tentative.

"Yes, Love?"

"Do you think we could talk about you being the Devil?"

The Devil in question barely tenses, fingers still at her lower back, but an inch away from her skin. " Well here's the other shoe," he thinks. Chloe feels the change in his stance and quickly completes her question.

"I haven't changed my mind," she starts. "I just have questions about, well everything, and I figured I could ask the first batch of them while we walk back. I don't feel very comfortable discussing them in the house anymore, with Ella around and the mics Dan set up."

Lucifer relaxes and resumes his previous position. "Of course, Darling," he replies, relieved. "I said I would answer any questions you may have, so ask away."

"Okay," Chloe replies, happy he was still so open about this, but not sure where to begin as she had many questions. She makes a list of what she wants to know first. She starts with the most recent one. "So you created the stars?"

Lucifer chuckles as he didn't expect her at all to ask this one first. He thought she would wonder about what the Silver City or even Hell was like. Or maybe ask about some dictators or family members as Linda did, but once again, his Detective took him by surprise.

"Yes, I did," he simply says. A smile appears on his face as he recalls the moment. "It was the first task Father gave me when he created his newest toy, aka Humanity, with Eve and Adam. He wanted me to design something that would always remind them of how small they were compared to the bigger picture, aka Him, despite the free will he granted them, so they would always remember their origin," he pauses. "So I threw a couple of lanterns in the sky to light and bring them some comfort in the darkest night. It was beauty in its purest form," he concludes, his tone very philosophical with an underlying softness at the memory. "However, Father was somehow displeased with my work because it didn't fit what he had in mind. I told him that if He wasn't happy with what I did, he could do it himself, take back what I had created and left. This earned me my first warning, and first stay in Hell. When He allowed me to come back to the Silver City, life simply resumed as it was before, and the stars weren't given back to humanity for a couple more centuries," he finishes, his tone bitter.

"Wow," Chloe replies, in awe of what he told her, and at the same time not surprised.

Lucifer clears his throat. "So what do you want to know next?"

"Is anything from the Bible true? I mean I didn't have a very religious education, but I know my classics," she winks.

"Vast question indeed, some is, but most of it has been changed to explain things they didn't get, or be an instrument to carry out their message across."

"What about your punishment?"

"This bit is painfully real," he replies, his voice becomes weaker as he says so.

"Can I ask what happened? Is it what caused your other face?" She understands the Devil is hesitant to talk about this point and quickly amends her question. "You don't have to explain anything if you don't want to. I mean…"

"It's quite alright, Darling," he replies. "What happened is rather simple actually," he starts as he tries to hide the anger from his voice, but some of it still seeps through. "I grew tired of Him controlling my life and I simply wanted to break free. Each time He wanted something done, no matter what, none of it was enough for Him, and I could never please Him. So one day I decided to end His tyranny and led a rebellion. All of my allies chickened out and he banished me to the place He created for the lowest of His creatures to rot until they decided to redeem themselves. Because I wanted so much what they had, he thought it fitting to have me rule it." Lucifer takes a calming breath before he continues. "I guess this little spark of freedom I wanted was the last strike for me after I refused to bow to His will when I created the stars and Eden. As a consequence, I was deemed unworthy of the Silver City and sentenced to take care of Hell for all times until I got bored and decided to leave it, Dad's wrath be damned.

"Eden? You mean with Adam and Eve and the apple?"

"Yes," he smiles. "This one I'm proud of," he adds. "It started after yet another argument with Father and Mother about his newest creation. He thought they were so perfect and would never be corrupted, or disobey His orders, so I decided to show Him just how wrong He was, and tempted Adam and Eve into breaking the one rule he set out for them." He looks at Chloe. "The rule in place was just what it was, which is a rule. And the forbidden fruit was also just an apple, nothing more, which made it all the more fun. It didn't take long to convince them to give in and break the only rule given to them in exchange for everything they ever wanted." He pauses. "After this, I made my second stay in Hell and humanity was banned from the Garden of Eden and condemned to walk around the Earth." He chuckles. "It was a bit of a petty move, I admit. And maybe this is where my reputation when it comes to deals started, but it pissed Dad so much it was well worth it."

Chloe smiles at him as she realises that the Big Bad Devil everyone made him out to be was simply a normal teenager testing his parents' patience, and the more they turned against him, the more he challenged them. No wonder he had such a bad image of himself. Anyone would, with such a distorted family. "So is your," she hesitates to use the word Father as he didn't deserve it in any way. "He also burnt you?"

"Not directly." He tries to find a way to explain it in words that would be understood by Chloe. "But in a way, yes. What changed is how it happened." Chloe looks a bit lost. "The two first times I went there, I agreed to it and flew myself down in Hell for the time of my punishment. After the rebellion, I just couldn't go back to being the obedient puppet He wanted to have and I refused to obey, should it be at the cost of my life. Mother pleaded for me to be sent to Hell, instead of being removed from existence, and Father decided to make an example of his former favourite son to show that no one, not even his flesh and blood, was above his command, and so he ordered my twin brother to take care of it." Pain crosses his face before he continues. "The pain I felt has no equal and just like that I was banished from my former Home and branded a traitor. My face had to be the reflection of this, hence the horrid appearance of my Devil side."

"So your wings were removed as well?"

"No," he replies. "This one I - or rather Maze - did to myself. I ordered her to cut them off to signify to Dad I was done with playing by His rules and I didn't want to be a part of it anymore. It's right when I decided my stay here would be permanent, and that Los Angeles was my new home."

Chloe doesn't know what to say as she realises how wrong people were about the Devil and couldn't believe how he was still able to keep a good heart despite all this. Had she been in this situation, she wasn't sure she would have. She takes his hand and turns his face towards her, eyes full of compassion. She brings his face to hers and softly kisses him. The kiss is filled with tenderness. He doesn't deepen it yet, simply enjoying the softness of it, bringing her closer to him. He felt a weight off his shoulders now that this was out of the way. When she separates from him, Lucifer can see the desire in her eyes, as well as unconditional acceptance of what - and who - he is. Chloe grabs his hand and leads him towards the door.

"Shall we go in?" she asks, voice thick.

"We shall, Darling," he answers and follows her eagerly.


I hope you liked it. We're slowly inching towards the end ;). A few more chapters left though ^^.

And thank you all for your comments, feedback, kudos, likes, faves and all. They do brighten my days!