A/N: I am sorry for the long wait but I suddenly got quite busy in the real world and couldn't update sooner. Meanwhile I've been happy to hear that Lucifer got another chance for a fourth season. Unfortunate for me it's on Netflix and I have the bad feeling, I soon won't be able to watch the first 3 seasons on Amazon anymore - which sucks because I paid for the 3rd one. So while I'm happy about the renewal, I'm sad about the "where".

But that's not the reason for the delay, so enough said about it. Hope you'll enjoy the next chapter and I will try to update sooner next time. As usual a big thank you to Sop12345d for the beta.

And I would also say thanks a lot for the kind reviews so far!

Chapter 4

It had its perks being a regular guest at Lux. At least, if you were a regular guest of the owner of Lux. Even if it was way before opening hours, she could easily enter the building. She had often wondered why Lucifer didn't care to simply lock the doors throughout the day. He was the owner of a nightclub after all. Instead, he always had someone watching the door, giving her, as well as others, the possibility to get to the club even outside opening hours.

And since Benjamin, who was on duty today, knew her all too well, she could easily pass him. Checking the club first, she noticed that Lucifer wasn't there. But one of the regular bartenders was already checking the inventory, making sure everything was in stock for the night. He looked at her only briefly before nodding towards the ceiling. Chloe smiled back at him and quickly turned around to get back to the elevator.

The ride to the penthouse seemed to take forever, but finally the familiar ring announced her arrival at the top floor.

"Lucifer?" she called out carefully when she didn't see him taking a drink at the bar as she had expected.

When she didn't get a response, Chloe walked over towards his bedroom. She could hear a drawer being opened and forcefully being closed as well. He was angry, and she couldn't blame him for it. Although, she still didn't get what had happened to him to take this Devil impersonation this personally.

Carefully peeking around the corner of the opening to his bedroom, Chloe looked for him, only to stop dead in her tracks. He was standing close to the ensuite bathroom door, his suit jacket as well as the button up shirt lying on the floor. She gasped when she saw the two large scars on his back.

This wasn't the first time she'd seen the cruel marks, but it was still a disturbing sight. She had once asked him who had done this to him and he had first told her that his father was responsible - only to change this into himself cutting his "wings" off there. Chloe had always believed that it was another metaphor he had used to describe his escape from a highly abusive parent.

But today, it felt different to see those marks. She shivered, suddenly feeling nauseated. Not by the sight in front of her, but by something that was buried inside her mind and refusing to come out just yet. Something was wrong with the picture in front of her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it yet.

Risking another glimpse at them, she realized that there was another bruise added to the already abused back of her partner. Was this from before? The bruise didn't look fresh though, more as if it was already a few days old. The blue colour you would expect had already changed to green and yellow in spaces. This didn't look like a bruise from today, more like almost a week old.

Had he been in a fight?

"Lucifer?" she asked quietly.

He still almost jumped and turned around in surprise. Well, this was a first. Chloe had never managed to surprise him in his own domain. But his mask was back in place instantly when he smiled at her - hiding the anger he must be feeling.

"Well, Detective. Seems I finally got you into my bedroom…."

She blushed at his words but he smirked back and she knew he didn't mean it that way. Okay, so maybe he did, but in the time they'd been working together, she had learned to live with his antics - sometimes even missing them when he wasn't around.

"What happened to your back?" she blurted out just to change the topic.

"What do you mean?" he asked, genuinely surprised. "I already told you about my wings, didn't I?"

Chloe shook her head. "No, the bruise."

His eyes bored into her as if to gauge her reaction, he finally replied, "Just a scratch. Whoever threw that stone wasn't exactly Major League material."

"That bruise doesn't look fresh."

Lucifer smiled and shook his head. "Well, advantages of immortality."

She sighed and gave up. Whenever he went into his metaphorics, she knew she wouldn't get a real answer out of him. He would continue to tell her whatever fit his "Devil act" and she wouldn't be any wiser in the end.

So she simply asked, "Are you alright?" And when he nodded, she took his word for it.

"I'm not sure my Armani will be, though."

Finally putting a new shirt on, he left towards the living area. Chloe had to smile at his comment and followed him quickly, not wanting to earn herself another salacious comment about her being in his bedroom.

"Maybe you should sit this one out," she finally admitted what she had been thinking during the whole drive over to Lux. But he just snapped around, looked at her incredulously. "Well, that crowd wasn't very friendly and I have the feeling this will only get worse."

Stepping closer, he leaned down to her, and she could feel her heart speed up for a moment when she practically felt the warmth emanating from his still bare chest so close to her. Chloe could feel her cheeks warming up and she could see the mischief back to his eyes when he smiled at her.

"Then, my dear Detective, I guess we should get back to... work?"

Damn the man!

"Lucifer…"

"I will not bow down to these people," he hissed, the playfulness gone in an instant. For a second, she could see the anger flaring up in his eyes once again. But he managed to shove it down as quickly as it had appeared. "What happened there is not my doing. So let's just get whoever did this."

Chloe nodded. She could work with that, although she still had the feeling it would be better for him to keep away from this case. On the other hand, Lucifer was probably the best resource she could find on the topic. So she would go with it. Not the time to look the gift horse in the mouth.

"You mentioned the owner of that building," he got back to the topic while finally buttoning up his shirt and turning towards the bar.

At least one less temptation there… No! Wrong thought. No temptation whatsoever in here!

She cleared her throat and got her notebook out. "Yeah… yeah… Owner… There it is! Francis Drake Harrington."

"Really?"

Chloe frowned. "You know him?"

"Well I know Frankie Drake… Well, let's just say I know him from my former occupation," he laughed and bent over the counter to get a bottle from behind. "Francis Harrington is on another page though."

"How so?"

"Know the name but haven't met him yet."

At least that was something. Chloe herself couldn't remember having ever heard the name. But if Lucifer had, the man had to be important.

"He's a trader," Lucifer continued, thinking about it for a moment. "Old money, really old money. He owns quite a lot of real estate around LA as well."

"What does he trade in?"

Instead of the expected liquor, Lucifer actually produced a bottle of water from behind the counter. He seemed to think about the question for a moment while pouring a glass of water. Was it really water? It didn't fit his image. But she didn't comment on it. For the time being, she was glad he was keeping sober.

"I guess, with the age of that money, his family used to trade in humans, but nowadays they're probably more into the usual stuff… art, antiques, memorabilia, real estate. I don't know for sure, though," Lucifer finally explained. "He's not really on our guest list here, but he's a regular at certain charity balls."

"I'll have Dan check his finances just to make sure," Chloe said and quickly pulled out her cell. "Do you know anything else?"

Lucifer shrugged. "Not that I remember."

She sighed silently and quickly typed a message to her ex-husband slash fellow detective. They would have to question Harrington anyway, but she wanted to make sure she had all the background details before that.

"So…" Chloe got back to the other topic that was still looming over them. "Tell me about the drawings at the other scene."

He sighed. "What is there to tell?"

Chloe stepped closer and took a seat beside him. "Why do you think it was meant to call… the Devil?"

"I'm not the only one, so it should be quite obvious."

She sighed and shook her head. "So any pentagram on the floor is meant to call the Devil? That's hard to believe."

"Of course not."

He stood up and went over to the large gallery of books that adorned the side of his living area. Taking a really ancient one of them out, he returned to her and slammed it on the counter. Looking at her expectantly, he gestured towards the book - obviously wanting her to open it.

So she carefully lifted the timeworn cover, only to reveal pages that looked as if they had been handwritten in the Middle Ages. What was this book? She couldn't understand anything written in there and merely looked back, confused, at Lucifer.

"The original version of Spritus Inferis, " he replied, as if this would explain anything.

"Of what?"

"Call it a handbook to the rites of calling angels, demons and whatever else spirits you can imagine."

She looked back at the book incredulously. "And this is the… original version?"

"Well, the usually known version does not go into details about calling the Devil," he explained and carefully turned the pages until they got to a page showing a pentagram very similar to the one on their scene.

Chloe just stared back at her partner. "And this actually works?"

Laughing, Lucifer shook his head. "Well, not the way you probably think. It's not as if somebody puts a pentagram on the ground, lights four candles, rants some prayer and voilá, there I am."

And there he went again, calling himself "the Devil". Why couldn't he put this one away? The image of those large scars on his back came to her mind and not for the first time she wondered how bad the abuse by his father had actually been. To turn himself into a figure like the Devil… She couldn't imagine how much bad things you have to live through to turn yourself into that.

"Well then, how does it work?"

"Essentially…" he sighed and sat down himself. "Well, it's been a while… But essentially they said the prayer, and if they were somewhat interesting, I might decide to waste my time on them."

"So there's no rite to call the Devil."

"No."

Well obviously, the people who had splattered all that blood around their now two scenes thought otherwise. She sighed again and looked back at the picture in the ancient book Lucifer had pulled out for her.

Not for the first time, Chloe thought that she was going to hate this case even more pretty soon.

A/N: I made the name of the book up. It's meant to translate to something along the lines of "Spirits and Underworld". I took inspiration though from what I have found about the Liber Juratus Honori, which is supposed to describe rites about calling angels, demons and other spirits.