Author's note:
The first book is completed and will be posted more or less regularly. The second book is in the process of being written.
Detective Chloe Decker. Lucifer called her simply "Detective". Then, as almost always, he hit the nail on the head. After all, this word could exhaustively describe Chloe's personality. She was a detective from the tips of her blond hair to her toenails. Almost always and in almost everything, she believed only incontrovertible facts, her eyes and her instincts. And at the same time she doubted the words of others, looking for a catch. It can be said that it was a professional deformation, to which his father's upbringing was added.
What facts did she have about Lucifer Morningstar?
First: he really has the ability to influence people, forcing them to blurt out their most secret desires. Moreover, although some people resisted longer than others, in the end everyone succumbed. This has been proven too many times to be doubted. The question of why she was an exception to that rule seemed irrelevant at the moment.
Second: great physical strength. At least, regarding his physique... although, even without being a professor of physics, she doubted that even a circus strongman was able to throw a man weighing under a hundred kilograms, ten meters, let alone perform this action with a careless wave of his hand.
Third: after a few minutes alone with him, if Lucifer so wanted, any person almost (and sometimes not almost) went crazy with horror. Although he in many cases did not even lay a finger on them.
Fourth: she saw how he had been shot at almost point-blank, and he just... ignored it. But here Chloe did not trust her memories, because at that moment she lost consciousness from a painful shock, having received a bullet wound. They might not have hit Lucifer. He could be wearing a bulletproof vest, even if he didn't wear it all the time. Or was it simply the delusion of an elusive consciousness?
Fifth: Lucifer Morningstar officially appeared five years ago. Finding out anything about him prior to that was fruitless, despite all efforts. And she tried .
How to tie it all together, Chloe had no idea. Lucifer, with his permanent smirk, claimed that he was the Devil. But she did not believe in all this religious nonsense, even as a child. She understood from a psychological point of view why people want to believe in "higher powers", but she herself preferred to rely only on what she could see, feel... understand.
However, there was still a detective's professional instinct... and it whispered that her unexpected partner was something more than an eccentric rich man and the owner of an extremely popular nightclub, fucking a new beauty (or even more than one) every night and making vulgar jokes for any reason.
And here she was in an unfinished building, standing in front of Lucifer, pointing a service pistol at him, and he continued to grin. Again, people were horrified by her partner, this time - three at once. They tried to hide in the darkest corners, begging for mercy. She also saw... something, the detective wasn't sure what it was. But it seemed to Chloe that the eyes on the silhouette of Lucifer, reflected on the shiny cover of the switchboard, burned with fire. However, when he turned to her shout, there was nothing like that. She imagines it… right? Right?!..
Chloe was on edge. The oddities of her partner were accumulating, and the detective could not simply ignore them, pretending that she had not seen anything like that... although she really, really wanted to.
"Who… what are you?" - burst out of her against her will.
"I tried to tell you that I am the Devil," the man suddenly stopped grinning, looking extremely serious now.
"But that's… impossible…" Her mind couldn't even for a second admit the veracity of such a version.
What the hell is the Devil? It's all nonsense! - shouted her inner atheist.
"I assure you, Detective, it is possible," he said softly. "You yourself said you couldn't explain something. Need proof?" Lucifer made an inviting gesture with his hand. "Shoot me."
"No… I can't shoot!" She shook her head, trying to convince herself rather than him.
"Of course you can!" The companion chuckled again. "Let's! And let's end this…"
"No..." This time it sounded somehow even... plaintive.
"Shoot, Detective! Please! Maybe then you will understand!.." He raised his voice and took a step towards her.
This was the last straw. Chloe lifted her gun, which was down, and pulled the trigger, aiming at Lucifer's thigh. And hit. She saw that a trickle of dust rose from the trouser leg, as if hitting a wall, and a hole was formed.
"Well done!" He yelled, staggering a little. Then he began to fumble with his hand at the place of impact. "Wait a second…here she is! Stuck in my pants!" And he held out to her on an open palm... a bullet. Flattened . She stood close enough and never questioned her vision.
Her pulse pounded in her ears, and a lump formed in her throat that she couldn't swallow. Her brain tried to find some rational explanation... Armor that can be hidden under tight pants? Are the pants themselves armor? Nonsense… And the real Devil, then, is not nonsense?!
"Yes, what is it? Do you still doubt it?!" Lucifer was amazed, reading everything from her face. "Okay!" He closed the distance between them so swiftly that she did not have time to react, snatched the gun from her, tore at his shirt, put the barrel to his bare chest and fired. The only thing Chloe had time to do was stretch her arms out in front of her in a "don't do that!" gesture. Her partner twitched, then grinned and handed her the flattened bullet again in one hand and the pistol in the other. "Do you believe me now?"
Chloe Decker had a trait that helped her a lot in her work as a homicide detective. She could pull herself together even in the most dangerous and unusual situation. And so it happened now - and it does not matter that Satan himself was very likely standing in front of her. Now she will do her job, and she will panic later. She, taking a deep breath and exhaling several times, took the pistol and put it in its holster - what is the use of it now?
Just at that moment, the sirens of police cars were heard - called reinforcements arrived. Very handy... Suppressing the instinctive desire to declare her partner the number one target - they can't harm him anyway - she firmly looked into the eyes of the human (non-human?) facing her.
"I'm taking them," Chloe said evenly, referring to the three suspects. This matter still needs to be sorted out.
"Incredible fortitude, Detective," Lucifer bowed his head in sincere respect. "Of course they are yours." He gestured around the room. Then he added more quietly. "And hopefully we'll talk more about what happened."
Chloe did not react at all to the last phrase. Now she didn't feel anything. Or she just thought so. But the detective knew that very soon it would pass...