Nearly twenty minutes later, the elevator doors slid open again. Ella Lopez and Mazikeen stepped into the penthouse. Ella barely paid attention to those present and immediately stepped toward Lucifer. His phone call had been anything but clear, and on the way to Lux, she had been quite worried.
"Lucifer, what's going on? Why did I have to bring my first aid kit and extra bandages? What happened?"
Mazikeen, meanwhile, stepped toward Alexander. Her facial expression was not particularly friendly when she said:
"One of the bouncers is babysitting, and he's about to be picked up. Talk!"
Alex nodded and said:
"Later Maze, all the explanations are going to follow, and you're going to be able to ask all the questions you might have."
Miss Lopez's gaze had wandered to Maze, and she saw Alexander sitting on the piano. Her eyes grew large, and her mouth opened far enough that her jaw had to hurt. Her right hand she had unconsciously closed around the crucifix around her neck. He smiled at her and spoke with a warm tone in his voice:
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Lopez. If you could bear to put off your existential crisis for a while until later because I desperately need your help and knowledge, I'm afraid."
The little lab tech muttered:
"Madré mia, it's all true... Lucifer is the Devil, Maze is a Demon, Amenadiel is an Angel…"
She shook her head and got moving. As she admonished herself:
"Not now, Lopez, not now! Focus, damn it!"
Placing her LAPD kite on the floor, she looked at the blood-red wings. It was obvious that the left wing was broken. Ella quickly let her gaze wander over the boy and saw that he had wrapped his left forearm in a towel and blood stains had become visible on the fabric. Taking a deep breath through her nose, she switched to her more professional side of the lab and asked:
"What can I do for you?"
"Thank you, Miss Lopez. Don't ask me how I know this, but I know that when you were a child, you saved a few birds by splinting a broken leg or wing. I want you to imagine that I am some kind of genetically manipulated chicken, and in a moment you are going to splint my wing, arm, and knee."
At that moment, Alexander had a coughing fit. He coughed up some blood drops, and he did not like the rusty taste in his mouth and on his lips one bit.
"Damn... I was afraid of that..."
He looked at Maze and said:
"Can you please take these two chairs apart and break off the legs so we can use them as splints? Then I need you to cut off my T-shirt and jeans."
Alexander looked at Lucifer:
"Do you have a stapler or superglue here?"
The devil looked at him uncomprehendingly and nodded.
"A stapler, yes."
Alex nodded:
"Okay, get it and see if it has enough staples, will you?"
Then he turned back to Ella:
"Can you please pluck three feathers, about a foot long, from my right wing? We'll need them later."
Ella touched the wing, and it felt very soft in her hand. As Maze pulled the chairs apart, she plucked three feathers. This made the rest of Alex's feathers puff up, and Ella said quickly:
"I'm so sorry..."
"No problem, Miss Lopez. The wings of Celestials are very sensitive, especially when someone plucks a couple of feathers out of them. It's just a subconscious reaction, like when a human gets goosebumps."
Meanwhile, Maze had started to cut off his clothes. By the time his jeans and T-shirt were gone, those present could see that his left knee had become quite swollen. But it was the left side of his chest that shocked them. Almost the entire left side looked dark blue. Alex looked at the damage and muttered:
"Darn..."
He shook his head. He took a deep breath and licked his dry lips. What he was about to say scared him a lot, but it had to be done.
"Okay Maze, the most important thing first. I want you to cut open the skin on my chest and then pull it aside to make room for Miss Lopez. I think I have at least two broken ribs, and one of them has definitely punctured a lung. Miss Lopez, I need you to imagine that I'm a corpse on a crime scene; you worked with those enough not to be shocked anymore. I need you to grab the rib or ribs and bend them back into place. Don't worry about possible splinters; they will disintegrate on their own once the healing begins. Then push the skin back into place and close the wound with the stapler. Place one of the feathers over the wound before bandaging me up. Everything else is more or less straightforward. Immobilize the left knee and put a feather on the knee before bandaging. The same goes for the left arm once Maze has straightened the bones. The wing itself is made of feathers, so it doesn't need an extra feather. I think I will lose consciousness very quickly once you start on the ribs. Don't worry, Miss Lopez; once the bandage with the feathers is in place, the healing process will begin very quickly. Before you know it, I will be completely fine."
Both Ella's and Chloe's eyes had widened when they heard Alexander say what had to be done. However, he did not give them time to recover from the news or to object. With difficulty he lay down on his back, grinned at Maze, and said:
"I wonder how long and how often you've dreamed of cutting open a Celestial. I'd say enjoy it, because I'm sure I won't."
Mazikeen grabbed her dagger and placed the point where she would begin to cut, but before she did, she asked:
"I do not know who you are, little man, but do you trust me?"
He closed his eyes, and his soft smile returned to his face as he said quietly:
"Deep down you have a very good idea of who I might be, and yes, with my life, Mazikeen!"
The demon growled something unintelligible and, in one swift motion, made a cut in Alexander's chest. Due to the sharpness of the dagger and the speed with which the cut was made, it was not too painful, but it was enough to cause Alex to clench his molars together and bring tears rolling to his cheeks. The next move, however, was too much for the boy. Maze pulled back the skin to give Ella room to straighten the ribs. That was when he screamed:
"MAMA..."
Then, thankfully, it went completely dark for him as he lost consciousness.
Half an hour later, the four adults were sitting in Lucifer's lounge. Not a word was spoken for a while, each one busy with their own thoughts. Alexander was still lying on the piano, but Ella had at least made sure he had a pillow under his head and a blanket. Suddenly, Chloe said quietly:
"We need to let his parents know where he is and what has happened to him."
Mazikeen looked at her in disbelief for a few seconds and then said dryly:
"Decker, this boy is a Celestial. He smells of both heaven and hell. It is the first time in my existence that I have met a celestial that is connected to both at the same time. Even Lucifer, who is a former Archangel, is not connected to both! We don't know anything else about him. If his parents are in Hell, and I do not know how that should be possible, he'll tell us when he wakes up. If his parents are in Heaven, it would be a very unhealthy idea for anyone to tell them while he is lying unconscious and banged up on the piano. The King of Hell, Demons, and Celestials do not mix in a healthy way, Decker."
Before Chloe could reply, a chuckle echoed from the corner where Ella had taken a seat. The other three looked at her uncomprehendingly, and the chuckle quickly turned into a hoarse laugh. They could barely make out Ella's words:
"Oh God, I'm going to hell... I went to church with the Devil ..."
Maze blinked her eyes as Ella's words failed to register. Lucifer smiled slightly at the memory of that night, and Chloe asked, confused:
"You did what now?"
Ella took a big swig from her glass of tequila, looked Chloe in the eye, and said:
"Some time ago, Lucifer needed something from me. He wasn't satisfied with me doing a favor for a friend. He had to, and he would, make a deal with me. Now that I know he's the literal devil, I'm not surprised he wanted to make a deal, because it fits the legend perfectly. Well, to cut a long story short. I would do whatever he needed, and I could name my price later. My price was for him to accompany me to church. Oh God, I am so going to hell..."
Lucifer spoke quietly:
"Nonsense Miss Lopez, you are not going to Hell. I would not allow it. It doesn't work that way. Celestial justice works quite differently. Besides, it wasn't my first time in a church. I have no problem going into a church; they are just buildings; I just prefer not to. All the Pius groveling in front of my Father does not play well with me."
Lucifer's final words brought Chloe's mind to a complete halt. God was Lucifer's father, Lucifer had once been an angel, and she had been willing to help a strange priest kill a child of God. She didn't know what all the misery between Lucifer and his father meant, but she was sure the priest didn't know either. This priest had given her a drug strong enough to make the devil lose consciousness. Suddenly it became crystal clear to her that this priest had used her, no, abused her in her vulnerable state. There had never been any exorcism that would have sent Lucifer back to hell. If he could leave Hell, what would stop him from returning immediately upon awakening to take his revenge? He had lived on Earth for years, and God had seemingly left him alone. If a drug was strong enough to stun the Devil, it was more than strong enough to kill Lucifer in his vulnerable form when he was around her. The priest had intended to use her, Chloe Decker, to kill a son of God. She panicked. How would God have reacted if she had been able to carry out the plan? It was still razor sharp in her mind how she had, without any doubt, put a bullet in Malcom Graham's chest when he threatened Trixie. What would God have done to her if she had killed his son? What did God think of her now that she had gone along with that plan? Chloe practically jumped up and spoke:
"I'm going home. I need some fresh air and then my bed..."
Without waiting for an answer, she turned and disappeared from the penthouse.
Maze looked suspiciously at Lucifer and asked:
"What's wrong with her?"
The Devil shrugged and replied:
"Ever since she saw my devil face and disappeared for a while, things have been a little tense between us. She said she needed time to fully accept the supernatural. The boy showing up so unexpectedly with his wings for everyone to see did not really help the cause, I guess."
Ella's voice suddenly sounded rather icy:
"Speaking of revelations, Lucifer, I must say I am quite angry with you! I could hit you with my shoe right now. Why didn't you tell me the truth?"
Lucifer looked at her and said:
"I have always told you the truth, Miss Lopez. I have never lied; you have chosen not to believe me."
"There is a difference! You could have shown proof that everything was real instead of keeping us in the dark!"
The Devil took a deep breath and spoke quietly:
"People don't react well to the existence of the supernatural. Especially when they see my devil face. When Doctor Linda saw it, I feared for a moment that I had broken her. It took a few weeks for things to get back to normal."
Ella understood Lucifer's reluctance but did not give in just yet:
"You were an Angel, an Archangel, before you became the Devil. You could have just shown your wings."
Lucifer took a long swig from his glass before answering:
"I did not have my wings at that point in time, Miss Lopez. I only recently got them back. But people often don't respond well to that either. When a person is exposed to something as divine as our wings, they can go mad. Father was always very clear about this. Humans and divinity do not mix well. One of the reasons he had me cast into Hell was that I was more in the Garden of Eden than in Heaven."
Ella had wrinkled her forehead in thought and asked:
"Is that what happened to Jimmy Barnes? Why he is living in a straitjacket now? I read that file shortly after I arrived in LA. After our first meeting, I got the idea that you were some wannabe Hollywood character actor."
Before Lucifer could answer, he took another big gulp and refilled his glass:
"Yes, I may have exaggerated a bit there. In my defense, he had just shot the detective. I can make hellfire flare in my eyes, and when someone destined for hell sees that, they see the fate that awaits them in hell. Barnes was terrified."
Ella considered the answer and then asked:
"Chloe saw your devil face and Alexander's wings. She may be frightened and a little confused, but she is certainly not crazy. Not only did I see his wings, but I also touched them extensively. I'm pretty sure I'm no crazier than I was this morning. Why?"
Lucifer thought about Ella's words for a moment and then said:
"I have no idea why it had no effect on you, Miss Lopez. The reason the detective is immune is because of my father. She is also immune to my mojo. The detective is a miracle. Her mother couldn't have children, so Father sent Amenadiel to earth to bless her, and that's how the detective was born. Your mother did not have that problem, Miss Lopez, because you have four brothers, so I have no answer."
At that moment they heard Alexander moaning softly from the piano, and Ella rushed over to him. She saw sweat on his forehead, felt his temperature, and said:
"He has a fever. His body must be working overtime to heal him; that's why he's so hot."
She turned and looked at Lucifer sternly. The tone in her voice brooked no contradiction:
"I'm staying here tonight; someone has to keep an eye on him! And this conversation is far from over. I have a million questions, and you're going to answer them nicely, or I'll whack you with my shoe!"