L's POV
I looked back and forth between Saya and Aloise. Former master? That made absolutely no sense.
"If he is your former master, then why…?" How should I have finished that? Why was he alive? Why did he still have a soul? Why was he in my house?
"I'm here because Saya's coming back with me, honestly." His British accent coated his words.
"Pardon me? Little boy, you should be grateful that you're not dead. Now get out before I remove you from the premises." Saya snapped, all previous composure gone. Aloise once again took on that sadistic grin.
"Oh, you're not going to lay a finger on me, Saya." He raised one hand in the air and snapped his fingers. It was so loud, it was as if it had echoed throughout the entire house, which wasn't possible.
In a flash there was a man standing behind Aloise. His posture was great, his face stony, and his clothing incredibly unnerving. He was wearing a butler uniform, the exact same one as Saya's only in menswear. His cold golden eyes stared at the both of us uninterestedly.
"Yes, Master." His voice, though much deeper, reminded me of Saya's obedient tone. Saya's hands which were previously supporting me fell, as did her face. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the two men in front of her, both of whom she was obviously familiar with.
"Claude Faustus." Her voice was soft, unbelieving. It seemed as if her mind spun a sudden one-eighty as her expression hardened into one of anger, "What are you doing here?"
"He is my new butler, Saya." Aloise grinned.
"You two do not have a contract." Saya stated.
"Of course not. Do not fret, Saya. I still belong to you," With that he stuck his tongue out, almost making me choke on my own spit.
On his tongue was the exact same tattoo as I had. That same star with that same intricate pattern of designs. Though, the coloring was quite a bit different. Whereas mine was dark and neat, his looked worn, like a child's apply-it-yourself tattoo that was peeling off. What was going on?
"I'm not quite understanding what the both of you are trying to accomplish by breaking into my master's house."
This time it looked as if Claude were going to speak up. He pressed his thin glasses farther up his nose before opening his mouth, "I have been recruited to bring you back to my master's place of residence."
"That's crazy!" Saya yelled for the first time since I had known her, "You don't even have a contract with him, why would you do anything that he asks of you? Do you have any pride?" The look on Saya's face told me that she was more confused than anything. There was so much I wanted to ask her, but that would have to be saved for later.
"I have my reasons, Miss Abernathy. Now, if you would make it so much easier on all of us and just come along-"
"You can't have his soul, you know! Why are you trying to make this brat happy when there is nothing in it for you? He's human, he's gonna die, and you're going to be left with nothing, Claude. You wouldn't even want his soul. I didn't." It was so quick that I couldn't keep up. Claude's hand shot out and something flew straight at Saya. She, not surprisingly, caught it in her hand before it could hit her straight in the eyeball.
"It would do you well not to speak ill of my master." Claude warned.
"Funny, I said the same thing to your master a few minutes ago." Saya spat. She looked down at what she had caught and her eyes widened in amusement.
"Gold plated silverware? Mister Trancy, I thought you would've gotten rid of these old things." Her tone was condescending, yet not once during this ordeal did it ever lose its undertone of politeness. Maybe it was just because of her accent, though. Terrible of me, I know.
"Look Mister Trancy, Mister Faustus, as much as I would love to continue this, I'm afraid I just don't have the time to fit you into my schedule tonight. We will settle this another time, on another battlefield. So, if you would please," She gestured to the door. Aloise stared at her and seemed to consider it.
"Claude, get her." Just when I had assumed things were about to calm down, Claude quickly lunged toward Saya and I. I felt her arms wrap around me as she placed me in the corner, farthest away from Claude, before going after him herself.
All this time, every time I watched Saya use near-deadly force, it was as if it were nothing to her. Like she wasn't even trying. Now was different. As she and Claude struck each other, you could easily hear the impact of the blows. It seemed as if the two were on equal footing, going in for the kill before retreating and blocking more attacks. I noticed Saya going more on the defensive, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why. Couldn't she just beat the crap out of this guy and get Aloise out of here? Why was she being so careful?
I would probably have come to a conclusion, if my thought process hadn't been interrupted. I saw a figure approach me quickly and turned just before a fist struck out at me. Instinctively, I put my hand up to block the blow that was about to come. A sharp pain came through my hand and I pulled away quickly. Standing there was Aloise, and he hadn't been about to hit me. No, in his hand was a very new, very sharp pocketknife. I looked at the blood that was now pooling in my palm. Aloise had cut me.
"Oh, that's a shame. I missed." His childish tone put me more on edge as he came for me again.
"Master!" I heard Saya call. I looked over and saw her worried expression as she evaded hit after hit from Claude. She was currently out of commission, I suppose. I looked at the boy wielding the pocketknife.
"I'll have you know that I'm not as weak as I look." I told him. As soon as he was within distance, I shot out my foot and kicked him in the face. The knife flew out of his hand and I kicked it under the couch. I had no problem fighting this brat, but I did have a problem with physically fighting unfairly.
"Why you slimy-" His insults were cut off as I repeatedly kicked him in his boyish face. It wasn't hard, he was really rather weak. He certainly wasn't made for fighting, but then again, I really wasn't either.
I went to kick Aloise once more, just one more time would knock him out. However, my body was pulled back by hands that were definitely too big to be Saya's.
"Get your hands off of me." I told Claude. He kept his grip on me, though. With his height, it would have been a stretch to try and kick him. I reached around and slammed my hand across his jaw. It didn't do much, but as soon as I did that Saya was beside me, grabbing me and pulling me away from him. It was a bit awkward, though she was shorter than me, she kept her arms around me as a mother would her infant child.
"Do not ever touch my master again, Claude. Or you won't live long enough to regret it." Saya spat. I looked at Claude and saw a bit of blood running down his face. It was my blood, as it was still running down my hand. Claude said nothing as his tongue flicked out and he tasted my blood. I would have shuddered at the thought of someone willingly putting my blood in their mouth, but Claude's eyes quickly flashed before he looked over at me. He looked at me like I was the greatest thing he had ever seen in his life.
"Claude," Saya's tone was harder this time, a tad more desperate, "Take your master and go, before I am forced to kill the both of you." Oddly compliant, Claude nodded and picked up Aloise bridal-style before carrying him out the door without a word. Saya quickly shut the door and locked it, coming back over to me and grabbing my injured hand.
"My sincerest apologies, Master. I… I didn't protect you." Her eyes seemed to hold great shame.
"Well, yes, you did. Who knows what would have happened to me if you had allowed Claude to injure me? That little boy didn't even know how to properly hold the knife, so he wasn't a huge issue." Was I attempting to comfort the demon? Her movements were steady, but her eyes told me that she was agitated, shaken up. Without saying a word to me, Saya quickly got up and grabbed medical supplies from the bathroom, then began fixing up my hand.
"Okay, explain it to me now. All of it." Her red eyes widened.
"Master, you really wouldn't ca-"
"If I didn't want to know then I wouldn't have asked. They invaded the sanctity of our home, and I demand answers. Now, who are they?" She hesitated before obeying.
"Aloise Trancy and Claude Faustus. Claude is a demon, like myself. However, I do not quite understand why he is working under Aloise-"
"You said Aloise was your previous master."
"Correct."
"Shouldn't that mean that his soul should be, well, inside you or something? However you demons store the souls that you eat."
"I didn't devour his soul like I was meant to. I couldn't."
"And why not?"
"Because he was in love with me," her eyes seemed to harden, "A 15 year-old human boy, clingy and convinced that he was in love with me. The dependence clung to his soul, making it nauseating to even be around him. Instead of grasping the life essence of his fears, his life, his greatest wishes, all I could feel was his absolute desire for me. It ruined everything." Her nose scrunched up.
"So, you didn't want him because he fell in love with you?" The question made my chest tighten slightly for unknown reasons.
"Yes and no. I have devoured souls with that feeling before, however, with the kind of person Mister Trancy is, his desire tainted his soul. He is a selfish being. I knew that before I even started serving him. But he was a cruel child, and whatever he wanted consumed everything about him. It wasn't just that he had an obsession with me, it was the fact that his soul was so easily tainted and swayed. I couldn't consume something that foul." So love wasn't a horrible thing, it was the fact that Aloise was a complete little shit that turned her off?
"Wait, so you can just choose to not take someone's soul if you don't want to?" Saya shook her head.
"It isn't that easy. I cannot just not take a soul. Once my part of the contract is completed, the soul is automatically given to me whether I want it or not."
"Then how the hell did Aloise get away from that?" Saya was quiet for a moment before answering me.
"An angel," She whispered, "I asked an angel to help me break the contract. Surely enough, the angel was more than happy to assist me, considering it would cause a truck load of pain to do."
"How did the angel break the contract?" I asked.
"I don't really know, I was passed out for half of it. The pain was excruciating. But she ended up breaking the seal, and I no longer felt Aloise as a connection."
"You were that desperate to not take his soul?" Wasn't a demon supposed to not care about that kind of stuff? You know, it doesn't matter how you win as long as you do kind of thing?
"I wouldn't be able to stand having that kind of a soul reside within me." She finished wrapping up my hand and stood up, "Would you like to take this conversation over to the couch, Master? It would be quite a bit more comfortable for you." I nodded, heading over and sitting down on the couch. Saya stayed standing in front of me.
"You sit down, too. It's awkward if I'm the only one sitting."
"Master? It isn't my place to-"
"Just sit down and stop acting like I'm royalty or something." She stopped talking and complied, sitting down on the couch as far away from me as she could.
"You can continue explaining now."
"What would you like me to explain?" I thought about it for a moment. Aloise's obsession with Saya, though completely creepy, did stem from love. Now that I've spent time with Saya, I could completely understand why he wanted her back so badly. She was beautiful, but that was miniscule in comparison to what I had already observed. The very few times that she had let her guard down, she was so normal. When she was confused, she was adorable. When she was angry or irritated, she would bite her lip and tap her right foot. I noticed everything about her, even though I didn't actually mean to. I couldn't help but feel so attached to her.
"Would you still take my soul if I fell in love with you?"
"Most certainly." Was her quick reply. She didn't even have to think about it, apparently. Noticing her quick reply, I swear I saw the faint outline of a blush come onto her cheeks. It was rather cute.
"What I mean is, your soul is different. It wouldn't be clouded or tainted by things such as emotion. Your soul is so spectacular because it is full of knowledge and intellect. You can think of souls being delicious in two ways. The first way, would be, as humans call it, mother's home cooking. It's full of pleasant emotions and is dripping in care for the world and all its inhabitants. The second kind would be the category that you fall under, Master. No emotions, yet the finesse and delicacy to match any other. Such as a five star restaurant. No emotions are put on the plate, only perfection."
"You just compared me to a five-star meal." I deadpanned. She nodded.
"Indeed. Regardless of the emotions you possess, they cannot cloud your soul. It's rare really, the kind of soul you-" She stopped talking. Her eyes widened and her brow furrowed in thought.
"Well, now it all makes sense." She murmured to herself.
"Care to explain?" Not that I would give her any other choice.
"Master, do you remember the very first time I came to you?" I thought back to when I was certain I was going to die. The horrible pain in my chest, the fact that I could hardly breathe. Then when everything stopped, there she was to save me. Yes, I remembered everything. I nodded at her to continue.
"Well, back then, I could feel something interfering with me preparing our contract, hence why I had to come to you later on in order to even mark you. I had just assumed it was Kira and his shinigami or whatever, but…" She tapped her chin, "Now that I think about it, that couldn't have been it. No, now I'm positive that it wasn't a shinigami." She quieted down and seemed to be thinking.
"Well then, what is it?" I asked impatiently. Who would try to keep her from making a contract with me? It had to be another supernatural being, one with the power to match a demon's.
"Claude." I answered my own question. Saya nodded.
I sighed, "So, they had been plotting to take you away from me from even that early on." My voice took on a depressed, bored tone.
"Not exactly," Saya reached up and put her hand on my head, and I would be lying if I said it didn't feel nice, "I mean, yes. But nobody is going to take me away from you, Master. At least, not for the reason that you're thinking."
"What do you mean? Aloise wants you back, right?" I knew she could see the wheels turning in my head, because she smiled at me.
"Yes. However, I have reason to suspect that when we first met, Claude and Aloise were not even partners."
"Then why would Claude try to ruin our contract?"
"Because he does indeed want to take me away from you. But it's got nothing to do with me, not really. You shouldn't even have to worry about Aloise much at all. The reason Claude is here, the reason why he's so intent on screwing everything up, it's all because of you." Oh. Well, that made too much sense.
"He wants my soul?" Saya nodded.
"Indeed. He never wanted me to make a contract with you, I'm assuming, because he wanted your soul to devour for himself. As for him being here, I can assure you that Aloise gave him the excuse he needed to get me out of the way."
"But you've marked me. I thought other demons couldn't do anything to me if your mark was here." I pointed to my tongue.
"He doesn't have to worry about my mark if he kills me." She said softly. Her eyes, though, sharply contrasted with her voice. They were hard, challenging, and territorial as I'd ever seen them.
"So, he's going to keep coming after me?" Saya nodded.
"It would seem so. Especially after he got a taste of your blood." She regarded me annoyedly, as if I had done something wrong.
"What is he, a vampire?" I asked sarcastically.
"Your blood holds your life essence, Master. Honestly, what am I going to do with you?" Her polite, playful tone was back for a second before she got up and came in front of me, kneeling down on one knee.
"I am truly sorry for this, Master. It was supposed to be my duty to make things easier for you, not more difficult. I ask that you forgive me, though you have every right to dismiss me if you see my imputence as a breach in our contract." Forgive her? If it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't be nearly as happy as I had been lately. Just because she had some psycho ex-master that brought along a demon that was obsessed with me, she thought that I would dismiss her as a servant?
"Don't be sorry, just… Just go make me some cake or something." She looked up at me with wide eyes, as if she hadn't actually expected me to say that. Saya got up quickly and made for the kitchen.
"Right away, Master."
Now, what were we going to do about Claude and Aloise?