Woohoo! Thanks again to my reviewer. You're awesome!
This chapter gets a little intricate, so might want to read carefully, or you're liable to miss something.
Just so the record shows, I study demonology, so there are going to be heavy influences from that in here, as well as, of course, references to Bram Stoker's Dracula – the very novel that inspired this piece in the first place.
But, how did a book about a psychotic vampire bring you to Black Butler, you may ask? Because, as it happens, Sebastian has a lot in common with that psychotic vampire.
*person reading this* "is that foreshadowing? *excited gasp*"
*me* "Yes, yes that is. You're welcome."
Moving on!
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CH III
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Ciel, being dressed down for bed, stared absently at his walls, heavy thoughts weighing upon his tiny, frail shoulders regarding his new case.
"Is something the matter, young master?" Sebastian asked casually as he unbuttoned the boy's shirt.
"Actually, there is something that quite interests me. It's something Alistar said to you," Sebastian turned curious eyes to his master, though Ciel did not miss the wariness buried beneath his reddish irises. Ciel knew his butler well enough to know he would be reluctant to answer him truthfully, but it was one of the few thoughts he could put safely into words right now, and knew that they would not be taken as a show of weak sympathy.
"He called you his brother, earlier." Ciel inquired, his butler smirking as he did so, as if expecting this. "What exactly did he mean by that?"
"He meant it as literally as the word might imply." Sebastian answered simply, rising to place Ciel's clothes on a chair behind him as he gathered his night clothes. Ciel was a bit taken aback by his butler's apt response, nearly certain he would not be willing to divulge something so personal, for Sebastian was by nature a very reserved individual.
"He's literally your brother?" Ciel asked incredulously.
"Yes...and no." Ciel's thin brow perked up at this. Smirking in amusement, Sebastian continued without a hitch, dressing his master as he did so.
"The concept of siblings as humans understand it is very rare among demonkind. It is not unusual, after all, for demons to have dozens of siblings of various personal relation – for example, I rather suspect Alistar is technically my half-brother, as we do share a sire, but likely have different mothers."
"So there's just too many siblings for you to be attached to them all?"
"Something like that, yes." Sebastian smiled in a nearly mischievous fashion. "Demons are not generally taught to value their siblings – particularly not those of the same sex."
"Rivalry and all that." Ciel filled in, nodding in understanding.
"Yes, something to that effect. The only times I have seen where demons have a close bond to each other as siblings is in instances where they were born as identical twins, which are no more common in demonkind than humankind." Sebastian explained casually. "And even then, the bond is inherently different, since demons do not have human emotions."
"Hm. I could see that." Ciel remarked as Sebastian tucked him in.
"Anything else?" Sebastian inquired, leaning over his master with candle-holder in hand.
"Yes," Ciel's brows furrowed as he thought of how to phrase his question. "Alistar...he said himself he is not a typical example of demonkind. I'm interested to know how, for future reference."
"Future reference?"
"I doubt he's the only demon out there." Ciel said matter of factly. "And as we have coincidently run into a reaper, and now a demon..."
"You want to know how to protect yourself, should you find me unavailable." The smirk tugging at his butler's lips made Ciel uncomfortable, but he refused to show it.
"Something to that effect. I need to know what to look for in case I am ever caught alone. Reapers are relatively easy, since they all have the same eye colour. But seeing you and Alistar, it occurred to me that you are the only reference for identifying demons I have." He looked Sebastian in the eye daringly. "And it is quite obvious that you are not the most typical example either."
"That's true, unfortunately. Demons are as varied in their personalities as humans." Sebastian's expression turned remotely bitter for a fraction of a moment as he recalled Alistar's words.
"What hypocrites demons are. They claim to hate humans, yet they're exactly like them."
"Sebastian?" Ciel inquired, fearful he might of offended his butler by mistake.
"It's nothing, my lord." He reassured. "Only thinking of a peculiar thing our guest said." As much as it pained him to admit it, Sebastian was beginning to see merit in his words. "But it need not concern you. Now, you have a busy schedule tomorrow, so I advise resting for now." Sebastian bowed. "Goodnight, young master."
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Ciel rose the next morning, coming downstairs as soon as he was awake, that he might gift his servants with a daily task. But upon coming to the head of the stairs in the foyer, a peculiar sight gave him ready pause, for at the foot of the stairs was their guest, Alistar, conversing quite animately with Finnian, of all people.
"Whoa! That's cool!" Finnian exclaimed, clearly excited by something. This unto itself wasn't odd – what was, however, was the soft-ish expression on their demon guest's face, a startlingly gentle smile in place as he spoke in low notes to the boyish servant.
"Indeed." Here Alistar smiled wider, the expression entirely unlike what he'd seen on Sebastian. Sebastian was an excellent fake when he needed to be, but this...either Alistar was an even better fake than Sebastian, or he was genuinely...happy, to be talking to Finny.
'A demon? Happy?'
"I see you're getting on with the servants well enough." Ciel remarked, announcing his presence. Alistar turned to him with knowing eyes, having been aware he was there probably long before he'd actually gotten where he was standing. Finny looked far less knowledgable, turning to his young lord with a sheepish smile as he stood to attention.
"Our guest is really amazing, young master!" Finnian announced excitedly. "He's a doctor, you know, and has apparently been working on treating people who've become sick with pox*!"
"Why on earth would someone like you become a doctor, anyway?" Ciel asked shamelessly, quite confusing Finny with the suddenness of the question. Alistar only smiled in that oddly gentle way.
"I do not hold the same opinions as others like me when it comes to human kind." Alistar explained, and a weird sort of analogy came into his mind then; if Sebastian's voice could be attributed to dark satin, as he often did in his own mind, then Alistar's, suitably, would be like pastel silk. Smooth but light, like a river's white beds. "I am of the mind that they are quite a bit more necessary than many of my ilk might assume. After all, without you, there is no me." Ciel swallowed thickly at the implication, far too aware of his position in relationship to their kind. "However, that's not quite all of it." A nearly sombre expression crossed the pale demon's face as he gazed down at his white and gold suit. "See, this outfit, it is special to me. A human gave me this, as a show of gratitude to me." He smiled again in a seemingly genuine way. "I have never since forgotten the token."
"That person...were they...?" Ciel began, though Alistar seemed to understand.
"Yes, sadly, that person is no more." He touched his stomach in a way that would have been seen as casual to anyone else, but which had a very distinctive meaning to the Earl.
"Aw, you lost someone?" Finnian sympathized.
"Yes. They meant quite a bit to me as well. More than I am sure they ought to have." Alistar's voice fell just above a whisper towards the end, though in the easy quiet of the mansion, Ciel still heard him.
"I see. I'm sorry for your loss, if it helps."
"Thank you, Finnian – but I am afraid that this person died quite a while ago. The style of dress I hold should be evidence of that." The meaning flew over the duller servant's head, but Ciel understood, and once more felt a spot of pity for the creature.
"I see." The Earl remarked pityingly, eyeing the creature in like. He was pretty sure demons could not feel love – at least, he'd surmised that Sebastian couldn't – but as he'd never met another demon, he could hardly call himself an expert.
"Finny," Ciel began. "I need you to prepare the garden today. A minor guest will be arriving this evening, and I don't intend on letting him in my house."
"Whyever not, m'lord?" Ciel nearly cringed, not caring to explain.
"Let's just say that he's made a nuisance of himself here before. Now, do as I've asked." Finny nodded in understanding, moving along to do his chore. Now that they were alone, Ciel turned his attention to Alistar, sensing Sebastian approaching behind him as well. Perfect.
"I hope you don't mind, I am a nobleman and all. Having multiple guests is, unfortunately, one of my own chores to handle." Alistar only chuckled lightly.
"I understand quite well." He said. "Now the only question is if I will be required to meet this guest of yours."
"I'll try to keep him preoccupied – however..." Ciel trailed off. Knowing that romantically obsessed idiot...
"I understand. I would, then, prefer to meet him once he arrives, if I am doomed to do so anyway."
"Doomed...honestly, for once that might be the perfect word for it."
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Sebastian assisted their flamboyant guest from his carriage, not any gladder to see him than his master might be, though he had to admit that the man could be amusing at times.
"Ah, it never fails to awe me when I see the Phantomhive manor in all it's splendour!" said one Aleister Chambers as he exited his ride.
"Yes, it is a bit magnificent." Sebastian tediously agreed. "Now, I should tell you that the young master has another guest in his presence this evening as well."
"Oh? More faces to add to the count? Why I'm hardly deterred." 'I never thought you would be' the demon mentally grumbled.
"Also, we will be dining outdoors this evening, per my master's wishes."
"Eh? But it's the middle of October! We'll freeze!"
"With all due respect, I believe that tonight's dinner will be quite enough to keep you warm for a while."
"Eh?"
Sebastian lead the Viscount through the gardens, where supper had been set up already. The butler picked up the duty of explaining the evening meal, which was a form of pheasant that had been broiled and stuffed with an array of spices, per the eastern European tradition, served with some sort of vegetable stew that had been crafted with complimentary spice. Once he had listed all that there was to be had, he turned his attention to Alistar, who sat nearer the side of Aleister (how they had wound up with guests of such similar names, he did not know) with the viscount sitting at the opposite end of the table, per social custom as the star guest.
"Druitt," Ciel began, beating Sebastian to the punch. "This is my other guest for the evening, Alistar..." Ciel frowned once he realized he still didn't know his surname.
"That's Reginald. Alistar Reginald." Said man made a courteous bow, as much as he was able while seated.
"Oh? How interesting that our names would be so much alike. My official name is Aleister Chambers, but I am the viscount of Druitt, hence the title."
"I see." Alistar smirked in a strangely sly manner which Ciel wouldn't even pretend to understand.
Ciel took it upon himself to delve into the real reason he'd summoned the viscount all the way here once the pleasantries had been abated. "You have a medical license, do you not, Druitt?" The man in question seemed quite taken aback by the abrupt shift in the direction of things.
"Why, yes, I do. Why? Are you unwell?" Sensing a spiel, Ciel made haste to cut him off.
"I'm quite fine, thank you." Ciel cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention. "As it would happen, Alistar is a doctor also. He went to the liberty of examining the bodies in a recent case we are working on –"
"Ah, you mean the one regarding all those crucified bodies." Ciel did a double-take, not sure how he knew about it. "I was also called to investigate the case. After the incident aboard the Campania," Ciel grimaced internally, not at all fond of the memory. "Scotland Yard decided that I was probably the best they could use for figuring this out." Ciel now grimaced externally, both because he found it utterly pathetic that Chambers was the best the Yard could do, as well as the new knowledge that the Yard was even working on it at all. "So the Yard is investigating this."
"Yes...well, they were." Ciel came to upright attention at this. "That was, until the bodies began to move."
"Move?" Ciel questioned, feeling uneasy about the notion.
"No one can confirm to have seen them do so, but the morgue the bodies are being held in is becoming a very eerie place to be, so I've heard."
"Explain." Ciel demanded simply, prompting Aleister to continue.
"You see, the tables the bodies are put on – wherever the bodies are left, they never stay in the same place." the Earl exchanged a glance with Sebastian, who was listening intently. Alistar, as well, had his head propped on folded hands as he listened. "They never move very far, but the morgue is locked down tight at night to keep thieves and whatnot out of it. They've taken it so far as to station guards around all the doors; but no matter what they do, the bodies still move. It's almost..."
"Almost as if they're moving about on their own." Ciel surmised. "Reanimated corpses..." He spared Sebastian a meaningful look. The butler merely nodded, heading inside to handle the unspoken matter.
"As I said," Alistar spoke up for the first time that evening, addressing Ciel. "There's something fishy happening here. First, the bodies are crucified. This, unto itself, is a pretty symbolic action." He turned to Aleister, who nodded. "Then, their throats and wrists are slit while they're still alive. That, too, has religious symbolism, among other things." He looked back at Ciel now. "Then, thirdly, the bodies are branded with a sigil. A summoning seal."
"Summoning? To call what?" Aleister, otherwise out of the loop, asked incredulously.
"Ideally, to summon a person's soul; to call it back to their body. However, those seals are indiscriminate." Alistar explained. "Any soul could be called into those bodies, not just the one that belongs there. It's necromancy at an average, mortal level, if ever there was any." Alistar said, making Ciel huff quietly at the subtle air of superiority that clung to the statement. "But then, humans just don't have the energy requirements most the time to use more specific seals. Not to mention that they would have to be taught how to use them, and that unto itself can take far longer than one human's lifespan." Alistar justified, making the distraught Earl feel a little better. "But..." His tone became more serious. "There's a problem there unto itself. The seals they used; they can be found in almost any Grimoire – but not of the human variety." It was Alistar's turn to share a meaningful look with the young lord.
"My, my, you certainly seem to know your cultism." Aleister remarked. Rather than being creeped out, as Ciel might have expected, the viscount seemed...excited, in a word. 'why am I not surprised by that...'
"Yes, in a manner of speaking, I do." Alistar stated as if it was meant to be common knowledge, making Ciel quirk a brow at him. "Which leads me to my next point. The type of Grimoire that that spell is found in – I happen to know someone who has one." Sebastian, just then returning, had a rather disconcerted expression, both confused and uncomfortable about the direction that the conversation at the table had taken in his absence.
"You – you mean you know how to undo the seal?" Ciel asked incredulously. Alistar only shook his head morosely.
"I am afraid that I, personally, don't. Even if I did, I couldn't remove the spell. It might be rudimentary necromancy, but those sigils are also a type of curse. And the only person who can remove a curse is the one who put it there. That's just the rules of these things." He shrugged. Ciel frowned, upset now that he'd made a full circle.
"That still doesn't explain how we stop this." Ciel murmured, frown deepening into a scowl.
Just then, there was a shrill sort of noise that happened just behind his butler, making Ciel jump nearly out of his knickers, but somehow not phasing the demon at all.
"Ah, yes. I nearly forgot." Sebastian piped up in a strangely sheepish fashion. "I came back to tell you that you had other guests." As soon as he'd finished his sentence, a little girl, aged maybe four, came careening around Sebastian's thigh, chasing a moth with oblivious joy. All of a sudden quite confused, Ciel stood abruptly, more than a little alarmed that there were guests showing up now, of all times, completely unannounced.
"Huh?" Aleister mumbled, rising as well, though his expression was one Ciel had never seen him wear before – a mixture of shock, excitement, and buried somewhere beneath his slowly creasing brow line, there was a shadow of fear in his eyes.
"Anna?" He exclaimed in sheer bewilderment. "What on earth are you doing here, of all places?" Ciel turned sharply to Aleister, his expression demanding an explanation.
"You know her?"
"Why yes, she's my niece." Aleister still wore the same, mildly concerned expression, though the fear in his eyes had deepened considerably. It made Ciel wonder, suddenly, why he was so spooked.
"Papa is here to see Uncle!" The little girl said, running avidly up to Aleister.
"Wait, you have a brother?" Ciel asked, mind catching up to itself. Since when did the viscount have a sibling?
"In a manner of speaking, yes." Ciel ragarded Aleister warily then, for his tone of voice matched his shadowy expression just then. "He's technically my adopted brother, but..."
"Hey, Uncle Aleister?" He turned down to the little Anna, who's expression was quite the opposite of her Uncles, brimming with childish excitement.
"Yes?"
"Papa said to me, to tell you, that you are not in trouble." She said it quite seriously, despite her excitement. "He also says that you're a pain in his butt, and that you should stay home more." She said with the glee of a child who knew they were telling something they shouldn't. Now looking quite discontent, Aleister asked, "And where, exactly, is your Papa?" She pointed behind Sebastian, and, sure enough, a slender man dressed in a black suit stepped out from behind him. As he came closer, Ciel had to marvel at the fact he was nearly Sebastian's height, as well as the fact that, despite claiming to be adopted, the man looked stunningly alike to Aleister. His long, mussy hair was a golden brown, rather than blonde, but held the same style. Furthermore, though his face was a tad longer, they had pretty much the same facial structures. There was, however, one very different trait on the man, aside from his height, and it was perhaps his most striking feature, particularly as he wore it openly; a long set of paralell scars on his face, both starting at his brow and one crossing over his right eye. The longer of the two, the one which marked his eye, ended at the bridge of his nose, giving him a very menacing appearance all on his own, though the scowl he wore did nothing to help that image.
"Oh, hello there, brother." Aleister said nervously, backing away a bit as if unconsciously trying to put distance between them.
"Aleister." The other one said in flat, monotonous voice which reminded Ciel strangely of that ridiculous Abberline detective at the Yard.
"Um...Do excuse me for a moment, Earl." Aleister bowed in apology. "It would seem I need to have a talk with my brother." The tension between them made obvious, Ciel decided it best to let them be.
"Fine. I give you thirty minutes, or else you're both leaving." The Earl said moodily, not at all liking having random strangers intrude upon his home.
"Hello there, mister." Ciel's attention was drawn away from Aleister as he wandered away with his apparent sibling to that of his niece, left behind. She was addressing Alistar now, giving him a thorough look-over. "Mister, why is your hair white if you're not old?" She asked innocently. Uncertain how an unfamilar demon might react to a human child, Ciel watched Alistar carefully for a negative reaction as he otherwise gazed back at her impassively. After a moment, he seemed to slip into character, so to speak, a gentle expression adorning his face.
"Well, for the same reason my eyes are always reddish." He replied. "Because I've got no colour. Not in my hair, my eyes, or even my fingernails." He raised his hands to show her his long, pale nails as evidence. She looked confused.
"But how can you not have any colour?" She asked, face scrunching up in thought. Alistar looked up, thinking.
"Hm...I guess one way to say it is that God forgot to colour me in." He said with the same gentle smile Ciel had seen him use on Finnian earlier. "Guess that means I'm pretty special, huh?" Her confusion gave way, and she seemed, as only a child might, to accept his answer.
"Yup!" She agreed exuberantly, bouncing on her heels with a beaming smile on her face. Ciel had to take it all in for a moment. There she was, a four year old child, conversing casually with a demon that, from his knowledge, was also from Hell. And both of them were smiling.
"Hey, mister?"
"Hm?"
"Why do you think God forgot you?" Ciel couldn't resist a wince at the question, no matter how innocent it's intent. Sebastian, beside him, also appeared to cringe a little at it. But Alistar, being of a surprisingly good nature about it, merely looked skywards again, though his face was a bit more serious than before.
"Hm...That's a good question." He replied uncertainly. "Actually, it's one I've thought about before. But I can't say I'll ever know. Even if I were to get up to the gates and ask Him myself, I don't think He'd tell me."
"But why not?"
"Well, you can't expect Him to have time for everyone who comes up there asking questions, can you? He's a very busy man, you know." Alistar answered in a manner that would have befitted a Priest. It made Ciel both awed and ever more curious about this pale demon. "Besides which, I am just fine being the way I am."
"You mean you don't wanna be coloured in?" Anna asked in disbelief.
"Nope. I'm okay being a snowflake." She laughed at his crude joke, and he chuckled alongside her.
"You're good with children, too." Aleister, having returned some minutes ago, finally spoke up from just behind the Earl, again making him jump indecently. "Are you a father or something?"
"Uncle! Uncle!" Anna bounced up to the viscount excitedly. "The mister over there says he has no colour! No colour! Isn't that weird?"
"Anna," He said in a mockingly warning tone. "That's not very nice to say."
"Sorry." She said unapologetically, still bouncing. Aleister looked at Alistar critically for a moment, realization slowly dawning on him.
"My, it appears she's right. You certainly don't have any colour on you." He remarked, just noticing. Ciel nearly face-palmed. The viscount then suddenly grew very animated. "Wait, does that make you – no, no, they're too rare." He shuffled quickly over to Alistar, who remained passive as Chambers scrutinized him more closely. "I hate to ask, but are you...?"
"Albino? Yes." A small smirk tugged at his lips when Aleister grew more excited. "Oh! I know I've heard that humans can be albino, but I never thought I'd meet one!"
"Well..."
"Oh, but wait..." Aleister interrupted, pondering something. "I think I read once that albino's are blind, aren't they?" Alistar seemed taken aback by this before a small, sad smile graced his face.
"Yes, that's somewhat true." He admitted quietly, drawing all eyes to him. "To be honest, I myself don't actually see very well. Glasses are of no help to me, either." He said. "I can see movement well, and can see blurry shapes; but my depth perception is terribly wretched, and it rather means that I tend to run into things that aren't on a flat surface. Such is why climbing up the mountain I live on takes a better physical integrity than that which I possess right now to achieve." He scratched his neck sheepishly. "I'm also pretty much completely blind in the dark, quite unlike others like me. I don't see colours the way even my kin do; I've no human concept of the colour green, for instance. It's just not something my eyes see the way yours do." Ciel took in the information with a huff. A night-blind demon? Colour blind, too. How much stranger did this creature get?
"Then how ever are you a doctor, with vision like that?" Aleister asked incredulously. Alistar smiled softly, pointing to his rather pointed ears.
"My hearing more than makes up for my lack of proper vision, even in the dark." He explained. "I can also discern many more scents than average for even those of my own kind." Ciel consciously recognized the difference in the meaning of that to him versus Aleister. "And I certainly have much more sensitive sense of touch and texture. Maybe that's why I'm such a picky eater." Ciel resisted a cringe, instead opting to frown at the unfortunate implication.
"And to answer your earlier question, yes, I am a father, in a sense." This took Ciel and the listening Sebastian off guard. "Well, in the sense that I have raised, and am raising, children. None of them are mine, not really." His face was melancholic as he said this, as if he were want to have his own. "But my...er, partner, and I," He paused midway to look for a word, continuing on. "We have a sort of...refuge, I suppose, set up for little ones that have no parents or homes to go back to."
"Oh? So not only are you a doctor, but you run an orphanage?" Aleister was practically brimming with excitement now, clearly quite taken away with him.
"Well, I wouldn't call it that." Alistar said seriously. "I'm far from being that charitable." He smirked in the same devilish way Ciel was accustomed to seeing Sebastian do, making him shiver on the inside. He was nearly apt to start believing the demon was bi-polar, for as much swinging as he did between kindness and a sense of impending cruelty. "No. My home is more like a refuge for runaways than anything. People, in a manner of speaking, who, like me, have been kicked out of their permanent homes and aren't left with any other safe place to be. We happen to take a lot of younglings whose parents abandoned them or died, but that's really more coincidence than real purpose." He explained, shrugging. "Once they reach a certain age, they are automatically kicked out unless extenuating circumstances allow them to stay permanently. Usually, though, that only applies to females who otherwise wind up in...unfavourable, situations while they are with us." Aleister nodded, understanding the implication there that Ciel did not.
"I see. Well, you're certainly a character, in any case. I think I'd quite like to get to know you better, if you don't mind it any." Ciel shuddered at his suave tone, not at all surprised the viscount would hit on a man.
"As a matter of fact, I don't." If he had shuddered before, he was nearly sick now. Who in their right mind said yes to that creep? "Perhaps you are quite free sometime tomorrow morning. I think I can get away from the manor for that long, can't I?" He turned a strange expression to Ciel, one that made him seriously begin to question the mental stability of this man, demon or otherwise, for it was suave and pleading in a bizarrely coy fashion. The expression was far too effeminate for his liking, but did it's job nonetheless.
"That will be fine, so long as you are up to it." He said dismissively. He was tired of watching this.
"I think I will be retiring soon." He announced. Turning away, he called over his shoulder irritably as he passed by Aleister's yet unnamed brother. "You have fifteen minutes to leave, Chambers, or I'm sicking Sebastian on you." He heard the "eep!", smirking a bit.
Sebastian walked beside his master, looking at him meaningfully. "If you've got something to say, then be out with it." the Earl demanded.
"I am...concerned, that spending time with Alistar may not be what is best for the young master." Sebastian said simply, watching for a response. Ciel kept walking, thinking of how to respond.
"I can sort of see why. Demon or not, I don't think he's quite alright upstairs."
"While I can admit to understanding that line of thought, it isn't so much his flippant behaviour which concerns me, my lord." Ciel paused at the door, looking at his butlers too-serious face.
"And what is it about him that does concern you, pray-tell?" Ciel asked curiously, sensing the ghost of jealousy in Sebastian's voice.
"To be frank, I am unsure if, for once, he is too honest with you." Ciel quirked a brow at him as Sebastian opened the door, stepping aside to let him through.
"Too honest? Of all the reasons to distrust a demon, and that's the best one you can give me?"
"It isn't necessarily that his honesty makes him untrustworthy; I am merely concerned that he may, by habit, tell you something which you were not meant to hear."
"Like what?" Ciel snapped, growing more irritable as the clock ticked on.
"Well," Sebastian stepped lightly in front of Ciel, halting him. "Let's just say that there are things mortals are not meant to know about. Things which could get us both into a lot of trouble with people – with creatures, who you are not want to meet, and neither am I."
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Interesting chapter. :) Whelp, if you've got feedback, by all means let me know! I love to hear it, good bad or indifferent. :) Until next time!