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Devilish Impulses	By : Arianawray Category: > Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji ???) Views: 13948 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroshitsuji or any of its characters, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 1-Unwanted
- 2-Whim
- 3-Trust
- 4-Taste
- 5-Scheme
- 6-Command
- 7-Competition
- 8-Advice
- 9-Enlightenment
- 10-Sustenance
- 11-Caught
- 12-Breath
- 13-Arms
- 14-Inflammation
- 15-Imagination
- 16-Intent
- 17-Compromise
- 18-Sacrifice
- 19-Despair
- 20-Compassion
- 21-Interest
- 22-Equality
- 23-Mentor
- 24-History
- 25-Disorder
- 26-Reputation
- 27-Gifts
- 28-Admission
- 29-Watching
- 30-Bonds
- 31-Revelations
- 32-Confrontation
- 33-Struggle
- 34-Separation
- 35-Duty
- 36-Change
- 37-Together
- 38-Love
- 39-Epilogue: Heaven
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Caught

The first time Sophia Easton's thugs trespass on Phantomhive land as they spy on the manor by night, something happens. Those who survive later ramble about a "terrible black whirlwind" incapacitating them, and a "great black bird from hell" bearing them, half-dead with terror, through the air.

What Sophia Easton knows is that on the night she sends six men to scope out the Phantomhive grounds, she wakes in her bed to strange sounds coming from within her bedroom. She lights a lamp only to reveal all six strung up together in a great, struggling bundle, tightly bound and gagged, hanging by their feet from her ceiling, with no sign of how they could have been borne into her home. One man is dead – not at the adversary's hands, but from drowning in his own vomit, which could not leave his mouth through the gag.

Mrs Easton does not scream. She is not that kind of woman. She roars for her maids, who come stumbling out of their beds, and it is they who shriek at what they find in their mistress' bedroom, which reeks of the stench of the men's half-digested food, sweat and raw fear. The lady herself, however, has not got to where she is by beating hasty retreats when things do not go her way. And the burning anger at how her stupid sons have been trapped only grows. It has grown with each refusal of the Prince of Wales to see her or reveal what crime her sons have committed, except to write a curt note stating they are guilty of treason, and that she would be wise not to broadcast it.

She may have connections enough to wound the royal family to some extent, but the prince and queen remain her best chances for recovering her sons alive through their forgiveness of whatever those idiot offspring of hers have done. Therefore, they must live, and it is the Phantomhive boy who has to pay. So the next night, she sends fifteen men out. She, her servants and their dogs watch every entrance and window. But in the morning, a housemaid's cries fill her house as her front door is opened to reveal all fifteen, bound and gagged, on the doorstep. It is impossible – they have watched even the front entrance all night. Yet, the impossible has been done.

Two men are dead this time. Again, not killed by the adversary, but by one accidentally shooting two comrades while struggling to free himself from his restraints "in the air", as they report.

Mrs Easton, being Mrs Easton, presses on. She makes enquiries with her contacts in Great Britain and the Continent, including the remnants of the Ferro family. From different sources, she learns that something unholy resides within the Phantomhive manor, and besieging them is no simple matter. Armed with that information, she consults worshippers of things evil, and again sends out her men, twenty-five of them, armed with spells and incantations. But again, the unimaginable happens, and they are delivered back to her in a bruised and bloodied tangle of limbs.

At last, she resorts to one of her late husband's contacts, an ancient funeral-business owner known as The Undertaker. The man is disgusting and his shop loathsome, but she needs information, and her late husband regarded this man as having the best. However, when she tells the old creature with the unkempt hair and filthy nails what she wants, he erupts in laughter, and laughs so hard that she thinks he will never stop.

"Ha ha ha ha HA!" he howls, drooling liberally and clutching his sides so tightly that she imagines he has stabbed himself with his fingernails. "Oh, Mrs Easton! You have given me the best laugh I have had in weeks! Wage war on the Phantomhive manor? HA HA HA!"

When she gathers every ounce of her dignity and coldly demands what he means, he gathers what remains of his breath and gasps out while trying not to laugh again: "Leave it. You will not get past that which is most unholy in that manor, unless you have other ways in."

"What other ways?" she asks greedily.

He refuses to say. She would shoot him there and then for his contempt, were it not that she has attempted to kill him before in a pique of temper at point-blank range, and failed spectacularly. Besides, he is a useful source in other ways. So she turns on her heel and marches out, knowing that she needs an alternative way in.

Once more, she asks her sources – but her legitimate, social sources this time, since the underground ones have failed. Normally, a lady whose household has suffered a scandal such as having two sons arrested for treason would be shut out by the upper and middle classes, cut dead socially. But apart from her being Sophia Easton, who believes herself above the rules, there is the useful fact that no one knows her sons are incarcerated in the Tower. So she asks ladies and gentlemen of fashion, and people familiar with every noble house in Great Britain and the Continent. Finally, from the lips of gossipmongers and innocent, prattling folk, she gets the answer she wants.

***

"Are you sure you have enough money?" Ciel asks Soma and Agni as they wait in the foyer for the Prince of Wales' men to arrive. It has been arranged that Prince Edward will send a carriage and attendants to pick up Soma and Agni from the Phantomhive manor early on Monday morning, and take them to the palace, from where they will leave for the port and sail for the Continent.

Soma grins and replies: "I always had all the money I needed at home, even if I had no affection. And we've been living well within our means since we reached England, so I still have lots."

"Mainly because you've been living off me," Ciel mutters.

Soma, accustomed to the boy's grumpiness, throws his arms around him. "I'm going to miss you!" the prince cries, while the earl scowls and tries to free himself.

Agni, meanwhile, is speaking in a low voice to Sebastian: "Are you sure you do not want me to stay? Those people have been watching the manor for days. Despite your getting rid of them each time, they always return. They will make another move soon."

"It is very kind of you, Mister Agni, but please enjoy your visit to the Continent and take good care of Prince Soma," Sebastian smiles. "I did not know, though, that you were aware of my nocturnal activities. I am surprised you did not offer to help."

"Why would I, when you were managing so competently?" Agni asks amusedly. "I would not wish to intrude on your territory further than you think I already have."

"The carriage is approaching," Finnian announces from inside the front window.

An attendant from the prince's household is shown in. He greets the Indian prince and the earl, and with Sebastian's help carries the trunks out. With Ciel's authorisation, Sebastian discreetly slips a sum of money to Agni, telling him that it should be held for Soma, in case his expenses are higher than expected. One more round of goodbyes and many sighs from Mey-Rin later, the vehicle rolls away. When it disappears over a rise in the road, the manor goes into wartime mode for the day.

"Go about your usual indoor duties while remaining armed," Sebastian says to the staff. "This is the first time they are approaching the manor in the day, so something is afoot. Yet, they are keeping to the forest borders, and we cannot strike until they trespass on the master's lands. Do not step out of doors without cover or linger at windows. They have snipers among them."

Baldo, Mey-Rin and Finny nod, and Tanaka looks as if he understands, although it is hard to tell how much is getting through to him. Sebastian realises that if the enemy launches a full-scale assault on the manor in broad daylight, he may not be able to dispose of them in his usual way without revealing his true nature. It may come down to keeping the master and Tanaka deep inside the manor, away from the windows, while the rest of them pick off the invaders.

No one else will come. The Lady Elizabeth Midford has been told through a letter written by Sebastian but signed by Tanaka that her cousin is still in London, so she will not visit on an impulse, as she is wont to do. All the tutors too believe the earl is away again. The regular tradespeople have been asked to temporarily stop deliveries. If some poor soul wanders onto the grounds into the crossfire, there will be little they can do about it without risking their own defences. Sebastian would not object to Ciel ordering him to slit the mercenaries' throats, and that of their mistress too, but the boy has thus far refused to kill people who "have not done anything yet". So they wait to see what else will be done by those whose lives they have spared. Sebastian does not leave his master's side all that day, until Ciel is nearly ready to order him back to hell.

Hellish, indeed, are the offerings for lunch, tea and dinner. Without Sebastian's and Agni's guidance, and with the sternest injunctions not to blow up anything in the kitchen, Baldroy only dares come up with egg sandwiches for elevenses, orange biscuits for tea, and a chicken stew for dinner. Ciel eats without complaint, but does not eat much, leaving more room than necessary for what remains of a sponge-and-apricot-jam cake that Sebastian baked for him on Sunday.

"Are you not glad that you did not eat the whole cake yesterday?" Sebastian remarks, smirking.

"Hmm," is Ciel's only sour response besides taking a large forkful of jam-soaked sponge to chase away the taste of the bland stew.

Still, the attack does not come. More disturbingly, the men withdraw when the sun sets, and disappear to wherever their base is. Sebastian does not know why. He could find out, but he does not wish to leave Ciel's side at present. He can only order the staff to keep watch in shifts through the night.

"What are they waiting for?" Baldroy growls from beside the window of the recreation room, where he scans the grounds through a spyglass.

Sebastian would do this much better, and without a spyglass too; even Mey-Rin, with her remarkable, long-distance vision once her glasses are off, would see better in the dark than the chef. But Sebastian is keeping the young master occupied with a game of chess, while Mey-Rin has been sent to bed so she can wake at three in the morning to take the next shift.

"Mrs Easton was waiting for the Prince of Wales to leave the country while her men scoped out the manor," Ciel mutters as he thinks through two promising moves with either his knight or his rook. "Lord Randall warned me she was furious, demanding an audience with the Prince, and even the Princess of Wales, to plead for her sons. But the prince refused to see her, and the princess would only meet her in a personal capacity. Having failed there, she seeks revenge on me, and has been mustering all her mercenaries."

Ciel moves his knight and sits back to see what Sebastian will do. The butler is not seated, but standing beside the game table polishing silverware. He only glances at the chessboard whenever the boy makes a move, and bends down to shift his own pieces in response.

"I don't know how Sebastian sent them packing these few nights, but they seem to have worked out that they shouldn't hang around after dark," Baldroy mutters as he looks out over the grounds, chewing on a cigarette, which the butler has absolutely forbidden him to light while Ciel is in the room. "We should just get the Commissioner to pick them up in London and question them."

"They remained on public land today, without trespassing on my grounds," Ciel remarks, frowning as he sees that Sebastian's move could put his queen in danger within a few steps unless he moves to defend her, or launches his own attack to force the butler to rethink his strategy. He decides to attack. "I've told Randall to leave this to me. The police have limited resources. They can't be sending squads out here just to observe those idiots dancing around the perimeter of my lands. Besides, what happens on Phantomhive land has nothing to do with them."

"The Prince of Wales has sailed for the Continent, so Mrs Easton is waiting for something else," Baldroy says, scanning the grounds again. "Where'd she get so many men from, anyway?"

Sebastian plots a new line of attack as the young master aggressively threatens his queen in retaliation.

"Her late husband made a fortune through trade, and an even greater fortune through connections with large criminal families on the Continent," Ciel murmurs, as he wonders whether to press on with his attack or move his queen into a better position to defend his king. "Tanaka in his more lucid moments has said that Her Majesty never asked my father to move against Easton, because he never embarrassed Great Britain much or threatened the crown, largely limiting his criminal activities to Italy and Spain while doing mostly legitimate business in England and Ireland. So the Eastons were never an old Phantomhive nemesis. But since his death five years ago, his widow has ruled his empire and his useless sons. His thugs are loyal to her, thanks to her strength of will, her wealth, and her aggressiveness in expanding her legitimate and criminal territories."

Ciel shifts a bishop, waits for his opponent's response, then moves his queen. Both bishop and queen are now in positions that will defend his king while making it possible to threaten Sebastian's pieces.

The butler smiles and shifts a pawn yet another square up the board, inching it towards the other end, to see how long his master will wait to take the bait. But two hours later, with half the pieces sacrificed on both sides, the black and white kings and queens remain standing. Ciel decides to continue the game another time, for it is late.

"I'm going to bed," he announces.

Sebastian goes upstairs with him after ensuring that Baldroy knows when to wake Mey-Rin, and when to tell Finnian to rest. After helping his master with his bath and nightclothes, however, he makes no move to leave the room.

"You're not planning to stay here all night, are you?" Ciel asks irritably. "As if we haven't had enough of one another all day."

"I do not like it that they have not attacked, despite the Prince of Wales' departure from the country, and Agni's departure from the manor. I had no qualms about leaving you alone in your room before Prince Soma and Agni left, but not now."

"Lock the windows, stick tall furniture in front of them, and go away," Ciel sighs. "I'm not having you in my bedroom through the night."

"Sleep, and you will not know that I am here."

"I'll know."

"Sleep."

But all night, the attack does not come. Ciel opens his eyes long before dawn, restless after a troubled night, to see his butler standing by a window, looking out through a gap between the drapes and the wall.

"Nothing?" the boy mumbles sleepily.

"Nothing."

"Damn them. I suppose I can only expect burnt toast with rancid butter for breakfast as our chef is still helming the kitchen?"

Sebastian presents a suitably apologetic face to Ciel and replies: "Regrettably, the fare may be worse than that, for Baldroy's next shift begins at nine in the morning, and only Mister Tanaka has been available to do anything in the kitchen."

Ciel throws himself back on the pillows and groans: "We'll be having green tea and more green tea."

"I shall be grateful if he does not give us green tea with seasoning powder."

Fortunately, Tanaka is in good form this morning, and manages to present the earl with unburnt toast, strawberry jam and English tea.

"Thank you, Mister Tanaka," Sebastian smiles. "Please rest now."

Ciel is only halfway through the toast when Mey-Rin yells from somewhere above them in the manor: "Someone's coming!"

The earl continues eating calmly, looking on in silence as everyone scrambles to their positions while Sebastian lifts one edge of a curtain. Instead of the army of mercenaries they expect to see pouring over the grounds, however, there is nothing but a lady's carriage, drawn by fine bay horses, rolling towards the manor grounds.

Sebastian narrows his garnet eyes. Something is not right – he can sense it in his demon bones. It worsens when he sees that the carriage is the familiar one of the Marchioness of Midford, Ciel's Aunt Francis – Frances she may be to formal society, but "Francis" she was to her brother the late earl, and Aunt Francis she is to the boy who is all that is left of this branch of the family. When the carriage pulls up before the manor, Sebastian knows that something has been done which they do not yet know about, and that it is something they will not like.

He steps outside and bows to Aunt Francis as a coachman who is not her regular driver opens her carriage door.

"Lady Midford," he greets her with the title that emphasises her rank as the wife of the Marquess, rather than the "Lady Francis" he would use to acknowledge her status as the daughter of a former Earl of Phantomhive. The voluminous skirts beside hers within the carriage confirm that someone else has come to the manor with her, and Sebastian already knows from that person's scent who it is, long before he sees her face.

On her visits, Aunt Francis always eyes him suspiciously, for she disapproves of his appearance. She considers him too handsome for a butler, and dislikes the length at which he keeps his hair – although on the latter score she has nothing to complain about, for he trimmed his locks a few days ago. But today, something is wrong. She does not glare at him, or alight elegantly to be greeted by her nephew. Instead, to Sebastian's surprise, she fairly jumps out and asks in a voice that is uncharacteristically frantic for one as disciplined as herself: "Did my daughter arrive here?"

Sebastian, with a growing understanding of what Sophia Easton has done, replies: "The Lady Elizabeth has not visited the manor this morning, my lady – she has not visited in days–"

"I know," Aunt Francis interrupts him impatiently. "Tanaka wrote to say that the earl was still in London, so of course she did not come before this. But a note came from Ciel this morning, asking her to visit him as he had returned home."

"My lady, His Lordship sent no such note."

"I permitted her to go, although the hour at which she was invited to visit seemed unusually early. I sent her off with her maid in the smaller carriage – it's only an hour's ride – she has done this so many times before – but halfway here –"

"Oh, it was terrible," comes the voice from the other person inside the carriage. "I witnessed it."

With that, Sophia Easton steps down from the vehicle and looks steadily at Sebastian.

"Aunt Francis?" Ciel says, appearing at the top of the stone stairs leading to the main entrance of the manor.

"Ciel!" Aunt Francis hastens up the steps to reach him before he can begin to descend. "Ciel, something has happened. Mrs Easton here was a victim too, but she was good enough to run to our house on foot to tell me..."

Ciel stares at Mrs Easton, who is climbing the stairs towards them, Sebastian behind her, watching her every move.

"Dear boy," says the visitor with a smile designed to look like one of commiseration. "You must be brave. I am sure this will all turn out right."

"What are you talking about?" Ciel demands.

"Ciel, Elizabeth was on her way here in my smaller carriage with Paula when some men... bandits... stopped the horses, almost killed our coachman, and overturned the carriage!" Aunt Francis cries. "They seized Mrs Easton's carriage too, and threw her and her coachman out of it. They beat Paula badly, and took Elizabeth away in the carriage they stole from Mrs Easton. When Mrs Easton recognised the coat of arms on our overturned vehicle, she ran a mile to the house to tell me what had happened. The doctor has been sent for – Paula and our coachman are unconscious. The marquess is away – I didn't know what to do – I rang the police, then Mrs Easton and I decided at once to come to you, to see if Elizabeth had somehow made it here."

"Lizzie's not here..." Ciel says numbly, looking from his aunt's desperate eyes to the cold ones of Mrs Easton, set in a face which has assumed a sad expression.

"Lady Midford, you are shivering. You should keep warm indoors while we try to solve this terrible matter," Mrs Easton says.

Aunt Francis nods silently, casting one more look over the grounds from the top of the stone stairs, hoping to see the figure of her little daughter in the distance. She is a woman of great strength of character and body, but at this moment, she is simply a mother whose youngest darling has been snatched from the safety of her family. Ciel has never seen this aunt of his look as lost as she does now. He takes her arm and steers her into the morning room, where there is still half a pot of tea that he can offer her, to soothe her somewhat – although it seems a pathetic gesture, when he knows what is to come.

"Aunt Francis, please sit down," he says softly, leading her to the most comfortable armchair in the room. "Sebastian, give my aunt the rest of my tea – there is no time now to make a fresh pot."

Lady Francis does not quite hear the meaning in his words for several seconds, so distraught is she. But as she takes the cup of lukewarm tea from the butler, the words finally sink in.

"No time…?" she begins. "Ciel, what do you mean…?"

Ciel is staring directly at Mrs Easton, whom no one has invited to sit down.

"Where is Elizabeth?" he coldly asks the unwelcome guest.

"Ciel!" Aunt Francis cries. "What is the meaning of this? Mrs Easton has been so kind..."

"Mrs Easton has Elizabeth."

"What?" Aunt Francis gasps, still not understanding the situation.

"Where is Lizzie?" Ciel asks the woman again.

"Nowhere you, or the police, or her mother, or the unholiness within your manor, can find her. Not before she breathes her last," Mrs Easton replies, smiling serenely.

Aunt Francis shoots to her feet. The teacup and saucer on her lap crash to the floor. Her eyes grow wide with a mixture of rage, fear and dawning realisation. "Sophia Easton!" she screams, and lunges at the woman with the speed of the impressively trained fencer and sportswoman that she is.

But Mrs Easton holds up a hand and states firmly, before she can reach her: "I would not try to hurt me if I were in your place, Lady Midford. If I do not return to my men unharmed within half-an-hour, a private signal will go out, and the girl dies. If I do not return to my men unharmed and in the company of no one besides the earl and my driver, the signal goes out, and she dies. It's partly your fault. It was so easy to learn from your circles that your daughter was betrothed to her cousin, and so easy to fool you with a forged note. My job was made simpler by your sending her off with only a weak old driver and a delicate maid."

Aunt Francis has a hand raised, ready to strike Sophia Easton. She is breathing hard, her eyes blazing with shock and fury.

"Aunt Francis," Ciel says. That is all he says, but his voice carries compassion and authority, and a message that he will take care of this.

She glances at her nephew, and sees his father's features in his face. She knows what her father and brother were, and what her too-young nephew is. She knows too that danger invariably visits the Phantomhives. It was a constant threat while she was growing up in this manor – rather, the old manor which this was built to exactly resemble – and the threat took her brother's life three years ago. She has always known that her daughter, upon marrying her cousin, would eventually live with that danger. But she is miserably unprepared for Lizzie to come to harm here and now, well before she is ready to part with her. Yet, because she was born a Phantomhive, she understands that tone in her nephew's voice. She lowers her arm and steps back, leaving her daughter's fate in her fiance's hands.

"Mrs Easton," Ciel addresses her in businesslike fashion. "Release Elizabeth unharmed, and you can do what you please with me."

"It works the other way around," Sophia Easton answers, equally businesslike. "You will come with me, and I will do whatever I please with you. When you are dead, your cousin will be returned alive to her mother."

"My lord," Sebastian says, coming forward for the first time in the morning room. "If you leave here alone with Mrs Easton, both you and Lady Elizabeth will die."

Aunt Francis' breath catches in her throat, but she refrains from speaking.

"Sebastian, can you tell where Elizabeth is?" Ciel asks.

Aunt Francis and Sophia Easton do not fully comprehend the implications behind the earl's question – although Mrs Easton begins to grasp that the butler may have something to do with the "unholy thing" in this manor. They only see that the butler looks grim as he replies: "No, my lord. Not yet."

"Then I must leave with Mrs Easton."

"Alone," she reminds him briskly. "At the merest hint of the presence of another with us, the girl dies."

Sebastian stands stock-still as he waits for the words he does not want to hear. If Mrs Easton's conditions were not so precise, he would seize his master to prevent the enemy from laying hands on him, and whisk him away to find his cousin. But everything is against them: He does not know where Elizabeth is; though he can work at demonic speed, there is a good chance his master will be killed before he can locate the girl; and the conditions Mrs Easton has set are specific, with a time-limit, and will separate his master from him.

As he considers the case with a cunning mind that finds all its cunning of little use now, he hears the dreaded words coming from the earl: "Sebastian, find Elizabeth."

"Young Master..." the butler begins, his voice full of an unspoken – and unheeded – warning.

The earl is ignoring him as he calls out to the other servants: "Baldroy! Mey-Rin! Finnian!"

The three, who have been hiding and listening while watching the grounds to ensure that no one else approaches, enter the room.

"Mey-Rin, stay with Lady Francis until Sebastian brings Lizzie back safely. Baldroy, you and Tanaka are to take charge of the manor until Sebastian returns. Finny, watch the grounds and make certain no one else comes near the house to harm Lady Francis."

They nod silently, helplessly.

"Sebastian, what are you waiting for?" Ciel asks. "I gave you an order."

"My lord, I strongly advise you against this course of action," Sebastian answers, as tightly as anyone in this manor has ever heard him speak.

The butler is closer to the end of the room furthest from the door. The other servants are just inside the door. Ciel, Aunt Francis and Mrs Easton are in the centre. Ciel turns his back to Aunt Francis, Mrs Easton and the servants, and looks full at Sebastian.

"Young Master..." Sebastian says again, the warning note filling his voice.

But Ciel, facing away from everyone except his butler, raises his eye patch and looks straight at the devil out of one marked eye and the other of piercing blue, and says: "Sebastian – I command you to leave here without me, find Elizabeth alive and well, and return her safely to her mother!"

Ciel may look angry, but Sebastian curses inwardly at Sophia Easton as he sees that the child's eyes are hollow, empty of the sparks of mischief and defiance that have danced in them these few days. He glares back at his master for a long second before he bows and intones: "Yes, my lord."

One final look into those beautiful eyes that he may never see with life in them again, and the butler strides out of the morning room, out of their sight.

"He won't find the girl," Sophia Easton states confidently. "Not before you are dead. Let's go. Your fiancée will soon be out of time."

The servants and Aunt Francis step towards Ciel and Mrs Easton, but the earl holds up a hand to stop them. "No," he says firmly. "Do nothing foolish. Stay here until Lizzie returns safely. Don't try to follow me, or Lizzie could be killed."

To his aunt, he says: "Sebastian will find her."

He holds his head high and walks outside. Mrs Easton orders him into the Marchioness' carriage, follows him in, and pulls the door shut after them. She puts her head out through the window and orders her coachman: "Drive to the first point I gave you instructions for."

The man cracks his whip to get the horses moving, and those left behind at the manor can only watch it disappear into the distance with Ciel within it, at the mercy of Sophia Easton, without his butler at his side.
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Devilish Impulses