Chapter 15

You took a bite out of a muffin Lucifer picked up on the way to the stay before sipping on some coffee, feeling absolutely exhausted. It was four in the morning when Lucifer got the call from Chloe that you both had the green light to question the guy who shot you. You were barely functional while changing out of your pajama's, you weren't sure if caffeine was going to boost you up enough to ask the shooter any questions. You glance over to Lucifer, who looked too chipper for it to be 4:15am. You scowled briefly and rolled your eyes, taking another swig of coffee and a bite out of your muffin. At least Venom was still asleep. You lean your head back, your eyes slowly closed as you felt sleep starting to wash over you.

"Hey!" Lucifer smacked your arm gently, making you snap awake. "If you are going to sleep in my convertible don't hold coffee and a muffin. It'll stain the leather."

"Yeah,  yeah." You grumbled, shoving more of the muffin into your mouth. You glance to your left and looked up at the sky. The sun was barely peaking, just the very top was visibly, but it was still pretty dark out. "I don't get how you are so full of energy right now."

"The Devil doesn't sleep as you funny humans say. Which is not true by the way, I do need sleep once in a while. Anyways is Venom still asleep? His hot chocolate is getting cold."

"Out like a light. He'll probably perk up when we get to the station."

"Do you guys share dreams at all?"

You had to catch yourself from accidentally spitting out some of your food, remembering the rather dream. "Well... sometimes, yes. Sometimes its just him getting my dreams and visa versa, or our dreams sometime mix together."

"Interesting."

"Sometimes. Some of the dreams Venom experience are from his home planet. Some of them are from the incident with Carlton Drake." Images of Venoms dream popped in your mind. "Right now he is dreaming about your wings. And eating people."

Lucifer chuckled at that.

The rest of the ride to the station was filled with idle chitchat as you finished your breakfast. Right as you arrived at the station Venom awoke from his sleep, demanding his hot chocolate.

"Keep watch, Lucifer. He wants to drink his hot chocolate." Glancing around briefly you allow Venom to pop out his head and a goo-y tentacle like appendage to hold of the cup. "Better gulp it down quick." You take off the cap and watch as Venoms head lean back, his long tongue flapping out, as he dumps all of the warm liquid down his throat. He pretty much got it down fast but spent a few moments shaking the cup to get the last few drops.

"Lucifer!" Dan's voice echoed through parking garage.

"!" The symbiote shouted quickly,  reaching back into your body and dropping the empty cup on the floor. You knelt down to get it as you heard Dan approach you both, coming to a stop in your field of vision with his hands on his hips. You hoped the car next to you hid  Venom out of site.

"Was there someone else in here? I coulda sworn I heard another voice?"

"Nope! Just us in here, Detective Espinoza." You sent him a smile and stood up straight. "Probably the echo in here distorted my voice, dropped my cup." You glanced to Lucifer who was fixing the cuffs of his jacket and shirt, he gave you a small nod and smiled as well.

"Well, glad you guys got here when you did. The kid isn't speaking but I think with your, whatever you do," The detective gestured his hand to Lucifer before looking back to you, "and your background with the killer will get him to crack."

"Lead the way, Detective Douche." Lucifer smirked. You rolled your eyes and made sure to reach back into his convertible and pick up your mostly drank coffee and muffin wrapper.

"Oh here, I can get those in the garbage for you while you two get in there. Sooner we get information, the sooner we can help the kid." Dan gave you a smile and took the garbage from your hands before turning and walking into the building. You and Lucifer followed in suit, passing him as he dumped the cups and wrapper into his garbage can.

"Thanks!" He gave you a wave at your thanks as you and Lucifer walked to the interrogations room. Chloe was leaning against the door while looking at her phone.

"Good you guys are here. Sorry its so early but given Gene's background with using people, I don't want to risk any casualties." She handed you both copies of the information she gathered." Now, his name is Christopher Pacheco, 19 years old, and he is a sophomore at Marymount California University. His family is very well off from what our reports say. His mother, Shannon Pacheco,  is a realtor and his father, Martin Pacheco,  is lawyer for a big technology company here in L.A.. He hasn't spoken at all, barely looked at anyone who tried questioning. Didn't ask for a lawyer or anything. Also not his gun, it was his fathers." She rattled off the details, glancing between the two of you. "From what his high school and university gave us he is a great student; good grades, no discipline records, nothing that says he is trouble. As much as we think its Gene, we can't legally pin this on him without him confirming it."

"What about his parents? I would assume his lawyer father would be on this." You asked, feeling fully alert now.

"Shannon is at her sisters birthday in Washington. She was going to come back yesterday morning but decided to stay another day last minute. She told us she is going to catch the earliest flight she can today. But we haven't been able to reach his father, He is M.I.A..."

"Does that mean Gene..." You started but Chloe's shake of her head and shrug of her shoulders cut you off. 

"We aren't sure since he isn't talking. We were able to reach some people Martin works with and they said he came into worker yesterday like usual, took his lunch like usual but didn't come back in."

"Any reason?"

"Said his stomach hurt from lunch. We checked his dorm and his parents place but nothing came up of it..." You bit your lip and walked over to the window that viewed into the room holding Christopher, Chloe's words were fading from your hearing. He was still in the same clothes he was in when he took a shot that was meant for Lucifer. You were stuck at Gene's thought process of sending Christopher into a crowded nightclub to kill Lucifer rather than wait for him to be alone, even if he didn't know Lucifer was immortal. Or did he? Does he know about Lucifer and his vulnerability around Chloe? Or was this all a big coincidence to get two people of his murder spree? You couldn't contain the wince at all the questions flooding your brain.

"Are you alright?"  Lucifer's voice was soft in your ear, his hand laid on your upper back. You look to him, his face was full of concern.

"Yeah...Yeah..." You sigh and look back at the shooter, taking in his appearance again. His brown hair now sat loosely curled, no longer clinging to the sweat on his skin. His almost black eyes were still red and the skin around his eyes were red and puffy as well. He kept his gaze on his hands but you notice them flicker up to the glass.  "I'm just asking myself a bunch of questions on why Gene, allegedly, wanted you to be shot in your club."