Aveline sat perfectly still and silent when the door closed behind Earl Phantomhive and his butler. She drank the last of her wine as she waited patiently for another door to open and softly close, indicating they were in some other room – hopefully far away from this one. She knew she wouldn't have a lot of time.

She stood and left the room.

Without hesitating she opened the first door she saw. A guest bedroom by the look of it. She frowned and tried the next door only to find a similar guestroom. She opened the next and the next, and multiple doors thereafter finding only a copious amount of parlours, bathrooms and bedrooms. She took a calming breath before she reached up to touch the cross around her neck. Please let me find something of use in the next room – I don't have a leisurely amount of time. Aveline opened the next door somewhere down the hallway. It was completely different from the rest of the rooms. She assumed it to be his office – which made her smile slightly. Alois must be watching over me.

Aveline wasted no more time as she grabbed the ends of her skirts and jogged over to his desk. She thumbed through some of the papers sprawled across the dark wood. Business reports, profit margins, shipping details… her head swam at all the numbers before her. He was a malicious business man if these papers were anything to go by. His profits were ridiculous. Aveline could admit she wasn't the keen business person that was expected of her, but she knew enough. She had barely even heard of the Funtom Company aside from what Alois told her. But if these profits were true… How could I not have heard of his company before this? This must be one of the most successful companies in all of Britain and her colonies.

Admittedly, accepting the invitation to lunch had merely been a ploy – she may not know a lot about business, but she wasn't ignorant in the way of men. She knew Earl Phantomhive would have never accepted an invitation from a woman, not with his pride. Of course he would instead invite her to lunch – he would never dream of offending her by blatantly refusing the invitation. But now that she thought about it, having the Earl as her genuine business partner would prove to be very beneficial. The Ashford Trading Company was all she had left – if it sunk, she sunk with it.

She shook her head. I can't get distracted; I have to find out what happened to Alois - This may be my only chance! She put the papers down on the desk again and opened one drawer after another. She bristled slightly at the sight of her own company's finances once more and quickly slammed the drawer shut. The other drawers however proved to be fruitless.

Aveline let out a soft sigh. She knew he wouldn't just carelessly leave information potentially pertaining to Alois just haphazardly lying about - especially not while she was in the house. But a letter, card or anything … She leaned against his desk as she faced the bookshelves all around the room. Perhaps there was information in the many log books? Perhaps the account books? Shipping logs? She bit her lip. She didn't have time to look through every single book on the monstrously high bookshelves. How does he even get to the top shelf?

She let out a soft groan and suddenly her hand slipped off the desk, knocking some files off the top in the process. She cursed her ill-luck and bent down quickly to pick them up again.

Aveline paused a second.

Aren't these…official reports from the fire department? She looked over them. It was a list of fires that had happened within the month of July about six years ago. She reckoned this must have been the fire that those gaggling hens at the Gala were talking about the other night that had nearly killed the Earl. His summer home suddenly caught ablaze inexplicably – it was a suspected assassination attempt. But his butler had miraculously managed to save him by propelling them both from the second floor window. Despite his life being saved, the emotional trauma had been more crippling than the physical, rendering him unable to face the public for all these years.

She assumed it natural to have a copy of the documents for insurance purposes… but these didn't even look like copies. They looked like the originals. She flicked through the pages and paused again.

It was the same document; but this document didn't report the incident at the Earl's summer home. There had been fifty-two fires over the course of that July, but his summer home had not been accounted for. She glanced between the two documents feeling utterly perplexed. She held up both copies towards the window, letting the sunlight fall upon them.

And there it was – a watermark. Small, and easily missed unless intentionally looked for. It only appeared on one set of documents. The one that didn't mention anything about the Earl's summer home. Did he forge this? But that only left her with more questions. If there was no fire, why would he forge documents claiming there was? What really happened six years ago? How did he even break into the fire department to change to documents to claim the fire had happened?

She quickly put the documents back. She was wasting too much time on things that didn't concern or interest her. If the Earl really didn't wish to appear rude as a host, he would only be missing for a minimal amount of time. She certainly wouldn't appear to be a humble guest if she was caught poking around his office. And then I can forget about finding out anything about Alois or any potential business ventures.

Aveline opened the old door quietly, listening out for any footsteps coming down the hallway. She closed the door silently behind herself again.

A muffled scream stopped her taking a single step.

No, surely she had misheard. That could have been anything. Perhaps a dog getting kicked, maybe a door being slammed shut deeper in the house or it could have just as easily been something falling to the floor. Maybe it was even just the house creaking!

That would have been perfectly easy to believe had she not been born into the Ashford family. She had the unfortunate pleasure of knowing the keen difference between a muffled scream and something falling on the floor.

This must have been his other…pressing issue that pulled him away from lunch.

She had no qualms about whatever he did in the comfort and privacy of his own estate. She wasn't foolish enough to miss the fact that the Phantomhives had always been quite close with the Queen – Alois had informed her of that much. She should have guessed his successful business must have had some … questionable influences.

Aveline had heard enough stories from her grandmother and nurses about all the horrors her father had threatened to inflict on those who double crossed him in business deals. They had been kind enough not to detail her with whether or not her father had fulfilled his threats. Who knew what the young Earl could be capable of?

Aveline swallowed thickly as she suddenly felt a jolt of panic.

How many doors away was the parlour? Which one were we even in?

She bit her lip and backtracked as far as she could remember. She couldn't believe she had been stupid enough not to keep track of how many doors she passed. She chanced one door that looked about right. A cupboard? I didn't pass this the first time. Now she really began to panic.

She opened the next door and blanched.

This was the wrong door. Oh this was definitely the very, very wrong door. But despite her knowledge of this she couldn't move an inch. She had seen many things in her relatively short life, but this – this topped everything. It was another bedroom from what she could see; the butler was hovering near the bed. His usual dark eyes seemed to glow as a sinister smirk crossed his features upon observing his master. The sight of him pained her greatly – it was as though every fibre in her body was attempting to warn her of something but her mind would not allow her to remember what she should be afraid of. She almost clutched her head with the pain of it.

However as she glanced at the bed, all the thoughts about the butler were eradicated.

Earl Phantomhive was hovering over something on the bed, his eyes glowing bright red with sadistic joy and lust as he appeared to gaze longingly down at the thing he was pinning beneath him with little effort. He seemed to be completely unaware of the dark red blood that rolled from his stained lips down past his chin and onto the silken sheets beneath him. He gave off the very aura of a predator that had just caught its prey rather triumphantly. But even from her place at the door she could feel the power and allure oozing from him in waves.

However Aveline's blood ran cold when she saw just what the Earl was holding down. It was a little boy. A small little boy of about seven years with beautiful, vibrant blonde hair. But he wasn't moving. His chest wasn't moving. He wasn't breathing.

No… he couldn't be dead. Of course he wasn't dead!

The Earl sighed with a resounding note of pleasure as he licked his lips, leaning back on his calves to look at the young, helpless thing on his bed. "That was delicious Sebastian – you chose well."

Countless thoughts suddenly flew through her head. Is this where he got his extra income? Or was this just a hobby of his? The human slave trade? She had heard some nasty rumours about Alois' own dear cousin – the Viscount of Druitt being involved in such dark practises. It seemed however, to be a common practise now in London. And if the Earl before her really was as powerful as Alois had always claimed, he could certainly get away with this and the Queen would just turn a blind eye due to all his past service to her.

But… But it would be all for nought if the boy was… if the boy was dead.

And the blood on his lips… Was this something even darker than human trafficking? Did this have something to do with some underground cult?

Amidst her panic clouded mind she never even noticed the butler's gaze fall upon her. "My Lord, it would appear we have some company."

"Oh?"

With languid movements the Earl looked over at the door. Aveline felt all the colour drain from her face. He gracefully moved from the bed, leaning against one of the four giant wooden posts. He brought his fingers to his lips that were tugged into a smirk. The blood glistened brightly against his pale skin. His glowing eyes never left her terrified ones as his tongue reached out to lap up the blood smeared across his fingers.

Aveline began to feel dizzy as her lunch churned uncomfortably in her stomach. Oh God please help me. She had no choice but lean against the doorframe to support herself; she could feel her knees going weak the longer she watched him.

Sadistic amusement filled his eyes as he walked towards her, cupping her chin within his fingers. The contents of her stomach made itself known at the back of her throat as he purposefully smeared the blood across her cheek with his thumb with a sadistic smile. She suddenly felt so small as he loomed above her. He was easily a head or two taller than her and he just radiated so much power. So much pure, unrestrained power.

It all became too much for her, her knees completely buckled, causing her to come crashing to the floor in a pool of lace and blue silk. The Earl chuckled as he crouched down to be at her level, petting her cheek with mock affection.

"You have seen something you most certainly should not have, my dear lady."

"T-The boy-"

"The boy is no longer with us, never you fear about him."

If anything could have made her feel any fainter, it was that. "You… you killed that boy… that small, innocent thing that did nothing to you." The words felt like acid in her mouth. Surely this was all just some sick joke… He would never have actually hurt the boy. He merely smiled patiently, tilting her chin up once more so her eyes would have no choice but to meet his. "Ah, ah… Killed is such a harsh term… It was a mercy really. He suffered no pain."

She gazed at him ludicrously. Noting her look, he sighed dramatically in defeat. "Alright, perhaps he suffered mildly. It wasn't my initial intention; allow me to reassure you, my lady." He began to drawl, his smirk still amused, mocking. "However, his blood just called to me, I just had to sample some of it. It is such a delicacy after all. Unfortunately, my teeth are not quite as sharp as I'd like… therefore, I imagine I would have caused him some pain. Pity."

The room was spinning for her slightly. "What are you?" Was this some supernatural thing? Just like the things her grandmother used to scare her with when she was just a little girl?

The maniacal Earl just chuckled again. "Oh, I'm much worse than you could imagine."

She tried to stay composed but Aveline knew it was all but redundant in this situation. "Are… are you a vampire?"

This time both the Earl and the butler laughed, spiking her irritation and filling her with fear more than she thought possible. He stood again, unbuttoning his shirt somewhat as he ran a hand through his silky dark hair. Despite the situation, she found her eyes trailing to the newly revealed skin. "A vampire? What have you been reading you foolish girl? Oh no, we are demons, my lady. We consume the very souls of people – such as that little boy. The innocent ones are so, so very delicious. Don't worry, this little orphan boy was left on the streets to die, I'm sure this was a welcoming end for him."

The room swam around her once more. "D-Demons?" She glanced at the butler so appeared to be trying his best to smother his own chuckles. She glanced at the boy again and her stomach clenched. The Earl knew all too well where her gaze went. "Indeed. He would have felt nothing as he died – although sampling his blood … well that would be another matter entirely."

"B-But… you're demons, you don't need blood!"

He raised an eyebrow, looking over at his butler and throwing him a mocking smile. "Did you know that Sebastian? Looks like we have a little expert on our hands."

Aveline grimaced, shame flushing her cheeks. "Do you take a twisted pride in humiliating people?"

"Perhaps. If you must know, my lady, you are right, demons do not require blood for survival, it just proves to be a lovely little delicacy." He walked over the bed again, sitting at the edge and gazing wistfully at the boy. He reached over, running his knuckles over the boy's cheeks. "Especially with a boy this helplessly innocent."

That was the last thing Aveline's mind could withstand before it tumbled into darkness, her body feebly collapsing to the floor.