"Brought them," Lukas smiled to another man. He chained Sebastian to the wall with the demon chains, taking extra care to make sure that he couldn't just break out of them. He then used rope to tie Adalina's hands behind her and attach her to a low hook on the other wall. "You can do whatever you want to them. You'll get paid extra if they share anything useful on the Phantomhive kid."
"Why don't you just go kill him now while they're both here?" the other man asked.
"Do you want more money or not?"
"All right, all right. I'll see what I can get out of 'em."
"Good. I'll be back some time this evening." Before Lukas left, he said quietly to the man, "I want that demon dead."
Lukas left the chamber and the other man smirked at them. He looked over at Sebastian. "So you're the demon I've heard so much about. This should be fun." He then looked at Adalina. "And the head maid. Let's get that whip off you now." The torturer went over to her and untied the whip from around her waist. "I could use one of these."
"I can tell you right now that neither of us will be giving up any information," Sebastian said. "I've survived much worse than anything you could do, and that young woman cannot possibly give you anything."
"You'd be surprised what I can squeeze out of people. Why don't I start with you? Now, seeing as you're a demon and all, when's the last time you've eaten a soul?"
"Not that it is any of your business, but it has indeed been a while."
"You could go out and eat any soul you want from any person you want, couldn't you? Why not just do that?"
"I grow weary of just any soul. I crave the beautiful tortured soul belonging to the master I currently serve. I shall wait as long as I must for such a sweet-tasting soul."
"I can't imagine how hungry you must be now."
"The hungrier I am, the more delectable the meal will be."
"I'm sure. Well, I've heard from Lukas that you can feel physical pain, and in such a state of hunger, that will make what I'm about to do feel even worse."
The torturer smiled sadistically and began using Adalina's whip on him. Adalina tried to move and go to him, but the ropes were tied very tightly and she could not escape as easily as she had before when protecting Ciel.
Sebastian looked over at her, seeing her struggle against her bindings. She had intense desperation on her face as she tried to get over to him.
Perhaps she cared more for him than he realized.
The torturer forced Sebastian's coat and shirt open and continued to whip him. His skin turned red with each lash and eventually his skin began to break. Dark red blood flowed down his chest, intermingling with beads of sweat.
Adalina fell to her knees and turned away. She could not watch this, even if she knew that he would be fine in the end. It still made her feel horrible to watch him endure something so painful.
After several minutes of that, the torturer came over to Adalina. He took her head in his hand and forced her to look up at him.
"Do the two of you have something going on? I don't think you would react like that if you didn't."
"We are nothing more than two servants who work for Lord Phantomhive," Sebastian told him. "Romantic attraction is not appropriate between two servants. And demons cannot love. It is as simple as that."
"Let's test that, huh? We'll see how you feel once I get to work on her."
The torturer put down the whip and picked up a poker than had been sitting by a small fire. He took a firm hold of Adalina's arm and set the end of the poker down onto her bare skin.
Tears formed in Adalina's eyes and she opened her mouth as if she was screaming, but nothing came out. When she looked towards Sebastian, there was nothing but indifference on his face. Surely he cared about her enough to react at least a little, right? Did he really not care about her at all? Was he truly as unfeeling as he said he was?
The torturer looked at her in confusion. Then he looked up at Sebastian. "Is she a mute?"
Sebastian didn't answer.
The torturer laughed. "Well, how about that? No matter. I like a challenge. When I'm through with you, I'll have heard a nice loud scream come from that mouth."
He took up the whip again and began to strike Adalina over and over again. Never once did she cry out. Sebastian recalled that she had trained herself to never make a noise, even when experiencing intense pain. If she did, something worse than what she was already experiencing followed.
The skin on her shoulder quickly broke after the third lash in that location, and there had to be at least one more laceration on her chest. She could feel wet blood seeping through her dress. Her own weapon used against her.
For a moment, she was back in the house where she had been held captive, whipped for stealing food to give to the other girls. She had to force back the bile rising in her throat, remembering her promise to never react in such a way again when she remembered her time in captivity.
She thought that when she had escaped, she wouldn't have to endure something like this ever again. She had been wrong.
The man laughed a little as he came up to her and kicked her knee as hard as he could. Her mouth opened wide again as she felt her knee dislocate and she took shallow breaths, feeling the pain stretch throughout her entire leg.
He then removed her shoes from her feet along with the short tights she had worn to go with her uniform and pulled up the skirt of her dress. Since she now had a dislocated limb, she could not move her leg to stop him from what he was doing.
With a smile, he used the whip on the bare flesh of her legs. It stung a lot and she could tell that more of her skin had broken on her thigh. Her knee tensed up each time the whip striked her, causing a wave of pain to shoot up her body.
The torturer looked at the small fire and began muttering unintelligible curses. "My fire's gone low. Can't use a poker with that. I'll be back in a moment to gather some more coals. Don't go anywhere."
The man laughed at his own joke before exiting the chamber.
"Adalina," Sebastian said firmly. She looked up at him weakly. "You need to scream. The torture will only get worse and worse until he hears you scream. If you just scream, he may stop torturing you for a while and come back to me. I can handle it, and you cannot."
Adalina looked away from him. She wouldn't scream. She couldn't scream. She just couldn't. But Sebastian was probably right. Unlike her previous situations, she was only going to get hurt more and more until she screamed. But she was afraid that even if she screamed, he wouldn't stop. He would want to hear more.
It wasn't long until the man returned with a sick grin on his face. "Let's resume, shall we? I believe I was in the process of getting you to scream."
He heated up the fire and after a few moments, he picked up his glowing poker.
"Perhaps if I use this on your eyes, I'll get a scream. If not, I'll have made a blind mute. Good luck doing anything or finding anymore work like that."
Adalina squirmed nervously as he began to approach her with the poker in his hand.
Ciel walked down the stairs of the manor. "Finny," he called to his gardener. "Have Sebastian and Adalina returned yet?"
"Not yet, young master. Is something wrong?"
"No, go back to your chores."
"Yes, sir."
Ciel checked the two servants' rooms just in case, but they were nowhere to be found. They should've been back a while ago, and Sebastian was never one to deviate from his schedule. This was the demon who had apologized and was practically ready to kill himself (were that possible) for not having dinner ready when he had returned from saving his kidnapped young master.
Something had to be very wrong for them to be this late.
Ciel returned to his study and removed his eye patch. "Sebastian, this is an order. Come here right now."
The torturer stopped walking towards Adalina when he heard quiet laughing.
Adalina looked over at Sebastian to see his glove glowing purple with his contract symbol showing through the white fabric. He was laughing in a way she had never heard from him. It sent a chill down her spine.
"These are demon chains," he laughed, "and while they can indeed hold me, what Lukas did not know is that the order of a contract is stronger than the power of these chains. If these chains inhibit that order, then..."
The torturer's eyes widened in horror as Sebastian broke free of the chains.
"I can no longer be bound by them."
The man dropped the poker and began backing away from the intimidating demon.
"Adalina, look away," Sebastian ordered, his eyes glowing pink.
Adalina obediently turned her head and closed her eyes.
"Torturing a woman is quite terrible in itself," she heard the butler say calmly. "Torturing a mute is simply cruel."
The sharp clack of shoes echoed throughout the chamber.
"You wanted to hear a scream, did you not?"
Adalina winced as she heard the man's pained cries and screams along with the disgusting sound of flesh ripping and tearing. His cries slowly died down until she could just hear Sebastian's breathing.
"Keep your eyes closed," Sebastian said to her.
She nodded as she felt him untie her ropes before placing his gloved hands on her knee. With one quick jerk, he pushed her dislocated knee back into place. Adalina pressed her hand to her mouth as a tear ran down her cheek from the pain.
She opened her eyes when she felt a hand on her face, wiping the tear away. Sebastian knelt in front of her, his clothes buttoned and all injuries gone.
"It is over," he said to her.
He gently hefted her up into his arms, being extra careful not to irritate any of her injuries, especially her sore knee.
"Keep your eyes on me."
Adalina obeyed his request and did not turn her head away from him. She never looked away, and she did not see the remains of the man who had tortured them. She was quite sure she did not want to.
Sebastian carried her out of the passageway and into the evening light outside.
"Hold on tight."
Adalina put her arms around his neck as he began flying through the air. She kept her eyes on him, and for some reason, she did not feel as afraid as she usually did when he did this with her. Instead, she felt...calmed.
Sebastian longed to hold Adalina in his arms when she wasn't hurt or scared or injured. He wanted her to fully appreciate the feel of him holding her close to him.
He wanted to see her smile and laugh again.
Sebastian landed right inside Ciel's study and set Adalina down on the ground. "So sorry for taking this long, my lord."
Ciel's eye widened at the sight of his head maid. "What on earth happened to the both of you?"
"It appears Lukas knew about demon chains," Sebastian explained. "I don't know how he found out about those, but he did, and he was able to capture the both of us."
"For what purpose?"
"I believe he wanted information about you. But the hired torturer took things a bit too far when he realized Adalina is a mute."
"As much as I hate to admit it, we may need to get William involved. Lukas is turning out to be more than any of us can handle. But we'll worry about it tomorrow. Adalina, clean up those cuts. The last thing we need right now is you getting an infection."
Adalina curtseyed and returned to the head maid's quarters. She retrieved some bandages along with alcohol and cream that she could apply to the cuts on her shoulder, legs, and chest and the burn on her arm. She slipped off the top of her dress, revealing her white chemise she had on underneath. Then she took a seat on her bed.
She had just finished applying alcohol to the cut on her chest when a soft knock on the door made her quickly pull her blanket up to cover her upper half. Sebastian slowly stepped in with a small bow.
"Forgive me, I know this is completely improper of me, but I know that you cannot care for all of your injuries on your own. While Mey-Rin is the only one who should see you like this, I am quite certain you cannot trust her to not make things worse."
Adalina smiled a little and reluctantly moved the blanket. She couldn't help but blush at the fact that Sebastian was seeing her in her chemise.
"I have something for you."
She smiled a little as he procured her whip. He set it down on the desk for her.
Sebastian moved towards her and removed his gloves to reveal his usual black nails and contract symbol. He knelt down and touched her leg.
"May I?"
Adalina looked at him for a moment before slowly nodding.
He lifted up her dress past her knee so he could reach all of the cuts the whip had caused. There was a very deep one sitting halfway up her thigh. He warmed up his hands before taking the alcohol and gently rubbing it on the wound.
The young woman could not stop her face from heating up at the small action. She was so embarrassed, she couldn't even focus on how much the alcohol stung the injury.
"I know you must be wondering why I didn't react to you being tortured," he said as he rubbed her leg. "I was afraid that if that man saw that torturing you had an effect on me, he would increase the intensity of what he was doing. So I had to make it look like I didn't care. But in truth, I was very worried about you. I know that tonight probably brought back many unfortunate memories."
He tied a bandage around the cut and stood up again. Then he moved the white strap that was covering the injury on her shoulder. The strap ended up falling off her shoulder which made Adalina blush harder.
She winced as he gently rubbed alcohol on the injury before bandaging it up as well.
"If you would turn around, I'll secure a bandage around the injury on your chest. I won't see anything, and it's the only way you will be able to get it properly covered."
Adalina slowly stood up and turned around. Her face heating up again, she removed the straps of her chemise so Sebastian could put a bandage around her chest.
Sebastian's eyes widened for a moment when he saw two pale lines on her back that were from very old injuries. They must've come from the multiple lashes she had suffered in that location. His anger flared up again, and he realized that he had not given those men who had taken her a painful enough death.
He lightly traced the scars with his finger. It sent a shiver down Adalina's spine. Sebastian smiled when he saw bumps rise up on her skin and heard her heartbeat increase.
The head maid secured the bandages in the right place on the cut on her chest and Sebastian tied it up for her in the back. She then quickly put her straps back on.
"Now I believe that just your arm is left, correct?"
Adalina nodded, and he immediately began rubbing the cream onto the second-degree burn she had sustained on her arm from the poker.
Once everything had been properly cleaned and taken care of, Adalina felt her heartbeat escalating to a pace she didn't even know it could get to. She had a feeling Sebastian noticed that too. He noticed everything.
She looked up at him and nervously bit her lip as she met his eyes.
"I truly apologize for these injuries, Adalina," he said to her. "You were never meant to get caught up in such things. I swear to you, Lukas will pay dearly for this."
To her surprise, Sebastian put his bare hand to the side of her face. His thumb traced her undamaged skin, and she gently put her hand over top of his, never breaking eye contact with him.
His head leaned towards her, and she felt his lips press against her jawline and travel down towards her collarbone. Her hand pressed to the back of his head and entangled into his unnaturally soft jet black hair. As his kisses moved to her shoulder, she grasped his hair in her hand and closed her eyes.
Sebastian gently pushed her down onto the bed while supporting her weight with his arm and climbed up so that he was on top of her, still pressing kisses to her exposed flesh.
Her head turned to the side while his lips moved to her other shoulder and moved in the reverse direction as he went up to her neck. Her hand grasped onto his hair while her other arm wrapped under his own arm so she could hold onto his shoulder.
She could feel his hand slowly slide up her hip, taking her dress with it. His other hand pressed into her side and moved to her back. She clutched onto him tighter, relishing the feeling of having his lips touch her skin and his bare hands cling to her body.
Adalina didn't know if it was because he was beginning to hurt her or if she suddenly realized that she was having an extremely intimate moment with a demon, but she abruptly put her hands to his chest and pushed him away. She took heaving breaths as she looked up at him. Nervousness swept over her when she saw his eyes glowing the brightest she had ever seen them. Then the pink slowly faded and was replaced with the usual crimson.
He moved off the bed, and she quickly sat up as fast as her injuries would allow.
"My apologies if I made you uncomfortable," Sebastian told her. "It was not my intention."
She looked away as she adjusted the misplaced chemise straps, her face flaming.
"I shall go to prepare dinner. You must be hungry."
When Sebastian left, Adalina put her hand to her head and ran it through her hair. She attempted to process what exactly had just taken place.
Sebastian had begun to kiss her body, and she realized that...she had actually liked it. It was not like the last time. There had been no...meaning or feeling behind his words or his actions. This time, he didn't need to say anything for her to enjoy his touch and desire more of it.
But she couldn't allow this. He said himself in the torture chamber that demons didn't love. So that meant that he couldn't possibly be in love with her.
That was what confused her. If he couldn't love, why had he initiated such contact with her?
Whatever his reasons were, one thing was certain. Adalina knew with all her heart that she had feelings for Sebastian Michaelis.