In The Shadow of the Day (Sebby and Jessica)

Jessica had settled into her new room at the Phantomhive manor, it was a plush room and she wasn't sure she could actually sleep in there, it wasn't what she was used to and as such the warm sheets and the comfortable matress would take some getting used to she thought. Humming softly as she walked throughout the grounds, Jessica's fingers trailed over the tops of the flower bushes next to her.

It was in the middle of the night, and she wanted to practice for tomorrow, she didn't want to be caught out because she hadn't practiced.

Everyone was asleep and she thought that here would be a good place to practice, there were plenty of shadows from the flower beds, from the fountain and from the large house itself looming over her in the background. Closing her eyes Jessica concentrated, holding out her arms in mid air as the shadows gathered to her fingertips from the area around her.

When her eyes opened again they were blackened, raw with power.

Swiftly she began to run through some of her martial arts moves, she wanted to be able to limber up, to get out some of this tension so she would be able to sleep, and as Jessica jumped and kicked and thrusted with her fists, she lost herself in the movements. Unsure as to how long she was out here, manipulating shadows, sending bursts through the air, commanding them to fly through the garden like smoky tendrils, Jessica stopped eventually and sighed, pressing a hand to her brow.

It was then that she felt the presence of someone else, immediately her knife was up, and her eyes snapped towards the apparent source of her discomfort.

Sebastian had heard from his young master, as he put young Ciel to bed, that Jessica had been rather harsh in putting the boy down. Of course, that was by human standards. By demon standards she had acted correctly and taught him a valuable lesson. That lesson being that there were times where your enemy was going to hit you and you had to learn to deal with that.

When he went about his rounds of the manor he caught sight of Jessica working out in the dark.

Normally this would have been enough to warrant a second glance merely before she was an attractive woman. But Sebastian could feel the power coming from her. It wasn't something that a regular human should have. Exiting the building via the third story winder, Sebastian landed gracefully on the garden floor and waited for her to acknowledge his presence.

He smirked.

It had only taken about ten seconds for her to realise that there was someone else here, though the knife would do absolutely nothing to stop him. Smirking a little bit, Sebastian wandered closer, to be seen by her as he looked her up and down hungrily,

"I sense non-human powers nearby... and I get to find you!" he smirked a little bit wider and leant in closer to her, "Now... where did you get those powers of yours hmm? They do add a certain... flavour, to you."

Jessica blinked when she saw that it was Sebastian, she thought it would have been someone who was more dangerous to her, someone who might be out to get her, she was high on a lot of peoples, and creatures, hit lists after all. She was just glad it was someone who didn't really want to do her a lot of harm, although the look on his face when he'd seen Ciel all bruised was something she didn't want to live through again in a hurry.

As he stepped closer she kept her eyes wary, and her knife raised, because there was that feeling, more poignant in the air now than ever before, that he was different and something that you should be careful around. Yes, she was almost certain that he was a creature as opposed to an actual man.

"They add a certain flavour to me?" she asked with a raised eyebrow as he stepped closer still, that smirk on his face made him almost disarmingly handsome to any other woman, but Jessica Bristow was not any normal woman "So I was right then, you aren't as entirely human as you appear, but the question remains as to what you are, shall you tell me or will we play 20 questions?"

Stepping teasingly away from him she merely smirked right back, her long hair was falling down her back and it shimmered in the moonlight, dispelling the shadows from her fingertips they fled back to their original positions, the perfect weapon as no fingerprints were left, no evidence that anything had changed in the environment at all.

"As to where I got them from, that's quite frankly none of your business Sebastian." Jessica stated with a cool tone to his name.

Sebastian could see that she relaxed a little bit when she realised that it was him. He couldn't help but smirk at her when she did that. Oh and she had seemed so smart too. If she really was smart she would have known that it was a very bad idea to lower your guard around someone who could kill you with their bare hands. And Sebastian was definitely one of those creatures who could, and would, do that if given enough reason to act.

He smirked a little bit when she asked about his terminology. Yes it would add a certain flavour to her soul, should he ever be given the chance to devour it. Not only that but it would also give him the powers that he had felt her use for. It helped, immensely, that she was also attractive too... it meant he could devour her in many ways too,

"They would indeed... or your soul at least." he teased her a little bit as he began to circle her now. He wanted her to know that he was the predator and she was the prey, no matter what powers she had, "Oh me? I'm just one Hell of a butler!"

He smirked wider when she stood there, stepping away from him in a teasing manner. Sebastian licked his lips a little bit as he moved slightly closer to her,

"Oh but I do so want to know..." he whispered, disappearing before reappearing behind her in a display of demonic speed. He smirked and whispered in her ear, "I want to know what makes you so very special other than your beautiful and intelligence... tell me Jessica Bristow... what power do you possess?"

Jessica's guard was immediately back up when Sebastian began to circle her, she didn't think that he was going to be the type of person to try and pounce on her when she was least expecting it, it was very in honourable when she thought about it. Although, he seemed to be inhuman so that thought didn't really matter in the end, whatever he was, he didn't seem to mind flaunting it in front of her.

Rolling her eyes at his little catchphrase she couldn't help but think that he was telling her something, something important. Hell? He was a demon? It wasn't such a stretch to believe, after all she had been pursued by Grim Reapers before, why not indulge the idea that demons and angels could exist in the world as well. It would make the whole soul comment make sense too.

"A demon?" she asked with a cocked eyebrow "I've never met a demon before, how exciting. I always imagined that you might be a little more attractive, ah well, shatter a poor girls dreams." Jessica teased, throwing her hand dramatically over her head.

As he appeared behind her, Jessica growled and her eyes turned black, she didn't like this playing, she didn't like to be toyed with especially when it came to such sexual things like Sebastian was doing to her, whispering into her ear, licking his lips like that. He was truly trying to get her to offer up her soul to him, well tough luck, wasn't going to happen.

"If you're such a big bad demon, surely you have the intelligence to work that one out for yourself." she stated coolly, maybe he didn't like the fact that there was one woman he didn't seem to get to swoon by just flicking his hair away from his face "Now unless there's anything else don't you have duties to attend to?"

When she correctly guessed that he was a demon from his catch phrase he couldn't help but grin. So all those times Ciel had scolded him for using it were right. It really didn't take even humans a long time to make the connection. To be honest he was surprised that she was the first one to actually manage it. After all, were not most of Ciel's contacts supposed to be in intelligence? Obviously it was not a requirement for working in that branch.

He smirked a little bit when she proceeded to then try and tease him about his physical attractiveness while in this form. As a demon he had a different form when in hell after all. He smirked a little bit,

"I never knew you were the type to dream of demons." he purred to her huskily before smirking a little bit, "But I assure you that your dreams about me and other demons are a bit off the mark... we're much better than you thought about."

He could see that she wasn't exactly getting into this but that could change in time. Besides, right now he was still more than a little bit distracted by the scent of her soul. He wanted to taste it... wanted to devour it and take it for himself! Licking his lips a little bit, he chuckled a little bit and whispered, looking to taunt her, into her ear,

"I know what you are... but you don't. Do you? Poor little Jessica... would you like me to tell you what you are?" he purred to her before shaking his head and reappearing in front of her, "No, there'll be no getting rid of me that easily."

Jessica wanted to headbutt the fountain a few times until she lost consciousness, honestly he was a pretty face but there was no way that she could possibly like this guy, demon, thing! He was just so up himself that she thought that he probably had a stick shoved up there. Sighing a little bit she sat down on the fountain, he wasn't going away so she might as well resign herself to being baited for an entire night.

"I don't." she stated quietly "I have nightmares about demons." Jessica admitted "As any normal person would do."

When he taunted her and said that she didn't know what she was, she knew he was baiting her to get her to say he was wrong and reveal what she was. So Jessica stayed mute and merely looked at her feet, playing idly with her knife, twirling it on her fingertip so that a little bead of blood welled up when she moved it away, poking her soft fingertip, the bead fell down her finger.

"I don't particularily care whether you tell me or not, I have my own theory about what I am, but I'm hardly going to share that with you." she stated with a small smile "So if you feel like sharing then please do go ahead I shall enjoy hearing what you have to say."

Hearing he wasn't going to leave her alone she sighed and stood up; "I'm going to bed, I'm tired after my contract today, so follow me like a little puppy if you want, but I shan't stand around passively letting it happen."

With that she turned on her heel, rubbed her eyes and yawned softly.

When she said that she had nightmares about demons he raised an eyebrow a little bit and couldn't help but smirk. Oh now that was rather ironic if he was honest. It was likely she didn't know that that was probably from her forgotten memories of her father or something like that. After all, humans only got powers like hers when demons were involved in some way or, in very rare occasions, when Reapers were involved instead. Both were pretty rare though,

"Ow now that just hurts my feelings." he teased her a little bit while licking his lips a little bit, "Do you have nightmares about them eating your sexy little self right up?"

He was getting a little bit frustrated that she seemed to be able to resist him so completely, even when he was trying to annoy her as much as possible. It was an entirely new, alien, experience to him and Sebastian was damned sure that he didn't like it one bit! She would belong to him before he ate her soul, he was sure of that,

"Very well... humans only receive powers like yours through one of two ways." He told her with a smirk, "Rarely, when one of your ancestors has sex with a Reaper and... much more common... they had sex with a demon."

When she said that she was going to bed he sighed theatrically, "Well then I guess it's my duty as a butler to escort you to your room... Just doing my duty."

Jessica raised her eyebrow and she shook her head, she didn't like the dream that she had about demons, because it didn't feel like a dream, it felt more like a conversation, a conversation that was happening in the present. Someone was talking to her, telling her things, but she couldn't reply to the man in her dreams, she could only lie there and listen until he decided he had enough, and left her alone.

It hadn't happened for a while now though.

"No I don't, it's a lot more abstract than that, not like you deserve to know a scrap about my dreams Sebastian!" she scolded with a fierce frown "You barely even know me."

Sighing softly she wandered into the manor, and up the stairs to her room, she was so tired it was like she was on automatic pilot, she wanted to be able to go to sleep and not get up again until mid afternoon but she was sure something would happen to mean that she had to get up.

Almost pausing when she heard Sebastian's explaination, Jessica smiled inwardly, so she was correct in what she had thought; "What an interesting piece of information, thank you very much for confirming my theory, I guess all that's left to do is find out the specifics." Jessica hummed, stroking her chin with her slender fingers.

They were close to her room now, and Jessica turned to look at Sebastian; "I know this is an odd question, but what are you doing as a butler if you're a demon? A little beneath you isn't it?"