Silence

Chapter 26

The young woman flung her whip at him and caught one of his hands. When he yanked on it, she used the propulsion to swing herself up onto his shoulders. She carefully dodged the chainsaw when he tried to hit her with it while she was on top of him. When he threw his hand up, she grabbed the chainsaw from him and tossed it away from them.

The added weight on his shoulders caused him to lose his balance, and they both went crashing down to the ground. Adalina retrieved her whip and went to crack it towards him again. However, a long pole appeared out of nowhere, and the whip wrapped around that rather than heading for the man.

When Adalina looked up, she saw a very stoic man dressed in a suit standing atop one of the tree branches.

"Honestly..." he said in a deep monotone voice. He retracted the tool letting the whip fall slack again. He then nimbly hopped down from the tree to stand beside the redhead. When he got a good look at Adalina, he politely averted his eyes.

Adalina looked down and saw that her maid uniform had been shredded in several places by the man's strange weapon during their fight. It didn't reveal anything extremely indecent but definitely more than was appropriate. She crossed her arms over her chest in embarrassment.

The stoic man removed his suit jacket and handed it to her, still not looking at her. Adalina slowly took the jacket from him and put it on to cover herself, wondering who these two men were and why they carried such peculiar tools and had strange abilities.

"Please forgive us," he said in the same monotone voice. "Grim Reapers are usually not so unprofessional."

Had she just heard that right? Grim Reapers?

Surprisingly to her, she accepted it quickly. If demons existed, why not Grim Reapers?

"My name is William T. Spears. We have never officially met, but you've run into one of our Reapers before, a Lukas Everett."

Adalina looked at him blankly. She didn't recall ever meeting a Lukas Everett or even a Grim Reaper before. But then she didn't recall a lot of things.

William glared at the redhead. "What do you think you're doing, Sutcliff?"

The mention of the surname made her realize why the man seemed so familiar. This guy was the awful butler who had worked for Ciel's aunt, Madam Red!

He was actually a Grim Reaper all this time?

"I'm working!" Grell insisted. "Really, Will, I am!"

"Is she even on the list?"

"Yes! Ronald informed me of who she was when he saw her name! He told me my darling Bassy was in love with her!"

"You know as well as I do that demons do not love, and they certainly don't love humans."

Even as William said it, he didn't believe his own words. If Sebastian didn't love Adalina, he wouldn't have punched Lukas in the face on her behalf or come to seek his help only after she had been hurt. How the demon had fallen in love, he didn't know nor did he care.

"Let me see your list," William demanded.

Grell obediently handed him his small book full of the names of humans whose souls needed to be reaped.

William glanced at it before calmly but sharply hitting Grell with his pruner.

"What was that for?!" Grell exclaimed.

"The soul you are supposed to reap is Adaline, you incompetent fool. This is Adalina. Didn't you work with this woman before?"

"Ronald was the one who led me to believe it was her."

"You are both idiots. Though your time spent at this manor was strictly forbidden, you should have at least known you were attempting to reap the wrong soul. Go back to the Grim Reaper Dispatch. You are going to be seriously demoted for this infraction."

"What?!"

"Meanwhile, I now have to work overtime, and I so loathe overtime." William turned to Adalina and gave her a small bow. "My apologies for the grief he has caused you. I am now in your debt. If you need anything of me, I shall comply to your wishes within reason." He handed her a small business card with his name on it before turning back to Grell. "Get moving."

"But I never got to see Bassy!"

"You're not going to be seeing anyone for a while."

William grabbed the back of his coat leapt into the air with him.

"Bassy, my love!" Grell called as he was taken away. "I shall return for you! Wait for me!"

William rolled his eyes.

He spared a glance back at Adalina for a moment. She was rather impressive for a human. To do what she had done with a Reaper was no ordinary feat. She had a will to survive that far surpassed any other human he had seen before. When the time came to reap her soul, that Reaper was probably going to have to face quite the challenge. He would have to make sure to assign one of his more experienced Reapers to her.

Adalina looked up and watched the Reapers go. Their earlier words ran through her head over and over again. The possibility was slim, but if Grell was speaking the truth...was Sebastian really in love with her even if demons didn't love?