Chapter 10

Sebastian's POV:

The phrase "cursing like a fiend" is very correct in its meaning. Technically, I'm not a fiend but I came from the same place, so the phrase could be used to describe me when I awoke. I was furious when I woke and I woke cursing. A string of profanity I had rarely allowed myself to use during my lifetime streamed from my mouth as soon as I as conscious. All of it was very base and common, but right now, the words expressed my ire perfectly. I was furious: How dare Marcellus treat me like this, and how dare he treat my master like this?

He must have heard me. His footsteps approached and a door opened, allowing light to stream into the room.

"Good morning, Sebastian," he said, lighting a lamp after closing the door. "How are you feeling?"

"Must you ask?"

"Given what I heard, no," he admitted. "Are you in pain?"

Too late my re-injured legs and arm made themselves felt and the discomfort was so much that I had to admit that, yes, I was in a great deal of pain.

"I've brought a dose of the pain medicine," he said, holding up a cup. "It's a little stronger than before since you've re-injured yourself."

"Ah, before you give me that, could we talk?"

He tilted his head to the side and smiled, much the same way I would smile. "Yes?"

"Why do you persist in treating me like a child? Why have you placed my master under Influence? It's driving him to distraction!" There was something going on here that I couldn't see between Marcellus and I, and whether I liked it or not, it did have some bearing on the situation my master was in. I would have to resolve it if I wished to better his situation, but I had a strong feeling that Marcellus wasn't about to make that easy.

"Sir Charles asked how he could get the young master to willfully seek him out, so I told him that I would take care of it," he answered.

"That wasn't what Sir Charles meant!"

"But it was the most expedient," he said. "Since I am the demon using Influence, he receives relief when I speak, but I have also keyed it to Sir Charles so he will receive relief in his presence as well. I have to admit that it has been effective."

I stared at him. "Effective?"

"The young master insisted on Sir Charles spending almost every moment with him yesterday before his journey down to see you, and after I brought you up here he insisted on Sir Charles spending time with him again. In fact, Sir Charles read to him until he fell asleep and during the night, the young master went to Sir Charles' room and stayed there until this morning."

This I couldn't understand. If Sir Charles was asleep, then he wasn't talking, and didn't the key have to be speaking for the Influenced to get any relief?

"Sir Charles talks in his sleep," Marcellus said, seeing my confused look. "He was very touched when he woke up this morning to find the young master cuddled against him and asleep. He spent close to an hour holding him and watching him sleep."

That madman had held my young master? Oh, I found that disturbing on levels I couldn't even name. "Does my young master know about that?"

"Well, he knew Sir Charles held him; he woke up while he was still being held."

"What did he do?"

Marcellus looked at me. "Who, the young master? Just sat up and said good morning. I could tell he was a bit embarrassed, but he was all right. He went with me to his room and settled back into bed. Now, about your medicine…"

I allowed him to help me sit up and I drank the medicine. I noticed now that I was wearing rather more than I had before. I plucked at the shirt and stared at it.

"You'll be a bit warmer wearing nightclothes, I think," Marcellus said.

I felt my arms and my legs and wondered just what kind of nightclothes had something like corset stays sewn into the limbs. I could feel them around my legs and my re-broken arm. "What…?" I couldn't even think how to frame the question.

"I've put splints on your legs and arm," Marcellus informed me. "Re-breaking your arm and legs has put them at risk for healing crookedly."

Oh, wonderful. More good news. "Will they?"

"If they aren't watched carefully, they will," Marcellus promised. "However, the splints should prevent that. Now, you need to eat."

I groaned. I didn't want him to feed me and to experience the bliss it forced on me. The experience the one being fed had during the process was partly what made it so intimate an experience, and I was not eager to undergo that again. He was supposed to be my enemy, not someone who...well, what would he be to me if he wasn't my enemy? I was past knowing or guessing. Right now, if any relationship existed between us, it was ambiguous due to his actions and our location. "I'm not hungry." I wasn't lying. I truly wasn't hungry. I was ravenous.

He smiled and raised an eyebrow. "You'll forgive me if I don't believe you."

"No, really, I'm not!" I insisted. "You don't have to trouble yourself."

"It is no trouble whatsoever, Sebastian," he said lightly, pulling off his coat and gloves before rolling up his sleeve. He kept his eyes on me as he slashed his wrist and he advanced, holding his arm out to me. "Now, drink."

I tried to shift away from him as much as I could, but before my muscles finished contracting he was on the other side of me, his free arm wrapping around me and holding me against his chest. "Drink, Sebastian," he said. Suddenly his arm was against my mouth and I could taste it. One taste and I surrendered, my almost-healed arm coming up to hold his arm in place while I drank. The taste filled my senses once again and I was helpless. With each swallow I felt my will to resist him dissipate. Slowly I drank my way to satiation and the well-being the feeding always bestowed on me came again.

"There we are," Marcellus said as my jaw relaxed and I let go of him. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Hmmm," I said, once again unable to speak coherently. I could feel what I'd swallowed coursing through my body and I had to admit that once again, the sensation was exquisite. Sometimes, I fell asleep after being fed, but on the times I'd stayed awake, I almost always felt like this. Sometimes I felt a nice hum in my head or I felt warm, but mostly, the experience was similar to this, if not as strong. Idly I reflected that it was a good thing demon blood wasn't an addictive substance.

"Are you sleepy?" Marcellus asked. "I'll put out the lamp if you are."

"No, not sleepy," I murmured. I would be furious with myself if I fell asleep now; I felt far too good to want to sleep. Physical bliss was still rushing through me and even though I hated what the feeding did to me, I wanted to enjoy the effects. Such enjoyable experiences were few and far between in a demon's life, so we were susceptible to them even if they were unwanted. Swallowing a human soul was very pleasurable, which was why we demons craved them so much, and right now the feeding's effects were very similar to that experience.

Tiny stabs of pain in my legs and my arm brought me back to the world and I gasped. I knew I hadn't moved, so why...?

"You shivered," Marcellus said. "That's the first time you did that after a feeding."

I didn't know why, but that bothered me a great deal. "Why did I shiver?"

"I think the shiver was your body trying to relax after all of that sensation," Marcellus explained.

I was sure I was about to die of embarrassment. Not only was I forced to undergo a great deal of unwanted pleasure, but he had been watching me enjoy it. Oh, the humiliation. "Mortified" did not begin to describe how I was feeling. "What was different this time? What did you do?"

He smiled. "I should have known you would notice something was different," he said. "Before I fed you, I swallowed several things that would make the feeding more nourishing for you. I suppose all that extra nutrition made it more enjoyable for the one being fed."

Suddenly, violently, I wanted death. Anything was better than this...

Marcellus noticed my expression. "Sebastian, why does my feeding you bother you so much?"

There was no way in this lifetime that I was about to discuss why. Didn't he realize that among younger demons this method of feeding me was considered just one short step from...well, one did not discuss such things in a civilized household. "I don't want to talk about it." I doubted that my embarrassment could get worse.

He looked at me, thinking. "Is it because this method of feeding is usually only done between demons who are lovers?"

I was wrong. It could get worse. It just had. "Ah..."

"It's not only lovers who do this," he said calmly. "Parents also do it for their children if the children are injured and in need of healing. Since you are several thousand years younger than I am, in comparison, you are in essence, a child. Since it's rarely needful, you likely won't have heard of that, right?"

I had known that parents would do such a thing for their children. I'd heard mention of it in a book that I'd read when I was still young, but that was entirely beside the point and not worth mentioning now. I had to make him understand... "I'm not your child. Isn't this done usually only between blood relations?" I knew both of my parents. My mother had no siblings and my father had one brother and I had met him. I had met both of my grandfathers. Marcellus was not one of them, so I could not see how he was related to me if he was. Why would someone who was no relation to me be doing this?

"It is," he admitted.

"Then why...no, I know why. You want me to heal quickly. What I fail to understand is why you want me to heal quickly."

"I have my reasons."

Again, that maddening statement! "Well, what on earth are your reasons?" I demanded.

Something about my tone must have touched a nerve. "I'll reveal them when I choose to and not before, Sebastian," he said tersely. "Now, try to rest while I'm gone. I must return to my duties."

I wished I could have thrown something at him. I wished I could have gotten up and thrashed the truth out of him. Such bellicose urges were not something I had often, but in this case I felt they were justified. Even more than that, in Marcellus' case, they were deserved.

"Oh, stop glaring at me like that," Marcellus chided, covering me once more with the blankets. "Try to rest. I'll be up later to check on you."

I tried to be gracious, but all I could say was, "Very well." My tone conveyed my displeasure at my situation, but he chose to ignore it. He left, taking the lamp with him, plunging the room into darkness. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep once the silence and darkness calmed me.

Ciel's POV:

Time passed. After four days in bed and another two days spent on the couch, the relapse ended and I was well at last. I no longer had to spend the day in bed and I no longer had to swallow the medicines Marcellus made for me. I celebrated by getting dressed and insisting that Sir Charles and I spend the day outside. After days and days of seeing nothing but four walls around me, I had to get outside. I was sure that Sebastian felt the same way and suggested to Marcellus that if he could be moved, Sebastian might be brought outside for a while.

"Does he like being outside?" he asked.

"Sometimes we would spend the whole day outside," I answered. It was true, too. Sometimes, such as after several days of rain or work, I insisted on being outside as much as possible. Doing that kept me from going round the bend after being cooped up in the house. "Will you bring him out? Please?" Usually, I wouldn't bother pleading with someone like that, but that was what a child would do. I'd noticed that when I behaved more like a child, then Sir Charles would give me what I wanted or he would order Marcellus to do what I asked. Amazingly, it worked every time, given that what I wanted was something reasonable. It didn't work on things like staying up until midnight or having extra dessert in the place of my vegetables for dinner, but if I wanted Sir Charles to read aloud to me for a while longer or if I wanted Marcellus to tell me a story, then it worked better than a charm.

"If he can be moved, why don't you bring him out, Marcellus?" Sir Charles suggested when he saw the hopeful look on my face.

Marcellus bowed. "Yes, Sir Charles. I won't be long."

"Thank you," I said as soon as Marcellus had gone inside. "I still don't understand why he won't let me visit him. He's still my butler, after all!"

"Marcellus told me that Sebastian needs rest," Sir Charles said. "He wouldn't get that if you visited him each time you asked to do so."

"I kept asking because he wouldn't let me visit him," I pointed out. Since Sebastian had been moved upstairs, I had asked to visit him every time I saw Marcellus, and he'd always said that it wasn't time yet. Well, now I was going to get to see Sebastian whether Marcellus liked it or not. Thank Providence that the madman keeping me prisoner was indulgent!

"Here we are, butler and patient," Marcellus said from the open doorway. In his arms was Sebastian, wrapped up in a black dressing gown and wearing black slippers on his feet.

"Hello, Sebastian," I said as Marcellus put Sebastian down in a lounge chair. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm well and very happy to see you, Bocchan," he said, looking at me. "Are you better?"

"Much, thanks." It was better to be polite. It pleased Sir Charles and if he was happy with me, then he was indulgent and easier to manipulate.

"Thank you for asking that I be brought outside," Sebastian continued. "I was beginning to forget what open sky looked like! Marcellus kept saying that I shouldn't leave my room, but it looks like I've weathered the trip just fine."

I could see Marcellus glaring at the back of Sebastian's head. He still wasn't happy about this. I had a strong suspicion that Marcellus would be having words with him later. Sebastian inquired politely about what I had been doing and he asked Sir Charles how he was before thanking him once again for his quarters.

"It's fine," Sir Charles said. "Having you there will make things easier for Marcellus in the course of his duties and Ciel told me that he's been resting better with you so close to him."

"That's very good to hear," Sebastian said, smiling.

For the next few hours, I spent time with Sebastian and Sir Charles, sitting with them around a table and talking. I chattered about nonsense that would please Sir Charles and asked to play a game with them so my hands would have something to do. Plus, playing a game like that meant that Sir Charles would talk. Marcellus brought lunch and then tea to us at that table as we played round after round of cards, dominoes, and Chinese checkers. I won most of the time, but occasionally Sir Charles would win and Sebastian even won once at dominoes. After a while we stopped with the games and watched the gray ones romping on the lawn. They didn't look like dogs, but they sure acted like it, and they were almost as funny to watch.

"Master, young master," Marcellus said soon after that. "It looks like the weather's changing. We should head inside now."

I looked up at the sky. Dark clouds were moving in and I could tell that it would be one of those penetrating Yorkshire rains that would last a couple of days. "Do we have to?" I whined. I wasn't eager to be sentenced to the house for days on end so soon after just being released from it. "Right now? It's not raining yet!"

"Marcellus is right, Ciel," Sir Charles said after glancing up at the clouds. "It's about to start. Besides, Sebastian's looking tired."

I looked and was shocked to see that he was right. His face was pale and the dark shadows under his eyes had deepened.

"I'm fine," Sebastian said. "For a little while, at least. My sentiments on going inside echo the young master's."

Marcellus, who had been tidying up the games we'd been using, stopped to level a glare at Sebastian. "Sebastian, you'll be going inside in the next few minutes whether you like it or not. You may not feel it now, but you are still weak."

The look in Sebastian's eyes might almost be called defiance as he smiled at Marcellus. "Oh, don't fuss, Marcellus," he said dismissively, smiling. "I'm just fine."

Sir Charles looked back up at the sky as the wind started to blow. "Ah, the argument's become moot, gentlemen," he said. "Marcellus, get Sebastian inside, and Ciel, you go with them. I'll take care of things out here." Just as he finished speaking, fat drops of chilly rain started to fall and I obeyed with alacrity. I wasn't eager to catch a cold just after getting over bronchitis and a relapse.

I got inside just in time to hear Marcellus telling Sebastian off. He was still carrying him, but I recognized a lecture when I heard one.

"...and don't you ever dare defy me like that again!" Marcellus growled as I drew closer. "Especially not in front of Sir Charles or the young master! Do you understand me, Sebastian?"

It was heartening to see that Sebastian wasn't about to take any lecturing. "I am indebted to you for healing me, but I'll remind you that my injuries are your fault in the first place. My gratitude will not go beyond that, and while you may view me as a child, I am not. I do not intend to obey you the way a child would, and as for defying you...Well, let's just say that from this moment on it will be one of my chiefest pleasures."

It was the first time I'd ever heard a demon growl while in their human form. "Sebastian..." Marcellus said, warningly. I had a strong feeling that Sebastian was pushing him too far.

"I will keep up such defiance until you explain things to me," Sebastian threatened. "You expect me to just accept that you have your reasons for what you do, but you have to explain them sooner or later. I have a good hunch, though, that you don't want to. I wonder why that is."

The air around Marcellus shifted and darkened, and I could see his true form. I'd seen Sebastian's only once, when he'd first come to me and we'd formed the contract, but now I knew why he was careful to remain in his human form around me. A demon's true form was terrifying, and it took all I had not to break and run.

Sebastian looked past Marcellus' shoulder and saw me. "Young master!"

Immediately, Marcellus' true form was gone, and he turned to regard me with a cool, level gaze that gave nothing of his anger away. "My apologies if you saw that, young master. Your Sebastian is being less than cooperative with me of late."

To deny that I hadn't seen it and that I hadn't been afraid would have been lying, and both of them knew when a human lied to them. "It's all right, Marcellus. You sound surprised that Sebastian doesn't wish to be cooperative."

Marcellus blinked. I could tell that he hadn't been expecting that, and for a moment his eyes glowed with demon light. I could tell what he was thinking: Not only is this upstart demon defying me, but this puny human is, as well. Unbelievable.

"It's a pity, that," I continued. "Then again, if I order him to, he could behave even worse. He is still my butler, and of course, he and I still have a contract. He's bound to obey my orders. At the same time, I could stop cooperating, as well. Whatever you've done to me by making these hear these voices, remember that I am still Ciel Phantomhive, and I don't like to lose. Being challenged might surprise me for a short time, but it always makes me fight harder. Between the two of us, you might never have a moment's peace again."

His eyes continued to glow as Sebastian looked very proud of me, but a second later they faded to their usual shade.

"Marcellus, what are you on about?" Sir Charles asked as he came inside, carrying the games we'd been using. "Why isn't Sebastian back up in bed where he can rest?"

Marcellus nodded his head. "My apologies, Master. I was merely speaking with the young master. I shall return in a moment."

"See that you do, Marcellus," Sir Charles said. "Once you get Sebastian settled, bring some hot drinks to the library. I didn't like Ciel being out in that wind. Ciel, I'll take these back to your nursery and then we'll curl up in the library with a good story, hm? I'll read to you."

I smiled. "That sounds nice." I gave a smile to Marcellus too, one that would remind him of what I'd told him. He simply nodded his head and carried Sebastian upstairs, while Sir Charles urged me to go sit by the fire in the library. I went, more than happy to have a chance to collect my thoughts. I had a good feeling that the proverbial line in the sand had been drawn between Marcellus and I, but what would result from either of us crossing that line...well, it was too soon to know.