91. Pretend
When Sebastian opens the door this morning, he did not expect to find a little girl on the door step.
She isn't holding a basket of flowers, her dress is clean of dirt stains and seems high enough in social status to wear a tight bodice around her middle. Her slate grey hair is neatly brushed and falls in glossy waves down her back. Large, pretty cobalt eyes are strangely familiar looking. As it is his job to over analyse a stranger, Sebastian notices a ruby signet ring around her left thumb, all other fingers to thin to hold the band in place. Small details anyone else may have over looked.
"May I help you?" Sebastian asks politely. Apart from Maylene, females are a rare assurance in the household. The guest's eyes nervously shift from side to side, and Sebastian finds himself almost magnetised to them. And they really are just eyes, but for the life of him, he can't seem to avert his own gaze. They are oddly hypnotic and he starts to think he should really let the little girl inside- hold on.
"I'm here to see my brother," the girl informs him, doll like lips quirking into a sweet smile. Her voice has the timbre of a natural born singer.
"Your. . brother?" Sebastian asks, mentally going through the very short list of residents of the mansion. He can speak safely for himself, she is too young to be Tanaka's sister, too polite to be Finnian's and. . it is a nightmare to try and picture Bard with a Lolita sister like figure. That only leaves Ciel.
Sebastian almost laughs out loud, but manages to save himself by faking a cough. The idea is completely absurd. His brat of a master with a sister- it burns a vivid and comical image into his mind- he can hardly stand being in the same room as Lady Elizabeth for Hell's sake. From a logical point of view, Ciel insisted he was an only child right from the get go, not only that, but all his immediate family died three years ago. Crispy and well done. Mm.
He supposes the only rational explanation is this is a customer going one step over the line.
"You're the young Master's little sister?" Sebastian smiles in good humour, just so the girl can admit it herself and he can get his jollies out of it.
Suddenly her blues eyes narrow, and she puffs herself up. "I am Adele Phantomhive, and I won't stand to be laughed at by a mere butler. Step aside and let me in!"
A lesser demon might have let his mouth hang. Or possibly explode her via hell fire on the spot. Luckily for humanity, Sebastian isn't, and curtly side steps away, holding the door open as Adele minces her way inside. Well. . she surely demands like his delightful little master, he'll give her that.
On cue, the head of the household appears, having grown impatience at his butlers prolonged dawdling of not having reported on who was at the door five minutes ago. He dresses in casual elegance today, stockings, garters, shorts and matching grunge green waist jacket over his high collared blouse. In his hand is his cane- he still walks with a stubborn limp from a run in with a water imp a few days prior.
"Sebastian, who is-"
The sentence is blown away as Adele- very unlady like- propels bodily into the petite boy. Ciel, not having reached the bottom step yet, topples over backwards in a flurry of lace and frills and excited girl. Sebastian winces at the sound of Ciel's skull smacking into the marble finishing of the stair well. Bodily bumps harm no souls, he repeats the mantra he's adopted as his master just attracts trouble these days, and the demon simply can't fuss over ever little bruise Ciel gets. Or maybe it's to do with-
"Big brother!" Adele squeals, arms crushing around Ciel, pressing her rounded face into his clavicle. All the noise has attracted the other servants, and they curiously watch from the pillar shadows.
"When did the young master have a sister?" Maylene wonders out loud, tapping her chin thoughtfully.
"Certainly a dramatic predicament," Finnian adds, as if watching Shakespeare live. Getting a sharp glance from Sebastian, they quickly exit the room. No matter how interesting the scenario, they don't dare defy a Sebastian glare. He glides over, looking pityingly down as Ciel thrashes and exclamations of "get off me!-" "the hell do you think you are?" escape his lips.
"Young Master, this is. . um," he gives him a helpless look, for the first time under Ciel's service, the demon is at a lost at what to tell him.
"Get her off of me!" he spits.
"At once," something he can do. Sebastian grasps her arm, harder than necessary, and gives a sharp tug. Desperately, the girl clings to Ciel's lapels, staring into eyes so like her own. At once, Ciel stops moving, riveted to her face.
"Ciel, how could you forget me! Adele, your sister. It's him, isn't it?" she rounds on Sebastian, who pauses in his pulling so she can justify herself. "That demon's wiped your memory clean of me!" Sebastian's eyebrows raise, unsure if she means it in insult, or to what he really is.
"Is that true?"
"How can you ask th-"
"But is it?"
"No. I've never deceived you, nor plan to in future. I would see no point in hiding the truth if you did still have a sister. I wouldn't gain anything from it," Sebastian explains with strained patience. Warning bells have been ringing in his ears since her very arrival. Ciel doubting him is the last straw in realising this little girl may not be entirely human.
"It's perfectly reasonable. If Ciel still had next of kin alive- he would see no purpose in continuing on with the contract," Adele explains simply, staring deep into Ciel's eyes. Sebastian catches a flash of her ring, glowing. "No revenge. He would be happy. His soul would rot."
This girl knows far too much-no- this thing knows far too much.
Especially when she's hit the nail on the head. If Ciel had any family survivors, Sebastian knows it could cause a real threat to the main course that he has been slaving over for the last three years. Sebastian is starving. His entire being physical aches when he sees Ciel, scrounging up every last scrape of will power to not devour the boy ahead of schedule. The demon can't wait around for Ciel to cark it of old age and then take his soul- not even he is that patient.
"Enough," this time he pulls with enough strength to rip Adele off and fully intends to throw the creature out on her backside- before Ciel stops him.
"Sebastian! Release her," he growls. The seal prickles uncomfortably against his skin, and very slowly, Sebastian let's go, even if every demonic sense is screaming at him to disobey. Ciel shoots him a filthy look, and his visible eye is overly glossy. "Go make some tea- you're to treat my sister the same as me."
"Right away," Sebastian manages to grind out through his teeth, contract forcing him towards the kitchen. At least it will give him time to work out what to do next.
42. Lie
The seal on the back of his hand gives an almighty pulse, but Sebastian is already sprinting towards his master's bedroom before the warning- finally he's worked out what the hell is wrong with the girl. Shape shifter, hypnotic eyes, seducer. He round house kicks the door, presuming it had been bolted from the inside, and the oaken slabs surrender to him.
Ciel is where he had left him, on his four poster, moonlight spilling across the plush duvet and pillows. Adele is what is wrong with the picture. She's on top of her so called brother, holding his body up like a loving mother cradling their child during a nightmare. However there's nothing gentle about her now. Her grey hair snaps with electricity, curved horns grow from her temple and bend to touch at the back of her skull, skin a healthy red tint, leathery wings spread out over the bed and lizards tailed flicking in excitement. The succubus is in the process of ripping Ciel's soul from his body.
Sebastian has had a niggling fear this would start to happen. Demons from different realms were bound to sniff out a particular good soul and start knocking on his door- dying for a taste of it. He'd just been too arrogant to think it would happen so soon. Thought he was too well respected down below for them to try it- demon's have no respect in contract marked victums these days. And too stupid to warn Ciel a demon might charm him and order Sebastian to not harm her then attack at night.
"Oh shit," the unexpected curse falls from his lips, beautiful face transforming into something nightmarish. Sebastian lunges across the room in two impossibly fast strides, taking hold of the succubus's wing set and pulling hard. This is exactly why he doesn't go round flaunting wings. Leaves yourself wide open to nasty arse creatures like himself to rip them out by the roots. She screams, mouth wide open and full of bloody teeth. There is a terrible ring of puncture marks around Ciel's mouth.
Just seeing the damage is enough to tip Sebastian over the edge. Very little of his human shell remains, and it's painful to keep his demonic form up in the human realm for this amount of time. He bends the seductress right back, until the bones in her spine grind together. She shrieks at him, clawed hands tearing at his face and eyes. For the most part, it only bothers him. Taking care with his elongated nails, Sebastian pushes the now perfectly conscious Ciel face down onto the bed, turning him away from the oncoming slaughter. Ciel instinctively claps his hands over his ears.
He makes swift work of the demon, ripping out great chunks of her red flesh just for sadistic pleasure, tearing hair out by the fist fulls and sawing one of her majestic horns off- one of the gravest befoulments to a demon of her calibre- before sinking his teeth into her throat. Her blood is tasteless, body just an empty vessel. Her physical form becomes dust as her life form escapes, returning back to her own realm. Unfortunately it doesn't take the blood and disembowelled limbs away too.
With a painful grunt, Sebastian's writhing black skin settles back down, his eyes dimming to soft maroon and his gloves come back on.
Tactfully, he nudges the great bat wings, slabs of meat and pieces of horn off the bed. "Goodness, what a mess. I'm afraid you'll have to sleep elsewhere, young Master," Sebastian lets out a gush of held in air, acting as if Ciel has simply soiled the bed with spilt hot chocolate, not spilt innards.
The steel willed boy tries hard not to tremble as he raises his eyes to look up at his butler. One side of his face and back of his nightgown is soaked with blood spray. He stretches out a delicate hand to grip Sebastian knee. "Why did you let her in? You must have known what she really was, and you let her right in!"
"Young Master, believe it or not, you do not make my job an easy one," Sebastian narrows his eyes in displeasure. "However I am humbled enough to admit I should have warned you demons might come after you. Yet I can't do much after one charms you. Your orders- or her orders- were to treat her like I would you."
"But you-" crushed her, decimated her, bleed her dry. Killed her. Ciel swallows and tries to believe his orders were only valid when she was in little girl form. Sebastian silently agrees it best to leave that conversation at that.
"Look what she did to you," Sebastian frowns, lifting Ciel's face up to the light. The bite marks are angry looking and inflamed- thankfully her teeth weren't poison tipped. The wounds still bleed, and Sebastian leans down to instinctively lap the sticky trails up.
"That's disgusting, don't do that," Ciel pulls a face, trying to push Sebastian's head away.
"Demon spit has healing properties," he lies smoothly, finding he's unable to stop. His tongue rasps over the holes, blood having no flavour to his dead taste buds but can pick up traces of his soul deep within it. The equivalent to a human's stomach rumbles hungrily inside him. Ciel's eyes have gone wide, pentagram glowing hotly, cheeks flushing furiously.
"That has got to be the biggest load of bull that's come out of your mouth to date," the Earl says breathlessly, making his butler pause, tongue just touching under his parted lower lip. Well, well. Seems he's been caught out on his notoriously black coated tongue after all. Not that he'd ever thought Ciel was that ignorant to it.
"You wound me. Aren't I nothing but honest with you, my Lord?" Sebastian purrs, gently lowering Ciel down until his head touches one of the slightly cleaner pillows. He draws a finger over the lid of Ciel's blind eye.
"More like a cunning fiend who only does what suits his interests," Ciel mutters, averting his gaze from Sebastian's unwavering one. The demon's face and body is much too close for comfort.
"Then if you'll let me, I need to check for collateral damage. I promise it's for both our interests," Sebastian smiles cheekily. He gets a suspicious glare, face still inflamed, and slowly Ciel allows his consent. Before Ciel can verbally chicken out at the last second, Sebastian presses his face that inch closer, replacing tongue with lips, and shock rolls off his master's body like a layer of sweat. His indignant mouth opens in protest, but deep within Sebastian chest cavity, something not human opens up, like a third lung. Sebastian parts his own mouth, intakes, drawing from Ciel's like a lit cigarette, pull strong enough to feel as if all Ciel's insides are being drawn upwards. He feels a tug on his arm in a feeble communication to stop.
He doesn't.
Sebastian can imagine Ciel's getting to the stage of seeing white spots and murky blackness. Just as Ciel's fingers start to slacken, and body unwind in defeat, Sebastian feels the spark he's been searching for. Ciel's soul has had quite a scare tonight, no wonder it's taken this long to relocate it. It flutters lightly as a caged bird, the demon backing off before he draws the precious thing out by accident.
At last he moves back and lets the boy gulp in air.
Before Ciel gets the chance to recover and reprimand, Sebastian scoops him up. "I also think it highly prudent you stay in my sights tonight. Incase her kind revenge after her." Ciel primly rolls his eyes, but doesn't say a word.