Title: Holding the Leash

Summary: After the reapers kill a demon, some demons want to get even. William and Annabelle find themselves working with an old foe to stop them. They don't trust him but what more can they do?

Notes: Firstly, yes this is a sequel to Price of Freedom. I feel like Abigail's time is done for now, though I may visit her later. But I wanted to go back to William and Annabelle. They make me happy. She will show up from time to time in this however.

I could not decide if I wanted to do Annabelle's time at the Shinigami Academy or if I wanted to do William and Annabelle's relationship between First Cut and Academic Success. This idea hit me when I could not sleep and has been nagging at me ever since so I'm going to go with it. It will give some hints and pieces of their time between those two fics, especially as a certain someone arrives.

One last thing, I might be shelving my Undertaker story for now. I will however do a sequel to Road Rage in which Grell, Ronald, and Undertaker do convince William to take them to the mall.

Chapter 1

Annabelle Spears hurried down the crowded streets, trying to blend in with the hurrying humans as best as a Shinigami could. It was time for lunch and workers from nearly every building she passed were rushing to their homes to eat and then rush right back to work.

Normally, she would be traveling from rooftop to rooftop with ease, but one young recruit had dropped down in a crowd of gossiping women nearly a week ago, startling them all. She had decided to take no chances until she was positive the humans had calmed down.

It did not help that nearly a month before, a demon without a master had been harassing London, devouring souls, burning whatever she chose to burn, and giving the reapers far more work and trouble than they wanted. Katherine, as Annabelle had learned only after the demon's death, had also tried to separate the reapers, especially herself, William, and their daughter Abigail.

Everyone was back on the same page, and all was well among the Shinigami. But Annabelle still found herself nervous. Recently there had been a few fires, two within the same week. The fires had been sporadic but she feared another demon running amok.

She sighed wearily, unaware of quickening her own steps. She had souls to collect and needed to focus on that, not the small possibility of a demon, or demons, making London their own.

Annabelle had been preoccupied with her thoughts, not minding the angry looks people were sending her if she bumped into them in her own rush. She could not ignore someone bumping directly into her. She staggered but remained upright, her ledger still tucked under her arm. Her glasses had been knocked askew. As she straightened them, she glanced behind her.

Her eyes widened in surprise as she caught sight of a tall man in a tailcoat. She only saw him from the back, and only for a moment as he turned at the nearby corner, but for a moment she would have sworn it was...

"No," she told herself firmly. "Absolutely not! He devou – " She stopped, aware that three young children were eying her curiously. She quickly silenced herself and hurried on.

There were two souls that needed to be collected within minutes of each other. Thankfully, they were both on the same street, only three other houses between them.

She slipped to the back of the first house and peered into the first window she saw. It was the right one. Annabelle crouched low in order to stay hidden.

She was to collect the soul of a young woman, Elizabeth Ravencroft, who was severely weakened by childbirth. There had been another woman in the room, sitting on the bed and talking to her. Annabelle assumed it was either her mother, a midwife, or another female relative. She did not care who the woman was, she just wanted her to leave.

It took her nearly a minute before she left. Wasting no time, Annabelle unlocked the window using her death scythe and slipped inside. The woman on the bed stirred despite Annabelle not making a sound. She turned her head to face Annabelle and mumbled something Annabelle assumed was not meant for her ears.

"Will my baby be OK?"

Annabelle paused. There was only a handful of times during her career that she could recall of someone engaging her before their deaths. It always surprised her as she never knew who would and who would not.

She relaxed her grip on her scythe, wanting to give this mother some comfort but not being allowed to do that. "It's not my place to say," she said softly before swiping at Elizabeth's chest.

Her Cinematic Record billowed forth, showing a baby with curly brown ringlets. The baby became a small child hiding in her room, jealous of a newborn sibling. The child became a young woman who became engaged, married, and found herself with child before Annabelle's eyes.

After the record ending with nothing of note, Annabelle marked Elizabeth's file Completed and left the same way she came.

The second soul on her list was easier to collect. She did not even have to open a window in order to collect the old woman's soul. The only obstacle was a large orange cat that needed to be moved from the windowsill. The cat hissed at her and bolted away.

Something about the orange creature reminded Annabelle of the man she thought she saw earlier. She shook her head, forcing herself to clear her mind. It would do her no good to get distracted.

She crept into the small dining area of the house and frowned. There was quite the variety in her list it seemed. An old woman, having fallen and being unable to help herself was nearly the extreme opposite of a young woman dying due to childbirth.

By the time she had finished viewing the old woman's Cinematic Record, Annabelle had come to a conclusion. She would not tell William she thought she had seen Sebastian Michaelis. Not only was she unsure of whom she had seen, but she also knew that he would be very unhappy to hear it.