Night had fallen fast upon the land. No more than an hour ago the sky was painted with hues of red, orange and pink, but all color had faded leaving only a matt black canvas with no stars to be looked upon. The darkness was thick and even the town and street lights that line the path did little to brighten up the world. Other than the darkness and himself all that seemed to exist was the chilly wind that's harsh bite could be felt through his coat.
He could feel the hairs on his arm raised and the bite of the wind had left its mark in the form of small bumps that were tingling in his arms, but its bite was more than flesh deep. His blood ran cold through his veins and his bones were chilled. Thankfully, Ciel wasn't one who minded the cold all that much. It was most likely below zero at one point in time he wouldn't be caught dead outside in weather like this, but it truly did not bother him all that much now.
The young demon was standing on top of a roof, the eyepatch had been placed his right pocket as both demonic eyes were needed for this task. Time was irrelevant for someone with longevity, however, for Ciel the last three hours of searching the town for a strange blonde female and her freaky cat had been dragging on forever. As much as he felt that he was wasting his time, he also felt that he needed to find the girl.
It was an insistent tug in his chest to find her, he wasn't concerned for her wellbeing. He barely knew anything about her and had spent very little time with her, but this tug demanded he knew of Cordelia's whereabouts. There was also the problem of that book she carried with her, the weird cat, and those tastes in his mouth.
He had yet to tell Sebastian of that occurrence and doubted that he would until he figured it out himself. With a frustrated sigh, Ciel turned his head in the direction of the man who appeared behind him. The dark haired butler had taken a knee with his head slightly bent downwards as if it was an offense to look the younger demon in the eyes.
It appeared as a knight bending the knee to his king, Ciel's lips formed themselves into a disappointed scowl when he found that there was no blonde girl nor a cat with him. Sebastian, even if Ciel wouldn't admit it, was somewhat of a perfectionist. It didn't matter what task Ciel gave his butler, it was done. The fact that even Sebastian was unable to locate the pair was alarming and grating.
He turned away from the demon and went back to overlooking the scenery from the roof of a home. It remained silent for a while, a few passing cars disturbed the stillness. Ciel finally gathered his thoughts and turned back to Sebastian, but before he could voice them a scream broke through the air. The first cries were undoubtedly terror, but not the shrill cries of a movie theater, the cries of one with eyes locked wide and every muscle rigid.
The next were of pain, garbling and pitiful. Ciel was already off the roof top and sailing towards the ground, as soon his feet touched solid ground and recovered from the impact, he bolted off to quick for the naked eye to keep track of. The world around him blurred into colors, the only solid thing became the butler running slightly ahead of him. They located the scent rather than the sound, the metallic odor was one he had grown accustomed to over the last several years.
The two spotted as a children's park came into view, there were body parts littering the ground. There was, what appeared to be, a man's torso draped over the iron bar of the swing set, with the inners hanging out. There were a few arms and legs resting on the frozen earth, two heads were sitting side by side on a play set. The blood was splattered all over, soaking everything. Ciel's eyes had widened in astonishment, whereas Sebastian merely walked around the dismembered humans with only a hint of curiosity in his eyes.
"Master." The boy was pulled out of his head as Sebastian called to him. The young demon had an expression of weariness as he walked after the older one. It was further in the back of the park there was where they find her. The blonde, Cordelia was crouching on the ground, the hem of her dress was stained crimson and they could see small footprints, as if someone had stepped in wet red paint and tracked it through the grass, leading to her.
Cordelia had her arms wrapped around her knees and her chin on her thighs. There was a brightly lit blue glyph shining on the grass, similar to the one that had held Sebastian, this time the chains were wrapped around a woman. She looked like an average civilian, someone who had just finished working a night shift at a fast food restaurant.
She was dangling above the ground, the chains had slithered around the legs and arms like snakes strangling their prey, execution style. Every few seconds the chains would constrict, stretching and pulling the limbs to make the woman whimper with pain and Cordelia just watched calmly.
"Help me! Please help me." The woman's voice was hoarse from screaming, her eyes weakly falling on the two approaching males. Cordelia had a grimace on her face as she rose without bothering to see who was intruding. The chains suddenly began adding more pressure, constricting around the woman's arms and legs making her scream again.
"Let her go," Ciel demanded as he walked up behind Cordelia. If the doll-like female heard him she gave no acknowledgment, only continued making the chains tighter until they ripped into the flesh and make the skin weep red. The woman's screaming turned into a sob. "Cordelia!" His voice took on a more frantic nature however it was clear that the girl had no intentions of stopping.
His breath caught in his throat as he tried not to retch at the sight. He wanted to look away, needed to tear his eyes away, but he could not. The left leg went first, the whole entire leg was split clean off the lower torso. A wave of nausea hit him hard as he watched the life liquid spew and gush out of the gaping wound.
The woman sounded like a dying animal as she howled and screeched, the rest of the limbs followed one by one until only a screaming head and torso remain, but seconds later the corpse's life finally faded into nothing. The blue chains of energy vanished as did the glyphs as Cordelia seemed to be finished. She got to her feet with splashes of scarlet here and there on the black Victorian gown and across her cheek.
Within the timeframe of her next heartbeat, Ciel was standing directly in front of her. That was the breaking point of his patience. At that moment, he was blinded by a five-course serving of rage that tasted bitter, yet surprisingly satisfying. He reached out without thinking, the black nails had sharpened into long pointed tipped claws that would have wrapped around the girl's pale throat and slipped into the smooth skin.
His hand never made contact with the blonde, instead, hot and sharp agony cut through his wrist as a slender hand with white claws wrapped around it and snapped the bone. He yelped in pain, the pressure on his wrist was released as Sebastian slide forwards, delivering a side kick that would have connected with a head had the attacker not blocked it with a forearm.
Still, the force of the blow sent the attacker flying ten feet backward although regaining the footing rather rapidly. Sebastian's guard was constantly up, but he took a brief moment to glance at his Master. Ciel had fallen backwards on a knee, holding his now broken wrist against his chest. Demon or not, getting injured still hurt and the pain was not something he was exactly used to experiencing with Sebastian constantly at his side.
He got a grip on his pain quickly enough and turned his visible vermilion eye, the other being blocked by his bangs, to shoot a glower at Cordelia who had used the minor brawl as a way to put more distance between them. The girl's face was a facade, but her eyes looked glossy and the beginning of stubborn tears were starting to form in the corners of each eye as if she were in pain.
That caused a stir of uncertainty in Ciel, but the sight of the second woman recovering obtained his full attention. She looked to be in her early twenties and was a few inches taller then Cordelia, but a few inches shorter than Ciel. The hair was pulled back into a high ponytail that reached her waist, the clothing was out of date and not something you'd see many wearing unless they lived in a traditional Japanese family. T
he kofurisode kimono was a kimono with the distinctive feature of having long sleeves that can go all the way down to the ground, however, her sleeves only went slightly past her waist. It was dominantly black with a white floral pattern. The woman's most distinguishing features were not her odd clothing nor her clearly inhuman beauty.
No, it was the black cat ears that sat on her head and fluffy white tail with black stripes that waved lazily behind her. As she prowled closer the lightly misty mismatched eyes were directed towards them, but not on them. The woman settled herself in between Cordelia and the two males, her lips were curved in a mischievous smile like that of a Cheshire cat.
"So am I sending them back to hell or what?" The voice was that of a low alto, mature and rough nothing like the blonde behind her.
"Your the one who said we had to repay their hospitality. How is banishing them going to do that?" Cordelia sounded genuinely confused on how banishing the pair to hell was going to help them.
"Well yeah, but that was before the younger one tried to maim you." Shiina's tail lashed back and forth expelling her aggression with the matter.
"Yes, but he thought I was killing a human. The Nephilim and the Fallen are tricksters." The conversation was slightly going over Ciel's head as he was still trying to process who the cat woman was. "Come along, Shiina." Cordelia started walking away and with some reluctance, Shiina trailed after to her. As glyph like portal appeared once again Ciel got his bearing back.
"Wait! You can't leave." Ciel's wrist was already healing itself back together, but not as quickly as it would have healed had he been an older demon, his demonic powers would further develop and grow as he did. The two female paused in their exit and turned back to face him and Sebastian, Shiina had a rather feral grin on her lips as if she had been hoping he'd say that and Cordelia just looked mildly lost as to why they weren't allowed to go anywhere? Had she forgotten something?
"Three days, you remained in my care for three days. You say that you'll repay me?" Cordelia's head slanted itself like a confused dog but was following so far and so nodded her head in confirmation. "I have questions for you. For the next three days, I get to follow you and you will answer my questions. I will count that as payment." Cordelia had to think about the offer, most would have asked for more than just answers. She turned and looked over to Shiina, the woman was often blunt and outspoken with her thoughts.
"Eh...I guess we could use the help. This time period is harder to understand the others. It might move things along quicker and it's not like we even know where we're going." Shiina didn't normally take to strangers, she was the mistrustful and distrustful type, but the two demons must have done something to get approval within her eyes if she was allowing them to come along. After weighing her options the blonde turned her jaded orbs to the rich blue one.
"Okay, deal." The large glyph that had been glowing disappeared from sight, a new pure white one surfaced underneath Shiina's feet. It glowed so brightly that it blinded both demons, by the time they got their sight back, in the woman's place the two-tailed cat sat. Shiina jumped up onto Cordelia's shoulders and sprawled herself across the blonde like a scarf. "So what do you want to know?"