Chapter 8
To the horror of every demon in Hell, it wasn't just the angels who'd decided to invade their territory; Grim Reapers had joined the attack as well. They flew in like a swarm of angry bees; their war cries bringing an enraged hum to the air, and even though there were mere hundreds of them all together and thousands of demons they were going up against, their combined strength could kill quite efficiently.
All expecting demons and young child-demons were directed into Satan Lucifer's palace and were forced to take refuge underneath the structure. Sebastian and Claude, however, had been so preoccupied with other matters that they found themselves outside of the palace and at the mercy of the attacking angels and Reapers. Crowds of panicked civilians ran by them from all sides.
"Sebastian, we need to get inside!" Claude shouted through the panicked screams, "Now!"
Sebastian's eyes widened as he looked over Claude's shoulder and saw a swarm of angels diving for them, "Claude, run!"
As the invasion grew into a hellish battle—as many of the able demons were now fighting back—the two demons suddenly lost track of each other. Sebastian was constantly being knocked down by other demons trying to run away. He'd try to get back up, only to be knocked down again. Claude was working his way inside the palace when he noticed he'd lost his mate. He tried to turn back to look for him, only to be turned around by the swarm of demons trying to push their way into the castle.
After being knocked down for the umpteenth time, Sebastian forced himself to stay down. He curled himself into as much of a ball as he could manage to avoid having someone land hard on his abdomen; even though in the womb, a demon's fetus could take any brutality that was shown against it.
The sound of flesh being sliced into by a metal object fill his ears and a horrible pain erupted from his left thigh, making him sit straight up and scream. A large scythe ran all the way through his leg, pinning him to the ground. The strangled scream intensified with the pain. Sebastian looked up at his attacker, who was cracking a wide grin at him. Long grey hair fell to the middle of his back.
"Long time, no see, butler."
Sebastian let out a hiss of pain, "Undertaker . . . why am I not surprised?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure what this brouhaha is for. I just joined in because it seemed . . ." the ex-Reaper kicked Sebastian backwards without warning, ". . . fun."
His eyes widened suddenly as they settled on Sebastian's abdomen, "I say, butler, I never knew you were expecting. How interesting."
Sebastian could feel his consciousness leaving him. It was obvious the blade of Undertaker's death scythe had hit a few arteries, and blood was leaving him in large amounts.
"Hehehe, your odds of survival might be higher if my scythe isn't pulled out, so I'll just be on my way."
And with that, Undertaker left.
Sebastian felt his eyes grow heavy. He thought about Claude. He thought about their children. A had strayed to his abdomen.
"I'm sorry . . . I'm so, so sorry . . ."
Sebastian's mind began to drift off. He felt as though he had failed at so many things by getting injured. He couldn't help but think that because of this, the feud between the Faustus family and the Lucifer family would never be resolved and le felt he also failed to protect his child; one of his biggest priorities.
"Sebastian, get up! Come on, can't you hear me?"
The voice that spoke to him so suddenly was all too familiar for him to ignore and he forced his eyes open to look at whoever it was that was speaking to him
The only thing he could make out through all the chaos going on around them was that the person was a child-demon with piercing blue eyes; eyes so familiar that the name practically fell out of his mouth.
"Ciel . . ."
Exhaustion took over and Sebastian's eyes slipped closed.
"Ciel . . ."
The child-demon could hardly believe his former butler could remember his name, and he wondered how on earth someone like Sebastian could end up in this condition. Then his eyes found the death scythe and it all came together.
"Undertaker . . ."
Ciel suddenly became alarmed when Sebastian's eyes slipped closed. His face looked pale; paler than it normally was. He knew if he didn't get help soon, the raven demon was going to die.
The first matter of business was removing the scythe from Sebastian's leg. The blade was what was keeping the wound from healing and there was no way Ciel would be able to move him if he was pinned to the ground.
Removing the blade was not at all a pleasant experience for Ciel. More blood spilled out of the wound and Sebastian moaned and flinched at the pain, even though he was barely conscious.
As the blade was worked out of Sebastian's leg, Ciel covered the wound with his black overcoat; wrapping it around his thigh to cover both ends of the wound. The only thing he could do now is move him and try to find help; not at all easy when Sebastian was five times his size.
Ciel gathered him in his arms, carrying him bridal-style as he tried to keep his large black wings folded. Lifting him was the easy part. The harder part was trying to find his way into Satan's castle and getting help, and Satan's castle was uncharted territory. Even more so, Ciel would have to try to do that without getting them both killed.
Angels and Reapers were trying to break into the palace. They were destroying homes and murdering demons, one right after another.
"Who are the real bad guys?" Ciel wondered.
As the door to Satan's castle came into his sights, Ciel began to notice something off about Sebastian. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was just something . . . abnormal about him.
To his relief, Ciel did make it into the castle.
"Help!" he shouted, "We need some help, now!
The child-demon's shouts caught the attention of one of Sebastian's sisters, Lilim. She was a beautify demoness with long, curly black hair and red eyes. She had a heart-shaped face and a pixy-like nose.
"Michaelis!" she exclaimed, running in her high-heeled boots towards them, "What happened?"
"He had a death scythe go through his left thigh and he's lost a lot of blood."
They laid Sebastian on the floor and Lilim checked his pulse.
"Will he be all right?" Ciel asked.
"I'm not sure. If the wound is stitch it just might save him."
"'Might' as in you're not sure?"
"You'd be surprised, Lord Phantomhive. Otherworldly weapons can do quite a number on an immortal. But we can talk about that later. Michaelis needs help no!"
Lilim gathered Sebastian into her arms and carried him off while Ciel was reluctantly directed to another room.
Claude was on the brink of having an anxiety attack as he sat amongst other demons in a safe haven from the attack. He hadn't caught a single glimpse of Sebastian since he'd lost track of him in the chaos, and he was worried that his mate was injured, or worse . . .
"Come on, Sebastian, where are you?"
The sight of a child-demon shoving his way through the tightly packed crowd towards him caught his attention. He was hauntingly familiar and Claude felt a nagging guilt gnaw at his stomach . . . or perhaps that was his own hunger from his pregnancy.
"Lord Phantomhive?" he gasped, "What are you doing here?"
"I've been looking for you, actually." Ciel replied, "I've found Sebastian."
Claude stood straight up, "You did? Where is he? Is he okay?"
The alarm in Claude's voice had Ciel a bit confused. Last he knew, Sebastian and Claude hated each other; the fight-to-the-death-in-a-duel sort of hate. But he didn't have the time to ask all the questions that were beginning to stack up.
"A demoness took him; his sister, I think," Ciel explained, "She's taking him to a bedroom to heal."
"Heal?! What happened?"
"Undertaker struck him with his death scythe and he's lost a lot of blood."
Claude went cold. He didn't want to think that he'd lose his mate and the unborn child he was carrying.
"Can you take me to him?" he asked desperately, "Please, I need to be there with him!"
Obviously something has happened that I'm not aware of, Ciel thought to himself, What the hell have you been doing Sebastian?
