Chapter 17: Sunny Spain
"Well, Castiel. Here we are, in sunny Spain." Azazel told his brother. Really, he found it somewhat insulting that his estranged brother was named for the one who kidnapped him, at least, if Beelzebub was to be believed, and it had been the angel Castiel who had taken Cas away. But Cas didn't remember the name he had been given at birth. Cas wasn't tiny little Alistair Teer any longer. Azazel sighed. Why did angels have to ruin everything?
Cas observed Azazel brooding with silent satisfaction from his place in a chair by the closed window. In truth, despite the satisfaction he felt, Cas was also busily sulking. They were in what appeared to be a very fancy pension, a word which here means 'hotel,' with lavish rugs and two luxurious king-sized beds, complete with smooth silk sheets. By now, Cas had realized that all of this finery was simply the result of Azazel using his own djinn power, and so Cas remained unimpressed. He almost wished that he was back inside the bottle he had spent what felt like weeks upon weeks in. Suddenly, Azazel pulled up another chair and sat so that he and Cas were at eye level. Azazel's green eyes bored into Cas's identical green eyes.
"Castiel," he said, still staring. "Do you know why I have gone through the trouble of finding you?"
Cas shook his head firmly, absolutely refusing to speak, but felt unable to break the stare.
"It begins with the old leader of the Ifrit, our dear uncle Iblis Teer. Before I turned thirteen, I obeyed him without question, thinking to myself that Uncle Iblis was the most evil djinn in the entire world. He was my hero, not that he ever paid any attention to me. No, our mother was the black sheep of the family, and by extension, so was I. But the very day that my dragon teeth came out, I saw him for what he really was. A fool, ruling legions of other fools. Not even a year later, Iblis proved my point for me by getting himself trapped in a perfume bottle, by a pair of twelve-year-olds, no less!" Azazel paused for effect. Cas didn't respond. "So, when he finally convinced someone to let him out- a stupid, ignorant boy from French Guiana,- dear Uncle Iblis began plotting his revenge against those who trapped him. But the FOOL," Azazel was roaring now, "got himself disemboweled by a pair of djinn possessing some tigers! And that wasn't the end of it! The idiot actually thought that he could reverse the flow of luck without any interference- moreover, he thought that reversing luck for the entire universe was a good idea! Ha!" Azazel paused again, this time to laugh cruelly. "Now the imbecile is trapped inside a jade sepulcher from which he cannot escape, nor can anyone liberate him. Serves him right. In any case, I was next in line. Me. It was my birthright. I was going to be the next leader of the Ifrit, after him- me, when, because of the utter stupidity of our cousin Jonathan, I was bottled up and left on the beach of Ibiza! So, somehow during my absence, Jirjis Ibn Rajmus got the top spot rather than me! So now I must eliminate Jirjis as well."
Cas could not restrain himself any longer. "So what do Holly and Nimrod and the rest have to do with any of this?!" he burst out. Azazel smiled evilly.
"I need your little Marid girlfriend to get my revenge properly fired up, you see. I need a good djinn and a bad djinn. I already have Jonathan all bottled up and ready to go."
"Why do you need them?" Cas asked, worriedly.
"I thought that you'd have figured it out by now, Castiel. I need to sacrifice them both so that I can eradicate all of my enemies."
"What-? How?" Cas's eyes were as wide as saucers. Now that Holly's life and the life of another djinn were in peril, Cas knew that he had to do something to stop Azazel. He just didn't know how.
Azazel blinked slowly, and continued to stare at Cas, seeming to consider whether or not to tell Cas the truth.
"Irrelevant." He said finally, much to Cas's disappointment. "Now, tell me what Holly's phone number is. Truthfully, please." Cas stood up.
"No." he said, and crossed his arms.
"Oh, you're going to be difficult about this, aren't you? I suppose I have no choice. MACKINTOSH!" Azazel sighed.
Nothing seemed to happen, at least until Cas opened his mouth to tell Azazel as such. Cas was horrified when a huge black stag beetle came out of his mouth.
"Eeurgh!" Cas shouted in absolute disgust, but a bright red beetle was the next to crawl up Cas's gullet.
"Will you tell me now?" Azazel asked, a faint smile playing across his face. Cas scowled at him, trying not to feel quite as repulsed as he did by the gigantic beetles. However, more were quick to follow the first two, until Cas finally nodded, tears in his eyes. Azazel smiled more broadly, and repeated his focus word. The beetles stopped coming, and Cas immediately began stomping on those that were now trying frantically to escape the room and Cas's deadly sneakers.
"Fine." Cas said sulkily, feeling sick to his stomach.
"The phone number?" Azazel prompted, and Cas coughed a bit, trying to banish the horrid sensation of the beetles crawling their way up his throat, and told Azazel the sequence of numbers that was Holly's cell phone number. Azazel nodded, and took out his own iPhone.
"You're calling her right now?!" Cas asked incredulously, and Azazel nodded.
"For all I know, you could have given me the number for a pizza place in New York." With a word, Azazel had Cas tied up in what seemed to be chains made of pure jade, that came out of a case that lay near the door, and writhed around like live things. Azazel dialed the number and allowed his phone to ring for a few seconds before the answering machine on the other phone answered. Cas, fettered to a hard wooden chair across the room, heard the familiar voice as Holly's answering message came over the tinny speakers of Azazel's cell phone.
"Hi, this is Holly Coomes. Leave a message at the sound of the beep-" Azazel hung up before the beep, smiling ominously at Cas.
"We'll compose a message for her, shall we? Don't want to go into this without a script." Azazel picked up a notebook and pen from a table, and began writing.
"What did you do to me?" Cas asked, causing Azazel to sigh.
"It's called a Quaesitor binding. It's designed to find the thing you view to be truly disgusting and make it appear in your mouth, in your case, it's beetles. In my case, it would likely be... vomit, I think. There is nothing worse in this world than an upset stomach. Ugh. Just thinking about it makes me feel ill."
"Thinking about what? Vomiting? It's just a natural defense mechanism, and you already ate the stuff, just in a different form."
Azazel glared at him silently. "I am not amused by this talk, Castiel. Stop it immediately."
"It's just vomit," Cas grinned, enjoying this small advantage over Azazel. Azazel stood up, stretching to his full height, nearly six and a quarter feet.
"I'm warning you, unless you want me to put that Quaesitor right back on you, you'll shut up." He threatened. That shut Cas up right away. He absolutely hated beetles, especially big, ones with shiny black shells. He just couldn't get the way they moved off of his mind whenever he saw a beetle. Their lopsided shuffle across a plain of grass, their hidden wings... They were one of the actually very few things that Cas absolutely could not stand. Cas spat onto one of the expensive Persian carpets, shivering as he was reminded of the unpleasant sensation of the little, barbed feet crawling onto his tongue and out through his mouth. Azazel looked disapprovingly at the pool of saliva that had landed a few feet away. "Keep acting like an animal and I might just turn you into one, Castiel. Behave yourself. I can't abide poor manners."
"Like yours, you mean?" Cas scowled.
"You're speaking nonsense again, Castiel. I pride myself on my good form." Azazel went back to composing whatever message he was going to send to Holly.
"Like Captain Hook, you mean?" Cas frowned. Azazel looked up for a moment and nodded.
"Yes, I suppose, though I never really enjoyed that book."
"I did. Especially the bit where Captain Hook got eaten by the alligator!" Cas laughed. He felt almost as though he were losing his mind, and becoming very nasty for it.
Azazel frowned again. "Exactly what are you saying?" he asked, but shook his head. "Never mind, I'll just shut you up. MACKINTOSH!" A piece of silver duct tape appeared instantly over Cas's mouth, and he couldn't speak any more words of defiance. "Don't worry. You'll talk when I need you to."
Cas could only grunt in reply.