Author's Note: Yay! Mystery is about to be over.

Franbl07 - where do I get my information? Creatively worded Google searches, a family friend who tried her best to make me a Catholic, and Dictionary Angels.

Leona Esperanza - late to the party, maybe - but you'll see just how accurate you were with your guess on the Whodunnit.

Hannahsmetana - I love your reviews, and it made me giggle when you realized I wrote both this an Angelus.

And Grym: I owe you a review, because I really do love your story, but I tend to read on my phone, which is very, very temperamental when I want to type more than "iz gud".

Everyone else...hopefully, enjoy!


Sometimes, nothing tasted better than cold leftover Chinese.

"Are we even still pursuing the cult aspect?" Dan asked around a mouthful of lo mein.

It was supposed to be Chinese food on Friday, but Dan and Chloe agreed for once – they were stuck, and sick of being at the precinct. They were essentially back to square one of their investigation, and neither could remember the last time they sat and had dinner with Trixie. Now that she was finally off to bed, the conversation again turned back to the case.

Dan had badgered Lucifer about his outright refusal to use Maze again to prove to Chloe that what he said was true – that he wasn't delusional, but the club owner had shut down every attempt. The last time Dan even tried to bring it up, Lucifer informed him in no uncertain terms that he had several thousand years of inspiration of how exactly to torture Dan if he didn't shut up about it.

It'd been several days since their sort of enlightening trip to Three Rivers, and thanks to Lucifer now knew there were other murder victims, most likely by the same group. Maze had actually been the one to call and tell them to look up other Samaels going missing in the LA area – Lucifer apparently had a way of dealing with impending doom that didn't include keeping his 'pet humans', as Maze continued to refer to them as, apprised of the situation.

Knowing Lucifer, Dan really, really didn't want to know what he was up to.

So far, the only good news that they had was no more bodies. They'd gone longer, admittedly, between victims in this case, but as far as Chloe and Dan were concerned, no bodies meant that the perpetrators had likely run into a similar wall.

Chloe looked ready to beat her head against the table, and she might've if it didn't hold the rest of dinner.

"I don't even know anymore," she admitted tiredly. "Because on the one hand – everything points to some religious nut job. Ritualistic sacrifice, archaic languages in blood, crosses…whole nine yards. But that's just this time. The other Samael victims, they were just back burner unsolved murders. This is LA. We have a higher violent crime rate than the rest of the country. While tragic, nothing out of the ordinary. If the same people who killed the other Samaels are the ones killing our victims, what the hell changed? There weren't any other murders, sacrifices or otherwise, tied to the other deaths. And now they're suddenly risking not only the LAPD noticing, but the FBI? That doesn't make sense either. Because that's not insanity, that's stupidity."

"Because they think he's the real one," Dan pointed out, indicating with the set of chopsticks. "The other ones were just unfortunately named. This time, they think he's really the Devil. Or whatever the hell Samael was in lore, because I can't find anything concrete to tell us what they're after."

Chloe shook her head in agreement. "Yeah, neither can I. All I can find is that he's simultaneously the greatest good, and the worst evil. And something about being the father of all monsters, but sometimes that gets changed to the creator of demons, which is also interchangeable with being a general of some sort of horde in Hell. There's even this super creepy story that goes along with him – when Metatron describes him in the Talmud lore, he says that he is 'Samael who takes souls away from Man' while talking to Moses. And you know how Lucifer said there weren't any prayers for Samael?"

"Yeah?" Dan asked, not liking where this was going.

"There's one. And only one: 'Oh may it be Thy will, my God and the God of my fathers, not to let me fall into the hands of this angel.' Apparently it was like some sort of warding or whatever to keep Death away. Which, I guess would explain how he could be both good and bad. Also how the Devil got the reputation of acquiring souls for Hell."

Well that wasn't reassuring. Especially not when Dan recalled the conversation between Gabriel and Lucifer at the hospital – no angel could harm or kill a human…except Samael.

"Chloe, can I ask you something?" Dan asked, carefully not looking up from his takeout container.

"Yeah, sure. What's up?" she asked.

"How come you don't believe Lucifer?" he said, genuinely curious. "And not just because it sounds crazy, because I know it does. But you seem to believe him enough to look into all this angelic lore crap, which is more than I would've done."

Chloe smiled, and not like she was about to laugh at him. Chloe reserved that smile for few people, and he would know. He used to be one of them. "You too, huh?"

"What?"

"You're starting to think he might not be delusional after all. It's not crazy – there's a couple moments where I've wondered about him too. But…" she trailed off, but that smile stayed on her face. "He can't be all that bad if he helps us out, right? I know you don't hang around with him as much as I do." She paused again, raising a calculating eyebrow. "Or maybe you do. You've been awful buddy-buddy with him ever since that last victim was found."

Dan shrugged, stuffing more lo mein into his mouth to avoid a real answer.

"Anyway, he's changed. Well, changing. I think he's spent most of his life being blamed for things beyond his control that now that he's actually helping, he's finding out that maybe he's not as far removed from the human race as he likes to believe. I figured he had something like Asperger's or something like it – you know, his complete inability to relate to people? He's not supernatural, he's not divine, he's just a person that's gotten the raw end of a deal one too many times. Maybe I'm the only one he lets see that part of him, but I refuse to be like everyone else and see the devil in him. All I see are his incredibly human moments…even if they are a little misguided."

"So you don't think there's even one little tiny shred of a possibility that maybe he's…not lying?" Dan asked carefully. "I mean, he does that weird Jedi mind trick on everyone. And he's not exactly what I would call a muscle bound guy, but he can lift people with one hand without it looking like there's much effort on his part."

Chloe frowned. "I think he's spent his entire life being told he's evil. That he's done bad things, but it's like he does them because that's what he's supposed to do. He's got zero impulse control, and it's all or nothing, so when he finds as much 'bad' as he can because that's what people expect of him, and I think it's even what he expects, now. Even if Samael was his legal name, it means that some sick parent named him after the Devil's version of Mr. Hyde. And I think no one has ever given him a reason to not play that role."

Dan jabbed at the last strand of noodle. "You do," he pointed out.

Chloe shot him a grateful smile. "I try to. There's some things I let him go with. Like his issue with his stolen wings." She made air quotes around the word wings. "I don't really know why he's so attached to a costume set, but if it's important to him, then I at least make an effort not to argue with him. Much. But I don't like letting him vilify himself, especially not when he's finally beginning to understand that maybe he doesn't have to do what people expect of him. He can change just as easily as the rest of us."

"The Devil is becoming human," Dan said, smirking. "How about that?" And as soon as he thought it, a much darker thought sprung up. "Chloe?"

"Mmm?" she muttered around a mouthful of pork bun.

"There's no way these psychos are going to draw a line between Lucifer and you, right?" Dan asked.

"Well, if they were at the crime scenes, or were at Lux when Kincaide attacked him…" Chloe said, shrugging. "It's easy enough to find out he's a consultant with the PD, which is probably why they started with the insane rituals to get his attention."

"Yeah, but what happens if their new trial involves you?" Dan pressed. "Maze said they'd figured out that they were likely trying to appeal the to the darker half of him, but they keep changing tactics when he doesn't react the way that they think he should. So what if they make the jump that the reason why Lucifer doesn't behave like the Devil is because of you?"

Chloe shrugged again, looking unfazed. "Well, so far they've only drawn lines on the ground, and things that only affect Lucifer. I'm even usually standing right beside him when something happens. So the odds of them coming up with something that might actually do something to me are pretty slim."

Dan wasn't convinced, and apparently it showed, because she sighed and put down the rest of her dinner. "Look, I appreciate the concern, but I'm not an idiot. I have my vest on most of the time I'm even at a scene thanks to that case with Jimmy Barnes. And it's not like I go anywhere alone with him that isn't somehow related to this case, or another one – and there's always a ton of other people or police. There's no greater chance of them being able to do anything to me than any other criminal I've investigated. And if they think our connection is something 'mystical'," she raised her fingers in air quotes, "then they're going to try something like a magic spell. And unless they have a Hogwarts diploma, I seriously doubt they're going to do any damage."

Actually…she had a point with that last one. She thought that everything that effected Lucifer was based in her reality. Biological warfare. Chemical agents. But Dan knew otherwise…and it was strangely reassuring. Magic…or whatever the hell you wanted to call it…didn't seem to affect people. Dan was standing generally just as close as she was when something went wrong with Lucifer, and he had no side effects either. Whatever their next attempt at him would be, it was likely to be rooted in the same supernatural world that the others were. Binding sigils, weaponized prayers…they obviously weren't going to cause Chloe or Dan or any other human problems.

But…they weren't always the ones around him. And if they figured out who Maze was…

They would know Maze wasn't human.

He remembered her saying that very little affects her, but that didn't mean she was indestructible…though a dark part of him really wanted to see the damage Maze would inflict if she ever caught the people responsible for tormenting her boss. Surely that had to have occurred to at least one of them?

"So basically we're back to really only being able to use the medical background as a clue," Chloe said, sighing irritably. "It's the one thing that can't be faked out of the things we supposedly know."

"We may want to look into someone with history with exotic diseases, or someone who worked for the DoD in bio engineering," Dan suggested, polishing off the rest of his food.

The nice part about takeout? You get to throw away all the dishes.

Chloe shook her head. "No. Exotic diseases, maybe, but we're not looking for a scientist. Think about how much practice you would have to do before getting that good at IV's. The science side of medicine doesn't interact with patients enough. Whoever this person is, they probably do a lot of shots, lots of IV's, and they would likely be doing it with some amount of care for the patient."

"So Red Cross interns are out," Dan muttered darkly.

"You should ask Dr. Grace."

Both Dan and Chloe almost broke their necks snapping them around to look over the back of the couch.

Trixie stood in the middle of her doorway, clutching her stuffed rabbit in one hand as she rubbed absently at one cheek, hair ruffled from tossing and turning.

"You, young lady, are supposed to be in bed," Chloe admonished lightly. "What're you doing up?"

Trixie yawned, and pointed to the sink. "I was thirsty. And I could hear you talking. Is Lucifer still sick?"

"He's doing much better, baby. We're just worried he might get sick again," Chloe explained carefully. She wasn't stupid, and neither was Trixie. Trixie was fully aware of what her parents did, but that didn't mean that she wasn't going to sugarcoat it as best as possible without flat out lying.

Dan got up to grab a glass of water from the sink as Trixie hopped onto the couch in his empty spot.

"You should take him to see Dr. Grace," Trixie repeated confidently.

Dr. Grace Taylor was Trixie's pediatrician – a woman who was old enough to have treated Chloe when she was Trixie's age, but every child who ever went to see her loved her. She let Trixie play with the otoscope before she used it herself, carefully explaining what it did, and how it would help her see what was wrong. Not once had Trixie ever cried over getting her shots from Dr. Grace – not even when she'd needed stitches in her foot after stepping on broken glass at the beach and having to have it debrided first.

The woman was magic as far as Chloe was concerned. The medical version of Gandalf.

"I think Lucifer is a little old to be seeing a pediatrician, Monkey," Dan said, holding out the small glass of water to her.

Trixie bobbed her head in agreement. "But you said you were looking for a nice doctor," Trixie said emphatically. "And no one is nicer than Dr. Grace."

"We'll keep it in mind," Dan said, smiling at their daughter. "But you have your water, and it is way past your bed time. Off to bed, Monkey. Let's go." He picked her up with ease, and even though she occasionally protested she was too big to be carried, bed time was an exception.

As soon as Dan was past the threshold of Trixie's door, Chloe almost tripped over herself to get to the stack of papers on the counter next to her laptop. She hadn't wanted to scare Trixie, or worse, wind her up now that she was being put back to bed – and ever the detectives' child, Trixie loved a good mystery to solve.

The thought had hit her like a ton of bricks as soon as Trixie pointed out that they were looking for a nice doctor – and brought up her own.

"Where is it, where is it, where is it," she hissed to herself, flipping through the stacks of papers that were everything from coroner statements to symbology reports.

"What are you looking for?" Dan asked, voice in a stage whisper as he clicked Trixie's door shut again.

"What Trixie said, about Dr. Grace. I think she's right. Who has to be good at being gentle with their patients?"

Dan cursed, swinging one of the stacks around so they could tag team it. "Anybody who works with kids."

"What the hell was that doctor's name?" Chloe demanded. "The one who was at Three Rivers."

"Delilah something," Dan said. "She even said she worked with Doctors Without Borders – there's your exotic disease connection. And what was it she said? When Lucifer did that mentalist trick of his?"

Chloe growled in frustration, shoving her pile of papers to the side and spinning the laptop towards her, bringing up the search engine. "Dammit, how could we so stupid? Do you know what Three Rivers is reference to?" She turned the screen around to face Dan. "The Three Rivers of Eden – from Talmudic lore, the same goddamn legends that include Samael. We should've looked into it sooner – I mean, the damn priest named his kid Samael."

Dan showed her his discovery – the profile of Delilah Rogers that neither of them had bothered to really look at because they'd grown complacent with Lucifer's assurance that she was fine. Yes, she was a general practitioner, but that was only recently. In much, much smaller print was a byline – a three-year stint in the neonatal unit of a hospital in a country Dan would never be able to find on a map.

"I'm calling Maze," he said, already pulling out his phone.

"Maze? Just call Lucifer," Chloe said.

"He doesn't even answer you half the time, there's no way he's picking up for me. Shit," he cursed before launching into a speech that meant he'd obviously gotten the voicemail. "Maze – we think we know who's behind this – a doctor by the name of Delilah Rogers who frequents the Three Rivers compound we just got back from. Do not leave Lucifer alone, and do not pursue it on your own. Chloe and I are on our way."

"We can't leave Trixie by herself. You go, I'll stay," Chloe pointed out.

And as much as it pained him to disagree, because despite being separated, he still loved Chloe – he shook his head. "No. I'll stay with Trixie until the baby sitter gets here. You go. Lucifer will actually listen to you. And it's not like we know for sure she's going after him – at least not right this second. We have enough for me to issue a warrant and I'll call it in from here. You go. I'll stay."

She was already halfway to the door, her jacket pulled over one arm as she grabbed her keys. "Call me as soon as the warrant is issued," she said, before quietly closing the door behind her.

Dan offered a quick glance skyward. "I don't know how this works, but if you care half as much as you claim you do about your brother…you might want to step in."

(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*

Lucifer didn't sleep. Well, not necessarily true. He didn't need to sleep. Dreams were often unpleasant and he usually had other things he'd rather be doing. Usually it worked immensely in his favor – he could work with Chloe during the day, and still manage the club at night.

Tonight, however, he didn't really feel like participating with the normal patrons of Lux. Maze was heading the bar and making sure everyone was happy and sinful as always, and he knew she much preferred running the club lately.

The same influence he had on people when he was in a good mood was just as bad when he was in a bad mood. He was never sure if it was just him of effected people with his moods, or if it was all angels. No one else ever stayed on Earth as long as he had, and most of them – Gabriel excluded – didn't interact with humans on a regular enough basis to tell. If he was in a good mood – orgy in the penthouse. But when he was in a mood like the one he was currently in…a lot of Lux patrons wound up spending the rest of their night jail.

Usually, Maze was pretty good about keeping people out of the penthouse area, but she couldn't be everywhere at once and the occasional fan would slip past, so when someone knocked on his door, he wasn't all that surprised.

Even if he was more than a little annoyed.

He half expected it to be Chloe – she was the only one who could possibly be blowing up his blatantly ignored phone for the last ten minutes, and he didn't feel like playing detective tonight.

The woman that greeted him as soon as he opened the door looked strangely familiar, but was most certainly not the Detective. Almost familiar, but not quite.

"Mr. Morningstar," she greeted coolly. "So nice to finally get a chance to talk to you."

"Do I know you?" he asked, blocking her way from the door. She was pretty enough, but he really had no interest in being social or civil tonight.

She smiled, and there was a familiar emptiness to it. "You probably don't recognize me without all the makeup, do you?" She gathered her loose brown hair into an unkempt bun with one hand. "Now picture gray hair and about ten more years."

Lucifer frowned. "Sorry, but no."

Instead of being insulted that he didn't remember her, she laughed. "We really don't matter to you, do we? I suppose with the amount of whores you parade in and out of here, one probably loses the ability to tell one from another."

Ouch. Maybe he did know her.

"Whores would involve cash exchanges. Everyone invited here has been consenting and willing adults of their own free will," he bit back.

The woman shrugged one shoulder indifferently. "To-may-to, to-mah-to. Allow me to reintroduce myself, since I didn't really get a chance at our first meeting. My name is Delilah. We met at Three Rivers several days ago. Pleased to meet you," she said, smiling sweetly as she batted her eyes at him. She grabbed his hand in both of hers with almost bone crushing force. "Samael."

Lucifer immediately shoved back from her, but instead of letting go, she merely followed with him, pushing them both into the apartment.

"You know, I really did try and be nice about this," Delilah said irritably. "At first I was convinced I was wrong about you – just like I'd be wrong about all those others. But I wasn't. Kaitlyn proved that well enough. She also proved you weren't invincible."

Something sharp stung his hand, and before he could wrench it away from her, a wave of dizziness slammed into him and he stumbled.

"You don't look so good, Lucifer," Delilah said, still smiling, but it looked more like a snarl. "Maybe you should sit down." He hand tightened on Lucifer's, and another wave of dizziness swept over him.

Lucifer risked glancing away from her face, trying to focus on his hand which was surprisingly difficult.

Delilah had a strange contraption around her hand, just beneath the cuff of her shirt which was barely visible. It reminded him of a derringer sleeve, except instead of a gun, this one had a spring loaded needle. Why she needed to be covert at this point was a mystery Lucifer's brain refused to focus on. Realization was painfully slow, but as soon as his muddled thoughts processed what he was seeing, he again tried to rip his hand away from her.

"Let go," he managed, but to his surprise it came out slurred and more like 'le guh', and Delilah's hand remained clasped firmly around his.

The doctor pushed him back one more step and he felt the back of his knees hit the couch and he staggered, dropping heavily onto the furniture.

"That's it," Delilah crooned, bringing one hand up to caress his cheek.

He still had the presence of mind to snap at the unwanted touch, but Delilah easily avoided his teeth, laughing softly.

"Perhaps there is some of the real you in there after all, Samael. I was worried you were more human than divine. I didn't want it to be like this, but you didn't give me a whole lot of options. You didn't seem to appreciate my gifts to you, and then worse – you tried to help the police stop me. But don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you."

Lucifer supposed that was meant to be reassuring, but his already laboring heart skipped a beat. Considering the damage this woman had managed to inflict already, he didn't want to consider her definition of 'hurt'.

Darkness started to encroach on his vision, and he tried to push her away from him and to stand, but she easily pushed him back down.

"You're so strong," she said, sounding awed. "The others barely managed to stay away for a few seconds. But you…you're still fighting."

The images of the victims flashed across his vision. Maybe they weren't willing sacrifices at all. They'd just been murdered in their sleep.

The door to the penthouse, left open but had almost closed again, swung open, and Lucifer managed to swing his head drunkenly towards to the two men standing there.

Even his muscles betrayed him, and his head dropped back against the couch, unable to keep it up any longer.

"There you go," Delilah crooned. "Just go to sleep."

Lucifer wanted to scream. No, he wanted to do more than that. He wanted to do worse than that. A well of rage he'd all but forgotten surged forwards, and he imagined all that he was going to do to these people. Thousands of years in Hell, inspired by the very worst that humanity had to offer, and he was going to put them through every, single, flesh searing moment of it.

"Take him outside. Down the fire escape so no one notices. You made sure that demon of his was out of the picture, right?"

There was a mumbled response that he could barely understand, but Delilah seemed pleased.

"Good. Don't stop for anyone, and dose him again when you get to the car. Understand?" The softness in her voice was gone, mocking even as it was, and the doctor sounded like a drill sergeant issuing orders.

Lucifer wasn't sure which he preferred, and as he was lifted by the two men, he finally felt the needle slide out of his skin.

"Damn, Doc, he's still awake," marveled a voice uncomfortably close to his ear. "What're we going to do if he tries to talk to someone? Call for help?"

"He'll be out completely in a moment," Delilah assured. "He won't be able to talk to anyone. Hell, I'm pretty sure he couldn't speak right now, even if he wanted to. Otherwise he would yell for help right now, wouldn't you Samael?"

The unwanted hand was back, ruffling through his short hair. Lucifer managed a growl in the back of his throat, the only form of communication he was capable of.

Delilah laughed. "Spirit! I like him! Best one so far. Take him out. I'll make sure no one follows."

The darkness closed around his vision, his last fleeting thought was that maybe Chloe would be able to find him before he wound up dead.

Or worse.


Author's Note: Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh. Anyway, if I could respond to all of you who have left notes (or messages) without Fanfic warning me again, I would but let's face it. I love all of you dearly, and I'm such a glutton for reviews. Especially now that mystery is over, and hurt/comfort is about to begin. Also, overwhelming votes were in favor of guest appearance of Constantine. He's not going to be a main character, but if Lucifer is out of the picture, Dan and Chloe are going to need some supernatural help besides Maze. So - for an FYI - I actually really hate having simultaneous stories within a story, i.e., the investigation into trying to find missing person while missing person is having issues of their own. So, as slow as updates HAVE been...sorry. They may be worse. But, we're also supposed to have a crippling heat wave, so maybe I'll just take the laptop into the basement and imagine I'm avoiding Hell. Anyway, Bad Guy motives will be explained next chapter in specifics.

Let me know if you like it (or if it made sense) and just so you know...motives were kind of touched on here, too. Let me know if you have a guess.