The next few days passed by without any further disturbance from Lukas as far as Phantomhive Manor went. However, two more criminals turned up dead in London in a way that only a Reaper could be responsible for. Ciel was becoming more frustrated by the day that the Reaper constantly managed to evade him.

When it came to Sebastian and Adalina, neither of them were addressing the clear elephant in the room regarding their rather intimate moment the other night.

Adalina knew that the Oracle had been to Sebastian, but Sebastian didn't know that the Oracle had been to Adalina. As far as he knew, she was still confused about her feelings towards him and knew nothing of the transformation process.

While Adalina was cleaning out Ciel's study as he and Sebastian took care of business elsewhere in an attempt to apprehend Lukas, she came across an old newspaper. Curious as to why it hadn't been thrown out, she flipped through a couple of the pages. Nothing seemed familiar. Why hadn't she seen this newspaper before? Seeing as she usually was the one to throw out the daily papers, she was able to read almost all of them. But this one was totally new to her.

She checked the date and saw that it was several weeks old. Why had Ciel kept it for so long?

Her heart stopped when she saw one of the articles. Pictured were several faces that would haunt her for years to come.

They belonged to some of the men who had held her captive.

Her eyes quickly scanned the article. It said that the men had been found dead and all of the girls who had been captured were being well taken care of as Scotland Yard tried to track down their families.

The article went on to say that several of the girls had overheard the men praising someone with the last name Druitt. According to the paper, he had either sold the girls to those men or given them information on how to find them since he kept track of all the most beautiful girls in the city.

Adalina crushed the paper in her hands and let it fall to the ground as her body shook with anger. It was Druitt. Viscount Druitt was responsible for her capture. She could remember her father mentioning him every now and again at dinner, but she couldn't remember why.

He must've learned about Adalina through the connection with her father and then informed those men of her whereabouts. He was the reason her parents were dead.

Adalina recalled how Viscount Druitt had been a suspect during the Jack the Ripper case, and while he hadn't been responsible for those killings, he had been responsible for selling women on the black market. Unfortunately, he had been able to bribe his way out of prison. And to this day, even with this information provided in the newspaper article, he was still a free man.

The head maid knew where he resided. She could easily get there and back without anyone knowing, even Sebastian.

Watching out for the other servants, Adalina snuck out to the stables and saddled up one of the horses. After securing her whip around her waist, she hopped up onto the horse and galloped down the road to head off to London.

Upon arriving at Viscount Druitt's estate, she tied up the horse along one of the gates. Then she went towards the back where she knew a servants' entrance would be.

From her time in captivity, Adalina was an expert at sneaking around and avoiding people she didn't want to be seen by. She had learned from all of the times she had managed to be able to sneak to the kitchens to grab a bit more food and cloths for the injured girls in the room. Escaping had been impossible as they had found out when one of the girls had attempted to do so, but the kitchen was close enough to the room they were all kept in that she could make it there and back undetected.

Such a skill came in handy as she evaded all of the Viscount's servants in the manor, looking for the Viscount himself.

She found him lazing away in front of the fireplace in one of his parlors. She discreetly locked the door behind her once she entered the room. At the sound of the door closing, the blond man turned from his chair.

He smirked as he stood up. "My, what a beautiful sparrow you are. What are you doing here, lovely maiden?"

Adalina untied the whip from around her waist faster than she ever had before and flung it towards him. The Viscount smiled as he deflected the weapon with his drawn sword.

"Wanting to play, darling sparrow? I believe I can assuage your desires."

Adalina began to shake with anger again. She flung her whip towards Druitt once more, but he managed to block her attack. As long as he had that sword, he had the upper hand.

She smirked a little. She could fix that.

She flung her whip towards him and wrapped it around the sword. With a hard pull, she yanked the sword out of his hand. It sailed through the air before she caught it.

Druitt smirked again which wasn't exactly the reaction she had been looking for. "Quite a talented sparrow you are. I've never met a woman like you before."

He may not have met her, but he knew of her. He was the reason for everything that had happened to her. Tired of playing games, Adalina flung her whip towards him. With no weapon to defend himself, the Viscount was powerless to stop the whip from wrapping around his neck.

Adalina tightened her grip on both of the weapons in her hands. She pulled firmly on her whip, causing the Viscount to go down to his knees. His face began to turn red from lack of oxygen. She slowly approached him, her eyes more cold and unfeeling than ever before.

She raised his sword above her head.

"Adalina, stop!"

Adalina frantically turned to find Ciel and Sebastian entering the parlor.

She was so close. If they had just given her one more moment…

"You can't do this," Ciel said calmly. "Believe me, I want him dead too for what he did to all those girls, especially the ones you knew, but he's too high up in society for this. If you kill him, you will face terrible consequences. I will not be able to help you."

Adalina looked at the Viscount before her. This man had ruined her entire life. He had made her into nothing. Because of him, she had nearly died on the streets of London. She had had to steal from people to survive. She had become less than dirt in the eyes of the citizens in the city. And he had done it to multiple girls, many of whom she came to call her friends.

Because of him, she was too afraid to speak.

He deserved to die.

"Adalina," Sebastian's calm and gentle voiced reached out to her. "I know you. You don't want to do this."

Of course she did. She wanted to kill him for everything he had done.

Sebastian realized that this was the Oracle had talked about. If Adalina did this, she would darken her own heart beyond repair. While he normally would encourage such a thing, it was quite possible that if this happened, they could never be together, demon or human. He could not let that happen.

"If you do this, it will haunt you forever," he said cautiously, his hands in front of him as he walked towards her. He didn't want to do anything too rash as there was no telling what she might do. "You will never be able to come back from this."

Tears formed in Adalina's eyes. She just wanted revenge for her family and for all those poor and innocent girls who had suffered because of the Viscount's actions.

Sebastian had been able to feel how much Adalina cared for her parents when he had shared her memories. He decided to use that to his advantage. "Think of your mother and father. Surely they wouldn't want you to do this."

Two tears rolled down her cheeks. He was right. Her mother and father wouldn't want this. Her father's priorities were usually a bit out of place every now and then, especially when it came to gambling, but he knew what was really important in the end.

"I know how much pain he has caused you. I do not deny that. But what will this solve?"

Adalina looked at the red-faced Viscount who was struggling to undo the whip around his neck. She had never killed anyone before. Not even protecting Ciel. The situation had never demanded it. If she had to save Ciel or herself, she would take a life. She had sworn she would do so when she became his servant. It was a last resort, but she would do it.

But here now…she was going to murder someone in cold blood.

With a small sob, Adalina dropped the sword in her hand and let the whip slacken around the Viscount's neck.

Druitt inhaled sharply and let out a few coughs as he tried to regain his breath. "Well, my dear sparrow, I did not know someone like you was capable of that."

Adalina punched him so hard in the face that he was knocked unconscious. Her head leaned up towards the ceiling as more tears made their way down her face.

"Sebastian, take care of him," Ciel ordered.

"Yes, my lord."

Sebastian went over to the knocked-out Viscount and placed his gloved hand on his forehead. His eyes glowed pink for a few brief seconds before he stood up again.

"He'll remember what happened, but he won't be able to remember Adalina's face," he stated.

"Let's return to the manor," Ciel said. "Quickly."

The three of them went outside before any of the servants could question their presence. Adalina rode the horse back while Sebastian carried Ciel seeing as no carriage was available at the moment. They had been in quite a hurry once they had realized where Adalina had gone.

Once Adalina had returned the horse to the stables, she took a deep breath before entering the manor and heading up to Ciel's study. She absolutely dreaded the conversation that was coming.

Sebastian and Ciel were already inside his study once she had arrived. Ciel was glaring at her with his visible eye, and it made her want to disappear even though he was significantly younger than her. She felt like she was nothing more than an insect that he could easily squash with his foot.

"Adalina, your actions today are inexcusable," Ciel said firmly. "As a Phantomhive servant, you are expected to protect me and this manor, not go out and seek death on your own."

Adalina looked down at her crossed hands in shame.

"Normally, such an action would warrant severe punishment. However…coming from me that would just be hypocritical since my entire contract with Sebastian revolves around me getting revenge for my own family. And this is your first infraction since you began working here. You're just lucky Sebastian was able to wipe the Viscount's memories of you. Otherwise, all of us would be in a lot of trouble. I must warn you, should you ever attempt to do something like that again, you will have to accept the consequences of your actions on your own."

Adalina nodded slowly.

"That's all for now. Return to your chores. You have a lot of missed time to make up for."

Adalina curtseyed and left the room in embarrassment.

The more she thought about what she had done, the more ridiculous the idea seemed. She had allowed herself to be blinded by her anger and rage and as a result, she had almost taken another human life. And the life of a Viscount no less. Doing such a thing would've resulted in her imprisonment for life or perhaps even execution. She was fortunate that Ciel and Sebastian had gotten there in time to stop her.

How ironic it was that a demon had been able to talk her out of killing someone.

"Adalina," Sebastian called from behind her. She turned to face him, her cheeks still red from a combination of her tears and her lingering embarrassment. "Are you all right?"

She nodded a little.

Sebastian could sense a hint of gratefulness beneath the humiliation she was feeling. He knew that deep down, she appreciated him stopping her from killing the Viscount. If it had been up to him, he would've happily watched while she ended his life. However, he knew that such an event would scar the young woman greatly to the point where he wouldn't be able to help her anymore. Even the Oracle had said that she wouldn't be the same after doing something like that.

It was amusing to him that he could wipe out a whole crowd of people and feel nothing while humans were greatly affected after just killing one person. It was one of those things that made them so interesting to him. And another reason why he didn't want to become one.

"You were not supposed to lay eyes on that newspaper article. Once the young master and I saw it, we tried to keep it from you, but I suppose that he forgot to throw it out. We knew that you wouldn't react well to such news. But perhaps, if I had told you about the Viscount myself, I would've been able to convince you not to go after him. The fault lies with me."

Adalina looked at him for a moment, stunned he was taking the blame for what had just happened. She reached up and quickly gave him a small peck on the cheek. She smiled a little in thanks before continuing down the hallway.

Sebastian lightly rubbed the place where her lips had touched.

It was the first time her lips had ever touched him.