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Post by Christopher Saunders on Aug 10, 2010 22:08:42 GMT -8
Christopher was thoroughly disgusted. His lips curled again, angry instead of pleading, a low, venomous hiss escaping clenched teeth. And Azura’s men had simply ushered him onto the side-lines like some sort of by-stander? And Azura had handed his cousins over like garbage?
Azura had shed a whole new light on the brutality his clan harbored, and Anshel on the facets of his personality. The mere thought of what was taking place sickened him, clenching his stomach, and dumping gasoline on his already burning throat.
He turned his back from Melora in the now vacant hall, beginning to walk off. Soon, he reached his room, and began packing.
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Post by MeloraBelikov on Aug 10, 2010 22:15:07 GMT -8
Glaring at Azura, Melora turned from the group, stalking down the hall. Fine, if Azura wanted to let Anshel kill his family, so be it. It wasn't her choice to make. It was entirely her choice to dislike, and even downright hate his choice. She made her way back to his room and slammed the door behind her. Not only had Anshel interfered with her plans, he had left her with the feeling that she didn't even want to go through with it anymore. Not that she even had any choice in the matter. She was caught in a terrible situation, and this instance only solidified the horror of it; become a vampire beast, possibly heartless and only considered merciful when not torturing whomever happened to be around, or become a soulless drone, carrying out whatever task was given to her, doomed to do hell's bidding for the rest of her life.
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Post by Doctor on Aug 10, 2010 22:44:13 GMT -8
Anshel unstrapped the blades from his thigh, the only things Lucifer had allowed him to wear back. He wouldn't make a show of this, he hadn't been ordered to.
He took the loud one by the arm and deposited her by the other one.
"Close your eyes. It won't hurt."
There was that at least. He'd been beheaded before, cleanly. Next to dying in your sleep or in the middle of orgasm, beheading was probably the most pleasant way to go.
Walking behind them, he crossed his blades behind her neck, high enough the girl wouldn't feel the metal against her shoulders. With a jerk, he pulled the blades apart and the fine edges slid through flesh like butter from either side. So clean was the decapitation, the head rested a few moments in place, only the strands of hair falling to the ground alerting anyone that the blow had been dealt.
It was wobbling. Two seconds longer and it would fall onto the ballroom floor, so he stepped to the side and just as quickly silenced the cries of the last one with his blades.
Thud.
Thud.
And the bodies followed.
Thud.
Thud.
Anshel gasped, contorting violently back into a human with the deed completed. Blood from the girls' open necks pooled near his bare feet and he stepped to the side to avoid it. He was very cold now, but didn't dare ask for anything. Would Azura even talk to him now? This had been inevitable. That didn't take away from the fact he'd killed the man's family.
"I'm sorry for your loss." He whispered, a touch of shame in it.
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Post by Christopher Saunders on Aug 10, 2010 22:56:38 GMT -8
Christopher trembled with fury, eyes changing to the emerald jewels against his will as he tilted his head back, able to smell the blood even here within moments, with only the vampire sense of smell. Every vampire in the place would too.
Inhaling, he regretted it immediately. Rather then the rich, wet human blood, this was like a flower scented perfume, dropping him to his knees. Only the blood of another of his kind could do that, cripple him and swamp him with memories.
The blood coated his hands, the intestines of one victim still wrapped around his hand, even though the man, a Gallu, had fallen. A wide eyed Serena, in the back edge of the alley, curled up with some tattered remnants of fabric to cover her icy form. The vampire blood was like a sickness in the air, snapping him out of the rage…
He gagged, disappearing into the bathroom to dry heave for a moment. Without even thinking, the air in the room was flushed out, the air vents in sealed, and the cracks in the door blocked. No more of that scent could be allowed in.
And that idea reminded him of the person who caused it, set it free of the body. Anshel. His hands tightened, cracking the marble basin, sending a large chunk noisily to the floor. Chris considered that man, and Azura Gallu, little more then animals at the moment. It was a sad but true fact that killing did happen, had to in some cases, but this… This was just wrong. Sickeningly so.
Christopher inhaled, and exhaled slowly, attempting calm as he exited the bathroom. Those girls wouldn't go forgotten if he had any say in it. A tiny push from his hand sent the suit case toppling to the floor, as he flopped back on his bed.
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Post by AzuraGallu on Aug 10, 2010 23:17:10 GMT -8
Azura, a man who'd seen so much senseless death and violence in the world, causing a bit more than his share of it himself, actually winced as the bodies fell lifelessly to the polished floor beneath them. This was more terrible then he'd bargained for.
He was used to things like this, official deaths and their ilk, but by Anshel's hand, those same hands that could be so gentle and loving could also deliver soundless death blows. It was just another reason he'd become so smitten with the man.
Out from beneath his stoic mask, tears slid their way down his cheeks, lips unmoving and placid like a marble statue. "They knew the consequences," he said quietly, barely audible in the vastness of the room 'round them. "I'm sorry you were forced to do so. You seem more pained than I."
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Post by Doctor on Aug 10, 2010 23:54:34 GMT -8
Pained? Not at all. It didn't pain him to kill people. And since he hadn't allowed the girls to explain or beg for mercy, he didn't feel guilty of wrongdoing. If they hadn't died by his hand, they'd have died by someone else's, a far crueler set. But he hated disappointing people. And Azura, despite his sympathetic remark, looked like he had been disappointed. What would he think if Anshel told him he'd do the same thing a thousand times over without question? A puppet he was.
"Still, my apologies."
It was done. And if he was sensible, or not sensible depending on how one looked at it, it would be a while before Lucifer would call on him again. And until then, he had a job to do.
"We need to reconvene very soon to strategize our plan of attack. I can leave until you call on me."
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Post by AzuraGallu on Aug 11, 2010 0:03:56 GMT -8
"It would probably be best if you left." His words were still quiet, but acceptance rang in them none the less. Turning his back on the demon, he opened the door and motioned for the men outside to come in and clean up the mess. Of course, there would be a proper burial and ceremony. He wasn't a complete fiend.
However, he seemed a bit put off. He was torn. Torn between loving and hating Anshel. How could someone so enigmatic become so dull and...evil? Well, evil wasn't the right word, but the look he'd had in his eyes.
He growled, turning around and marching right back into the room, pulling Anshel out of it by the scruff of his neck. Being a whiny excuse of a King wasn't his thing.
"What the Hell happened to you?" His words were angry, teeth partially bared. This was the most passive aggressive he'd been in a long time. "You are one of the most loving and caring creatures I've ever met. I can't wrap my head around your soulleness right now!"
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Post by Doctor on Aug 11, 2010 0:23:36 GMT -8
Anshel twisted and smacked Azura away. He would not be manhandled and yelled at. Azura had seemed to understand. He'd assumed, perhaps falsely, that the King was smart enough to see things as they were and accept it, not put him on a pedestal blindly like the others. He fought the snarl that threatened to take over his face.
"I have a soul," he bit out. "I just don't own it."
Anshel was tired and fed up with people refusing to acknowledge this. Wanting him to be something he wasn't.
"Do you think I kill people for fun?" He snapped. "Do you think I spend my nights murdering people I don't know for amusement? I don't want to do this! I do it because I have to. Unlike Melora, I care about what happens to my soul, so I don't fuck around with it!"
He tried to calm down, biting the inside of his cheek. It would be terrible to blow up at a King in his own castle, but the emotions inside him refused to be checked.
"I love you. I love Christopher. I love the fucking Russian and a good chunk of the God damned world," the demon yelled out. "But I love myself more. And I will not refuse my master and suffer in the depths of oblivion to show mercy to people who should have fucking known better!"
Was it that difficult for people to grasp? Was everyone allowed to look out for themselves, except for him? There wasn't anything wrong with valuing yourself above others. There wasn't anything wrong with numbing yourself to the impossible ideals of life, like remorse for every death. He did what he needed to do to live, to stay sane. Did that make him a monster? Quite possibly. But they didn't know. Not to come off like an angst-ridden teenager, but they didn't fucking know what it was like to be him.
Anshel was naked and wild-eyed and feeling vulnerable, which only compelled him to lash out further. A sliver of common sense was the only thing keeping him from unsheathing those swords and pointing one at Azura's heart and the other at his dick. They couldn't accept him? Fine. But at least they'd know the truth.
"I am so fucking tired of the bullshit you people assume," he hissed.
Anshel stepped forward, invading the King's space. This needed to be said, loud and clear for all to hear, and then maybe they'd get the picture and stop with the damned preaching.
"You fuck me once and you think you know me?" Anshel's eyes were stony, but bright with moisture as they met Azura's judging ones. "You don't. Apparently." And that means you couldn't have truly loved me, he grieved. He wanted to yell. He wanted to stop thinking and just bare everything in that moment, every biting insecurity, every impression of betrayal.
"And when you want something?"
"Indulge it."
It would be so cathartic. He could almost taste the relief. Shaking his head in rage, Anshel pointed accusingly at Azura's face.
"You all accept me, but only because you project on me what you fucking need me to be, and then get pissed off or point a fucking gun to my face when I can't live up to your impossible expectations! I'm just Anshel, and you can all fuck yourselves and deal with it if that makes me unworthy of your love, because I am not a saint. Not even close. I am not a father figure, and I am not the Banglaire's fucking messiah, and I am not your brother!"
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Post by AzuraGallu on Aug 11, 2010 9:34:22 GMT -8
As Anshel spoke, Azura got progressively more guilt ridden. He shouldn't have blown up like that on him. He knew far better. But there was one thing Anshel was missing about himself. While he regarded himself and his actions as for the greater good, he still cast a light of hate on the lot of it. While he was speaking about loving himself above all others, he was...suffering for it. He really was a good man, and it was stupid that he'd even snapped and yelled to begin with. He didn't deserve that, even after the things he'd done.
"I-" He froze at the very last sentence that came out of the Demon's mouth, wincing with the sheer emotional force of it boring into his brain. I'm sorry, was what he intended to say, but now he wasn't so sure.
No, Anshel wasn't his brother. Damn emotions to the underworld for changing him like this. He hated his brother for it; making him weak willed and attached to anyone who gave him the time of day. It was such bullshit that he couldn't learn to live beyond that stupid man for just once in his life, and even worse now that the very same thing to cause him so much anguish all its own was being forcibly used against him to hurt.
Growling at him, he took a step back, putting much needed space between them lest he try and claw the man's face in anger. "No, you're better than him." It wasn't the direction he needed to go to get back to Melora and the others, but he turned on his heel and walked off anyway, sorrow quickly replacing the anger he'd felt, flooding his veins with ice where a fire had once been. That was the last time he'd tell anyone anything about his past. It wasn't worth revisiting a suicidal state of mind, especially now that he had a clan to look after.
If only he could just create and heir and be done with it. Leave this stupid plane of existence and find peace for himself. It wasn't like he wanted to die. He loved life, just not his life, but it seemed others were keen on making it even more miserable than it needed to be.
Almost an entire half an hour later he opened the door to his room, surprised to find Melora there. He didn't need this right now. He couldn't do what she wanted him to do, and the way she looked at him nearly made him back out of the room by sheer instinct. So, she was upset with him too?
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Post by MeloraBelikov on Aug 11, 2010 23:14:50 GMT -8
Melora turned to face Azura, completely torn between ripping him a new one and just leaving the room quietly. But when she saw Azura's face, her expression softened, as well as her feelings. She realized it and instantly felt guilty; Azura was doing things he didn't want to in order to protect his friends, not because he was heartless. The same reason he allowed Anshel to do what he did was the same reason he'd change Melora. It was for their souls. Anshel and Melora were both bound to the underworld and the devil, not because they wanted to be, but because they had to be. And Azura could see that plain as day, even when she had lost sight of it. "Azura...I'm sorry for my behavior." Her voice was quiet and awkward, leaving the floor open for whatever response he could give her.
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Post by AzuraGallu on Aug 11, 2010 23:23:29 GMT -8
He sighed, closing his eyes and walking past her to collapse on his bed. "Well, that's one down. At least I didn't have to fight you for it." His voice was quiet and muffled by the comforter stretched over the girth of his mattress. "Thanks, Melora. You're not as brainless as I first imagined you to be. You exceed my every expectation." From the tone of his voice he was giving her an attempt at dry humor, but it came out so distinctly monotone even he could tell that there was something wrong.
He lifted his head, propping his chin up on the blanket, looking straight ahead. "I yelled at Anshel, and he said something to me that I-" He nearly growled. Didn't he just say he wasn't going to tell anyone about his past ever again?
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Post by Christopher Saunders on Aug 11, 2010 23:33:05 GMT -8
Blinking up for several minutes, just watching the ceiling, her began to count. At fifty-seven, he’d only succeeded in bubbling down the boiling anger that threatened to corrupt his judgment. At seventy-eight, he’d nearly calmed entirely. And then at ninety-four the air shields faltered, letting in faint traces of the sickly sweet vampire blood. He’d drunk that blood before, and the minute particles the reached his nose began to flame up his ire again.
Standing, smoothing the wrinkles from his clothing, he decided that maybe, but a slim, tiny chance, he might be able to get some justice by verbally flaying Azura alive. Not necessarily the wisest decision when the Gallian owned the place, but what the fuck did he have to loose? People already wanted him dead. Perhaps the Saunders dynasty would die sooner rather than later...
A bright glint entered his eyes as he headed for Azura's chambers, taking care to avoid all the vampire blood.
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Post by MeloraBelikov on Aug 11, 2010 23:33:30 GMT -8
She sat on the bed next to him and put a hand on his back, sighing. "You can tell me everything about it, Azura. I'm here for you. I might not....understand things entirely, or think them through completely, but I'm not stupid. I realize that...certain things must be done." Like giving up my humanity, she thought, and the thought hung in the air over both of their heads like a cloud. It didn't need to be said, he knew. "Just...please, tell me whatever you need to."
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Post by AzuraGallu on Aug 11, 2010 23:45:46 GMT -8
"I view Anshel as a brother, or rather...he reminds me of my brother. In every was possible, in fact, including sex." He let that sit there for a minute, waiting for any reaction before he continued. "He knows about all of that. I trusted him with the information before we went to go find you. It's something that haunts me, because due to my brother's assholeish behavior, just before he abandoned us, me, he told everyone what had been going on between us, and that I was responsible for it. Needles to say, my parents never really viewed me int he same light, and I've struggled to maintain authority over my people because of it. They still see me as an incestuous little boy preying on his brother's weak will." He looked over at her, to gauge her reaction. Seeing nothing of import, he continued. "When I blew up at Anshel a few minutes ago, he threw that fact in my face, just like my brother did. I don't know how to fix this," he stated, voice cracking.
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Post by MeloraBelikov on Aug 12, 2010 0:08:44 GMT -8
She paused, hand stopping in the small of his back, considering his story. "I never had siblings, Azura. But...I know for a fact that you don't take advantage of people, nor would you ever do something like that to someone you love." Melora slid her hand from his back and ran it through her hair. "Anshel is like me, I'm sure you know this. He is going to lose his soul. It may even be inevitable. What we said, Chris and I, hurt him, so he needed something to hurt someone with. I'm sure he would have done the same to me should I have chosen to stay. He has information about my family that even I don't have, which he could hold over my head at any time." Yes, that was the reason she was a hunter. Aside from the need to kill vampires, she wanted more than anything the key bits of information that she didn't have. "He cares for you. But he cares for himself as well. Hurting you wasn't something he wanted to do, but had to do." Another sigh escaped her lips. "Azura, don't let me force you. If you don't want to change me, I'll find someone else."
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