A/N: Yes, yes, here it is, as promised! The sequel to Young Young Master is up! Yay! I'm a bit ahead, so the first few updates may come fast... ish... Well, they won't be weeks (plural, at least) in coming, even if I can't get ideas. Regardless, go ahead and read this first chapter!

Title: Creatures of the Night

Author: liketolaugh

Rating: T

Pairings: Ciel/Lizzy

Genre: Friendship/Drama

Warnings: Mangling of canon... again

Summary: Ciel surrounds himself with them. While Ciel's older and younger personalities battle for dominance within him, he investigates the destruction of many places, all of which are home to supernatural creatures.

Disclaimer: Sadly, Black Butler is not mine.

"Mass destruction," Ciel commented idly to Sebastian. "Remind me, why precisely are we investigating this, Sebastian? It's hardly subtle enough to be underworld work."

"And yet no one yet has a clue who committed the crime, Young Master," Sebastian pointed out, resigned to smoothing the boy's ruffled feathers – he was, after all, one of the very few who could. "Mass destruction it may be, the perpetrator is clever enough to disguise his trail. Very few criminals in the surface world think to do that, and fewer still are capable of doing it well, and so it falls to you, my lord, to track them down."

Ciel just grumbled, but Sebastian knew that his ire had been calmed. For now.

Ciel, whose ire was indeed calmed, peeked out the window, glowering at the road ahead. He had been called from the manor house, again, to take care of this case, not long after he had returned, which in turn had been a few days after his proper age had been restored. Not three weeks had passed, and already he had been recalled. He was extremely annoyed, and he wasn't the only one.

Up ahead, he could see trees emerging in the distance. The most recent of the three destruction sites had actually been some ways on the outskirts of London, and between that, the urgency, and the late call, it was twilight now, darkness beginning to claim the sky. He watched as the tree line drew closer and, finally, Sebastian reined the horses in, bringing the carriage to a rumbling halt.

"We have arrived, my lord," he announced, opening the door and stepping aside, waiting as Ciel took his hand to step down from the carriage.

Ciel looked around once both his feet were on the ground, frowning. "Hm," he said aloud. "Quite a mess, isn't it?"

The question was rhetorical; though the other sites had been messy, this was, reportedly, the first one with so many bodies, so much blood. Not six months ago, the sight would have made Ciel sick, to say nothing of the stench.

Not anymore.

The falling darkness had Ciel considering a return to the townhouse, but they were, after all, already here, with some light left in the day. Should worst come to worst, Sebastian had no trouble seeing in the dark. Ciel began to walk forward, gaze sweeping back and forth, biting back the urge to vomit.

Though he had since built up resistance to the sight and scent of gore, this was the worst one yet, and it was almost enough to turn Ciel green. His eyes passed over one particularly mangled body and he shuddered. He glanced up, and, to his utter lack of surprise, found Sebastian looking entirely unaffected, even smirking slightly, which agreed with his dark amusement.

Ciel cast Sebastian a halfhearted glower, but most of his attention was on the disaster area, looking for any sort of hint as to what could have occurred during the massacre, what could have instigated it. To the Yard's knowledge, nothing at all connected the three areas, with one in the deep city, another in the East End, and this last one at the edge of the forest.

Wait.

To the Yard's knowledge.

Ciel chuckled under his breath. Of course, Sebastian would know more than the Yard ever could hope to, and he called back, a slight smirk on his face (for surely Sebastian would be most annoyed that it had occurred to him this early in the game), "Sebastian, is there anything I ought to know about concerning this case? For instance, something connecting the disaster areas?"

He smirked again, amused, as he felt Sebastian's own brand of slightly resigned disappointment, on this occasion colored with a hint of wariness, which he reserved mostly for when Ciel caught him in one of his games before it could truly begin. "Indeed, my young lord. Each of the three locations has been a key gathering point for supernatural entities. In this case, it was the home of a now decimated werewolf pack."

Ciel 'hm'ed. "Is that so? And the others?"

"The first, in the East End, was a nest of fairies who inhabit the area and bring good or, more often, ill fortune to its human inhabitants. The other, which sustained the least damage, was formerly a nest of vampires."

Fairies. Ciel suppressed the urge to sigh. First demons, then reapers, and then angels, not to mention the few ghosts he'd come across. Each one came as something of a shock, though that was dying down by now. But still… fairies. Ciel wrinkled his nose.

"The one that was more ransacked than destroyed." Ciel hummed again, deciding to move past the fairies for now, and instead focusing on the… vampire nest. Hmph. "Also the first one to be attacked, I believe, though it didn't initially raise any immediate concern."

"Yes, sir."

"I don't recall any mention of fairies on that list of yours."

"I assumed you intended for me to list the entities which could cause harm, sir. Though fairies are indeed quite irritating if they dislike you, they never cause any real damage, nor do I believe that they could. Fairies are not malicious creatures, after all."

"Hm. Do not leave such things out again." Ciel wondered if he should be concerned that he accepted the existence of fairies with little hesitation.

Sebastian's emotions were purely nonchalant, seemingly not even registering the oddity of the subject of conversation. Hm. Perhaps not, then.

Sebastian paused. Ciel looked at him with slightly wide, curious eyes, his younger self brought out by the unusual occurrence.

That was another thing he was still getting used to. After he had been reaged, he felt different, younger. He believed – and Sebastian seemed to agree, though they had never discussed it – that his older and younger selves' personalities had merged.

What Sebastian didn't quite know yet, because Ciel knew Sebastian well enough to know that he would probably be somewhat concerned by the fact, was that the merge was incomplete. The two sides of him, fundamentally opposed, were still warring for dominance, and often one side would be in charge for a time, and then they would abruptly switch, as they did now. Ciel had felt younger since the incident, and he was sure that people were noticing the difference. They were less afraid of him now, slightly more friendly, on occasion even attempting to be nurturing.

It irritated him. Such sickeningly sweet feelings never failed to bring out his older self.

But regardless, Ciel was looking at Sebastian, his eyes wide with his younger self in charge now, though he knew by experience that he still carried overtones of his old personality.

After a moment, Sebastian resumed movement, seemingly dismissing whatever it was with a ripple of irritated denial – a mental reprimand. Ciel went on, too, assuming that it was of no consequence.

Then he felt it. Pain, anger, grief, fear. He stopped and looked back and forth, frowning slightly in curiosity.

"What's that?"

True to his curious child's personality, he ventured toward the emotion, disregarding the dead, empty bodies as his eyes zeroed in on one, stirring in the rapidly dimming light.

"Sebastian?" Ciel pressed. As always, the word was laden with unspoken words, a question hanging off of the name, with a demand for knowledge and an inherent certainty that he would receive an answer.

"It appears that there is one still alive, master," Sebastian replied, eyes narrow with suspicion when Ciel looked up. A hand landed on his shoulder, wary and protective. "I suggest that you go no further, my lord. He is, after all, wounded, and werewolves are well-known for their animalistic tendencies. He may attack."

Ciel nodded and stopped moving, cerulean eyes fixed on the wounded creature. So these were werewolves. And this one was, too, and still alive at that. Not for long, if he stayed out here. A curiosity began to burn in his mind.

Meanwhile, Sebastian had reached the injured werewolf and dropped down beside it on one knee, leaning down to inspect it. Other than fixing him with a guarded amber gaze, it didn't move, but a growl rippled from its chest.

"Are you seriously injured?" Sebastian inquired aloud, knowing that it would not answer. He reached down as he spoke and one hand landed on the man's forearm, which was slightly furry. His mouth was also something like a muzzle, with sharp teeth clearly visible as he bared them. A partial transformation, perhaps?

The instant Sebastian made contact with his skin, he lashed out, and his teeth sank deep into Sebastian's glove. Blood began to stain the white cloth and Sebastian sighed, annoyed and exasperated.

"Really, now, there is no need for that. I'm not going to hurt you, and you have ruined my glove."

Sebastian stripped the now bloodied glove away and tossed it aside carelessly, revealing a quickly healing bite mark in his hand and pitch-black nails. "Now, who are you, werewolf?"

A moment of pure confusion later, the werewolf swallowed and growled in reply, low and sore, "Rowan, beta of the Outer London werewolf pack."

So everything's a bit odd right now. Seemingly mostly irrelevant to YYM as well. That'll change later. See you! Please, please, please review!