A/N: Posting a new chapter becuase I felt like it. Enjoy!

CHAPTER 3

Detective Inspector Abberline returned without news. "We couldn't get anything out of the man," he said. "He doesn't know anything. Just the name."

Oh, Sebastian Michaelis knew plenty. If Ciel had had his doubts before, he was sure now. Why else would the man lie? The investigation wasn't going anywhere. The people who had killed Ciel's parents were still out there. This Claude Faustus was, too. They were out there, murdering other people. Who said they wouldn't come back for Ciel eventually?

"Then try again," Ciel said, maybe a little too vehemently. They were sitting in Vincent's old study. Ciel had opened all the windows, letting cold air come in to wash away the lingering scent of Vincent's cologne. Only once the old ghosts of this room were purged would Ciel be able to call it his.

"He will remain a suspect," Abberline said in an appeasing manner that did not appease Ciel at all, "but we don't have anything against him. We have a name now, but nothing more. And it is a name that might not be valid anymore."

"Don't you think it's suspicious that he had a name to begin with?" Ciel questioned. "Why won't you look at him more thoroughly? What if he belongs to that group?"

Abberline sighed and got up from his seat. "I understand that you are going through a rough phase," he began, and if Ciel could he would shut the man up. "Grief is always hard on us. But let me do my investigation. I will keep an eye on Mr. Michaelis, and if we find out anything I will let you know."

The boy pursed his lips tightly before nodding. "I thank you for your efforts. My butler will see you to the door."

Abberline gave him a small smile and left.

Ciel stared at the closed door, trying to calm down. Yes, Sebastian had claimed that he and Claude were demons, but demons didn't exist. What if it was code for something? Obviously there had to be some sort of gang, seeing that the Sullivan girl and Sebastian bore the same tattoos.

Ciel opened a desk drawer. It was empty except for one off-white card bearing a series of handwritten numbers and nothing more.

Crazy gang members or not – Sebastian knew something and didn't want to share it with the police. He had seemed ready to share it with Ciel, though. The boy took the card into one hand. He had made his decision.

OOO

It was funny how the only place where he could have his peace at was school – the place he found the most annoying. Not because he had to learn something, but because of the pupils. The whole lot of them were whiny, self-centred and not particularly bright. Ciel had enjoyed a private education until secondary school and while he didn't have a long way to go until his A Levels, he found himself loathing this place more and more with each passing day.

He didn't have enough privacy at home because Frances had promptly decided to stay for the next few weeks, until she could be sure that the "worst of Ciel's grief had passed" since Ciel had refused to go live with the Midfords at that time, but the problem now was that half of the Midfords were now at Phantomhive Manor; his cousin Elizabeth had also decided that she wanted to support Ciel. This had led to him being watched more often than he liked, for not only his relatives, but the whole household staff were worried about him.

He was outside at the moment, behind the school, hiding from his friends. How he had managed to befriend them was – honestly – still a wonder to him. He only met one of them, Finny, through Elizabeth. The rest of the lot he'd found all on his own.

He looked around to make sure that nobody was racing towards him and then took out his mobile phone. He had already saved the number in his contact list, so he selected it and waited for the line to ring.

Surprisingly enough, somebody answered the phone in no time. The voice belonged to a woman, though. "Hello, this is the Sullivan residence."

"This is Ciel Phantomhive. I'd like to speak to Sebastian Michaelis… is he in?"

The woman grumbled something in another language that couldn't possibly be flattering and asked him to hold on for a moment. A few seconds later the phone was picked up again. "Lord Phantomhive," purred a familiar male voice, "how are you today?"

Ciel's throat went dry. A shiver ran down his spine. Was it even allowed to answer the phone in such a manner? Everything he'd wanted to say was forgotten. "Uh. Fine. Uhm."

"Is this about our last meeting?" Sebastian helpfully supplied.

The boy gathered his wits and looked around. Still no signs of his friends. He had to make this quick. "Yes, actually. I'd like you to come to my house one of these afternoons. We need to talk."

"Certainly. It pleases me that you are willing to entertain the idea-…"

"I am not entertaining any ideas at all," Ciel said. "You know something and I want to hear what it is. Nothing more, nothing less. I do not care about your code."

"…Code?"

Ciel pinched the bridge of his nose. The man on the other side of the line sounded honestly confused. Maybe he should brood over his theories some more. "Please relay this message to Sieglinde. You may pick any day you like."

Someone was calling his name from a distance. Ciel whipped his head around, and saw that the voice belonged to Soma. He then motioned at somebody and the whole horde came into view. Without waiting to hear what the butler said next Ciel ended the call. The last thing he wanted was his friends' noisiness.

"Ciel?" Elizabeth hurried to him. If she saw him taking a few steps back, she ignored it in favour of wrapping her arms around him. While she appeared petite and cute, she had a strength in her arms that only few could top. Ciel just wanted to flee. "Break's almost over and I haven't seen you at all!"

"You saw me when Bard drove us here," he said lamely.

She didn't answer but cuddled him harder. He swore he could feel his ribs crack.

"Lizzie," somebody called, and Ciel recognized the arrogant lilt before he sensed the person's perfume, almost completely overpowered by his cousin's flowery scent, "give the kid some air. I swear, one of these days you'll choke him."

"You're just jealous because I got here first," Elizabeth said.

Ciel sighed to himself. Internally.

"What were you doing?" Alois asked, standing close to both Lizzie and Ciel. Personal space wasn't a concept he knew. At least he had peppermint breath. "Calling a girlfriend?"

"He was on his phone," Soma the traitor confirmed with a waggle of his eyebrows. "And he hung up when he saw us."

Lizzie gaped, not even thinking of releasing Ciel. "What?"

"Or a boyfriend," Finny piped up.

"What?" Lizzie wheezed.

Alois cackled. "Or both!"

"Isn't that more your style?" Soma asked.

Alois rolled his eyes. "Will you let it go already? It happened once."

Ciel managed to manoeuvre out of Lizzie's vice-like embrace when the bell rang. "It was a business call," he said as he left.

"If you need love," Alois melodramatically called after him, attracting the attention of many students passing by, "you can always ask me, you know that! You wouldn't even have to pay me!"

Ciel often wondered why they knew each other.

OOO

Sebastian and Sieglinde showed up on a Friday. Tanaka led them to Vincent's old study where Ciel awaited them with tea and biscuits. While Ciel didn't believe either of them was going to eat anything or stay long enough for the tea to cool, he appreciated how Tanaka always thought of everything, unlike Ciel himself. There were even two chairs in front of the desk this time. It was almost like in a principal's office.

His guests took a seat – Sieglinde first, then Sebastian – and Ciel poured them a cup of tea each. He watched them attentively, but while Sieglinde seemed just a little tense and uncomfortable, Sebastian looked like he had every right to be here. "I believe our last meeting left me with unanswered questions," Ciel began. "That's why I called you here."

"You may ask your questions," Sebastian said as Sieglinde was busy holding the teacup to her lips and not meeting their gazes, "and we will try to answer them as best as possible."

Ciel leaned forward a little, resting his elbows on the desk. "Let us assume I'm not questioning what you claimed to be last time. You said you were able to track Claude down and you found him here. He's gone now. What are you planning to do about that?"

"We know there is a spot where there might still be a trace left," Sebastian said. "The young lady will track Claude to his next victim that way. He still forms contracts. That slows him down."

Ciel pondered for a few seconds. "Where is this spot?" he asked suspiciously, which caused Sieglinde to shoot her butler a telling look. It was all he needed for an answer. Ciel shook his head. "You freaks are not going to get into my parents' room."

Sebastian pulled a face. "Freaks? Now that's harsh…"

Sieglinde looked down into her teacup, then at the sugar and proceeded to heap such a large amount into the tea that the sugar couldn't possibly dissolve anymore. "How can we convince you otherwise?"

"Not at all," Ciel answered, already tense. He hadn't expected this conversation to go downhill so quickly, but here they were, on the verge of arguing, and Ciel hadn't learned anything new at all. "Whether you belong to some sect or a gang, it will not intimidate me enough to let you taint any spot in my house."

"Taint," Sieglinde repeated, appalled. "We're not like that." She shot Sebastian a side-along glance and his mouth twitched. "Well, I'm not, at least. And I'll be the one doing the magic."

Magic. Alright. "And that is as far as I'm willing to put up with you." Ciel got up from his seat, annoyed. He'd thought they'd talk to him since they came to him the first time, but all that came from their mouths was crazy talk. At least it was to Ciel. And he didn't quite care what other people thought of that; they weren't in his situation right now. "I thought we could come to an agreement,-"

"We still can," the butler interrupted, taking off his gloves. Black nails came into view. Ciel's eyes drifted to the tattoo on the back of the man's hand, the one that went up to cup the back of Ciel's head before the boy had time to realize what was happening. Long nails scraped across his scalp, and slim fingers gripped at his hair, tilting Ciel's head up until he met the butler's glowing red eyes.

The whole room darkened.

Ciel's heart began beating rapidly in his chest, but somewhere in the back of his mind he was relieved that it hadn't stopped instead. He did not dare breathe. Black tendrils seemed to move in his peripheral sight. Feathers rustled. It was too warm.

The creature in front of him sneered, exposing a neat row of pointed teeth. Horns broke the bone of its forehead, sprouting and twisting into themselves until they came to rest below its ears. Blood trickled from the broken skin, running down the creature's face. At the sight of that, Ciel felt terribly ill.

And then he was tossed back in his seat, the horns went back into the creature's skull as it sat down, putting its gloves on calmly. The darkness retreated. It seemed to be returning to the demon.

Ciel was breathing heavily now, eyes wide and fixed on the thing in front of him.

"I am a witch," Sieglinde spoke up. She looked normal, unlike the beast that was still transforming back into a human. "And Sebastian is a demon. We are trying to find another demon. I hope you believe us now."

The demon fixed his collar and used a handkerchief to wipe the blood from his face. "We'd like to see Rachel and Vincent's room now, if it pleases you," he said in a conversational tone, and then added a dazzling smile for effect.

"Of course," Ciel croaked. His hands were wrapped around the armrest of his chair so hard it hurt. "Of course."