Chapter Text
Normally, Lucifer would have spotted the shadowy figure holding the angelic blade, stalking behind him at the farmer’s market with Alastor at his side.
But as he heard Charlie’s ringtone, he nearly dropped the blackberries he was holding to pick up the phone. “Hey Charlie! What’s up?”
He was grinning as he listened, and Alastor smiled down at him, arms folded behind his back. He could smell the sinner-meat pies a few aisles over; maybe he would get a few himself. Lu wouldn’t want any; the king knew that sinners regenerate after injuries and non-angelic death, but the king was concerned that harvesting sinner-meat caused too much suffering. More for Alastor, then.
“Sure, I'll be there! Anything you need! Ok! See you! Love you! Bye!” Lucifer beamed as he hung up and looked to tell Alastor about the invitation. In his excitement, he didn’t see the mantis shrimp sinner take her chance.
The market was crowded, so the sinner needed no excuse to get close to the king. She looked as though she was just shopping for the same berries he was, but in reality, she was getting in striking distance.
With incredible swiftness, she brought the dagger up, and the light glinting off the metal caught the eyes of both Lucifer and Alastor, despite the fact that the deer demon was several paces away. Lucifer flinched at the movement and brought up his arm in defense. The sinner brought it down in an attempt to stab the king in the chest, but instead caught his defensive forearm, the blade piercing the space between his radius and ulna and getting stuck there.
Lucifer’s wings sprouted and he jumped back with a squawk, taking the blade with him. He flapped his wings, but with the crowd behind him and around him, he couldn’t get the wind under his feathers to achieve liftoff.
The mantis shrimp advanced, reaching for something in her coat pocket. Lucifer shrank back as he tried to plan his next move.
But before he could even panic, a swift, antlered shadow rose above the crowd. Its tentacles shot out without warning to grab the mantis sinner’s arm, and a coldly efficient Radio Demon appeared. The tentacle tightened so hard so quickly that the aquatic sinner’s entire arm snapped off. When she tried reaching out with her other upper limb, he simply used another tentacle to do the same thing again, disarming her completely, coating his own clothing with a spray of red blood.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“Oh, Vox! You’re back!” the electric eel sinner exclaimed as he entered a room in the TV-demon’s nearly-abandoned warehouse. Ethan hadn’t been there for a week; he hadn’t seen his boss in five.
Vox didn’t turn to look at Ethan, instead staring intently at the screens on the wall in front of him. Largest and most centered showed drone footage of a farmer’s market. It was the only screen marked “LIVE” in the top right corner.
“Those two smug bastards haven’t won yet,” he grumbled, watching an armless mantis sinner zip away as Alastor lost interest in killing her, instead turning to the injured angel.
Alastor should be rushing to comfort ME, thought Vox. I’m the one who fucking DIED last month.
It hadn’t been a permanent-kill, and it was fairly quick, but still. Who was there to comfort Vox? No one. Velvette and Val were probably still angry at him, not that he’d checked in on them in a while. The fact that Lucifer had all of the Radio Demon’s care, concern, and attention had Vox fuming. The little devil didn’t deserve it. No one did.
“But what is his weakness?” Vox said aloud, steepling his fingers.
Ethan cautiously approached the screens. The two watched as Lucifer held his arm to his chest and Alastor crouched, reaching out to help.
Lucifer flinched away on the screen. “No, no, sorry, Al,” he stuttered, paradoxically apologizing. “I’ll just go,” he said, then quickly teleported away.
Vox’s eyes darted to the other screens. “I’ve been studying my footage of the Morningstar,” he said, low and dangerous. “I have decades of it, it's all selected in this folder. Every time he gets hurt, he desperately rushes to hide it. Even before healing, or lashing out. Even in front of his…” Vox gritted his teeth. “...his lover.”
Ethan narrowed his eyes. “Do you think Lucifer has…some kind of issue about people seeing when he’s hurt?”
Vox turned to look at Ethan for the first time.
“He does,” Vox growled. “And I think I know how I’m getting my retribution.”