A/N: Guys...I'm so sorry this has taken THREE. FREAKING. YEARS. I have no excuses except...surgeries, I had a baby, service dog training, a youtube channel and four original novels since. BUT I'M BACK! So...good. Yes. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. As usual.

NOTICE: This story is based on the first story having an alternate ending! More on that in the next chapter!

Quod Spectat ad Abyssum

(The abyss stares back)

Chapter One

"When the head of the household isn't strong...wives wither. Children perish."-Criminal Minds

Nothing could have ever prepared me for this. For the fear and devastation. He was right there! One moment my child was lying in my arms, his one sapphire eyes looking up at me expectantly as he awaited the transformation that would make him mine in truth. The next, those eyes that I loved so much had faded into emptiness. Something had snuck in without us any the wiser and stolen my child's soul away. We searched every inch of the island for the perpetrator. I split the land in half with my rage, a deep scar on the earth itself. It was all in vain. I could feel the connection between Ciel and I stretching, stretching, stretching with the miles between us but there was no following, to my grief. So we went home. It was the only option left to us at the moment. Care for Ciel's body while we worked to find the soul it belonged to and the thief.

Phantomhive Manor was still and silent with our return Sebastian lay his Master down in bed, tucking the fragile boy in grimly like a fragile doll who may shatter with the slightest iota of pressure. Grief tore at my insides, split my soul in twain. My heart was broken.

First, I had lost my mate.

Now, I had lost my son.

Only a short time ago, we had defeated the Angel, Ash. Now a new enemy had reared it's ugly head. We stood in silence, two estranged parents, staring down at the child we had failed to protect. This was our fault. This...lay solely on our shoulders. The pain radiating throughout my chest was so intense that I barely even registered the smallest of contractions that reminded me of the second child under my care. My hand gripped my blossoming belly in agony and before I could think to stop them, the tears were pouring down my face, great sobs being torn from my chest. How could I do this without Ciel? Sebastian had left us and my little earl had been my rock, my calm in the storm. I needed him just as badly as he had needed me. What else could I do but crumble to my knees at his bedside, my head bowed?

Without him...I was adrift in a cruel sea of despair and uncertainty except this time, I was alone. Sebastian may as well have been a ghost for all I acknowledged him. Both hands reached up to grip his own tiny, pliant palm desperately and I wept.

'Please, please, just bring him back to me.' I plead with no one at all. The universe perhaps. After all, who answered the prayers of a demon?

How long could a body survive without it's soul? Days? Hours? At all? I would need to lay all manner of stasis charms and monitoring spells over my child to make sure his physical form didn't suffer. I would find him. I had to.

A tender hand lifted me from the floor and immediately I began to lash out. No! No, I would not be separated from him! Whoever took me from him could just go ahead and die! I clawed a deep gouge into the hand holding me only to realize that I wasn't being taken from Ciel's side, I was being laid down, tucked in beside him. My instincts rolled within me but I shoved them down brutally for the moment. Long enough to look up and meet the sad burnt umber eyes of my once-mate. The sight forced the sobs out of my chest anew. How had this happened? Two weeks ago, we had been so happy. Now look at us. Our child was soulless, Sebastian and I had broken our bond and he had lost his arm. How could our lives have fallen apart so much in a simple fourteen days?

Fourteen days ago, I was watching Tom leave to go back home.

Fourteen days ago, Ciel stood at my side with that tender, timid smile on his sweet face

Fourteen days ago...we had been a family.

~"Guilt isn't always a rational thing, Clio realized. Guilt is a weight that will crush you whether you deserve it or not." ― Maureen Johnson, Girl at Sea

Looking down at his tiny mate sobbing brokenhearted on the floor, the only thought that had any permanence in the tempestuous mind of Sebastian Michaelis was, "What have I done?'.

Sebastian's consciousness was a whirl of disbelief, guilt and impotent rage. He was entirely at fault for their current circumstances. Now that he had neglected to stop the capture of Ciel's soul...Samael would never take him back now. No amount of apologies would ever make up for the loss if they could not return his child to him. He had proven to be a failure as a mate and now this fragile family that they had created was falling apart. He had been the foundation for it, the strength behind the structure. But he had thoughtlessly, selfishly, torn that foundation out from beneath his mate's feet and left him to drown.

Did Harry regret coming to love him? Did he regret the child that even now approached its birth? Did Samael wish that they had never mated in the first place, that he had never offered Malphas his trust?

They had never even told each other 'I love you'.

Did Harry want to? Had he once wanted to at all? It seemed like such a human thing to do but the demon found himself wishing to share the sentiment just the same. He knew that it had been said sincerely and often when Harry had shared his heart with the Dark Lord and wasn't that just a blow. Did Harry love him, though? Did it even matter now?

No...but yes. It mattered to Sebastian. It mattered a great deal.

"It would be a lie. I don't love you...I don't love you. I hate you."

The words that Harry had spilled out just before he had allowed Sebastian to ease his breeding cycle pains bored into his mind like a drill. He didn't think he had ever felt this way for another creature and he was fairly certain that no other creature had ever felt such a thing for him. Silently, he moved to pick his beloved one off of the ground, struggling slightly with his one arm throwing the balance of the action nearly into awkwardness. Broken bond or not, he would give up his other arm before he let his pregnant mate kneel on the ground in such a state. Trying to scoop Samael up proved to be...difficult. He was hurt, pregnant, scared and, in the opinion of his indomitable instincts, mateless and undefended. Sebastian couldn't fault him for lashing out in fear. His child was injured and his instincts running on overdrive. When a sharp set of claws dug into his one good arm in an attempt to dislodge him, the demon took it in stride with barely a wince of pain. He deserved this censure, after all, this distrust. He had done nothing but earn it.

Ever so gently, Sebastian eased the harried, terrified form into the bed next to their comatose little lord, tucking them both in with all of the tenderness he could offer. And if his hand strayed for just a moment more on his unborn child, no one in any condition to comment on it was there to witness the display.

He was going to find whoever did this and skin them. Preferably to make a leather-hide baby bag for Samael. Maybe even shoes for Ciel. That would be an extremely satisfying end indeed and a very fitting gift, in his opinion.

~"Was it you or I who stumbled first? It does not matter. The one of us who finds the strength to get up first, must help the other." ― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

He had been loathe to leave his little love alone but it had to be done. Sebastian needed the chance to shed his human facade and find the thief responsible for his mate and soon-to-be-child's sorrow. Malphas was on the hunt. Gliding through the shadows like a unholy wraith, he sought out any trace of another demon in the Greater London area, for a demon it woul dhave had to be. No other species save those wretched angels, cared wit for human souls. His crows flew above, taking each a different direction to scour the city. It didn't take long for him to taste out one particular, seethingly familiar flavor of spirit.

'Orias. How delightful. I've been simply aching for a reason to rip him out of existence.' He raged inwardly, ice weighing down his soul with its cold fury.

That foul little spider had finally crossed the unforgivable line and this time, there would be no escaping the wrath of one vengeful demon Prince.

A/N: Just an introduction, I promise! I know it's short but I wanted to go ahead and get something out to you guys to help motivate myself. :) I expect my regular chapters to be around 3k or longer a piece.