'Azazeal' Rough Draft (Sequel/Prequel to 'Brian Loveless')

[aunt_zelda]

 

The first bit of Azazeal is set in a school of some sort. Picture ‘Hex’ but not England, and not so much sexiness, and you’ve got it. The first bit came to me in a dream. I’m not kidding! The swan and the blood and the jumping down staircases and pen killing someone and torch-lit trials, it was all in the dream. Because of that, it’s probably more scattered and odd than Brian. The Bible quotes come from the wiki entry on ‘Azazel’ and if I were publishing it I’d go into more detail about that.

 

Azazeal

 

 

… bind Azazel hand and foot and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert — which is in Dudael — and cast him therein. And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there forever, and cover his face that he may not see light.

 

On the day of the great judgment he shall be cast into the fire. […] The whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin.

- 1 Enoch 2:8

 

And it came to pass when I saw the bird speaking I said this to the angel: "What is this, my lord?" And he said, "This is disgrace — this is Azazel!" And he said to him, "Shame on you, Azazel! …

—    Abr. 13:4-9

 

May you be the firebrand of the furnace of the earth! Go, Azazel, into the untrodden parts of the earth. For your heritage is over those who are with you"

(Abr. 14:5-6)

 

(Marcus is a werewolf. He has been going to the School with Azazeal for several years now. The Professor – who rules the School – is evil and planning something to do with Azazeal.)  

 

Marcus was walking along a sunlit path, heading for a dark, inviting cave ahead. A large wolf – the Wolf, was lying in front of the cave’s entrance.

“Hello there,” Marcus knelt down respectfully.

The Wolf sniffed him and nodded its approval. Then it glanced over Marcus’ shoulder. “Why is she here?” it growled lightly.

Marcus turned slightly – Azazeal was a few feet behind him, hanging back, bathed in sunlight.

Marcus shrugged. “She’s my friend, but she doesn’t like others like me.”

The Wolf sighed. “Then why is she your friend?” it cocked its head to the side.

Marcus bit his lip. “She’s saved my life, a bunch of times. And I’ve saved hers. We laugh together a lot, and we hardly ever fight.”

“Is she your mate?” the Wolf asked. “It sounds like she is your mate; you want her to be your mate.”

Marcus ducked his head to show his embarrassment – blushing did not register with the Wolf. “She and I … we wouldn’t work out right.”

“Have you ever tried?” the Wolf asked. “She looks to be a fine mate … and she would be lucky to have you, Marcus Aurelious.”

Marcus ducked his head again. “I’m nothing special, she’s –”

“A slayer? Like Buffy?” the Wolf laughed coarsely. “Her destiny is shaped by you, Marcus. Good and evil will pause in their battle for love,” the wolf nuzzled Marcus. “You shape her destiny, Marcus, remember that …”

~*~

The Professor smirked as the crystal he was spinning above Marcus’ head sucked away the dream. Spirit-guides would no interfere with what he was planning, especially through half-breed mutts. 

~*~

When Marcus awoke, he couldn’t remember the dream at all.

 

(This was one of the bits from the dream I had. Creepy stuff … and I was watching from behind a wall in the dream … also, your guesses are as good as mine! I haven’t the faintest idea what’s going on!)

 

Sand whirled about; a whooshing sound; a scream; the sand turned red.

Marcus was slumped against the wall, a horrific sight: he looked like the victim of a spider giant spider: his skin was paper-thin and looked liable to shatter at any minute. His eyes were sunken into his head, and his mouth gaped like a fish’s.

Odette was stretched across his lap in swan form: a gaping wound on her long, delicate neck. 

The Professor gave a rare grin that shattered a nearby mirror. “That’s only the first round, sun-boy,” he gathered his cloak about him. “After we’ve got the girl, I’ll give you a taste of round two,” he and his coven swept out, leaving Marcus alone with Odette’s corpse.

Marcus stared after them for a long time, then, with great effort, bent his head down.

They’ll get Azazeal, I can’t let that happen! he thought.

Then he realized why they’d left Odette with him.

Forgive me …Odette …

He lowered his head down and latched his mouth onto her neck.

After several grueling minutes, he pulled back: his skin was filling out again; his strength returning …

Odette’s body was shriveled up.

Gently, he lay her down on the ground and staggered to the door. Only in wolf-form could he continue safely: so he morphed and padded away, a tear trickling down the side of his face.

 

(Azazeal’s phobia of water? No idea where that came from. I rather like to swim, and grew up by the ocean … this is pretty disturbing stuff, also … and the burning part I didn’t get into because I’m a coward at heart and I know Azazeal’s reaction is kinda lame I’m WORKING on it! This takes place the night after Marcus drank Odette’s blood and tried to warn Azazeal. He never got to. The coven – led by the Professor – caught him and decided to further torture Azazeal by killing him. It’s night on the School grounds, and Marcus – accused of being a murdering werewolf – has been asked to name his accomplice, his master, his creator.)

 

Point to me! Azazeal thought. It’s a game: they burn whoever can’t direct the blame somewhere else! I have no one to blame! Point to me!

Marcus just stood there, hands clutching the wooden cage. “There is no one but me. I attacked students in a vain effort to make more of my kind: the Anderson twins, Jill Crease, Zack Newman, Violet Fenderson, George Keets, Simon Walter, Diana Hunter, and Ms. Rhiannon! I killed Kitty Straus, and Tyler Bulger, and Mr. Jones!”

The crowd roared in fury.

“He admitted it!”

“Kill the beast!”

“Burn him!”

Soon the entire crowd was chanting “Burn him! Burn him! BURN HIM!!!”

Azazeal was sobbing on the inside: she couldn’t let any tears out to blur her vision. She would watch this, every minute of it: it was all her fault.

The Professor raised his hands, and the crowd silenced. “Marcus Aurelius has admitted to his crimes: the attacks on various students and Ms. Lucinda Rhiannon, and the murders of Katherine Staus, Tyler Bulger, and Mr. Matthew Jones.”

The crowd screamed in rage.

The Professor continued. “But is he really a werewolf?”

Silence. Azazeal held her breath.

“If he just a human, then he can be killed like a human! A werewolf must be killed by silver or fire! Those are the only two ways! Therefore,” the Professor was getting all worked up, or, at least, appeared to be. “Let us test him! If he dies as a human, justice has been served! But if he survives, we shall truly know he is a demon in human form, a werewolf, and then we shall burn him!”

The crowd cheered.

“Test him! Test him! Test him!” they screeched.

Azazeal crumpled up inside. ‘Testing’ could only entail … yes, there it was: a noose draped over the branch of the oak tree.

She bit her lip, even as she tasted blood, and watched as Marcus was dragged out of the cage, had his hands roughly bound behind his back, and had the rope tightened around his neck.

She flinched when they hoisted him up, held in a scream as Marcus twitched and the crowd held their breath.

The longest a person had lasted this was eighteen minutes.

Twenty minutes passed, and Marcus was still gasping and jerking.

Half an hour: Azazeal’s hands were covering her mouth.  

Forty.

“Cut him down!” the Professor ordered, and as a member of the coven did so, he turned back to the crowd. “He was still alive after forty minutes of strangulation. We could leave him there all night, and he would still be alive,”

Marcus was hauled up by members of the coven and thrown at the Professor’s feet.

“That’s unnatural!”

“He’s a freak!”

Then, once again …

“Burn him!”

Azazeal felt a whimper escape into her mouth, but her hands hid the noise.

The Professor smiled. “One last test, to make absolutely sure, to cast out any last doubts that Marcus Aurelius is indeed a werewolf!” he nodded to the coven. “Bring him to the lake!”

Azazeal almost staggered. They were going to drown him. Or, at least, they were going to try to. How long would they hold him under the water? Twenty-minutes? An hour? So long, in that wet darkness with the coven’s hands all over you … she shuddered.

They could have burned him at the beginning, they hadn’t.

After they’d hanged him, they had enough ‘evidence’ to justify actually executing him.

But a water-test … they were doing it to hurt her. They knew her horrific phobia of water, and by putting Marcus through it, they might as well be shoving her under too.

The crowd followed the Professor: torches flickering in the night.

Three coven members were wading into the water, dragging Marcus with them. Azazeal recognized Lucius and had to fight the urge to race down there and rip his traitorous head off.

The Professor gave a nod, and they pushed Marcus down into the cold, empty water.

Azazeal forced her hands down to her sides, but her fingernails clenched so hard they drew blood.

Marcus writhed about, the water was churning white, and the coven members held him down. Lucius had a horrible smirk on his face.

Azazeal’s teeth were chattering. It was all she could do not to turn around and run into the school, to the portal, to get as far away from the water as possible.

After the hardest thirty minutes of Azazeal’s life, the coven members pulled Marcus up and dragged him back to shore, and once again threw him at the Professor’s feet.

“Freak!” someone yelled.

“Murderer!” came another.

“Burn him!”

“Burn him!”

“BURN HIM!” the crowd roared.

“We’ve waited long enough!” a shrill voice – Azazeal realized it was Samantha, from Art – cried out.

The Professor nodded; coven members dragged Marcus to the stake, hurled branches and bails of straw and piles of newspaper and cardboard boxes around him. Azazeal realized that because he was soaking wet, it would take longer for Marcus to burn.

She didn’t faint, didn’t scream, didn’t vainly attempt a rescue.

Azazeal coughed up blood within the hour – her heart had been torn apart.

 

(Next day, or that night, Azazeal is hunting down Natalina – the servant of the Professor – also a sort of demon/spirit/whatever like Azazeal.)

 

Twisting her lips in worry, Azazeal took a moment, then vaulted over the railing, landing twenty flights down the spiral staircase.

Gotta find you, Natalina … gonna make you pay for what you and your Master did … Azazeal wrenched open a door and hurried in, stepping right into the Circle-Trap.

A crackle of magical electricity and a nasty shock later, Azazeal stared at Natalina – out of her school-girl uniform and stunning in her low-cut tan-orange shirt that fanned out at the waist – displaying her hennaed center, or belly-button in human terms.

The Circle-Trap enclosed the whole room. Natalina stood in one of its outer rims, Azazeal in the center.

“Nothing and no one can use magic in this Circle, and you can’t move out of your ring.” Natalina smirked and lit some more candles. “Try to get out, I dare ya,” she grinned.

Azazeal glared at her. “So, what’ the Professor’s plan, Natty?” she asked, searching vainly for a flaw, a careless mistake, a tiny crack …

Natalina giggled creepily. “The Professor? He thinks I’m his servant, his slave, it’s the other way around to the Council,” she smirked broadly. “He’s just a tool, I’ll be rewarded when you’re chained and bound in the Nether-Realm, prisoner to those you escaped centuries ago. They’ll whip you back into their servitude, don’t think they won’t.” Natalina gave a twisted smile. “They did it to me after I made Mount Vesuvius erupt. Seventeen years passed on Earth, but it was seventeen lifetimes there …” Natalina had finished with the candles. “Hope you enjoy your vacation, little sis. The transferal ritual shouldn’t take more than a second,” she tossed a blue flamed candle into the ring closest to Azazeal’s. “Just wait for the light at the end of the tunnel …”

“It’s not going to work,” Azazeal said calmly, tearing her gaze from the blue flame.

“Oh yeah?” Natalina asked, placing her fists on her hips and cocking her head. “Why?”

“Your spell.” Azazeal waited a period of five seconds, and flung her green gel-pen.

Natalina stared down at the pen lodged in her center; she locked eyes with Azazeal. “Bitch,” Natalina snapped, and exploded.  

 

(End of the School bits. Azazeal goes off seeking bloody revenge on all who took part in the ethnic cleansings that murdered werewolves, but most the ones who tortured and killed Marcus. It’s gross and intense. She’s SCARY AS HELL. Eventually Azazeal is captured and put on trial for all these gruesome murders and mutilations, but something happens. Several years later, a temporary case of amnesia, and a short stay with a human magician who’s kind and sweet and heals her, Azazeal meets Starla.)

 

They recognize each other’s auras. Kindred? …

They fall into each other’s arms. Azazeal is crying.

“So alone,” she sobs. “Only one … nobody else … so alone …”

“Shhh …” Starla is crying too, but her tears are more happiness and less sorrow than Azazeal’s. “I know … I know …”

“Such a long time …” Azazeal can’t speak anymore, it’s like her sadness is pouring out of her mouth like a waterfall, blocking speech.

They sink to their knees, arms wrapped around each other, seeping in human emotion. Sometimes they’re laughing hysterically, or sobbing uncontrollably, or passionately kissing, or huddled in silence, letting their minds merge.

~*~

Starla is light, Azazeal is dark.

Starla is warmth, Azazeal is cold.

Starla was cast out for loving a mortal man, Azazeal was cast out for killing one.

Opposites attract only applies with magnets, never with humans.

Good thing they’re not humans.

~*~

 

(Pretty much all I’ve got so far. Azazeal must go sorta evil eventually for Brian to hate her so much … suggestions, critiques, and ideas are welcome! Get a dedication in my book! – if it ever gets finished and published …)

 

 

Comments

[whatwas.livejournal.com]

wow.... this was amazing...... and to think that you dreamt part of it... *i would kill for these kinds of dreams*

really amazing....

[aunt-zelda.livejournal.com]

Yay! First comment on this! And I posted it, what, two weeks ago?

wow.... this was amazing......
*blushes and beam* or *smiles so big the sun is ashamed*

and to think that you dreamt part of it... *i would kill for these kinds of dreams*
Sometimes it can get annoying ... you wake up and you're like 'I must type!' but it's wicked early and there's so much to do and you've got about half an hour to get ready for school ... it's not so much fun, but I'm rather proud of Azazeal ...

really amazing....
*blushes and beams some more*

[whatwas.livejournal.com]

Yay! First comment on this! And I posted it, what, two weeks ago?
I feel so shitty, because I've been really bad about reading fic lately.... so I'm trying to catch up...... *eek*


Sometimes it can get annoying ... you wake up and you're like 'I must type!' but it's wicked early and there's so much to do and you've got about half an hour to get ready for school ... it's not so much fun, but I'm rather proud of Azazeal ...
I was reading this late last night.... and even though I was really sleepy, the story really kept my interest... and that's keeping in mind that it's not fully written, but what I did read, I totally loved.......

[aunt-zelda.livejournal.com]

I feel so shitty, because I've been really bad about reading fic lately.... so I'm trying to catch up...... *eek*
I'm just confuzzeled as to why nobody else has read it ... thank you so much!

I was reading this late last night.... and even though I was really sleepy, the story really kept my interest... and that's keeping in mind that it's not fully written, but what I did read, I totally loved.......
Thank you very much! *grins* Originally Azazeal was a side character in the Brian Loveless story, but then that dream took over and Azazeal has more written about her than Brian ...

[poemwithnorhyme.livejournal.com]

Though I have absolutely no friggin' idea what's going on here, or in Brian Loveless, I still like it. It's intriguing and has plenty of gay for me to enjoy..XD. The story seems very intricate and I'd have to be a bit more awake then I am to understand it completely, perhaps I'll re-read it soon. I'd just like to say you write amazingly well and I am completely jealous..Will you be posting more? Perhaps then I'll understand it all a bit better..O.o

[aunt-zelda.livejournal.com]

Though I have absolutely no friggin' idea what's going on here, or in Brian Loveless
Do you think I do?! *frantic*

I still like it.
Good!

It's intriguing and has plenty of gay for me to enjoy..XD. The story seems very intricate and I'd have to be a bit more awake then I am to understand it completely, perhaps I'll re-read it soon.
Azazeal stole my mind ... Brian was supposed to dominate the story and Azazeal would have been a minor character ... she got her own book, the little scheming demon ... re-reading is suggested! Please!

I'd just like to say you write amazingly well and I am completely jealous..Will you be posting more? Perhaps then I'll understand it all a bit better..O.o
*feels happy and fuzzy all day* THANK YOU! *smile puts sun to shame* When I've written more, I'll post more ...